D&D 5E New Official PC Race? Grung Rogue ToA Surrogate

[clutchbone]

I guess there's a new AL legal, WotC official PC race? There's a Grung (poison dart frog humanoid from Volo's) Rogue in the Tomb of Annihilation surrogate character pdf.

GRUNG

SPEED. You have a climb speed of 25 ft.

AMPHIBIOUS. You can breathe air and water.

POISON IMMUNITY. You are immune to poison damage and the poisoned condition.

POISONOUS SKIN. Any creature that grapples you or otherwise comes into direct contact with your skin must succeed on a DC 12 Constitution saving throw or become poisoned for 1 minute. A poisoned creature no longer in direct contact with you can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.
You can also apply this poison to any piercing weapon as part of an attack with that weapon, though when you hit the poison reacts differently. The target must succeed on a DC 12 Constitution saving throw or take 2d4 poison damage. No additional effects apply.

STANDING LEAP. Your long jump is up to 25 feet and your high jump is up to 15 feet, with or without a running start.

WATER DEPENDENCY. If you fail to immerse yourself in water for at least 1 hour during a day, you suffer one level of exhaustion at the end of that day. You can only recover from this exhaustion through magic or by immersing yourself in water for at least 1 hour.

(Ability Score Increase. +2 Dex, +1 ???)

I've got problems with this. I'm not really a fan of racial immunities, especially to common damage types and/or conditions. Also, it looks like the Poisonous Skin DC doesn't scale (no increase in DC from 3rd to 8th level despite proficiency bonus increase). Water dependency seems like a drag.

 

[gyor]

I guess there's a new AL legal, WotC official PC race? There's a Grung (poison dart frog humanoid from Volo's) Rogue in the Tomb of Annihilation surrogate character pdf.

GRUNG
SPEED. You have a climb speed of 25 ft.

AMPHIBIOUS. You can breathe air and water.

POISON IMMUNITY. You are immune to poison damage and the poisoned condition.

POISONOUS SKIN. Any creature that grapples you or otherwise comes into direct contact with your skin must succeed on a DC 12 Constitution saving throw or become poisoned for 1 minute. A poisoned creature no longer in direct contact with you can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.
You can also apply this poison to any piercing weapon as part of an attack with that weapon, though when you hit the poison reacts differently. The target must succeed on a DC 12 Constitution saving throw or take 2d4 poison damage. No additional effects apply.

STANDING LEAP. Your long jump is up to 25 feet and your high jump is up to 15 feet, with or without a running start.

WATER DEPENDENCY. If you fail to immerse yourself in water for at least 1 hour during a day, you suffer one level of exhaustion at the end of that day. You can only recover from this exhaustion through magic or by immersing yourself in water for at least 1 hour.


I've got problems with this. I'm not really a fan of racial immunities, especially to common damage types and/or conditions. Also, it looks like the Poisonous Skin DC doesn't scale (no increase in DC from 3rd to 8th level despite proficiency bonus increase). Water dependency seems like a drag.

Pureblood is already immune to poison.

 

[clutchbone]

Oh yeah, I think the Yuan-Ti are horrible too. Straight Magic Resistance, and poison immunity? C'mon.

 

[Croesus]

Though not listed in the character sheet, I suspect Grung's also gain +2 Dex and +1 Con or Wis.

My concern is less with the poison immunity than with Poisonous Skin adding to all piercing weapon attacks. Assuming the save allows targets to avoid the damage half the time, that's still +2d4 poison to half of all bow attacks. The third level rogue in the surrogate list can potentially deal 1d6 + 3 + 2d6 sneak + 2d4 poison (avg. 18.5) on a single hit each round.

Maybe the extra damage each round won't be a big deal, but it feels like a significant boost.

I do like the effect on creatures that grapple the grung. That's useful and would be fun in play.

 

[mellored]

Potential damage isn't really a good baseline. DC 12 Con isn't exactly the hardest thing to avoid, and poison immunity is fairly common.

Still a good choice for many archers, but not necessarily displacing the wood elf.

 

[clutchbone]

Though not listed in the character sheet, I suspect Grung's also gain +2 Dex and +1 Con or Wis.

My concern is less with the poison immunity than with Poisonous Skin adding to all piercing weapon attacks. Assuming the save allows targets to avoid the damage half the time, that's still +2d4 poison to half of all bow attacks. The third level rogue in the surrogate list can potentially deal 1d6 + 3 + 2d6 sneak + 2d4 poison (avg. 18.5) on a single hit each round.

Maybe the extra damage each round won't be a big deal, but it feels like a significant boost.

I do like the effect on creatures that grapple the grung. That's useful and would be fun in play.

As written, a Grung could also just reach out and tap you to apply the poisoned condition, and/or use unarmed attacks.

Needs a rule about how long the poison stays viable once applied to a piercing weapon. 1 min?

 

[Hawk Diesel]

I think this is pretty cool. The only thing I would change is as follows:

POISONOUS SKIN
Any creature that grapples you or otherwise comes into direct contact with your skin must succeed on a Constitution saving throw (DC 8 + Proficiency Bonus + Constitution Bonus) for each round they remain in direct contact with your skin. Failing the saving throw causes the creature to suffer from the poisoned condition for the duration they remain in contact with you. A poisoned creature no longer in direct contact with you can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.

You can also apply this poison to any piercing weapon as an action. Doing so coats the weapon with a poison that lasts for 1 minute. For the duration while the weapon is coated, the target of each successful attack must succeed on a Constitution saving throw (DC 8 + Proficiency Bonus + Constitution Bonus) or take 2d4 poison damage in addition to the weapon's normal damage.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Barbarian grappler!

 

[CapnZapp]

Needs a rule about how long the poison stays viable once applied to a piercing weapon. 1 min?

Not really.

The rule already say you apply the poison as part of the attack.

So maybe "until end of your turn" is a reasonable duration for the poison to stay viable. (There certainly is no leeway for using this ability to boost the weapons of your allies, to be specific.)

Compare how Drow NPCs apply their poison. (And the answer is that they don't, at least not actively. Their attacks just deliver poison damage and that's that. This Grunge ability might be phrased differently, but in the end, it works much in the same way in practice)


Sent from my C6603 using EN World mobile app

 

[Sacrosanct]

There sure are a lot of exotic races in the surrogate 2 pack. It's more like a zoo, than an adventuring party lol