D&D 5E Nightmare Druid

[jgsugden]

Twas the night before Xmas and ... I just thought I'd ask for some community brainstorming on Nightmarish things to do (before Christmas).

I run a PC right now that is an Undead Warlock 1 / Moon Druid 6. The idea was to come to the battlefield with the nightmare versions of animals. Along the way he picked up a magical tattoo that gives him wings (effectively winged boots in a tattoo form) and another magical tattoo that is effectively a bag of holding (which we describe as his pouch - EnWorld fans may guess what adventure I'm being run in). I've been combining all of that to do things like:

• Become a huge (enlarge spell - expanded spell list) bat winged (tattoo) cave bear with rotting flesh, ichor matted fur and a stench of death about it (form of dread) with a deathly cold touch (Armor of Agathys).
• As a slime infested (form of dread) huhe (enlarge spell) lion - pounch on an enemy (killing it) and then walk away seemingly having disintegrated it (while really shoving the corpse into my bag of holding tattoo pouch - but not letting the other players know that is what I did).
• Used Form of Dread's fear, Eldritch Blast, and positioning to keep an enemy from leaving their space in a corner ... which was engulfed in flames.
• Used Meld into Stone to ambush an enemy, shove them in the bag of holding, then merge back into stone ... suffocating them inside my hole (that was entirely flavor - this was a goblin that I would have taken down in one hit).
• As a Huge Bear with wings I grappled an ogre (Huge Cave bears can carry 1200 lbs, an ogre of 10 feet in height is about 450% heavier than a medium humanoid - which was determined to be within that 1200 limit) and flew up into the sky with it. It stopped attacking when it realized the fall would kill it ... which the fall eventually did even though it did not attack me again.
• For flair, when I use COnjure Animals the animals also take on my nightmarish appearance (but with no mechanical benefits).

What other fun tricks can you think up to be a nightmare animal? Suggestions do not have to be effective, efficient or even wise ... just thematic.

I'm not high enough level, but I will be taking Fire Shield, Blight, Polymorph (turn enemy into bite sized morsel - eat whole when a huge bear or gargantuan constrictor snake) ...

 

[Clint_L]

...Polymorph (turn enemy into bite sized morsel - eat whole when a huge bear or gargantuan constrictor snake) ...

I don't think this would work. According to RAW: "The target assumes the hit points of its new form. When it reverts to its normal form, the creature returns to the number of hit points it had before it transformed. If it reverts as a result of dropping to 0 hit points, any excess damage carries over to its normal form."

So when you turn something into a bite-sized morsel and eat it, you are very likely reducing it to 0 HP (if not right away, then very soon), at which point polymorph is broken and it would have all its remaining hit points. Presumably this would happen before you ate it because if not...could be pretty explosive.

For instance, you can't kill a roc by polymorphing it into a fly with 1 hp and then just stepping on it, so I'm not sure why eating it would be any different.

 

[jgsugden]

...So when you turn something into a bite-sized morsel and eat it, you are very likely reducing it to 0 HP (if not right away, then very soon), at which point polymorph is broken and it would have all its remaining hit points. Presumably this would happen before you ate it because if not...could be pretty explosive...

You can grapple witghout damaging and it is not outrageous to swallow something without inflicting damage.

As for the explosive concerns ... there is a reason I said huge bear or gargantuan constrictor snake... A bear, for example, can hold about 15% of its body weight in its stomach. A huge bear would be about 5000 lbs. That means it can hold up to 750 lbs. I'd want to make sure that wildshape lasts long enough and that the target can't damage me while inside ... (and use multiple wildshape back to back ... you can rest and regain wildshape while wildshaped, after all ...), but as I said - not so focused on efficiency ... just on nightmare imagery.

 

[Stormonu]

All I can think of, invest in some Darkenbeasts - or fake it if you can.

 

[jgsugden]

All I can think of, invest in some Darkenbeasts - or fake it if you can.

The horrific looking summons is as close as I can come so far...

 

[Clint_L]

You can grapple witghout damaging and it is not outrageous to swallow something without inflicting damage.

As for the explosive concerns ... there is a reason I said huge bear or gargantuan constrictor snake... A bear, for example, can hold about 15% of its body weight in its stomach. A huge bear would be about 5000 lbs. That means it can hold up to 750 lbs. I'd want to make sure that wildshape lasts long enough and that the target can't damage me while inside ... (and use multiple wildshape back to back ... you can rest and regain wildshape while wildshaped, after all ...), but as I said - not so focused on efficiency ... just on nightmare imagery.

I don't think actual digestive systems work anything like this; I think if, say, a fully intact, armoured human suddenly appeared in a huge bear's stomach, that bear would be very instantly very dead, Alien-style. But if your DM is willing to allow it, then why not have fun? It's only a game.

I would definitely not allow it, though.

 

[jgsugden]

I don't think actual digestive systems work anything like this; I think if, say, a fully intact, armoured human suddenly appeared in a huge bear's stomach, that bear would be very instantly very dead, Alien-style. But if your DM is willing to allow it, then why not have fun? It's only a game.

I would definitely not allow it, though.

Yeah - when I say "can't damage me while inside", I'm talking about things like having equipment that could not be digested (either at all, or without poisoning me).

This has all come up before. The below are highlights from prior conversations ...

The stomach of a bear that is the size of an elephant, or of a snake much larger than that, could hold a creature. It would not fit a large creature, but something small would be very easy, and a medium would be ... tight, but likely not impossible.

And could such a stomach dissolve a corpse? A human secrets about 1.5 liters of gastric acid a day. A creature two sizes up would be estimated to secret about 64 times that much - or around 100 liters of gastric acid in a day. That is about 25 gallons of very potent acid. Go watch season 1 of Breaking Bad.

If we want to go realistic, you'd die insanely quickly in a stomach. This is heroic fantasy, so anything is possible ... but in reality, the lack of oxygen in the stomach (especially as you displace it for what I would have to assume would be an epic belch), the acid, and the crushing motion of the stomach would end you quickly.

Or, to put it another way - imagine you swallowed a mouse whole (or it was teleported inside your stomach). Is that going to kill you?

 

[Clint_L]

Yeah - when I say "can't damage me while inside", I'm talking about things like having equipment that could not be digested (either at all, or without poisoning me).

This has all come up before. The below are highlights from prior conversations ...

The stomach of a bear that is the size of an elephant, or of a snake much larger than that, could hold a creature. It would not fit a large creature, but something small would be very easy, and a medium would be ... tight, but likely not impossible.

I don't think stomachs are like what you seem to be imagining. They're not a big open space, and they aren't designed to have complete living creatures, let alone ones covered with all kids of equipment and pointy stuff, magically appear inside of them. For example, a human stomach can rupture if you eat or drink too much - anything more than 3-4 litres. And that's assuming food/liquids that have been properly chewed (if solid) and ingested. I am very confident that if a living, armoured human suddenly appeared in the gut of an elephant, that elephant is dead. The person, too, unless someone cut them out.

Also, a giant snake's stomach would be completely different from a giant cave bear's. Snakes do not swallow live prey, and they take ages to gradually ingest and process meals. They are extremely vulnerable during this sloooow process. Basically, the polymorph would be broken while still in the snake's mouth. I can't imagine that would work out well. In the case of a huge bear, its stomach would be destroyed unless it was truly gargantuan.

And could such a stomach dissolve a corpse? A human secrets about 1.5 liters of gastric acid a day. A creature two sizes up would be estimated to secret about 64 times that much - or around 100 liters of gastric acid in a day. That is about 25 gallons of very potent acid. Go watch season 1 of Breaking Bad.

That's hydrofluoric acid. Stomachs do not contain hydrofluoric acid.

That said, a human stomach could certainly dissolve a corpse....given enough time. Although our stomach acid is not battery acid strong, it's still pretty potent. But if someone actually materialized inside a stomach, suffocation would kill them far, far faster than the stomach acid would. Different animals have different strengths of stomach acid - a giant vulture would be your best bet if you wanted the strongest acid.

If we want to go realistic, you'd die insanely quickly in a stomach. This is heroic fantasy, so anything is possible ... but in reality, the lack of oxygen in the stomach (especially as you displace it for what I would have to assume would be an epic belch), the acid, and the crushing motion of the stomach would end you quickly.

The crushing motion of the stomach on an undigested character with their equipment would also end the stomach quickly.

Or, to put it another way - imagine you swallowed a mouse whole (or it was teleported inside your stomach). Is that going to kill you?

Your scale is way off. And if that mouse was wearing armour and weapons, I still don't like my chances. Or its. We'd both die, unless it had some mouse buddies to cut it out really quickly. If not, it would be dead very quickly, whereas I would likely die painfully over a period of days as my torn up guts necrotized. It would be a terrible way to go.

Look, you know this is a completely unrealistic scenario and would not actually work, but, hey, it's fantasy, and if you and your DM are happy with it, then that's all that matters. Have fun! I do think allowing it pretty obviously breaks the polymorph spell, which is already more than powerful enough.

 

[Clint_L]

I think your bag of holding tattoo seems like a far more effective strategy - that'll definitely kill someone, RAW. If you can get them in it, which you should be able to do with polymorph. That's a very powerful ability your DM gave you! Blight is just nasty and specifically drains the moisture from a creature, so I wonder if your DM would let you combine that with fire shield in an interesting way?

 

[jgsugden]

Thanks for your input.