Stirges and Dragons

[Tom McCafferty]

Hi there

Recently I came across the following combination of attack which seems a bit unrealistic....

Mage comes across an adult dragon, and uses summon monster to summon stirges which he uses to attack the dragon. Stirges attack and only need to do a touch attack to succeed. (Dragons worst AC) Sturges drain dragon of constitution points very quickly. Result: Dead dragon at little danger to mage.

I know this is good play by the players, but it seems unrealistic?

Any ideas?

Tom

 

[Sherlock]

The stirges would have to make a will save against the dragon's Frightful Presence. Plus the striges have to be attached at the beginning of the round to drain CON. Thus giving the dragon a chance to brush them off with it's normal attacks.

PS. If the dragon is immune to it's own breath weapon, it could always breath on itself.

 

[Setanta]

I don't think there's anything wrong with it, especially since the strige only has a grapple of +1, and an adult white dragon (you didn't specifiy, so I picked the wimpiest one) has a grapple of +28, so the stirge should never be able to get a hold anyway.

Even against a wimpier dragon, by the time the mage gets a full round spell off, then the stirges have to attach and be attached at the beginning of its turn to actually drain, the dragon's got some time to do something like cast a fireshield. If the player gets away with it, and the stirges actually win a grapple check, great, but I don't think that's likely.

 

[MerakSpielman]

Yikes! How many stirges did they summon? A dragon should be able to kill them fairly quickly and easily.

 

[James McMurray]

Yep, this is a valid tactic. As others have mentioned it isn't very useful due to the stirge's grapple bonus. Back in 3.0 though the dragon would have been in more trouble, because there was no need for agrapple check to attach, and it could be read that the stirge drains immediately.

The Tarrasque was in much worse shape, since it couldn't just breathe on itself to remove all the stirges.

How many stirges did they summon?

A Gate from a 17th level caster can get you 17 celestial Stirges IIRC. 17d4 con damage will ruin anyone's day.

Now that the Stirge option is gone, that leaves the Lantern Archon barrage. 17 Lantern Archons + Quickened Haste = 51 touch attacks per round, each dealing 1d6 damage.

 

[Darklone]

About the Tarrasque... IIRC regenerating creatures are immune in 3.5 against ability damage, right?

Edit: Hmm, it's not in the SRD conditions section... I read it in a 3.5 conversion guide about the Tarrasque somewhere... could someone verify or tell me that I'm stupid?

 

[Setanta]

Now that the Stirge option is gone, that leaves the Lantern Archon barrage. 17 Lantern Archons + Quickened Haste = 51 touch attacks per round, each dealing 1d6 damage.

At least lantern archon is a summon monster IV instead of summon monster I. How do you get 17, though? Isn't 1d4+1 the maximum number that any single casting will summon?

 

[James McMurray]

Using Gate, not SM.

As far as I can tell, Stirge isn't on the Summon Monster list anywhere.

 

[Epametheus]

Couldn't a dragon just Great Cleave through the whole flock?

 

[James McMurray]

Yep, if he happened to have great cleave he could. Just another reason that its a valid tactic, just not avery viable one.