Stirges.. Most broken monster ever.

[Henry]

No need. The dragon can direct its breath weapon in "a direction of the dragon's choice," from any intersection adjacent to it. Which means it can breathe on itself.

Boom. No stirges. Dragon takes no damage.

My god, your metagaming exceeds mine! I bow to you!


Here's another thought I had while pondering stirges: A really nasty encounter would be a stirge nest in the near vicinity of a Hydra lair. The Stirges would, with good reason, steer clear of the Hydra, but any PCs who are dinked by the Stirges find the Hydra a much worse challenge...

 

[Ciaran]

Call me crazy, but if you're actually in a situation in which stirges are attacking non-humanoids, you should probably scale the amount of Con damage accordingly. You can't seriously argue that a stirge's beakful of blood inflicts the same amount of Con damage on a dragon and a pixie.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Call me crazy, but if you're actually in a situation in which stirges are attacking non-humanoids, you should probably scale the amount of Con damage accordingly. You can't seriously argue that a stirge's beakful of blood inflicts the same amount of Con damage on a dragon and a pixie.

Well, the dragon should have a higher Constitution Score to begin with, so I don't think you should also scale the ability damage.

 

[Yellow Sign]

Plus the Dragon's Frightful Presence would most likely scare all the stirges away.

 

[SidusLupus]

Yeah, but frightful presence is an activated ability that only works if the dragon does something.

Sleeping isn't something that would do that.

I am however a big fan of having creatures with breath weapons breathe on themselves if they get into a pinch. My PCs hate it when I do that to them.

 

[monboesen]

Well, the dragon should have a higher Constitution Score to begin with, so I don't think you should also scale the ability damage.

Well the situation would be quite similar to a common real world mosquito and a human.

I don't recall ever reading about poor fools getting their life sucked from them by mosquitos, leaving only empty bloodless husks behind.

I think it would be fair to rule that Striges had little to no effect on a collosal dragon. The would be a nuisiance (like a mosquito is to me), not a danger.

 

[ForceUser]

Yeah, but frightful presence is an activated ability that only works if the dragon does something.

Sleeping isn't something that would do that.

Sure, but there is no way a bunch of stirges could stealth-suck a dragon. With its senses, a dragon would notice them coming long before they got close to draining Con.

 

[lukelightning]

Yeah, but frightful presence is an activated ability that only works if the dragon does something.

Sleeping isn't something that would do that.

It is if the dragon has the "frightful snore" feat.

How about this: A bunch of stirges have been sucking the blood of a red dragon, who's been ignoring them. They are then filled with red dragon blood, and explode in a burst of fire when disturbed, like an alchemists fire.