Swallow Whole and Fly = problem!?

[Viktyr Gehrig]

You know, flying creatures with Improved Grab can pick a character up and then drop them, doing a ton of basically unavoidable damage.

I think it's only fair to allow a flying character that's been Swallowed Whole to pull the stunt in reverse.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

You know, flying creatures with Improved Grab can pick a character up and then drop them, doing a ton of basically unavoidable damage.

I think it's only fair to allow a flying character that's been Swallowed Whole to pull the stunt in reverse.

I concur.

Since the nasty Improved Grab Large & Huge Flying beasties do not seem to have moral or mechanical compunctions about carting off a PC to his doom, I am not seeing any balance problem with allowing the PC to reverse the situation on a monster.

We just play that if you cut your way out, you have defeated the grapple. Bye, bye, froggie!

 

[Creat]

Let's say my character is on a moving train and I cast fly. I would expect to move relative to the moving landscape, I would follow the rules of... well, nature. See, if that were possible, you could get on a train, start your fly spell, and hop off, flying at about twice your normal fly speed. Unless you want to say that the fly spell automatically adapts to your environment whenever it changes. Whatever you choose to rule!

Yea I actually used just that as an example: As long as your in the train you would expect to fly relative to it (would suck to not be able to move forward at all in a trail going at a speed equal to 90 ft). So you move relative to the object you're in (or the world if yo're not "in" anything else). In other words: you move relative to the air that surrounds you. So he would push up in the frog, but not a manner that lifts him (as you couldn't lift a train wagon from within).
Even if that fly is magical, something still has to push down to counter gravity, and that thrust would only push against the other side of the frog and not actually move him.

You know, flying creatures with Improved Grab can pick a character up and then drop them, doing a ton of basically unavoidable damage.
I think it's only fair to allow a flying character that's been Swallowed Whole to pull the stunt in reverse.

That is an entirely other point. When those two are grappling (wo started the grapple is irrelevant anyway) and he's not swallowed he can make a grapple check to fly up and take him with him (without the grapple ckeck the other one can just choose to let go if he wants). That is allowed of course (monsters can do it, so he can too), but not while he is swallowed, it's the same as pulling yourself out of a swamp on your own hair...

 

[Gez]

Yea I actually used just that as an example: As long as your in the train you would expect to fly relative to it (would suck to not be able to move forward at all in a trail going at a speed equal to 90 ft). So you move relative to the object you're in (or the world if yo're not "in" anything else). In other words: you move relative to the air that surrounds you. So he would push up in the frog, but not a manner that lifts him (as you couldn't lift a train wagon from within).

So, a hot air balloon that is gradually filled until it occupies all the space in the wagon wouldn't cause it to raise?

Here's a little experiment for reckless kids: Climb in a shopping cart, have an accomplice push it fast, and then try, by jumping and kicking against the gridlike "walls" of the cart, to push it out of balance so that it falls.

If you succeed in making a shopping cart fall while you're inside, it's the proof that you can affects a something's trajectory while being inside.

Even if that fly is magical, something still has to push down to counter gravity, and that thrust would only push against the other side of the frog and not actually move him.

Cool. That means that something exerts a pressure on a point in its palate, and at the same time an equal pressure is exerted on its jaw. An impressive pressure (fly speed in 3.0: 90 ft.). So the poor froggie would need to be very robust to avoid having its mouth torn apart and/or its brain case perforated to death by the flying mage...

 

[azmodean]

In the SRD entries, there are some large creatures with weights under 1,000 lbs listed, but on the other hand there are some with weights of 6,000 lbs! Even with a strength of 30, a small biped's lifting weight is 1,200 lbs, so it's definitely on the line. I'd say if you would describe the creature as "beefy" or "stocky" it would probably exceed 1,500 lbs or so.

On the other hand I don't see any problem with this tactic working if the weight being lifted is within the range of the target.

However! Flying speed while so encumbered would be 40', and speed while ascending is halved, so he would only be able to ascend at 20' per move action!!! (these are 3.5 rules, I don't know how much they may have been changed from 3.0, but it is resonable to assume that 1. speed is reduced from encumberance and 2. ascending is slower than normal flight.) Making the point somewhat moot since it would take quite a while to climb to an altitude that would actually hurt the creature.

In your example he flew up for one round, which would cause a measly 4d6 damage, much of which could perhaps be negated with a jump check or even DR.

 

[Joker]

If this frog survived and got a chance to tell all of his frog friends they're never gonna grab and swallow whole anything out of fear that it might have a potion of fly.

 

[Sithobi1]

However, if the frog is away from the ground, he cannot hurt your friends, so this is a simple tactic that would win the battle. You just have to spend your turn every round to fly up 40 ft, until it almost expires, and let the frog fall.