Teleporting a Grappled Character?

[Amal Shukup]

A Xill (summoned by the BBEG) has succesfully grappled and pinned a character, and is fading away to the ethereal Plane. Once there, Paralysis/Implantation will occur, the character will be abandoned, and the Xill will return for another snack...

So far, the Party's attempts to kill the Xill and/or rescue the victim have been foiled - mostly due to the 20% (and now 50%) miss chance imposed by the Xill's quasi-ethereal state.

Only one creature still has a chance to interfere with this evolution - a Hound Archon (involved as a Lesser Planar Ally). His plan, (presuming he overcomes the 50% miss chance) is to grab/touch the grappled character and teleport away to safety.

The Archon's teleport ability is limited to the Archon + 50 pounds of objects. While not an 'object', the character and all her gear weigh only 45 pounds...

(and, not to pick nits, but in what way is a body, unconscious, dead, or otherwise, not an 'object' on some level?)

Is this attempt to be foiled by:

a) Yer a Halfling, not an 'object'. TOO BAD (probably)
b) Grappled. Therefore an attended object and 'entitled' to a save.
c) WHOSE save? the character's, acting as the object in question? or the Xill's by some mechanism I do not fully understand?
​

I will probably allow this to work (providing the miss chance is overcome) simply because it was a cool idea by the player running the Archon, but I'd like to have some black letter to go by...

On a related note... Where, if anywhere, is there a rule with respect to attacking creatures involved in a grapple? Can you hit the wrong creature by mistake? is there a cover issue? I know one gets a bonus for grappling an enemy already grappled by one's ally, but the rest is somewhat unclear...

Thanks!

Amal

 

[Saeviomagy]

A Xill (summoned by the BBEG) has succesfully grappled and pinned a character, and is fading away to the ethereal Plane. Once there, Paralysis/Implantation will occur, the character will be abandoned, and the Xill will return for another snack...

So far, the Party's attempts to kill the Xill and/or rescue the victim have been foiled - mostly due to the 20% (and now 50%) miss chance imposed by the Xill's quasi-ethereal state.

Only one creature still has a chance to interfere with this evolution - a Hound Archon (involved as a Lesser Planar Ally). His plan, (presuming he overcomes the 50% miss chance) is to grab/touch the grappled character and teleport away to safety.

The Archon's teleport ability is limited to the Archon + 50 pounds of objects. While not an 'object', the character and all her gear weigh only 45 pounds...

(and, not to pick nits, but in what way is a body, unconscious, dead, or otherwise, not an 'object' on some level?)

Is this attempt to be foiled by:

a) Yer a Halfling, not an 'object'. TOO BAD (probably)
b) Grappled. Therefore an attended object and 'entitled' to a save.
c) WHOSE save? the character's, acting as the object in question? or the Xill's by some mechanism I do not fully understand?
​

I will probably allow this to work (providing the miss chance is overcome) simply because it was a cool idea by the player running the Archon, but I'd like to have some black letter to go by...

On a related note... Where, if anywhere, is there a rule with respect to attacking creatures involved in a grapple? Can you hit the wrong creature by mistake? is there a cover issue? I know one gets a bonus for grappling an enemy already grappled by one's ally, but the rest is somewhat unclear...

Thanks!

Amal

Basically - a halfling isn't an object. If the archon was to KILL the halfling first, then it becomes an attended object instead, and is a viable target (Who'll save against the spell using the Xill's save bonus).

Remember - the archon has a restricted version of teleport, and the inability to bring along living creatures is a major part of that restriction.

 

[clark411]

Well... a Xill cannot fade with a character unless it's helpless or willing, and a pinned creature technically isn't helpless.

And an Archon indeed cannot, by the letter (and really spirit) of the rules, save the halfling. Archon Teleport comes down to "Me and Mine Pretty Shinies... like Swords that weigh 49 pounds."

So... I'd let the against-the-rules solution fix the against-the-rules problem.


Grappled characters get a negative to AC that is equal to the negative to hit that people get vs grappled creatures. It balances out. While you can accidently hit the wrong person with ranged fire in a grapple, I haven't seen a rule that states the same applies to melee.

 

[Thanee]

Yep, the Archon cannot teleport a living creature.

Maybe the halfling or someone else has a bag of holding...

Bye
Thanee

 

[Amal Shukup]

Well... a Xill cannot fade with a character unless it's helpless or willing, and a pinned creature technically isn't helpless.

Ahhh. The Pinned description is pretty definitive on that... Oops...

The Xill COULD have paralyzed the Halfling once she was Pinned, but I was being 'nice' (In the event that the party resucued her, they wouldn't need to overcome paralysis in the middle of the climactic battle.)

Then again, it may have taken a number of attempts to overcome the character's Fort save... Providing more rounds for a rescue attempt to work...

So much for being nice... Now I gotta resolve this in the least rule-breaking way...

If the Archon successfully grabs her, I'll let them Teleport 10 feet away and have them both 'dazed' for a round...

Archon: "<groan> The disorientation comes from trying to Teleport with a living creature... Much farther and we would have died!"
(This way, the Party won't be tempted to use the ability in hideously game-breaking ways down the road.)

Next Xill (if ever) I can run by the rules and nobody needs be the wiser

Thanks folks,

Amal