Wand of Viscid Globs: Straight Out of Out of The Abyss!

The latest preview from Out of the Abyss, the upcoming (September 15th; Sep 4th in preferred stores) adventure for D&D 5th Edition shows a brand new magic item - the wand of viscid globs. This thing was crafted by the drow, and is used to restrain foes with viscous globs of slime.

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Click here for all the other previews from this adventure!

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[Falling Icicle]

What adventurer does not carry at least a pint of alcohol?

How many monsters carry around alcohol with them? Don't forget that players can have this item too.

 

[Mistwell]

Oh come on, you know what I mean. Melee monsters shouldn't be an auto kill on a single hit, and that is basically what this is.

Restrained is not an auto-kill. It mostly means they cannot move and you get advantage and they get disadvantage. Their attacks still hurt just the same.

I get you love 5E

What? What does this have anything to do with my tastes in games? I loved 4e and 3e and 1e and BECIM too. Out of line man. Talk about my argument, not me.

 

[Mistwell]

How many monsters carry around alcohol with them?

Many humanoids and intelligent creatures do. It's causes inebriation, and it's a drink, a wound cleanser, and flammable. Alcohol is pretty common. In fact here are 50 uses for it.

 

[Falling Icicle]

What? Restrained is not an auto-kill.

But it is an auto-win against any monster that can't teleport, isn't carrying booze, and doesn't have some kind of ranged attack. There are a lot of monsters that fall into that category.

Fortunately, the item is easily fixed. All they need to do is add "a restrained creature can use its action to make a DC 15 Strength check. On a success, it frees itself."

 

[Paraxis]

No thought was put into this item at all. It is crazy overpowered, for all the reasons others have mentioned. There should be a save to break free each turn.

 

[CapnZapp]

It's not perfect, but easily fixed.

Why should we have to fix something right out of the gate?

This item is far from "not perfect" - it is clearly broken.

 

[Leatherhead]

Well, at least it's a new way to deal with the paladin problems people seem to be having.

On a more serious note: Not having a way to break free without an item is bad. But monsters should be made with ranged attacks as the default. Melee exclusivity in a game where players can do literally anything is just bad design.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

Restrained is not an auto-kill. It mostly means they cannot move and you get advantage and they get disadvantage. Their attacks still hurt just the same.

Only if you stand there and let them hit you. Move 5 to 10 feet away and throw darts at it until the sun comes up. Many creatures lack ranged attacks, and if they have them, they tend to be weaker than their melee. This item largely invalidates any melee beatstick with one hit. It leaves a dragon with (essentially) just it's breath weapon. Its out of line with other debilitating effects in 5E, and poor design. The fix, as others said, is simple enough (add an escape DC), but this should have been caught.

FWIW I'm still jazzed for the book though.

 

[hawkeyefan]

Why should we have to fix something right out of the gate?

This item is far from "not perfect" - it is clearly broken.

Eh, tomato/tomahto. At my table, it'll work how I described, which was a pretty quick fix that didn't require much thought. That is unless the item is somehow key to surviving a specific encounter or something like that. But barring any context beyond the item description given, I'd simply house rule it a couple of ways and that'd be that.

If others want to play it as written, and they decide the players can immobilize Demogorgon with a ray attack from a wand, that's their prerogative.

For me, I don't mind having to make judgment calls when it comes to this stuff.

 

[Agamon]

If others want to play it as written, and they decide the players can immobilize Demogorgon with a ray attack from a wand, that's their prerogative.

This is a good point. Maybe this thing is a macguffin that the PCs need to take on a bunch of demon lords before level 15...

That was mostly sarcasm, I actually hope this isn't the case.