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D&D 5E Rot grubs

You mentioned wild shaping.
You can't wild shape into a single one. It doesn't exist: there's no stat block.

You're making things up. It's a beast, and it's under CR 1/4. You can wildshape into one, same as you could wildshape into a sparrow or a spider.

It's the DM's job to come up with stats as needed.

If the tarrasque is tearing through the wilderness, why are the adventurers fighting it?
Unless lives are at stake, there's no drama and no story. The tarrasque has to be a threat or the PCs are just, well, murder hobos. Or big game hunters.
Presumably because they're concerned that it might destroy something that isn't wilderness. What, you think the Tarrasque just teleports from city to city, destroying whole civilizations without crossing any intervening space?

Have you never seen a Godzilla movie?
 
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You're making things up. It's a beast, and it's under CR 1/4. You can wildshape into one, same as you could wildshape into a sparrow or a spider.

It's the DM's job to come up with stats as needed.
I'm not doing monster design on the fly.
Sure, it makes sense a druid would change into a hippopotamus or Komodo dragon or a poison dart frog, but I'm not making those rules up at the table.

We don't know the AC, hp, or ability scores of a single rot grub. (The book even says "a single rot grub has no stat block." So by RAW you can't change into it.)

Presumably because they're concerned that it might destroy something that isn't wilderness. What, you think the Tarrasque just teleports from city to city, destroying whole civilizations without crossing any intervening space?

Have you never seen a Godzilla movie?
Exactly. Godzilla always makes it to a city. The rule of dramatic timing says the heroes will always be delayed, arriving to fight the tarrasque when it is just reaching the city/ its destination.
You don't fight the tarrasque in a big open plain any more than you just stumble into the Big Bad Evil Guy of the campaign in a roadside inn. It's the tarrasque, not a random encounter.
 

I'm not doing monster design on the fly.
Sure, it makes sense a druid would change into a hippopotamus or Komodo dragon or a poison dart frog, but I'm not making those rules up at the table.

We don't know the AC, hp, or ability scores of a single rot grub. (The book even says "a single rot grub has no stat block." So by RAW you can't change into it.)

No. "Starting at 2nd level, you can use your action to magically assume the shape of a beast that you have seen before. You can use this feature twice. You regain expended uses when you finish a short or long rest... At 2nd level, for example, you can transform into any beast that has a challenge rating of 1/4 or lower that doesn’t have a flying or swimming speed."

The Rules As Written say nothing about needing "a stat block" before you can transform into a creature.

Exactly. Godzilla always makes it to a city. The rule of dramatic timing says the heroes will always be delayed, arriving to fight the tarrasque when it is just reaching the city/ its destination.
You don't fight the tarrasque in a big open plain any more than you just stumble into the Big Bad Evil Guy of the campaign in a roadside inn. It's the tarrasque, not a random encounter.

It's almost as if you've never seen the parts where Godzilla gets attacked between cities by the Japanese Defense Force or the American military. It's not like he's stealthy.

If the PCs are 2nd level (or 5th level, or whatever) and they have to deal with the Tarrasque, you can bet they should be ambushing it somewhere other than the middle of a populated city! It's almost like we have different levels of railroading in our respective campaigns...
 

No. "Starting at 2nd level, you can use your action to magically assume the shape of a beast that you have seen before. You can use this feature twice. You regain expended uses when you finish a short or long rest... At 2nd level, for example, you can transform into any beast that has a challenge rating of 1/4 or lower that doesn’t have a flying or swimming speed."

The Rules As Written say nothing about needing "a stat block" before you can transform into a creature.
Turn the page. "Your game statistics are replaced by the statistics of the beast"

A rot grub doesn't have statistics, not having a stat block. Since you cannot replace your statistics you cannot become a rot grub.

It's almost as if you've never seen the parts where Godzilla gets attacked between cities by the Japanese Defense Force or the American military. It's not like he's stealthy.

If the PCs are 2nd level (or 5th level, or whatever) and they have to deal with the Tarrasque, you can bet they should be ambushing it somewhere other than the middle of a populated city! It's almost like we have different levels of railroading in our respective campaigns...
Since I'm not railroading, I wouldn't force my level 2 or even a level 5 party to fight a tarrasque. The story then is "fleeing the tarrasque" or maybe "evacuating people".
But if my party at that level decides to pick a fight with the tarrasque, I'm also not going to make it easy on them by having the tarrasque decide to fight in a big featureless plain devoid of innocents. Some comically remote and uninhabited region of the world where there are no stakes and they can kite it to death. This is D&D, not DragonBall Z.


So the druid decides to fight the tarrasque by turning into a rot grub. Let's go through the scenario.

First, the DM needs to give the rot grub statistics: ability scores, hit points, an AC, etc. basically write a whole new statblock.
Rot grubs gave a reach of 0, so the druid need to use *almost* all it's movement to get close. Which means it needs to be really close, but not so close that the tarrasque can close the gap. Or just walk away from the grub crawling away at 5 feet. Very precise situation.

But, for the sake of argument, what happens? The druid moves right up to the tarrasque and gets within 5 feet. Then changes and moves the final 5 feet into the space of the tarrasque. And attacks. With a +0 to hit, the grub needs to roll a 20. So there's a 95% chance it misses. The tarrasque then gets a legendary action. And likely a turn before the druid goes again. It has a 95% chance of hitting the AC 8 rot grub and doing more than the 1-2 hp needed to return the druid to human form. Very likely it rips the druid apart.

But what if the druid does hit? Well, the rot grub is making a melee weapon attack to hit, and the tarrasque is immune to all damage from nonmagical sources. So the grub wriggles away at the skin, unable to burrow down.
Now, if the DM isn't using the errata and rules that this rot grub damage is able to hurt the tarrasque, it does 1d6 damage each round. So 3.5 damage each time the tarrasque starts a turn. 225 turns later it dies.
But it can get pretty darn far during that time.


Or, yeah, you could have the party buy rot grubs and throw them individually at the tarrasque, which counts as "coming into contact". If they hit with more than three then the tarrasque can't use a legendary resistance.
But at that point you might as well just give the party infinite experience and stop playing. After all, that tactic works on every creature with less than a +9 to Dexterity saving throws. Or the DM reserves the right to have the monsters start doing the same thing...
 

Turn the page. "Your game statistics are replaced by the statistics of the beast"

A rot grub doesn't have statistics, not having a stat block. Since you cannot replace your statistics you cannot become a rot grub.

I'm not taking sides here, but "you can't become this creature I let you encounter because it doesn't have a stat block" is purely an answer of convenience for the DM, so she doesn't have to come up with a stat block in the middle of play. It is not an answer based on the spirit of the rules.
 

I'm not taking sides here, but "you can't become this creature I let you encounter because it doesn't have a stat block" is purely an answer of convenience for the DM, so she doesn't have to come up with a stat block in the middle of play. It is not an answer based on the spirit of the rules.
If it's a creature being used for cosmetic or non-combat usage I agree. I don't need the exact statblock for a sparrow or a dove for the druid to become one to fly around the city. Or a mouse to sneak through a goblin lair. Or a trout to swim through a river. Or even a hippopotamus to hide among a group of other hippos.

For something as specific as "a rot grub to burrow into people" then maybe not. Or a hippo to bite someone because I need to know their attack bonus, damage, etc.
 

Let the druid turn in to a grub. I will. They get no start block, and no movement, no actions. If a creature comes into contact (or gets the grub placed on it) it makes the Dex save like normal, becoming infested on a fail.
The druid is assumed to be munching away and laying eggs. He can burrow out and change back, the creature is still infested.

EDIT: barring immunity. So this thread can be more fun and less rulesy can we say T-Rex instead?

Sent from my SM-N920T using Tapatalk
 
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I think a lot of this depends on when the druid's player tells the DM the druid is wildshaping into a rot grub. If it is a surprise, then following the advice of the DMG, if you need animals not already statted, then refluff a beast with a stat block as that animal (so I think maybe a spider). If the player tells the DM that the next session the druid may go rot grub, then I think it is good DMing to make a rot grub stat block.
 

The idea of using rot grubs to kill the Tarrasque is awesome!

I once had player choose to have their character's arm removed due to failing a save against rot grubs. Nasty monster; I'm glad to see them return.
 

Are rot grubs the same ones that eat books or were they book worms? I think I'm conflating two different monsters but I know there was one that was in books and were very similar to rot grubs.
 

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