D&D 5E Rot grubs

[dropbear8mybaby]

I hear kobolds like to chuck fragile ceramic jars full of rot grubs.

I love that idea, but I think it'd be better with goblins. And that they even breed them as a food source. In fact, a traditional goblin punishment is to force a transgressor, or anyone who they capture for funsies, to swallow a rot grub whole

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Bear in mind, guys, that this technique is not Tarrasque specific. The Tarrasque is really just a stand-in here for "big dumb non-tool-using monster with no regeneration." It could just as easily be a T-Rex or a rhino or a white dragon.

Odds that your players will actually meet the Tarrasque at low level = low.
Odds that your players will actually meet something worth killing in rot grub form = high.

Note BTW that while fire definitely kills it in the first round, and cure disease spells like Lesser Restoration definitely kills it after that, those aren't necessarily the only ways to kill a rot grub. But anything else would fall under the Improvised Action and/or DM Winging It categories. Another poster noted "cut off the infested arm" as something that has worked at his table; I'd let it work on mine, and I'd also allow a white dragon to rip open its own belly with its teeth (taking auto-crit bite damage) and sterilize the wound with its breath weapon. I'd probably force it to make a DC 15 Medicine check beforehand to see if it's targeting the right area of its own anatomy. (Pain signals from inside the body can get pretty mixed-up.)

My real point here is: DMs, think ahead about the implications of introducing this tiny beast into your campaign.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Bear in mind, guys, that this technique is not Tarrasque specific. The Tarrasque is really just a stand-in here for "big dumb non-tool-using monster with no regeneration." It could just as easily be a T-Rex or a rhino or a white dragon.

Odds that your players will actually meet the Tarrasque at low level = low.
Odds that your players will actually meet something worth killing in rot grub form = high.

Note BTW that while fire definitely kills it in the first round, and cure disease spells like Lesser Restoration definitely kills it after that, those aren't necessarily the only ways to kill a rot grub. But anything else would fall under the Improvised Action and/or DM Winging It categories. Another poster noted "cut off the infested arm" as something that has worked at his table; I'd let it work on mine, and I'd also allow a white dragon to rip open its own belly with its teeth (taking auto-crit bite damage) and sterilize the wound with its breath weapon. I'd probably force it to make a DC 15 Medicine check beforehand to see if it's targeting the right area of its own anatomy. (Pain signals from inside the body can get pretty mixed-up.)

My real point here is: DMs, think ahead about the implications of introducing this tiny beast into your campaign.

If I had a group carrying rot grubs around to infest random foes, I would:

(1) Make it hard to keep a colony alive, especially in areas of fresh air and sunlight. After all, what do rot grubs turn into when they mature? Perhaps the adult insect can't successfully breed outside a cavern environment, and definitely not a small box?

(2) Make them roll each time they handled the colony to keep from being infested themselves. After a few characters have died or nearly died due to accidents, they might decide it's not so clever an idea after all...

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

(2) Make them roll each time they handled the colony to keep from being infested themselves. After a few characters have died or nearly died due to accidents, they might decide it's not so clever an idea after all...

The problem with this: rot grubs are trivial to counter if you're prepared. E.g. a paladin can cure rot grubs by Lay On Hands or Lesser Restoration.

I don't think this approach would or should deter players. What will deter them: if nothing in the campaign is challenging enough to require complicated solutions. Combat As War just doesn't happen when you never interact with anything you can't kill in eighteen seconds or less.

(It might be fun though for a player character to discover a rot grub in his bedroll one day just as he's about to get in it. That might deter them a little bit just from the sheer grossness.)

 

[MechaPilot]

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.

That's precisely my point though, "you can't be X because X has no stat block" is an answer entirely born from DM convenience. It doesn't fit with the spirit of the rules, but it's not exactly wrong: a number of tables do things for the sake of convenience.

 

[darjr]

If it was our home game a critical fail with a rot grub grenade would be bad.

 

[dropbear8mybaby]

After all, what do rot grubs turn into when they mature?

Ohhhh... that... that is an excellent question!

Ooh, what could it become? An ankheg? Hook horror? Grick?

Ooh! No! A carrion crawler!

Or maybe a purple worm... hmm, this will take some decisionating.

 

[darjr]

Pixies.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Ohhhh... that... that is an excellent question!

Ooh, what could it become? An ankheg? Hook horror? Grick?

Ooh! No! A carrion crawler!

Or maybe a purple worm... hmm, this will take some decisionating.

See, a party will be a lot less willing to carry around rot grubs if a week or so later they're confronted with a few dozen baby ankhegs, each with a small, but nasty, amount of acid spitting damage!

 

[77IM]

Rot Beetles, obviously.