Cleon
Legend
Righty-ho I've updated the Wriggler Working Draft with a first draft conversion.
Rereading the Polyhedron text I noticed wrigglers can swallow opponents up to Small size not Tiny, so we'll need to rewrite the Description yet again. I am thinking:
A dire mosquito larva is an aquatic insect roughly the size of a human common folk call a wriggler. Wrigglers are quite different from normal mosquito larvae. They resemble hairy caterpillars with broad heads, long hairy mandibles for biting prey, and a snorkel-like tube at the tip of their tails for breathing air. Wrigglers are flesh-eaters who actively hunts for food and can swallow opponents up to the size of a halfling whole.
I've included the above in the Descriptions of the Female Dire Mosquito Working Draft and Male Dire Mosquito Working Draft as well as changing a "then" to a more grammatically correct "than" in the final paragraph:
A dire mosquito egg ranges from the size of a baseball and a grapefruit. New hatched wrigglers are only 8 to 12 inches long but grow rapidly if well fed in warm water. A hungry wriggler will attack anything up to its own size that isn't another wriggler that matches it in size (they have no compunction against cannibalizing wrigglers smaller than they are). They instinctively flee from any creature larger than themselves, so adult humans are not at risk of attack unless the wriggler is almost fully grown at roughly 5 feet long.
For the actual mechanics, the AD&D version says they grab and hold on, then the target must save or be swallowed. The closest 5E SRD equivalent is a Bite action followed by a Swallow action like a Behir a Giant Frog which will convert to:
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d8 + 2) piercing damage. If the target is a Small or smaller creature, it is grappled (escape DC 12). Until this grapple ends, the target is restrained, and the wriggler can't bite another target.
Swallow. The wriggler makes one bite attack against a Small or smaller target it is grappling. If the attack hits, that creature takes the bite's damage and is swallowed, and the grapple ends. A swallowed creature is blinded and restrained, it has total cover against attacks and other effects outside the wriggler, and it takes 7 (2d6) acid damage at the start of each of the wriggler's turns. A wriggler can have only one creature swallowed at a time.
If the wriggler dies, a swallowed creature is no longer restrained by it and can escape from the corpse by using 5 feet of movement, exiting prone.
OR
If the wriggler takes 10 damage or more on a single turn from a creature inside it, the wriggler must succeed on a DC 12 Constitution saving throw at the end of that turn or regurgitate the swallowed creature, which falls prone in a space within 5 feet of the wriggler. If the wriggler dies, a swallowed creature is no longer restrained by it and can escape from the corpse by using 5 feet of movement, exiting prone.
I thought about using a bite with a built in swallow effect à la a Purple Worm along these lines:
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d8 + 2) piercing damage. If the target is a Small or smaller creature, it must succeed on a DC 12 Dexterity saving throw or be swallowed by the wriggler. A swallowed creature is blinded and restrained, it has total cover against attacks and other effects outside the wriggler, and it takes 7 (2d6) acid damage at the start of each of the wriggler's turns. A wriggler can have only one creature swallowed at a time.
If the wriggler takes 10 damage or more on a single turn from a creature inside it, the wriggler must succeed on a DC 12 Constitution saving throw at the end of that turn or regurgitate the swallowed creature, which falls prone in a space within 5 feet of the wriggler. If the wriggler dies, a swallowed creature is no longer restrained by it and can escape from the corpse by using 10 feet of movement, exiting prone.
However that didn't seem as good a match with the original monster that grabbed prey with its mandibles, held on to them and then tried to swallow rather than having a bite that immediately swallows.
Rereading the Polyhedron text I noticed wrigglers can swallow opponents up to Small size not Tiny, so we'll need to rewrite the Description yet again. I am thinking:
A dire mosquito larva is an aquatic insect roughly the size of a human common folk call a wriggler. Wrigglers are quite different from normal mosquito larvae. They resemble hairy caterpillars with broad heads, long hairy mandibles for biting prey, and a snorkel-like tube at the tip of their tails for breathing air. Wrigglers are flesh-eaters who actively hunts for food and can swallow opponents up to the size of a halfling whole.
A dire mosquito egg ranges from the size of a baseball and a grapefruit. New hatched wrigglers are only 8 to 12 inches long but grow rapidly if well fed in warm water. A hungry wriggler will attack anything up to its own size that isn't another wriggler that matches it in size (they have no compunction against cannibalizing wrigglers smaller than they are). They instinctively flee from any creature larger than themselves, so adult humans are not at risk of attack unless the wriggler is almost fully grown at roughly 5 feet long.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d8 + 2) piercing damage. If the target is a Small or smaller creature, it is grappled (escape DC 12). Until this grapple ends, the target is restrained, and the wriggler can't bite another target.
Swallow. The wriggler makes one bite attack against a Small or smaller target it is grappling. If the attack hits, that creature takes the bite's damage and is swallowed, and the grapple ends. A swallowed creature is blinded and restrained, it has total cover against attacks and other effects outside the wriggler, and it takes 7 (2d6) acid damage at the start of each of the wriggler's turns. A wriggler can have only one creature swallowed at a time.
If the wriggler dies, a swallowed creature is no longer restrained by it and can escape from the corpse by using 5 feet of movement, exiting prone.
OR
If the wriggler takes 10 damage or more on a single turn from a creature inside it, the wriggler must succeed on a DC 12 Constitution saving throw at the end of that turn or regurgitate the swallowed creature, which falls prone in a space within 5 feet of the wriggler. If the wriggler dies, a swallowed creature is no longer restrained by it and can escape from the corpse by using 5 feet of movement, exiting prone.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d8 + 2) piercing damage. If the target is a Small or smaller creature, it must succeed on a DC 12 Dexterity saving throw or be swallowed by the wriggler. A swallowed creature is blinded and restrained, it has total cover against attacks and other effects outside the wriggler, and it takes 7 (2d6) acid damage at the start of each of the wriggler's turns. A wriggler can have only one creature swallowed at a time.
If the wriggler takes 10 damage or more on a single turn from a creature inside it, the wriggler must succeed on a DC 12 Constitution saving throw at the end of that turn or regurgitate the swallowed creature, which falls prone in a space within 5 feet of the wriggler. If the wriggler dies, a swallowed creature is no longer restrained by it and can escape from the corpse by using 10 feet of movement, exiting prone.
