BoVD - the Vaath

[Savage Wombat]

For those of you with the Book of Vile Darkness, I direct you to that horror of Carceri, the Vaath.

The telepathic sensory link, and the resulting WIS drain - do you think this is a one-time effect, or repeating damage? If the damage is round by round, does a single saving throw negate the effect, or must they save each round?

Do you know what your intestines taste like?

 

[CM]

I would assume that the Wisdom drain only happens once per feeding, especially considering that it deals wisdom drain and not just normal wisdom damage. It's a gut feeling though. Anything more and CR 4 is looking a little low. With 2d6 Dex damage poison it's already looking low, but that's another topic.

Need to work one of these babies into my Dark Sun game now. The telepathy fits in perfectly.

 

[Infiniti2000]

I'd say it occurs only once. Note that there appears to be an error. It gives two different outcomes if you fail the save. I think it should be 1 Wis drain if you make your save and 1d6 drain if you don't.

Ooo, man, talk about vile. Yuck!

 

[Rkhet]

No, it's correct. The Vaath transmits to everyone within twenty feet. If they fail their save, they take one point of wisdom drain. The victim - by which the book means the guy that the Vaath has its tongue in - takes 1d6 because it's worse for him.

 

[Infiniti2000]

Oh, I see what you're saying. That certainly makes sense. I couldn't decipher that from the text, but that works.