Cloaker grab is hard to escape

[jester_gl]

As a DM, I think I just fell in love with a creature that is not even an elite but that I would consider a "threat" even as a single monster encounter.

Let me quote part of the power:
While the target is grabbed by the ambusher, it is blinded, dazed, restrained, and takes ongoing 10 damage. In addition, whenever an attack deals damage to the ambusher while it has the target grabbed, the attack deals half damage to the ambusher and half damage to the target.

If I get it correctly, as the target is blinded, he cannot teleport out. As the target is restrained, he cannot be pulled, pushed or slid by a friend. As he is both blinded and restrained, he has -7 to his escape attempt (is it correct?).

Take a 12 level rogue, with 22 dex, trained in acrobatic, and background bonus, with +19 acrobatic to beat an effective DC 30, that super trained character has 50% chance.

Correct me if I'm wrong somehow, but I look forward to grabbing a poor paladin.

Edit: I guess pushing, pulling, sliding or teleporting the cloaker itself is the way to go.

 

[chitzk0i]

Blinded and restrained don't give any penalty to athletics or acrobatics checks. check page 277 of the PHB.

 

[Black Knight Irios]

Another option is to use forced movement on the cloaker. If you move the cloaker out of reach the grab ends as well.

 

[Aegeri]

Another option is to use forced movement on the cloaker. If you move the cloaker out of reach the grab ends as well.

Yep.

It's still a bastard of a monster to get away from.

 

[jester_gl]

Now I am really disappointed. The only thing really punishing about this grab is that being dazed mean that you won't be doing anything other than escaping on your turn. As a lurker the cloaker has bad defenses already, and the target of the cloaker will just find the fight to be a long and harrowing experience.

At least envelop target reflex, so it is still useful in taking a paladin out of the fight. Never will the little fluff story about a rogue getting killed by one of these be reenacted. He will just escape every turn until the cloaker miss an attack, then run away.

 

[Baumi]

You lose the grab if you cannot make opportunity attacks. So try to daze the Cloaker or use the "Winged Horde" (Wizard At-Will)...

 

[MortalPlague]

I love these monsters.

I used a cloaker against a party of mine who was used to pretty straightforward combat encounters. In particular, we had a sorcerer who loved to hang back and blast people. So I designed an encounter with a bunch of bandits who had a cloaker pet, trained to drop on whoever was at the back of the group.

Well, just this once, the sorcerer moved up towards the front, leaving the druid in the back, blasting away. The cloaker dropped on him. I handed the player a note. It read:

Something just fell from the ceiling and enveloped you. On your turn, roll acrobatics or athletics and let me know the result. Shhhh!

And so for two and a half rounds, the combat went smoothly, with nobody noticing anything wrong. I gave everyone an active perception check at the start of their turns, but nobody made it. Till suddenly...

The sorcerer noticed. I told him as he turned around, he noticed that Garr was gone. Something horrible was wrapped around him, sucking him dry. The players were incredulous! It was a great moment.

Even better; when they struck the thing for the first time a moment later, it screamed, then exploded into shadows (and teleported away, lurking till it could strike again). They were scared like nothing else.