Cough it up - ruling please!

[MarauderX]

So our 8th level party beats up this necromancer and his cohorts, and his lacky, a sickly goblin, sneaks in and takes a ring of regeneration from the dead wizard's hand before we can get to loot his body. We corner the goblin, demand the ring and anything else he has, and before it resorts to some violence it takes the ring off it's finger and swallows it. Everyone cursed at the same time, and the rogue shoots him for good measure. Now this goblin is probably at -5 or so and bleeding to death, but a few rounds later as we are debating tearing the goblin in half to get the ring, we hear him getting up and trying to sneak away!
I thought rings had to be worn to work, but I was wondering if others might have the same thing happen to keep it interesting... after all the goblin was some good comic relief for the duration of the adventure. But now we want the ring, and the punk goblin won't die...

 

[trentonjoe]

I think technically the ring need to be on a finger to work but I think in your case the DM made a very good ruling.

 

[kreynolds]

I thought rings had to be worn to work...

They do. Even ion stones are worn.

...but I was wondering if others might have the same thing happen to keep it interesting...

No, and for one reason only. If the ring works in the goblin's stomach, then I can't say "No, it won't work" to a player that wants to embed it just under his own skin.

 

[Murrdox]

I dunno about that....

I think the DMG specifies that you can only wear two rings and still gain the effects from them, but I don't think it specifies that they have to be on your finger.

I mean, could you wear a toe-ring? A nose-ring? A ring on a chain around your neck?

Can anyone find any specific information?

The thing I wonder about then... does "swallowing" the ring count as wearing it, if it turns out that rings don't have to be on your finger?

Either way, that's a hilarious situation, and I applaude your DM.

 

[SpikeyFreak]

Re: Re: Cough it up - ruling please!

They do. Even ion stones are worn.

No, and for one reason only. If the ring works in the goblin's stomach, then I can't say "No, it won't work" to a player that wants to embed it just under his own skin.

Would that really be so bad? They'd have to cut themselves to change rings. No ring changing on the fly. And its not like D&D has rules for cutting off fingers, so what difference would it make?

It would suck for the goblin having to root through his own feces to get the ring back though.

--Yummy Spikey

 

[kreynolds]

I think the DMG specifies that you can only wear two rings and still gain the effects from them, but I don't think it specifies that they have to be on your finger.

You should start a thread in the Rules forum. It should be interesting to see how the discussion goes.

 

[kreynolds]

Re: Re: Re: Cough it up - ruling please!

Would that really be so bad?

For one, it would effectively turn the ring into a magic item that can't be destroyed with a weapon or stolen, and rings aren't priced by default to give such benefits.

They'd have to cut themselves to change rings.

The idea is that you would choose to embed a ring that you really, really like.

And its not like D&D has rules for cutting off fingers, so what difference would it make?

Aside from the first answer, mostly, its just opens up a can of worms that I don't find worth dealing with. If the ring was a slotless item, I'd be fine with swallowing/embedding.

 

[Mordane76]

I'd say to your DM, if he reads this forum...

Taking a page from krenyolds, he should make the ring a "slotless" item, so it's more valuable, but also FAR more useful -- unfortunately, he has invariably opened up a very plausible avenue of abuse, because a lot of magical items are small enough to be swallowed...

"You WHAT? How could you swallow a pearl of power?!"

 

[MarauderX]

Well, to let you all know, we all stood back as the wizard used his last fireball on the goblin once we got him outside - talk about overkill. First of course our rogue had to reinvent how torture can be done - stab the goblin with a dagger, wait til he recovers, repeat. We got the ring and are happy, and our DM ruled that either two rings can be worn without effecting each other or one ring elsewhere on the body. His judgement was along the lines of "let's not get the lawyers involved, because then every body part could be laced with some garnet, trinket, whatever, and then everyone would want toe-rings of protection in addition to regular rings" Not sure he read this yet, but if he does he can defend his position better than I just did.

 

[Clay_More]

If your DM didn't want to have you all eating rings, bracelets and amulets, he could simply decide that it was a goblinoid racial ability.

Consume Magical Item (Su): Goblins, due to special nature of their stomach, can consume magical items and still gain all the benefits of these. This only applies to magical items that can logically fin inside a goblins stomach, such as rings, amulets and bracelets. For this reason, some goblin wizards have been known to construct Fine magical armors which they eat as snacks before a battle. It should be said that using any spell-like abilities from a magic item located inside a goblins stomach can be harmful (such as activating a wand of fireballs). Some goblins have been known to use this to create kamikaze troops, having a regiment of goblins consume a wand of fireballs with one charge left after which they happily rush into the enemy ranks before they obliterate themselves.