Dire Weasel's Attach & CON-draining Blood Drain

[Barendd Nobeard]

Regarding a dire weasel's Attach & Constitution-draining Blood Drain Special Attacks:

Does the CON drain start the round the Attach happens, or not until the next round? Dead PCs want to know!

 

[mvincent]

Regarding a dire weasel's Attach & Constitution-draining Blood Drain Special Attacks:

Does the CON drain start the round the Attach happens, or not until the next round? Dead PCs want to know!

The rules say:
" A dire weasel drains blood for 1d4 points of Constitution damage each round it remains attached."

Normally extraordinary abilities do not require an action unless specifically noted, however this appears it is conducted in place of its regular attack. Even if not, the wording seems to imply that it is a round before the blood drain occurs.

So his call seems valid (and consistent with how similar things are handled), but I probably would not have handled it that way.

 

[Bad Paper]

next round. It must "remain attached," meaning the PCs have a round to screw up, in order for it to feast on the tasty blood.

 

[mvincent]

next round. It must "remain attached," meaning the PCs have a round to screw up, in order for it to feast on the tasty blood.

While I would agree, the issue still seems open to interpretation (and the DM's interpretation generally wins in such situations). Do you happen to have any rules or precedence for support?

 

[Legildur]

Looks pretty clear to me that the dire weasel attaches, then on its turn the next round the blood drain takes effect. The key words are '..each round remains attached.'

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

Thanks for all the input.

I'm the DM; the player is my son.

I think I may just overturn the death, since I started the drain on the "attaching round." In the heat of battle, the remains just didn't stand out. And three dire weasels on the same PC, rolling a total of 18 Con drain on the round they attacked, just seemed wrong.

Thanks.

 

[Vorput]

Thanks for all the input.

I'm the DM; the player is my son.

I think I may just overturn the death, since I started the drain on the "attaching round." In the heat of battle, the remains just didn't stand out. And three dire weasels on the same PC, rolling a total of 18 Con drain on the round they attacked, just seemed wrong.

Thanks.

You'd better overturn it... 18 con to the poor kid's character... man- that could scar him pyschologically for life!! ;-)

Vorp

 

[Bad Paper]

While I would agree, the issue still seems open to interpretation (and the DM's interpretation generally wins in such situations). Do you happen to have any rules or precedence for support?

Sure. You can sit in on my games and watch the precedence unfold.

 

[0-hr]

Just for the purpose of ellucidation, note the text under Stirge:

Blood Drain (Ex): A stirge drains blood, dealing 1d4 points of Constitution damage in any round when it begins its turn attached to a victim.

Wonder why they didn't use the same text for Weasle...

Ok, I don't really wonder - I'm pretty darn sure it is just sloppy editing. :\

 

[Infiniti2000]

Looks pretty clear to me that the dire weasel attaches, then on its turn the next round the blood drain takes effect. The key words are '..each round remains attached.'

Agreed. Furthermore...

Normally extraordinary abilities do not require an action unless specifically noted, however this appears it is conducted in place of its regular attack. Even if not, the wording seems to imply that it is a round before the blood drain occurs.

Note that "Attach (Ex)" occurs as part of the attack. But, what we're really discussing is the "Blood Drain (Ex)". That's a second special attack. Although I agree there's a little murkiness in the rules, I'd say that Blood Drain requires an action and a standard action at that, in following rounds.