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Getting out of "swallow whole"


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Hmm, a while back I was swallowed whole and had to cut my way out. An interesting topic came up: does the swallower have his dex bonus against me? Can I sneak attack from within?? I certainly am in the midst of the vitals....

My dm let me do it. I killed it cutting myself free.
 

I had a PC gulped down by the dreaded Remorrhaz...He died. Isn't the case while inside that you are considered grappled? That should limit what the PC's can do while being trapped therein. I would not allow and Str bonus damage, and limit the use of weapon only to a dagger, and that only if held while swallowed...so at most they will be doing d4+any magical damage..that could take a while...
 

Had to delete a few posts...

Folks, please check inappropriate "humor" at the door - EN World is not the place for it. Thanks.
 

::Looks at Diaglo:: OOOH YOu got in trouble.

I think someone said it best earlier . These decisions are DM specific. Swallow whole works in some situations and in others it should obviously kill the monster. As someone said in another forum this is fantasy, and it surely isn't impossible that these monsters have the abiility to heal internal tears.
 

Quasqueton said:
Have you ever seen a character cut its way out of the belly of a "swallow whole" monster?
Yep.
Did it break your suspicion of disbelief to see someone emerge from a beast's abdomen and the beast not die from the wound?
No, because that someone was being swallowed whole by some strange and freakish monster.
Have you ever seen it happen more than once with the same monster?
Not yet.
 

Patman21967 said:
I had a PC gulped down by the dreaded Remorrhaz...He died. Isn't the case while inside that you are considered grappled? That should limit what the PC's can do while being trapped therein. I would not allow and Str bonus damage, and limit the use of weapon only to a dagger, and that only if held while swallowed...so at most they will be doing d4+any magical damage..that could take a while...

From the SRD:

A swallowed creature is considered to be grappled, while the creature that did the swallowing is not. A swallowed creature can try to cut its way free with any light slashing or piercing weapon (the amount of cutting damage required to get free is noted in the creature description), or it can just try to escape the grapple. The Armor Class of the interior of a creature that swallows whole is normally 10 + 1/2 its natural armor bonus, with no modifiers for size or Dexterity. If the swallowed creature escapes the grapple, success puts it back in the attacker’s mouth, where it may be bitten or swallowed again.

So he's grappled, but I don't know why you think that shouldn't allow a STR bonus to damage (I think Conan could slice through thick, rubbery monster-innards with a bowie knife better than I could), and any light slashing weapon should be usable. If the character wasn't holding the weapon when swallowed, he's have to make a grapple check to draw it forth (and if he's already in the stomach, he's probably not winning any grapple checks).
 
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arnwyn said:
No, because that someone was being swallowed whole by some strange and freakish monster.

Right, and that seems to be the big distinction in terms of suspension of disbelief. In particular, the whole "muscular action seals the hole" bit.

Anyone else remember a 1980's cartoon called "Inhumanoids"? Those were some nasty monsters. One had a transparent stomach and you could see the stuff he swallowed. In one episode, one of the power-armor-wearing heroes got gobbled-up, and he popped a big drill out of his arm and burst the stomach open, just like a modern-day D&D character would. It wasn't as gory as it sounds, but still pretty gross for broadcast TV.
 

Felon said:
Right, and that seems to be the big distinction in terms of suspension of disbelief. In particular, the whole "muscular action seals the hole" bit.
I'm sure that's the case... but it was lost on me as soon as we got to the 'big freakish monster' part.
 


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