"I barf on the troll..."

[MarauderX]

So, fine, everyone knows that trolls regenerate, but can't regenerate when doused in acid or burned. No problem.

Now, what happens when you apply real world facts (such as stomach acid is rather powerful; PC barfs on a tripped & prone troll) to game mechanics?

Do you let your players do things like this and have it work? Do you reward them for thinking? Or do you stop them right there and tell them that they can toss up on the troll all they want, but that will not keep it from regenerating?

And have you had any other situations like this that have come up, and how did you handle it?

Thanks -
- MX

 

[Felix]

Yeah, but would sticking your finger down your throat to hurl on the troll count as a full-round, standard, or move-equivalent action?

And would you make a grenade-like attack roll to see if the spew hits, or would it be a simple touch attack?

And this is absolutely disgusting.

 

[drnuncheon]

Yeah, but would sticking your finger down your throat to hurl on the troll count as a full-round, standard, or move-equivalent action?

It's a full-round action that requires one free hand and provokes an AoO.

J

 

[clark411]

Being on fire or doused in acid does not prevent a troll from regenerating.

However,

Damage that is caused by fire or acid is not regenerated by a troll.

Damage must be caused by the fire or acid source in order to hinder a troll's regeneration. Without a unique interpretation on the part of the DM, someone tossing acid (from gut or vial blerg) on a sword wound does not stop the sword wound from healing.. it only deals additional damage completely separate from the pre-existing wound that the troll cannot heal.

Seems a little semantic, but ya gotta ask how much damage does vomit tend to do to a person's skin? None, except perhaps by a digester. We can figure that it's very likely that a troll wouldn't be damaged by plain old gastric acids. However, if vomit actually had the capacity to deal damage to anyone it hit, then it probably would not allow a troll to regenerate any wounds caused by it. It's not beyond all doubt that vomit on unregenerated wounds may cause scars as it impacts the natural regeneration of damage already caused.. but saying it deals damage is a whole other ball park.


Edit note: In dealing with situations like this, you gotta look at the situation and find the "If, then, otherwise" of the scenario. If the acid causes damage, then that damage isn't prevented, otherwise no damage is caused and end of issue. Damage is the trigger, without it there's no case.

 

[Thresher]

Mores the question though, why would a character in a medievil fantasy setting actually know what is in their stomach?

Theres a few character types I might let get away with it, a specialist necromancer, maybe a wizard or sorc with know-alchemy and maybe a cleric with a high level of heal skill. Apart from them, the rest of the buck-wheat peons running around in a pre-high tech era dont know jack about what happens inside them, they stick food in one end and crap comes out the other. You only know about it because of your education, your character probably dosnt, even if they have a high level of education, chances are it probably wasnt taught to them.

Yep, let them get away with it, deduct a suitable amount of xp for playing out of character and a bit more for situation modifier. (Though its hard not to laugh a little at the solution they found! Even though stomach acid isnt the most potent stuff )

 

[Bloodsparrow]

And have you had any other situations like this that have come up, and how did you handle it?

Thanks -
- MX

At the risk of sounding snarky:

I think you're being rather generous to your player to even consider this.

People get thrown up on all the time, and they don't get acid burns from it.

So, unless this character is either part or all dragon with an acid breath weapon, or is a spitting cobra. . .

I would give if a d0. (i.e. - No dice. )

 

[SweeneyTodd]

I would either give them an XP reward for creativity, or an XP penalty for mixing player and character knowledge. But as has been said before, stomach acid won't kill a first-level commoner (like alchemical acid flasks could), so it's not going to have any game effect.

 

[Wippit Guud]

I remember playing a Monster Mash game at CanGames (30 monsters fight in an arena). Both games I won I was using the clay golem, and so both times I have an issue with the two-headed troll with the big club.

Problem we ran into was no way to prevent the troll from regerating. The "K-Team" (4 kobolds with vorpal blades and rings of instant regeneration) killed off the giant slug, so much for acid damage. Needed a way to off the troll for good.

You guys brought up vomiting, that wouldn't work, but when we knocked the troll to unconscious, we shoved it down the throat of the dead blue dragon a piece at a time, apparantly that was enough to kill it for good.

For the record, in the second game we buried it alive, the lich has disintegrated a hole to drop the golem into, but i managed to climb out

 

[MarauderX]

Well the whole situation was that the PCs beat the troll, but couldn't stop it from regenerating. Their task was to go retrieve something from an abandoned tower that the troll was known to guard, and they had no idea how long it would take to get the scroll nor of any other nasties that may be waiting. A fighter stabbed the defeated troll 15 times to make the troll's HP waaay in the negative, and they still thought they wouldn't have enough time, so the wizard tells the fighter to eat the troll to finish it off.
"Ew, icky, that's disgusting" says the suddenly squimish fighter.
So instead of taking the troll to the stomach acid, the fighter wants to take the acid to the troll.

And I think it was more of a coup-de-grace spew rather than a ranged touch attack...

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

If you remove body parts from a regenerating creature (like the head), they can be reattached again, but what if you just take them and store them away? The Troll might still be alive, but with his heads in the fighters backpack, can`t do much

Anyway, trolls are the reason why everybody should have a Melf`s Acid Arrow handy... coup-de-grace...

Mustrum Ridcully