I don't DM 4th edition, but when I do

[ppaladin123]

In a world filled with monsters that dissolve and eat metal weapons and armor, you'd figure that some wizard somewhere would have figured out how to enchant magic items against this. There are examples of far more extreme alchemy and transmogrification in D&D. At the very least you'd expect some sort of protective oil coating that could be sold to adventurers in areas where rust monsters are sighted.

That said, I am fine with limited use of the buggers as long as it is not done in a vindictive and jerky manor.

Scenario 1:

"You are headed in a network of caves that stretch beneath the forest." Hmm, Can I make a Nature Check? ::rolls:: "This is the sort of place that rust monsters and other nasties tend to use as dens. You might want to prepare."

Scenario 2:

"After a long night of drinking at the tavern in celebration of your slaying of the dragon and capture of several magic items of worth, you are ready for bed." Great, I place my armor on the dresser and I crawl into bed. "There is a rust monster in your bed; roll initiative!" !

 

[Jawsh]

That said, I am fine with limited use of the buggers as long as it is not done in a vindictive and jerky manor.

Or you could be explicitly vindictive and jerky, like taking off a band-aid.

Scenario:

Player: Oh wow, this new plus a jillion magic sword of slaying everything is great! Watch out townsfolk, Blarg the Crude is coming back to town!

DM: Um, that sword is kind of overpowered. A rust monster appears out of nowhere, eats your sword, and teleports away.

Player: But the... what?

DM: Now, Blarg was entering the town. He has a quarterstaff. What does he do?

Like a band-aid.

 

[MarkChevallier]

Seriously though, what do DMs get out of this? Because every player I've ever met hates it when their items go poof so easily. I've toyed around with the idea of such encounters in every campaign I've run, but I just don't use monsters like this because it's too much of a downer when the players' hard-earned loot is destroyed just like that. If you have the rare group that is into it, fine, but you better be sure they really are ready. I've heard a few stories of players who said they were ok with it, but when it came down to it they realized they weren't, after all. XD

Players hate dying too. They hate losing. They hate becoming weaker. They hate their powers being thwarted. They hate their items disappearing. They hate missing the enemy in combat. They hate failing saving throws. They hate running out of hit points.

But most of them love overcoming those adversities; scraping by, by the skin of their teeth. Saving another PC from bleeding out. Hitting an enemy in combat. Making a vital saving throw. Making the enemy run out of hit points!

I hope you get my point: the risk of all these things makes the game tenser, more nervous, more fraught with peril. These perils should enhance a game, make it more exciting, not detract from it, if the players trust the GM and the GM uses them appropriately and skillfully.

There are sound arguments against these things, but there are many sound arguments for them, too. You've never heard a room sigh with as much relief as when someone makes their save versus Slay Living.

 

[Eridanis]

Nice trolling bro.

harlokin - Welcome to the boards. Please make sure you read our FAQ, which will explain the rules of conduct on the boards. Calling someone a troll is an example of behavior we do NOT condone. Please let me know privately if you have any questions.

 

[The Human Target]

Well in the 4e game I DM the party's dwarven fighter had his ancestral magic hammer with an awesome enchantment devoured by a rust monster.

He carved open the sucker after they managed to defeat it, and found a big pile of residuum.

And then he realized no one in the party could enchant items.

And then he found out now one in their starting town could enchant weapons of that level.

And then he was sad.

Soooooooooooo...

 

[The Human Target]

Well, I'd say the proper way to run a rust monster encounter is with a little bit of warning ahead of time, and a chance for the players to outsmart it. Maybe treat it as a skill challenge instead of a combat encounter.

It's pretty much become accepted nowadays in a dungeon encounter, when asked "where did this creature come from" to reply "a mad wizard created it." But if you give that a bit of thought too, maybe you can actually use that as a bit of a story. Maybe a wizard created the rust monster by enchanting one of his pet lizards to eat metal. Maybe he made it specifically for the purpose of disenchanting items. The upside with this though, is that the wizard obviously had a purpose, and that purpose was probably the making of other items. Those items should be available if the PCs know where to look.

Alternatively, a rust monster could live in its own lair where dozens of adventurers and wandering kobolds have passed. There won't be any metal items in the lair, but there really ought to be plenty of nonferrous treasures. So it's a trade-off, if the players lose their metal stuff, they gain some non-metallic treasure.

Heh, a couple pf my player still talk about when they had to go rust monster egg hunting dressed in leather armor and wielding wooden clubs.

 

[ppaladin123]

Heh, a couple pf my player still talk about when they had to go rust monster egg hunting dressed in leather armor and wielding wooden clubs.

There should be a jerky monster that turns leather and hide armor into delicious jerky and eats it.

Also, a cellulose monster that eats wooden weapons.

I do this in the name of balance.

 

[Herschel]

It was annoying to be honest. We'd all wished we'd been playing in a 1e module so at least he could grab one of the dozens of magic weapons lying around to replace our losses.

This is exactly what I was going to post. If you have magic items all over the place, then it's not a big deal. In fact, when players saw a Rust Monster in earlier editions, they just reached in to their golf bag and pulled out an expendable weapon to use instead. Take essentially a -1 for the encounter, or take a -1 and lose that useful property for good.

Rust Monsters and Disenchanters were great for when you realized you gave out too much magic stuff. Guidelines for not hosing treasure distribution are much better.

 

[Mark CMG]

Well in the 4e game I DM the party's dwarven fighter had his ancestral magic hammer with an awesome enchantment devoured by a rust monster.

He carved open the sucker after they managed to defeat it, and found a big pile of residuum.

And then he realized no one in the party could enchant items.

And then he found out now one in their starting town could enchant weapons of that level.

And then he was sad.

Soooooooooooo...

Sounds like the start of a great adventure, to find someone to repair his hammer. How did that go?

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Wow, just what I needed, another reason never to run 4e.

That is... horrible.

You cut open a rust monster, and what you find is the insides of a rust monster. The sword is gone, destroyed, digested! This is an ex-sword! Gone to meet it's maker! It has shuffled off this mortal coil and joined the choir invisible! In short, it has snuffed it!

Sorry, I seem to have been channeling Monty Python there, but, yeah, the stuff is gone, man. Just... gone.

Any magic just made it extra spicy, as far as the rust monster is concerned.

The Auld Grump