D&D (2024) Is anyone at WOTC paying attention to what they print any more?

[Staffan]

There was a similar issue with the otyugh in 5.0, though with a few more steps. If it has you grappled at the start of its turn, it can slam you into a wall, floor, or other grapplee, and you'd need to roll a Strength save or be stunned until the end of its next turn (also some damage). And if you're stunned, you automatically fail Strength saves, so once you're stunned it can just keep flailing away.
This pretty quickly got errataed to a Constitution save.

 

[Lidgar]

I agree with your assessment Merric. If they want to go the "one roll" route, then just make a Con save to begin with. You can easily imagine that if you are engaged in melee, you're going to be exposed to a bunch of tentacles and their poison. As a DM, I can narrate that well enough, even though I liked the 2014 version better.

 

[ECMO3]

I disagree. There is an inherent conflict. "...and repeats the save at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success."

The ability lets you end on success, which means it also has to allow success or that part of the sentence would not be there. Without the wording about being successful, there wouldn't be written conflict, but the intent would still be clear that you should be able to succeed.

There can be a corner case because the tentacles actually cause poison and while poisoned you are paralyzed. So if you are immune to being paralyzed or someone casts something on you to remove the paralysis but you are still poisoned then you would still have to save and could fail the save.

This is no different than someone who has a negative and can't pass a save, they can still roll but even a 20 doesn't pass.

 

[ECMO3]

Is that particular typo yours or theirs?

Mine .... I hope.

 

[Demetrios1453]

"Is anyone at WOTC paying attention to what they print any more?"

Yes, because they got 99.9+% of things right.

But you find one erratum and make a post with a hyperbolic title like this.

 

[Charlaquin]

I disagree. There is an inherent conflict. "...and repeats the save at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success."

The ability lets you end on success, which means it also has to allow success or that part of the sentence would not be there. Without the wording about being successful, there wouldn't be written conflict, but the intent would still be clear that you should be able to succeed.

Then the bullet point on Paralyzed that causes you to automatically fail Strength and Dexterity saving throws wouldn’t do anything, since literally every effect that forces you to make a saving throw specifies what happens on a successful save.

 

[Zaukrie]

"Is anyone at WOTC paying attention to what they print any more?"

Yes, because they got 99.9+% of things right.

But you find one erratum and make a post with a hyperbolic title like this.

Agreed. This board saddens me.

 

[HaroldTheHobbit]

Dex save to avoid getting hit, Con save each round to break the poison. Come on folks, it’s not that hard, just a common sense interpretation of bad rule text most of us have done hundreds or thousands of times.

 

[dave2008]

With the Purple Dragon UA, Viscous weapon changes, the Sword and Board dual wielder, and the latest Carrion Crawler I am wondering if anyone in game design is actually paying attention. Note undelined below.

From MM2025 Carrion Crawler:

Paralyzing Tentacles. Dexterity Saving Throw: DC 12, one creature the carrion crawler can see within 10 feet. Failure: The target has the Poisoned condition and repeats the save at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. After 1 minute, it succeeds automatically. While Poisoned, the target has the Paralyzed condition.

Now from PHB:

While you have the Paralyzed condition, you experience the following effects.

Incapacitated. You have the Incapacitated condition.

Speed 0. Your Speed is 0 and can’t increase.

Saving Throws Affected. You automatically fail Strength and Dexterity saving throws.

Attacks Affected. Attack rolls against you have Advantage

Automatic Critical Hits. Any attack roll that hits you is a Critical Hit if the attacker is within 5 feet of you.


So if you are paralyzed by a Carrion Crawler you get a save every turn that you automatically fail!

I have issues with the MM that seem to stem from lack of oversite, but this example is not one of them. To me it is clear that paralyzing is secondary to the poison condition and the save every turn applies to the poison condition. If the poison condition ends, so does the paralyzing condition.

Now, there are ways to revise this action and make it 100% clear, so perhaps it will show up in a future errata document (there is already one for the MM).

 

[MerricB]

I have issues with the MM that seem to stem from lack of oversite, but this example is not one of them. To me it is clear that paralyzing is secondary to the poison condition and the save every turn applies to the poison condition. If the poison condition ends, so does the paralyzing condition.

Not quite sure how this helps.

The rule is any Dex save fails (regardless of the source) when you are paralysed. Get hit by a fireball spell, fail your save. (And I so need to do that more in my D&D games).

So, even when you're saving against poison and not paralysis, because it's a Dex save you fail.

I really like how their wording that makes it poison that paralyses; really awesome stuff. And there a few poison instances in the MM that last an hour with no save ends (LOVE IT!)

Just this one they fell into the trap of Dex and Str saves being actually surprisingly dangerous to use as ongoing saves. (That's not a new rule, either!)

Cheers!