Medusa Glasses

[The Spectrum Rider]

In WotC's "The Cave of Icy Wonders" (you can get to it from ENWorld's main page), it is said of the fiendish harpy, "Under her hood, dark glasses are visible. (These neutralize her gaze attack while she wears them.)"

I saw these as items in Savage Species, also. But this is what we've heard about gaze attacks (DMG, pg. 294): "Unless specified otherwise, a creature with a gaze attack can control its gaze attack and 'turn it off' when so desired."

So what are these glasses for? They keep showing up.

Also - and this is not a rules question, but is related to a thread in the General forum - I wish they hadn't made them a FIENDISH medusa and a FIENDISH harpy. Aren't medusas and harpies sufficiently horrible, strange, and mythical all by themselves? This is creeping templatism.

The Spectrum Rider

 

[shilsen]

In WotC's "The Cave of Icy Wonders" (you can get to it from ENWorld's main page), it is said of the fiendish harpy, "Under her hood, dark glasses are visible. (These neutralize her gaze attack while she wears them.)"

I saw these as items in Savage Species, also. But this is what we've heard about gaze attacks (DMG, pg. 294): "Unless specified otherwise, a creature with a gaze attack can control its gaze attack and 'turn it off' when so desired."

So what are these glasses for? They keep showing up.

Interestingly, the MM (pg.310) description of gaze attacks says a creature "can veil its eyes, thus negating its gaze ability", and makes no mention of the ability to 'turn it off' which the DMG does. Maybe the dark glasses were made for MM medusae and not DMG ones

This is creeping templatism.

You're late to the party. Templatism is no longer creeping, but has graduated to walking, jogging, running, and was last seen leaping tall buildings with a single bound.

 

[MerakSpielman]

Perhaps the glassses are there to make third parties feel more comfortable. No matter how sure I was that the medusa over there wanted to talk not fight, I'd feel a lot more comfortable if I didn't have to trust it so far as to actually make eye contact.

 

[Darklone]

Couldn't you cheat using Alter Self to make yourself look like another medusa who wears these sunglasses and as soon as someone comes into 30ft... ZAP.

Great way to get rid of dispensable henchmen.