Remorhaz

[Trellian]

Hi Trellian, glad you guys enjoyed it. I always worry about single-foe encounters, so I'm glad Kazok was a challenge. *devil*

Well, Remus the wereboar escaped from the first battle, drank some potions and were fighting like hell. In addition, the main fighter got mauled badly by the cougar early on, so the rest had to improvise a little, as the cleric had used almost all spells on healing.. The only thing that bugs me was that Remus didn't manage to infect the ranger he bit..

 

[LuYangShih]

The Remorhaz is underrated for its CR. This is one of the creatures I have seen complained about the most in threads over the years, and the Remorhaz is fully capable of causing a TPK to most seventh level parties.

DMs usually manage to bypass that by having the Remorhaz retreat once it devours one party member, but I would say it is fairly apparent that such a result takes far more than "20% of the parties resources". Its heat damage does as much damage as being submerged in lava, according to the rules. Melee parties are dead, and due to its special abilities, the Remorhaz almost always starts in melee range, making it very difficult even for ranged parties.

 

[LuYangShih]

The Remorhaz is underrated for its CR. This is one of the creatures I have seen complained about the most in threads over the years, and the Remorhaz is fully capable of causing a TPK to most seventh level parties.

DMs usually manage to bypass that by having the Remorhaz retreat once it devours one party member, but I would say it is fairly apparent that such a result takes far more than "20% of the parties resources". Its heat damage does as much damage as being submerged in lava, according to the rules. Melee parties are dead, and due to its special abilities, the Remorhaz almost always starts in melee range, making it very difficult even for ranged parties.

 

[LuYangShih]

The Remorhaz is underrated for its CR. This is one of the creatures I have seen complained about the most in threads over the years, and the Remorhaz is fully capable of causing a TPK to most seventh level parties.

DMs usually manage to bypass that by having the Remorhaz retreat once it devours one party member, but I would say it is fairly apparent that such a result takes far more than "20% of the parties resources". Its heat damage does as much damage as being submerged in lava, according to the rules. Melee parties are dead, and due to its special abilities, the Remorhaz almost always starts in melee range, making it very difficult even for ranged parties.

 

[Hypersmurf]

I play 3,5.

So a remorhaz, which does not possess damage reduction, cannot injure a magical sword? Or does that only count for weapons? Confused..

Still curious about the magic weapon issue though..

Okay. In 3.5:

The DMG states that each plus adds 1 to hardness and hit points.
The PHB states that each plus adds 2 to hardness and 10 to hit points.

These are obviously contradictory, and cannot both be right.

The DMG states that a magic weapon cannot be damaged by a weapon of lesser enhancement. The PHB is silent on the matter.

There is no contradiction, and thus no need to figure out precedence. As written, magic weapons are immune to non-magical weapons.

However:

Customer Service and the Sage have both stated that the entire section in the DMG is erroneous, and an artefact of the revision; that section is the 3E rules, and should not appear in the 3.5 DMG. According to this, the hardness and hit points in the PHB is accurate, and the rule about immunity to lesser weapons is gone in 3.5.

Since the DMG has not yet been officially errata'd, this is at present essentially hearsay, and the rules as written still provide for immunity to lesser weapons.

It's up to you as DM to decide what to do

-Hyp.

 

[Nail]

Interesting. I supppose with the extra hp (10 per plus) and hardness (2 per plus) the designers thought the "immunity to lesser weapons" wasn't necessary.

Huh. I guess I can see that.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Customer Service and the Sage have both stated that the entire section in the DMG is erroneous, and an artefact of the revision; that section is the 3E rules, and should not appear in the 3.5 DMG. According to this, the hardness and hit points in the PHB is accurate, and the rule about immunity to lesser weapons is gone in 3.5.

Which additionally makes sense since in 3e a creature with DR 15/+4 could damage your +3 sword, but with the change in DR in 3.5e there are no monsters which can damage your +3 sword without having a weapon of appropriate calibre.

Cheers

 

[Gizzard]

I ran the Rehmoraz encounter in "Into the Frozen Waste"; here are my observations:

The party defeated it at fair cost; in the surprise round it burst out of the ground and then ate one of the guides Burros (rolled randomly who to eat) in the first round. The Druid changed into and eagle and flew up. The Wizard cast Fly. The Ranger ran as fast as he could. The worm ate the guide and another Burro while the spellcasters pelted it. The Ranger ran back and hit it for 40 points of damage, causing it to flee with under 10 HP left. (It could have suicidally eaten the Ranger on this round instead.) The party hunted it down and did the last 10 points to it as it fled with its slow digging speed.

The party got lucky here; if the Rehmoraz had eaten the Wizard in the first round it might have forced the Druid and Ranger (expeditious retreat) to flee without really facing it. The worm also rolled badly on its 10d10 when the Ranger struck it, and again when the Ranger's Ape companion struck it (!). A very tough encounter for 3 8th level characters; more than CR7 although not much more.

Another note on the module: the monster at the end is extremely more powerful under 3.5E rules. I think under 3.0E you could assume that a party would be Hasted for a big combat and thus would be slinging multiple spells per round. Since this is no longer true, the boss monster goes up another couple CR ratings IMHO. In my game he smashed a party of 4 8th levels pretty soundly.

 

[Uriel]

It's "Into the Frozen Waste", one of the free adventures on wotc homepage. The remorhaz attacks from beneath out on the tundra. To avoid a TPK, I will rule that the remorhaz flee if brough to 30 hp, or when he has eaten one creature. I can't think of any way the characters will be able to detect this threat before it's upon them. Maybe a Survival check to notice marks in the ground that tells them that some creature is nearby? Maybe the ground gets noticeable hotter?

These two look the best options.

I ran an adventure where a mated pair of behir (a much smarter creature than a Remorhaz...) ambushed the party. When each had eaten a medium sized creature, they moved off to digest.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

It should be obvious that any encounter where the bad guys get to ambush the PCs is more dangerous than would be indicated by the CRs.

In a straight stand up fight I would say the Remorhaz is quite comparable to a Dire Bear (CR 7) in its vanilla combat ability. I would not give a perfect ambush as a "freebie" to the Remorhaz any more than I would do the same for a Dire Bear.