RHoD: help with a monster (RHoD spoilers)

[brehobit]

I'm running Varanthian, the fiendish behir and I'm a bit confused about how it works.
#1 Why does Varanthian have two claw attacks as a part of a full attack? As near as I can tell
A behir has only a bite attack in a full attack and I don't think the fiendish template should change that.

#2 And more important. A Behir has Contrict, Improved Grab and Rake, not to mention Swallow Whole. I'm trying to understand how all this works. Let's see if I get this right

Say she successfully bites a target. So she does her bite damage. She then has two options:

1. She can immediately do a standard grapple (at +27). If successful she is engaged in a normal grapple AND she immediately does her Constrict damage. Next round she may take her bite attack (at -4 for being in a grapple?) and her 6 rake attacks. She couldn't attack anyone else and she no longer threatens.
2. She can immediately try to use her bite to grapple (only). That would be at +7. If successful she gets constrict damage and doesn't have a lot of the bad effects of grappling. Further, she can rake in future rounds and may go with the swallow whole option.

Did I get all that right? Even if so, I'm still lost about future rounds:

• How exactly does constrict work? Is it just "yet another attack" (on top of the bite and the rake) but made with a grapple check? Does the damage happen every time she succeeds on any grapple check (even when someone tries to escape on their action?) Something else?
• How about swallow whole? Does the damage to the gizzard damage her? (I'd think so). What about damage? Does it do the stated damage (2d8+10) plus acid plus the bite damage?
• Say it goes with option #2 (bite-only grapple). What happens on the next round? Does it do bite and constrict damage if it manages a successful grapple?

And of course the standard two questions: #1 Is there something I should have asked I didn't (something you think I'm likely to screw up) and #2 How would you have her do this fight? The suggested tactics are pretty light. Her breath weapon is nearly nothing (7d6 is light even if they don't make the save) so it seems a last priority.

Thanks!

 

[brehobit]

Any help would be welcome... I'm running this in 2 hours...

 

[Nail]

I'm running Varanthian, the fiendish behir and I'm a bit confused about how it works.
#1 Why does Varanthian have two claw attacks as a part of a full attack? As near as I can tell
A behir has only a bite attack in a full attack and I don't think the fiendish template should change that.

You sure it's not a Half-fiend? Those get a bite and two claw attacks.

 

[mikebr99]

You sure it's not a Half-fiend? Those get a bite and two claw attacks.

You are correct... She's a half-fiend behir.

Mike

 

[Nail]

How exactly does constrict work? Is it just "yet another attack" (on top of the bite and the rake) but made with a grapple check? Does the damage happen every time she succeeds on any grapple check (even when someone tries to escape on their action?)

The text says "every successful grapple check". However I'm not sure I'd be comfortable with constrict damage occuring outside of the behir's turn (like if someone tried to escape, but the behir was successful).

If the behir, on its turn, makes a successful grapple check (for whatever reason), then it does constrict damage.

 

[IanB]

My advice is probably not going to help on this short notice before your game, but I would replace the creature with some other CR 10-ish dragon or draconic creature. The use of the behir in this module doesn't really make any sense given the context of how behirs supposedly view dragons anyway.

 

[Nail]

Put another way:

If the Behir bites and succeeds, it does bite damage. Then it "Improved Grabs" its opponent. If it succeeds on the grapple check, it does the constrict damage.

....then it gets to Rake:6 claws, attack bonus +15 melee, damage 1d4+4.

It can chose to take a -20 penalty to be considered "not grappled"....although since it has only a bite attack, and it can't use the bite attack while using it for the improved grab attack, it probably doesn't bother.

 

[Nail]

You are correct... She's a half-fiend behir.

Mike

Yoowsa.

And ouch!

 

[IanB]

Put another way:

If the Behir bites and succeeds, it does bite damage. Then it "Improved Grabs" its opponent. If it succeeds on the grapple check, it does the constrict damage.

....then it gets to Rake:6 claws, attack bonus +15 melee, damage 1d4+4.

It can chose to take a -20 penalty to be considered "not grappled"....although since it has only a bite attack, and it can't use the bite attack while using it for the improved grab attack, it probably doesn't bother.

If it is intelligent enough to know about rogues and sneak attacks, it might very well consider taking the -20 anyway, I suppose.

Constrict is just nasty.

 

[Land Outcast]

Notes:

Prepare for combat with Darkness (have the three Darkness cast one on top of the other when she's alerted. When they break in cast unholy blight and then use the Breath weapon).

You could switch Track and Alertness for:

Ability Focus (Breath Weapon), rises DC to 22

Maximize Breath feat from Draconomicon (42 damage, increases recovery time to 13 rounds)