Rust monster versus Warforged

[Lord Igor]

In my regular wednesday game I ran across a potential difficulty the other week: how do rust monster affect warforged?

As warforged are partly made of metal and can be enchanted like a suit of armour, one could say the rust monsters attacks do cause a warforged some great problems. Just having them fall apart like a suit of armour if they fail the save seems a bit extreme however.

The warforged in this group is of the Juggernaut variety; thus gaining the construct perfection class abilities and become less living and more construct. Since they must have an Adamantine body this breed of warforged might even be more affected.

My question is this: How would you handle this situation?

Quote from the rust monster entry in the SRD:
"A rust monster that makes a successful touch attack with its antennae causes the target metal to corrode, falling to pieces and becoming useless immediately. The touch can destroy up to a 10-foot cube of metal instantly. Magic armor and weapons, and other magic items made of metal, must succeed on a DC 17 Reflex save or be dissolved. The save DC is Constitution-based and includes a +4 racial bonus."

I handled the effect as a disintegrate spell at a caster level equal to the monster's HD (and these were 14 HD advanced monsters from the World's Largest Dungeon, so that hurt).

Another option was to have his adamantine metal body fall off, but that would have effectively cost the player a feat.

Ideas?

 

[Arbiter of Wyrms]

It seems like I read recently that warforged subject to rusting attacks take 1d6 damage per hit die they possess.

Hang on. I'm looking at the Rusting Grasp spell.

Against ferrous creatures, rusting grasp deals 3d6 points of damage +1 point per caster level (max +15). That might be a guideline, but I don't know that warforged are neccesarily ferrous.

 

[Testament]

I'd treat it as Rusting Grasp. Considering that the Rust Monster functions on normal items as something similar to the spell, it makes it easy enough, and keeps things consistent.

 

[Lord Igor]

Rusting grasp you say... You know, that ain't a bad idea. I went for disintegrate simply because the description of the rust effect mentioned it causes metal 'to corrode, falling to pieces and becoming useless immediately'. Sounded like disintegrate to me, but a Rusting grasp speel might be more appropriate given the CR.

Although I must add that this warforged has 97 HP at level 7, so he can handle a few disintegrates.

 

[Hand of Evil]

I thought it was in the rules? Maybe the MM3. I will see if I can find Ken's write up it.

 

[Diirk]

Rust monsters are alot more potent that rusting grasp. Like, instant kill iron golem potent (If they fail the dc 17 reflex save anyway... altho if they've been advanced to 14 HD, thats dc 22!). Rusting grasp is also limited to ferrous creatures and non magic ferrous objects whereas rust monsters have no such limitations.

Disintegrate is probably the best option if you want to let your warforged character off easy, given that by the rules it looks like it should be pretty much an instant kill. However if the party is fighting a few of these it might be anyway...

"A rust monster can scent a metal object from up to 90 feet away. When it detects one, it dashes toward the source and attempts to strike it with its antennae. The creature is relentless, chasing characters over long distances if they still possess intact metal objects but usually ceasing its attacks to devour a freshly rusted meal."

Which makes warforged their natural prey, really

 

[Testament]

Point is though, that a Warforged isn't just metal. And Disintegrate seems unnecessarily potent for the level and CR.

At any rate, as Diirk has pointed out, Warforged are in enough trouble from Rust Monsters to begin with, there's no way in heck you're luring them off with discarded gear when you've got a man MADE OUT OF METAL in the party!

 

[boolean]

It's in the Warforged Racial Traits section. Page 23 of the Eberron Campaign Sourcebook (And probably in the MM3 entry):

The iron in the body of a warforged makes him vulnerable to rusting grasp. The creature takes 2d6 points of damage from the spell (Reflex half, save DC 14 + caster's ability modifier). A warforged takes the same damage from a rust monster's touch (Reflex DC 17 half).

For an advanced rust monster I'd adjust the DC based on its new HD, and I'd also increase the damage if it increases in size category.

 

[Diirk]

2d6 with reflex for half? What a joke. Given that your party members are quite likely to have armour/weapons destroyed by these things, I find it amusing that the warforged man made out of metal is LESS vulnerable to them... I mean, your looking at less damage here than the average hit from a great sword (no str bonus etc).

Maybe disintegrate is a bit harsh, but 2d6 makes them completely worthless...

 

[Deadguy]

2d6 with reflex for half? What a joke. Given that your party members are quite likely to have armour/weapons destroyed by these things, I find it amusing that the warforged man made out of metal is LESS vulnerable to them... I mean, your looking at less damage here than the average hit from a great sword (no str bonus etc).

Maybe disintegrate is a bit harsh, but 2d6 makes them completely worthless...

The thing is he isn't a man made of metal - it's a construct which includes metal in it structure. It also includes wood and leather, and I suspect various alchemical substances too. Don't forget that no other PC has to fear Rust Monsters as killers, so the 2d6 damage seems reasonable to me, to represent their vulnerability. Whilst the loss of equipment that a rust monster can inflict looks horrendous, think that overall it doesn't leave anyone else dead, so don't make the attack too potent.