Stirges (clarification)

[Annayla Thorntip]

Dealing with Stirges

My group of gamers are what you'd say are experienced.

A little house rule for those who thought flopping down on the ground and rolling around on them while they were attached is:

1d3 damage each round of rolling to each Stirge.
Those buggers are deadly, as a PC once ran into a group of 7 of them ending up with 5 of them stuck...he almost ended up dying as I don't believe in CON DRAIN but rather HP drain - if I didn't, he would have been dead!

 

[robberbaron]

There's no such rules about only being able to use small weapons.. that would be a houserule.

I assumed, mistakenly it appears, that by saying IMO ("in my opinion") it was obvious I was not quoting rules.

 

[DevoutlyApathetic]

No, but there is a rule about attacking with Light Weapons when you are in a grapple (regardless of who started the grapple). Check page 156 of PHB under If You're Grappling and then under Attack Your Opponent.

There is also a rule that if you attack someone who is grappled (or maybe it was pinned), you have to randomly roll to see who you hit. So if 2 people are grappling, that is obviously a 50% chance. However, if three people were grappling, you'd roll a 1d3, and so on. I am not sure if this for all attacks though. I know it is for Ranged Attacks (because I had to make those checks myself). It is burried somewhere in the 3.5 PHB. Can't find it atm, but it is in there (probably in an inconspicuous place).

So, some actual rules here?

Ranged attacks into a grapple strike a combatant determined randomly.

That's all it says. No method to determine percentages or anything.

Footnote 3, Table 8-6, PHB 3.5 pg. 151.

Now for bonus round...what if a person in the grapple decides to use a spell like ray of enfeeblement? Do do do do do do do......

 

[robberbaron]

A Still Ray would be a cool thing to do.

 

[Pbartender]

Ranged attacks into a grapple strike a combatant determined randomly.

Now for bonus round...what if a person in the grapple decides to use a spell like ray of enfeeblement? Do do do do do do do......

You've answered your own question. The caster is not technically casting a spell (making a ranged attack) into a grapple, he's making the "attack" within the grapple. To be more specific, the chart of Combat Modifiers in the SRD (or PH) specifies that the randomized target rule applies when the Defender is grappling, but the Attacker is not. In this instance, therefore, the rule does not apply...

Though he will have to make a successful concentration check.

 

[Felix]

Can someone try to explain how Stirges fights, after reading the Stirge entry in the monster manual were still unsure exactly how a stirges fights.

Flock of stirges (8 of them) comes upon a party of 4, be they adventurers, commoners, deer... whatever.

Roll inish.

1. Stirge enters target's space. AoO. If it succeeds on a touch attack, it is Attached (Ex), and is considered grappling.

2. Target's turn. He does whatever.

3. Stirge's turn. If he begins his round attached to the target, he deals 1d4 CON damage by sucking blood.

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3. When an individual stirge has drained 4 CON, it flies off to digest and rest. Kinda like when you have a big meal at Waffle House and just sit there with your belt loosened.

---

The easiest way to get rid of these things is to kill it and not grapple. It only have 5 HP, so even a Wizard is able to get the sucker off before it has a chance to deal CON damamge.

---

The danger with stirges is not that the individuals are powerful, but that there are so many of them that someone is going to take CON damamge. Also, pack animals will have a hard time fighting these things off; I'd go so far to say that a lot of animals will not try to deal the Stirge damage or grapple with it, but rather bolt. Pack horses, for example. This can cause havock even if it doesn't threaten the lives of the characters.

Then again, consider what happens to a normal (non-com) when they encounter Stirges... they will only have a few HD, 3 at the outside, and a colony of Stirges will seriously threaten his life. Stirges might not present a huge danger to PCs, but they are an enormous threat to the livelyhood of commoners and their livestock.

Though he will have to make a successful concentration check.

And he will only be able to cast a spell if:
Casting time of 1 standard action.
No somatic component.
No material component or already has component in hand.

So that caster will usually be out of luck for casting spells in grapple, even if he's a Sorc with Still Spell.

 

[MerakSpielman]

And he will only be able to cast a spell if:
Casting time of 1 standard action.
No somatic component.
No material component or already has component in hand.

Hey, wouldn't it be fun if somebody developed a spell that required, as a matierial component, a live stirge?

 

[Felix]

Ask, and it shall be given.

Merak's Imploding Stirge
Transmutation
Level: Sor/Wiz 1
Components: V, M
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Personal
Duration: 1 Round / Level
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No

This spell creates in the caster an otherwise deadly low blood-pressure. The effect of this is that any creature attempting to use a Blood Drain (Ex) ability on the caster suffers 1d6/level HP damage as blood is sucked from the offending creature and deposited in the caster. This grants the caster a number of temporary HP equal to the amount drained, which cannot be greater than the creatures HP. These temporary hit points last until the end of the spell, when the extra blood is sweated out of the body but causing no harm to the caster. In any round when a creature suffers HP loss due to this spell, no CON damage is done to the caster.

Material Component: A small piece of a stirge.

Special: A living stirge can act as an Arcane Focus for this spell, removing the need for a Material Component.

 

[MerakSpielman]

.... That's actually kind of neat.

 

[Felix]

Actually, as the Material Component for the spell, the live Stirge is consumed as the spell energies are released like any other material component. Heh. Let me just go and edit that a little bit...

Works against Vampires too... hee hee!

And thanks!