Stirges

[frankthedm]

Agreed. I was inadvertently ignoring the 'effectively' qualification on the stirge's grapple. Does that mean the stirge is considered grappled, but the creature to which the stirge is attached is not?

Think of it this way, if an ogre who has a stirge attached, is being attacked by an skeletal rogue who lurks in the same room as the stirges, is he denied his dex bonus?

If a stirge is attached to you, are you prevented from using anything but light weapons?

Striges can grab onto things far larger than a creature of thier size can legally grapple with a touch attack. Adding insult to injury by adding being grappled penaties to the victim is too much IMHO.

 

[pallandrome]

One of the rooms in the Cheese Grinder is just dozens of Fiendish Striges. It, like most of the rooms in the cheese grinder, has been known to wipe parties of lvl13 characters.

 

[Nail]

The Stirge text implies that the strige doesn't get to "get a full action where they drain some more CON then fly away past our vision range", Whimsical. It's "latched on". At the very least it needs to win a grapple check to escape.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

That's a mistake on the DM's part -- they do not drain Con upon attaching.
Surprise round: partial charge to attack and attach.
First round: FIRST Con drain on their initiative, then you counter-attack

But, yes, they are extremely dangerous in large numbers. Best person to take watch against it would be a dwarf or half-orc (with Darkvision equal to the stirges' and of great enough range that they can't partial charge and attach) or a wizard's familiar (Tiny size, cannot be targeted by their attack).

At least 2 (and possibly 3) out of the 5 PC's in the group have Combat Reflexes (including 1 with 10ft reach. I can see only a couple of Stirges actually making it through to attack the party.

Olaf the Stout

 

[pallandrome]

Greatcleave tends to work wonders on them too.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

My DM screwed us by not giving us a listen check and my dice kept screwing me by rolling low on initiative. His stirges attacked when we were sleeping. Even though I was awake on watch duty, they charged in from outside of our vision range and hit my character while surprised. Which means no AoO and their touch attack vs flat-footed humanoids hits AC 10 pretty easy and it drains some CON. Ok, after surprise round they get a full action where they drain some more CON then fly away past our vision range. And I don't get an attack of opportunity because I'm still flat footed. When it finally comes to my turn, I'm down near death in CON damage and I'm not even allowed the dignity of striking back. And they kept coming EVERY NIGHT AND DOING THE SAME THING! Stirges are adventurer rapists when run optimally.

Remind the DM by hitting him with a hammer - the DM wins WHENEVER he wants to. To hit PC's night after night with what amounts to random damage from out of the darkness is a screwjob. Don't stand for it.

 

[Particle_Man]

My DM sent stirges against my rogue while he was climbing down a long vertical tunnel. Flat-footed *and* Touch AC = 10.

Luckily I had a ring of Telekinesis.

 

[pallandrome]

Remind the DM by hitting him with a hammer - the DM wins WHENEVER he wants to. To hit PC's night after night with what amounts to random damage from out of the darkness is a screwjob. Don't stand for it.

Indeed. Such treatment is easily grounds for going to find a new group.

 

[Brother MacLaren]

Indeed. Such treatment is easily grounds for going to find a new group.

Or, stick with the group and have the party go back to town.
"We leave this stupid quest and go back to town. We get a room in an inn. The bard will perform, the cleric will use Create Water and Purify Food and Drink, the rogue will use Sleight of Hand, the fighter will seek employment as a bouncer, and the wizard will scan people's thoughts and blackmail them."
"Since heroic quests have become an impossibly dangerous means of making a living, we want to do this instead. What? It wasn't what you had in mind? Well you're the DM, but we decide what our characters do. And since you've shown us that the world outside is too dangerous for them, they'd logically want to stay in town. Now tell us how much money we got today."

Nothing will make a DM change his ways faster than avoiding his storyline.

 

[Nail]

Nothing will make a DM testy and TPK-happy change his ways faster than avoiding his storyline.

Fixed that for you.