Swallow Whole question

[Tchelo]

In yesterday's session I had the party try to stop a Purple Worm from destroying the gnome city of Drochdan.

Well, the fighter was swallowed whole and was unsconscious on the creature's belly. The wizard had a great idea and transformed the worm into a frog using Slimy Transmutation. I ruled that the fighter appeared in an adjacent square to the now transmuted Purple Worm, and could be saved by the party.

How would you guys interpret this?

 

[Stumblewyk]

I like your solution. It's certainly better than saying you've got splattered frog remains with an unconcious fighter laying on top of them because the frog was too small to contain the fighter.

In fact, your ruling is probably exactly how I would have handled the situation. Clever power use by the Wizard, rewarded by allowing the fighter to be rescued, and the encounter isn't broken since the purple worm will be restored to normal at the end of it's next turn/save ends/when it takes damage depending on the spell's outcome and how the encounter continues.

As a general rule, I'm in favor of rewarding clever players. So, to you, I say "Well played!"

 

[frankthedm]

I'd rule both fighter and worm take as much crushing damage as it takes to kill one of them. After that the fighter either rips out from frog guts, or is transmuted as any other food in the stomach of something affected by that spell.

 

[mudlock]

Perfectly fine ruling, sounds like everyone at the table loved it, very clever, blah blah, no complaints, yada yada...

That said, RAW: Are the targeting lines for the worm's powers based on a relative size ("at least one size category smaller than it") or do they specify targets of a specific size ("large or smaller")?

If it's absolute, by RAW, the fighter would have stayed swallowed. (How that would work physically is not my (or RAW's) concern.) This is similar to how a lot of older "move and attack" powers, per RAW, are written to say "creature moves 6 and..." when they really meant "creature moves ITS SPEED and...", which becomes a problem, and creates sad-players, when they successfully slowed the creature; a short-coming fixed in some later-printed monsters.

Relative or absolute, RAW or not, your solution was great.

 

[Kung Fu Ferret]

A good ruling, but lacking the hilarity of a frog with a fighter shaped bulge protruding from it.