Unlatching Stirges

[Magus Coeruleus]

Greetings,

My PCs are currently in a stirge-infested forest area, and have had more battles with the dreaded mosquitos from hell than they care for.

Here's my question: How do you adjudicate attempts to remove stirges once attached?

Well, one way is to let it suck 4 points of blood (CON). Not very heroic.

Another is to kill it. It has an AC of 12 when latched, I believe. Do you apply any restrictions on attacks against it? For instance, a limit on the size or type of weapon used by the stirge's host and or any friends? Is there a threat of missing the stirge and hitting your friend?

Last, I think a good old fashioned "rip it off the host and fling it away or squeeze it to death" should be viable. I suspect this would involve a grapple check. How would you handle removing a stirge with grappling rules? Alternatively, how else might you implement such an attempt?

Thanks,

 

[Xahn'Tyr]

I haven't seen any weapon's restriction with regards to hitting them. What I wanted to post though, was to remind you that stirges drain blood dealing 1d4 points of temporary Constitution damage each round. It is important to note that you don't take the CON until after it has been attached a round.

I've seem many DM's (including me) do Stirge like this:

It is the Stirge's turn
Stirge attacks, hits, and rolls damage
Roll CON loss
PC's turn

where it should be more like:

It is the Stirge's turn
Stirge attacks, hits, and rolls damage
PC's turn (probably removing the Stirge)
Stirge's next turn
Roll CON loss if still attached.

This will save many a hapless adventurer methinks.

 

[bret]

Don't forget that with reach 0, stirges open themselves to an AoO in order to get into the same square as the victim. I'm betting a lot of your characters look at Combat Reflexes after fighting so many of the little buggers.

 

[hong]

Don't forget that with reach 0, stirges open themselves to an AoO in order to get into the same square as the victim. I'm betting a lot of your characters look at Combat Reflexes after fighting so many of the little buggers.

Damn! Never noticed that!

 

[Plane Sailing]

I love using stirges!

Two rules that I use when handling them:

1. If you strike at it with a weapon, and miss, then you must roll to hit the person that it is attached to in order to see whether you damage them instead.

2. You can grapple it to remove a stirge. You probably get +8 on your grapple check if you are medium sized because it is Tiny. If you are successful on the touch attack and then the opposed grapple check you can pull it off.

Cheers

 

[Tar-Edhel]

Last, I think a good old fashioned "rip it off the host and fling it away or squeeze it to death" should be viable. I suspect this would involve a grapple check. How would you handle removing a stirge with grappling rules? Alternatively, how else might you implement such an attempt?

Thanks,

Many blood suckers int he real world have developped some strategies against this. Prying ticks out will lodge the head in your flesh, causing some infections, for example. If you can't burn or smother the thing before taking it out, you are better to leave it there...

A nasty DM (Sorry for the pleonasm ) might want to give the stirge some of those nice side-effects when the raging barbarian is taking them off his body by the dozen

I would agree with Plane Sailing's ruling otherwise...

 

[Piratecat]

Heh heh. I sicced 33 summoned stirges on my 4th lvl party last night, coming in on three different waves. They decimated the first wave, took some serious damage on the second wave, and ran on the third wave! It was a fun, exciting battle. I remembered the AoO, but had them drain blood immediately upon attaching.

The best part was standing behind the person with the best hearing and making mosquito buzzing noises as every new wave approached.

 

[Orco42]

Heh heh. I sicced 33 summoned stirges on my 4th lvl party last night, coming in on three different waves. They decimated the first wave, took some serious damage on the second wave, and ran on the third wave! It was a fun, exciting battle. I remembered the AoO, but had them drain blood immediately upon attaching.

The best part was standing behind the person with the best hearing and making mosquito buzzing noises as every new wave approached.

You're evil. I like it.

Striges are very nasty. In fact one flock of 20 will have little trouble with the Tarrasque.

Which means his CR is way to high... should be about 10. Hehe.

 

[Magus Coeruleus]

All good ideas.

Sounds like grappling a stirge should be easy, given the size mods, but going from having it grappled to removing it forcibly from the host seems to be another matter, perhaps another grapple check that then includes a healthy bonus for the stirge due to its many legs?

Of course one could squeeze it to death (or to unconsciousness--same thing eventually) if strong enough, since they have only 5hp.

If not squeezing, however, how would you handle ripping it off and tossing it aside or into a wall? How about damage to the host for forcible removal? Is that too mean?

Regarding attacking with weapons, I think there should be a limit on weapon size. Consider this: a stirge latching on is kind of like it grappling, in a sense. Grappling allows for attacks only by light weapons. It seems to me that a host should only be able to use a light weapon against his attached stirge.

For others, I think it should be less restrictive, but there should be some danger of hurting the host. Clearly (in my addled brain, anyway), the best weapon would be a light piercing weapon, since bludgeoning could hurt the host and slashing might miss the stirge and hit the host more easily than a stabbing weapon.

Any more thoughts?

Thanks.