Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
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Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
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Realism only matters to someone invoking "realism" that inside a stomach should be soft and easy to cut.
And regardless of how hard or easy it is to.cut, the simple fact remains: who would design a monster where its a straight attack roll to hit the monster whether you are inside or outside the monster? If thats hownit works, being swallowed js probably ther safer place to be than outside and open to bite and claws.
“Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.” — Voltaire
No because all swallow actions involve automatic and enormous acid damage at the start of each turn... You never want to stay in there.
No it doesnt.
Worst case, a kraken does 2 tentacle attacks (48 dmg) and a lightning strike (33 dmg), for a total of 81 dmg.
If you a seallowed by a kraken, you take 24 acid damage a turn.
You are exposed to 3+ times the damage if you are outside the kraken. You are exposed to a third of the damage if you are swallowed by a kraken.
If you get a normal attack against the kraken whether you are inside or outside the kraken, youre better off inside.
And if you are a kraken, with an intelligence of 22 and a wisdom of 18, and you can either pummel your biggest threat with 81 damage, or swallow them where they take 24 dmg, and either way they get to roll normal attack rolls against you, why in the world would you swallow anyone???
The only way swallowing make sense for the kraken is if swallowed creatures attack at didadvantage. The kraken wont be able to inflict as much damage, but neither will the swallowed creature.
If a kraken swallows a creature, and that creature makes normal attack rolls against the kraken, the kraken would be smart enough to know to NOT swallow the creature and just blast them with 80 dmg per turn.
“Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.” — Voltaire
You mean, "automatic and unimpressive acid damage at the start of the swallowing creature's turn".
If swallow damage were actually dangerous, it would be worth using, but your average level 15 PC, if swallowed by a CR 15 purple worm, will be able to solo kill the worm from inside (I've had a purple worm swallow a 12th level cleric. It was not a good decision on the part of the worm).
To be fair, a Cleric is just about the absolute worst PC a monster would want to swallow. That's an extreme example.
Sure, it's not the best of choices, but "swallow whole is useful when used on a rogue, and should be avoided for every other class" still isn't exactly impressive. Any character that doesn't die in one round to its normal attacks is probably a bad idea to swallow.
Youre a kraken. You do 81 damage externally or 24 acid damage internally. Either way, internal or external, you enemies attack you with normal attack rolls. You also have an int and wis of 20.
At no point does swallowing an enemy make sense.
There is no good class to swallow.
The only way it makes some, barely there sense, is if the creature you swallow has to attack you at disadvantage.
“Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.” — Voltaire
Any caster is only modestly inconvenienced by being swallowed, a Barbarian too, even a Rogue can use Steady Aim to cancel out the DA and theoretically could sneak attack from within the monster. Being swallowed alive is more a narrative drama than a good combat strategy for most monsters. Really being swallowed is only really scary if the PC is already on their last legs, or is unconscious. Or if the monster flees while the swallowed creature is still trapped inside.