Not getting into the Medusa is a singular example of Gorgons but getting into the 5e creature called one. What are your favorite tactics for fighting one?
My favorite has been casting darkness but leaving a little space that your party knows of below the darkness so you can still see it, but it can't see you. Or blinding it with a spell.
Of course we always have mirrors to reflect the curse back on itself, but what other tactics have you employeed?
Base Medusa Stats as they can be found on this site.
Petrifying Gaze. When a creature that can see the medusa's eyes starts its turn within 30 feet of the medusa, the medusa can force it to make a DC 14 Constitution saving throw if the medusa isn't incapacitated and can see the creature. If the saving throw fails by 5 or more, the creature is instantly petrified. Otherwise, a creature that fails the save begins to turn to stone and is restrained. The restrained creature must repeat the saving throw at the end of its next turn, becoming petrified on a failure or ending the effect on a success. The petrification lasts until the creature is freed by the greater restoration spell or other magic.
Unless surprised, a creature can avert its eyes to avoid the saving throw at the start of its turn. If the creature does so, it can't see the medusa until the start of its next turn, when it can avert its eyes again. If the creature looks at the medusa in the meantime, it must immediately make the save.
If the medusa sees itself reflected on a polished surface within 30 feet of it and in an area of bright light, the medusa is, due to its curse, affected by its own gaze.
Actions
Multiattack. The medusa makes either three melee attacks--one with its snake hair and two with its shortsword--or two ranged attacks with its longbow. Snake Hair.Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 4 (1d4 + 2) piercing damage plus 14 (4d6) poison damage. Shortsword.Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d6 + 2) piercing damage. Longbow.Ranged Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, range 150/600 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d8 + 2) piercing damage plus 7 (2d6) poison damage.
Technically, you can't control the shape of Darkness, it's just a sphere with radius 15 ft. It even goes around corners, so the only way to really block it off is to put like a 15 ft radius solid tutu on it or something, lmao.
Once I was playing with a guy who had a Bard character, but he didn't know how to use a Bard (hadn't picked spells or anything; I'd suspected it was his first time playing).
Anyway.
He decided to try and seduce the Medusa.
He poured it a glass of wine and walked up to it, singing tales of its beauty. It petrified him. We nearly left him as a statue in her lair.
Our other party Rogue threw a bottle of ink into her eyes, effectively blinding her so her Gaze wouldn't work and we finished her after that.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Your Friendly Neighborhood Community Manager (she/her) You can call me LT. :)
CM Hat On| CM Hat Off Generally active from 9am - 6pm CDT [GMT-5]. Thank you for your patience if you message me outside of those hours!
I was playing a Dwarven Fighter who had just recently gotten his first ever set of Mithral Full Plate. In character since receiving it, I had him polish it to a mirror shine every night before he went to sleep, just a character trait. A few quests and levels later, while investigating a gnome village that none of the NPC's had heard from in a couple weeks, the party discovers that a Medusa and her pet Gorgon had petrified the entire village. My fighter bravely(or stupidly depending on the outcome) charged the Medusa, leaving the rest of the party to deal with the Gorgon. After tanking a few shots from from her longbow got within Petrifying Gaze range, and proceeded to roll well enough to resist. The medusa however, after seeing her reflection in the chest plate of my fighter's armor, which the DM treated as a mirror due to my character's habit, rolled a Natural 1 to resist the effects and petrified herself without my fighter getting a single attack in. My fighter had a mage shrink the medusa statue to Tiny size and carried it around a trophy for the rest of the campaign.
Technically, you can't control the shape of Darkness, it's just a sphere with radius 15 ft. It even goes around corners, so the only way to really block it off is to put like a 15 ft radius solid tutu on it or something, lmao.
Blindness would work just fine tho!
I would add that technically if you can see the Medusa you are still affected and have to make a save. The only way to not have to make a save is to not look at the Medusa. A darkness spell would work to make you both fight at disadvantage, but if you could see the Medusa in any way you still have to make the save.
“It is a better world. A place where we are responsible for our actions, where we can be kind to one another because we want to and because it is the right thing to do instead of being frightened into behaving by the threat of divine punishment.” ― Oramis, Eldest by Christopher Paolini.
Here's a question: what's the combat penalty for fighting a Medusa with your eyes closed? -2, -4? There's gotta be some kind of penalty for just blindly swinging at it. Thanks :)
Technically, you can't control the shape of Darkness, it's just a sphere with radius 15 ft. It even goes around corners, so the only way to really block it off is to put like a 15 ft radius solid tutu on it or something, lmao.
Blindness would work just fine tho!
But you can control the point of origin of Darkness.
Cast it on a point 17 feet in the air. Or cast it on your familiar and have the familiar fly 17 above the medusa's head. Now you've got 2 feet of medusa legs to aim at.
Blindness wouldn't work on the medusa, because even if it's blind, you can still see its eyes. You'd have to cast blindness on yourself :)
Technically, you can't control the shape of Darkness, it's just a sphere with radius 15 ft. It even goes around corners, so the only way to really block it off is to put like a 15 ft radius solid tutu on it or something, lmao.
Blindness would work just fine tho!
I would add that technically if you can see the Medusa you are still affected and have to make a save. The only way to not have to make a save is to not look at the Medusa. A darkness spell would work to make you both fight at disadvantage, but if you could see the Medusa in any way you still have to make the save.
The stat block up above indicates that it's a gaze attack, and specifically that you are affected if you can see its eyes. Not just any part of it.
My somewhat simpler solution is to just tilt your helmet really far forward on your head, so you can only see the floor in front of you about 10 or 15 feet out. Then close to melee. You'll be able to see its legs, at least. I'd still give disadvantage as a DM, but I'd allow you to know where it was at all times (so long as you're in melee). I'd also maybe allow it to try to duck down and look up at you from the ground. Give you a Dex check to avoid it, but advantage to hit it if you survive. :)
Any adjustments for using a shield to see its reflection, Clash of the Titans-style?
You'd need a really polished shield, I'd guess. One that doesn't get a lot of use, have a crest painted on it, isn't made of wood, etc.
EDIT: Oh wait, looking below...did you mean you looking at it in the reflection? Or using the reflection as a weapon against it? One bad, the other good. :)
Public Mod Note(MellieDM): Please do not revive old threads. If you'd like to discuss this topic with our current community you are welcome to create a new thread! Thank you very much.
Technically, you can't control the shape of Darkness, it's just a sphere with radius 15 ft. It even goes around corners, so the only way to really block it off is to put like a 15 ft radius solid tutu on it or something, lmao.
Blindness would work just fine though
I would add that technically if you can see the Medusa you are still affected and have to make a save. The only way to not have to make a save is to not look at the Medusa. A darkness spell would work to make you both fight at disadvantage, but if you could see the Medusa in any way you still have to make the save.
"When a creature that can see the medusa’s eyes starts its turn within 30 feet of the medusa, the medusa can force it to make a DC 14 Constitution saving throw if the medusa isn’t incapacitated and can see the creature." from the 5E Monster Manual. This seems to suggest that the Medusa must be able to see you.
So i can see the argument for blinding her somehow but a darkness spell would not work since a character cannot see into or out of the affected area.
Public Mod Note
(MellieDM):
Please do not revive old threads. If you'd like to discuss this topic with our current community you are welcome to create a new thread! Thank you very much.
Our party fought a Medusa and I was going to say the mirror wont work because I tried that. However, based on the stat block you posted either this particular Medusa was immune to Petrified or our DM made it up. We are playing Tomb of Annihilation. We just fought with Disadvantage the entire time (except for those 30 ft away from it).
Not getting into the Medusa is a singular example of Gorgons but getting into the 5e creature called one. What are your favorite tactics for fighting one?
My favorite has been casting darkness but leaving a little space that your party knows of below the darkness so you can still see it, but it can't see you. Or blinding it with a spell.
Of course we always have mirrors to reflect the curse back on itself, but what other tactics have you employeed?
Base Medusa Stats as they can be found on this site.
Petrifying Gaze. When a creature that can see the medusa's eyes starts its turn within 30 feet of the medusa, the medusa can force it to make a DC 14 Constitution saving throw if the medusa isn't incapacitated and can see the creature. If the saving throw fails by 5 or more, the creature is instantly petrified. Otherwise, a creature that fails the save begins to turn to stone and is restrained. The restrained creature must repeat the saving throw at the end of its next turn, becoming petrified on a failure or ending the effect on a success. The petrification lasts until the creature is freed by the greater restoration spell or other magic.
Unless surprised, a creature can avert its eyes to avoid the saving throw at the start of its turn. If the creature does so, it can't see the medusa until the start of its next turn, when it can avert its eyes again. If the creature looks at the medusa in the meantime, it must immediately make the save.
If the medusa sees itself reflected on a polished surface within 30 feet of it and in an area of bright light, the medusa is, due to its curse, affected by its own gaze.
Actions
Multiattack. The medusa makes either three melee attacks--one with its snake hair and two with its shortsword--or two ranged attacks with its longbow.
Snake Hair. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 4 (1d4 + 2) piercing damage plus 14 (4d6) poison damage.
Shortsword. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d6 + 2) piercing damage.
Longbow. Ranged Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, range 150/600 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d8 + 2) piercing damage plus 7 (2d6) poison damage.
Well, I guess it is not a bad option to fight it with a mirror. After all, it is not immune to its Petrifying Gaze.
Technically, you can't control the shape of Darkness, it's just a sphere with radius 15 ft. It even goes around corners, so the only way to really block it off is to put like a 15 ft radius solid tutu on it or something, lmao.
Blindness would work just fine tho!
fireballs at distance :)
geek dad with 3 geek kids
Have you tried closing your eyes and running forward, swinging wildly?
-
View User Profile
-
View Posts
-
Send Message
D&D StaffOnce I was playing with a guy who had a Bard character, but he didn't know how to use a Bard (hadn't picked spells or anything; I'd suspected it was his first time playing).
Anyway.
He decided to try and seduce the Medusa.
He poured it a glass of wine and walked up to it, singing tales of its beauty. It petrified him. We nearly left him as a statue in her lair.
Our other party Rogue threw a bottle of ink into her eyes, effectively blinding her so her Gaze wouldn't work and we finished her after that.
Your Friendly Neighborhood Community Manager (she/her)
You can call me LT. :)
CM Hat On | CM Hat Off
Generally active from 9am - 6pm CDT [GMT-5].
Thank you for your patience if you message me outside of those hours!
Useful Links: Site Rules & Guidelines | D&D Educator Resources | Change Your Nickname | Submit a Support Ticket
I was playing a Dwarven Fighter who had just recently gotten his first ever set of Mithral Full Plate. In character since receiving it, I had him polish it to a mirror shine every night before he went to sleep, just a character trait. A few quests and levels later, while investigating a gnome village that none of the NPC's had heard from in a couple weeks, the party discovers that a Medusa and her pet Gorgon had petrified the entire village. My fighter bravely(or stupidly depending on the outcome) charged the Medusa, leaving the rest of the party to deal with the Gorgon. After tanking a few shots from from her longbow got within Petrifying Gaze range, and proceeded to roll well enough to resist. The medusa however, after seeing her reflection in the chest plate of my fighter's armor, which the DM treated as a mirror due to my character's habit, rolled a Natural 1 to resist the effects and petrified herself without my fighter getting a single attack in. My fighter had a mage shrink the medusa statue to Tiny size and carried it around a trophy for the rest of the campaign.
Click Here to Download my Lancer Class w/ Dragoon and Legionnaire Archetypes via DM's Guild - Pay What You Want
Click Here to Download the Mind Flayer: Thoon Hulk converted from 4e via DM's Guild
“It is a better world. A place where we are responsible for our actions, where we can be kind to one another because we want to and because it is the right thing to do instead of being frightened into behaving by the threat of divine punishment.” ― Oramis, Eldest by Christopher Paolini.
Here's a question: what's the combat penalty for fighting a Medusa with your eyes closed? -2, -4? There's gotta be some kind of penalty for just blindly swinging at it. Thanks :)
You would be effectively blinded
"Not all those who wander are lost"
I agree with the above, blinding her doesn’t help as the trigger is you seeing her eyes (not her seeing you, necessarily).
But you can control the point of origin of Darkness.
Cast it on a point 17 feet in the air. Or cast it on your familiar and have the familiar fly 17 above the medusa's head. Now you've got 2 feet of medusa legs to aim at.
Blindness wouldn't work on the medusa, because even if it's blind, you can still see its eyes. You'd have to cast blindness on yourself :)
The stat block up above indicates that it's a gaze attack, and specifically that you are affected if you can see its eyes. Not just any part of it.
My somewhat simpler solution is to just tilt your helmet really far forward on your head, so you can only see the floor in front of you about 10 or 15 feet out. Then close to melee. You'll be able to see its legs, at least. I'd still give disadvantage as a DM, but I'd allow you to know where it was at all times (so long as you're in melee). I'd also maybe allow it to try to duck down and look up at you from the ground. Give you a Dex check to avoid it, but advantage to hit it if you survive. :)
Looking for new subclasses, spells, magic items, feats, and races? Opinions welcome :)
Any adjustments for using a shield to see its reflection, Clash of the Titans-style?
You'd need a really polished shield, I'd guess. One that doesn't get a lot of use, have a crest painted on it, isn't made of wood, etc.
EDIT: Oh wait, looking below...did you mean you looking at it in the reflection? Or using the reflection as a weapon against it? One bad, the other good. :)
Looking for new subclasses, spells, magic items, feats, and races? Opinions welcome :)
Medusa is affected by her own reflection. Is there reason to believe others would not be as well?
EDIT: Whoops. Looks like any living mortal is affected by her reflection.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
"When a creature that can see the medusa’s eyes starts its turn within 30 feet of the medusa, the medusa can force it to make a DC 14 Constitution saving throw if the medusa isn’t incapacitated and can see the creature." from the 5E Monster Manual. This seems to suggest that the Medusa must be able to see you.
So i can see the argument for blinding her somehow but a darkness spell would not work since a character cannot see into or out of the affected area.
Our party fought a Medusa and I was going to say the mirror wont work because I tried that. However, based on the stat block you posted either this particular Medusa was immune to Petrified or our DM made it up. We are playing Tomb of Annihilation. We just fought with Disadvantage the entire time (except for those 30 ft away from it).