Can a Grell really do that?

[Allanimal]

So I am looking at the Grell in the MM2.

It has 10 tentacles with 10' reach. Reading a bit of the description, it says:


In melee combat, a grell can attack as many foes as it can reach, using as many of its tentacles as it wishes against any single opponent.

Is that still limited to 1 attack per tentacle? Because it reads to me like, if a Grell was surrounded by foes in every one of the 24 squares it can reach, it could smack them each with 10 tentacles, or 240 attacks per turn.

Which is absurd, but... I think it says it can do it.
Ugh, I'm going to need more dice!

[WinWin]

it still only has 10 attacks. Apart from that line of text, it mentions nothing in it's description about multiple attacks from one tentacle.

Safe to assume that 1 target per tentacle (per round) was the intended form, with multiple tentacles being allowed to attack one target.

Mind you...swapping some racial feats around would lead to some luls. I vote Extended Reach.

[Moriato]

Winwin is correct, it's still limited to 10 attacks per round, total.

That line is in there because some critters with lots of attacks are limited to only using a certain number against any one opponent in a round, but this is not the case with Grell, which can use all 10 against one single opponent if it wants to.

[Rejakor]

If it has the multiattack feat or the whirlwind attack feat, sure. Otherwise, nah.

[Tvtyrant]

You could add a barrage of unarmed strikes if you wanted to make it do more attacks though.

[opticalshadow]

hard to tell what would tax a dm more, a fully optimized player controlled grell or a moderatly optimized D.necro

[Dusk Eclipse]

hard to tell what would tax a dm more, a fully optimized player controlled grell or a moderatly optimized D.necro

Assuming a D. Necro minionmancer, I say the necromancer, the grell will only be doing attacks which while time consuming is easy, on the other hand the D. Necro brings more actions, abilities, and in some cases even whole other characters (awakened minions for example)

[Allanimal]

Thanks everyone. It did seem quite absurd. I will be doing some feat alterations... :belkar:

[Aharon]

Also note that the Grell was nerfed in Lords of Madness: Creatures struck by multiple tentacles must only make one saving throw against paralysis. The MM2 version is practically garantueed to paralyse one target per round if played intelligently, possibly more if the opponents have low saves/are unlucky. At CR3, this might be a little bit to difficult.

[Allanimal]

Also note that the Grell was nerfed in Lords of Madness...

I didn't know that it was reprinted in LoM... I guess I will have to re-evaluate the encounter.

[Thurbane]

If it has the multiattack feat or the whirlwind attack feat, sure. Otherwise, nah.
Neither Multiattack nor Whirliwind Attack would allow the Grell to do anything remotely like attacking with allow of it's attacks against all foes it threatens. Mutliattack merely lessens the penalty when mixing primary (or manufactured) and secondary attacks, while Whirlwind Attack allows precisely one attack against each threatened creature.

[Dornath]

I think the Whirlwind Attack line of thinking is each tentacle attacks everyone within reach. So 3 people threatened turns into one attack each for each tentacle.

Unless Whirlwind Attack only allows one attack. In which case, carry on and ignore me. It's been a while since I read it, and am away from my books at the moment.

[Thurbane]

No, Whirlwind Attack doesn't do that, it's very specific that you only get one attack per threatened creature.


Benefit: When you use the full attack action, you can give up your regular attacks and instead make one melee attack at your full base attack bonus against each opponent within reach.

Improved Whirlind Attack is a little different, but still won't allow a full attack against all threatened creatures.