Barghest feeding.

[-D-]

I've been turned into a Barghest, because of the deal I made with some devil. I need to feed enough to become Greater Barghest to turn back. I do it only twice as slow.

How exactly does Feed of Barghest functions?

Here are rules:

Feed (Su)

When a barghest slays a humanoid opponent, it can feed on the corpse, devouring both flesh and life force, as a full-round action. Feeding destroys the victim’s body and prevents any form of raising or resurrection that requires part of the corpse. There is a 50% chance that a wish, miracle, or true resurrection spell can restore a devoured victim to life. Check once for each destroyed creature. If the check fails, the creature cannot be brought back to life by mortal magic.

A barghest advances in Hit Dice by consuming corpses in this fashion. For every three suitable corpses a barghest devours, it gains 1 Hit Die, and its Strength, Constitution, and natural armor increase by +1. Its attack bonus and saves improve as normal for an outsider of its Hit Dice, and it gains skill points, feats, and ability score improvements normally.

The barghest only advances by consuming the corpses of creatures whose Hit Dice or levels are equal to or greater than its own current total. A barghest that reaches 9 Hit Dice through feeding immediately becomes a greater barghest upon completion of the act.

The part that confuses me is "The barghest only advances by consuming the corpses of creatures whose Hit Dice or levels are equal to or greater than its own current total." So I have to eat humanoid, that I killed, that has 6 or more hit dies (I am level 6 as well).

So requirements are:
A) I kill the humanoid (not other party member)
B) I eat the humanoid
C) Humanoid has more than 6 dies/levels? Or twelve since 6HD and 6 levels.


Questions are:
How does Feed functions, in terms of my victim's requirements?
Do I need to personally kill it, or stomp on its neck (as opposed to using Fireballs)?
I need to kill 8(number of sides on die)*3(number of suitable corpses)*2(penalty factor)*3(levels) = 144 such humanoids to advance, correct?

[sleepyphoenixx]

You have to slay it yourself by RAW (ask your DM if you can eat corpses of your parties kills), but how you kill them isn't specified.
You only advance by eating creatures who have HD at least equal to yours (racial or class levels doesn't matter). You have to eat 6 of them to get a single HD.

Since you have 6HD and need 9HD to become a Greater Barghest you need to eat 3x6=18 corpses. That may not sound like much, but humanoids tend to advance by class levels and so tend to have HD equal to their CR.
So the only ones likely to count for you are minibosses and such, not run-of-the-mill bandits.

[meschlum]

You are currently level 6, so only humanoids with 6 or more hit dice (from levels or racial hit dice) help you advance. You can eat others if you want, they just don't make you improve.

Once you've consumed 3 (doubled to 6) suitable corpses, you gain 1 hit die, making you 'level 7'. You now only advance by consuming corpses which had 7 or more hit dice. Another 3 (doubled to 6) of those, and you're 'level 8'. Then 3 (doubled to 6) more (8+ hit dice now), and done! So the total is 9 (doubled to 18) bodies, of increasingly tough targets.


You consume humanoids (humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, goblins, ogres, giants, etc.) and only benefit if they have enough hit dice (6 initially, up to 8 as you consume more). Most members of player races have 1 hit die (being level 1 commoners, warriors, etc.), so they don't benefit you. High level foes (level 6+ initially, to 8+ later) do count. Giants have a lot of racial hit dice, so they're your likely go to source for snacks. Ogre bosses (with 4 hit dice from ogre plus 2 or more from fighter or barbarian levels) could also work.


By my reading, the requirement on having killed the foe may not be a problem. The Feed ability is described as taking a full round action - it takes 6 seconds to devour the entire body! - so it may be a description of the combat applications. In a fight, once a Barghest has taken a bite out of someone and killed them, they can quickly feed and finish them off, possibly growing stronger. So you likely don't get to remotely devour people by tossing fireballs at them (at least, that's my take on the rules as intended). Outside combat, you can take your time and can presumably consume bodies others bring to you. A permissive GM might allow you to benefit from them, so long as they're fresh enough for you to get at the soul... If the body is fresh, you should be fine. Or just go after unconscious foes, finish them off before they bleed to death, and done (this last is entirely legal by the rules).

[KillianHawkeye]

Normally, a barghest only needs to gain 3 Hit Dice in order to become a greater barghest. It requires 3 suitable corpses for each HD gained, so 9 victims total.

Now as for how this applies to you... first of all, you said you gain HD twice as slowly, meaning you need double the number of corpses (6 per HD, 18 total).

Can you give some more details about how you were transformed? Do you still have your class levels? Did you gain the Hit Dice of the barghest? What happens to the Hit Dice you gain by feeding?



How does Feed functions, in terms of my victim's requirements?

You said you are 6th level. Barghests also have 6 HD. If you gained the Hit Dice of a barghest in addition to your existing class levels, then the corpses you devour will indeed need to be 12 HD or greater. If you're just using your level, then it will be 6 like normal.


Do I need to personally kill it, or stomp on its neck (as opposed to using Fireballs)?

It just says you need to slay the target. No specification means it doesn't matter how you do it. Finishing off a downed but still living opponent should work just fine.


I need to kill 8(number of sides on die)*3(number of suitable corpses)*2(penalty factor)*3(levels) = 144 such humanoids to advance, correct?

No. I have no idea why you're multiplying by 8 here. The size of a barghest's Hit Dice is immaterial to the feeding process. The other numbers are correct (144/8 = 18).


EDIT:

You consume humanoids (humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, goblins, ogres, giants, etc.) and only benefit if they have enough hit dice (6 initially, up to 8 as you consume more). Most members of player races have 1 hit die (being level 1 commoners, warriors, etc.), so they don't benefit you. High level foes (level 6+ initially, to 8+ later) do count. Giants have a lot of racial hit dice, so they're your likely go to source for snacks. Ogre bosses (with 4 hit dice from ogre plus 2 or more from fighter or barbarian levels) could also work.

Except ogres and giants are not humanoids, they're giants. A barghest can't feed on them at all.

[meschlum]

EDIT:

Except ogres and giants are not humanoids, they're giants. A barghest can't feed on them at all.

My mistake. You probably want to look for a lycanthrope buffet instead, as it's a great way to pile animal hit dice on top of a humanoid.

Edit: great for you, that is. Not that great for the were-creature if you're capable of ranged combat, as the fireball mention implies.

[-D-]

Can you give some more details about how you were transformed? Do you still have your class levels?
I made a deal with the devil. I became its follower or something.

I lost a level as a wizard and became a lvl6 barghest that is also a wizard of equivalent level. When I upgrade HD as barghest, I will level as wizard.




No. I have no idea why you're multiplying by 8 here. The size of a barghest's Hit Dice is immaterial to the feeding process. The other numbers are correct (144/8 = 18).
I assumed each feeding increased hp by one and once you eat 8, the dice changes.

[Mordaedil]

Hit Die means your level (including race levels), not the roll of the die you cast.

[-D-]

Hit Die means your level (including race levels), not the roll of the die you cast.
I assumed you increase the number on your hit die by 1, and when you get 8 of those - you increase a die by one.

[Mordaedil]

No, that isn't how this works.

It's literally saying every three corpses of the same level as you, that you eat, gives you one level.

[KillianHawkeye]

Maybe you should go over this with your DM rather than asking the Internet. They should be able to go over all the parts of this that you don't understand with you.

[Necroticplague]

O.k., you currently have 6hd, right? You can only usefully feed on corpses of humanoids that also have at least 6hd. Once you do that three times, you gain another HD, bringing you up to 7 HD. These HD are Outsider HD, and are thus fairly good (d8, 8+Int skills, all good saves.). in addition, as per your earlier statement+the text for Feed, you gain+1 level of wizard casting, STR, Con, and natural armor. Now, you are only sated by the corpses of 7 HD humanoids. Eat three of those, advance again to 8, gaining 1 more STR, con, na, and casting on top of the leveling benefits (note that at level 8, you get a point to put into an attribute). Now, your only sated by corpses of 8 HD humanoids. Three of those, and you've earned your old form back.

[-D-]

Yeah, thanks all for enlightening me. I'll speak with my GM how levels will function, but I assume its like Necroticplague said.