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View Full Version : Rules Q&A Need some opinions on how some monster abilities interact



sithlordnergal
2018-05-28, 04:44 PM
So, I got the new book Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes and I was looking at some of the enemies in it. In particular, I was looking at the Star Spawn Seer and Star Spawn Hulk. These two have abilities that clearly key off each other. Specifically, the Hulk's Psychic Mirror ability and the Seer's Psychic Orb and Collapse Distance. For those who don't know, here's what they do:

If the hulk takes psychic damage, each creature within 10 feet of the hulk takes that damage instead; the hulk takes none of the damage. In addition, the hulk’s thoughts and location can't be discerned by magic.

The seer warps space around a creature it can see within 30 feet of it. That creature must make a DC 19 Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, the target, along with any equipment it is wearing or carrying, is magically teleported up to 60 feet to an unoccupied space the seer can see, and all other creatures within 10 feet of the target’s original space each takes 39 (6d12) psychic damage. On a successful save, the target takes 19 (3d12) psychic damage.

Ranged attack that does 5d10 psychic damage

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Now for my actual question on how these abilities interact:


1) If I were to use Collapse Distance on a player within 10 feet of a Hulk, would that 6d12 reflect off the Hulk to deal an additional 6d12 unavoidable psychic damage to anyone within 10 feet of the Hulk? I feel like it would, though this would require a very specific party set-up where the party has foolishly bunched up around the Hulk. That said, I want other DM opinions of this before I hit my party with a nearly unavoidable 12d12 psychic damage AoE.


2) The Seer's Collapse Distance is essentially a teleport...do you think he could teleport a target 60 feet into the air so that the teleported target takes 6d6 fall damage? I'm not too concerned about things like Feather Fall as my party lacks it.


Before you guys say that I am being mean or anything, you should know that I am running Tomb of Annihilation, and one of my players is apparently complaining that there have been no deaths in the party yet. Not that I haven't tried mind you, they just haven't entered the actual Tomb yet so they haven't run into any instant death traps.

leogobsin
2018-05-28, 05:19 PM
1. Yeah, I don't see any reason why that wouldn't happen. They would have to be within 10 feet of the Hulk and the Collapse Distance target, so like you said this will probably only affect 1, maybe 2 players (but boy it sure will hurt those it does affect!).

2. As far as I know there isn't any rule that says teleporting has to be onto ground, so since Collapse Distance doesn't specify otherwise I'd say it's allowed. Not something I'd probably do as a DM, but if your party is looking for a difficulty ramp up, go for it.

sithlordnergal
2018-05-28, 06:10 PM
Yeah, they are looking for a difficulty ramp up. Hehe, I just wanted to make sure I was using everything right before I do something that vicious to them. >=3