Optimize this feat: Scavenging Gullet (Lords of Madness p.181)

[daremetoidareyo]

Let's see where the road takes us:

Scavenging Gullet (Lords of Madness, p. 181)

[Aberrant]

The taint of the aberration in your blood has gifted you with the ability to gain nourishment from things that others would never consider as food.
Prerequisite: Aberration Blood (LoM) ,
Benefit: You gain nourishment from eating any organic material, despite its freshness or source. You gain a +4 racial bonus on Fortitude saves to resist the effect of ingested poisons, as well as on Fortitude saves to resist diseases caused by ingested substances (such as spoiled food).

You gain nourishment from EATING ANY ORGANIC MATERIAL, DESPITE FRESHNESS OR SOURCE.

Whatchallthink?

[H_H_F_F]

Vampirism? Would this get over the necessity to drink blood?

[ciopo]

Wasn't there a class that needed to eat items to power the class features?

Uhmm also, fist of the forest and wu jen limitations could be circumvented with this, maybe?

[daremetoidareyo]

Vampirism? Would this get over the necessity to drink blood?

Nice. I’m not sure if you keep aberrant feats if you turn undead without human heritage

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Nice. I’m not sure if you keep aberrant feats if you turn undead without human heritage

You definitely lose the first feat in the chain. Whether that means you lose the rest of them is the same old debate as to whether "qualifying for other things" counts as a benefit that is lost when you no longer meet the prerequisites. In other words, you have to ask your DM.

That said, this + Human Heritage should work for most (corporeal) undead that have a diet dependency. Not gonna help a Dream Vestige, but ghouls, vampires, and the like could all benefit (as long as they're "human-descended").

Also, if you're building around the Swallow Whole ability and have a feat to spare, well first of all that's impressive, but Scavenging Gullet could help you against the odd poisonous or infectious monster.

[Venger]

Wasn't there a class that needed to eat items to power the class features?

Uhmm also, fist of the forest and wu jen limitations could be circumvented with this, maybe?

I assume you're thinking of forsaker. it has to destroy magic items for its crappy class features, but it doesn't care how you do it. Eating them is allowed, and if it's made of organic matter like a wand made of wood or bone then that would qualify.

If you're any kind of monster with an inconvenient dietary need like a mind flayer or what have you and can contrive human heritage, that's something.

Using it as a means of corpse disposal with a class like life eater or similar seems like an obvious synergy.

Though it's uncool on par with cryokineticists hiring themselves out as air conditioners and similarly obsolete in a world where disintegration and portals to other dimensions exist but you could function as waste disposal for places that generate a lot of organic byproduct such as tanneries, necromancers' labs, decommissioning otyugh holes when they need to convert them into parking lots, etc. especially at low levels or in small communities where npcs can't hire casters to cast high level spells.

[animewatcha]

Drunken master consumes sphere of annihilation and does nat 1 belch improvised weapon that destroys the sphere? Is this even possible?

[daremetoidareyo]

Drunken master consumes sphere of annihilation and does nat 1 belch improvised weapon that destroys the sphere? Is this even possible?

No way a sphere of annihilation is organic matter.

[Akal Saris]

Stone to Flesh, instant burrowing abilities.

[remetagross]

Stone to Flesh, instant burrowing abilities.

Though hilarious and I might OK it due to rule of cool, I think it's important to point out that the feat does not give any ability to eat faster than usual, nor to have a stomach of infinite volume, nor does it give you any sort of bite attack with which you could chew through a wall of flesh instead of having to first carve it out and chop it down to edible-size chunks.

I'm with Venger for the help it brings to a Mind Flayer PC. All the more so that using an aberrant feat for an aberration race is very flavorful (heh).

[H_H_F_F]

I'm with Venger for the help it brings to a Mind Flayer PC. All the more so that using an aberrant feat for an aberration race is very flavorful (heh).

Flavorful, but hard to do. You're not humanoid, and you don't qualify for human heritage.

A half illithid human would work, I'd think.

[remetagross]

There's also this Mourning Mutate feat from Dragon Magazine that counts as Aberration Blood as far as prerequisites are concerned, and has no requirements whatsoever.

[Gruftzwerg]

Stone to Flesh, instant burrowing abilities.


Though hilarious and I might OK it due to rule of cool, I think it's important to point out that the feat does not give any ability to eat faster than usual, nor to have a stomach of infinite volume, nor does it give you any sort of bite attack with which you could chew through a wall of flesh instead of having to first carve it out and chop it down to edible-size chunks.


Play a DWK and add the "Ravening" dragon psychosis (dragon #313) and you get the "Eat or Die" ability. You have an increased base amount that you must consume every day and there is no limit to how much you can consume. A ravening dragon is constantly hungry and in the mood to eat more^^

edit:
Reminds me of my recent Master of Dargonfire Flies (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?639300-Master-of-Dragonfire-Flies) build. Not all feats are mandatory and it would fit the theme very well.

Aberration Blood (segmented eyes) and Scavenging Gullet would give the fluff of the build the last edge. Consume everything in your path! ^^

[WhamBamSam]

You definitely lose the first feat in the chain. Whether that means you lose the rest of them is the same old debate as to whether "qualifying for other things" counts as a benefit that is lost when you no longer meet the prerequisites. In other words, you have to ask your DM.

That said, this + Human Heritage should work for most (corporeal) undead that have a diet dependency. Not gonna help a Dream Vestige, but ghouls, vampires, and the like could all benefit (as long as they're "human-descended").

Also, if you're building around the Swallow Whole ability and have a feat to spare, well first of all that's impressive, but Scavenging Gullet could help you against the odd poisonous or infectious monster.Per this (https://web.archive.org/web/20210920205535/http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd%2Febee%2F20050704a) web article, you can use Aberrant Dragonmark in place of Aberration Blood, which you won't disqualify yourself for by becoming undead, on top of just being a better feat.

[daremetoidareyo]

Star metal is probably inorganic, but if you eat a star medal adept… that’s just like free chelated star metal

[Doctor Despair]

Also, if you're building around the Swallow Whole ability and have a feat to spare, well first of all that's impressive, but Scavenging Gullet could help you against the odd poisonous or infectious monster.

I considered this concept for a recent Villainous Competition, but it was hard to fit onto a PC-legal chassis. I usually restrain myself to only options available to PCs for my personal preferences, and in this case the option available to me, given the further restrictions of the competition, was Snatch and Swallow. Sadly, there wasn't really a mechanical benefit to having Scavenging Gullet there except for those niche cases you identified, so I didn't end up including it -- even though I really wanted to. :smallfrown:

[ben-zayb]

Are souls organic? If you can eat someone's flesh and soul, could you prevent any kind of Resurrection for them?


Also, you can now eat pizza with pineapple.

[sleepyphoenixx]

Are souls organic? If you can eat someone's flesh and soul, could you prevent any kind of Resurrection for them?
The trouble with souls is actually getting them.
If you already have someone's soul you can just burn it as an optional spell component to get a bonus on overcoming spell resistance (BoVD p.46) to prevent resurrection.
Or get a 10xp discount on a magic item in exchange for tainting it with evil forever.


Also, you can now eat pizza with pineapple.
A fitting power for an option from the book dealing with unnatural monstrosities.