Can allies attack an engulfed enemy?

[SangoProduction]

Say you have Engulf, by one means or another. Whether a gelatinous cube, or magic, or homebrew.

As a standard action, the target may move up to its speed and attempt to engulf anything in its path. It cannot make other attacks during a round in which it engulfs. The creature merely has to move over its opponents, affecting as many as it can cover. Targeted creatures can make attacks of opportunity against the creature, but if they do so, they are not entitled to a saving throw against the engulf attack. Those who do not attempt attacks of opportunity can attempt a Reflex save (DC 10 + 1/2 Hit Dice + Strength modifier) to avoid being engulfed - on a success, they are pushed back or aside (target’s choice) as the creature moves forward. Engulfed opponents gain the pinned condition, are in danger of suffocating, are trapped within the creature’s body until they are no longer pinned, and take acid damage from the target each round. An engulfed creature may attempt to escape as if escaping a pin.

For Gelatinous Cubes, who are transparent, it definitely would seem somewhat reasonable to allow the creature to be attacked from the outside. But are there any rules to allow for that?

Also, pinned creatures. Does the engulfing creature count as grappling them? The engulfer probably doesn't gain the grappled condition. But if they have an effect that makes it so you can't teleport out of a grapple, does that apply here?

[Dimers]

For the first part of your question, a DM can adjudicate based on line-of-sight and line-of-effect.

A transparent engulfer allows LoS and an opaque one blocks it. If I understand correctly, you need LoS to target a creature with an effect that has no attack roll. Attack-roll effects definitely don't require LoS, but you have to guess the correct square, and your roll has a miss chance for concealment.

LoE is blocked by a "solid barrier". Is an engulfer a solid barrier? It's not a defined term in 3.X, so the answer quite possibly depends on both the engulfer and the form of attack used. For instance, I could easily imagine a DM saying that a spear penetrates an ooze while a touch spell discharges on the ooze before it can reach the engulfed creature. Or maybe the ooze is made of sand or lava, and a spear doesn't get deep enough either. Maybe all line spells penetrate oozes, or maybe just the ones that say they extend beyond barriers they destroy. How an engulfer blocks LoE is completely in judgement-call territory.

As for the pinned and grappled part ... not a clue. I agree that the rules probably don't intend to lock down an engulfer while the victim still counts as a creature, but by the definition of "pinned", that's what they seem to say.

[sleepyphoenixx]

The rules don't come right out and say it, but i'd argue that being engulfed automatically grants total cover from other combatants.
You're inside the engulfer after all.

Even if the engulfer is transparent its body still blocks line of effect. You can't attack the engulfed without hitting the engulfer first.

As for counting as grappling i'd say no, the engulfer doesn't.
The rules go out of their way to specify that only the engulfed counts as pinned. They could have just said "engulfing starts a grapple" otherwise.

[Darg]

Well said.

To add, attacking into water comes with hefty penalties and a gelatinous cube is even more viscous than water.


Attacks from Land

Characters swimming, floating, or treading water on the surface, or wading in water at least chest deep, have improved cover (+8 bonus to AC, +4 bonus on Reflex saves) from opponents on land. Landbound opponents who have freedom of movement effects ignore this cover when making melee attacks against targets in the water. A completely submerged creature has total cover against opponents on land unless those opponents have freedom of movement effects.

Improved cover when partially out and total cover when submerged.

Let's just say that if a fireball can reach an engulfed creature, I now fear for all the items I carry.

[SangoProduction]

OK, so generally ranging from "No," to "Practically no."

Can an engulfing creature willfully release captured creatures, or let other creatures pass through it?

[OracleofWuffing]

Can an engulfing creature willfully release captured creatures, or let other creatures pass through it?
I think the important part is that engulfed targets "are trapped within the creature’s body until they are no longer pinned," so another way of thinking is to compare the situation to being pinned instead of engulfed. Which is annoying because it's part of the grapple rules, so there are probably at least 19 exceptions to these statements that someone will point out in the next half hour, but here goes:

[...] You may voluntarily release a pinned character as a free action; if you do so, you are no longer considered to be grappling that character (and vice versa). [...]
Admittedly there's room for interpretation, one could read that ending the pinned condition ends the "Trapped within the creature's body" phrase but are still going to take acid damage and be in danger of suffocating, but that's the same kind of reading that says you can't stop drowning and always die after three rounds, so I'm fairly confident releasing a pinned character applies here. There, uh, might also be an Attack of Opportunity to be made by the engulfing creature... Or not? You don't threaten squares if you're grappling, but releasing ends the grapple, so...? I don't know why you'd make an Attack of Opportunity against something you're willingly releasing from a pin, but sillier things have happened.

As far as letting a creature pass through, (size differences aside) you generally can't pass through a square that's occupied by an opponent, and when two creatures are grappling they share the same square. If the engulfing creature and the engulfed target are both allies, you can pass through. If either is an opponent, you cannot. There's a point to be made that you can pass through a square occupied by a Helpless opponent, but given that the engulfed target can still attempt to escape, I don't think Engulfed implies the Helpless condition despite the Helpless condition covering situations like "Held" or "Bound" that are descriptive of being Engulfed.

[Dimers]

A gelatinous cube in particular might cause helplessness through paralysis on a failed Fort save. But yeah, there's nothing about engulfing that definitively causes helplessness, since "pinned" is explicitly not "helpless". 'Course, there are exceptions for moving through a non-helpless enemy's space based on Tumble, absolute size, or relative size.

I'm really amused by the idea of walking right through a gelatinous cube just because it's your buddy. :smallsmile: