Plot Swallowing...

[Waffleinsanity]

Okay, I am currently running a game which is intermingled between 3.5 and Pathfinder.
As long as something makes sense, I usually let it slide, so if you can tell me a good story about why something is, I'll accept it into the game. Regardless, I have a player who is running a Lizardfolk Ranger, kind of the... Swamp lurking man-eater type.
He would like to use this specific feat (written below) and I am wondering if I should allow it. I already allowed him lulti attack since he doesn't use any melee weapons and only his claws, which is sub par to begin with.
My question is, do you think this would be a bit too much... Thematically, it applies very well, but I am terrified he may just... Eat someone important...

How can I make this less stress inducing (btw, he gets enlarged often by the sorcerer, so he has most of the prereqs, yet I have not granted Swallow Whole as this skill is his following Goal.)

Horrific Gorging (Combat, Monster)

In the space of a few horrific seconds, you can chew up and gulp down an entire humanoid body.

Prerequisite(s): Bite attack, Large or larger, swallow whole universal monster ability.

Benefit(s): As a full-round action, you can completely consume a dead, unconscious, paralyzed, or otherwise helpless humanoid creature that you could normally swallow with your swallow whole ability. When you do, you deal bite damage as a critical hit and swallow the humanoid as your swallow whole special ability.

Allies of the swallowed creature within 30 feet that can see you indulge in this horrific feast must succeed at a Will save (DC = 10 + 1/2 your Hit Dice + your Charisma modifier) to avoid being shaken for 1d4 rounds. This part of the ability is a mind-affecting fear effect.


Thank you for your help!

[Anonymouswizard]

Is he permanently large? As in, never medium or smaller?

If not, then he can't take it by RAW.

[Hand_of_Vecna]

I'm not seeing why you're so concerned about this feat being disruptive, since it only works on helpless targets. Any important people he could eat could have their throats slit by a level one commoner and the effect on surrounding enemies is comparable to a 3rd or 4th level ToB maneuver, something like tower of blood AFB. Gape of the Serpent from Savage Species would be much scarier as it allows. Combat swallowing on targets one size smaller.

Also creatures without explicit stats for it have fairly low damage stomachs so the helpless person could take some time to actually die and be rescueable.
.

I'm wondering if you're actually more bothered by the squik factor.

As for qualifying. Whether one can take the feat via enlarged person is a rules gray area not out and out against RAW.

[hymer]

My question is, do you think this would be a bit too much... Thematically, it applies very well, but I am terrified he may just... Eat someone important...

RAW issues aside, it seems to be an automatically effective coup de grace against humanoids with an additional fear effect. That he eats them is mechanically unimportant, unless you were intending to cast something like Raise Dead. Now you'll have to go up to a more expensive variant of bringing people back from the dead.
Seems acceptable to me.

[Pleh]

As for qualifying. Whether one can take the feat via enlarged person is a rules gray area not out and out against RAW.

Yeah, I think if you lose prereqs for a feat you have, then you don't lose the feat, you just lose its benefits until you meet the prereqs again.

So since the feat requires large or larger, he can only use it 1) against helpless opponents and 2) while the sorcerer has him enlarged.

The first time he eats someone the party intended to capture, the sorcerer might start cutting back on the enlarge effects, making him promise not to mess up the plans by thinking with his stomach. If he proves untrustworthy, the sorcerer gets less and less motivated to help him grow.

[DeTess]

Yeah, I think if you lose prereqs for a feat you have, then you don't lose the feat, you just lose its benefits until you meet the prereqs again.

He also has to be large to take the feat, so unless he just so happened to be large when the new level arrives, he can't take it.

[Pleh]

He also has to be large to take the feat, so unless he just so happened to be large when the new level arrives, he can't take it.

The way I've always played it at my table leveling up usually takes place during down time anyway so it wouldn't be all that hard for the sorcerer to enlarge him for the duration of the leveling up process.

[King of Nowhere]

question: what happens when the enlarge spell runs out? Because digestion takes a few hours (for humans who chew; reptiles that swallow whole have even longer times), and if the spell end before that, you are going to have a body as big as you are in your stomach, which is... unlikely to go well. I'm seeing a fireball-like explosion of internal organs and half-dugested human remains

[Pleh]

question: what happens when the enlarge spell runs out? Because digestion takes a few hours (for humans who chew; reptiles that swallow whole have even longer times), and if the spell end before that, you are going to have a body as big as you are in your stomach, which is... unlikely to go well. I'm seeing a fireball-like explosion of internal organs and half-dugested human remains

I wish I remember where I saw it, but I'm pretty sure the RAW answer to a change in proportionate size (making swallow whole then illegal) is that the swallowed creature is simply released (vomited, I suppose) without further harm to either creatures. Since this is basically a coup de grace, I'd say it's only a problem if the swallowed creature is somehow still alive. If they're a corpse already, I'd be happy letting the stomach contents remain in the stomach magically (since at that point, it might as well be a part of him).

It feels like you're just looking for excuses to not like this idea, which I suppose you're free to do, but I don't see how it's constructive.

[Quertus]

So since the feat requires large or larger, he can only use it 1) against helpless opponents and 2) while the sorcerer has him enlarged.

Yeah, I'm having a hard time imagining a less objectionable feat. It's almost pure fluff.

[dps]

Can't see how eating "someone important" is necessarily worse than otherwise killing someone important. Unless you're afraid that he'll eat sleeping members of the party, but again, that's not really all that different from slitting their throats.

It's not even a problem if someone wants to cast raise dead on someone he ate--just wait until he has to poop.

[King of Nowhere]

I wish I remember where I saw it, but I'm pretty sure the RAW answer to a change in proportionate size (making swallow whole then illegal) is that the swallowed creature is simply released (vomited, I suppose) without further harm to either creatures. Since this is basically a coup de grace, I'd say it's only a problem if the swallowed creature is somehow still alive. If they're a corpse already, I'd be happy letting the stomach contents remain in the stomach magically (since at that point, it might as well be a part of him).

It feels like you're just looking for excuses to not like this idea, which I suppose you're free to do, but I don't see how it's constructive.

what? I have nothing against the idea. as others have said, there really is no problem about it, if you have an helpless opponent you may just as easily coup-de-grace.

It's just the kind of question that must be asked beforehand. Before you have to decide at the table if the character vomits, or explodes.

[denthor]

I see no problem. Change the feet so that even his allying party members need to make a save.

So they miss it your people don't party suffering from what one of their own does. Just like being in a fireball when it explodes.

[redwizard007]

"Phrasing!" - Sterling Archer

Seriously though, this isn't a game changer, it's a fluff text adjustment to coup de gras. To use a feat on it gives it more relevance than it needs. If making it a feat, consider adjusting it to work on any creature of a size category smaller that the PC. That way it can be used on small races when the PC is medium sized. Also, consider increasing the bite damage for the PC by one die type. (1d6 to 1d8, etc.) That way it is slightly more attractive as a feat, but still not broken.

[Waffleinsanity]

Thank you all for the responses, I didn't plan on telling him no, I was just looking for a little.input to make it... Worth it I suppose? It seemed fun and I am always one who leans more towards fun than Raw.

I think letting him have the feat and changing the feat to allow him to eat one size smaller will be fun, but also adding the save by his team... Maybe for the first few timez,... Until it's normal. Haha.

Thank you all again.

[martixy]

Thank you all for the responses, I didn't plan on telling him no, I was just looking for a little.input to make it... Worth it I suppose? It seemed fun and I am always one who leans more towards fun than Raw.

I think letting him have the feat and changing the feat to allow him to eat one size smaller will be fun, but also adding the save by his team... Maybe for the first few timez,... Until it's normal. Haha.

Thank you all again.

And he can always take 3.5s Gape of the Serpent to correct that. :)