Swallow Whole?

[Kantolin]

Frankly enough, I would like to get the swallow whole ability onto a humanoid.

1) Is there some RAW way of obtaining this without, um, polymorph/wild shape?

2) Is it particularly powerful, mechanically, to permit people to pick up the swallow whole ability as a feat?

[Jack Mann]

Aside from designing a creature that has it? There are a couple of spells that grant it, I believe. The one that springs to mind immediately is Bite of the King, from the Spell Compendium.

[Kantolin]

I did mean without custom-creating a creature. Most of the DMs I play with are willing to house rule it as a feat, but I'm curious if there's some obscure RAW method of obtaining it.

Bite of the King, while awesome, doesn't quite give you the swallow whole ability. Regardless, it is still very good for what I'm attempting, so thank you.

Any other options?

[Tsotha-lanti]

It's a good monster ability. For a PC, you could just start stabbing yourself to save time. There's no way the "digestion" damage is anywhere equal to a mid-level character's damage potential against an opponent they can actually attack, and while alive, the opponent is going to be taking free shots at you. (Actually, looking at the rules, it doesn't look like it's specified whether the damage to your interior is really deducted from your hit points. I don't see how it wouldn't be, personally. You're getting stabbed from the inside.

Also, most PCs aren't Large, so the ability is very limited for them. (That's, what, two Small creatures that fit in your gullet?)

That said, for monsters, just give a big humanoid a bite attack, improved grab, and the swallow whole ability and increase it's CR by 1. (You do need all three, by my reading of the rules.) Very simple.

[TheCountAlucard]

That's assuming that the PC has a light slashing/piercing weapon. That's why you swallow the fighter or cleric, not the rogue.

[Tsotha-lanti]

That's assuming that the PC has a light slashing/piercing weapon. That's why you swallow the fighter or cleric, not the rogue.

Like I said in the tendriculous thread, every adventurer worth their salt is going to have a main weapon, a ranged weapon, a dagger (everyone has a dagger, which is what you need to get out of bellies anyway), and a bludgeoning weapon. Fighters especially.

[TheCountAlucard]

So, none of the Order of the Stick, then? I'd better warn my own PCs, for that matter.

[Roderick_BR]

I made a PrC once that gave a character something like a swallow ability, combining somethings from BoED and some 3rd party books....
But seriously, it's a special abilities some monsters have as a racial ability. No way to "grant" it to something, by RAW, as far as I know.

[Tsotha-lanti]

So, none of the Order of the Stick, then? I'd better warn my own PCs, for that matter.

I can no more comprehend a D&D PC not having a dagger than I can comprehend a D&D PC not having a backpack.

Versatile weapons are especially critical at low levels, where zombies or skeletons are turned from useless mooks into real obstacles if you can't pass their DR - but no adventurer ever has an excuse for not carrying a dagger, especially seeing how cheap they are.

[Kantolin]

Well, curses. I didn't think you could, and I didn't exactly want it for the best in mechanical optimization. Oh, well. Raising CRs doesn't quite work, as I wanted this to be a PC option.

Anyway, thank you all for your responses - homebrew it is.

[Pironious]

That's assuming that the PC has a light slashing/piercing weapon. That's why you swallow the fighter or cleric, not the rogue.

Aah... fond memories of a dire shark swallowing the half-vampire bard...

So, none of the Order of the Stick, then? I'd better warn my own PCs, for that matter.

An arrow is a light piercing weapon, albeit improvised when used in melee.

[FlyMolo]

I made a PrC once that gave a character something like a swallow ability, combining somethings from BoED and some 3rd party books....
But seriously, it's a special abilities some monsters have as a racial ability. No way to "grant" it to something, by RAW, as far as I know.

Sarruhk. But only to scaly things.

[Glyphic]

Doesn't Belkar have -two- daggers? He's also the smallest.

[GolemsVoice]

Now, it is not quite what you are looking for, but in the Horde Player's Compendium from the WoW series, there is a head-slot item which let's you "swallow" others.
With a successful melee touch attack, and the victim fails a will save, your helm would instantly devour any target up to large size. While swallowed, the creature is in an extradimensional space without any dangers, but, well, it is somehow swallowed.

[Tempest Fennac]

The problem with Belkar's weapons are that daggers have quite a limited range increment, and they can't do bludgeoning damage (not that Belkar seems to understand damage reduction considering how he tried stabbing that zombie during the first Xykon fight).

[Quorothorn]

The problem with Belkar's weapons are that daggers have quite a limited range increment, and they can't do bludgeoning damage (not that Belkar seems to understand damage reduction considering how he tried stabbing that zombie during the first Xykon fight).

What else was Belkar supposed to do in that situation besides try to cut through the ogres to join Roy?

[its_all_ogre]

daggers are slashing and piercing.
belkar uses short swords i think you'll find, they just look like daggers. cause he's small.

[Kantolin]

Now, it is not quite what you are looking for, but in the Horde Player's Compendium from the WoW series, there is a head-slot item which let's you "swallow" others.
With a successful melee touch attack, and the victim fails a will save, your helm would instantly devour any target up to large size. While swallowed, the creature is in an extradimensional space without any dangers, but, well, it is somehow swallowed.

That's wonderful! (Or at least, very helpful).

Thank you much. I have a friend with that book, so I'll go hunt him down for it. At least there's something...

So now it's that helmet, and Bite of the King.

[Nikolai_II]

I can no more comprehend a D&D PC not having a dagger than I can comprehend a D&D PC not having a backpack.

Versatile weapons are especially critical at low levels, where zombies or skeletons are turned from useless mooks into real obstacles if you can't pass their DR - but no adventurer ever has an excuse for not carrying a dagger, especially seeing how cheap they are.

But can you draw a dagger while swallowed? You're grappled and would have to win a grapple check, no? And if you could win such checks, what're you doing swallowed in the first place?

[AslanCross]

But can you draw a dagger while swallowed? You're grappled and would have to win a grapple check, no? And if you could win such checks, what're you doing swallowed in the first place?

You can draw a light weapon with a move action provided you succeed on a grapple check, yes. Well, it still gives you an option when you're swallowed. Better than just sitting there and getting slowly digested.

[Tsotha-lanti]

Yeah, it seems to me that the chance to get out if you win one grapple check and then hack at the thing is better than the chance to get out if you win, what, 3 grapple checks? (One to climb into the mouth, one to get out of the pin, and one to get out of the grapple.)

"You shouldn't bother preparing for a bad situation because it's difficult to get out of it" sounds like a bad logic to me. The fact that monsters that swallow you have high Grapple modifiers is precisely why you should have that dagger on you. (Although obviously armor razors from Underdark and/or Races of Faerûn are even better.)

And having a dagger, a ranged weapon, and a bludgeoning melee weapon on you is crucial for about a million other reasons, too.

[Kantolin]

And having a dagger, a ranged weapon, and a bludgeoning melee weapon on you is crucial for about a million other reasons, too.

But compare this to a sword-and-board fighter who has a Longsword, a Trident, and a Warhammer. You're much more likely to get more use out of any one of those three than a dagger, and if you do have a dagger you're incredibly unlikely to need it except in the relatively rare occasion where you are swallow whole'd.

Or compare to the two-handed weapon fighter, who has a Greatsword, a Halberd, and a Heavy Flail. Don't actually need the greatsword there, it's just most popular. You'll get a lot more use out of those three than coincidentally having a dagger on you in 99% of occasions.

Really, if you're preparing for each and every problem that could possibly come up, then you're going to need a ton of things - in particular, you're going to need several special material weapons of a bunch of types. More types necessary if you go out of core. Think of /good and /evil DR, for example. Or creatures who have incredibly specific DRX/good and silver or the like.

[Roderick_BR]

Sarruhk. But only to scaly things.

Is it that creature that can copy special abilities? Hmm... could work, though, as far as I understood, it can copy almost any abilities. I'll have to look it up. It's from which book, Savage Species?

[Dhavaer]

Is it that creature that can copy special abilities? Hmm... could work, though, as far as I understood, it can copy almost any abilities. I'll have to look it up. It's from which book, Savage Species?

Serpent Kingdoms.