Question about things that can swallow you whole?

Voltumna

Mongoose
Yeah, recently we had an adventure where we were fighting this couple of water creatures, maybe some kind of medium sized whales, half hippo, half something else :? . Well, they destroyed our vessel, and we were in deep water at their mercy, and you know what that means: little hope.

The thing is that my character or rather I, got the crazy idea of swimming into it's maw and let be swallowed, without it having to chew on me which it did a couple of times and fortunately didn't kill me. My character being a thief, I thought being inside the thing would allow me to deliver sneak attacks and give us better chances of finishing the moster before it finished us. First I considered the thing was big enough to swallow me whole without having to chew on me, so that was the folly that finaly made me do it, plus the long time it takes for someone to be asphyxiated. Well, as bad roleplaying as it might be, in desperate situations you always can take decisions based solely on game mechanics.

To make a long story short, the GM didn't allow me to do the sneak attacks, though trying, I was able to cut his belly from inside and free myself from being digested by the thing. Other characters managed to inflict enough damage to the creatures so they finally fled.

So, I have this question:

If you are swallowed by a thing that can swallow you whole and be alive inside of it, can you sneack attack it from inside?
 
Such Jonas & the whale stories sound somewhat un-Hyborian, but nonetheless:

where can you reach vital spots better than when you're inside your enemy?
 
I'd probably say yes as well. I was in a similar situation during a Forgotten Realms campaign when my dwarf charged a Behir. He gulped me down quickly. The cleric in the group cast Hold Monster, and on my turn I performed a Coup de Grace, exploding from the stomach.

I would say as long as you use a light weapon, and can get it into your hand in time, you should be allowed a sneak attack from inside the monster.
 
I would be most concerned with stomach acid in the eyes. Good chance, if you open your eyes while inside, of loosing your sight. Just a thought.
 
swallow whole is usually only for creatures that are 2 sizes bigger than the swallowing thing.

As for sneak attack. If the GM rules that you can IDENTIFY AND REACH a significant weak spot, then there is no reason why you can't sneak attack (as long as you meet the other requirements.)
 
ricardo440 said:
If the GM rules that you can IDENTIFY AND REACH a significant weak spot, then there is no reason why you can't sneak attack (as long as you meet the other requirements.)

Is there any non-weak spot if you're inside the enemy's stomach? :wink:
 
Being swallowed should not be an advantage, and sure it hurts.

Sneak attack from inside can be right from mechanics POV, but I feel it is somewhat odd.

Just my 2 cents.
 
Maximo said:
Being swallowed should not be an advantage, and sure it hurts.

Sneak attack from inside can be right from mechanics POV, but I feel it is somewhat odd.

Just my 2 cents.

Sure, it's not very probable that the guy survives this unscathed (hey, GM, what do you mean: "acid"?) or even survives at all, but one round of devatating attacks could be made IMO, e.g. by using fate points.
 
Being squeezed down a creatures esophagus like you were inside a tube of toothpaste would not be pleasant to say the least.

As for Sneak attacking from the inside, you would have to see the organ you're striking; I guess you could stop what you're doing and make a knowledge (biology) check to find it in the dark, mebbe a DC 15?

Finally, don't forget that there isn't much room in there so you wouldn't be able to swing the weapon; so you probably won't be able to do lots and lots of damage.
 
urdinaran said:
As for Sneak attacking from the inside, you would have to see the organ you're striking; I guess you could stop what you're doing and make a knowledge (biology) check to find it in the dark, mebbe a DC 15?

Finally, don't forget that there isn't much room in there so you wouldn't be able to swing the weapon; so you probably won't be able to do lots and lots of damage.

If you're inside a stomach and pierce with a dagger / sword, I can't imagine how you do NOT cause critical wounds to the beast? You slice an internal organ, you cause internal blooding, stomach acid pouring freely inside the poor creature's body...
If there is a way at all to cause heavy damage, it is to pierce the stomach from inside.

But like I said in an earlier post, the whole swallow thing is not my idea of Hyborian gaming.
 
I understand, but by being inside a creature you would not be able to use a weapon to its full damage potential since you can't freely move it around as you would want it; and also, internal organs are not designed like water-balloons, popping once pierced.
 
urdinaran said:
I understand, but by being inside a creature you would not be able to use a weapon to its full damage potential since you can't freely move it around as you would want it; and also, internal organs are not designed like water-balloons, popping once pierced.

OK, I'm no physician, but I thought from a nasty case I heard of (someone swallowed a piece of a broken bottle by incident), that even little wounds in the stomach are always critical.
 
I think that strikes made in the stomach would be critical in the long run, but not immediately fatal. If you managed to hit a liver or some other major organ, that would be a different thing. A good analogy would be eating very sharp glass or metal shards. You would propably do a lot of damage to yourself, but wouldn't die immediately from it. It is also a good point that it is very difficult to maneuver inside the stomach of a beast. Maybe the character should make a DC15 balance check before allowing him to attack the creature.
 
Only in movies like Men in Black, and the imaginations of crazy players, would anyone be dumb enough to actually want to be swallowed by a huge monster. Huge monsters of the sea that swallow creatures whole, have a lot more things in their stomachs than just a character or two. Stomachs expand and contract to accommodate whatever is inside them, and anyone dumb enough to get into a stomach of a huge monster is going to have the air squashed out of them, be surrounded with lots of fluids of one type or another, and be battered against other flotsam inside the stomach. Also, as another poster mentioned, the trip down the esophagus would not be an uneventful ride. How long can you character hold his breath, again?

The player might think about jumping down the throat of a beastie, but the character would most likely balk at actually doing it. Wisdom would play a heavy roll. What's the DC for Dumb Idea?
 
cool, a debate about how easy it is to kill something from inside.

D&D I'd allow it. Because it is high fantasy, so yeah whatever.

Conan, I'd kill the PC. No rolls.


Even if you obey the rules to the letter though they are very likely to die in 2/3 rounds anyway, usually you get in the region of 4d6+10 bludgeoning and 4d6 acid damage every round.

As for the sneak attack. I said before it should be up to the GM. (obviously) If you allow the PC to use a weapon in there, then his only target is the stomach lining. I think you can only use small or light weapons. So they would have to cut out the stomach before they can even hit any organs. Even if the PC kills the beast he should still die in the process. No comming back.

Heroic death SURE, but death all the same.
 
Maximo said:
Being swallowed should not be an advantage, and sure it hurts.

Sneak attack from inside can be right from mechanics POV, but I feel it is somewhat odd.

Just my 2 cents.

Thats exactly what I was thinking. :shock:
 
Mark Dunder said:
Stomachs expand and contract to accommodate whatever is inside them, and anyone dumb enough to get into a stomach of a huge monster is going to have the air squashed out of them, be surrounded with lots of fluids of one type or another, and be battered against other flotsam inside the stomach. Also, as another poster mentioned, the trip down the esophagus would not be an uneventful ride. How long can you character hold his breath, again?

My sentiments exactly. I imagine it would hurt the beast if he went down with his weapon out, since it's be a jagged piece of metal sliding down it's esophagus, but no... no sneak atttack.

-=Grim=-
 
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