I am wondering if, when a black pudding gets split, the 2 new puddings, each with 1/2 the original's HP, would be smaller than the original. ie. would a Gargantuan pudding split into 2 Huge puddings, which could then each split into 2 large puddings and so on, or would they keep splitting into twice as many Gargantuan pudings?
The SRD says, "the creature splits into two identical puddings, each with half of the original’s current hit points." Clearly, the 2 puddings are identical to each other, but that doesn't say whether they should be identical to the original. Since they're clearly different from the original at least in terms of hit points, I tend to think the new split puddings could or maybe even should be smaller (which seems logical... especially since I seem to recall reading that doubling or halving a creature's actual physical size is generally equivalent to changing sizes by 1 category), but that is only in general; I have no clearly applicable rules basis for this situation in particular, and it's not like D&D doesn't have oozes that can grow quickly given the right stimulus. Is there an obscure FAQ out there somewhwere that covers this?
If no better suggestions or new info arises here, I'm going to go with the, "the creature splits into two identical puddings, each with half of the original’s current hit points and one size category smaller," option...
ie., 1 Garg. BP w/290hp => 2 Huge BP w/145hp => 4 Large BP w/72hp => 8 Med. BP w/36hp => 16 Small BP w/18hp => 32 Tiny BP w/9hp.
That seems to make sense, and is also much easier to fit on most battlegrids than 32 gargantuan puddings would be
Just wondering how have others dealt with this, and why they do or don't believe they were following the rules upon doing so.
Thanks,
Kang
I think you have pretty much answered this Kang. The way you described it is the way we play it too.
Altghough we had an evil DM rule that Gargantuan and huge could split once and retain their size before spliting a second time. basically his formula was
1Gar=1gar 1/2 hp and one Huge at 1/2hp then if the gar splits again then it goes down to huge.
He had a thing for really large creatures though so we didnt hold to that. Your formula works best stick with it.
Thanks for the feedback, ST. This encounter might actually happen in tonight's session; if so, I'll try and remember to come back & post how it went.
Cool idea about having the "original" retain its size, splitting off one at <size -1> though (as I interpret your Evil DM's method), even if it does sort of fly in the face of the "splits into 2 identical puddings" rule. But it's too much remembering which ie. gargantuan one has already been split once and which one hasn't, for my tastes. My way that doesn't matter & only the hit points need to be tracked on a pudding-by-pudding basis...
Anyhow, it's quitting time and I have to get home to prep for tonight's session.
Later,
Kang