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This is a question for James Jacobs, or anyone else who is a real rules "person" to clarify something about the Rhagodessan. I am DMing our STAP campaign, and this didn't come up with the Rhagodessan encounter on the Blue Nixie, but did with the Rhagodessan in the Lotus Dragon Guildhouse. The Rhagodessa hit with both it's pedipalps on the parties spellthief and initiated a grapple. The spellthief of course lost (+11 grapple for the vermin vs. -2 for the halfling spellthief), and that is where the problem popped up. In the improved grab text for the Rhagodessan, it says it gets a bit as a free action without provoking attacks of opportunity at +4 attack bonus, so it makes it's bite attack and does 14 pts of damage, then if you look at it's stat block, it still has a bit attack as part of it's full round attack options along with it's pedipalps. So both me and the other DM in my group agreed that meant the Rhagodessan got to make an additional bite attack against the grappled spellthief because it's first bite was a free action as part of it's improved grab. So, it hits with it's second bit, doing 13 pts of damage, dropping our spellthief from full health to -7 in one round. I ran this by the other player in my group who has DMed before, as well as the players, and we all agreed that the interpretation of the written text the same way, but it seems too powerful for a CR 2 creature. So my question is this. Does the Rhagodessan in fact get two bite attacks sequentially if it successfully grapples an opponent. The party was all 3rd level and because of that ability, the Rhagodessan nearly TPKed them. They managed to get everyone out alive, but the Spellthief was at -9, the Druid was at -8 (after suffering the same attack as the spellthief when the Druid healed the Spellthief and then the Warblade made a grapple check against the Rhagodessan to pry her loose).
The party survived, so I don't feel like I should go back and change the outcome of the battle, but if I interpreted this wrong, then it would be good to know before they have to deal with the other 3 Rhagodessan in the guildhouse. They just expored a half dozen rooms or so and happened to stumble into the Rhagodessan in D27 after fighting the rogues in D25 or 26, can't remember which offhand, but they will likely explore the rest of the guildhouse next session after retreating at the end of the Rhagodessan battle tonight to regroup and heal before going back. A clarification would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for the help.
Creative Director
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Correct. The rhagodessa is a scary monster, and it serves as a wakeup call of sorts to Savage Tide players to tred carefully. Now and then, the campaign will throguh tough monsters the PCs' way that shouldn't necessarilly be fought in melee; this helps to keep variety in combats so they're not all the same "charge and then stand there trading blows till the monster drops."
Later, in the encounter with the cave of these monsters, the PCs should be aware of how dangerous they are. The cave itself is completely optional and needn't be visited to win the adventure, but if the PCs do, they'll get some nice XP and treasure.
Also, keep in mind that while the rhagodessa is somewhat of a menace in melee combat, it's got no real ranged atatcks and it's dumb as a bag of rusty hammers. Exploiting its lack of ranged attacks and lack of brains is the key.