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In terms of game mechanics, how does the purple worm achieve burrowing up underneath a group of adventurers and sending them flying (like in the picture in the bestiary)?
Is it a bull-rush? An overrun? An attack against multiple creatures? Is it a sort of trample (even though it doesn't normally do this)?
How does one adjudicate this, and what can the players do against it?
Richard
i would go for bull-rush, but instaed of pushing back a purple worm pushes up in the air, same height as the distance of a normal bull rush. players take falling damage appropriately and land in a random square the same distance away. works on all creatures in a 20x20 feet square.
what players can do is use their CMD, fly, or maybe anticipate the attack with perception checks and run away.
that's maybe a new special attack for the purple worm, all houseruled.
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Interesting thing about Bull Rush, AFAICS, is that you cannot bull rush more than one opponent, unless they're one behind the other.
For example, I'm not sure what happens if a large creature tries to bull-rush two medium creatures at the same time who are side-by-side.
In terms of the purple worm, short of Bastion Stance (!), I'm not sure how you can resist a bull-rush coming at you from underneath. You've got nothing to brace yourself against. Presumably, you can't resist a bull-rush if you're on a slippery surface either - you'd just slide, wouldn't you.
richard
This isn't normally possible via the rules since you can't normally stop in an opponent's square. However, creatures of sufficient size difference CAN share squares.
I would either have the characters share the space (if the size difference is enough) or just shunt the characters to the side as they can't be in an illegal square (though the worm is technically breaking the rules, I think this is a sensible enough ruling).
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For example, I'm not sure what happens if a large creature tries to bull-rush two medium creatures at the same time who are side-by-side.
It seems reasonable to me that it could be attempted. The question becomes, "What are the rules covering it?"
I would expect that BR'ing two creatures would have to be harder than one. I would probably use the larger of the two CMDs and give it a +2 bonus for being aided by another (you can treat that as the Aid Another action if you want, but I'm not charging either of them with actions on their turn). If the attacker overcomes that CMD, then both are pushed back; otherwise, neither is pushed back.
Now we get into the funky stuff. Can those two Medium creatures be forced to squeeze into an area only 5-feet wide? (Yes. Probably adds another +2 circumstance bonus to the CMD, though; and only for the movement that occurs while squeezed.)
If the two are being pushed off a cliff, I would give them separate checks to determine if they can stay on the ledge.
What other weird situations are there?