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I'm having trouble interpreting the stat' block for ear seekers, and am hoping that someone can help. Stats are:
Type - infestation
Save Fort DC 15
Onset - 4d6 hours
Frequency - 1/hour
Effect - 1d6 Con damage.
I think that this means that 4d6 hours after exposure a Fort save needs to be made, and that if it fails d6 Con damage is taken, then this is repeated every hour until the character succeeds the save or dies. Am I correct?
You make a fort save when initially exposed. If you fail, 4d6 hours later, you make another fort save. If you fail, you take 1d6 con damage, and repeat the fort save, taking damage if you fail, every hour.
Exactly.
- The first save is made right away, when the victim comes in contact with the infestation. If that save is made, nothing at all happens. Fail, and you are now infested (though nothing yet happens).
- After 4d6 hours, and every hour thereafter, a save has to be rolled against that same DC to avoid the Constitution damage.
- In this particular case, succeeding on a save merely avoids the damage. Only killing or removing the parasites will end the Infestation.
Parasitic infestations work differently than normal diseases.
"Infestations can only be cured through specific means; no matter how many saving throws are made, the infestation continues to afflict the target."
Ressurecting this older thread because I am curious as to why I need to roll how many eggs get laid.
Ear seekers are small, maggot-like creatures, brown or white in color. They are found lairing in rotting wood or similar organic materials. When first encountered, a DC 15 Perception check can be made to avoid them entirely. If the check fails, the ear seekers have contacted the creature and move toward any warm place on the creature (favoring places such as the ears) in which to lay their eggs. Once an ear seeker enters a warm place, it lays 2d8 eggs before dying. In 4d6 hours, the eggs hatch and the larvae devour the surrounding flesh, dealing Constitution damage to the host each hour thereafter. At Constitution 0, the host dies and ear seekers crawl out to find a new host. A remove disease spell kills all ear seekers and any unhatched eggs.
My understanding is also that there is no saving throw. The perception check is the only way to avoid them?
Infestations are written strangely and seem to break a lot of rules. Rot grubs, for example, only allow a Reflex save to avoid them if the creature being attacked is aware of them. This is counter to the usual rules for saving throws--even an unconscious character gets a (heavily penalized) Reflex save when a fireball includes them in its area. In this case, while afflictions usually use the same saving throw to check whether the affliction even begins its onset, it's unclear whether that's the case with ear seekers.
I also find the CR for both rot grubs and ear seekers to be surprisingly low considering their lethality, especially given that said lethality can have no countermeasure in some common cases.
So does anyone know why I need to roll to see how many eggs were laid?
So does anyone know why I need to roll to see how many eggs were laid?
It is just flavor.
I suppose if you wanted to cut out each worm individually it might matter.
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It might be a hold-over from rot grubs, that work similarly. Rot grubs, you have to roll to see how many infested your body, and they each affect you individually. Ear seekers don't indicate that they each affect you individually.
Or, looking at it again, it could be because they crawl out of the body after the character's death, so knowing how many there are could matter at that point since each one could potentially affect someone else.