so I have what seems to be a rather unique issue. My (mythic) gnome sorcerer was scooped up by an ancient white dragon, chewed up and swallowed. Because he is/was mythic, it takes a LOT of damage to actually kill him. He was swallowed while comatose but not yet dead.
The dragon landed to engage the rest of the party (dumb move dragon!) and the party healer did a channel positive energy burst heal. The oracle has the selective channel feat, so he excluded the dragon. But not the sorc.
From reading I do not see anything that requires the healer to have line of sight or line of effect to the sorc sitting in the dragon's belly.
The oracle is adamant that the healing worked and the sorc should be taken out of his coma (the heal would've brought him to barely above zero hp).
For sake of expediency (and because the GM hates killing characters) he went along with it. I was allowed to throw out a teleport to the nearest location I had studied (ring of statues from RotR) and I made it out of the dragon's belly alive.
I have to be honest. I'm not afraid to let my character die. I think my gm is a bit too nice, so when my character is in dire straits I usually err on the side of realism. I do not believe the channeled heal should have worked that way, but nothing on the Channel Positive energy write suggests a need for line of sight/effect.
Should the channeled heal work this way?
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Burst, Emanation, or Spread: Most spells that affect an area function as a burst, an emanation, or a spread. In each case, you select the spell's point of origin and measure its effect from that point.
A burst spell affects whatever it catches in its area, including creatures that you can't see. It can't affect creatures with total cover from its point of origin (in other words, its effects don't extend around corners). The default shape for a burst effect is a sphere, but some burst spells are specifically described as cone-shaped. A burst's area defines how far from the point of origin the spell's effect extends.
It should not have worked.
Wow that was fast! Thank you!
^^^
Groups I run with get this wrong all the time.
It's probably more of a DM make-up call in this case since a creature without swallow whole swallowing you in the midst of combat is sort of into flavor country already.
To be fair, I was swallowed while the dragon was flying. The following round, he landed and the burst heal went off.
Didn't mean to mislead.
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To be fair, I was swallowed while the dragon was flying. The following round, he landed and the burst heal went off.
Didn't mean to mislead.
I think Ian meant that, typically, dragons, no matter what their age category, don't have the swallow whole special ability, much less the grab special ability that is a prerequisite for swallowing.
Yep, in the Bestiary, Ancient White Dragons do not have either Grab nor Swallow Whole, normally.
If a creature with this special attack begins its turn with an opponent grappled in its mouth (see Grab), it can attempt a new combat maneuver check (as though attempting to pin the opponent). If it succeeds, it swallows its prey, and the opponent takes bite damage. Unless otherwise noted, the opponent can be up to one size category smaller than the swallowing creature. Being swallowed causes a creature to take damage each round. The amount and type of damage varies and is given in the creature's statistics. A swallowed creature keeps the grappled condition, while the creature that did the swallowing does not. A swallowed creature can try to cut its way free with any light slashing or piercing weapon (the amount of cutting damage required to get free is equal to 1/10 the creature's total hit points), or it can just try to escape the grapple. The Armor Class of the interior of a creature that swallows whole is normally 10 + 1/2 its natural armor bonus, with no modifiers for size or Dexterity. If a swallowed creature cuts its way out, the swallowing creature cannot use swallow whole again until the damage is healed. If the swallowed creature escapes the grapple, success puts it back in the attacker's mouth, where it may be bitten or swallowed again.
Format: swallow whole (5d6 acid damage, AC 15, 18 hp); Location: Special Attacks.
If a creature with this special attack hits with the indicated attack (usually a claw or bite attack), it deals normal damage and attempts to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity. Unless otherwise noted, grab can only be used against targets of a size equal to or smaller than the creature with this ability. If the creature can use grab on creatures of other sizes, it is noted in the creature's Special Attacks line. The creature has the option to conduct the grapple normally, or simply use the part of its body it used in the grab to hold the opponent. If it chooses to do the latter, it takes a –20 penalty on its CMB check to make and maintain the grapple, but does not gain the grappled condition itself. A successful hold does not deal any extra damage unless the creature also has the constrict special attack. If the creature does not constrict, each successful grapple check it makes during successive rounds automatically deals the damage indicated for the attack that established the hold. Otherwise, it deals constriction damage as well (the amount is given in the creature's descriptive text).
Creatures with the grab special attack receive a +4 bonus on combat maneuver checks made to start and maintain a grapple.
Format: grab; Location: individual attacks.
So, in order for said Ancient White Dragon to have swallowed your Gnome, without being a special, non-standard dragon, it would have still had to do a grapple maneuver, provoking an AoO from your Gnome, and then another Grapple, to maintain and do a special, non-standard Grapple result to do the actual swallow, on the following round.
To be fair, I was swallowed while the dragon was flying. The following round, he landed and the burst heal went off.
Didn't mean to mislead.
I think Ian meant that, typically, dragons, no matter what their age category, don't have the swallow whole special ability, much less the grab special ability that is a prerequisite for swallowing.
Yep, in the Bestiary, Ancient White Dragons do not have either Grab nor Swallow Whole, normally.
If a creature with this special attack begins its turn with an opponent grappled in its mouth (see Grab), it can attempt a new combat maneuver check (as though attempting to pin the opponent). If it succeeds, it swallows its prey, and the opponent takes bite damage. Unless otherwise noted, the opponent can be up to one size category smaller than the swallowing creature. Being swallowed causes a creature to take damage each round. The amount and type of damage varies and is given in the creature's statistics. A swallowed creature keeps the grappled condition, while the creature that did the swallowing does not. A swallowed creature can try to cut its way free with any light slashing or piercing weapon (the amount of cutting damage required to get free is equal to 1/10 the creature's total hit points), or it can just try to escape the grapple. The Armor Class of the interior of a creature that swallows whole is normally 10 + 1/2 its natural armor bonus, with no modifiers for size or Dexterity. If a swallowed creature cuts its way out, the swallowing creature cannot use swallow whole again until the damage is healed. If the swallowed creature escapes the grapple, success puts it back in the attacker's mouth, where it may be bitten or swallowed again.
Format: swallow whole (5d6 acid damage, AC 15, 18 hp); Location: Special Attacks.
If a creature with this special attack hits with the indicated attack (usually a claw or bite attack), it deals normal damage and attempts to start...
Well...remember, we are talking about a small gnome sorcerer (they have a huge CMB & CMD!!) being attacked by a huge (?) ancient white dragon. He chewed me for a couple of rounds until I was below zero in hp's, then swallowed. Not a lot of fighting while in a coma and being swallowed haha!
Well...remember, we are talking about a small gnome sorcerer (they have a huge CMB & CMD!!) being attacked by a huge (?) ancient white dragon. He chewed me for a couple of rounds until I was below zero in hp's, then swallowed. Not a lot of fighting while in a coma and being swallowed haha!
Irrelevant.
There is no rule for this. Swallow Whole is an ability some monsters have. With it, they can swallow living creatures. Without it, they need to chew their food more thoroughly so they can swallow it NOT whole. As in dead, the way we humans eat cheesburgers - we don't eat living cheeseburgers and we (usually) don't swallow whole cheeseburgers.
The dragon should have chewed you until dead. Then it could eat you since you would now be an object rather than a living creature.
So the GM made it up. Fine, I make up stuff too. Nothing wrong with that, as long as everyone is having fun.