Grabbed by a Gelatinous Cube - P2e

[Mishuun]

This question came up last night and it's had my GM wracking his brain since:

While facing a Gelatinous Cube three members of our party were hit by Engulf and therefore Grabbed and Immobilized. Two members of the party managed to avoid the cube entirely or otherwise make their saves against it.

The party members outside of the cube wanted to help those that were trapped by either reaching in to break the Grab, and making saves to avoid being grabbed/paralyzed themselves, or simply using the Aid action.

Our GM, however, isn't sure if you'd be able to shove/pull someone out of the Cube in order to break the Immobilized condition, which can normally be broken by "an external force mov[ing] you out of your space", feeling the Cube is a special case. He's also unclear on whether or not the Rupture value applies to damage dealt by other character or just applies to those trapped individually.

Can you risk being Grabbed/Paralyzed yourself to shove someone out of the cube, or is is not possible given the cubes abilities as written? And, if not, what other options are there for the rest of the party?

[Liegence]

I would say RAW no - Engulf is a creature ability that confers grabbed and immobilized. That is to say, if there are actions that could get you out of immobilized or out of grabbed they won’t necessarily help you if you are engulfed outside of a GM ruling to the contrary. The only way out of Engulfed is by the means written in the creature ability text (escape by engulfed PC, or the monster engulfing is ruptured). As written, dealing damage to Rupture is only an option for engulfed PCs barring a GM ruling

Also trying to physically pull someone out of a Gelatinous Cube, although desperate, sounds incredibly unwise

[Taja the Barbarian]

Engulf seems to indicate only the character trying to escape can use the Rupture option:

Engulf <Two Actions> wrote:

Source Bestiary pg. 343

The monster Strides up to double its Speed and can move through the spaces of any creatures in its path. Any creature of the monster’s size or smaller whose space the monster moves through can attempt a Reflex save with the listed DC to avoid being engulfed. A creature unable to act automatically critically fails this save. If a creature succeeds at its save, it can choose to be either pushed aside (out of the monster’s path) or pushed in front of the monster to the end of the monster’s movement. The monster can attempt to Engulf the same creature only once in a single use of Engulf. The monster can contain as many creatures as can fit in its space.

A creature that fails its save is pulled into the monster’s body. It is grabbed, is slowed 1, and has to hold its breath or start suffocating. The creature takes the listed amount of damage when first engulfed and at the end of each of its turns while it’s engulfed. An engulfed creature can get free by Escaping against the listed escape DC. An engulfed creature can attack the monster engulfing it, but only with unarmed attacks or with weapons of light Bulk or less. The engulfing creature is flat-footed against the attack. If the monster takes piercing or slashing damage equaling or exceeding the listed Rupture value from a single attack or spell, the engulfed creature cuts itself free. A creature that gets free by either method can immediately breathe and exits the swallowing monster’s space.

If the monster dies, all creatures it has engulfed are automatically released as the monster’s form loses cohesion.

Attempts to reach in and help the trapped PCs seems like a really bad idea: If you fail the paralyzation save, I might have you make the engulf save as well or get engulfed yourself.

[Fuzzy-Wuzzy]

The outside PCs mostly just want to damage it as much as possible in hopes of killing it and freeing everybody at once. But if they really want to Aid an Escape attempt, a nice long pole should do the trick w/o risking anything. If you don't have a pole, a polearm should probably work.

[Mishuun]

Taja the Barbarian wrote:

Attempts to reach in and help the trapped PCs seems like a really bad idea: If you fail the paralyzation save, I might have you make the engulf save as well or get engulfed yourself.

Mishuun wrote:

The party members outside of the cube wanted to help those that were trapped by either reaching in to break the Grab, and making saves to avoid being grabbed/paralyzed themselves, or simply using the Aid action.

...

Can you risk being Grabbed/Paralyzed yourself to shove someone out of the cube, or is is not possible given the cubes abilities as written? And, if not, what other options are there for the rest of the party?

I think that, if attempted, you'd make both saves by default the moment you touched the Cube.