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Saw the scenario wasn't up yet. I am prepping for tomorrow night. I will post questions as I prep.
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Alright, here is one to throw out for people who may come looking,
Edit: I think I figured out my Trigger Question. Alarm makes a proximity trap, effectively a location trap, unless stated otherwise. Or am I looking at this wrong?
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Alright, here is one to throw out for people who may come looking,
** spoiler omitted **
** spoiler omitted **
Edit: I think I figured out my Trigger Question. Alarm makes a proximity trap, effectively a location trap, unless stated otherwise. Or am I looking at this wrong?
Essentially, for B3:
This is hinted at by the inscription on the statue, "“The righteous will fall on their own swords to protect their honor. Only the humble will be left, serving their masters and living long lives.”
Right = Swords and death
Left = Service and life
The proximity means that the indicated squares on the map are trapped. If one character goes right, then the blade barrier pops up, but only that indicated area (40 ft x 5 ft) is covered by the barrier.
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The Cult Leader in Tier 8-9 leads off with greater command.
This seems like an odd choice given that greater command is language-dependent and thanks to his tongues curse he will have to choose abyssal or celestial to cast the spell with.
Oversight or a deliberate choice to make the encounter a bit less stressful? (If it is deliberate I see this as something a lot of GMs are going to miss since it isn't explicitly called out.)
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Quick question about the charwood staff. Part of it implies that it grants the negative levels only if you're currently holding it, where as another part implies that it grants the negative levels if it's anywhere on your person. Does it grant negative levels if inside an extradimensional space? (aka can I put it in a handy haversack when not using and not take the 2 negative levels until I actually grab it?)
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The Cult Leader in Tier 8-9 leads off with greater command.
This seems like an odd choice given that greater command is language-dependent and thanks to his tongues curse he will have to choose abyssal or celestial to cast the spell with.
Oversight or a deliberate choice to make the encounter a bit less stressful? (If it is deliberate I see this as something a lot of GMs are going to miss since it isn't explicitly called out.)
Interesting question. Maybe the cult leader is just used to being bossy. I'd think he'd use Celestial, as more PCs are likely to know how to speak it, but really the choice is his.
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Quick question about the charwood staff. Part of it implies that it grants the negative levels only if you're currently holding it, where as another part implies that it grants the negative levels if it's anywhere on your person. Does it grant negative levels if inside an extradimensional space? (aka can I put it in a handy haversack when not using and not take the 2 negative levels until I actually grab it?)
Oh, I see. A mechanics question.
My understanding of extra-dimensional spaces like a handy haversack is: these are spaces on another plane, essentially. Therefore, they're quite far from you while residing inside such a space. Bags of holding and the like are probably excellent tools for transporting dangerous cursed and magical objects.
However, I may be wrong.
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Looking forward to running this on Monday, but have a couple of questions too..
Page 16 Editing Oops- The encounter has Subtier 5-6 (CR9) and Subtier 5-6 (CR12). Second one should obviously be the Subtier 8-9 entry...
Another question about the cult leader to follow along with Kevin's:
** spoiler omitted **
Question with area B5:
** spoiler omitted **
B5: Still in effect. If not, use a spell slot and re-cast it. It lasts a long time.
"Any Legal Target:" To avoid strange shenanigans where the original creature is not a target. During play-testing we came up with a few such shenanigans. This also gives the GM the freedom to choose a different target, making the effect not as instantly obvious. In most situations, it will probably attack the "owner."
Beware ye of dragon and orc blood who doth cast fireball!
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Final question as I'm rounding up my prep...** spoiler omitted **
I don't think we need spoiler tags in the GM thread, but I could be wrong...
As designed, each dial shares one rune each with each dial adjacent to it. For a high Linguistics check I would tell them:
You recognize the runes as representing various demon lords. Furthermore, the runes tend to repeat themselves, but never more than twice.
Let them figure out the rest and start to experiment. Since it's a ruse, there's no "solution." Hopefully, there's enough of what looks like a solution to entice them to start experimenting.
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Alright, here is one to throw out for people who may come looking,
Trigger Q:The Symbol of Persuasion and Blade Barrier trap are both on a proximity trigger. That makes sense for the symbol of persuasion but wouldn't that trigger the blade barrier without actually catching anyone? Example, person walks up to statue and blades appear in the right corridor, leaving the left one wide open. Or is that the idea?Edit: I think I figured out my Trigger Question. Alarm makes a proximity trap, effectively a location trap, unless stated otherwise. Or am I looking at this wrong?
Essentially, for B3:
Trigger A:The proximity means that the indicated squares on the map are trapped. If one character goes right, then the blade barrier pops up, but only that indicated area (40 ft x 5 ft) is covered by the barrier.
So just to be clear:
Edit: And since the author is here, let me just say, this scenario looks *awesome*. I cackled at least three times while I was prepping it at the sheer evil. I especially love the door "puzzle".
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So just to be clear:
** spoiler omitted **Edit: And since the author is here, let me just say, this scenario looks *awesome*. I cackled at least three times while I was prepping it at the sheer evil. I especially love the door "puzzle".
Basically, that's what it's there for, even if *REDACTED* set it up specifically for that purpose, in-game. A fairly confident character might want to risk it anyway.
Also, thank you! I really hope people love the puzzle. Also, because of B6, I don't mind at all if people want to "give me a hand." I'll probably collect those instead of Prestige Points.
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I am absolutely ecstatic about this scenario! There are so many amazing story opportunities here, and some absolutely brilliant looking mechanical things. The mimic door is awesome, and the flame oracle looks hardcore (and I love that someone finally took advantage of angelskin!). The traps are unique, flavorful and clever, and I love the opportunity to affect Valais's story.
I even have all kinds of backstory I made up for Valais to inform my characterization of her, and this scenario doesnt conflict with any of it. Her voice is a bit more sophisticated than how I run her, but that's only a minor thing and not something that I would have expected to have matched my interpretation.
As another minor note, I really like that the chronicle allows you to purchase the arrows as bolts and bullets. I hope that becomes the new standard for chronicle sheets.
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I am absolutely ecstatic about this scenario! There are so many amazing story opportunities here, and some absolutely brilliant looking mechanical things. The mimic door is awesome, and the flame oracle looks hardcore (and I love that someone finally took advantage of angelskin!). The traps are unique, flavorful and clever, and I love the opportunity to affect Valais's story.
I even have all kinds of backstory I made up for Valais to inform my characterization of her, and this scenario doesnt conflict with any of it. Her voice is a bit more sophisticated than how I run her, but that's only a minor thing and not something that I would have expected to have matched my interpretation.
As another minor note, I really like that the chronicle allows you to purchase the arrows as bolts and bullets. I hope that becomes the new standard for chronicle sheets.
Thanks so much! I ask that after you run it, please leave an honest review on the product page. It helps others to find the scenario, and provides excellent feedback for authors and developers.
I agree that the variable types of enchanted ammunition is excellent. Perhaps I'll get some demon-bane throwing stars for my monk...
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Looking at the sheet, is it possible to purchase the arrows with a special material?Thanks so much! I ask that after you run it, please leave an honest review on the product page. It helps others to find the scenario, and provides excellent feedback for authors and developers.
I agree that the variable types of enchanted ammunition is excellent. Perhaps I'll get some demon-bane throwing stars for my monk...
Hrm... Since it says "any kind" you would think that you might be able to choose cold iron or adamantine if you wanted to. However, since there is a price listed: I'm going to guess that it is standard materials for your ammunition only.
This is really a developer question, but I didn't want to leave you hanging.
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Had a chat with a GM today who had questions about the opening scene with Shyael and a possible permanent condition. The following is a summation of our conversation:
Why is the cult leader in subtier 8-9 chaotic evil? That seems strange that he would be hanging around with all these neutral cultists and a paladin.
The cult leader is fully dedicated to Laktharis and his twisted ways. He is the one helping to lead the other Sarkorians to the site. The other Sarkorians haven't fully given into evil yet; they just want to believe. Shyael is fully focused on protecting these displaced people and helping them reclaim their ancestral homelands. From her perspective, these are non-evil people from a displaced community that just want to reclaim the legacy of their ancestors (as a paladin of Erastil would).
So the cult leader is the evil whisper in the ear of the Sarkorians. He aims to pull a fast one on Shyael and dupe her into helping Laktharis's nefarious scheme. As for matching the theme of the scenario: he's the temptation and the lure for the Sarkorians, which could be any person capable of being tricked by a demon. Shyael is a good person (a paladin, no less) who can also be deceived. It's up to the PCs to clear all that up for them and expose Laktharis's evil.
The hazard seems useless, won't the PCs just walk up to the people they're talking to and already have bypassed the hazards?
The hazard is really only important if there's combat, and if combat happens, it's likely going to be right away. Shyael doesn't want strangers getting too close, but she wants to use detect evil on them. I'd have them be between 50 and 60 feet from her, down on the ground. If they try and come closer before making her friendly, she'll point an arrow at them and command them to stop right there. If they don't comply, they must be trying to pull something.
As long as she's unfriendly or neutral, she's suspicious of the PC's and the girl under the hood (or demon girl, depending if she sees Valais). She won't want them getting too close until she trusts them (her attitude is friendly).
If a player loses a hand, do they have to get it fixed per the "get it fixed or the character is dead" rules?
Good question. That would be a call for Linda, John, or Tonya. However, as a Venture-Captain, * I would think that as long as it was "resolved" in one way or another, they should be ok. For example, they could get a hook or prosthetic hand, if they have access to the correct resource book. Perhaps even a golden hand as a "masterwork tool?" Would it function as a hand and let you hold items? Heck no, but the condition could be "resolved" for that character.
Without an official ruling, this seems pretty good to me.
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I think it would be cool if players had the option to keep the deformity, either a mangled or severed hand as a permanent condition. It could add a lot to future role-playing opportunities, character development, and even pave the way for a future scenario that included a "boon" of sorts for those who chose to keep the disability. If that could be accomplished without negatively affecting the general rule of forcing you to fix conditions that could, if completely reversed, allow for some untenable situations like polymorph effects.
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I don't feel the need to spoiler my comments since this is in the GM thread so if you don't want them, stop reading...
I admit this is more a general rules question, but since the introduction of the mimic is pertinent to the scenario and a relatively rare and unique enemy, I'll pose my query here anyway.
With regards to the adhesion ability, it says, "A mimic exudes a thick slime that acts as a powerful adhesive, holding fast any creatures or items that touch it. An adhesive-covered mimic automatically grapples* any creature it hits with its slam attack. Opponents so grappled cannot get free while the mimic is alive without removing the adhesive first."
Now, the important question is does that count as a successful grapple attempt or just a free byproduct of the attack? It seems to read as the former. The reason this is so important is that the creature also has constrict. By rule, constrict deals damage automatically whenever a creature succeeds at a grapple check. So, its easy to see that if we consider the adhesion affect to be the equivalent of a successful grapple check, the "stuck" target could be susceptible to automatic constrict damage round-after-round.
It is hard to tell if the intent was for the mimic to get a "free" constrict damage each round and considering it is only 1d8+6 for the base creature, its not a major concern, IMO. However, in the case of Thralls, the large, variant half-fiend mimic is doing 2d6+15(/16) damage with each constrict in addition to 2d6+10 (slam) and that ignores the gore. Certainly, not a minuscule amount for 5/6th level characters.
Ruling adhesion as an automatically successful grapple that triggers constrict sounds very "cool" but it is probably too powerful. After running the scenario this past weekend and seeing it in action, the encounter can easily result in a TPK with very little effort. I am less concerned at high-tier because the damage doesn't change much, but it is still a challenge considering the mimic's other boosted stats and bonus abilities.
I would really like to see a comment from Paizo (John?) to clarify this just to make sure we are not running mimics more challenging than they are intended to be and needlessly killing PCs, but as I said, this is more a general rules question regarding a Bestiary entry. I understand if the PFS team is hesitant to rule on how a monster ability works that would impact more than just the OP campaign.
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What I did was require the mimic to make a maintain check each round to do the slam damage (and then automatically do the constrict damage). It didn't happen but if it had failed the maintain check my plan was to say that as it attempted to slam the two doors together the PC would be barely missed but still stuck.
Also, since the adhesive ability isn't technically "grab" I didn't give it a constrict on the first round.
It was still quite deadly as the first thing it attacked (and therefore smote) was a good-aligned cleric. He died. Probably would have been worse for the party if the mimic wasn't intelligent. It switched from slamming the (stuck) monk who was ineffectually punching for no damage to the tiger who actually could hurt it. Had it into the negatives before the swashbuckler slashed the mimic to death (with the help of a reroll to avoid getting her magic kukri stuck).
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Yeah, the "surprise" aspect of the encounter makes it especially challenging. The disguise check is soo high, it is unlikely that many will see through it. I was "nice enough" to give the PC touching the door a perception check to notice the mimic start to move. In hindsight, that might have actually worked against the player.
The mimic went first in the surprise round and cast the command, greater per the tactics and caught two of the four characters. The PC attempted a partial withdraw, but got slammed with reach and stuck. I ruled the adhesion effect an auto-grapple and did the constrict as well. The mimic won initiative. I recognized the DPR immediately and decided to attack other PCs with his slam/gore, but still did the constrict damage on the original PC. My thinking was based on the text that is was essentially an ongoing auto-success grapple that I did not have to check to maintain. After 6d6+40 damage, the PC was nearly dead. If not for a crit-smite from the paladin, I think at least one, perhaps more PCs would have died in this encounter.
I've been trying to find clarification on the adhesion ability ever since. My gut tells me you are right that although the target is stuck, it still has to intentionally perform a grapple check to get the constrict damage, but my gut has been wrong in the past. If we were talking about a "normal" mimic, I wouldn't worry about the 1d8+6 constrict it gets, but the buffs this particular mimic got were very effective and makes it an extremely challenging encounter.
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Played this at GaryCon with my rogue & his twin. Chris Rathunde was also doing the grab/constrict one poor sap (me)while whacking others with the slam/gore. We knew there was a trap aspect to the "door" from 10 feet away, but couldn't deduce the actual problem until I was stuck. We were really hoping it would take a step forward into a bunch of precision damage, but sadly it didn't need to do that. Survived it, though!
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Is there a surprise round? I gave it one (with a DC 44 perception to act in the round) but it's not really clear.
When I realized that the 6th level cleric was looking at 6d6+62 damage on a gore/slam/constrict combo I decided not to count adhesive as a grab attack. Otherwise I was having nasty flashbacks to the high-tier optional in No Plunder No Pay (90% chance that one character will die).
In my case one reason I decided to rule as I did was that it was clear it would be a TPK against my party in the low tier if I had the adhesive count as automatically maintaining the grapple (freeing it to both slam and gore instead of using the standard to maintain with the slam). For a high-tier, beefier party I might have gone the other way to make it feel more threatening.
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My interpretation while writing the scenario was based on the wording of constrict UMR:
A creature with this special attack can crush an opponent, dealing bludgeoning damage, when it makes a successful grapple check (in addition to any other effects caused by a successful check, including additional damage). The amount of damage is given in the creature's entry and is typically equal to the amount of damage caused by the creature's melee attack.
*emphasis mine
From my reading, in order to constrict, one must perform an actual check. Checks involve rolling of dice. Because the mimic automatically grapples (there is no actual check) it does not get constrict damage simply because it grapples. However, if it wanted to spend a standard action to confirm a grapple, it would get its slam and constrict damage (plus power attack and smite) as normal.
My personal strategy: The mimic has been buried for a very long time; it is starving. Surprise round action: blasphemy. If un-stuck targets are in range it will use its slam and gore attacks to try and get them stuck (it wants as much food as possible: "Mine. Mine. Give me all the food."). If all targets in melee range are stuck, it starts to eat them one at a time (confirming a grapple), starting with the biggest threat. If hit by strong ranged attacks, it uses darkness in hopes of avoiding that damage. Even with daylight or some other means of countering the darkness, the ambient light is still dark because it's a buried cave. Once its eaten everything at the doorway, it starts to move out and find more food.
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Just played this yesterday at our local group. This scenario is creating phobias in my community in regards to "Doors." Bad doors, shut doors, closed doors, open doors...from hence forth all doors shall be arches!
Don't blame me. When I was last here, the entrance to the temple was an arch. However, I can appreciate its appetite. Door-thing, I shall henceforth call you, "Buster."
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Oh, and not to appear like too much of a softy: on a confirmed grapple using Power Attack and Smite on a good outsider (aasimar, tiefling, etc) the thing is dishing out 4d6+76 damage the first round and only4d6+65 each additional round, or to a good non-outsider.
At least it was a doubled door entrance. Think of two of these bad boys! We could call them Dave and Buster
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Is there a surprise round? I gave it one (with a DC 44 perception to act in the round) but it's not really clear.
Considering the nature of the creature's existence, it would seem a surprise round would be applicable. IMO, the disguise functions like stealth in that you have no idea there is something to be feared. Plus, the PC's attention is focused on solving the puzzle on the door and possibly the existence of a trap, not on the door itself being alive.
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Oh, and not to appear like too much of a softy: on a confirmed grapple using Power Attack and Smite on a good outsider (aasimar, tiefling, etc) the thing is dishing out 4d6+76 damage the first round and only4d6+65 each additional round, or to a good non-outsider.
By the way, pretty sure that's not correct. Smite Good only does double damage against outsiders with the good subtype (which PCs don't have).
Actually, referencing the antipaladin ability, the cleric in my game might have been in line for double damage on the first hit as well thanks to the other clauses of what gets doubled (good dragon or good creature with levels of cleric or paladin).
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Oh, and not to appear like too much of a softy: on a confirmed grapple using Power Attack and Smite on a good outsider (aasimar, tiefling, etc) the thing is dishing out 4d6+76 damage the first round and only4d6+65 each additional round, or to a good non-outsider.By the way, pretty sure that's not correct. Smite Good only does double damage against outsiders with the good subtype (which PCs don't have).
Actually, referencing the antipaladin ability, the cleric in my game might have been in line for double damage on the first hit as well thanks to the other clauses of what gets doubled (good dragon or good creature with levels of cleric or paladin).
Oh. My mistake! You are correct. I forgot that the paladin ability calls out subtype. Good catch.
As a half-fiend, the door is subject to demon-bane weapons, such as a couple of arrows you may have been handed recently.
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Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden
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The door was pretty scary, it came extremely close to killing our playing-up paladin. There was a lot of confusion and panic in the party after the Blasphemy hit as well. I think I may have killed it with a double volley of fast holy bombs.
I did have my doubts about how the adhesive ability was handled; the stuck character is grappled, that's clear enough. But does the Mimic then gain the grappled condition as well? That would inhibit its ability to cast spells and make attacks of opportunity. It's also not clear if the mimic has to spend actions to maintain that grapple (although automatically succeeding).
I was quite impressed with the traps; none of them were of the dreaded "eh, just mark off CLW charges and move on" variety. Three PCs got hit with the Twisted Euphoria/Spirit Breaker trap. Although the GM did give rather little chance to the other PCs to snap us out of the Fascinate (which is supposed to last 15 rounds before souring; and all it takes is a single slap in the face to snap out of it).
anyway...
Lakhtaris managed to commandeer Valais. It turned out he didn't do too shabbily at the action economy of the fight; by staying at the ceiling he kept out of reach of the magus, eidolon and the paladin's steed, and he kept disarming the Fly-potion paladin's sword and dropping it on the ground. Whenever the paladin had to disengage to rearm, Lakhtaris used Telekinesis to bowl over the groundbound PCs, and he got in more full attacks than the paladin because he made the paladin come to him. Meanwhile, Valais harassed our alchemist, healers and casters in melee. Since we didn't want to hurt her, subduing her proved hard. Eventually I managed to get away from Valais and got to full-round holy bomb Lakhtaris. All in all it was a good fight. Props on writing a boss that can make a stand against a numerically superior party by using tactics and terrain rather than being way overpowered.
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Thanks so much, Lau!
I will fully admit, that creating a scary dungeon where the PCs want to take 20 to look for traps every square: absolutely my intention.
Because of the flavor of the adhesive ability (touch it and you're stuck to the mimic), I don't think the mimic needs to spend any actions to maintain nor do I think it really gets the grappled condition. When I have it use SLAs, I have it do so defensively on every round but the surprise round. Seems to make sense, it's intelligent and doesn't want to lose the spells.
Glad to hear that Laktharis is proving to be a worthy adversary. I figured between airwalk, freedom of movement and his magic item, most of the "I win" button tactics should be out the door.
It's a little sad that your GM rushed through the 15 rounds so fast. I usually glance at my cell-phone or tablet clock and give them 2 whole minutes real-time to react or do something before I start hitting them with the secondary effects. One of the reasons is to allow the hallucinating characters to reject the images (and therefore the trap). I do something similar on the pain strike trap. I just roll a d6 every 6 or so seconds and tell them how much more damage they're taking. Gives the whole "you're on the floor screaming in pain for a while" a bit more role-play power with this feeling that the pain might never end.
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I really enjoyed running the Euphoric Tranquility trap. (Time limitations meant we skipped the other one.)
ALL of the party members failed their save against the first half of the trap so I went around the table and had everyone tell me what the happiest moment of their character's lives (real or something they dream will happen in the future) was. I gave it some detail as the scene played out for them. Then I moved to the next player. The goblin (yes, it was one of the very few goblin boons) imagined all the worshipers of Sarenrae lining up to cheer her as she finally was ordained as a Paladin. The Green Faith Acolyte remembered her induction into the faith and the peaceful green circle around her. One of the monks remembered his brothers and masters bidding him farewell from the monastery as he began his sojourn in the world.
After that I went around again and twisted each into a horrible occurrence. The goblin had her scimitar taken away and everyone turned their backs on her. The druid watched her circle blight and wither. The monk saw his entire monastery collapse in an earthquake, killing everyone, right after he had been sent out.
Only two characters failed the second save, so I played that as those that made the save becoming resolute even in the face of such a crushing event. "It was the most gut-wrenching thing you've ever seen, but you are determined to remove the blight and bring life back to the woodlands."
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I was quite impressed with the traps; none of them were of the dreaded "eh, just mark off CLW charges and move on" variety. Three PCs got hit with the Twisted Euphoria/Spirit Breaker trap. Although the GM did give rather little chance to the other PCs to snap us out of the Fascinate (which is supposed to last 15 rounds before souring; and all it takes is a single slap in the face to snap out of it).The trap is not a fascinate effect, it is based on Euphoric Tranquillity, a level 8 spell which prevents targets from doing much of anything. The trap is significantly more generous than the spell as it allows a save, which Euphoric Tranquillity normally doesn't allow.
Ah, I see I had it confused with Euphoric Cloud; that one causes Fascination until you get snapped out of it.
I don't mean to blame the GM, it was a big party and lots of people talking through each other. But it wasn't really clear that that much time was passing with blissed-out people.
Also, I felt good about being able to Remove Curse the level 5 life oracle playing up. I'd just bought that extract, too.
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Don't read the following if you don't want to know "how to make the sausage" behind the pastel room.
They should be in a hallucinatory dream-like state, but still have relative control over their actions. If they readily reject the experience, then the effect immediately ends for them. The checks to get Valais to do snap out of it are essentially getting her to accept the hallucinations as false. Not only do the PCs get to prevent her from a terrible experience, but they also get her to help come to terms with what she has experienced and become. It's the gift of acceptance, something many of us need but especially Valais.
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It's a little sad that your GM rushed through the 15 rounds so fast. I usually glance at my cell-phone or tablet clock and give them 2 whole minutes real-time to react or do something before I start hitting them with the secondary effects. One of the reasons is to allow the hallucinating characters to reject the images (and therefore the trap). I do something similar on the pain strike trap. I just roll a d6 every 6 or so seconds and tell them how much more damage they're taking. Gives the whole "you're on the floor screaming in pain for a while" a bit more role-play power with this feeling that the pain might never end.
In my defense, this had to do with two factors: Time constraint, and a semi-passiveness from some of the players who were staying at the previous crossing. Add to that, that the players not affected by the trap scattered out of the room and seemed unwilling to enter again.
A next time, I would maybe indicate players are in initiative during the effect of the trap. I liked asking players what their best memories were (first) and then ask them how this would be distorted in the worst possible way once the Waves of Exhaustion & Bestow Curse triggered.I ran the fight with the door with stuck creatures suffering constrict damage, but without the Mimic in a Grapple. Thankfully it rolled a 1 on every Slam attack it attempted. But the paladin was the one initiating combat by touching the door, and he suffered the Smite Good as well.
By the way, was that one intended to work exactly like the Paladin ability? Usually monsters with a Smite ability do not get their Charisma modifier on attack rolls and AC.
As Lau indicated, Laktharis proved to be a tough nut to crack for the party. I enjoyed the versatility of his abilities. Especially Telekinesis is fun (although the spell could have been written much better).
Great scenario!
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I don't feel the need to spoiler my comments since this is in the GM thread so if you don't want them, stop reading...
I admit this is more a general rules question, but since the introduction of the mimic is pertinent to the scenario and a relatively rare and unique enemy, I'll pose my query here anyway.
With regards to the adhesion ability, it says, "A mimic exudes a thick slime that acts as a powerful adhesive, holding fast any creatures or items that touch it. An adhesive-covered mimic automatically grapples* any creature it hits with its slam attack. Opponents so grappled cannot get free while the mimic is alive without removing the adhesive first."
Now, the important question is does that count as a successful grapple attempt or just a free byproduct of the attack? It seems to read as the former. The reason this is so important is that the creature also has constrict. By rule, constrict deals damage automatically whenever a creature succeeds at a grapple check. So, its easy to see that if we consider the adhesion affect to be the equivalent of a successful grapple check, the "stuck" target could be susceptible to automatic constrict damage round-after-round.It is hard to tell if the intent was for the mimic to get a "free" constrict damage each round and considering it is only 1d8+6 for the base creature, its not a major concern, IMO. However, in the case of Thralls, the large, variant half-fiend mimic is doing 2d6+15(/16) damage with each constrict in addition to 2d6+10 (slam) and that ignores the gore. Certainly, not a minuscule amount for 5/6th level characters.
Ruling adhesion as an automatically successful grapple that triggers constrict sounds very "cool" but it is probably too powerful. After running the scenario this past weekend and seeing it in action, the encounter can easily result in a TPK with very little effort. I am less concerned at high-tier because the damage doesn't change much, but it is still a challenge considering the mimic's...
This is an ambiguity within the rules. I do not speak for the Design team, and I can't make rulings for the game at large. However, I suggest running the ability as follows.
The adhesion ability automatically grapples a foe. Constrict requires a creature to "[make] a successful grapple check." In order to deal its constrict damage, the mimic must hit with its attack roll and additionally succeed at a grapple check that it rolls normally (as if it were a creature with grab and constrict). If the mimic fails this grapple check, the target is still grappled (because of adhesion), but it does not take constrict damage.|
Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden
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So in summary, the mimic:
- Doesn't get the grappled condition himself
- Can cast normally
- Can make attacks of opportunity normally
- Doesn't have to spend actions to maintain the grapple
- If it doesn't spend actions to maintain, it doesn't do constrict damage
That seems like the best way to run it; looks consistent and fair. Still dangerous, especially when weapons get stuck.
IIRC in our case it did do auto-constrict, but never made AoOs against my nearby alchemist and I don't remember if anyone had to roll for the risk of weapons getting stuck, so the end result was about the same difficulty. Just a lot more pain for the paladin.
It was only after the encounter that I noticed my alchemist was wearing First Aid Gloves..
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By the way, was that one intended to work exactly like the Paladin ability? Usually monsters with a Smite ability do not get their Charisma modifier on attack rolls and AC.
The monster smite from the bestiary works the same as the paladin ability. The reason you don't typically see an attack bonus is because most smite comes from templates added to animals and they rarely have a positive Cha