Choosing Spell Loss from A Thought Eater?

[J. A.]

I’ve finally reached the point in my campaign where I can introduce a thought eater, one of my favorite creatures from Bestiary 5. But after re-reading the entry, I’m confused about the effects of its bite attack.

In particular, I’m puzzled that the victim of the bite attack is able to choose which spell they lose—or if not a spellcaster, they can choose which mental stat is drained.

But why? Is there some mechanical reason why this should be the case? What’s the in-world logic for someone being bitten by a strange floating skeleton and *deciding* whether to become a little less intelligent or a little less intuitive?

And is there any reason not to simply randomize this instead?

[GM Rednal]

I like to think of it as the spellcaster realizing what's going on and "feeding" that spell or bit of their mental power in an effort to protect the rest. It's kind of like choosing to take a bit from a weapon by throwing your arms out in front of it - you're getting hit no matter what, but at least you have a little control over what gets struck first.

[J. A.]

Hm. Interesting notion, thanks.

Do you know what the thinking was in terms of game design? And is there any particular reason why the GM can't just roll for it?

[GM Rednal]

Honestly? I feel like it's there to mess with the players a little. XD "You lose X spell" is kind of annoying, but when you have to choose what you lose, that can be a sort of pressure in its own right.

[Claxon]

The choice is given to players to decide because it can be really awful when you have no control over the matter.

As a spell caster, if the GM got to decide it could become "Oh, I'll just take your highest level useful spell", as the GM swarms you with the creatures.

Remember this is also only meant to be a CR 2, so it's not supposed to be especially deadly. At level 1 or 2 a caster only has 1st level spells and wont have very many of them.