So my party just encountered the leech swarms in Schloss Caromarc tonight. That was a brutal encounter. And whilst we've had some brutal encounters thus far, this one really soured my players.
So when I was looking at the Leech stat block at the start of combat, I noticed something. Like all swarms, the leeches deal 2d6 automatic damage if they share a space with a character (as expected), and have a DC 15 Fort save for their distraction (again, as expected). They've also got Blood Drain, which deals an automatic 1d3 Str and 1d3 Con damage at the start of each turn. Nasty, but again, reasonably expected for leeches.
But what I didn't expect was the poison.
Poison (Ex) Swarm—injury; save Fort DC 15; frequency 1/round for 2 rounds; effect 1d4 Dexterity drain; cure 1 save.
First of all, are leeches actually poisonous in the real world? I didn't think they were (Though I'd be content to be corrected on that).
But secondly - and this is the crux of my question - why on God's Green Earth (tm) are ordinary, regular leeches dealing ability score drain? The kind that cannot be cured by any magic the 6th-level party encountering them could possibly possession, and that requires a return to town and multiple, expensive castings to deal with?
Is this just a typo, and it should be damage, not drain? It seems excessive for a CR 4 creature.
No, it's definitely drain and hot damn that's nasty for a CR4 creature.
I can't find any evidence of leeches having poison (except for anticoagulant) and honestly I have no idea why they need that on top of everything else...
The design expectation would be that your party has 1 or 2 people with Delay Poison active, or several having consumed Anti-Toxins. Most PCs have a +3 minimum Fort save at level 6. That means you only need a 12 or higher without Antitoxin, and only a 7 or higher with Antitoxin (which would be assumed at that level).
That's honestly not that bad by 1ed. save or suck standards. If your PCs aren't using their gear/consumables, that isn't the encounter designers fault. My suggestion would be to remove the poison if they never use alchemical gear, or they can suffer from the effect until they level up and can remove it themselves at level 7.
This AP is overflowing with alchemical items even if the party doesn't have a PC alchemist/investigator. They should be able to make, find or buy all of the necessary consumables in anticipation for tracking through a swampy region.
Honestly, that specific trap does not make sense in that environment, since the place has been flooded only recently, and such leeches should have been actively be put there and kept alive for long periods.
I'd say , to make it work, that Caromarc himself has been experimenting on those leeches, possibly to drain and sell that specific poison, and dear mr V has found them, and decided to utilize them in some creative way.
Honestly, that specific trap does not make sense in that environment, since the place has been flooded only recently, and such leeches should have been actively be put there and kept alive for long periods.
I'd say , to make it work, that Caromarc himself has been experimenting on those leeches, possibly to drain and sell that specific poison, and dear mr V has found them, and decided to utilize them in some creative way.
Yeah a lot of living traps/monsters don't make sense in a dungeon "holding pattern". I appreciate that the designer points out that many of the critters are starving after having been abandoned thanks to the WW. I was under the impression that the leeches were there for awhile (before flooding) as the pit traps were designed with water in them. That's what I remember at least.
It would suggest that Caromarc had been feeding them until he was imprisoned.