Ghoul Paralysis Question!

[Mr.$mith]

I'm running an AP right now (War for the Crown) and my party just went through an encounter with some Ghoul's. Basically they were fighting the main ghoul and it was just hitting someone, getting them paralyzed then moving on to the next player because I figured it would just keep paralyzing people.

But my question is after you get paralyzed from the first time form a specific ghoul or ghast are you not able to be paralyzed from that ghoul or ghast again? That's how I ran it other wise it would have been a TPK because I was rolling super hot, and that's not fun for the night. I could have swore I remembered reading that somewhere or something a while ago, but haven't been able to find anything to support that except rule 0.

Oh also, why are Elves immune to ghoul paralysis? Not super important, just wondering about that.

Thanks for your time!

[David knott 242]

I do not recall ever seeing anything about a ghoul being unable to re-paralyze a foe that it previously paralyzed.

But did you remember to allow the PCs to attempt saves against paralysis? The DC for a ghoul's paralysis is relatively low, so a good number of them should be able to avoid that effect.

Elves being immune to ghoul paralysis is a very old rule that goes all the way back to the Chainmail miniatures game (predecessor to D&D) but was never adequately explained as best I can tell.

[Mr.$mith]

David knott 242 wrote:

But did you remember to allow the PCs to attempt saves against paralysis? The DC for a ghoul's paralysis is relatively low, so a good number of them should be able to avoid that effect.

Yeah I did gave them saves VS paralysis and the ghoul's weren't the problem it was the ghast they fought that was the "boss" for the encounter, a ex paladin so her charisma was high so the save was a bit higher (16) and was just poor rolling.

David knott 242 wrote:

Elves being immune to ghoul paralysis is a very old rule that goes all the way back to the Chainmail miniatures game (predecessor to D&D) but was never adequately explained as best I can tell.

Thank you for answering the elf questing, we were just squinting at each other trying to figure that out. That's an interesting throw back.

[Agodeshalf]

I vaguely remember that the reason was that the ghoul/ghast touch is a reminder of death and something reaching out from the grave and since elves are "immortal", they have no fear of the grave.

[Claxon]

The elves in Chainmail had all sorts of immunities to undead things because the units were expensive and time consuming to get. Compared to undead units, which were cheap (IIRC). I never actually played it, but talked to some people about it.

It was a balancing act. Elf units were expensive but individually the best. Undead units were individually weak, but very cheap. So your strategy was to overwhelm them.

[CMantle]

What level were your characters and what CR was the encounter? While ghouls/ghast’s are certainly a nuisance they’re not what I would consider overly difficult... do you have an entire party of melee fighters? Sometimes poor planning/playing makes some encounters either much harder or much easier. It’s all a give and take.

[Nyerkh]

Ghouls & Ghasts (ha) can be overwhelming for their CR, depending on your group and, well, luck.
If noone gets paralyzed, PCs might just roll over them. But a pack of them and a few bad saves and, paralysis and cdg helping, that's a TPK in the making.
It takes a real fit of unluck though, so it's mostly fine. It is, however, something to keep in mind as the GM.

As for elves, wasn't there a thing about the first ever ghoul being an elf, and that somehow making ghouls unable to freeze elves forevermore ? Might be misremebering.