A giant fish on 0HP swallowed a PC who was suffering from Confusion, then passed out from taking strenuous action while on 0HP. The only not-confused PC was wild-shaped into an orca.
This created a whole bunch of rules questions for me. Do you still take the same bludgeoning damage every round while you're swallowed by an unconscious enemy? Can you try to cut your way out as an 'attack nearest enemy' action while you're confused? Is it easier to cut your way out of a foe while it's unconscious?
Is it possible to rescue an ally by chewing your way in from the outside?
How would you handle it?
Yes, you still take damage. The creature is still alive, it still has muscular action that causes damage, unless the creature's entry somehow describes it as taking an action to cause damage to swallowed creatures. Some creatures may do acid damage as well, since being unconscious won't change the acid being in your stomach/gullet.
It's not easier to cut your way out of an unconscious opponent. I don't allow sneak attack or extra damage in such cases, but your GM might rule it otherwise (but I am not debating that here). You need a light slashing or piercing weapon (you are considered grappled) and have to deal 1/10th the creature's total hit points to cut your way out (and use a standard, move, or 5-foot step to escape, though 5-foot stepping may not work if you're underwater and need to swim without a swim speed).
You can also make an grapple check to escape the grapple. That will put you back in the creature's mouth. I would not rule it an auto-success against an unconscious or dead creature, since it doesn't normally need a check to keep you in its stomach, it's just hard to get out, but if your GM wants to say it's all muscle action keeping you in, they can give a bonus. Once you're in the mouth, I would probably let your attempt to escape next auto-succeed, since holding a creature in your mouth does usually require the creature to maintain the grapple.
As for chewing your way inside, I don't see why not. Just like I'd let someone else cut you out. Depending on the creature (or a Knowledge check), you might not know where their stomach (or crop or gullet or wherever they store swallowed creatures) is or maybe you inflict a bit of damage with a careless strike, but that's situational. You can cut someone out, presumably by intentionally inflicting 1/10th the creature's total hit points in the right spot (something I wouldn't allow in combat, but when a creature was helpless, or possibly willing, but that's unlikely).
That suggests that dead creatures wouldn't do bludgeoning damage, but could still do acid damage. Not specified in RAW, but might be a fair ruling.
The grapple check to escape would be fairly easy because a helpless creature has an effective DEX of 0 (though it apparently gets to keep its full STR bonus.) But in this case I felt like a Confused PC wouldn't do that.
Matthew Downie wrote: The grapple check to escape would be fairly easy because a helpless creature has an effective DEX of 0 (though it apparently gets to keep its full STR bonus.) But in this case I felt like a Confused PC wouldn't do that. The way I view it, is that being swallowed seems to work on the target without the swallowing creature's input. It doesn't need any actions to 'digest' or 'reduce' 'food' in its belly. I would say, if the creature were sleeping, would it still digest things it had eaten? If the answer is yes, then being unconscious wouldn't stop that muscular action or process, just like their heart doesn't stop beating.
If they're dead, then the body's muscular action probably stops (eventually, though acid or 'enzymes' probably would still exist and not just vanish). Similarly, like a snake might continue to writhe or the muscles of a decapitated chicken might work, a GM could rule that a creature's muscles still work for some amount of time, maybe a minute or more, but that is their call and based on the creature.
Matthew Downie wrote: But in this case I felt like a Confused PC wouldn't do that. Usually there's a clause in confusion where if you are attacked by a creature, you automatically attack that creature next round (or consider it a threat, if you were attacked by multiple creatures and randomly attacked one). So someone (GM) could rule that being battered and swallowed and crushed by constricting abdominal muscles would cause a confused character to lash out or otherwise fight the enveloping and crushing walls of flesh and meat. So that's one option. They would probably do it with whatever they were holding at the time, so if they didn't have a light piercing or slashing weapon it might not help, but I (myself) probably would let them draw such a weapon if they could get it and attack, if maybe after one round of realizing whatever they had wasn't effective.
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Confusion is a big problem, I think. You are constantly attacked, so you have to attack back, you never get to choose your action. As I see it, you should attack the creature (so it's total hp), and you will not be trying to cut a way to escape, so you would not be opening a way to escape.
After the creature dies it can change, as you will be damaged only if there is an acid effect or other environmental effect, not by muscular action.
lol, sounds like sink or swim. Hopefully they read the Items that can save you thread and are wearing their Aegis of Recovery or have that potion sponge of Air Bubble...
While unconscious you still digest food, so the listed bludgeoning etc goes on as it is not a conscious act but (Game wise) it should stop with the creature's demise. (The Game is just a very rough inaccurate model)
The Confusion:E(3-4) spell has 4 possible outcomes on a round by round basis and making them unable to determine their actions. They're not helpless or suffering an INT drain but they do need 1 or 4 to act somewhat effectively.
I don't know that I'd consider digestion being attacked by a creature or a hostile environment but attacking it seems to be the only confused option. Anyway once the creature reaches negative CON HPs it should be considered destroyed (in all Fairness) and release the trapped would-be meal. I'd say the target could intentionally cut themselves out, set a Int, Knw(Nature), or Prof(cooking) DC and let them roll. Otherwise they could unintentionally cut themselves out (just doing damage) based on the monster's description (a listed "escape" damage). You can add a dramatic pause (round to escape) and description to cap the fishing tale.
Luckily unconscious fish cannot control their buoyancy and usually float to the surface, see dynamite fishing. It should make it easy for the orca to bite the fish to open it up (GM fiat), again, set a Int or Knw(Nature) DC and let them roll. Otherwise the damage is just generic and goes towards death/destruction of the foe.
I wouldn't consider a creature at -con hp destroyed. Doing that would mess with Raise Dead, which requires a mostly intact corpse. A "destroyed" corpse would be missing large portions of the body, and probably will not be a valid target for Raise Dead.
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