A fellow player has a comically difficult time against creatures that can Swallow Whole. Several of his characters across different campaigns have died or nearly died upon being eaten alive. Last session, we joked that he should create a backup character that is very difficult to Swallow Whole (or, at least, difficult to keep him swallowed and digest him).
That got me thinking of the various ways to prevent or recover from being swallowed. Creatures with this ability usually start with a jaw attack, followed by a free Improved Grab, followed by Swallow Whole (and often constriction). The victim then takes damage from digestion, is slowed, and begins to suffocate unless they can escape or rupture the creature.
I'm looking to create a character that is very hard to swallow. Help me identify the best ways to thwart these creatures.
Mundane means:
High AC (to avoid the bite)
High Fort DC (to avoid the grab)
High Ref DC (to avoid the swallow)
High unarmed/athletics/acrobatics (to escape)
High piercing/slashing damage with a light bulk weapon (to rupture)
A means to prevent suffocation
Being large (though most creatures can still swallow a large creature)
A monk or a fighter seem the obvious choices to check most of those boxes, or maybe a Barbarian, Champion, or Guardian. The Breath Control general feat would provide more time to escape.
There are plenty of light bulk 1d6 S/P weapons, but the only 1d8 one I could find was the chakram.
The Swallow Spike rune can be very helpful to rupture. The Slick and Bitter armor runes can help you escape. High strength likely is necessary to meet the rupture threshold.
Magical means:
Unfettered Movement spell and some sort of teleportation are the obvious choices here. But these have the manipulate trait and thus can be disrupted by being grabbed. The Teleport spell takes 10 minutes, so that won't work. Some of the other teleport-type spells require line of sight, which also won't work. (And some tables might rule that one cannot teleport out of a grapple/swallow, but I think most would allow it.)
Enlarge, if you can get large enough, might work, but that likely would require a GM ruling in your favor.
Vapor Form likely also would require a favorable GM ruling to work.
Special abilities:
Dimensional Assault on a Laughing Shadow Magus will not work because he needs to have line of sight to the target square. The Warp Step ability of the Unbound Psychic has the same problem.
The Druid's Too Much to Swallow feat helps, but it's level 16 (FWIW, I think this should be a feature of untamed form that does not require a special feat).
What else am I missing? Help me create the ultimate Houdini PC.
You can also attack the creature's ability to swallow.
A Bitter rune, for example.
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A fellow player has a comically difficult time against creatures that can Swallow Whole. Several of his characters across different campaigns have died or nearly died upon being eaten alive. Last session, we joked that he should create a backup character that is very difficult to Swallow Whole (or, at least, difficult to keep him swallowed and digest him).
That got me thinking of the various ways to prevent or recover from being swallowed. Creatures with this ability usually start with a jaw attack, followed by a free Improved Grab, followed by Swallow Whole (and often constriction). The victim then takes damage from digestion, is slowed, and begins to suffocate unless they can escape or rupture the creature.
I'm looking to create a character that is very hard to swallow. Help me identify the best ways to thwart these creatures.
Mundane means:
High AC (to avoid the bite)
High Fort DC (to avoid the grab)
High Ref DC (to avoid the swallow)
High unarmed/athletics/acrobatics (to escape)
High piercing/slashing damage with a light bulk weapon (to rupture)
A means to prevent suffocation
Being large (though most creatures can still swallow a large creature)A monk or a fighter seem the obvious choices to check most of those boxes, or maybe a Barbarian, Champion, or Guardian. The Breath Control general feat would provide more time to escape.
There are plenty of light bulk 1d6 S/P weapons, but the only 1d8 one I could find was the chakram.
The Swallow Spike rune can be very helpful to rupture. The Slick and Bitter armor runes can help you escape. High strength likely is necessary to meet the rupture threshold.
Magical means:
Unfettered Movement spell and some sort of teleportation are the obvious choices here. But these have the manipulate trait and thus can be disrupted by being grabbed. The Teleport spell takes 10 minutes, so that won't work. Some of the other teleport-type spells require line of sight, which also won't work. (And some tables might rule that one cannot...
Make them sickened! Then they can't swallow you.
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Pucker Pickle is an alchemical item made specifically for this, making you taste horrendous, imposing penalties to being eaten and sickening (with no saves) whoever eats you.
Got an Alchemist? Skunk Bombs or the Sour Bomb additive feat both impose Sickened, and you can't swallow while Sickened. There are some spells that also impose Sicked IIRC, though I don't think its common.
Pucker Pickles and the Bitter rune make things not want to swallow you.
Various ways of getting bigger, like Enlarge, Size Changing Armor, Fury Cocktail, etc. Just being a large ancestry also helps some. I'm not sure why you think this requires a GM ruling since Swallow Whole RAW lists the maximum size the creature can swallow and if you get bigger than that, you're immune, RAW.
Unfettered Movement doesn't stop things from swallowing you but it does make escape guaranteed.
Rank 5 Translocate can get you out since you don't need to see your location, but you do still need the flat check and you're in real big trouble if you fail.
In most cases a creature has to grab before it can swallow, and Liberating Command from a Champion can give an ally an immediate escape attempt to get out of the Grab before the swallow can happen.
A little help:
The Deep Breath cantrip prevents suffocation and allows casting spells since you have enough air (at rank 2+). The damage and slowed isn't mitigated, but it's still useful.
Superb help:
The 2nd-rank arcane spell Warping Pull cast by an ally. Swallowing Whole is a damaging effect so the spell triggers on both the initial attack (that leads to the Grab) and on the Swallow Whole action itself. This is extremely powerful, wasting the enemies action as well as preventing another attempt because of the 10ft movement (few enemies have 15ft reach with their jaws attacks).
Blanket immunity:
The Ghost archetype is virtually total immunity to Swallow Whole: being incorporeal means you're immune to Strength-based (skill) checks, including the very Athletics checks needed to Grab you. There are basically no enemies who can circumvent that: The only enemies that have Ghost Touch runes – Psychopomps, Unicorns, and a few others – don't Swallow Whole, the few enemies who can Grab without Strength-based checks – Succubi mostly – don't Swallow Whole either, and other incorporeal enemies simply have -5 STR modifiers and no Athletics skill anyway.
Ghosts rule!
Brings back memories of a player that had three different characters die from swallow whole in 3E. Just kept getting swallowed and dying. It was funny at the time, but the player was pretty unhappy. Swallow whole is a nasty ability. I try not to be too cruel with it as a DM even though I know can have the creature burrow off and eat their prey leaving the PC with no help.
The Swallow-Spike rune on medium or heavy armor is pretty cruel to things that swallow or engulf you, rough on grabbers.
Runesmith has a 9th level rune (remonstrance?) that can be invoked for damage and to make grabbers or swallowers release you.
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In a 1E module, I saw a halfling get swallowed whole by a Giant Frog. The party Barbarian slashed a hole in it's side and the halfling rolled right out. The Halfling stood up and stabbed the frog. The frog responded by swallowing the halfling again! and he just rolled out the hole in the frog's side!
Also, the Corrosive staff gives acid resistance when wielded, so that might be helpful.
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Though it may not be the best solution to suffocation, Bottled Air can let you breath inside a creature's stomach, but you spend extra actions to do so.
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A little help:
The Deep Breath cantrip prevents suffocation and allows casting spells since you have enough air (at rank 2+). The damage and slowed isn't mitigated, but it's still useful.
Vital Earth should do the same thing once you can afford it: it stops you from needing air for 24 hours. At high level the cost is pretty trivial if you think it might come up.