So in an
effort to get right back into the game after being gone for six weeks I picked
up the map and monsters where they were and leapt back into the DM’s seat. Seeing as the PCs had been stranded in the
desert by an NPC whose only notable ability was casting teleport they had no
choice but to advance towards the Fire Temple.
So along the way I thought I would set up an ambush, a sort of guard
post. This post was manned, well not so
much manned but aberration-ed I guess by a Gibbering Mouther. So the initiative was rolled and the battle
commenced.
I will save you the round by round,
but suffice it to say I was disappointed in the little abomination that
couldn’t. So let me count the ways in
which he let me down:
·
No
CR 5 creature should do one damage even if it has the possibility to lead to
much more damage.
·
Movement
is horrible 10ft, with 20 ft for swim.
This almost solidly places this as a niche monster.
So two, there are two ways in which it disappointed me, and
those two were enough to show me that the CR 5 is fairly skewed. The Mouther may be effective in a tight
quartered underground chamber or in a pool of water were his move is comparable
to the PC’s, but beyond I am hard pressed to think of a reason it shouldn’t sit
somewhere around four maybe even three. But, assuming he is in fact quite
deadly in the above mentioned scenarios then I would go with four.
I will say that I did find some of his abilities nice:
·
The
free spitting was nice and pretty effective.
·
The
gibbering took the cake as the most effective ability of the Mouther. It was able to remove one of the PCs for
something like 4-5 rounds.
It was these abilities that made it fun to use the monster,
so to finish up I will end on the two things that were middle of the road for
me. I will say these are the only middle
of the road as most of the stats were pretty decent, but nothing special. Middle of the road here really is just my way
of saying I didn’t get to use it or I found its application nearly pointless
except in prolonging the inevitable. Without further ado:
·
Blood
Drain, I was not able to use it in the encounter so I can’t give it a fair
assessment. I will say it ups the
Mouther’s deadliness.
·
Ground
Manipulation, this was a waste of energy unless I used it to plan some sort of
ambush where the PCs get caught and he then pounces to drain blood. Wait that would have been cool. See even I can learn things from
myself….awkward. But, true.
Anyone have any Gibbering Mouther stories or tips to share
let’s hear’em. Happy Gaming.