Re: Neogi and Umber Hulks - air breathing?

No, I think it's quite logical to expect a specific reference that says 
they don't need to breathe. Can we at least agree on this much: 
breathing is pretty darn important in Spelljammer? It's important 
enough that we have rules and formulae to tell us how long an air 
envelope for a ship of a given size will last; I think that it would be 
important enough for there to NEED to be a specific reference to the 
Neogi not needing to breathe, especially since they're such a key 
nemesis to player characters in the spelljammer setting, and eventually 
somebody's going to have to do a formulation for how much air a Neogi 
ship will need to retain. Therefore, I think it's both logical and 
perfectly reasonable to accept that if Neogi have this ability, it 
should be mentioned more specifically than once in paretheses, possibly 
as the result of shoddy editing.

Second, I think you know very well that by "gas attack," most folk mean 
poisonous gas that affects you in some way through absorbing toxins 
into one's cells by way of respiration (you yourself in fact keep using 
the term "absorb toxins"). A creature who doesn't breathe simply can't 
"absorb toxins" through "respiration," because they don't respire (eh? 
respire? is that a word?).

Corrosive gas is another matter entirely. In AD&D game terms, that's an 
acid attack, even though it's gas-based. Clearly non-air-breathers can 
still be melted by acid. Unless you want to assume that Neogi are also 
immune to acid -- which has about as much justification in the rules as 
their not needing to breathe.  :)

On Jul 8, 2006, at 11:14 AM, Joseph Elric Smith wrote:

> I agree it is logical for giant spider that fly through space in giant 
> ships need to breath.  It is illogical to accept that there is a 
> specific reference that says they don't need to breath, Further more 
> if you don't need to breath you are  immune to the corrosive effect of 
> mustard gas, because if you don't; breath then you can't absorb the 
> toxin in a gas attack
> ken
>
> Gygax is to Gaming what Kirby was to comics
> Alas poor Elric I was a thousand times more evil than you
>
> Slice N Dice: Game and Pizza Parlour
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> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Matt Hoffman" <manta928@?????.com>
> To: <SPELLJAMMER-L@??????.???????.com>
> Sent: Saturday, July 08, 2006 2:06 PM
> Subject: Re: Neogi and Umber Hulks - air breathing?
>
>
>> Here's something that'll put this debate to bed :)
>> What follows below is from the MC entry for Neogi Undead Old Masters 
>> (not sure what source it's originally from; I'm taking it from my 
>> compiled PDF of spelljammer monsters, volume 3):
>>
>> "Ecology: Undead neogi can devour things, but no longer need to eat, 
>> drink, or breathe, and can now see in the dark."
>>
>> Undead neogi "no longer need to ... breathe," therefore, it is 
>> logical to conclude that *living* neogi do need to breathe.
>>
>>
>
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