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I first encountered remorhazes in the 3e Monster Manual, though I guess they’ve been around since AD&D.

The Lore

Remorhazes are yet another example of the dangerous megafauna that plagues D&D worlds: gigantic predators with a somewhat centipede-like appearance that inhabit the colder reaches of the world. They’re also one of those gotcha monsters, because despite living in cold biomes their powers are heat-based. A remorhaz can heat its carapace up to an extremely high temperature, which really ruins the day of the usually-weak-to-fire creatures it feeds on.

A remorhaz is big enough to swallow a frost giant or adult dragon whole, and while it use that as a combat maneuver it prefers to do it when the prey in question is no longer fighting back.

Frost giants sometimes risk training these creatures. A few of them even succeed.

The Numbers

Copyright 2009 Wizards of the Coast

Remorhazes are Huge Elemental Beasts, and Level 21 Elite Brutes with 480 HP. It has low-light vision and projects an aura (2) of Blistering Heat that does 10 fire damage to any creature caught inside. It runs at speed 6 and burrows at speed 4 with Tunneling.

Their basic attack is a Reach 2 Bite that damages and grabs on a hit. After grabbing a creature they can spend a minor action to try to Swallow it (an attack vs. Fortitude). The beast’s insides deal 10 physical and 10 fire damage to swallowed victims at the start of its turn. The victim is considered restrained, with line of sight and effect only to the remorhaz itself. It can use only melee or close attacks (with penalties from the Restrained condition), and if it manages to deal 30 damage the remorhaz will spit them out. Killing the creature also allows the victim to escape, of course.

There’s an oversight here, I think, because the ability doesn’t list a size limit for which creatures can be swallowed. I’d say Large or smaller is a good value for that.

The remorhaz can also Trample, moving its speed, crossing enemy spaces, and making a physical attack that damages and knocks prone against each enemy whose space it moves through.

That heated carapace can do more than project an aura, too. It can flare up in an Immolating Carapace attack (close burst 1 vs. Reflex; recharge 6) that deals fire damage and inflicts ongoing fire damage that lasts while the targets are adjacent to the beast. Yes, this stacks with the aura.

While the remorhaz is bloodied, it can also use Enraged Heat to deal automatic fire damage to someone who hits it in melee.

A good tactic for them seems to be to bite and swallow a PC who can’t put up much of a fight from the inside, and then run around trampling and roasting the rest with Immolating Carapace to prevent them from surrounding the remorhaz. An individual who’s only interested in a quick meal might even try to swallow a PC and run away to digest them.

Remorhazes being used as attack beasts by giants will be more ready to fight a battle to the end, and in that case they might wait to swallow a PC who falls to 0 HP. The others would need to kill the creature in order to heal their buddy. Welcome to epic level!

Sample Encounter and Final Impressions

The sample encounter is level 18: A frost giant acting as a beastmaster of sorts, accompanied by a remorhaz and a rime hound.

I confess that I had a bit of a hard time distinguishing between a remorhaz and a behir in earlier editions. The distinction is clearer to me now, but only because I spent some time studying their entries in detail.