Why do illithid and vampires not just wear Rings of Sustenance?

Eating brains directly helps mindflayers get stronger

Not quite sure about vampires, I imagine that the neutral ones do

Bitch, you think you can make and maintain these kind of gains with a Ring of Sustenance

Per citizen.

Adventurers can throw that kind of money around because they're the richest living fuckers around.

Mindflayers and vampires are high challenge rating enough to pay that going by wealth by level.

Taking this thread more seriously than it warrants:

Because by RAW, the ring does not grant sustenance to creatures that require something besides the "Create Food & Water" spell.

Fluff-wise, if one is willing to let the ring feed creatures with diets outside of "food and water", then 85% of vampires are Evil and get/give immense pleasure from feeding. Illlythids are psychos who like to eat brains and use them to nourish their psychic powers, etc.

We can understand sustenance in the diction of magic (differentiating the usage from the more poetic or metaphorical stylings) to be that which keeps a living being in existence i.e. alive and healthy i.e. suffering no ill effects from undernourishment. As such, a Ring of Sustenance provides that which would keep a living being alive and healthy.

We can clearly understand vampires to be previously living beings that have died and been reborn. The vampire's need for blood is not for sustenance of its corporeal form, but can be understood as a repeated, persistent offering prolonging the magics that stave off a permanent death for the vampire.

Similarly, while illithids do consume and digest the living brains of their prey via a gastrointestinal tract, illithids can inhabit and consume the brains of solely sapient species, from which we can infer that the biological components of the brain are not sufficient to nourish the illithid. Additionally, that sapience is necessary for the continuation of their psionic powers, which too indicates a need for living brain tissue that extends beyond the bounds of what can be considered "sustenance".

With these understandings in mind, it is clear to see that a Ring of Sustenance would fail to recognize the needs of vampires or illithids as presuppositions of "sustenance", and as such vampires or illithid wearers would not trigger its effects.

Q.E.D.

>Illithids
they WANT to eat brains to gain the intelligence and memories of those consumed and deliver it to the Elder Brain
>Vampires
They don't even need blood to survive. They are Undead and subsist on negative energy. It's just really tasty compulsion, and that compulsion would not go away with a mere Ring of Sustenance.

Why don't you just never eat food? this is why modern dnd is shit- it's less about the world of the game and more about optimization with you types.

They're clearly not talking about modern D&D, since they're implying the existience of either rings of sustenance or a magic mart.

>Because by RAW, the ring does not grant sustenance to creatures that require something besides the "Create Food & Water" spell.
False. RAW doesn't say anything of the sort, and leaves it at "life-sustaining nourishment".

>Buying magic items
It's not modern d&d

>vamps
Some do
>illithids
All of them do. But lemme tell you secret. They are assholes.

Illithid are psychic, not arcane. Vampires are cursed.

Because they're Evil. They can and purposefully don't because they like preying on normal people. How can that be so hard to understand?

That immediately explains why vampires don't use them, then - they need sustenance to sustain their unlife, not their life.

I do not believe that a vampire will run out into the sunlight to kick a dog and then explode, just because he's evil.

A fair number of vampires have been reported doing so, and Illithids don't because as been said they gain from it in more ways than mere sustenance.

What said. Do you know how many human slaves you can buy for the cost of a RoS?
And that's assuming you don't just grab some humans off the street (in the case of vampires) or just use slaves who aren't useful for labor anymore.

Even if you could afford the ring, that money can also be spend on other things - things that will keep you alive when adventurers show up to kill you.
Because i seriously doubt "b-but i have a Ring of Sustenance, i don't hurt humans!" will keep your local murderhobos from swording you in the face and taking your stuff.
It's okay after all, because you're evil by default.
And that's not even counting all the other monsters who'll also kill you if given a chance.
What's a better use for that 2,500gp, a RoS or a +1 sword? Or the better part of a Ring of Counterspells?

Heroic adventurers will murder you anyway because you're from an evil race.
They're not gonna ask first if you're really eating people.
They'll kill you, loot your corpse for any valuables and ask questions never.

Because fuck that item. One of the most busted items for it's gold value. You should rather ask why not all groups are fully equipped with it (pro tip, the only reason you can come up with is some fluff bullshit that does not make sense. If you are adventuring and it's important, there's no reason not to almost double your availiable time)

K3K

Because that's boring.

The mental image of this happening is strangely funny to me

>wasting xp building a ring when you can just eat people
Never going to make it brah

Honestly, they'd get more mileage out of the actual spell itself. I'm pretty sure you can conjure blood with Create Food and Water.

because whilst it sustains them, its like a diet of just peanuts. yes it sustains you but you still want more

Rings of Sustenance only provide sustenance . Nowhere does it say they curb cravings.

That’s just some gay mallgoth headcanon.

Why don't humans?

Illithids and vampires don't see you as people. You're just food. You don't worry about eating food. You don't seek out alternatives with magic to eating food.

You fucking eat it.

Who don't all humans just go full vegan and eat only peas and beans? You like your steak, you enjoy hunting the innocent animals the same way vampire enjoys the thrill of drinking the blood of human cattle.

>you enjoy hunting the innocent animals

Most people don’t. Hence why we have cattle farms and butchers.

>You don't worry about eating food.

Vegetarians and vegans do. Realistically there should be vampires that don't revel in eating other sapient beings just as there are humans who aren't comfortable eating lower orders of animal.

In my setting vampires are more bestial in nature. They don't drink blood just to survive they drink blood because they have an innate bloodlust and urge to dominate others. Even if a vampire could wear a ring of sustenance the urge to drink blood would still exist as he likes to hunt and dominate others, he likes to chase down some unfortunate person, drag them back to his lair and drain him of blood. Putting a ring of sustenance on a vampire is like putting a chastity belt on a compulsive masturbator, the urges still exist even if they don't NEED to partake in the urges.

because they enjoy eating people

Because it's DnD.

Because you're stuck in the past grandpa.

They can only wear two rings at the same time, and by design you can't just wear a ring of sustenance when you are hungry. When wearing a ring of sustenance to get rid of the minor problem of having to eat irrelevant creatures that serve only this one purpose, you aren't wearing a ring of wizardry, protection or energy resistance, that are vastly more useful and important to wear on all occasion as they allow you to survive your only natural predator (murderhobos).

Depends on the setting.

Have you tried not playing DnD?

Brains taste good.

I can't speak for blood, but I imagine it's similar.

Blood has a metallic taste to it, I now some people use it in cooking but drinking it raw probably wouldn't be enjoyable unless you were rewired to like it

You're familiar with the taste of brains, but not that of blood?

Not that user, and actually familiar with both, due to odd culinary adventures.

Head Cheese is...not my favorite kind of meat, although I have heard you can apparently prepare brain in other ways.

Blood is all right, but a little too strong on the iron taste for my, er, tastes - had it in blood pudding, blood sausage, et al, and don't generally care for it much either. Still, not unpalatable. Just a matter of personal preference.

As to weighing in on the subject of RoS and blood/brains, can't say -too- much on the vampire's defense that hasn't already been said, but I can add that, according to a few splatbooks about the Underdark, and about the Illithid race in particular, they actually have a fungal growth that nourishes them in place of the dietary needs of brain matter already. It's just, well, like eating the result of Myrlund's Spoon three meals a day - it'll hold body and soul together, and provide you with 100% of every nutrient your body requires, but gives you nothing you actually -want-.

Just throwing my spare change into the mix.

Well yeah, and a lot of writers work that plot angle. The "pacifist vampire" trope is pretty played out at this point. Why is this a discussion?

Which are the heroes going to kill first: the Vampire terrorizing the countryside, or the Vampire covered in magical rings?

By default I'd expect the vampire terrorizing the countryside, since people who aren't being terrorized are less likely to complain about the vampire or possibly less likely to know the vampire exists at all.

Hello, Clarice.

>Because i seriously doubt "b-but i have a Ring of Sustenance, i don't hurt humans!" will keep your local murderhobos from swording you in the face and taking your stuff.
Retard
It will because you're not eating people
And if you're not eating people then no one is raising an alarm about people going missing
And is there is no alarm there is no reason people are going to come into a village and randomly murder someone for their shit
At worst you'll fuck up some bandits and warlord and that's how word gets out you're a vampire. Meanwhile your town defends you because they know you haven't been killing anyone and are strong as fuck and can defend them and have been their rightful ruler for generations

Bzzzt wrong, the vampire covered in rings obviously has more loot.

i want those fangs on my dick

>thinking acting nice keeps murderhobos from invading your home
You sweet, naive summer child.

But they don't GET wealth by level. they get whatever theyhappen to take from whomever they've eaten recently. Not every adventure carries around a ring of sustenance. In fact, very few carry around such objects. There's also the possibility anything you take of an adventurer is cursed.

Because most people use rings of protection and rings of freedom of movement or other defensive rings. It's much more cost effective to have a cleric cast create food and water or to use a sustaining spoon.

>In fact, isn't sucking blood just sex for vampires?
Nope, you're just an idiot. If you ditch "needs to drink blood" then what you're talking about are not vampires.

transmiting your position to the world certainly doesn't help

Some of them do. But relying 100% on a magic ring that keeps you alive without ever experiencing gustatory pleasure gets pretty irritating, so they'll still probably be looking for any easy opportunity to splurge and have their preferred meal without raising suspicion.

The ring of sustenance is more important for vampires, since they mostly live in mortal society. Illithids usually have some sort of people-farm operation and/or take prisoners in wars the cause of which is usually not "Because you eat brains and we have brains". They need humans to reproduce too, after all (and as a biological species rather than immortal undead, they NEED to reproduce more than vampires NEED to sire) so it makes sense that their culture tries to keep the supply flowing. An Illithid sent to infiltrate surface humanity or camp a shitty-ass outpost, though? Ring is a go.

Vampires, okay.

I think illithids would get more than zero benefit from the rings on a strict bodily nourishment level, but might not provide an adequate psychic workout. Such creatures might not die of hunger while wearing a Ring of Sustenance, but could suffer cognitive impairment if they skip too many conventional meals.

How we go about creating a Ring of Gains?

>thinking magic will give you gains
>not pain, sweat, and tears
Mages man, always taking the cheap way out.

Cost: 5,000gp
Craft, 6 successful

Ingredients: 4lbs of wey protein powder, 4 tablespoons of Creatine, 2 balls of pure iron, Ability to cast enlarge person

A Ring of Gains is a small iron ring with a kettle or bar bell symbol on it. While wearing the ring, a humanoid creature gains +5 to all Str related checks, but is compelled to refer to all other people as "bruh" or "breh". In addition, they continually exude a faint odor of protein and chocolate

Unlike most magical items, creating a Ring of Gains comes with inherent risks. Any individual who is under the median highly for their species that attempts to create the ring risks turning into a wretched creature known as a "Swole Mole"

d20srd.org/srd/monsters/vampire.htm
>Blood Drain (Ex)
>A vampire can suck blood from a living victim with its fangs by making a successful grapple check. If it pins the foe, it drains blood, dealing 1d4 points of Constitution drain each round the pin is maintained. On each such successful attack, the vampire gains 5 temporary hit points.
d20srd.org/srd/typesSubtypes.htm#undeadType
>Undead do not breathe, eat, or sleep.

If you reply with "it doesn't say they don't need to drink!", see here:
d20srd.org/srd/typesSubtypes.htm#humanoidType
>Humanoids breathe, eat, and sleep.
It doesn't say ANYONE needs to drink, and if you just assume that, then there's nothing preventing vampires from drinking water.

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