At the beginning of Guardians of the Galaxy 2, the guardians are fighting a massive interdimensional monster, The Abilisk. Since they seemingly can’t damage from outside, Drax jumps in its mouth. Ultimately, this didn’t work (though Drax thought it did).

But, does it work in D&D?

Monsters That Swallow

There’s not many monsters that can outright swallow a Player Character (PC) in 5th Edition. The core rules offer the Behir, Giant Toad, Purple Worm, Remorhaz, Tarrasque, Udaak (and the Banderhobb if we include Volo’s Guide to Monsters).

There’s a few other swallowing monsters in specific adventures, but we can focus on these six.

Considerations

When deciding whether to dive inside a monster’s gullet, there’s a few considerations:

• How much damage can I deal outside?
• How much damage can I deal inside?
• How much damage will I take inside?
• How much damage will I take outside?

Dealing Damage

First, you…