Release the Kraken! It's DONE!

[Debihuman]

Since I've been asked to stat up Davy Jones' Kraken, I thought I'd give a stab at making it an advanced giant squid. Now it's Complete!

Here is the standard giant squid.

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Giant Squid
Size/Type: Huge Animal (Aquatic)
Hit Dice: 12d8+18 (72 hp)
Initiative: +3
Speed: Swim 80 ft. (16 squares)
Armor Class: 17 (-2 size, +3 Dex, +6 natural), touch 11, flat-footed 14
Base Attack/Grapple: +9/+29
Attack: Tentacle +15 melee (1d6+8)
Full Attack: 10 tentacles +15 melee (1d6+8) and bite +10 melee (2d8+4)
Space/Reach: 15 ft./15 ft. (30 ft. with tentacle)
Special Attacks: Constrict 1d6+8, improved grab
Special Qualities: Ink cloud, jet, low-light vision
Saves: Fort +9, Ref +11, Will +5
Abilities: Str 26, Dex 17, Con 13, Int 1, Wis 12, Cha 2
Skills: Listen +10, Spot +11, Swim +16
Feats: Alertness, Diehard, Endurance, Toughness (2)
Environment: Temperate aquatic
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 9
Advancement: 13-18 HD (Huge); 19-36 HD (Gargantuan)
Level Adjustment: —

Combat

An opponent can attack a giant squid’s tentacles with a sunder attempt as if they were weapons. A giant squid’s tentacles have 10 hit points each. If a giant squid is currently grappling a target with the tentacle that is being attacked, it usually uses another limb to make its attack of opportunity against the opponent making the sunder attempt. Severing one of a giant squid’s tentacles deals 5 points of damage to the creature. A giant squid usually withdraws from combat if it loses five tentacles. The creature regrows severed limbs in 1d10+10 days.

Constrict (Ex): A giant squid deals 1d6+8 points of damage with a successful grapple check.

Improved Grab (Ex): To use this ability, a giant squid must hit an opponent of any size with a tentacle attack. It can then attempt to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity. If it wins the grapple check, it establishes a hold and can constrict. *A giant squid has a +4 racial bonus on grapple checks.

Ink Cloud (Ex): A giant squid can emit a cloud of jet-black ink 20 feet high by 20 feet wide by 20 feet long once per minute as a free action. The cloud provides total concealment, which the squid normally uses to escape a losing fight. All vision within the cloud is obscured.

Jet (Ex): A giant squid can jet backward once per round as a full-round action, at a speed of 320 feet. It must move in a straight line, but does not provoke attacks of opportunity while jetting.

Skills: A giant squid has a +8 racial bonus on any Swim check to perform some special action or avoid a hazard. It can always choose to take 10 on a Swim check, even if distracted or endangered. It can use the run action while swimming, provided it swims in a straight line.

Davy Jones' Kraken
Advanced Giant Squid
Gargantuan Animal (Aquatic)
Hit Dice: 36d8+114 (276 hp)
Initiative: +7 (+3 Dex, +4 Improved Initiative)
Speed: Swim 80 (16 squares)
Armor Class: 20 (-4 Size, +3 Dex, +11 Natural) Touch 9, Flat-footed 17
BAB/Grapple: +27/+51
Attack: Tentacle + 36 melee (1d8+12)
Full Attack: 10 Tentacles + 36 melee (1d8+12) and Bite +33 melee (3d8+6)
Space/Reach: 20 ft./20 ft. (40 ft. with tentacle)
Special Attacks: Constrict (1d8+12), improved grab
Special Qualities: Ink cloud, jet, low-light vision
Saves: Fort + 25, Ref +23, Will +13
Abilities: Str 34, Dex 17, Con 17, Int 1, Wis 12, Cha 2
Skills: Listen +18, Spot +19, Swim +24
Feats: Alertness, Combat Reflexes, Diehard, Dodge, Endurance, Great Fortitude, Improved Initiative, Multiattack, Power Attack, Snatch, Toughness (2), Weapon Focus (Tentacle)
Epic Feat: Dire Charge
Environment: Temperate aquatic
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 17
Advancement: None
Level Adjustment: —

Combat

An opponent can attack a giant squid’s tentacles with a sunder attempt as if they were weapons. A giant squid’s tentacles have 15 hit points each. If a giant squid is currently grappling a target with the tentacle that is being attacked, it usually uses another limb to make its attack of opportunity against the opponent making the sunder attempt. Severing one of a giant squid’s tentacles deals 10 points of damage to the creature. A giant squid usually withdraws from combat if it loses five tentacles. The creature regrows severed limbs in 1d10+10 days.

Constrict (Ex): An advanced giant squid deals 1d8+12 points of damage with a successful grapple check.

Dire Charge (Ex): With this epic feat, if the advanced giant squid charges a foe during the first round of combat (or the surprise round, if it is allowed to act in it), it can make a full attack against the opponent charged.

Improved Grab (Ex): To use this ability, a giant squid must hit an opponent of any size with a tentacle attack. It can then attempt to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity. If it wins the grapple check, it establishes a hold and can constrict. *A giant squid has a +4 racial bonus on grapple checks.

Ink Cloud (Ex): An advanced giant squid can emit a cloud of jet-black ink 25 feet high by 25 feet wide by 25 feet long once per minute as a free action. The cloud provides total concealment, which the squid normally uses to escape a losing fight. All vision within the cloud is obscured.

Jet (Ex): A giant squid can jet backward once per round as a full-round action, at a speed of 320 feet. It must move in a straight line, but does not provoke attacks of opportunity while jetting.

Snatch (Ex): With this feat, the advanced giant squid can can choose to start a grapple when it hits with a tentacle or bite attack. If the creature gets a hold on a creature three or more sizes smaller, it squeezes each round for automatic bite or tentacle damage. The advanced giant squid can drop a creature it has snatched as a free action or use a standard action to fling it aside. A flung creature travels 1d6 × 10 feet, and takes 1d6 points of damage per 10 feet traveled.

Skills: A giant squid has a +8 racial bonus on any Swim check to perform some special action or avoid a hazard. It can always choose to take 10 on a Swim check, even if distracted or endangered. It can use the run action while swimming, provided it swims in a straight line.

Designer Notes:

I'm taking DracoDei's suggestion and increasing the hit points to the tentacles to 15 and increasing the amount of damage to the creature to 10.

Instead of retreating at 50 hit points, it now retreats at 75. This reflects that this creature is stronger than the standard giant squid without going too far. The ratio of hit points in the tentacles to that of the body of the monster is lower but it didn't scale perfectly. 15 is a bit low but 20 is definitely too high. I erred on the side of low.

Since the creature is one size category larger, I added an extra 5 feet to the ink cloud to reflect this.

I also added the text for the Dire Charge epic feat and for the Snatch feat since those may not be as familiar to some DMs.

That should clarify some more abilities of this creature.

Debby

[DracoDei]

Haven't looked at the stat block hardly at all, but being able to force it to retreat with a mere 50 points of damage sounds wrong to me. Up the damage needed to sever a tentacle to at least 20, and perhaps as much as 40 if you want to make it really tough. For similar reasons of scaling, make the ink cloud a 40' cube instead of a 20' cube.

[Zeta Kai]

Well, it ain't epic, but it's epic-cool. I'm liking you designs for these, especially the philosophy behind the design. Many homebrewers would be tempted to make DJ level 20 or so, & his kraken some trans-epic monstrosity. I'm glad to see that you've resisted that foolish temptation, & given us monsters that can be used in many games in a realistic fashion. Double-kudos.

[Debihuman]

Thanks Zeta, that really means a lot to me.

I'd rather see a weaker but thoroughly balanced monster than some beefed up monstrocity with too many special abilities and bonus feats for its hit dice.

I updated Davy Jones' Kraken -- I realized it had one feat too many. I thought an epic creature was any creature that had 21 or more HD or is it CR of 21 or more?

As for DracoDei's suggestions: well, I was trying to advance it simply by the HD. The text is verbatim from that of a giant squid. That's somewhat the problem by advancement strictly by the book--not all features scale up. On the other hand, giving the tentacles 15 hit points each and making it retreat at 75 hit points isn't really a problem. And the increasing the ink cloud by an additional 5 feet makes a little more sense since that's what the size increase did.

BTW, thanks everyone for all your help with this.

Debby

[Cieyrin]

Just a thought but perhaps, besides being bigger, it could perhaps have more tentacles than your average kraken. i could be off base with that, though, as I'm not really up on my sailor mythology, it just seems that monstrous squid like Davy Jone's would perhaps be more than just a bigger, meaner version but one that is somewhat mutated to boot.

Them's my 2 coppers. Take as you will.

[Lord Loss]

I was planning on making one of the last adventures of my campaign (The PCs are level two at the moment...) a nautical journey! I was going to use intellignet zombie pirates with class level, fish-people, and a Giant Kraken.

Coughs POTC 1+2 COUGHS COUGHS!

This is Great!

[Debihuman]

Well in the movie, the kraken was just a gigantic squid and it didn't seem to have any mutations. That's what I was going for. Even in the movies, the squid retreated when it's tentacles were injured. The Snatch feat really clinched it for me.

That's not to say that you couldn't just use a standard kraken and advance it too or add mutations but those wouldn't jive with the monster in the movies which was what I wanted to do.

You can always add a template like Monster of Legend to make it bigger and badder, but I didn't think it needed a template. The Monster of Legend template makes the most sense. Just give it Frightful Presence, Damage Reduction 10/magic and Fast Healing or Enhanced Attributes (Greater Damage doesn't actually give it an increase so it's not a good one to use). The template adds a bunch of ability bonuses, more natural armor and bonuses to saves too and increase the CR by 2. Since the kraken is a gift from Calypso to Davy Jones this template makes the most sense.

It didn't seem to have any magical abilities in the movie other than it could be summoned by the Kraken bell and then commanded by Davy Jones.

Here's how it would look:

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Davy Jones' Kraken
Advanced Monster of Legend Giant Squid
Gargantuan Outsider (Native, Aquatic)
Hit Dice: 36d8+114 (276 hp)
Initiative: +10 (+6 Dex, +4 Improved Initiative)
Speed: Swim 80 (16 squares)
Armor Class: 28 (-4 Size, +6 Dex, +16 Natural) Touch 12, Flat-footed 22
BAB/Grapple: +27/+51
Attack: Tentacle + 36 melee (1d8+17)
Full Attack: 10 Tentacles + 36 melee (1d8+17) and Bite +33 melee (3d8+8)
Space/Reach: 20 ft./20 ft. (40 ft. with tentacle)
Special Attacks: Constrict (1d8+17), frightful presence, improved grab
Special Qualities: DR 10/magic, fast healing 5, Ink cloud, jet, low-light vision
Saves: Fort + 28, Ref +26, Will +16
Abilities: Str 44, Dex 23, Con 17, Int 3, Wis 14, Cha 4
Skills: Listen +18, Spot +19, Swim +24
Feats: Alertness, Combat Reflexes, Diehard, Dodge, Endurance, Great Fortitude, Improved Initiative(B), Multiattack(B), Mobility, Power Attack, Snatch, Toughness (2), Weapon Focus (Tentacle)
Epic Feat: Dire Charge
Environment: Temperate aquatic
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 19
Advancement: None
Level Adjustment: —

Combat

An opponent can attack a giant squid’s tentacles with a sunder attempt as if they were weapons. This advanced giant squid’s tentacles have 15 hit points each. If this giant squid is currently grappling a target with the tentacle that is being attacked, it usually uses another limb to make its attack of opportunity against the opponent making the sunder attempt. Severing one of this giant squid’s tentacles deals 10 points of damage to the creature. A giant squid usually withdraws from combat if it loses five tentacles. The creature regrows severed limbs in 1d10+10 days.

Constrict (Ex): An advanced monster of legend giant squid deals 1d8+17 points of damage with a successful grapple check.

Dire Charge (Ex): With this epic feat, if the advanced giant squid charges a foe during the first round of combat (or the surprise round, if it is allowed to act in it), it can make a full attack against the opponent charged.

Frightful Presence (Ex): When a monster of legend makes a loud sound (a roar, growl, or other sound appropriate to its form), it inspires terror in all creatures within 20 feet that have fewer Hit Dice or levels than it has. Each potentially affected opponent must succeed at a Will save (DC 10 + ½ monster of legend’s Hit Dice + monster of legend’s Charisma modifier) or become shaken—a condition that lasts until the opponent is out of range. A successful save leaves that opponent immune to that monster of legend’s frightful presence for 24 hours

Improved Grab (Ex): To use this ability, a giant squid must hit an opponent of any size with a tentacle attack. It can then attempt to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity. If it wins the grapple check, it establishes a hold and can constrict. *A giant squid has a +4 racial bonus on grapple checks.

Ink Cloud (Ex): An advanced giant squid can emit a cloud of jet-black ink 25 feet high by 25 feet wide by 25 feet long once per minute as a free action. The cloud provides total concealment, which the squid normally uses to escape a losing fight. All vision within the cloud is obscured.

Jet (Ex): A giant squid can jet backward once per round as a full-round action, at a speed of 320 feet. It must move in a straight line, but does not provoke attacks of opportunity while jetting.

Snatch (Ex): With this feat, the advanced giant squid can choose to start a grapple when it hits with a tentacle or bite attack. If the creature gets a hold on a creature three or more sizes smaller, it squeezes each round for automatic bite or tentacle damage. The advanced giant squid can drop a creature it has snatched as a free action or use a standard action to fling it aside. A flung creature travels 1d6 × 10 feet, and takes 1d6 points of damage per 10 feet traveled.

Skills: A giant squid has a +8 racial bonus on any Swim check to perform some special action or avoid a hazard. It can always choose to take 10 on a Swim check, even if distracted or endangered. It can use the run action while swimming, provided it swims in a straight line.

Notes: I didn't recalculate saves since monsters of legend get a flat +3 bonus; added two feats (Dodge and Mobility) because Improved Initiative and Multiattack are now bonus feats.

Debby

[Cieyrin]

Alright, fair enough. I'm not a big fan of Pirates after the first movie, so whatevs. From when I watched it, your original rendition is probably a good approximation. The only thing I wonder is how well this thing will tear apart ships and how quickly. I unfortunately can't look up typical ship stats right now, as I don't have access to my Arms and Equipment Guide to check hardness and hp totals per boat section. -_-

[Debihuman]

Let's make this a standard sailing ship [80 feet long and 20 feet wide] or galley [130 feet by 20]. According to Arms & Equipment: each 10x10 section the typical sailing ship has 50 hp and a hardness of 5; the rigging has 80 hp and hardness of 0.

A full attack where only half the tentacles hit and not including the bite and even at minimum damage you are looking at the creature doling out 65 points of damage (less the 5 for the hardness) for 60 hit points. That's plenty to destroy one section of the ship. That's doing absolute minimal damage where the DM rolls five 1s for damage.

If you look at a galley, each 10x10 section has 80 hp and hardness of 5 and its rigging is 160 hp and 0 hardness.

Giving the same odds [only 5 tentacles attack successfully] but allowing it to dole out average damage, the kraken does 80 points of damage less the 5 for hardness for a total of 75 points of damage. That's nearly half. Of course that assumes the bite wasn't successful. The bite on average does 19 points of damage.

The odds are that the kraken will get a surprise round as it comes up underneath the vessel and due to its dire charge feat it can make a full attack.

Debby

[Cieyrin]

I'm not particularly worried about the Kraken missing, as it's a ship, at least size class Huge, if not bigger. Unless it's got a legendary captain or something on board, it's probably gonna hit anything it wants, as size penalty + dex 0 = abysmal AC. More than likely, on that Dire Charge, the Kraken is gonna make a full power attack, just ripping it to utter shreds and little pieces of drift wood. At full Pow, your Kraken will still have +11 to attack, which'll easily hit any section of the ship it feels like ruinating, as from a brief look at Stormwrack (which slipped my mind would be the obvious place to look for naval combat and ship stats <_<;;) shows that the best ship ACs are at 5 and generally much worse, even to being negative, so unless that poor kraken has some terrible dice luck, it's not having any issue at getting through the tough outer shell to the gooey crew filling inside.

Why I doubted your Kraken's ship destructing abilities, I'm not sure ~_~. 10 attacks of 1d8+39 against a paltry hardness of 5 of wooden ships has the Kraken unworried. It's when the gnomes come in steam-powered Ironclads that I'll start wondering, when it has real hardness and hp to attempt to chew through.

Them's my 2 coppers. Take as you will.

[Asheram]

Well... If doing it proper to legends, then he'd be about 14 km long so. :P

[Anxe]

Shouldn't it be able to swallow things whole?

[Debihuman]

First, I'm not doing this proper to "legends" but even if I were, the legends really never have anyone being eaten. It destroys ships by tearing them apart with its tentacles. Here's a picture from the movie:

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Here's a picture from the Verne novel 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea:

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Both of these pictures are care of Wikipedia.

Earlier legends put the kraken more like an island a mile and a half across but later legends decrease its size and make more like a squid. Most of these legends are Scandinavian in origin.

Then there's this poem:

Below the thunders of the upper deep;
Far far beneath in the abysmal sea,
His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep
The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights flee
About his shadowy sides; above him swell
Huge sponges of millennial growth and height;
And far away into the sickly light,
From many a wondrous grot and secret cell
Unnumber'd and enormous polypi
Winnow with giant arms the slumbering green.
There hath he lain for ages, and will lie
Battening upon huge seaworms in his sleep,
Until the latter fire shall heat the deep;
Then once by man and angels to be seen,
In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die.

-- Alfred, Lord Tennyson

However, none of the legends really portray the kraken swallowing its victims whole. Mostly it destroys ships and drowns its victims, which it presumably eats later. It's quite possible that the kraken isn't a man-eater at all but is just just very territorial and views sailing ships a threat.

Debby

[Cieyrin]

Big Squid No Like Floating Things In Tub Water! Big Squid Smash Floating Things!