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<blockquote data-quote="FormerlyHemlock" data-source="post: 6725370" data-attributes="member: 6787650"><p>It's still not all that terrifying though, because here's the thing about a monster with boundaries: the PCs never have to face it unprepared. If the kraken is restricted to water only, there is (probably) nothing stopping the PCs from conjuring up half a dozen water elementals (6000 gp and Planar Binding over the course of a day or so of prep time) and as many Reef Sharks as the druid/whomever can Conjure, which is enough meat with enough speed (in conjunction with the PCs' own actions during combat) to overcome the kraken's own meatsackness. It's not that I wouldn't find a kraken in my face scary--it's that I don't really find <em>anything</em> truly scary without the ability to seize the initiative and dictate pace. "Whoa, kraken in my face! I take 80 HP of damage. I'm down to 17 HP. I grab Eladriel and then Dimension Door us straight up and then Feather Fall us back down while we talk things through." That was alarming, sure, and I could have died--but it was not truly scary compared to scary things.</p><p></p><p>Dragons on the other hand are scary. At least, the dragons in my game are scary--standard MM dragons except they all have class levels in Dragon Sorcerer, which is thematic and also enhances their lethality and unpredictability by up to an order of magnitude, ironically without much affecting their CR (per DMG rules). But if I'm a PC and I think a dragon is out to get me, that keeps me up at nights in a way that a kraken never could. I have three real options: change my name and flee the country, hunt it down and kill it first, or die in my sleep, possibly tonight. All of those options stink.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="FormerlyHemlock, post: 6725370, member: 6787650"] It's still not all that terrifying though, because here's the thing about a monster with boundaries: the PCs never have to face it unprepared. If the kraken is restricted to water only, there is (probably) nothing stopping the PCs from conjuring up half a dozen water elementals (6000 gp and Planar Binding over the course of a day or so of prep time) and as many Reef Sharks as the druid/whomever can Conjure, which is enough meat with enough speed (in conjunction with the PCs' own actions during combat) to overcome the kraken's own meatsackness. It's not that I wouldn't find a kraken in my face scary--it's that I don't really find [I]anything[/I] truly scary without the ability to seize the initiative and dictate pace. "Whoa, kraken in my face! I take 80 HP of damage. I'm down to 17 HP. I grab Eladriel and then Dimension Door us straight up and then Feather Fall us back down while we talk things through." That was alarming, sure, and I could have died--but it was not truly scary compared to scary things. Dragons on the other hand are scary. At least, the dragons in my game are scary--standard MM dragons except they all have class levels in Dragon Sorcerer, which is thematic and also enhances their lethality and unpredictability by up to an order of magnitude, ironically without much affecting their CR (per DMG rules). But if I'm a PC and I think a dragon is out to get me, that keeps me up at nights in a way that a kraken never could. I have three real options: change my name and flee the country, hunt it down and kill it first, or die in my sleep, possibly tonight. All of those options stink. [/QUOTE]
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