Converting "Real World" Animals and Vermin

[demiurge1138]

Let's drop it.

 

[Cleon]

An octo-jelly is 9 feet long and 5 feet across, weighing about x pounds. (Most deep sea creatures lack weight, so we can drop it if you'd like)

We could safely drop the weight, but there's no harm in sticking 1000 pounds in there if we wanted to, or whatever other weight we fancy. After all, if the PCs learn Octo-Jelly flesh is a delicacy they'll want to know how many coppers it sells for per pound, and how much of it there is on the corpse.

I'd have kept the luminous ink cloud (just said it glowed in the description rather than being black, but keeping the properties the same), but it works just the same without it.

Apart from that, it looks fine & finished to me.

 

[Shade]

I changed "jet-black" to "luminous" in the ink spray writeup.

Next...

Octo-Hide
CLIMATE/TERRAIN: Ocean depths
FREQUENCY: Rare
ORGANIZATION: Solitary
ACTIVE TIME: Any
DIET: Carnivore
INTELLIGENCE: Animal (1)
TREASURE: Nil
ALIGNMENT: Neutral
NO. APPEARING: 1
ARMOR CLASS: 8
MOVEMENT: Sw 12
HIT DICE: 10
THAC0: 11
NO. OF ATTACKS: 1 or special
DAMAGE/ATTACK: 2d6
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Cold generation
SPECIAL DEFENSES: Continuous damage, luminous cloud, immune to cold
Magic Resistance: Nil
SIZE: H (20’ across)
MORALE: Fearless (20)(see below)
XP VALUE: 4,000

The octo-hide, a relative of the octo-jelly, is a bottom-dwelling octopus fo the deepest oceans. Enormous in size (20 feet or more across), with comparatively short, webbed tentacles, it might be of any color and changes hues frequently.

The octo-hide will try to get close enough to bite the prey. To disable prey so it can close in for the kill, each round it can generate a cone of cold 10 feet wide and 30 feet long that inflicts 3d6 points of damage (save vs. spell for half). The octo-hide itself is immune to all cold-based attacks. The beak inflicts 2d6 points of damage. On a beak hit, the octo-hide’s tentacles wrap around the prey so that no further attack rolls are necessary.

The octo-hide is ferocious, but if the battle goes against it (the creature loses 75% of its hit points), the octo-hide retreats, releasing any prey and covering its withdrawal with the same sort of blinding cloud as the octo-jelly (lose initiative and -2 on defense for one full turn). The octo-hide’s cloud is 40 feet high by 60 feet wide by 60 feet long.

Octo-hides are solitary, due to the difficulty of finding a stable supply of food for more than one octo-hide in a small area. The octo-hide mating season is brief, and the eggs are abandoned as soon as they are laid. The octo-hide preys on both swimmers and bottom-crawlers. Its ink is used in much the same way as that of an octo-jelly, and has the same value as a scroll-ink ingredient.

Originally appeared in Dragon Magazine #235 (1996).

 

[freyar]

Magical beast, then. Cone of cold as SLA or something like a breath weapon? Think it should have a camouflage ability to go with the changing color, or just make that flavor text?

 

[Shade]

Yeah, I think it has to be a magical beast.

I think a simple cold-based cone-shaped breath weapon will suffice.

The regular octopus Hide bonus based on color-changing is probably enough.

 

[Cleon]

Yeah, I think it has to be a magical beast.

I think a simple cold-based cone-shaped breath weapon will suffice.

The regular octopus Hide bonus based on color-changing is probably enough.

I was thinking the same on all those points, so I agree with your exquisite judgement.

Since it's basically an Octo-Jelly upsized by one category, we can just apply size advancement to the 'Jelly's abilities, give it 10 HD and convert it to a Magical Beast. That would change its stats as follows:

Octopus, Octo-Hide
Huge Magical Beast (Aquatic)
Hit Dice: 10d10+40 (95 hp)
Initiative: +1
Speed: 20 ft. (4 squares), swim 30 ft.
Armor Class: 12 (–2 size, +1 Dex, +3 natural), touch 9, flat-footed 11
Base Attack/Grapple: +10/+26*
Attack: Bite +16 melee (2d6+9)
Full Attack: Bite +16 melee (2d6+9)
Space/Reach: 15 ft./15 ft.
Special Attacks: Cone of cold, constrict 1d8+8, improved grab
Special Qualities: Blind, immunity to cold, ink cloud, low-light vision, tremorsense 60 ft.
Saves: Fort +13, Ref +8, Will +4
Abilities: Str 26, Dex 13, Con 18, Int 1, Wis 12, Cha 3
Skills: Escape Artist +11, Hide +7, Listen +9, Move Silently +11, Swim +16 plus 2 more points
Feats: Great Fortitude, Skill Focus (Hide), Stealthy plus one more feat

According to standard advancement it should have bite 2d8 instead of 2d6, but the original has the latter.

I'd put its extra skill points in Hide and give it a higher racial bonus in that skill - it is called an Octo-Hide, after all.

What do you fancy for the extra feat?

Should we give it the Cold subtype instead of immunity to cold?

Does that look OK to you.

All it leaves is the Cone of Cold attack.

 

[Shade]

Added to Homebrews.

I agree with your assessments of Cold subtype and a greater Hide bonus. +10?

Weapon Focus or Improved Initiative for the additional feat?

 

[Cleon]

Added to Homebrews.

I agree with your assessments of Cold subtype and a greater Hide bonus. +10?

Weapon Focus or Improved Initiative for the additional feat?

I was thinking about doubling it to +12 to give it Hide +15, but a racial bonus of +10 is fine. That gives it a respectable +13 score in Hide - unlucky for those that encounter it! Either works for me.

As for the feats, I guess Weapon Focus works better for me than Improved Initiative, but neither add much to its wrestle & bite strategy.

Maybe something thematically appropriate for survival in its harsh environment, like Endurance?

 

[freyar]

Imp Init or Ability Focus on the breath weapon, maybe.

 

[Shade]

Ability Focus isn't a bad idea, since it relies on its breath weapon to debilitate prey.