Kraken Trouble

So, I've got a party of 4 mixed between level 11 and level 12. The party is currently sailing across the sea. Looking for an interesting combat encounter, I saw the Kraken. Now I've never run one before but the more I'm looking at it, the more I think that the fight is unwinnable if not unsurvivable. The Kraken has an int of 21, so I see the Kraken casting Control Weather, sliding up underneath the boat and picking off sailors and/or PCs like after dinner mints.

Now, the monster manual suggests you can sunder the arms and tentacles. But looking at the sunder rules, I can't see how you'd beat the opposed attack rolls. The Kraken has a +35 to the roll! Jumping into the water to fight the body seems like a good way to die a horrible death.

How do you beat, nay survive, this thing!?
 

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The Hypertext entry on Kraken (don't have books here) says you can make a sunder attempt as if the tentacles and arms are weapons. It then lists the HP for each. When severed they deal damage to the Kraken. After losing both tentacles or 3 arms it flees. Likely the PCs won't kill it, they drive it away for 1d10+10 days.

Link here

Since the Kraken can speak common, it may try to hold the ship hostage at first. Maybe grab the captain as a bargaining chip. I don't have a 21 Int, so I don't know exactly what the Kraken would do.


EDIT: I went back over the sunder rules for 3.5. I am not sure how the PCs can beat that thing. Uh.. PCs enlarge the main melee guy to lower the size category buff?
 
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The Kraken, hiding under the vessel, is attacking blind. Worse, he doesn't even know which square to attack into. The MM doesn't list him as having any form of Blindsight or Blindsense, so the tactic you suggest simply won't work for him.

You want him to win? He spots the ship at twilight (when he can see a great distance) and approaches. If the lookout doesn't spot him (your call) he can simply reach up and take one sailor, then flee. His "Jet Away" movement is faster than the ship, and likely faster than anything the PCs can match (280 feet per round, as a full round action). And if he follows until dark, then he's out of sight in a single round, possibly before anyone even knows that he's struck.

Come back later and repeat. This kind of grab and go is all but unstoppable.

PCs to fight it? Summon draining, non-corporeal undead. The Kraken has no defense. He's big and strong, but his limbs aren't "magic", so he can't harm them at all.

If he attacks during the day he's far easier to spot, but the undead trick won't work.

Note that Kraken don't simply take people for food, they take slaves as well.

So don't run him as a single battle. He takes someone important, like the ship's navigator or captain, or some passenger who would be considered important.

Party sees Kraken jetting through the sea, with the victim being held aloft, out of the water, so they don't drown.

Now you have the basis of an adventure. Don't run the Kraken as a single combat monster. He's a Big-Bad, powerful, intelligent, with a lair (that's where the treasure is anyway). He's a ruler of the seas, the way a Dragon is a ruler of the skies. Force the PCs to work for it. Give a grand foe like this the respect he deserves.
 

I remember using one of these once from 3.5. Basically a giant badass. I asked three of my players who fought one briefly, and here are their replies:

Player 1) Flee or die. Polymorph into fish and try to swim away (go for small fish, and hide over speed).
Player 2) Get in good with a deity of your choice just before you die.
Player 3) Suggests you have it flee after taking some damage, otherwise he thinks they'll lose.
 

I've not seen a Kraken in action, but I'm not sure how difficult this battle would be. Reading off SRD Here.

His tentacles have 20hp each, the short arms have 10hp, AC of 20, Touch AC of 6. beating 2 tentacles or 3 short, weaker arms results in winning the encounter.

With a touch AC of 6, how hard can it be to deal 20 points of damage 2 times, or 10 points of damage three times? Low level damage spells should accomplish this.

Is there something I'm missing?
 
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Is there something I'm missing?

I'm not sure the arms can be targeted separately. They can be sundered, but the touch AC refers to the whole kraken. Attacking a tentacle or arm without a sunder attempt would just damage the whole kraken with 290 HP. Without sundering it would be like trying to slice the arm off a human, the rules just take damage to the whole creature.
 

Let's walk through the battle.

Kraken is, let's say, 40 feet away from the ship and under water, looking up at the vessel.

When the Kraken attacks, it reaches up and strikes at someone. On a miss, he'll withdraw his tentacle, no Sunder opportunity. If he hits, (which at +28 melee is very likely) he grapples, and at +44 on the Grapple check it's a fair bet he'll win that contest. Because the Kraken is a genius (21 Int) he knows the rules that say a grappled opponent is drawn into your square, so he does that. Grappled opponent is free to oppose or attack, if he happens to have a weapon in hand to attack with, one that can be wielded when grappled.

Under the Suffocation rules, the character can survive under water for one round per CON point *IF HE WAS HOLDING HIS BREATH* when immersed. That means no verbal communication, no casting of spells with verbal components, etc. If not holding his breath, or after the "one round per CON point" is finished, CON checks come into play. First one failed puts them at zero HP, and they're pretty much dead.

the entire battlefield is "Threatened" by the Kraken, so be careful with spell casting or the use of ranged weapons. That one AoO you provoke could be your last. Note that archers and spell casters seldom have a secondary, tiny weapon in hand that might give them a chance to attack and injure the Kraken.

Spell casting while grappled has a base Concentration check of 20, plus spell level, plus damage being done by the grapple. 2D8 + 12 automatic to grappled targets, so call it 21 per round. So D-Door has a Concentration DC of 45 and Teleport is worse. Plus, of course, you're casting under water, which means that you are ending any hope of "holding your breath" when you speak the verbal component of that spell.

The surface of the water blocks "line of effect" for a lot of spells, so direct damage spells are pretty much out. He's got a Fort Save of +21, a Will Save of +13 and a Reflex Save (least likely to apply) of +12.

In a straight fight by daylight, the Kraken is a bleeding nightmare of an opponent. If he attacks by night, when he can move beyond even the best Darkvision range in a single round (taking your friends with him), it's all but hopeless.

But say he decides on something other than "Hey-Diddle-Diddle, Right up the Middle" as an attack strategy. Instead it tries to use its once-per-day Control Weather to batter your ship, or to simply becalm it so it can't maneuver. Now you're a sitting duck.

He can also Dominate Animal once per day and recruit something like a Narwhale or similar creature to help it attack the ship's hull, directly. Bodies floundering the water are an all-you-can-eat buffet for someone like him.

Yeah, the arms and tentacles are relatively easy to Sunder. But you have to be in a position to attack while they're in reach. And as soon as he realizes that his opponents are using Ready Action to get a swing in he switches targets, or simply backs off until he can get a fresh round of Surprise. He has all day, and you'll run out of defensive buffs eventually.

Run intelligently, this guy is every bit as dangerous as a Dragon. Worse, in fact, since the book says that Dragons don't favor snatch/grapple attacks, and that's what this guy is made for. The theoretical "Uses 25% of resources" that's supposed to happen in an even match, (Party level v Encounter Level) isn't everyone being down 25% of their hit points. Its 25% of the party, dead.
 

The surface of the water blocks "line of effect" for a lot of spells, so direct damage spells are pretty much out. He's got a Fort Save of +21, a Will Save of +13 and a Reflex Save (least likely to apply) of +12.

Aquatic Terrain

Attacks from Land
Characters swimming, floating, or treading water on the surface, or wading in water at least chest deep, have improved cover (+8 bonus to AC, +4 bonus on Reflex saves) from opponents on land. Landbound opponents who have freedom of movement effects ignore this cover when making melee attacks against targets in the water. A completely submerged creature has total cover against opponents on land unless those opponents have freedom of movement effects. Magical effects are unaffected except for those that require attack rolls (which are treated like any other effects) and fire effects.
 

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