D&D 3E/3.5 Kraken Variants

[freyar]

Aha! We should stat out an "upate" sometime.

"Interdimensional Suggestion" seems to have the right flavor.

Any other thoughts for our tentacly Old One?

 

[Cleon]

Aha! We should stat out an "upate" sometime.

Your primitive mortal mind would not be able to comprehend the terror of that entity.

"Interdimensional Suggestion" seems to have the right flavor.

Updating the Khalk'ru Working Draft.

Any other thoughts for our tentacly Old One?

I'm OK moving on to the additional feats from its higher HD and Intelligence.

The original monster is so bare-bones it seems inappropriate piling on that much more in the way of special powers on it.

A simple and effective choice would be Dire Charge plus four Quicken Spell-Like Ability feats. With CL 20 it can quicken its chaos hammer, enervation, greater dispel magic, nightmare and mass suggestion spell-like abilities plus a few others that don't seem terribly useful as swift actions.

Of those five possibilities I'd drop chaos hammer, making the selection Quicken Spell-Like Ability (enervation, greater dispel magic, nightmare, mass suggestion).

If you'd like some different feat choices for the rest, my order-of-preference for the four remaining SLAs is enervation, nightmare, greater dispel magic and finally mass suggestion.

 

[freyar]

I'd be happy with Dire Charge and the 4 Quicken SLAs you suggest.

I would just add to the Aspect's tactics. Maybe something like this:
Khalk'ru typically opens combat by making a Dire Charge at its most powerful opponent, grabbing and constricting if they survive. It then uses its Cleave and Combat Reflexes feats to try to hit as many opponents as possible and affect them with its touch of destruction ability, using quickened spell-like abilities at the same time. Khalk'ru uses its other spell-like abilities either in preparation for combat or if some opponents survive its initial onslaught without succumbing to its Maddening Presence and becoming Khalk'ru's ally and worshiper.

 

[Cleon]

I'd be happy with Dire Charge and the 4 Quicken SLAs you suggest.

Updating the Khalk'ru Working Draft.

I would just add to the Aspect's tactics. Maybe something like this:

Khalk'ru typically opens combat by making a Dire Charge at its most powerful opponent, grabbing and constricting if they survive. It then uses its Cleave and Combat Reflexes feats to try to hit as many opponents as possible and affect them with its touch of destruction ability, using quickened spell-like abilities at the same time. Khalk'ru uses its other spell-like abilities either in preparation for combat or if some opponents survive its initial onslaught without succumbing to its Maddening Presence and becoming Khalk'ru's ally and worshiper.

The basic concepts are OK but the phrasing is a bit clunky. Also, I think Maddening Presence makes more sense in the background info since 1d4 ability damage is hardly likely to knock down an opponent's Wisdom in one hit.

How about:

Khalk'ru typically opens combat by using Dire Charge and Great Cleave to try to strike as many opponents as possible with its tentacles while simultaneously barraging them with quickened spell-like abilities. If an enemy does not dissolve to Khalk'ru's touch of destruction the octopoid abomination switches to constriction attacks and its other spell-like abilities.

 

[freyar]

Those tactics will be fine. But I don't see anything in Maddening Presence that limits it to 1d4 drain --- you have to make a save to be immune for 24 hours, so, if you fail the first save, you can fail and fail again.

 

[Cleon]

Those tactics will be fine. But I don't see anything in Maddening Presence that limits it to 1d4 drain --- you have to make a save to be immune for 24 hours, so, if you fail the first save, you can fail and fail again.

Oh right, I was remembering that the Interdimensional Suggestion involves exposure to its maddening presence as a once-per-long-time deal and thought the time limit was generic.

Actually, we forgot to include that bit in the Special Ability…

How about.

Khalk'ru typically opens combat by using Dire Charge and Great Cleave to try to strike as many opponents as possible with its tentacles while simultaneously barraging them with quickened spell-like abilities. If an enemy does not dissolve to Khalk'ru's touch of destruction the octopoid abomination switches to constriction attacks and its other spell-like abilities. When Khalk'ru is presented with opponents too feeble to pose a threat it occasionally holds off annihilating them and merely waits for its maddening presence special attack to transform those creatures into its insane worshipers.

Also:

Interdimensional Suggestion (Sp): Once per week, Khalk'ru may use suggestion as a spell-like ability on a creature located on a different plane of existence, provided that the target creature knows of Khalk'ru's existence. This exposes the suggestion's target to Khalk'ru's maddening presence ability (see below).

 

[freyar]

I like it!

I will guess you have some thoughts on description and background. As you say, there isn't a lot to go on. Maybe we can just extend what we did for the aspect a little.

I just noticed an inconsistency --- the single attack has a 3d8 tentacle, but the full attack has 2d8 tentacles. And it only has a +15 Str bonus to the tentacle damage, while the aspect has the 1-1/2 Str bonus. I think I'd go with the +22 bonus, but I'm divided on whether we should actually increase to 3d8 damage (which I'm guessing is a typo).

So that leaves CR. I'm just eyeballing somewhere in the 24-26 range. Do you agree?

 

[Cleon]

I like it!

Updating the Khalk'ru Working Draft.

I will guess you have some thoughts on description and background. As you say, there isn't a lot to go on. Maybe we can just extend what we did for the aspect a little.

I don't have anything specific worked out. There's some things in the original novel we could crib from, like the "magic items" made of yellow glass used by the cult of Khalk'ru (a ring, altar and a giant "window"), which are used in combination to summon Khalk'ru to the Prime Material Plane.

I just noticed an inconsistency --- the single attack has a 3d8 tentacle, but the full attack has 2d8 tentacles. And it only has a +15 Str bonus to the tentacle damage, while the aspect has the 1-1/2 Str bonus. I think I'd go with the +22 bonus, but I'm divided on whether we should actually increase to 3d8 damage (which I'm guessing is a typo).

They should both be 3d8+15.

3d8 because it's a size larger than the Aspect which has 2d8 tentacles. The damage bonus is only 1 times Str because that's the standard rule for multiple primary attacks.

So that leaves CR. I'm just eyeballing somewhere in the 24-26 range. Do you agree?

It's very hard to tell. It's got plenty of devastating attacks but is a bit weak on defence. CR 25 is as good as any other arbitrary number.

Speaking of defenses, we need to upgrade the spell resistance as it's still only got the aspect's SR 25.

Maybe SR 35?

 

[freyar]

3d8+15 works for me!

I can agree to SR 35 also (to go with CR 25).

So I guess we need to move to the description and flavor.

 

[Cleon]

3d8+15 works for me!

I can agree to SR 35 also (to go with CR 25).

Updating the Khalk'ru Working Draft.

So I guess we need to move to the description and flavor.

Yup!