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<blockquote data-quote="Cleon" data-source="post: 7967645" data-attributes="member: 57383"><p>Updating <a href="http://enworld.org/index.php?posts/7612822/" target="_blank"><strong>Mystaran Kraken Working Draft</strong></a>.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The original creature's has "G, H" treasure which isn't much better than an AD&D Kraken's "G, R, S (+A)" Considering it's so much more powerful than a Kraken, that implies it's got proportionally less loot – which I guess might be because the Mystaran variety is dimwitted compared to the Genius-level standard Kraken.</p><p></p><p>So I'm inclined to reduce the amount of treasure and, yes, I'd definitely mention that most of its loot is in its lair.</p><p></p><p>Maybe "Double Standard (<em>mostly in lair, only useful magic items will be carried</em>)"?</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I was fancying 65–96 HD (Colossal) since it's already ginormous enough for me, although I'd be content with the current draft's 65–128 HD.</p><p></p><p>How likely is it a 192 HD Kraken to see play anyway? At that size it's easier for a DM to just say "too big to harm with ordinary weapons" like some Spelljammer creatures that are treated as scenery or spelljammer ships rather than monsters.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Ugh! I too have a hard time with high-level CRs. The game is just broken at that level (well, it can start breaking down around the teens depending on the classes & gear the PCs can access).</p><p></p><p>Still, my gut is telling me "high 20s" rather than "low 30s". A simple <em>freedom of movement</em> spell negates its grappling ability and it doesn't have much else going for it apart from humongous size and damage output.</p><p></p><p>Put it this way, who would you rather face - this guy or <strong><a href="https://enworld.org/index.php?posts/7166684" target="_blank">Khalk'ru</a></strong>? Then consider we gave The Dissolver a CR of 25 after much agonizing debate. A creature that has twelve annihilating tentacle attacks, remember. The Mystaran Kraken seems a teddybear by comparison.</p><p></p><p>Hmm… did we give The Dissolver a too-low CR? I don't want to go back to that nest of thorns.</p><p></p><p>Let's see, a normal Kraken is CR 12. Its bigger Mystaran cousin has 52 more HD (+17) and is a size bigger (+1), which'd make him a nice round CR 30. However, he's real stupid and doesn't have any SLAs which might knock off a CR to 29.</p><p></p><p>That still feels a bit too high to me though, my gut feeling was the big guy's a CR 27 or 28 at most. I tend to guesstimate "big dumb brawler" monsters as being something like 3/5th their Hit Dice at epic levels, since they tend to have several (or many) easily exploitable weaknesses such as a weak Will save and vulnerability to <em>charm</em> spells or ability damage / energy-draining attacks. (Ability attacks are worse, since it usually has a couple of stats lower than 10 and knocking any of those down to 0 knocks it out of the fight).</p><p></p><p>2/5th HD for the Mystaran Kraken is CR 25 or 26 by the way, about what Khalk'ru has.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Cleon, post: 7967645, member: 57383"] Updating [URL='http://enworld.org/index.php?posts/7612822/'][B]Mystaran Kraken Working Draft[/B][/URL]. The original creature's has "G, H" treasure which isn't much better than an AD&D Kraken's "G, R, S (+A)" Considering it's so much more powerful than a Kraken, that implies it's got proportionally less loot – which I guess might be because the Mystaran variety is dimwitted compared to the Genius-level standard Kraken. So I'm inclined to reduce the amount of treasure and, yes, I'd definitely mention that most of its loot is in its lair. Maybe "Double Standard ([I]mostly in lair, only useful magic items will be carried[/I])"? I was fancying 65–96 HD (Colossal) since it's already ginormous enough for me, although I'd be content with the current draft's 65–128 HD. How likely is it a 192 HD Kraken to see play anyway? At that size it's easier for a DM to just say "too big to harm with ordinary weapons" like some Spelljammer creatures that are treated as scenery or spelljammer ships rather than monsters. Ugh! I too have a hard time with high-level CRs. The game is just broken at that level (well, it can start breaking down around the teens depending on the classes & gear the PCs can access). Still, my gut is telling me "high 20s" rather than "low 30s". A simple [I]freedom of movement[/I] spell negates its grappling ability and it doesn't have much else going for it apart from humongous size and damage output. Put it this way, who would you rather face - this guy or [B][URL='https://enworld.org/index.php?posts/7166684']Khalk'ru[/URL][/B]? Then consider we gave The Dissolver a CR of 25 after much agonizing debate. A creature that has twelve annihilating tentacle attacks, remember. The Mystaran Kraken seems a teddybear by comparison. Hmm… did we give The Dissolver a too-low CR? I don't want to go back to that nest of thorns. Let's see, a normal Kraken is CR 12. Its bigger Mystaran cousin has 52 more HD (+17) and is a size bigger (+1), which'd make him a nice round CR 30. However, he's real stupid and doesn't have any SLAs which might knock off a CR to 29. That still feels a bit too high to me though, my gut feeling was the big guy's a CR 27 or 28 at most. I tend to guesstimate "big dumb brawler" monsters as being something like 3/5th their Hit Dice at epic levels, since they tend to have several (or many) easily exploitable weaknesses such as a weak Will save and vulnerability to [I]charm[/I] spells or ability damage / energy-draining attacks. (Ability attacks are worse, since it usually has a couple of stats lower than 10 and knocking any of those down to 0 knocks it out of the fight). 2/5th HD for the Mystaran Kraken is CR 25 or 26 by the way, about what Khalk'ru has. [/QUOTE]
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