Kraken Variants

[freyar]

Aberration makes sense to me.

Let's start with abilities. Are any of the rest of those from the old conversions ok?

 

[Cleon]

Aberration makes sense to me.

Yeah, let's keep them Aberrations.

Let's start with abilities. Are any of the rest of those from the old conversions ok?

Don't care for most of the original abilities scores.

Firstly, I'd prefer a lower Strength.

I have a mental image of them possessing physiques similar to a decadent human nobleman. If, say, a female's Strength 43, then if you reverse-size-increase that down to Medium they're built like a humanoid with Str 19. That seems too burly to me.

Also, the AD&D originals don't do that much damage for something so big. A female's tentacles do 1d8 plus constrict 2d6; the male's tentacles are 1d4 plus constrict 1d10. They both can punch for 1d10 (twice), trample for 1d100 and wield normal-damage weapons in their tentacles without any bonuses (e.g. 1d10 for katanas).

The fact that their most deadly attack by far, doing roughly ten times the damage, is stepping on things, could indicate they're pretty wimpy, but really heavy!

By comparison, an AD&D kraken's boneless limbs are WAY stronger. Its tentacles do 3d6 and its arms do 2d6, with constrict 3d6.

Furthermore, the fact the female does the same damage punching, trampling and weapon-wielding suggests it's only her TENTACLES that are more powerful, and the rest of her body may be no stronger than a male, just a lot tougher.

I'd rather give them both a Strength similar to a standard 3E Kraken, maybe even a bit lower. Perhaps Str 35 (+12)?

This is a creature that mid level parties encountered in an adventure, remember. It's meant to be way too tough for them to defeat conventionally, but it doesn't need to be Challenge 30+ to obliterate them.

 

[Cleon]

Next, the old conversion has Dexterity 11, which seems way too low to me.

The original flawlessly coordinates two humanoid arms and seven tentacles at the same time, attacking with no penalties.

That doesn't suggest Dex 11 to me!

That degree of multiweapon coordination is on par with a Marilith, which has Dex 19.

Just because whoever designed the 3E Kraken decided to give it Dex 10 (which makes no sense to me) doesn't mean we have to make the Krakentua as clumsy.

I'd rather have it be Dex 17 like a Giant Squid, which feels way more reasonable.

Constitution we've already decided on.

Intelligence can stay 17, the same as the original monster.

Wisdom is bizarrely high.

Why does the old version give females Wis 27 and males Wis 25? I don't see anything in the description to suggest they're particularly sagacious or perceptive. Indeed, they are arrogant tyrants, which isn't a personality often associated with wisdom! The don't need it to make up for a poor base saving throw, since Aberrations have good Will saves.

I'd cut those numbers down to something more modest, although I haven't decided how modest yet.

Charisma should be good. I'm OK with the current figures. Would be happy to bump the male up to 20 to match a standard Kraken and maybe even giving the female 24 or we can leave them as is.

That'd add up to be something like this:

Female: Str 35, Dex 17, Con 33, Int 17, Wis 16 [or 18?], Cha 22 [or 24?]
Male: Str 35, Dex 17, Con 24, Int 17, Wis 16 [or 18?], Cha 18 [or 20?]
​

I could see the female being the next Strength modifier up from the Male and would be OK giving them a higher Wisdom modifier too, perhaps:

Female #2: Str 37 or 36, Dex 17, Con 32, Int 17, Wis 20 or 21, Cha 22 [or 24?]
Male #2: Str 34 or 35, Dex 17, Con 24, Int 17, Wis 19 or 18, Cha 18 [or 20?]
​

The above also nudges the female's Constitution down to 32 to make them half-odd half-evens.

EDIT: Come to think of it, a regular Kraken is four-even two-odd, so keeping the female Con 33 would make her two-odd four-odd. That has a pleasant symmetry, so maybe:

Female #2a: Str 37 or 36, Dex 17, Con 33, Int 17, Wis 20 or 21, Cha 22 [or 24?]
Male #2a: Str 34 or 35, Dex 17, Con 24, Int 17, Wis 19 or 18, Cha 19 [or 21?]
​

 

[freyar]

How about this?
Female: Str 36, Dex 17, Con 33, Int 17, Wis 20, Cha 24
Male: Str 34, Dex 17, Con 24, Int 17, Wis 18, Cha 21

Want to work out the attacks next?

 

[Cleon]

How about this?
Female: Str 36, Dex 17, Con 33, Int 17, Wis 20, Cha 24
Male: Str 34, Dex 17, Con 24, Int 17, Wis 18, Cha 21

Works for me.

Updated the Male Krakentua Working Draft and a Female Krakentua Working Draft.

Want to work out the attacks next?

What I was thinking of was making the Slam its primary attack and its tentacles secondary attacks, but give it enough Multiattack and Multiweapon feats that is can use its tentacles and tentacle-held weapons without penalty.

So for the male we'd be talking:

Attack: Slam +41 melee (#d#+12); or tentacle +41 melee (#d#+6); or weapon +41 melee (#d#+6)
Full Attack: 2 slams +41 melee (#d#+12) and 7 tentacles +41 melee (#d#+6) or 7 weapons +41 melee (#d#+6)
​

And the female with her higher Strength would be:

Attack: Slam +42 melee (#d#+13); or tentacle +42 melee (#d#+6); or weapon +42 melee (#d#+6)
Full Attack: 2 slams +42 melee (#d#+13) and 7 tentacles +42 melee (#d#+6) or 7 weapons +42 melee (#d#+6)
​

I'm thinking either Huge wakizashas or Medium greatswords for the weapons, so it does 2d6/19-20 slashing damage.

Females have more powerful tentacles than males, so I'd have them do different base damage.

The AD&D original has male tentacles do 1d4 slap and 1d10 constriction and female tentacles do 1d8 slap and 2d6 constriction.

However, 1d4 for the male slaps is way too weedy. We've given it the same Strength as a Kraken, so how about giving the tentacles the same 1d6 damage as a Kraken, and boost the females a tad to match.

Like, say the male have 1d6+6 tentacles and 2d6+6 constrict and the female have 1d10+6 tentacles with 2d8+6 constrict?

That just leaves the slam. The original did a very modest 1d10 damage, so how about we just treat it as an unarmed strike or gauntlet which scales up to 2d6 damage for a Colossal creature. It is basically just punching them with a huge humanoid fist after all. If it wants to punch harder, it can get levels in Monk!

 

[freyar]

You've got a two-step increase from the male tentacles to the male constrict (1d6 to 2d6) but only a one-step (1d10 to 2d8) for the female. Why not go at least 1.5 steps to 3d6 for the female constrict? Otherwise, I'm happy with everything else you propose.