Kraken Variants

[freyar]

I like these proposed SLAs. Sounds good.

Take the standard kraken skills minus Hide? That would be Concentration, Diplomacy, Intimidate, Know (geography), Know (nature), Listen, Search, Sense Motive, Spot, Survival, Swim, UMD. Actually, maybe since it's an Outsider, we could swam the Knowledge skills to (the planes) and (arcana). What do you think?

 

[Cleon]

I like these proposed SLAs. Sounds good.

Updating Awnshegh Kraken Working Draft.

Take the standard kraken skills minus Hide? That would be Concentration, Diplomacy, Intimidate, Know (geography), Know (nature), Listen, Search, Sense Motive, Spot, Survival, Swim, UMD. Actually, maybe since it's an Outsider, we could swam the Knowledge skills to (the planes) and (arcana). What do you think?

Would rather keep the Hide and just not have them maxed-out in everything so the SPs match up. We've got a huge pile of Skill Points to assign, so there's plenty to spread around.

If we were to cut a skill, I'd elect Diplomacy rather than Hide, maybe followed by Sense Motive, since the Awnshegh Kraken appears to be a loner who doesn't enjoy lording it over slaves like a regular Kraken. There are mentions of Kraken-worshipping cults on "his" island, but no mention of The Kraken actually interacting with them.

I like the Know (arcane) and Know (the planes) additions.

Besides, the SRD Kraken only has a few of its skills maxed out. A standard Kraken has the following skill line:

Skills: Concentration +21, Diplomacy +7, Hide +0, Intimidate +16, Knowledge (geography) +17, Knowledge (nature) +16, Listen +30, Search +28, Sense Motive +17, Spot +30, Survival +5 (+7 following tracks), Swim +20, Use Magic Device +16

Which means its Skill Ranks are:

Concentration 12, Diplomacy 0, Hide 12, Intimidate 11, Know (geography) 12, Know (nature) 11, Listen 23, Search 23, Sense Motive 12, Spot 23, Survival 0 (+2), Swim 0, Use Magic Device 11

Incidentally, that adds up to 150 SPs, so it's 11 skill points short! A 20 Hit Dice 21 Intelligence Magical Beast should have 161 SPs (20+3 × 2+5 = 23 × 7 = 161). The original creators might have meant to give it another 11 SP skill and forgot.

Nevermind though, that doesn't matter for our purposes. Note that it only has maxed-out ranks in Listen, Search and Spot, zero ranks in Diplomacy, Survival and Swim, and roughly half-max in the remainder.

For the sake of argument, let's give our boy the skills discussed above plus another skill to represent the missing 11 SPs of the SRD Kraken. If we maxed out the skills and then trimmed the points down so its SPs total is correct, we could have the following Skill Rank distribution:

Concentration 33, Diplomacy 33, Hide 37, Intimidate 33, Know (arcane) 33, Know (geography) 33, Know (nature) 33, Know (the planes) 33, Listen 43, Search 43, Sense Motive 33, Spot 43, Survival 20 (+2), Swim 0, Use Magic Device 33, MISSING SKILL 33

That adds up to 516 Skill Points, which is the target we're aiming for.

Skill Points = 40HD+3 × 8outsider+4int = 43 × 12 = 516 SPs

For the missing skill, I'm thinking maybe Escape Artist? It is rather octopus-looking in its illustration and Octopodes have that skill in 3E.

I'd also be happy lowering some of its non-essential skills(i.e. Diplomacy or the Knowledge skills) to give it some higher numbers in other skills (Hide, Intimidate, Sense Motive or UMD?) or add an extra skill or two (Bluff, Spellcraft, Tumble?).

 

[freyar]

What you have for the skills looks fine, including Escape Artist for the last skill. I don't mind stealing a few points for Intimidate, Sense Motive, or UMD if you like, though I don't really see Hide as really fitting it's personality enough that we need ti give it even more skill points.

 

[Cleon]

What you have for the skills looks fine, including Escape Artist for the last skill. I don't mind stealing a few points for Intimidate, Sense Motive, or UMD if you like, though I don't really see Hide as really fitting it's personality enough that we need ti give it even more skill points.

Okay, let's just keep the SP distribution above and give it Escape Artist.

So that's:

Skill Ranks: Concentration 33, Diplomacy 33, Hide 37, Intimidate 33, Know (arcane) 33, Know (geography) 33, Know (nature) 33, Know (the planes) 33, Listen 43, Search 43, Sense Motive 33, Spot 43, Survival 20 (+2), Swim 0, Use Magic Device 33, MISSING SKILL [Escape Artist] 33

Which'll result in:

Skill Mods: Concentration 33+11Con, Diplomacy 33+7Cha+4synergy, Escape Artist 33+1Dex, Hide 37+1Dex–16siz, Intimidate 33+7Cha, Knowledge (arcane) 33+4Int, Knowledge (geography) 33+4Int, Knowledge (nature) 33+4Int, Knowledge (the planes) 33+4Int, Listen 43+5Wis, Search 43+4Int, Sense Motive 33+5Wis, Spot 43+5Wis, Survival 20+5Wis (+4synergy aboveground or on other planes and when finding way, avoiding natural hazards, or following tracks), Swim 0+18Str+8racial, Use Magic Device 33+7Cha, Use Rope 0+1Dex (+4synergy to bind)

I'm inclined to leave out the Use Rope synergy from the final Skills - although the mental image of The Kraken tying someone up is hilarious.

Skills: Concentration +44, Diplomacy +44, Escape Artist +34, Hide +22, Intimidate +40, Knowledge (arcane) +37, Knowledge (geography) +37, Knowledge (nature) +37, Knowledge (the planes) +37, Listen +48, Search +47, Sense Motive +38, Spot +48, Survival +25 (+29 aboveground or on other planes and when finding way, avoiding natural hazard, or following tracks), Swim +26, Use Magic Device +40 [, Use Rope +1 (+5 to bind)]

Updating Awnshegh Kraken Working Draft.

 

[freyar]

But what if it needs to tie up a prisoner to leave in its lair? We have to leave in the synergy bonus just for that.

Feats: want to keep all of the SRD kraken ones? That would be Alertness, Blind-Fight, Combat Expertise, Imp Crit (tentacle), Imp Init, Imp Trip, Iron Will for a start. I think I could see dropping Imp Trip if we can find anything better.

 

[Cleon]

But what if it needs to tie up a prisoner to leave in its lair? We have to leave in the synergy bonus just for that.

Very well…

Updating Awnshegh Kraken Working Draft.

Feats: want to keep all of the SRD kraken ones? That would be Alertness, Blind-Fight, Combat Expertise, Imp Crit (tentacle), Imp Init, Imp Trip, Iron Will for a start. I think I could see dropping Imp Trip if we can find anything better.

I don't see much point keeping the Alertness or Improved Trip, but the other ones are fine.

 

[freyar]

If we drop those two, that leaves 5, so we have a lot to play with. Want to take the Devastating Critical (tentacle) chain? That adds Cleave, Great Cleave, Power Attack, Weapon Focus (tentacle), Overwhelming Critical (tentacle), and Devastating Critical (tentacle), so we only need to find 3 more after that. And it feels about right flavor-wise. Multiattack seems like a no-brainer. Maybe Imp Multiattack too. For the last one, we could go with Epic Reflexes or Empower/Quicken SLA. Any thoughts?

 

[Cleon]

If we drop those two, that leaves 5, so we have a lot to play with. Want to take the Devastating Critical (tentacle) chain? That adds Cleave, Great Cleave, Power Attack, Weapon Focus (tentacle), Overwhelming Critical (tentacle), and Devastating Critical (tentacle), so we only need to find 3 more after that. And it feels about right flavor-wise. Multiattack seems like a no-brainer. Maybe Imp Multiattack too. For the last one, we could go with Epic Reflexes or Empower/Quicken SLA. Any thoughts?

I have no particular objection to starting out with the regular Kraken's feats, and I can see circumstances Improved Trip would be useful, it's Alertness that seems the most pointless of them.

If we spread out the remaining feats in an inefficient manner it would be easy to eat up the remaining nine or ten feats. Giving it Weapon Focus and Improved Critical with its tentacles, arms & bite would cover six feats, toss in Multiattack and Improved Multiattack and Cleave/Great Cleave would do that.

Not keen on WF & IC for all its atacks though, just Weapon Focus (tentacles) and Improved Critical (bite, tentacles) would be fine.

If you want to use Epic Feats for this conversion I'd go for Epic Prowess rather than Weapon Focus as that applies to ALL the Kraken's attacks, assuming you feel the need for increasing its attacks even higher than +50. Dire Charge is a no-brainer and Superior Initiative would be very handy.

As for Devastating Critical, do we really want to give it DC 48 murder tentacles? That's a way higher Fort DC than its Death Cloud, rendering its killer ink a secondary threat.

Boosting its Ref saves would seem useful too.

How about:

Feats: Blind-Fight, Cleave, Combat Expertise, Dire Charge, Improved Critical (bite, tentacle), Imp Initiative, Improved Multiattack, Improved Trip, Iron Will, Multiattack, Lightning Reflexes, Power Attack, Superior Initiative

I'd be happy swapping the Improved Trip and Superior Initiative for something else that tickles your fancy (or tickles your anything else!).

Dire Charge is the main feat Epic melee monsters really need.

 

[freyar]

Yes, those feats will work!

CR: as a melee opponent these are not as strong as the Mystaran kraken but do have SLAs to compensate some. Low 20s maybe?

 

[Cleon]

Yes, those feats will work!

Updating Awnshegh Kraken Working Draft.

CR: as a melee opponent these are not as strong as the Mystaran kraken but do have SLAs to compensate some. Low 20s maybe?

Well let's see, compared to the SRD Tarrasque our boy deals more damage (average damage if everything hits is 176 vs 112.5 for Big T) and has that really deadly ink.

Protection-wise, The Kraken has the same AC and better Will saves, but HP (620 vs 858) and its defensive powers are weaker. The T's regeneration especially is way better than K's fast-healing!

That would argue for CR 20 or so, but that feels a bit weak. Maybe the Tarrasque was deliberarely under-CRd like a Dragon?

Alternatively, RAW says taking a CR 12 Kraken and advancing it to 40 HD is +9 CR, which makes CR 21, then add on another +2 for those nasty extra abilities for 23.

That seems better. Would be willing to go CR 22 or 24 if you'd prefer but wouldn't go outside those bounds.