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"The Black Octopus" (CR 20 encounter)

What danger lurks beneath the dark waters of night? The Black Octopus is a shapechanging orcish pirate who plies on the shipping trade channels. When he sights the PC's ship coming towards him, he readies himself and attacks, taking on the form of a black giant octopus from ages pages.

Note: The Black Octopus is a shapechanging grappler that I tried to build with a minimum of spellcasting. His offense works out decently well (he deals roughly 2,000 grappling damage per round), but his power level flies up in the next couple levels past 20, if you want to advance him for higher level groups.

Best of all, he does all this without any magic items. (If you want to present a better challenge for your PCs, you can give him tomes, ioun stones, etc.) Standard 32 point build rules. Stats below include himself fully buffed. All buffs are > minutes per level, so he activates them all before attacking a ship. The only questionable buff is metaphysical claw (which states it can be cast on any natural weapon as long as you have a claw or bite, so can it be cast on a tentacle?) but ultimately, all the buffs are more or less irrelevant to the build. Expansion is probably the most critical. You can push levels around to accomplish different feats (a couple more levels in barbarian or BBC gives greater rage for another +2 strength, druid or primeval levels can give more primeval forms per day, etc.), but the basic offensive power doesn't change very much. This character is an NPC designed as a boss encounter, so he doesn't need to go supreme more than once per day.

As a PC, he is still pretty good, but I'd tweak him a bit so he could be useful in more combats per day.

Frostblood Orc
Str: 52 (17 base + 1 regression + 4 stat bumps + 4 racial + 12 Octopus Form + 4 Animal Affinity + 2 Chain of Offense + 6 Rage + 2 Expansion)
Dex: 18 (13 base + 6 Octopus Form + 1 Regression - 2 Expansion)
Con: 28 (14 base + 4 Octopus Form + 1 Regression + 1 stat bump + 6 rage + 2 chain of Offense)
Int: 5 (8 base - 2 racial - 1 regression)
Wis: 14 (15 base - 2 racial + 1 regression)
Cha: 5 (8 base - 2 racial - 1 regression)

HP: 335 (full at 1st, 2/3rds after)
BAB: +17 (all natural)
AC: 24 (+6 dragonhide husk, +9 natural armor, -2 size, +4 dex, +2 insight, -2 punishing stance, -4 reckless rage)
PP: 18 PP per day (4PP expansion, 4PP +3 Offensive Prescience, 3PP Animal Affinity, 6PP Metaphysical Claw on 2 claws, bite and 3 tentacles)
Grapple Check: +47 (+17 (BAB) +21 (Str) +8 (Size)) (*Edit, removed grip of iron)
Damage per grapple: 1d8+24 (base) + 2d8+9 (constrict) + 8x(1d8+24)+3 tentacles + 3d6+14 (bite) + 2x(3d6+14) (claws) + 6d6+28 (rend) + 14d6 (punishing stance) + 14d6 (Rapid Assault) = 449 (+49 first round only) = 449/498 damage per grapple check

Full attack (grapples) at: +47/+42/+37/+32 at 449/498 damage per successful check. Average damage: 1796/1992 (first round)
or
Full attack: +37/+32/+27/+22 1d8+25 unarmed strike + +32/+32/+32 1d8+14 tentacles + +31/+31/+31/+31/+31 1d8+13 tentacles + +32 3d6+14 bite + +32/+32 3d6+14 claws + 6d6+28 rend = 383.5 average damage. Plus improved grab on tentacle attacks. Plus the first unarmed strike is a DC 22 stunning fist.

Saves:
+32/+18/+31(+9)

Special Qualities:
Cold Subtype
DR 3/silver
DR 1/-
Low Light Vision
Darkvision
Swim Speed
Scent
Stranglehold (Coup de Grace as move action)
Savage Grapple (not the feat, the Black Blood Cultist ability: on a successful grapple check, deals damage with all natural weapons)

Levels:
1) Warblade (Stance: Punishing Stance +1d6 damage -2 AC, Counter: Moment of Perfect Mind, other useless 1st level maneuvers)
2) Ex-Monk (bonus IUS feat and increases grapple damage)
3) Barbarian (+6 str with Reckless Rage 3/day, (BBC levels stack with barbarian levels))
4) Ranger (bonus track feat)
5) Fighter (+6 AC from Dragonscale Husk alternate class ability, bonus WF: Grapple)
6-13) Black Blood Cultist 8 (gain claw, bite, rend natural attacks)
14-17) War Mind 4 (+2 Str and Con, +2 AC, Expansion, Precognition, Animal Affinity, Expanded Knowledge: Grip of Iron)
18-20) Primeval 3 (+1 Str Con Dex Wis, -1 Int Cha, alternate form)

Feats (*are bonus feats):
1) Reckless Rage
1*) Endurance (bonus Frostblood Orc feat)
2*) Track
3*) IUS, Stunning Fist
3) Self-sufficient (primeval prereq, burned feat)
4*) Rapid Assault (+1d6 per attack on 1st round of combat)
5*) WF: Grapple
6) Wild Talent
8*) Improved Grapple
9) Improved Natural Weapon (claw)
12) Improved Natural Weapon (bite)
15) Improved Natural Weapon (tentacle)
18) Expanded Knowledge: Metaphysical Claw (or Grip of Iron)

Skills:
(Oh, who cares. He can probably swim.)

Seerow wrote:

Can he do anyhting against freedom of movement? Because y'know, without that he's not going to be very effective against most parties.

If they are relying on spells, it will be too late. If they all have rings, he can just full attack. He has a decent full attack sequence, though not especially extraordinary.

(In my campaign, which has revised rules to balance epic play, FOM only provides a +40 bonus to resist grapple checks. So he's effectively +11 against a target with FOM, which might beat a wizard or something, but it will still protect most PCs.)

aelryinth wrote:

Why is he getting a huge boost to stats going to octopus form? He'd just get the physical stats of a giant octopus...his own physical stats would be irrelevant (and it would cost him Str, Con and Dex, by eyeballing it. Also, his Regression and Racial physical bonuses mean nothing in Octopus form, so he'd lose them as well.

I suggest you redo this, it's a very misleading NPC. I think his Str is all of 36, His Con is 22, and his Dex is 14. It significantly changes your numbers.

And how is he shapechanging, anyways? Is he supposed to be a were octopus, and that's his hybrid form? I admit to being totally confused.

===Aelryinth

When primevals shapechange, they gain the stats of the target creature -10. So a Giant Octopus (Str 20), gives a +10 bonus to base strength. Primeval 3 increases it to +12.

ShakaUVM wrote:

When primevals shapechange, they gain the stats of the target creature -10. So a Giant Octopus (Str 20), gives a +10 bonus to base strength. Primeval 3 increases it to +12.

Where is Primeval printed? I'm curious what else, if anything, it does for this build. (I've also got a shapeshifting character who might benefit, maybe.)

Darhelion wrote:

Where is Primeval printed? I'm curious what else, if anything, it does for this build. (I've also got a shapeshifting character who might benefit, maybe.)

Frostburn.