Great White Games/Pinnacle Entertainment Group

SavageGamerGirl · Heroic Joined: 24 Oct 2010 Posts: 1273

This is for my Colonial Fantasy campaign. The characters are going on a nautical adventure, and what's more fun on a nautical adventure then throwing a giant octopus at them?

They characters are high into Veteran rank, and will soon be Heroic. They are well-made characters with excellent skills and edges in combat and magic. I've built a lot of protections into this critter because the characters are usually pretty good at hitting a 15 Toughness. The characters are pretty good at avoiding attacks (high Parry on one, Deflection power on another, and the rest are tactically-minded enough to position themselves well), so with the -2 the Lusca has to hit them, I think it's Fighting abilities are fair.

Basically, what I'm looking for is... in your opinion is this too powerful or is it gonna go down like a punk in the first round?

THE LUSCA
Attributes: Agility d4, Smarts d4, Spirit d10, Strength d12+4, Vigor d12+1
Skills: Fighting d12, Notice d10, Stealth d8, Swimming d10
Pace: 0; Parry: 8; Toughness: 15
Edges: Ambidextrous, Elan, Two-Fisted
Special Abilities:
• Aquatic: Pace 10
• Bag-Like Body: The brain of the Lusca is buried deep within its bag-like body. It is effectively immune to called shots to ‘the head.’ Other called shot locations are still effective.
• Hardy: The Lusca is protected by layers of thick flesh. It does not suffer a wound from being Shaken twice unless struck by a Heavy Weapon.
• Ink: In water, the Lusca can emit a cloud of ink as a free action that obscures a Large Burst Template immediately in front of itself. This counts as darkness. The Lusca usually emits ink before fleeing combat.
• Large: Attackers add +2 to their attack rolls when attacking the Lusca due to its large size.
• Natural Attacks: Tentacle slam d12+4.
• Reach 3: The Lusca has a reach of 3 with its tentacles.
• Size +7: The Lusca is nearly 50 ft. across and weighs several tons.
• Tentacles: The Lusca has eight tentacles, and it can attack with two tentacles each round without penalty. It slams when it succeeds at a Fighting roll, and entangles when it succeeds with a raise. The round it entangles and each round thereafter, it causes damage to its prey equal to d12+4+d6. The prey may attempt to escape on his action by getting a raise on an opposed Strength roll. A creature that has been entangled by the Lusca for 3 rounds is carried to its powerful beak and bitten (d12+4+d6, AP 2).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lusca
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'But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.
'Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: 'we're all mad here.'
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SteelDraco · Novice Joined: 09 May 2011 Posts: 61

It's going to be kinda slow - might consider Quick or Level-Headed to increase when it acts in the round.

Does the group have access to heavy weapons? It won't be all that tough if they do - most big weapons can get through a 15 Toughness without too much problem. I'd consider eliminating the caveat on Hardy about heavy weapons.

Might also consider some kind of resistance to fire trappings, since it's an aquatic creature attacking from within the water. Lots of high-damage effects seem to be fire-based, in my experience, and that would help its survivability.

Are you going to make it a Wild Card?

The number of attacks is kinda low for what I'd expect something like this to do. How many people are in the group? I'd probably increase it to 4.

One other thing you could do is have the tentacles act on their own for a round or two before the bulk of the thing shows up. Put down tentacles as their own monster for a few rounds, and let the PCs fight them briefly. Maybe drop a handful of tentacles on one side of the ship that fumble around blindly for prey while one or two tear at the ship itself. Once they deal a bit of damage the bulk of the thing surfaces and then fights using the stats presented. If they managed to kill any tentacles in the first few rounds it reduces the offensive power of the creature - maybe start with six tentacles that can attack, and drop it down based on what they did. This would be a pretty rough fight, though, but probably more epic than just starting with the whole creature.

SavageGamerGirl · Heroic Joined: 24 Oct 2010 Posts: 1273

I have a big group, and depending on who's able to show up I'll have from 6 to 8 PCs going against it.

I do plan to make it a Wild Card, being a single enemy going up against an entire group.

They won't have Heavy Weapons with them at the time, but it it survives this encounter it might come back later when they do have heavy weapons.

I was thinking about having it grapple with ship with four tentacles, leaving it four to attack with in general, but only 2 on any given round. I could just drop the Ambi/TwoFist combo and let it attack with 4 tentacles per round.

I like the idea of having the tentacles show up first. I'll work on that.

Thanks!

EDIT:

I'm an idiot... I just remembered that I have the Pirates of the Spanish Main book, and it has stats for a giant octopus. It's not as tough as I want the Lusca to be, but it goes give me a starting point. I'll rework the Lusca using those stats.
_________________
'But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.
'Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: 'we're all mad here.'
The Order of the Dice... OF DOOM!

SavageGamerGirl · Heroic Joined: 24 Oct 2010 Posts: 1273

The Lusca, re-worked starting from the giant octopus stats:

THE LUSCA
Attributes: Agility d4, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d10, Strength d12+4, Vigor d12+1
Skills: Fighting d12, Notice d10
Pace: 0; Parry: 8; Toughness: 15
Special Abilities:
• Aquatic: Pace 10
• Beak: d10+d6, AP 2.
• Bag-Like Body: The brain of the Lusca is buried deep within its bag-like body. It is effectively immune to called shots to ‘the head.’ Other called shot locations are still effective.
• Hardy: The Lusca is protected by layers of thick flesh. It does not suffer a wound from being Shaken twice.
• Ink Cloud: The Lusca can release a cloud of dark ink the size of a Large Burst Template. Any Notice or attack rolls into or through it are at −4. The Lusca usually emits ink before fleeing combat.
• Large: Attackers add +2 to their attack rolls when attacking the Lusca due to its large size.
• Size +7: The Lusca is nearly 50 ft. across and weighs several tons.
• Tentacles: Reach 3. The Lusca may attack up to four targets simultaneously with no penalty. On a raise, the creature has grappled the victim. Entangled victims may only attempt an opposed Strength roll each round to escape. Once grappled, the Lusca automatically does d12+d6+4 damage by crushing with its tentacles. Victims dragged under water must make a Vigor roll each round or start to drown.
• Water Jet: The Lusca may “run” underwater by using its water jet, which gives it a d12 running die.
_________________
'But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.
'Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: 'we're all mad here.'
The Order of the Dice... OF DOOM!

Snate56 · Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 12:35 pm Post subject:

Water jet? Sounds like there's a nice ranged attack in there somewhere...

SteveN
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"We've got a blind date with destiny... and it looks like she's ordered the lobster." <The Shoveller>

SavageGamerGirl · Heroic Joined: 24 Oct 2010 Posts: 1273

LOL! So you're suggesting that the Lusca should, say, use the Burst power with a Water trapping? Mr. Green

I could do that... but since it's just a high-powered squirt of water, I might limit the damage to non-lethal, or just let it use the nifty new Push combat maneuver at range. It could knock victims off the ship into the water...

Hmm...
_________________
'But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.
'Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: 'we're all mad here.'
The Order of the Dice... OF DOOM!

VonDan · Legendary Joined: 08 Jul 2008 Posts: 3306

INK
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SavageGamerGirl · Heroic Joined: 24 Oct 2010 Posts: 1273

It's already got an ink cloud ability, or are you suggesting the targeted 'water burst' should be ink instead?
_________________
'But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.
'Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: 'we're all mad here.'
The Order of the Dice... OF DOOM!

VonDan · Legendary Joined: 08 Jul 2008 Posts: 3306

what ever option is more fast and fun and messy
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SteelDraco · Novice Joined: 09 May 2011 Posts: 61

If you're using SWD, you might consider using the water jet as the Havoc power with the cone template instead of the medium burst template. That would model an area knockback jet pretty well. Targets hit would need a Strength roll or be knocked back (away from the user, presumably) 2d6".

Bavix · Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 5:11 pm Post subject:

I was actually thinking about the Jet power from the Fantasy Companion. That seems to fit perfectly.
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wyldspirit · Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 5:38 pm Post subject:

If your creature is going down in flames before your eyes have it use tactics. Why not sink the ship from below or pick characters from the deck and hurl them into water. I think defending from a gaint octopus while in the water would carry some heavy penalties.

SavageGamerGirl · Heroic Joined: 24 Oct 2010 Posts: 1273

It's not going to be an easy battlefield, that's for sure. It's going to take place on the rotting hulk of a lost ship in the Sargasso Sea. Once the Lusca attacks, the ship won't be able to take that kind of beating and will be slowly falling apart and sinking. They'll need to find a treasure chest on board the wreck and get it back to their rowboat* while dealing with all that.

I don't care of the Lusca survives the fight or even whether it injures any of the PCs. I just want it to last long enough to make the combat memorable. Very Happy

*They'll be in a rowboat because bigger ships, sitting low in the water, get caught up in the sargassum weed and get trapped. The rowboat has a shallow enough draft to just skim over the top of the weeds. I know that's not how the Sargasso Sea really works, but this *is* a fantasy campaign despite the historical era. Mr. Green

_________________
'But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.
'Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: 'we're all mad here.'
The Order of the Dice... OF DOOM!

warrenss2 · Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 6:02 pm Post subject:

VonDan · Legendary Joined: 08 Jul 2008 Posts: 3306

Snate56 · Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 10:10 pm Post subject:

And I would make the ink really disgusting and stink horribly.

SteveN
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"We've got a blind date with destiny... and it looks like she's ordered the lobster." <The Shoveller>

robert4818 · Heroic Joined: 25 Jan 2009 Posts: 1048

SavageGamerGirl · Heroic Joined: 24 Oct 2010 Posts: 1273

The Lusca performed admirably tonight. In hindsight I probably shouldn't have given it Hardy, as that meant the characters needed to roll a 19 or better to really hurt it. It hit a few times with its tentacle attacks, but never managed to score a raise thanks to having a -2 to hit the comparatively small characters and my low rolls. lol

One player played the Angry Mob adventure card, so I had a pod of pilot whales show up and help in the fight.

Eventually, it squirted everyone with ink and jetted away, but by then it had done enough damage to the ship they were on to sink it. They made it to lifeboats and survived their encounter with the mighty Lusca!

I'll write this all up in my Colonial Fantasy campaign journal soon. Thanks for the input, everyone! This was a fun fight! Mr. Green

_________________
'But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.
'Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: 'we're all mad here.'
The Order of the Dice... OF DOOM!