Cleon Specials – SRD Redux Monsters and Related Creatures

Squid Variants
There are hundreds of species of squid, the following entries describe a few noteworthy variations of the normal squids described above, including the Elongated Squid, Flying Squid and Slow Squid. Variations that that can be applied to other cephalopods such as octopuses are appended below the Squid Variants; namely the Dazzling Cephalopod, Gelatinous Cephalopod, Glass Cephalopod and Ink Variants. The separate long-arm squid entry includes its Cephalopod Variant, the Long-Armed Cephalopod.

Elongated Squid (Whiplash Squid)
The squid detailed above are robust animals, with relatively large bodies and limbs that may be shorter than their body-length. Some species of squid have much longer arms and tentacles and somewhat slimmer bodies. Elongated squid are quite common and may be more abundant than robustly-built squid in some habitats, such as the deep sea where it's dimly lit or lightless. They are often slower swimmers, depending on tentacle-reach more than speed to catch prey.

Typical elongated squid include the 20 or so species in the family Mastigoteuthidae. Commonly called whiplash squid after their long whip-like tentacles, most of this family have soft jelly-like bodies as described in the Elongated Gelatinous Cephalopod subentry below. The suckers on their whiplash tentacles are often too small to see, making them extremely sticky to even microscopic objects. Whiplash squid probably use their tentacles to filter particles of food out of the water but they could, in theory at least, adhere to other animals so this entry assumes elongated squid can also use them to attack prey.

An elongated squid has a Strength 2 points lower than the "robust" normal squid. It has a Reach with its arms equal to its Space and a Reach with its tentacles equal to double its Space (except for Medium elongated squid, which have a 15 foot tentacle Reach).

If an elongated squid already has a hold on an opponent in the water when it succeeds at a grapple check during a standard or full attack, it can automatically reduce the distance between it and its opponent by a distance of up to 20 feet, either by moving towards its opponent or pulling them closer with its limbs. The movement may affect the squid, the opponent or both. If this movement pulls an opponent into the Reach of its arms attack or bite attack the elongated squid is able to make attacks-of-opportunity with those natural weapons.

An opponent can attack an elongated squid's tentacles with a sunder attempt as if they were weapons (although the squid has a pair of tentacles, they are treated as a single weapon). An elongated squid's tentacles have 1 hit point for every 5 feet of Reach they possess: 4 hp for Large elongated squid, 3 hp for Medium, 2 hp for Small, and 1 hp for Tiny or smaller elongated squid. If an elongated squid is currently grappling a target with its paired tentacles, it uses its arms attack to make its attack of opportunity against the sundering opponent if that opponent is within the arms' Reach. An opponent can also attack an elongated squid's arms with a sunder attack as if they were weapons, the arms of a Large elongated squid have 2 hit points each and Medium or smaller elongated squid arms have 1 hit point each.

Severing an elongated squid's limbs deals damage to the creature equal to half the limbs' hit points rounded down; a severed tentacle results in 2 points of damage for Large squid, 1 point for Medium or Small, and no damage for a Tiny or smaller; a severed arm results in 1 point of damage for Large squid, 1 point of damage per odd-numbered arm for Medium or Small squid (so damage on 1st, 3rd, 5th & 7th arm loss), and no damage for Tiny or smaller. Severed arms only hinder an elongated squid once it loses four arms, which applies a –2 penalty to the squid's arms attack rolls and grapple checks, if it loses all but one or two of its arms the penalty to grapple checks becomes –4, if it loses all eight arms the elongated squid becomes unable to make arms attacks.

An elongated squid usually withdraws from combat if it loses four arms or its tentacles plus an arm or two. The creature regrows severed limbs in 1d10+10 days.

Elongated squid can only make constriction attacks with their arms, change the Constrict special attack to:

Constrict (Ex): An elongated squid automatically deals constriction damage with a successful grapple check if the opponent is within the Reach of its arms attack. If the squid is close enough to bite the opponent it is constricting it can simultaneously uses its Tearing Beak special attack on them.

This results in the following changes to the squid's statistics:

Elongated Squid Table
¹ A Large elongated squid has Swim +13 instead of Swim +14.
* Grapple modifier includes a racial bonus of +6 for Large to Small elongated squid and +15 for Tiny or smaller ones.

An elongated squid may also be a Dazzling Cephalopod, Flying Squid, Gelatinous Cephalopod, Glass Cephalopod or Slow Squid (see below).

Sample Elongated Squid
The love-heart squid (Idioteuthis cordiformis) is a deep-sea whiplash squid that can reach up to three feet in body length and is known to prey on birdbeak dogfish (Deania calcea). Unlike other squid of the Mastigoteuthidae whiplash family its tentacle have some large suckers as well as the small to microscopic suckers of other whiplash squid's tentacles. It is a Small elongated squid.

Love-Heart Squid (Small Elongated Squid) (Small Animal (Aquatic); Hit Dice: 2d8 (9 hp); Init: +3; Speed: Swim 60 ft. (12 squares); AC: 16 (+1 size, +3 Dex, +2 natural), touch 14, flat-footed 13; BAB/Grapple: +0/+6*; Attack: Tentacles +5 melee (0); Full Attack: Tentacles +5 melee (0), arms +3 melee (0) and bite +3 melee (1d4); Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft. (10 ft. with tentacles); Special Attacks: Constrict 1d3, improved grab, tearing bite [grapple or +5 melee (1d4)]; Special Qualities: Chameleon, ink cloud [10 ft. cube], jet [speed 300 ft.], low-light vision, revolting taste [eating it sickens for 1d3 rounds]¹; Saves: Fort +3, Ref +6, Will +1; Abilities: Str 10, Dex 17, Con 11, Int 1, Wis 12, Cha 2; Skills: Hide +11, Listen +3, Spot +7, Swim +11; Feats: Blind-Fight, Multiattackᴮ, Weapon Finesseᴮ; CR: 1/2)

¹ Like most deep-sea squid, all whiplash squids are full of ammonia. Therefore the revolting taste special ability from Gelatinous Cephalopod has been added to the love-heart squid.

Longline Squid (Extremely Elongated Squid)
A few squid take tentacle-lengthening to even greater extremes to standard elongated squid, with tentacles ten to twelve times longer than their bodies. Such animals lack a commonly accepted name so are dubbed longline squid in this entry. They have some similarities to the long-arm squid (described separately), a cephalopod whose limb length is so great even this extremely elongated squid pales in comparison.

A longline squid has a Strength 2 points lower than the "robust" normal squid and is always a Slow Squid. It has a Reach with its arms equal to its Space and a Reach with its tentacles of an incredible 60 feet for a Large squid, 45 feet for Medium, 30 feet for Small, 15 feet for Tiny and 5 feet for Diminutive.

A longline squid has two tentacle attacks instead of the paired tentacles attack of a normal squid. It resolves each tentacle's attack as if it were a secondary weapon. A longline squid can only use both its tentacle attacks against an opponents within one-third of its reach, opponents further away can only be attacked with a single tentacle, and if the opponent is outside two-thirds of the squid's reach the tentacle has a –2 penalty to attack. If the longline squid is grappling an opponent with one tentacle it can attack them with its other tentacle regardless of distance.

Because the tentacles are so thin, a longline squid's grapple bonus is reduced by 2 points when it holds an opponent in both tentacles or 4 points for one tentacle.

If a longline squid already has a hold on an opponent in the water when it succeeds at a grapple check during a standard or full attack, it can automatically reduce the distance between it and its opponent by a distance of up to 20 feet, either by moving towards its opponent or pulling them closer with its limbs. The movement may affect the squid, the opponent or both. If this movement pulls an opponent within the Reach of its arms attack or bite attack the longline squid is able to make attacks-of-opportunity with those natural weapons.

An opponent can attack a longline squid's tentacles or arms with a sunder attempt as if they were weapons, the limbs of a Large longline squid have 2 hit points each and Medium or smaller longline squid limbs have 1 hit point each. If a longline squid is currently grappling a target with the appendage that is being attacked, it usually uses another limb to make its attack of opportunity against the opponent making the sunder attempt. Longline squid will avoid making tentacle attacks against opponents held by their arms to reduce the risk of damage to their tentacles.

Severing a longline squid's limbs deals damage to the creature; a severed arm or tentacle results in 1 point of damage for Large squid, 1 point of damage per odd-numbered limb for Medium or Small squid (so damage on 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th & 9th limb loss), and no damage for Tiny or smaller squid. Losing a tentacle removes one of the squid's tentacle attacks. Severed arms only hinder a longline squid once it loses four arms, which applies a –2 penalty to the squid's arms attack rolls and grapple checks, if it loses all but one or two of its arms the penalty to grapple checks becomes –4, if it loses all eight arms the longline squid becomes unable to make arms attacks.

A longline squid usually withdraws from combat if it loses four arms or a tentacles plus an arm or two. The creature regrows severed limbs in 1d10+10 days.

This results in the following changes to the squid's statistics:

Longline Squid Table
^ A Large longline squid has Swim +13 instead of Swim +14.
¹ Within this Reach a longline squid can attack an opponent with 2 tentacles.
² Within this Reach a longline squid can attack an opponent with a single tentacle.
³ Within this Reach a longline squid can attack an opponent with a single tentacle with a –2 attack penalty.
* Grapple modifier includes a racial bonus of +6 for Large to Small longline squid and +15 for Tiny or smaller ones. If adds a –4 penalty for a two tentacle hold and –2 for one tentacle.

A longline squid may also be a Dazzling Cephalopod, Gelatinous Cephalopod, Glass Cephalopod or Slow Squid (see below).

Sample Longline Squid
A big longline squid can have a body about 18 inches long and total length up to 18 feet due to its extra-long tentacles, the largest may reach 2½ foot body length and have 30 foot total lengths It is usually far more modest in size, six or seven feet in total length for a typical specimen.

The longline squid is based on the Asperoteuthis acanthoderma, a species which lacks a common name. The genus Asperoteuthis are whiplash squids (family Chiroteuthidae), but the other three Asperoteuthis species (lui, mangoldae & nesisi) lack the spectacular tentacle length of A. acanthoderma and are typical whiplash squid (i.e. fragile gelatinous elongated squid of Diminutive or possibly Tiny size, Asperoteuthis lui can definitely reach Tiny size.

Note: In our world, the largest A. acanthoderma specimens currently known are an immature female with a 78 cm mantle length but broken-off tentacles and a mature male of 65 cm with complete tentacles, the longest is a 45 cm squid with tentacles about 5.5 metres long. The largest known A. lui specimen has a 36.3 cm mantle and its longest intact tentacle was 206.5 cm. It's worth noting that squid are so soft and elastic it's easy to overstretch the tentacles to longer than their natural length so great care should be taken when measuring them.

Asperoteuthis acanthoderma is a fragile gelatinous longline squid. Typical specimens are Diminutive and sizeable ones are Tiny. The following Small individual is likely its maximum size. Note the statblock can be used for a typical fragile gelatinous elongated squid by removing the longline tentacle attributes and replacing the 2 tentacles secondary attack with a single tentacles primary attack.

Asperoteuthis acanthoderma (Small Gelatinous Fragile Longline Squid) (Small Animal (Aquatic); Hit Dice: 2d8 (9 hp)[1 hp tentacles, takes 1 hp on 1st/3rd/5th/7th/9th severing]; Init: +2; Speed: Swim 20 ft. (4 squares); AC: 13 (+1 size, +2 Dex), touch 13, flat-footed 11; BAB/Grapple: +0/+4* [+2/+0 if two/one tentacles]; Attack: Tentacle +2 melee (0); Full Attack: 2 tentacles +2 melee (0), arms +2 melee (0) and bite +2 melee (1d4–1); Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft. (10/20/30 ft. with tentacles); Special Attacks: Constrict 1d3–1, improved grab, tearing bite [grapple or +4 melee (1d4–1)]; Special Qualities: Chameleon, ink cloud [10 ft. cube], jet [speed 150 ft.], low-light, revolting taste [eating it sickens for 1d3 rounds]; Saves: Fort +3, Ref +5, Will +1; Abilities: Str 8, Dex 15, Con 11, Int 1, Wis 12, Cha 2; Skills: Hide +14, Listen +3, Spot +7, Swim +10; Feats: Blind-Fight, Multiattackᴮ, Weapon Finesseᴮ; CR: 1/2)

Flying Squid
Flying squid do not fly so much as jump with style. Many squid species will leap above the water's surface, including the jumbo squid, but do so less adeptly than genuine flying squid. Squid jump into the air to avoid swimming predators, and some species also "porpoise" along the ocean's surface to travel long distances more efficiently.

To create a flying squid add the following special quality:

Improved Jumping (Ex): When a flying squid makes a long jump, the horizontal distance it covers is 50% higher than normal (rounded down into 5-foot spaces) but the vertical height remains the same (i.e. a DC 10 horizontal jump covers 15 feet rather than the normal 10 feet and rises to a height of 2½ feet). A flying squid can always take 10 on Jump checks and has a +4 racial bonus to Jump checks.

Typical Jump modifier for flying squid, flying elongated squid, normal squid, slow squid, elongated squid and elongated slow squid are presented in the following table. A gelatinous squid or glass squid with a swim speed of 40 feet would have the same Jump modifiers as an elongated slow squid with swim 40 ft. but such animals never leap from the sea.

Jumping Squid Table
¹ This is the horizontal distance in 5 foot spaces a flying squid covers if it Takes 10 on a Jump skill check.
² This is the horizontal distance in 5 foot spaces a flying elongated squid covers if it Takes 10 on a Jump skill check.

A flying squid may also be a Dazzling Cephalopod or Elongated Squid.

Slow Squid
Not all squid are as speedsters. Squid that live in the abyssal depths or forage on the seabed are often more sedate animals than the fast-swimming pelagic squid.

Reduce the Swim speed of a slow squid to 50 feet or 40 feet, this reduces its jet special ability to a speed of 250 feet or 200 feet.

A slow squid may also be Dazzling Cephalopod or Elongated Squid, all Gelatinous Cephalopods and Glass Cephalopods are as slow or slower than Slow Squid.

Smart Squid
At least a few species of squid have Intelligence 2 like an octopus rather than Intelligence 1 as presented here. This increase does not change the squid's other game attributes but should be considered when deciding how sophisticatedly it behaves. A smart squid may also be any other Squid Variant or Cephalopod Variant.

Octopuses are certainly smart for animals, and rival cats, dogs and even monkeys in learning and problem-solving abilities, the superior manipulation abilities of their arms may distort their apparent cleverness. The intelligence of squid is harder to determine due to their wandering lifestyles and aggressive hunger. Some squid socially interact through postures, gestures and lights or colour-changing with each other, and schooling squid may use such signals to hunt collaboratively (although scholars are only sure jumbo squid do so).

Cephalopods in general are the most intelligent molluscs, although compared to the average snail that isn't terribly impressive.

Cephalopod Variants
This section covers variations that can be applied to both squid and octopuses. They are designed for soft-bodied cephalopods (subclass Coleoidea) so most should not be used on externally-shelled cephalopods such as the Nautiloids or the extinct Ammonoids and Orthoceratiods, although the Elongated Octopus variant in the separate Octopus Redux entry could conceivably be used on these hard-shelled animals. The variants could easily be adapted for other coleoid cephalodops such as cuttlefish (order Sepiida) and the extinct Belemnoids (see Cephalopod Taxonomy for a general review of cephalopod orders and evolution).

Cephalopod Taxonomy
Nautiloids are the most primitive subclass of cephalopod in the paleontological sense – that is, they appeared in the fossil record earlier, at the end of the Cambrian roughly five hundred million years ago (or "500 Mya"). This was shortly before the rather similar-looking orthocerids, an extinct cephalopods who once were included in Nautiloidea but are now considered a separate subclass, the Orthoceratoidea. Orthocerids and nautiluses have an abundant fossil record without a trace of ink. The ammonites (subclass Ammonoidea) are slightly more modern, appearing some 410 Mya in the early Devonian and fossils show at least some species had ink sacs. A handful of nautiloids in the family Nautilidae survive to this day; four species of Nautilus and two species of Allonautilus.

The most modern subclass is the Coleoidea, soft-bodied cephalopods that originated with the superorder Belemnoidea that probably appeared in the early Carboniferous some 325 to 350 Mya, although there's argument belemnite-like coleoids appeared longer ago in the late Carboniferous (roughly 360 Mya). Belemnoids rather resemble squid but have ten equal-length arms instead of a combination of arms and tentacles, fossils show belemnoids had ink sacs and an internal chambered shell (although this was fragile and only the gladius usually remains).

The remaining Coleoidea are more modern, and include octopuses and vampire squids in the superorder Octopodiformes plus squids, cuttlefishes, and a few other "squid-like" orders in Decapodiformes. With the exception of the few surviving Nautiloids, every living cephalopod belongs to this group. Unfortunately being soft-bodied means Coleoidea have a very poor fossil record; most finds are just crushed gladii, part of a jaw or a few tentacle-hooks. The best preserved squid fossils show the extinct species had an ink sac. A few living coleoid orders are only represented by only one species apiece, the vampire squid (Vampyroteuthis infernalis) of the Vampyromorphida and the ram's horn squid (Spirula spirula) of the Spirulida, both of which are deep-water animals with an internal spiral shell.

Vampyromorphs were very successful once, with numerous families during the Jurassic period (about 150 to 200 Mya). The sole survivor Vampyroteuthis infernalis is a bizarre deep-sea specialist described under Sample Gelatinous Cephalopod in the Cephalopod Variants section (see below) and it is likely extinct vampyromorphs had more conventional anatomy than it, resembling a belemnite or squid. Vampyroteuthidae is in the superorder Octopodiformes together with every family of octopus, the vast majority of which have ink sacs, so it's plausible that Vampyroteuthis evolved to lose ink sacs present in an extinct ancestor like the inkless octopuses have (see Inkless Cephalopod in the Ink Variants section). The extinct genus Plesioteuthis were possibly Vampyromorphs and have fossils that include ink sacs.

Dazzling Cephalopod
Many cephalopods are bioluminescent, and some can produce startlingly bright flashes to distract predators or prey. Humboldt squid routinely use such flashes when hunting small fish.

A dazzling cephalopod gains the dazzling flash special attack, as follows:

Dazzling Flash (Ex): Once per round as a free action, a dazzling cephalopod can produce a bright flash of light centred on the animal. In well-lit areas this has no effect, but in areas of total darkness any sighted creature within a radius equal to the dimensions of a standard cephalopod's ink cloud must succeed at a Fortitude save or be dazzled for 1 round (the radius is 20 feet for Large cephalopods, 15 feet for Medium, 10 feet for Small, 5 feet for Tiny and 2 feet for Diminutive). In areas of shadowy illumination the radius of effect is halved and a –2 circumstance penalty is added to the Fort save DC. Any effect that blocks light, such as the darkness spell or the squid's own ink cloud ability, will block the effect of a dazzling flash. The save DC is Constitution-based.

If a sighted creature succeeds at their dazzling flash Fortitude save their eyes temporarily adjust and for the next minute they cannot be affected by dazzling flash attacks with a radius equal to or less than the flash they successfully saved against.

A dazzling cephalopod has two additional options it can apply by precisely timing its dazzling flash, the first offensive and the second defensive. Firstly, if the cephalopod uses dazzling flash at the same time it makes an attack roll, it gains a +2 bonus to the attack if the target fails their Fortitude save (this bonus only applies to a single attack roll each round, dazzles during a full attack are usually applied to a dazzling squid's tentacles or a dazzling octopus's arms). Secondly, the cephalopod can produce a bright flash and immediately jet away with all its bioluminescence extinguished. Opponents who fail their save are momentarily dazzled, which gives the dazzling cephalopod the momentary diversion it needs to attempt a Hide check while others are aware of it.

Being dazzling does not alter the cephalopod's challenge rating, but it may change the Encounter Level depending on the circumstances (for example, if a party of characters with low-light vision met a trio of Small dazzling squid in a dark submarine alley it might be EL 4 rather than the normal EL 3 of three CR 1 creatures).

Standard dazzling cephalopods have the following statistics.

Dazzling Cephalopod Table

Eye Sensitivity Optional Rule: Opponents with light-sensitive eyes such as kobolds or giant owls could be more vulnerable to dazzling flash attacks. If you use this option, increases Fortitude save DC of the dazzling flash is increased as follows: +2 if the opponent has low-light vision, +4 DC if the opponent has either light sensitivity or superior low-light vision, and +5 DC if the opponent has superior low-light vision with a 6× or higher distance multiplier in dim light or both light sensitivity and superior low-light vision.

In addition, the radius of effect of the dazzling flash could be increased for creatures with sensitive eyes. Suggested increases to the radii and the modified save DCs are presented in the following table:

Eye Sensitivity Dazzling Table
¹ Radius or DC for targets with low-light vision.
² Radius or DC for targets with light sensitivity or superior low-light vision.
³ Radius or DC for targets with superior low-light vision of 6× or higher distance, or both light sensitivity and superior low-light vision.

Adding together the standard dazzling cephalopod values with the above table produces the following table:

Combined Dazzling Table
The Italics are for the Optional Eye Sensitivity Rule:
¹ Radius or DC for targets with low-light vision.
² Radius or DC for targets with light sensitivity or superior low-light vision.
³ Radius or DC for targets with superior low-light vision of 6× or higher distance, or both light sensitivity and superior low-light vision.

Elongated Cephalopod
There are multiple variants of long-limbed cephalopod. The Elongated Squid and Longline Squid are described above under Squid Variants, the Elongated Octopus appears in the Octopus Variants section of the separate Octopus Redux entry, and the Long-Armed Cephalopod variant is described in the separate Long-Arm Squid entry. In addition, there are gelatinous and glass versions of elongated squids and elongated octopuses.

Gelatinous Cephalopod
Gelatinous cephalopods are a type of mollusc evolved to float effortlessly in seawater. They do so by concentrating ammonia in their tissues to lower their body density until it precisely matches the surrounding seawater, meaning the cephalopod does not have to exert any energy to prevent itself sinking. This is a very valuable adaptation, especially in environments with scant food sources like the abyssal depths of the sea. However it comes with a considerable cost: the limbs and muscles of a gelatinous cephalopod are very weakly muscled. If they were stronger, the greater weight from the protein in their increased musculature would make them denser than seawater, negating their buoyancy advantage. The cranch squid (family Cranchiidae) also use a chamber filled with ammonia solution as a buoyancy aid, the family is sometimes referred to as "the glass squids" because many of its species are transparent (see Glass Cephalopod).

There are many species of gelatinous cephalopods belonging to numerous genera but they are not necessarily related to one another. Being "gelatinous" just refers to the cephalopod's general physiology and does not indicate the gelatinous squid or gelatinous octopus's family relationships. At least one species, the vampire squid (Vampyroteuthis infernalis) is taxonomically neither octopus or squid.

While some gelatinous cephalopods look quite ordinary, most species appear bizarre-looking to observers only familiar with normal squid and octopuses. Most have comparatively large bulbous or globular bodies and short limbs, and it's not uncommon for a species to have a strangely shaped head, oversized flexible fins and/or weird goggling eyes that may be extra-large, protruding or "cock-eyed", with one eye permanently tilted upwards to watch out for shadows cast by approaching predators and prey. Many species have the habit of inflating their mantle with water to become even more globular than normal, usually to discourage a predator by appearing bigger.

Few gelatinous cephalopods ever see sunlight and they never try to leave the water, thus gelatinous squid never jump and gelatinous octopuses never climb. While some species rise to shallow water to feed near the surface they habitually only do so at night. Most shallow-water species have completely transparent flesh and use the Glass Cephalopod variant (see the following entry).

Gelatinous Cephalopod Squid
To create a gelatinous cephalopod squid, apply the following changes to a squid: Lower its swim speed to 50 feet or 40 feet, reducing its jet special ability to a speed of 250 feet or 200 feet. Sluggish gelatinous squid are even slower, with swim speed 30 feet or 20 feet and jet speed 150 feet or rarely 100 feet. Reduce the squid's natural armour bonus by –2 and its grapple bonus by –2. Lower the squid's abilities by Strength –4, Dexterity –2. Increase the racial bonus on Hide checks from the cephalopod's chameleon ability by +4. Replace the cephalopod's low-light vision with superior low-light vision and add the revolting taste special quality (see below), many gelatinous squid also add the fragility special quality (see the Fragile Gelatinous Cephalopod subentry).

Superior Low-Light Vision (Ex): A gelatinous cephalopod can see in the dark even further than creatures with normal low-light vision. A Diminutive glass octopus can see three times as far as a human can in dim light, a Tiny one four times as far, a Small or Medium one sees five times as far, and a Large one six times as far.

Revolting Taste (Ex): While the majority of aquatic creatures can stomach the ammonia-rich flesh of a gelatinous cephalopod non-aquatics find them uneatable. A normal air-breathing creature hungry enough to ignore the foul reek and eat the flesh will immediately vomit it back up and be sickened for 1d3 rounds. There are some air-dwelling creatures able to eat gelatinous cephalopods, such as otyughs and some squid-eating seabirds.

This results in the following changes to the squid's statistics:

Gelatinous Squid Defence Table
* Hide modifier includes a racial bonus of +8 for Large to Tiny gelatinous squid and +6 for Diminutive ones.

Gelatinous Squid Offence Table
¹ This Challenge Rating is for a "resilient" gelatinous squid without the fragility special quality.
² This Challenge Rating is for a typical "fragile" gelatinous squid (see the Fragile Gelatinous Cephalopod subentry).
* Grapple modifier includes a racial bonus of +4 for Large to Small gelatinous squid and +13 for Tiny or smaller ones.

Gelatinous Cephalopod Octopus
To create a gelatinous cephalopod octopus, apply the following changes to an octopus: Remove the land speed and racial bonus to Climb checks. Leave its swim speed unchanged or lower it to 20 feet, in either case this reduces its jet special ability to a speed of 150 feet or rarely 100 feet. Remove the octopus's natural armour bonus and reduce its grapple bonus by –2. Lower the octopus's abilities by Strength –4, Dexterity –2. Increase the racial bonus on Hide checks from the cephalopod's chameleon ability by +4. Replace the cephalopod's low-light vision special quality with superior low-light vision (as described above), many gelatinous squid also add the fragility special quality (see the Fragile Gelatinous Cephalopod subentry).

This results in the following changes to the octopus's statistics:

Gelatinous Octopus Defence Table
* Hide modifier includes a racial bonus of +12 for Medium and Small gelatinous octopuses, +10 for Tiny and +8 for Diminutive ones.

Gelatinous Octopus Offence Table
¹ This Challenge Rating is for a "resilient" gelatinous octopus without the fragility special quality.
² This Challenge Rating is for a typical "fragile" gelatinous octopus (see the Fragile Gelatinous Cephalopod subentry).
* Grapple modifier includes a racial bonus of +8 for Medium and Small gelatinous octopuses and +13 for Tiny or smaller ones.

Fragile Gelatinous Cephalopod
The above entries describe gelatinous cephalopods as resilient as normal squids and octopuses, but many of these creatures have flesh so soft and delicate they're almost as easy to damage as jellyfish. This is probably a food-conservation measure, since building a weak body requires less energy. If netted, such cephalopods are normally reduced to an unidentifiable mush or shapeless blob by the time they're hauled to the surface.

A fragile gelatinous cephalopod is as healthy as a normal cephalopod so does not have a racial penalty to its Constitution score, instead it adds the fragility special quality as follows:

Fragility (Ex): This cephalopod is vulnerable to all types of weapon damage (bludgeoning, piercing and slashing) and take half again as much damage from such effects. If attacked by a weapon that does nonlethal damage like a sap or unarmed strike, the additional 50% damage is lethal damage (the first 100% remains nonlethal).

Being fragile lowers the gelatinous cephalopod's Challenge Rating as indicated above.

Elongated Gelatinous Cephalopod
The majority of gelatinous cephalopods have comparatively short limbs, but a few species have much longer arms (and tentacles in the case of elongated squid). They mostly float motionless and wait for food to blunder into their suckers.

Apart from Challenge Rating, these animals use the gelatinous squid or gelatinous octopus statistics in the tables above. Elongated gelatinous squid have the same Reach with their arms and tentacles as normal elongated squid, while elongated gelatinous octopuses have an arm Reach equal to the tentacle Reach of an elongated squid. A realistic elongated gelatinous cephalopod invariably has the lowest possible swim speed (Swim 20 ft. and jet 100 ft.) and the fragility special quality (described above), but in the fantastic environment of a D&D ocean they may be faster and more resilient than the natural animals of our world.

Elongated Gelatinous Cephalopod Challenge Rating Table
¹ CR for "resilient" elongated gelatinous squid, a fragile elongated gelatinous squid's CR is the column to its right.
² CR for "resilient" elongated gelatinous octopus, a fragile elongated gelatinous octopus's CR is the column to its right.

Sample Gelatinous Cephalopod
The vampire squid (Vampyroteuthis infernalis) is the sole living member of its family (Vampyroteuthidae) and order (Vampyromorphida). Its prehistoric relatives were fairly numerous and diverse during the Jurassic and may have included the Cretaceous "giant squid" Tusoteuthis. Vampire squids spend their entire lives in the "shadow zone", an extremely deep lightless region that has the lowest oxygen levels in the ocean. Very few animals can live permanently in such water, and this specialisation may explain why V. infernalis has survived to modern times while all other Vampyromorphida have gone extinct.

Although its name literally means "vampire squid from Hell" Vampyroteuthis is a pretty harmless creature that rarely reaches a foot in length, half of which is its jelly-like body. They look rather like octopuses with a broad cape of webbing connecting their arms, the animal's white beak lies at the centre of this cape. Vampire squids can vary their colour from pale red to jet black and are covered with numerous photophores able to produce impressive displays of light. They normally swim using a pair of fins but can move rapidly via jet propulsion like most cephalopods. Their eyes appear red (or blue if they're reflecting light) and are amazingly big, up to an inch across – Vampyroteuthis have the largest eyes in proportion to their body of any known animal.

A threatened vampire squid often inverts its arms and envelop itself with its inside-out cape, exposing a lining of spine-like growths called cirri. In this posture the Vampyroteuthis appears larger than it actually is and resembles a spiny chestnut, while it might look fearsome the cirri "thorns" are soft and harmless. If a predator bites an inverted vampire squid it's more likely to bite off an arm or piece of webbing (which would eventually regrow) rather than reach the animal's vulnerable organs. Vampire squid can also try to avoid attack. Vampyroteuthis cephalopod has no ink sac but can squirt bioluminescent mucus from its tentacles to distract predators, although it prefers to try to avoid attack by jetting away and/or distracting displays of light since that costs its body less resources.

Vampyroteuthis have eight arms plus two long filament-like limbs coated with sticky mucus they use to gather particles of food. These filaments belong to arm pair II (the limbs octopuses lost to become eight-armed) and are far thinner than a squid's tentacles (which are arm pair IV). The vampire squid retracts its filaments into two pouches within its cape when it's not using them. A vampire squid mostly feeds off whatever organic matter sinks past it, although it will catch and eat live animals.

Note that the vampire squid conversion in the Creature Catalog is an aquatic underdark monster from Dragon Magazine #227 which has anatomical features unlike Vampyroteuthis or any other cephalopod (six arms, invertible maw of swordlike teeth, body tipped by ramming shell et cetera). The species was artificially created by mind flayers so may be unrelated to any other creature.

In terms of game mechanics, a Vampyroteuthis can be represented by a fragile gelatinous octopus of Diminutive size with the Inkless Cephalopod and Glow-Ink Cephalopod traits (described below under Ink Variants).

Vampyroteuthis (as Diminutive Fragile Inkless Glow-Ink Gelatinous Octopus) (Diminutive Animal (Aquatic); Hit Dice: ½d8–1 (1 hp); Init: +1; Speed: Swim 20 ft. (4 squares); AC: 15 (+4 size, +1 Dex), touch 15, flat-footed 14; BAB/Grapple: +0/–5*; Attack: Arms +5 melee (0); Full Attack: Arms +5 melee (0) and bite +0 melee (0); Space/Reach: 1 ft./0 ft.; Special Attacks: Gnawing bite [grapple or +5 melee (0)], improved grab; Special Qualities: Chameleon [+8 racial bonus to Hide], fragility [+50% damage from bludgeoning/piercing/slashing], glowing mucus cloud [2 ft. cube], jet [speed 150 ft.], revolting taste [eating it sickens for 1d3 rounds], rubbery body, superior low-light vision [×3 distance in dim light]; Saves: Fort +1, Ref +3, Will +1; Abilities: Str 1, Dex 13, Con 9, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 3; Skills: Escape Artist +11, Hide +21, Listen +3, Move Silently +3, Spot +5, Swim +9; Feats: Alertness, Blind-Fightᴮ, Weapon Finesseᴮ; CR: 1/12)

Glass Cephalopod
A glass cephalopod is a gelatinous cephalopod whose flesh is as transparent as water. The only opaque organ in their bodies is their digestive gland (including the ink sac if present), which is usually tilted vertically to reduce the betraying shadow it casts. The only other part of the animal that's normally visible is their eyes. In shape they are usually bulbous, short-armed and google-eyed as is typical for gelatinous squids and octopuses.

Their remarkable transparency makes glass cephalopod nearly invisible. Some species have chromatophores in their skin, by expanding these organs from too small to be seen into microscopic dots of colour they can shift into visibility or assume a ghostlike translucency. Other glass cephalopods have lost their chromatophores or greatly reduced their number. Bioluminescency is also a common feature of this type of cephalopod.

Some octopuses are transparent such as the telescope octopus (Amphitretus pelagicus) and glass octopus (Vitreledonella richardi) but glass cephalopods tend to be squid. There are scores of species of glass squid, mostly belonging to the families Cranchiidae and Taoniinae. Note that not all members of these families are transparent, even the "glass squid" family of Cranchiidae has multiple species of regular gelatinous squid including the world's largest cephalopod, the colossal squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni).

Most glass squid live at depths the sun can reach where their transparency helps them hide, like their gelatinous counterparts they are typically miniscule creatures that ascend to shallower water at night to feed and descend into the darker deeps during the day. Other glass squid dwell in the lightless abyss, although many are as small as shallow-water glass squid some species can be quite large. Big abyssal glass squid include the genera Galiteuthis and Megalocranchia most of which have bodies one or two feet long, although Megalocranchia fisheri can reach 6 feet and the normally 15 to 24 inch cockatoo squid Galiteuthis phyllura is theorized to reach a similar or even larger size.

Glass squid often have the mantle-inflating habit (see Gelatinous Cephalopod), those with chromatophores may assume an intimidatingly dark colour when puffed up. Most species that lack these colour-changing organs will squirt ink into the water inflating their mantles to the same effect, Galiteuthis phyllura is particularly fond of this "ink fill" stratagem.

To create a glass cephalopod use the same alterations as a gelatinous cephalopod (note glass squid are normally the "sluggish" type with swim 20 ft. or 30 ft. and jet 150 ft.) then replace the squid or octopus's chameleon special ability with chameleon translucency as follows:

Chameleon Translucency (Ex): A glass cephalopod can change its colour and translucency as well as produce counter-illuminating bioluminescence, this gives it a racial bonus on Hide checks of +16. The cephalopod does not need cover or concealment to attempt a Hide check. A glass cephalopod gains a +2 bonus on attack rolls against sighted opponents who fail to pinpoint the cephalopod's location with a Spot check, such opponents also have a 25% miss chance when attacking the glass cephalopod.

This results in the following changes to the cephalopod's statistics:

Glass Squid Defence Table
* Hide modifier includes a racial bonus of +16 for all sizes of glass squid.

Glass Squid Offence Table
¹ This Challenge Rating is for a typical "fragile" glass squid (see the Fragile Gelatinous Cephalopod subentry).
² This Challenge Rating is for a "resilient" glass squid without the fragility special quality.
* Grapple modifier includes a racial bonus of +4 for Large to Small glass squid and +13 for Tiny or smaller ones.

Glass Octopus Defence Table
* Hide modifier includes a racial bonus of +16 for all sizes of glass octopus.

Glass Octopus Offence Table
¹ This Challenge Rating is for a typical "fragile" glass octopus (see the Fragile Gelatinous Cephalopod subentry).
² This Challenge Rating is for a "resilient" glass octopus without the fragility special quality.
* Grapple modifier includes a racial bonus of +8 for Medium and Small glass octopuses and +13 for Tiny or smaller ones.

Elongated Glass Cephalopods
Glass cephalopods almost always have the fragile option but are very rarely elongated.

They can be created by adding the Chameleon Translucency special quality to an elongated glass cephalopod and have the following Challenge Ratings.

Elongated Glass Cephalopod Challenge Rating Table
¹ CR for "resilient" elongated glass squid, a fragile elongated glass squid's CR is the column to its right.
² CR for "resilient" elongated glass octopus, a fragile elongated glass octopus's CR is the column to its right.

Sample Glass Cephalopod
As mentioned above, some deep sea glass squid can be quite sizeable. The follow entries describe a typical example (a Tiny fragile glass squid) as well as a spectacular monster (a "robust" glass squid of Large size).

The known glass squid species of our world appear to top off at Medium size (i.e. Megalocranchia fisheri, which can grow to a total length of 9 or 10 feet with a 6 foot long body). It's possible the cockatoo squid (Galiteuthis phyllura) reaches a similar size based on the remains of an arm and tentacle brought up by a Russian trawler Novoulianovsk – if the rest of the squid followed the normal proportions of the species it would have a body 8 or 9 feet long and a total length around 13 feet. Note that Galiteuthis squid have fairly long slender bodies so this squid would be at the top of Medium size rather than the bottom of Large size.

A typical glass octopus appears in the Octopus Variants section of the separate Octopus Redux entry.

Giant Cockatoo Squid (Large Glass Squid) (Large Animal (Aquatic); Hit Dice: 6d8+12 (33 hp); Init: +2; Speed: Swim 50 ft. (10 squares); AC: 14 (–1 size, +2 Dex, +3 natural), touch 11, flat-footed 12; BAB/Grapple: +4/+16*; Attack: Tentacles +8 melee (0); Full Attack: Tentacles +8 melee (0), arms +5 melee (0) and bite +5 melee (1d8+2); Space/Reach: 10 ft./5 ft. (10 ft. with tentacles); Special Attacks: Constrict 1d6+4, improved grab, tearing bite [grapple or +7 melee (1d8+4)]; Special Qualities: Chameleon translucency, ink cloud [20 ft. cube], jet [speed 250 ft.], revolting taste [eating it sickens for 1d3 rounds], superior low-light vision [×6 distance in dim light]; Saves: Fort +7, Ref +7, Will +3; Abilities: Str 18, Dex 14, Con 15, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 2; Skills: Hide +17, Listen +4, Spot +8, Swim +12; Feats: Blind-Fight, Endurance, Multiattackᴮ, Weapon Focus (tentacles); CR: 4)

Cockatoo Squid (Tiny Fragile Glass Squid) (Tiny Animal (Aquatic); Hit Dice: 1d8 (4 hp); Init: +2; Speed: Swim 30 ft. (6 squares); AC: 14 (+2 size, +2 Dex), touch 14, flat-footed 12; BAB/Grapple: +0/+2*; Attack: Tentacles +4 melee (0); Full Attack: Tentacles +4 melee (0), arms +2 melee (0) and bite +2 melee (1d3–3); Space/Reach: 2½ ft./0 ft.; Special Attacks: Improved grab, tearing bite [grapple or +4 melee (1d3–3)]; Special Qualities: Chameleon translucency, fragility [+50% damage from bludgeoning/piercing/slashing], ink cloud [5 ft. cube], jet [speed 150 ft.], revolting taste [eating it sickens for 1d3 rounds], superior low-light vision [×4 distance in dim light]; Saves: Fort +2, Ref +4, Will +1; Abilities: Str 4, Dex 15, Con 11, Int 1, Wis 12, Cha 2; Skills: Hide +26, Listen +3, Spot +7, Swim +10; Feats: Blind-Fight, Multiattackᴮ, Weapon Finesseᴮ; CR: 1/3)

Invisible Cephalopod
An invisible cephalopod is naturally invisible like a phantom fungus. Such animals do not exist in the real world, their invisibility is a supernatural adaptation to living in a fantasy world. A dead invisible cephalopod resembles a glass cephalopod, although its flesh is denser and sturdier than those gelatinous creatures.

To create an invisible cephalopod, change the creature type to Magical Beast (which improves the cephalopod's Hit Dice to 1d10 and increases its Base Attack Bonus to equal the Hit Dice) and replace the chameleon ability with greater invisibility as follows:

Greater Invisibility (Su) This ability is constant, allowing an invisible cephalopod to remain invisible even when attacking. It works like greater invisibility (caster level 12th) and lasts as long as the phantom fungus is alive. This ability is not subject to the invisibility purge spell. A phantom fungus becomes visible 1 minute after it is killed.

Being invisible grants a +20 bonus to Hide checks, which replaces whatever racial bonus to Hide checks the base cephalopod has.

Becoming an invisible cephalopod increases the creature's Challenge Rating by +1, if the cephalopod had a fractional challenge rating, a CR 1/2 or 1/3 cephalopod becomes CR 1, a CR between 1/3 and 1/5 becomes 1/2, and any lower CR become 1/3.

An invisible cephalopod cannot be a Gelatinous Cephalopod or Glass Cephalopod but may be any other variant, even a Dazzling Cephalopod. Most are Inkless Cephalopods.

Sample Invisible Cephalopod
The following is a standard squid with this variant applied:

Invisible Squid (Medium Magical Beast (Aquatic); Hit Dice: 3d10 (16 hp); Init: +3; Speed: Swim 60 ft. (12 squares); AC: 16 (+1 size, +3 Dex, +2 natural)[plus invisibility's 50% miss], touch 14, flat-footed 13; BAB/Grapple: +3/+11*; Attack: Tentacles +6 melee (0); Full Attack: Tentacles +6 melee (0), arms +4 melee (0) and bite +4 melee (1d6+1); Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.; Special Attacks: Constrict 1d4+2, improved grab, tearing bite [grapple or +6 melee (1d6+2)]; Special Qualities: Greater invisibility [vs sighted foes has +2 attack & ignores Dex bonuses to AC], jet [speed 300 ft.], low-light vision; Saves: Fort +3, Ref +6, Will +2; Abilities: Str 14, Dex 17, Con 11, Int 1, Wis 12, Cha 2; Skills: Hide +3 [+23 with invisibility], Listen +4, Spot +7, Swim +11; Feats: Blind-Fight, Endurance, Multiattackᴮ, Weapon Finesseᴮ; CR: 3).

Ink Variants
Cephalopods can use ink to perform many other functions apart from the ink cloud ability of the standard octopus and squid, some of which are described below. Some cephalopods have multiple ink variants, species with both the Decoy-Deploying and Glow-Ink variants are not that uncommon.

These ink variants do not include behaviours that are not pertinent to combat, such as some mother octopuses' habit of inundating their eggs with ink, or are included in another stratagem, such as the "ink fill" trick often used by glass squid that is described in the Glass Cephalopod entry above.

Inkless Cephalopod
Not every cephalopod is able to produce ink. In our world, the vampire squid (Vampyroteuthis infernalis) and all living species of nautilus (subclass Nautiloidea) lack the ability. Vampyroteuthis probably had extinct relatives who possessed ink sacs since they are coeloid cephalopods related to octopuses, but there's no fossil evidence extinct nautiloids ever possessed ink sacs (see Cephalopod Taxonomy in the Cephalopod Variants section's introduction for more information).

Quite a few octopuses have lost ink sacs that would have been present in their ancestral species. Examples include octopuses of the suborder Cirrina (who are deep-sea octopuses), the inkless octopus genus Muusoctopus (which prefer shallower water) and Vulcanoctopus hydrothermalis (that specializes in living near hydrothermal vents). The number of inkless octopus species greatly exceeds the seven non-octopus inkless cephalopods living today (six nautilus species plus one vampire squid).

Inklessness is believed to be an adaptation to lightless environments, since only nocturnal and abyssal cephalopods have evolved to lose their ink sacs. Whether it's shallow water at night or the pitch black depths, if there's never enough light for a predator to see ink there's little point retaining a gland that produces it. Many inkless cephalopods, including Vampyroteuthis, produce bioluminescent mucus that can distract sighted enemies in the dark unlike ink. (see Glow-Ink Cephalopod below).

To create an inkless cephalopod, simply remove its ink cloud special quality. This does not affect the animal's challenge rating.

Decoy-Deploying Cephalopod
Some cephalopods have another method of distracting predators with their ink. Instead of the ink cloud's concealing "smoke screen", the animal squirts out small clouds of ink of approximately the same size, shape and colour as its body (the cephalopod may darken in colour beforehand), the animal then turns a light colour and jets away. Dim-witted predators might attack the squid-shaped cloud instead of targeting the fleeing pale-skinned cephalopod. Decoy-deploying is by far the commonest ink variant and is possessed by the majority of ink-using cephalopods.

An ink decoy is formed from a mix of ink with mucus produced by separate organs inside the cephalopod's mantle and then shot out through its siphon in whatever direction the animal thinks appropriate. Cephalopods can squirt out multiple ink decoys over a few seconds to increase the likelihood of perplexing the enemy.

All decoy-deploying cephalopods can also produce ink clouds, since they’re simply ink without the mucus. Using an ink cloud is less strenuous than decoy-deploying due to the metabolic cost of replacing the mucus.

A decoy-deploying cephalopod gains the ink decoy special quality, as follows:

Ink Decoy (Ex): Once per minute as a quick action, a decoy-deploying cephalopod can produce 1d4 clouds of ink the size and shape of its body, it may position these decoys anywhere it chooses within a radius equal to the dimensions of a standard cephalopod's ink cloud. This does not provoke an attack of opportunity. Sighted creatures viewing this display must succeed at a Sense Motive check against a Bluff check made by the decoy-deploying cephalopod or mistake the decoys for the cephalopod. This gives the cephalopod a momentary diversion that allows it to attempt a Hide check while its opponents are aware of it. Typical cephalopods have no skill ranks in Bluff, giving them a Bluff skill check of –4. However, against a creature of animal intelligence (1 or 2) it gains a +6 bonus (Bluff +2), against a nonintelligent creature it gains a +12 bonus (Bluff +8). Ink decoys disperse in the water in the same round they are deployed.

Becoming a decoy-deploying cephalopod does not modify the creature's Challenge Rating or other statistics. Note that ink decoying has some similarities with the "Feinting in Combat" and "Creating a Diversion to Hide" kinds of Bluff skill checks.

Glow-Ink Cephalopod
One disadvantage of distracting an enemy with an ink cloud is that the enemy needs to be able to see the ink. At night and in the deeper parts of the sea the water can appear to be as pitch-black as an ink cloud. Some cephalopods solve this problem by discharging bioluminescent slime instead of ink. Glowing mucus can distract a sighted opponent even in the most complete darkness.

This behaviour is called "fire-shooting" by biologists. Species that can do it include the odd bobtail squid (Heteroteuthis dispar) and vampire squid (Vampyroteuthis infernalis). The odd bobtail squid can also produce bright flashes of light from its photophores to distract other creatures, an ability far more common in deep-sea cephalopods than fire-shooting (see Dazzling Cephalopod in the Cephalopod Variants section). In lightless condition, blinding an attacker with a dazzling flash is roughly equivalent to the total concealment of an ink cloud. The vampire squid is does not have an ink sac so lacks the ink cloud ability (see Inkless Cephalopod above), but decoy-deploying cephalopods usually retain the ability to produce ink clouds and may be able to produce ink decoys as well as bioluminescent mucus.

A glow-ink cephalopod gains the glowing decoy special quality, as follows:

Glowing Decoy (Ex): Once per minute as a quick action, a glow-ink cephalopod can produce a cloud of glowing slime roughly the size and shape of its body, it may position this decoy anywhere it chooses within a radius equal to the dimensions of a standard cephalopod's ink cloud. This does not provoke an attack of opportunity. In well-lit areas this has no effect, but in areas of total darkness any sighted creature must succeed at a Sense Motive check against a Bluff check made by the cephalopod or mistake the decoy for the cephalopod. This gives the cephalopod a momentary diversion that allows it to attempt a Hide check while its opponents are aware of it. Typical cephalopods have no skill ranks in Bluff, giving them a Bluff skill check of –4. However, against a creature of animal intelligence (1 or 2) it gains a +6 bonus (Bluff +2), against a nonintelligent creature it gains a +12 bonus (Bluff +8). In shadowy condition, a –4 circumstance penalty applies to glowing decoy Bluff checks reducing the Bluff skill check to –8 (or Bluff –2 vs animals, Bluff +4 vs nonintelligent). Glowing decoys disperse in the water in the same round they are deployed.

Becoming a glow-ink cephalopod does not modify the creature's Challenge Rating or other statistics.

Stink-Ink Cephalopod
A cephalopod’s ink can include other chemicals apart from pigments like melanin, and such compounds may give the ink an odd flavour and odour to discourage predation. Cephalopod ink does not taste or smell foul to humanoids – indeed it is sometimes used in cooking – but even a pleasant fragrance can be overpowering if strong enough.

A stink-ink gains the special quality, as follows:

Ink Stink (Ex): A stink-ink cephalopod produces highly odorous ink that affects water-breathing creatures that enter an ink cloud produced by the animal. A stink-ink cephalopod's ink decoys are also odoriferous and affect creatures who make a bite attack against an ink decoy as well as water-breathing creatures who swim through one. Affected creatures must succeed at a Fortitude save or be sickened for 1 round and lose their sense of smell (and scent special ability if they have it) for 1d3 minutes, if they save successfully they only lose their sense of smell and scent ability for 1 round. The save DC is Constitution-based.

Becoming a stink-ink cephalopod does not modify the creature's Challenge Rating or other statistics. Typical cephalopods with the ink stink ability use the following statistics:

Stink-Ink Cephalopod Table

Note that a stink-ink cephalopod cannot "turn off" its stink so is unable to produce non-odorous ink clouds or ink decoys, unlike glow-ink cephalopods who can produce non-glowing ink effects.

Note: There is currently no concrete proof any cephalopod has this ability, just anecdotes and theories about its existence. A fantasy world's "realistic" cephalopods could certainly possess ink stink.

Poison-Ink Cephalopod
Many if not most cephalopods are venomous, although the poison of most of them is not known to be dangerous to people. If a cephalopod can add odorous compounds to its ink, why not add venom instead?

Cephalopods with toxic ink might exist in the real world. The blue-ringed octopuses (Hapalochlaena sp.) are the most notable exception, with enough venom in their saliva glands to kill several dozen Medium sized humanoids. Traces of the octopus's venom octopus's toxin (including its lethal compound tetrodotoxin) have been found in the animal's ink, raising the possibility that it could be toxic too.

To create a poison-ink cephalopod, increase the Cephalopod's Challenge Rating by +1 and give the Ink Poison special attack as follows:

Ink Poison (Ex): The ink of this cephalopod is laced with poison that delivers its effects through ingestion or inhalation, although it is a lot less potent if ingested. A water-breathing creature that enters a poison-ink cephalopod's ink cloud or ink decoy is affected by its inhaled ink poison. Creatures that swallow the cephalopod's poisonous mucus (usually by making a bite attack upon an ink decoy or the cephalopod itself) will be affected by its ingested ink poison even if they do not breath the venom-laced water. Creature exposed to both poisons in the same round (such as a water-breather both swallowing and breathing in an ink decoy) are only affected by its inhaled ink poison but the poison's Fortitude save DC has an additional +2 racial bonus.

Inhaled Ink Venom: Inhaled, Fortitude DC as per table, initial damage 1d10 minutes of momentary paralysis, secondary damage increases momentary paralysis duration to 1d6×10 minutes and adds 1 point of Dexterity damage. The save DC includes a +2 racial adjustment, or a +4 racial adjustment if they also ingested the cephalopod's ink venom.

Ingested Ink Venom: Ingested, Fortitude DC as per table, initial damage 1d10 round of momentary paralysis, secondary damage increases momentary paralysis duration to 1d10 minutes.

Momentary paralysis takes effect almost immediately; one round after failing their Fortitude save the victim suffers a –1 penalty to attack rolls, ability checks and skill checks; if the duration of the poison is measured in minutes then one minute after being poisoned the symptoms worsen, the victim can neither run nor charge and suffers a –2 penalty to attack rolls, ability checks and skill checks plus a –1 penalty to Reflex saves and damage rolls. The poison's penalties continue until the momentary paralysis duration ends. A creature who is immune or resistant to paralysis (such as a true dragon) applies this immunity or resistance to the poison’s momentary paralysis effect and only takes Dexterity damage. Penalties from ink poison's momentary paralysis do not stack with penalties from other forms of paralysis, such as those imposed by the suffocating paralysis of a blue-ringed octopus's venom and organ poison.

The save DCs are Constitution-based.

The ink poison special attack assumes the cephalopod's ink uses a much weaker variation of a blue-ringed octopus's poison. More potent ink poisons and ones with different effects are certainly possible but beyond the scope of this work.

Note that a poison-ink cephalopod cannot "turn off" its poison so is unable to produce non-toxic ink clouds or ink decoys, unlike glow-ink cephalopods who can produce non-glowing ink effects.

Typical cephalopods with the ink poison ability use the following statistics:

Poison-Ink Cephalopod Table

Sample Creature
The separate blue-ringed octopus entry includes a subentries with poisonous ink clouds, their text modifies the blue-ringed octopus's poison special attack to include ink poison and allow for the octopus lacking the ink decoy ability.

Design Notes
The SRD Squid is clearly based on the Humboldt Squid (Dosidicus gigas, also known as the Jumbo Squid or Red Devil).

Some or possibly most squid have venomous saliva like octopuses do. Little is known about the venom of squid, which is not known to be dangerous to humans except for the possibility of an allergic reaction (although that proviso would apply to the enzymes in any saliva apart from your own).

It took considerable research to complete some of the above entries, such as determining whether longline squid should be inkless or not (I eventually found reliable sources that Asperoteuthis mangoldae has been videod squirting ink and Asperoteuthis acanthoderma has a small ink sac although it was empty and hard to find during dissection).

Speaking of which, during my internet searches I saw no mention of inkless squid even existing, the only inkless cephalopods mentioned were nautiluses, octopuses and vampire squids (which aren't really squid).

Skill Breakdown:
Squid (6 SPs): Hide 0S+Dex3+4chameleon, Listen 3S+Wis1, Spot 3S+Wis1+4R, Swim 0S+Dex3+8R
Large Squid (9 SPs): Hide 3S+Dex3–4size+4chameleon, Listen 3S+Wis1, Spot 3S+Wis1+4R, Swim 0S+Str6+8R
Small Squid (5 SPs): Hide 0S+Dex3+4size+4chameleon, Listen 2S+Wis1, Spot 3S+Wis1+4R, Swim 0S+Dex3+8R
Tiny Squid (4 SPs): Hide 0S+Dex3+8size+4chameleon, Listen 2S+Wis1, Spot 2S+Wis1+4R, Swim 0S+Dex3+8R
Diminutive Squid (4 SPs): Hide 0S+Dex3+12size+2chameleon, Listen 2S+Wis1, Spot 2S+Wis1+4R, Swim 0S+Dex3+8R

Flying Squid Distance Calculations

Giant Squid Redux
Huge Animal (Aquatic)
Hit Dice: 12d8+48 (102 hp)
Initiative: +2
Speed: Swim 60 ft. (12 squares)
Armor Class: 17 (–2 size, +2 Dex, +7 natural), touch 10, flat-footed 15
Base Attack/Grapple: +9/+25 [+1 per tentacle]
Attack: Tentacle +15 melee (1d6+8)
Full Attack: 2 tentacles +15 melee (1d6+8) and 8 arms +13 melee (1d6+4) and bite +13 melee (3d8+4)
Space/Reach: 15 ft./10 ft. (40 ft. with tentacle, 20 ft. with arm)
Special Attacks: All-around tentacles, constrict [1d6+8 plus 1d6/extra tentacle], improved grab, tearing beak [grapple or +15 melee, 3d8+8]
Special Qualities: Chameleon, damage reduction 5/slashing or piercing, ink cloud, jet, superior low-light vision
Saves: Fort +12, Ref +10, Will +7
Abilities: Str 26, Dex 15, Con 19, Int 1, Wis 12, Cha 2
Skills: Hide –2, Listen +10, Spot +15, Swim +16
Feats: Blind-Fight, Combat Reflexes, Diehard, Endurance, Iron Will, Multiattackᴮ
Environment: Cold aquatic
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 9
Treasure: Standard
Advancement: 13–18 HD (Huge); 19–36 HD (Gargantuan)
Level Adjustment: —

Giant squid are kraken-like monsters that have been known to sink ships. These voracious creatures live in the lightless abyssal depths of the ocean but occasionally rise to the surface to seek prey. They can have bodies more than 20 feet long and attack almost anything they meet. Unlike normal squid like the Architeuthis giant squid, a giant squid is territorial and will have a favourite spot on the sea floor it considers its "lair". This could be a cavern or sunken ship, but is usually just a landmark on the seabed. Like an octopus, a giant squid tends to return home to eat its catch, leaving the remains piled in a midden. This midden pile may contain treasures that belonged by the squid's victims.

A typical giant squid is about sixty feet long from tailfin to tentacle-tip and weighs around 8,000 pounds.

Combat
A giant squid can attack with all its limbs simultaneously, dividing its attacks among as many opponents as it likes. A giant squid can bring all ten tentacle and arm attacks to bear against an opponent its own size or larger, it can attack a creature 1 size smaller than itself with up to 4 limbs, a creature 2 sizes smaller with 2 limbs, and smaller opponents with only one tentacle or arm.

If a giant squid already has a hold on an opponent in the water when it succeeds at a grapple check during a standard or full attack, it can automatically reduce the distance between it and its opponent by a distance of up to 30 feet, either by moving towards its opponent or pulling them closer with its limbs. The movement may affect the squid, the opponent or both. If this movement pulls an opponent into the Reach of its arm attacks or bite attack the giant squid is able to make attacks-of-opportunity with those natural weapons.

An opponent can attack a giant squid’s limbs with a sunder attempt as if they were weapons. A giant squid’s tentacles have 20 hit points each, and its arms have 10 hit points each. If a giant squid is currently grappling a target with the appendage that is being attacked, it usually uses another limb to make its attack of opportunity against the opponent making the sunder attempt. Severing a giant squid’s tentacle or arm deals damage to the creature equal to half the limb’s full normal hit points (10 points of damage per tentacle and 5 points per arm). A giant squid usually withdraws from combat if it loses four limbs. The creature regrows severed limbs in 1d10+10 days.

All-Around Tentacles (Ex): A giant squid can attack and defend in all directions without penalty and can not be flanked.

Chameleon (Ex): A giant squid can change its colour and produce light, giving it a +4 racial bonus on Hide checks. The squid does not need cover or concealment to attempt a Hide check if it can match the colour and brightness of its surroundings.

Constrict (Ex): Every round a giant squid maintains a grapple it can automatically deal 1d6+8 points of constriction damage, the damage is increased by 1d6 for each additional arm or tentacle the squid constricts the opponent with. A giant squid can simultaneously Constrict every opponent it is holding in an arm or tentacle and can simultaneously use its Tearing Beak on one grappled opponent it is close enough to bite.

A grappled opponent can use a standard grapple action to attempt to resist the constriction. The opponent makes a grapple contest against the giant squid. For every point they beat the squid's grapple check they neutralize the constriction of one arm or tentacle. If they beat the grapple check by a number greater than the number of limbs the squid is holding them with they break free of the grapple.

Example: a giant squid is wrestling a sperm whale, which it is holding with both its primary tentacles and 3 secondary arms. An average giant squid constricting with 5 limbs normally does 5d6+8 damage. The whale tries to break the constriction. The squid rolls 38 on its grapple check, the whale a 41. Since the cachalot rolled 3 higher, it breaks the hold of 3 limbs and only takes 2d6+8 constriction damage. It would have needed to roll 6 or more higher than the squid's grapple check (i.e. 44+) to break free entirely.

If a giant squid constricts a ship using 6 or more of its limbs, it can make a Strength check to breach its hull, which causes the ship to sink in 1d10 minutes. The break DC varies with the type of vessel embraced, as follows: rowboat DC 20, keelboat DC 23, sailing ship or longship DC 25, warship DC 27, or galley DC 30. (See Chapter 5 of the DMG for information about ships). Regardless of the check result, every creature aboard must attempt a DC 15 Reflex saving throw. Success means the creature takes 1d6 points of damage from being thrown about by the impact; failure means the creature is hurled overboard.

Improved Grab (Ex): To use this ability, a giant squid must hit an opponent of any size with a tentacle or arm attack. It can then attempt to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity. If it wins the grapple check, it establishes a hold and can constrict.

If the squid hits an opponent with multiple tentacles as part of a full attack it only rolls one grapple check to establish a hold, but it gets a bonus to the grapple check equal to the number of tentacles it hits with.

Tearing Beak (Ex): A giant squid can bite an opponent it is grappling as a primary attack (bite +15 melee for 3d8+8 damage) or by succeeding at an opposed grapple check (for the same damage).

Ink Cloud (Ex): A giant squid can emit a cloud of jet-black ink 60 feet high by 60 feet wide by 60 feet long once per minute as a free action. The cloud provides total concealment, which the squid normally uses to escape a losing fight. All vision within the cloud is obscured.

Jet (Ex): A giant squid can jet backward once per round as a full-round action, at a speed of 300 feet. It must move in a straight line, but does not provoke attacks of opportunity while jetting.

Superior Low-Light Vision (Ex): A giant squid can see ten times as far as a human can in dim light.

Skills: A giant squid’s huge eyes give it a +8 racial bonus to Spot checks and its chameleon ability gives it a +4 racial bonus to Hide checks.

A giant squid has a +8 racial bonus on any Swim check to perform some special action or avoid a hazard and can always choose to take 10 on a Swim check, even if distracted or endangered. It can use the run action while swimming, provided it swims in a straight line.

Advanced Giant Squid
A Gargantuan giant squid has a 60 foot Reach with its tentacles and a 30 foot Reach with its arms. Each of a Gargantuan giant squid's tentacles has 30 hit points and each arm has 20 hit points (severing deals 15 points of damage per tentacle and 10 points per arm).

A Gargantuan giant squid’s can emit an ink cloud 80 feet high by 80 feet wide by 80 feet long.

Design Notes
Like the SRD Giant Octopus, the SRD Giant Squid represents the kraken-like giant cephalopods of folklore or cryptozoology (and thus should have been indexed as a Monster rather than an Animal). For more realistic giant squid, see the Cleon Special versions of the real-world Architeuthis, Mesonychoteuthis and Tusoteuthis (the latter is a long-extinct species). These squid are at most half the size of the SRD Giant Squid and are a lot less formidable.

Mechanically, my first objective was dividing the original’s ten primary tentacle attacks into two primary tentacles plus eight secondary arms. Not only does this reflect the actual physiology of real giant cephalopods, it also follows the precedent of the SRD Kraken. Because the SRD Giant Squid gets its full Strength bonus on all its tentacles (since their primary weapons), they actually do MORE average damage than the Kraken’s two primary tentacles plus six secondary arms (10d6+80 versus 4d8+24+6d6+36 works out to 115 versus 99). Which reminds me, should I Redux the SRD Kraken some time?

I increased its Constitution to a figure more appropriate for a Huge monster than the original’s Con 13 and lowered its Dexterity to match the Giant Octopus’s Dex 15.

The rest of its abilities were mostly cribbed from my Giant Octopus Redux. I added the ability to crush ships in its coiling limbs to its Constrict special attack to honour the original AD&D version, which possessed the ability to crush small vessels in its tentacles and drag them underwater.

I was seriously tempted to give the Giant Squid the Dire trait since many AD&D Giant Animals became Dire Animals in 3E.

My Dire Squid would have the following changes from the Giant Squid Redux above:

Saves: Fort +12, Ref +10, Will +9
Feats: Blind-Fight, Combat Reflexes, Diehard, Endurance, Iron Will, Multiattack

Skill Breakdown:
Giant Squid (15 SPs): Hide 0S+Dex2–8+4chameleon, Listen 9S+Wis1, Spot 6S+Wis1+8R, Swim 0S+Str8+8R

Architeuthis (Giant Squid)
Large Animal (Aquatic)
Hit Dice: 6d8+12 (39 hp)
Initiative: +3
Speed: Swim 50 ft. (10 squares)
Armor Class: 15 (–1 size, +3 Dex, +3 natural), touch 12, flat-footed 12
Base Attack/Grapple: +4/+15* [+1 per 2 arms]
Attack: Tentacles +7 melee (1d4+3)
Full Attack: Tentacles +7 melee (1d4+3) and 8 arms +4 melee (1) and bite +4 melee (1d10+1)
Space/Reach: 10 ft./5 ft. (20 ft. with tentacles, 10 ft. with arms)
Special Attacks: Constrict [1d6+3 plus 1/two extra limbs], improved grab, tearing beak [grapple or +6 melee, 1d10+3]
Special Qualities: Chameleon, damage reduction 5/slashing or piercing, ink cloud, jet, revolting taste, superior low-light vision
Saves: Fort +7, Ref +8, Will +3
Abilities: Str 16, Dex 17, Con 15, Int 1, Wis 12, Cha 2
Skills: Hide +3, Listen +7, Spot +12, Swim +11
Feats: Blind-Fight, Endurance, Multiattackᴮ, Weapon Focus (tentacles)
Environment: Cold aquatic
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 3
Advancement: 7–9 HD (Large); 10–12 HD (Huge)
Level Adjustment: —

Those sages who study cephalopods consider Architeuthis the true giant squid as opposed to the "monstrous" giant squid and similarly enormous cephalopods like the giant octopus, kraken or the colossal squid, Mesonychoteuthis. Cachalot whales, also known as sperm whales, frequently prey on these animals, and part-digested Architeuthis found in the whales' stomachs or regurgitations may be the main source of information on these animals available to an air-breathing scholar.

The giant squid live in the abyssal depths of the sea. They are actually a relatively abundant species but venture up from the deep so rarely most surface-dwelling races know very little about them. Architeuthis encountered in shallow water will generally be dead or dying (usually from the pressure change), but on the extraordinarily few occasions the giant squid is still healthy it often attacks whoever encounters it as if they were any other prey. Like most deep-water squid an Architeuthis's body is saturated with ammonia to help give it a neutral buoyancy in seawater, its flesh and blood reek of the chemical and are inedible to most humanoids.

Compared to many species of squid an Architeuthis has a rather limited colour-changing ability, it relies more on speed to avoid predators and pursue prey. A giant squid's enormous eyes can reach 10 inches in diameter and are well suited for spotting the glow of bioluminescent prey or the shadow of an approaching sperm whale in the near-lightless depths of the sea. The only natural animal known to have larger eyes is the colossal squid.

Architeuthis spend much of their time waiting for prey to wander within reach but will also actively the hunt for food. If a giant squid stumbles upon another Architeuthis it will either try to eat or mate with the other squid depending on how hungry it is feeling. While most male cephalopods use a specialized tentacle for mating, an Architeuthis mates by stabbing his partner (usually in an arm) with a yard-long prehensile extendible penis that injects spermatophores into the other giant squid. Male Architeuthis will try to fertilize other males as well as females.* The spermatophore remains embedded in the other Architeuthis and, if it happens to be female, the sperm migrates through the giant squid's flesh to fertilize her eggs when she is ready to reproduce. Mother Architeuthis lay millions of eggs in a mass of gelatine-like mucus, each egg is smaller than a pinhead.

*Currently, it is unknown why male giant squid try to breed with both sexes – are they bisexual? Can't they tell if another Architeuthis is male or female? (although normal squid can tell using mating displays). Do they encounter other giant squid too rarely to pass up any change to mate? Must they mate and flee before their partner tries to devour them so can't risk staying long enough to determine the other Architeuthis's gender? Or do males just stab each other when they fight? (Although I'm not adding "penis" as a natural weapon!)

An adult Architeuthis measures 20 to 30 feet from tailfin to tentacle-tip and weighs around 500 pounds, its relatively small body is only 5 to 8 feet long. Extraordinarily huge specimens may grow to 40 feet or more from tailfin to tentacle-tip.

Combat
An Architeuthis giant squid seizes hold of prey with its tentacles, then secures them in its arms and bites with its beak. It focuses on one opponent and does not divide its attacks should it encounter multiple targets.

Giant squid are afraid of bright lights such as the daylight spell, misinterpreting them as bioluminescence from a much bigger animal. A wounded or fearful the Architeuthis jets away, maybe covering its escape with a cloud of ink.

If an Architeuthis already has a hold on an opponent in the water when it succeeds at a grapple check during a standard or full attack, it can automatically reduce the distance between it and its opponent by a distance of up to 20 feet, either by moving towards its opponent or pulling them closer with its limbs. The movement may affect the squid, the opponent or both. If this movement pulls an opponent into the Reach of its arm attacks or bite attack the giant squid is able to make attacks-of-opportunity with those natural weapons.

An opponent can attack a giant squid’s limbs with a sunder attempt as if they were weapons. An Architeuthis’s tentacles and arms have 5 hit points each. If a giant squid is currently grappling a target with the appendage that is being attacked, it usually uses another limb to make its attack of opportunity against the opponent making the sunder attempt. Severing one of a giant squid’s limbs deals 2 points of damage to the creature. A giant squid usually withdraws from combat if it loses four limbs. The creature regrows severed limbs in 1d10+10 days.

Chameleon (Ex): An Architeuthis can change its colour, giving it a +4 racial bonus on Hide checks.

Constrict (Ex): An Architeuthis automatically deals 1d6+3 points of constriction damage with a successful grapple check, the damage is increased by 1 for each two additional limbs the squid constricts the opponent with (i.e. an Architeuthis that constricts with its tentacles and all eight limbs inflicts 1d6+7 damage).

If the squid is close enough to bite an opponent it is constricting it can simultaneously uses its Tearing Beak special attack on them.

The constrict attack of a Huge Architeuthis does 1d8 base damage plus its Strength modifier, increased by 1 damage per additional limb the squid constricts with. A Huge Architeuthis normally has Strength 24 so inflicts 1d8+15 damage if it constricts with its tentacles and all eight limbs.

Improved Grab (Ex): To use this ability, a giant squid must hit an opponent of any size with a tentacle or arm attack. It can then attempt to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity. If it wins the grapple check, it establishes a hold and can constrict.

*An Architeuthis has a +4 racial bonus to grapple checks with its tentacles, with an additional bonus of 1 per arm it is holding its opponent with. If it hits a target with multiple limbs as part of a full attack routine it only makes one grapple check to resolve the hold.

Tearing Beak (Ex): An Architeuthis can bite an opponent it is grappling as a primary attack (bite +6 melee for 1d10+3 damage) or by succeeding at an opposed grapple check (for the same damage).

Ink Cloud (Ex): An Architeuthis can emit a cloud of jet-black ink 20 feet high by 20 feet wide by 20 feet long once per minute as a free action. The cloud provides total concealment, which the squid normally uses to escape a losing fight. All vision within the cloud is obscured.

Jet (Ex): An Architeuthis can jet backward once per round as a full-round action, at a speed of 250 feet. It must move in a straight line, but does not provoke attacks of opportunity while jetting.

Revolting Taste (Ex): While the majority of aquatic creatures can stomach the ammonia-rich flesh of Architeuthis non-aquatics find them uneatable. A normal air-breathing creature hungry enough to ignore the foul reek and eat the flesh will immediately vomit it back up and be sickened for 1d3 rounds. There are some air-dwelling creatures able to eat Architeuthis, such as otyughs and seabirds that habitually hunt squid.

Superior Low-Light Vision (Ex): An Architeuthis can see eight times as far as a human can in dim light.

Skills: A giant squid’s huge eyes give it a +8 racial bonus to Spot checks and its chameleon ability gives it a +4 racial bonus to Hide checks.

A giant squid has a +8 racial bonus on any Swim check to perform some special action or avoid a hazard and can always choose to take 10 on a Swim check, even if distracted or endangered. It can use the run action while swimming, provided it swims in a straight line.

Advanced Architeuthis
A Huge Architeuthis has a 30 foot Reach with its tentacles and a 15 foot Reach with its arms. Each of a Huge Architeuthis's limbs has 10 hit points and severing a limb deals 5 points of damage to the creature.

A Huge Architeuthis can emit an ink cloud 30 feet high by 30 feet wide by 30 feet long.

Design Notes
The above stats could also be used for the extinct squid Tusoteuthis longa that lived in the warm, shallow seas of the Cretaceous. These had a body about the same size as Architeuthis but shorter tentacles, giving it a total length around 20–35 feet.

Skill Breakdown:
Architeuthis Squid (9 SPs): Hide 0S+Dex3–4+4chameleon, Listen 6S+Wis1, Spot 3S+Wis1+8R, Swim 0S+Str3+8R

Mesonychoteuthis (The "Colossal Squid")
Large Animal (Aquatic)
Hit Dice: 8d8+16 (43 hp)
Initiative: +3
Speed: Swim 40 ft. (8 squares)
Armor Class: 14 (–1 size, +2 Dex, +3 natural), touch 11, flat-footed 12
Base Attack/Grapple: +6/+18* [+1 per 2 arms]
Attack: Tentacles +10 melee (1d4+4)
Full Attack: Tentacles +10 melee (1d4+4) and 8 arms +7 melee (1) and bite +7 melee (1d10+2)
Space/Reach: 10 ft./5 ft. (10 ft. with tentacles)
Special Attacks: Constrict [1d8+4 plus 1/extra limb], improved grab, tearing beak [grapple or +9 melee, 1d10+4]
Special Qualities: Chameleon, damage reduction 5/slashing or piercing, ink cloud, jet, revolting taste, superior low-light vision
Saves: Fort +8, Ref +8, Will +3
Abilities: Str 18, Dex 15, Con 15, Int 1, Wis 12, Cha 2
Skills: Hide +6, Listen +8, Spot +13, Swim +12
Feats: Blind-Fight, Endurance, Multiattackᴮ, Weapon Focus (tentacles)
Environment: Cold aquatic
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 4
Advancement: 9–11 HD (Large); 12–16 HD (Huge)
Level Adjustment: —

Commonly known as the colossal squid, Mesonychoteuthis live in the lightless depths of the freezing polar ocean. They are not lively animals, spending most of their lives waiting for prey (usually fish or squid) to blunder close enough to catch. A colossal squid's sluggish behaviour and slow metabolism help it survive on very little food, since meals are few and far apart in the frigid abyss it calls home. Mesonychoteuthis are eaten by sperm whales, or cachalots as they're also called.

The flesh of a colossal squid is semi-transparent and its skin contains colour-changing chromatophores, helping make Mesonychoteuthis remarkably stealthy for its size. Its enormous eyes may be up to a foot across and have two rows of tiny bioluminescent photophores below them. These light-emitting organs can produce a glow that cancels out the shadow cast by the colossal squid's eyes and can also produce flashes of light that mimic those of little biolumuniscent animals, luring predators that hunt such animals to approach the Mesonychoteuthis and be preyed upon. The animals the squid eats are often bioluminescent, so its inner mantle lining can be filled with dark red pigment to prevent the glow of its stomach contents shining through its see-through flesh and exposing its position.

Colossal squid belong to the same family as glass squids, the Cranchiidae. In addition to the aforementioned translucency, a Mesonychoteuthis also uses ammonia to regulate its density like a glass squid, the tissues and blood of a colossal squid are soaked in this chemical and its body also contains a buoyancy chamber full of ammonia solution. The meat of an Mesonychoteuthis has a foul bleach-like odour and cannot be eaten by normal humanoids.

Colossal squid mate like normal squid, the pregnant females then rise to relatively shallow water to spawn thousands of free-floating eggs up to one-eighth of an inch in diameter. The young gradually descend to deeper and deeper water as they grow and age. Infants may range from the surface to depths up to 1,500 feet, adolescent squid tend to be found from 1,500 feet to a mile down and adults usually live 3,000 to 6,000 feet deep.

An adult Mesonychoteuthis is typically about 20 feet long from tailfin to tentacle-tip and weighs around 1,000 pounds, although huge individuals can grow up to 30 feet or more. The colossal squid has a bulky body and proportionally shorter tentacles than an Architeuthis giant squid, so while a Mesonychoteuthis may be shorter in total length it will generally be more massive. While an Architeuthis's limbs have sharp-edged suckers, those of a Mesonychoteuthis are equipped with claws.

Combat
A Mesonychoteuthis colossal squid seizes hold of prey with its tentacles, then secures them in its arms and bites with its beak. A stressed or threatened a colossal squid may inflate itself by sucking water into its mantle and change colour to a deep maroon, possibly as an intimidation display.

Giant squid are afraid of bright lights such as the daylight spell, misinterpreting them as bioluminescence from a much bigger animal. If wounded or frightened the Mesonychoteuthis jets away, maybe covering its escape with a cloud of ink.

If a Mesonychoteuthis already has a hold on an opponent in the water when it succeeds at a grapple check during a standard or full attack, it can automatically reduce the distance between it and its opponent by a distance of up to 20 feet, either by moving towards its opponent or pulling them closer with its limbs. The movement may affect the squid, the opponent or both. If this movement pulls an opponent into the Reach of its arm attacks or bite attack the giant squid is able to make attacks-of-opportunity with those natural weapons.

An opponent can attack a giant squid’s limbs with a sunder attempt as if they were weapons. An Mesonychoteuthis’s tentacles and arms have 5 hit points each. If a giant squid is currently grappling a target with the appendage that is being attacked, it usually uses another limb to make its attack of opportunity against the opponent making the sunder attempt. Severing one of a giant squid’s limbs deals 2 points of damage to the creature. A giant squid usually withdraws from combat if it loses four limbs. The creature regrows severed limbs in 1d10+10 days.

Chameleon (Ex): A Mesonychoteuthis can change its colour and translucency as well as produce counter-illuminating bioluminescence, giving it a +8 racial bonus on Hide checks. The squid does not need cover or concealment to attempt a Hide check if it can match the colour and brightness of its surroundings.

Constrict (Ex): A Mesonychoteuthis automatically deals 1d8+4 points of constriction damage with a successful grapple check, the damage is increased by 1 for each additional limb the squid constricts the opponent with. (i.e. a Mesonychoteuthis that constricts with its tentacles and all 8 limbs inflicts 1d8+12 damage).

If the squid is close enough to bite an opponent it is constricting it can simultaneously uses its Tearing Beak special attack on them.

The constrict attack of a Huge Mesonychoteuthis does 2d6 base damage plus its Strength modifier, if it constricts with multiple limbs the damage increases by 1d6 plus 1 point of damage for each additional limb. A Huge Mesonychoteuthis normally has Strength 26 so inflicts 3d6+16 damage if it constricts with its tentacles and all eight limbs.

Improved Grab (Ex): To use this ability, a giant squid must hit an opponent of any size with a tentacle or arm attack. It can then attempt to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity. If it wins the grapple check, it establishes a hold and can constrict.

*A Mesonychoteuthis has a +4 racial bonus to grapple checks with its tentacles, with an additional bonus of 1 per arm it is holding its opponent with. If it hits a target with multiple limbs as part of a full attack routine it only makes one grapple check to resolve the hold.

Tearing Beak (Ex): A Mesonychoteuthis can bite an opponent it is grappling as a primary attack (bite +9 melee for 1d10+4 damage) or by succeeding at an opposed grapple check (for the same damage).

Ink Cloud (Ex): A Mesonychoteuthis can emit a cloud of jet-black ink 20 feet high by 20 feet wide by 20 feet long once per minute as a free action. The cloud provides total concealment, which the squid normally uses to escape a losing fight. All vision within the cloud is obscured.

Jet (Ex): A Mesonychoteuthis can jet backward once per round as a full-round action, at a speed of 200 feet. It must move in a straight line, but does not provoke attacks of opportunity while jetting.

Revolting Taste (Ex): While the majority of aquatic creatures can stomach the ammonia-rich flesh of Mesonychoteuthis non-aquatics find them uneatable. A normal air-breathing creature hungry enough to ignore the foul reek and eat the flesh will immediately vomit it back up and be sickened for 1d3 rounds. There are some air-dwelling creatures able to eat Mesonychoteuthis, such as otyughs and seabirds that habitually hunt squid.

Superior Low-Light Vision (Ex): A Mesonychoteuthis can see ten times as far as a human can in dim light.

Skills: A giant squid’s huge eyes give it a +8 racial bonus to Spot checks and its chameleon ability gives it a +4 racial bonus to Hide checks.

A giant squid has a +8 racial bonus on any Swim check to perform some special action or avoid a hazard and can always choose to take 10 on a Swim check, even if distracted or endangered. It can use the run action while swimming, provided it swims in a straight line.

Advanced Mesonychoteuthis
A Huge Mesonychoteuthis has a 20 foot Reach with its tentacles and a 10 foot Reach with its arms. Each of a Huge Mesonychoteuthis's limbs has 10 hit points and severing a limb deals 5 points of damage to the creature.

A Huge Mesonychoteuthis can emit an ink cloud 30 feet high by 30 feet wide by 30 feet long.

Design Notes
This creature is based on my Architeuthis conversion with a modest increase to Strength and constriction damage to reflect Mesonychoteuthis’s greater size and the sharp claws on its suckers and most of the traits of a Gelatinous Squid such as reduced Swim speed and Superior Low-Light Vision. It seems somewhat implausible that Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni would have stealth camouflage as good as a truly transparent glass squid like Galiteuthis phyllura, but they are members of the glass squid family Cranchiidae and it seems a good way to distinguish the animal from the giant squid Architeuthis dux. I did compromise by reducing its racial bonus on Hide checks to +8 from a normal glass squid's +12.

Very little is actually known about the colossal squid. Most of the background information in this entry is based on scientists' theories based on their remains of and the scars they leave on their predators (sperm whales) and prey (fish and squid) rather than observation. This information was cribbed off various internet sources, particularly its Wikipedia entry (Colossal squid - Wikipedia) and a Softpedia article (Colossal Squid Could Grow to 1,600 Pounds (750 Kg)) that went into some detailed speculation about their semi-translucent & bioluminescent stealth capabilities.

Skill Breakdown:
Mesonychoteuthis Squid (11 SPs): Hide 0S+Dex2–4size+8chameleon, Listen 7S+Wis1, Spot 4S+Wis1+8R, Swim 0S+Str3+8R

Long-Arm Squid (Magnapinna)
Tiny Animal (Aquatic)
Hit Dice: 1d8 (4 hp)
Initiative: +2
Speed: Swim 20 ft. (4 squares)
Armor Class: 14 (+2 size, +2 Dex), touch 14, flat-footed 12
Base Attack/Grapple: +0/+0* [grapple –2 with 3 to 5 limbs, –4 with 1 or 2 limbs]
Attack: Arms +2 melee (0)
Full Attack: Arms +2 melee (0) and bite +2 melee (1d3–3)
Space/Reach: 2½ ft./0 ft. [5 ft. with arms or anywhere within tentacle net]
Special Attacks: Improved grab, tearing beak [grapple or +4 melee, 1d3–3], tentacle net [2½ ft. wide by 25 ft. long]
Special Qualities: Chameleon, fragility [+50% damage from bludgeoning/piercing/slashing], jet [100 ft.], low-light vision
Saves: Fort +2, Ref +4, Will +1
Abilities: Str 4, Dex 15, Con 11, Int 1, Wis 12, Cha 2
Skills: Hide +18, Listen +3, Spot +7, Swim +10
Feats: Blind-Fight, Multiattackᴮ, Weapon Finesseᴮ
Environment: Any aquatic
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 1/4
Advancement: —
Level Adjustment: —

This creature appears to be a squid with astonishingly long tentacles the length of four humanoids lying head-to-foot. Its limb radiate outwards to an elbow-like bend and then stream away in parallel. Its forearm-long body is fairly slender and has a pair of enormous fins, each three times wider than the gelatinous body.

A long-arm squid is an unusual cephalopod that lives in the deep sea, from 500 feet down to several miles. They spend most of their lives floating in place waiting for something edible to wander into their limbs, which can be up to 20 times the animal's body-length. Long-arm squid are also called Magnapinna or "Big Fin" squid after their extremely large fins, the larvae of these squid have fins proportionally as large or larger but lack the spectacular limb-length of the adults.

Unlike conventional squid, a Magnapinna's two tentacles are the same length and thickness as its eight arms, so its ten limbs appear identical to each other. Apart from the "elbow" its limbs are similar to those of some whiplash squid, who have extraordinarily small suckers as an adaptation for grasping even microscopic prey like plankton (see Elongated Squid and Longline Squid in the separate Squid Redux entry under Squid Variants).

A long-arm squid typically has a body 12 to 18 inches long but its limbs can reach 25 feet in length.

Note: Live long-arm squid have been photographed by deep-sea vehicles in our world, but to date no specimen has ever been collected for study. Biologists believe they belong to the Magnapinnidae bigfin squids, but that family is only known from larval specimens so currently any relationship between the supposedly adult long-arm squid and the bigfin squid genus Magnapinna is unproven. At the moment, all known Magnapinna specimens are plankton-eating larva a couple of inches long or smaller, and very few of those. Of the handful of recognized species Magnapinna pacifica currently has the most specimens – a grand total of three! – two larvae caught in plankton nets (51mm and 19.1mm) and one (49mm) found in the stomach of a lancetfish (Alepisaurus ferox); the one with the 51 mm mantle length was collected first and is the species holotype.

Combat
A long-arm squid's arms attack is treated as a secondary natural weapon despite being the creature's primary attack form. Its limbs actually stretch much farther than the Reach of its arms attack, but Magnapinna can only use its Tentacle Net special attack at those greater distances.

Long-arm squid have ten limbs (two of which are technically still tentacles despite appearing identical to its eight arms). When it attacks a creature Magnapinna uses all available limbs in a single arms attack; if the squid only has five or fewer limbs available due to the rest being severed or occupied holding victims, its arms attack has a –1 penalty to attack rolls, if only one or two limbs are available the attack roll penalty becomes –2, if no limbs are available the long-arm squid is unable to make arms attacks. Unavailable limbs also reduce the effectiveness of Magnapinna's grappling and its tentacle net special attack (see below).

While Magnapinna can only attack one creature at a time with their arms attack, they can hold multiple opponents simultaneously in their limbs. A long-arm squid can hold a creature its own size or larger with all ten limbs, a Diminutive creature with up to seven limbs, and a Fine creature with up to four limbs. The squid has a –2 penalty to grapple checks against opponents held by five or fewer limbs, if they only have hold with one or two limbs it's –4 to grapple checks.

A long-arm squid can make a grapple attack against one creature it has hold of either within its arms' Reach or in its tentacles net as a standard attack action, it can also make grapple attacks against every creature it has hold of as a full attack action. Either of these grapple actions can include a Tearing Beak special attack.

If a long-arm squid hits a creature larger than itself with its arms attack it takes hold with all its limbs, if it hits another Tiny creature Magnapinna takes hold with 1d10+4 limbs (max 10); Diminutive opponents are held by 1d6+2 limbs (max 7) and Fine opponents are held by 1d4+1. If the cephalopod hits an opponent it is already grappling, it uses whichever is higher: the number of limbs the arms attack rolls or the current grapple's number of limbs increased by one (up to the maximum it can hold the opponent size).

If a long-arm squid already has a hold on an opponent in the water when it succeeds at a grapple check during a standard or full attack, it can automatically reduce the distance between it and its opponent by a distance of up to 20 feet, either by moving towards its opponent or pulling them closer with its limbs. The movement may affect the Magnapinna, the opponent or both. If this movement pulls an opponent into the Reach of its arms attack or bite attack the long-arm squid is able to make attacks-of-opportunity with those natural weapons.

An opponent can attack a Magnapinna's limbs with a sunder attempt as if they were weapons. The limbs have 1 hit point each. If a long-arm squid is currently grappling a target with the appendage that is being attacked, it usually uses another limb to make its attack of opportunity against the opponent making the sunder attempt. Severing the cephalopod's limbs deals no damage to the creature and only hinder a long-arm squid once it loses five limbs, as described above.

A Magnapinna usually withdraws from combat if it loses half its limbs. The creature regrows severed limbs in 1d10+10 days.

For convenience, a long-arm squid's grappling statistics are presented in the following table:

Long-Arm Squid Grappling Reference Table
º Magnapinna with 5 or fewer limbs use Arms Attack or Tentacle Net as if opponents were one size smaller, or two sizes for 1 to 2 limbs.
¹ Use this row if a Magnapinna with 3 to 5 limbs uses Arms Attack or Tentacle Net against a Fine opponent (Max Limbs is unaffected).
² Use this row if a Magnapinna with 1 to 2 limbs uses Arms Attack or Tentacle Net against a Fine opponent (Max Limbs is unaffected).

Chameleon (Ex): A Magnapinna can change its colour and produce light, giving it a +8 racial bonus on Hide checks. The squid does not need cover or concealment to attempt a Hide check if it can match the colour and brightness of its surroundings.

Fragility (Ex): A Magnapinna is vulnerable to all types of weapon damage (bludgeoning, piercing and slashing) and take half again as much damage from such effects. If attacked by a weapon that does nonlethal damage like a sap or unarmed strike, the additional 50% damage is lethal damage (the first 100% remains nonlethal).

Improved Grab (Ex): To use this ability, a long-arm squid must hit an opponent of any size with an arms attack. It can then attempt to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity. If it wins the grapple check, it establishes a hold and can use Tearing Beak.

*A Magnapinna has a +13 racial bonus to grapple checks.

Tearing Beak (Ex): A Magnapinna squid can bite an opponent it is grappling as a primary attack (bite +5 melee for 1d3–3 damage) or by succeeding at an opposed grapple check (for the same damage).

Tentacle Net (Ex): The limbs of a long-arm squid cover an area 2½ feet wide and 25 feet long. When the Magnapinna is at rest this "tentacle net" trails off in a straight line, but if the squid moves the net trails along behind it. Thus, if a Magnapinna which had its tentacle net trailing North-to-South were to swim 5 feet East and then 10 feet North, the 25-foot long net would become "U shaped", going 10 feet North-to-South then 5 feet West-to-East and finally 10 feet South-to-North before ending were the squid finished its movement. The Magnapinna can also change its tentacle net's shape by flexing its limbs, moving the end of the net's position by up to 20 feet with a move action. Long-arm squid normally keep their tentacle net straight, since it's the most efficient shape for sifting food from the water.

If a creature enters a space occupied by a tentacle net, there's a chance (100% if the creature is Tiny or larger, 50% if Diminutive, 25% if Fine) that they'll trigger a reflexive attack by the Magnapinna's limbs as a free action. This attack automatically hits creatures larger than the cephalopod, creatures the same size or smaller are targeted by a melee touch attack (no adjustment for Tiny, –1 penalty for Diminutive or Small). If hit, the tentacle-net attempts a grapple attack with 1d8+2 limbs for larger creatures, 1d10 for Tiny, 1d8 for Diminutive, and 1d4 for Fine; the grapple check has a –2 penalty if five or fewer limbs are involved, –4 penalty if only one or two; if the grapple check succeeds the tentacle net establishing a hold.

The tentacle net can only make one free grapple attack against an individual creature per round, it does not get an attempt for every square of net each creature enters, only the first time each creature triggers an attack in a round.

Opponents caught by the tentacle net who are within Reach of the long-arm squid's arms attack resolve combat with its limbs as described in Combat above. ("reach limb" will be used to refer to the portion of a limb within Reach of the arms attack, "net limb" for the portion in the tentacle net outside arms' Reach.)

Opponents can attack net limbs with sunder attempt and the long-arm squid cannot make attacks of opportunity in response. Net limb damage is counted separately from reach limb damage to the same limb and vice-versa. If a net limb takes any damage (it only has 1 hit point) the limb will referred to as "excised" rather than "severed". Excising a limb deals no damage to the creature and the excised limb can still take part in arms attack (since the stump will be yards long like a reach limb). A long-arm squid can have more excised limbs than severed limbs but not the reverse, since severing a limb removes its net limb portion as well. In such cases, severing a limb may cut off a limb with an intact net limb or one that's excised. If it matters, this can be determined with a dice roll. (Example: a long-arm squid has seven limbs remaining, two of which have been excised. One of its limbs is sundered. Roll a d8 and if the result is 1 or 2 the sundered limb is one of the excised pair, reroll if the roll is 8.)

If the tentacle net only has five or fewer limbs available due to the rest being destroyed or occupied holding victims, it reduces the net's efficiency as if the cephalopod's opponents were one size smaller than their actual size, although this does not alter the maximum number of limbs the cephalopod is capable of holding them with; a Fine opponent becomes a 25% chance of a 1d4 limb grapple with a –1 penalty on the melee touch attack roll. For example, it would tentacle-net a Small opponent (one size larger) as if it were Tiny (same size), for a 100% chance of a 1d8+2 limb melee touch attack. If the net only has one or two limbs available it shifts efficiency as if opponents were two sizes smaller than their actual size; a Fine opponent becomes a 10% chance of a 1d2 limb grapple with a –2 melee touch penalty.

Ink Cloud (Ex): A Magnapinna squid can emit a cloud of jet-black ink 5 feet high by 5 feet wide by 5 feet long once per minute as a free action. The cloud provides total concealment, which the squid normally uses to escape a losing fight. All vision within the cloud is obscured.

Jet (Ex): A Magnapinna can jet backward once per round as a full-round action, at a speed of 150 feet. It must move in a straight line, but does not provoke attacks of opportunity while jetting.

Skills: A Magnapinna squid's large eyes give it a +4 racial bonus to Spot checks and its chameleon ability gives it a +8 racial bonus to Hide checks.

A squid has a +8 racial bonus on any Swim check to perform some special action or avoid a hazard and can always choose to take 10 on a Swim check, even if distracted or endangered. It can use the run action while swimming, provided it swims in a straight line. A squid can use either its Dexterity modifier or Strength modifier on Swim checks, whichever is better.


Long-Armed Cephalopod Variant
While the "long-armed squid" of our world appears to be a single species or family of squid, the body plan can used to create fictitious long-armed cephalopods of other sizes and orders, including long-armed octopuses.

To create a long-armed cephalopod, apply the following changes: remove any land speed and racial bonus to Climb checks. Lower its Swim speed by 10 feet or 20 feet and reduce the jet speed by 50 feet or 100 feet ("realistic" specimens are always also "Slow Squid" with Swim 20 feet, jet speed 100 feet). Reduce the cephalopod's grapple bonus by –2. Lower the cephalopod's Strength by –4.

Combat
A long-armed cephalopod of Medium sized or larger gains Weapon Focus (arms) as a bonus feat, if it already has Weapon Focus (tentacles) it changes that feat to Weapon Focus (arms) instead of gaining a bonus feat. A long-armed cephalopods' arms attack is treated as a secondary natural weapon with a –2 penalty to attack (as if the Multiattack feat was applied to it) despite being the creature's primary attack form.

A long-armed cephalopod has a Reach with its arms attack equal to double its Space (except for Medium cephalopods which have a 15 foot Reach); within this reach the cephalopod can make melee attacks with its arms attack. Its limbs actually stretch much farther than the Reach of its arms attack, but the cephalopod can only use its Tentacle Net special attack at those greater distances.

Long-armed squid have ten limbs (two of which are technically still tentacles despite appearing identical to its eight arms) and long-armed octopuses have eight. When it attacks a creature it uses all available limbs in a single arms attack; if the cephalopod only has half or fewer its limbs available (five for a squid, four for an octopus) due to the rest being severed or occupied holding victims, its arms attack has a –1 penalty to attack rolls, if only one or two limbs are available the attack roll penalty becomes –2, if no limbs are available the long-armed cephalopod is unable to make arms attacks. Unavailable limbs also reduce the effectiveness of a long-armed cephalopod's grappling and its constrict and tentacle net special attacks (see below).

While long-armed cephalopods can only attack one creature at a time with their arms attack, they can hold multiple opponents simultaneously in their limbs. A long-armed cephalopod can hold a creature its own size or larger with all its limbs (10 for squids, 8 for octopuses), a creature one size smaller with two-thirds its limbs (7 or 6), two sizes smaller with half its limbs (5 or 4), three sizes smaller with two limbs, and four or more sizes smaller with only one limb. The cephalopod has a –2 penalty to grapple checks against opponents held by half their limbs or fewer (five limbs for a squid, four for an octopus), if they only have hold with one or two limbs it's –4 to grapple checks.

If a long-armed cephalopod hits a creature larger than itself with its arms attack it takes hold with all its limbs, if it hits an opponent its own size a long-armed squid takes hold with 1d10+4 limbs (max 10) and long-armed octopus 1d8+3 limbs (max 8); opponents one size smaller are held by 1d6+2 (max 7) limbs by long-armed squid and 1d4+2 for long-armed octopuses; two sizes smaller opponents are held by 1d4+1 (squids) or 1d3+1 (octopuses), three sizes smaller are held by 1d2 limbs and four sizes smaller are only held by one. If a long-armed cephalopod hits an opponent it is already grappling, it uses whichever is higher: the number of limbs the arms attack rolls or the current grapple's number of limbs increased by one (up to the maximum it can hold the opponent size).

A long-armed cephalopod can make a grapple attack against one creature it has hold of either within its arms' Reach or in its tentacles net as a standard attack action, it can also make grapple attacks against every creature it has hold of as a full attack action. Either of these grapple actions can include a Gnawing Beak or (for octopuses) or Tearing Beak (for squid) special attack.

If a long-armed cephalopod already has a hold on an opponent in the water when it succeeds at a grapple check during a standard or full attack, it can automatically reduce the distance between it and its opponent by a distance of up to 20 feet, either by moving towards its opponent or pulling them closer with its limbs. The movement may affect the cephalopod, the opponent or both. If this movement pulls an opponent into the Reach of its arms attack or bite attack the long-armed cephalopod is able to make attacks-of-opportunity with those natural weapons.

An opponent can attack a long-armed cephalopod's limbs with a sunder attempt as if they were weapons. The limbs of a Large long-armed cephalopod have 2 hit points each and Medium or smaller long-armed cephalopod limbs have 1 hit point each. If a long-armed cephalopod is currently grappling a target with the appendage that is being attacked, it usually uses another limb to make its attack of opportunity against the opponent making the sunder attempt.

Severing a long-armed cephalopod's limbs deals damage to the creature; a severed limb results in 1 point of damage for Large cephalopods, 1 point of damage per odd-numbered limb for Medium or Small cephalopods (so damage on 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th & 9th limb loss), and no damage for Tiny or smaller cephalopods. Severed limbs only hinder a long-armed cephalopod once it loses half its limbs (five for a squid, four for an octopus) as described above.

A long-armed cephalopod usually withdraws from combat if it loses half its limbs. The creature regrows severed limbs in 1d10+10 days.

Special Attacks
A long-armed cephalopod gains the tentacle net special attack and its constrict special attack (if it possesses one) is altered, as follows:

Constrict (Ex): If a long-armed cephalopod has hold of an opponent with half or fewer of its limbs (four for octopuses, five for squid) it halves the Strength bonus it applies to its constrict attack. If the cephalopod has no Strength bonus a –1 penalty to damage is applied to the constrict attack instead. Should the long-armed cephalopod only have a hold with one or two limbs, the damage dice of the constrict attack is reduced as if the animal were one size smaller.

Tentacle Net (Ex): The limbs of a long-armed cephalopod cover an area as wide and tall as its Space with a length roughly ten times its Space as described in the table below. When the cephalopod is at rest this "tentacle net" trails off in a straight line, but if the long-armed cephalopod moves the net trails along behind it. Thus, if a Tiny long-armed cephalopod which had its tentacle net trailing North-to-South were to swim 5 feet East and then 10 feet North, the 25-foot long net would become "U shaped", going 10 feet North-to-South then 5 feet West-to-East and finally 10 feet South-to-North before ending were the cephalopod finished its movement. The cephalopod can also change its tentacle net's shape by flexing its limbs, moving the end of the net's position by up to 20 feet with a move action. Long-armed cephalopods normally keep their tentacle net straight, since it's the most efficient shape for sifting food from the water.

If a creature enters a space occupied by a tentacle net, there's a chance (100% if the creature is larger or the same size, 50% if one size smaller, 25% if two sizes smaller, 10% if three sizes smaller, 5% for four or more sizes smaller) that they'll trigger a reflexive attack by the long-armed cephalopod's limbs as a free action. This attack automatically hits creatures larger than the cephalopod, creatures the same size or smaller are targeted by a melee touch attack (no adjustment for same size creatures, –1 penalty for creatures one or two sizes smaller, –2 penalty for creatures three or more sizes smaller). If hit, the tentacle-net attempts a grapple attack with a number of limbs equal to 1d8+2 (squid) or 1d6+2 (octopus) for larger creatures, 1d10 (squid) or 1d8 (octopus) for same size creatures, 1d8 (squid) or 1d6 (octopus) for one size smaller, 1d4 (squid) or 1d3 (octopus) for two sizes smaller, 1d2 limbs for three sizes smaller, and 1 four or more sizes smaller; the grapple check has a –2 penalty if half or fewer of its limbs are involved (5 for squid, 4 for octopus), a –4 penalty if only one or two; if the grapple check succeeds the tentacle net establishing a hold.

The tentacle net can only make one free grapple attack against an individual creature per round, it does not get an attempt for every square of net each creature enters, only the first time each creature triggers an attack in a round.

Opponents caught by the tentacle net who are within Reach of the cephalopod's arms attack resolve combat with its limbs as described in Combat above. ("reach limb" will be used to refer to the portion of a limb within Reach of the arms attack, "net limb" for the portion in the tentacle net outside arms' Reach.)

Opponents can attack net limbs with sunder attempt and the long-armed cephalopod cannot make attacks of opportunity in response. Net limb damage is counted separately from reach limb damage to the same limb and vice-versa. If a net limb takes more damage than its hit points (2 hp for Large, otherwise 1 hp) the limb will referred to as "excised" rather than "severed". Excising a limb deals no damage to the creature and the excised limb can still take part in arms attack (since the stump will be yards long like a reach limb). A long-armed cephalopod can have more excised limbs than severed limbs but not the reverse, since severing a limb removes its net limb portion as well. In such cases, severing a limb may cut off a limb with an intact net limb or one that's excised. If it matters, this can be determined with a dice roll. (Example: a long-armed octopus has seven limbs remaining, two of which have been excised. One of its limbs is sundered. Roll a d8 and if the result is 1 or 2 the sundered limb is one of the excised pair, reroll if the roll is 8.)

If the tentacle net only has half or fewer of its limbs available (five for a squid, four for an octopus) due to the rest being destroyed or occupied holding victims, it reduces the net's efficiency as if the cephalopod's opponents were one size smaller than their actual size, although this does not alter the maximum number of limbs the cephalopod is capable of holding them with. For example, a Medium long-armed squid with only three-to-five net limbs would tentacle-net a Small opponent (one size smaller) as it they were a two sizes smaller Tiny opponent, for a 25% chance of a 1d4 limb grapple with a –1 melee touch penalty (but with the one size smaller maximum hold of 7 limbs). If the net only has one or two limbs available it shifts efficiency as if opponents were two sizes smaller than their actual size.

This results in the following changes to the cephalopod's statistics:

Long-Armed Cephalopod Grappling Reference Table

Long-Armed Squid Table
^ A Large long-armed squid has Swim +12 instead of +14
º A Large or Medium long-armed squid has the Weapon Focus (arms) feat.
¹ Values for 6 to 10 limbs.
² Values for 3 to 5 limbs.
³ Values for 1 to 2 limbs.
* Grapple modifier includes a racial bonus of +4 for Large to Small long-armed squid and +13 for Tiny or smaller ones.

Long-Armed Octopus Table
º A Medium long-armed octopus has the Weapon Focus (arms) feat and Swim +11.
¹ Values for 5 to 8 limbs.
² Values for 3 to 4 limbs.
³ Values for 1 to 2 limbs.
* Grapple modifier includes a racial bonus of +8 for Medium and Small gelatinous octopuses and +13 for Tiny or smaller ones.

Long-Armed Gelatinous Cephalopod
Realistic long-armed cephalopods are always gelatinous and fragile. They use the statistics of an elongated gelatinous squid or elongated gelatinous octopus from the Gelatinous Cephalopod entry except for grapple, which has a –2 reduction to its racial bonus.

Long-Armed Gelatinous Cephalopod Table
º CR for "resilient" long-armed gelatinous squid or long-armed gelatinous octopus, a fragile long-armed gelatinous cephalopod's CR is the column to its right.
¹ Values for 6 to 10 limbs (long-armed squid) or 5 to 8 limbs (long-armed octopus).
² Values for 3 to 5 limbs (long-armed squid) or 3 to 4 limbs (long-armed octopus).
³ Values for 1 to 2 limbs.
* Grapple modifier of gelatinous long-armed squids include a racial bonus of +2 for Large to Small squid and +11 for Tiny or smaller ones; for gelatinous long-armed octopuses the racial bonus to grapple is +6 for Medium and Small octopuses and +11 for Tiny or smaller ones.

Sample Creature
The Magnapinna presented above is a Tiny fragile gelatinous long-armed squid. A big enough long-armed cephalopod would pose a danger to adventurers, especially if it lacked the realistic gelatinous and fragile traits. The following sample is such a monstrous beast, which would be entirely fictional in our world:

Giant Magnapinna (Large Long-Armed Squid) (Large Animal (Aquatic); Hit Dice: 6d8+12 (33 hp); Init: +3; Speed: Swim 40 ft. (8 squares); AC: 17 (–1 size, +3 Dex, +5 natural), touch 12, flat-footed 14; BAB/Grapple: +4/+16* [grapple +14 with 3 to 5 limbs, +12 with 1 to 2]; Attack: Arms +6 melee (0)[+5 with 3 to 5 limbs, +4 with 1 to 2]; Full Attack: Arms +6 melee (0)[+5 with 3 to 5 limbs, +4 with 1 to 2] and bite +5 melee (1d8+2); Space/Reach: 10 ft./5 ft. (20 ft. with arms); Special Attacks: Constrict 1d6+4 [1d6+2 with 3 to 5 limbs, 1d4+1 with 1 to 2], improved grab, tearing bite [grapple or +7 melee (1d8+4)], tentacle net [10 ft. wide × 100 ft. long]; Special Qualities: Chameleon translucency, ink cloud [20 ft. cube], jet [speed 200 ft.], low-light vision; Saves: Fort +7, Ref +8, Will +3; Abilities: Str 18, Dex 16, Con 15, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 2; Skills: Hide +17, Listen +4, Spot +8, Swim +12; Feats: Blind-Fight, Endurance, Multiattackᴮ, Weapon Focus (arms); CR: 4)

Design Notes
In the real world, long-arm squid are most likely detritivores whose extremely thin and gelatinous tentacles would be too fragile to hand anything more formidable than plankton. This conversion assumes the animal's tentacles are tough enough to entangle more substantial prey, since a creature is much more fun if it can at least theoretically eat a Player Character!

Spent a lot of time fiddling with the combat section and tentacle net special attack, which ended up rather too elaborate. Dang it, I keep on over-complicating my rules. Might try to simplify it later, but this will do for now. Originally the size descent of the maximum limb number went 10/5/2/1 (for squid, octopuses had 10/4/2/1) but I changed it to 10/7/5/2/1 (8/6/4/2/1) to honour the extraordinary thinness of these appendages, which ought to allow more to get into play against smaller targets. An example segment of an earlier version of Combat is the following.

If a long-armed cephalopod hits a creature larger than itself with its arms attack it takes hold with all its limbs, if it hits an opponent its own size a long-armed squid takes hold with 1d6+4 limbs and long-armed octopus 1d4+4 limbs; opponents one size smaller are held by 1d4+2 limbs for long-armed squid and 1d4+1 for long-armed octopuses; two sizes smaller opponents are hit by 1d4+1 (squids) or 1d3+1 (octopuses), three sizes smaller are hit by 1d2 limbs and four sizes smaller with just one. A long-armed cephalopod can hold an opponent its own size or larger with all its limbs (10 for squids, 8 for octopuses), an opponent one size smaller with two-thirds its limbs (7 or 6), an opponent two sizes smaller with half its limbs (5 or 4), an opponent three sizes smaller with two limbs, and an opponent four or more sizes smaller with just one limb.

Tusoteuthis (Prehistoric Giant Squid)
This extinct cephalop can be found in the Cleon Specials - Prehistoric Beasts! thread.

Cleon said:

Crocodile, Giant
...
Death Roll (Ex): A swimming crocodile can violently thrash its body to tear up any creature it holds in its jaws, dealing 1d6+6 damage if it succeeds on a grapple check.

Click to expand...

Wrong damage.