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Cleon Specials – SRD Redux Monsters and Related Creatures
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<blockquote data-quote="Cleon" data-source="post: 7961874" data-attributes="member: 57383"><p><span style="font-size: 22px"><strong>Octopus Curiosities</strong></span></p><p>Here are a few species of octopus notable for their unusual behaviour which might rate the addition of a minor special ability.</p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"><strong>Coconut Octopus</strong></span></p><p>The veined octopus (<em>Amphioctopus marginatus</em>) is also called the coconut octopus, for reasons that will become apparent.</p><p></p><p>Most octopuses have a tendency to hide inside containers if threatened, and may use shells, nuts or jetsam like jars or cups for this – any shelter will do in a pinch. The coconut octopus is unusual in that it will carry such a shelter about with it during its normal routine. Veined octopuses have a preference for coconut shells, which have the advantages of being just the right size and abundant in the coastal tropical waters the species inhabits. The octopus will even seek out two matching halves of coconut shell so it can clamp them together while inside, if it only has a single half-coconut or a large seashell or the like it will hide underneath its shelter instead.</p><p></p><p>These shelters are too cumbersome for coconut octopuses to easily swim while carrying them, so <em>Amphioctopus marginatus</em> normally walks about the sea floor using two of its arms. If it has two coconut-halves it may carry them separately or tuck one half inside the other; they also sometimes hold the two halves together and roll along the ground inside the "ball", leaving enough of a gap to see outside.</p><p></p><p>According to legend, a coconut octopus will crawl onto beaches or even climb coconut palms to collect coconuts, but this unlikely behaviour has never been reliably reported in the real world.</p><p></p><p>The coconut octopus is a Diminutive octopus that lives on the floor of sandy or muddy bays and lagoons in tropical South seas. A typical coconut shell is hardness 5, hit points 3. Forcing open a coconut while the octopus is inside holding the halves closed requires beating the animal in a grapple check contest.</p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"><strong>Imitating Octopus</strong></span></p><p>A couple of species of octopus – the mimic octopus (<em>Thaumoctopus mimicus</em>) and wunderpus octopus (<em>Wunderpus photogenicus</em>) – use the chameleon ability commonly possessed by cephalopods in an extraordinary way. Rather than merely camouflaging themselves as part of their environment, these octopuses camouflage themselves as other animals. Imitating octopuses can still camouflage themselves like normal octopuses do, by pretending to be part of the terrain or a piece of flotsam, but may prefer their trick of imitation.</p><p></p><p>An imitating octopus uses this ability to mimic poisonous sea creature to dissuade predators from attacking it. They octopuses can imitate many different venomous animals by flexing its boneless body and limbs into an approximation of their shape: flattening themselves to look like a venomous zebra sole (<em>Zebrias</em> sp), spreading their arms to resemble spines like a lion fish (<em>Pterois</em>) or trailing them like a jellyfish, and ever hiding their body and waving two arms to mimic the head and tail halves of a sea snake (Hydrophiinae). They also change colour and, most importantly, <em>move</em> like the imitated creature. The masquerade still lacks details and an intelligent observer is unlikely to be fooled, especially as imitating octopuses frequently switch from one animal-disguise to another. While an animal might not wonder why the "lion-fish" it just avoided was a "snake" a few seconds ago, even a dim-witted humanoid is likely to notice. It's possible the octopuses' rapid shape-switching is an attempt to find a venomous disguise that's effective. They can mimic a particular animal if it's appropriate to the situation (i.e. becoming a sea snake to scare off damselfish which sea snakes prey upon). It's unknown how much of their mimicry is a deliberate decision and how much is purely instinctive, or whether they can learn to imitate additional creatures or have a set repertoire.</p><p></p><p>Both species of imitating octopuses are modest size creatures with bodies only a few inches long and armspans of about two feet. The tentacles are fairly long and thin, about the thickness of a pencil at their base. They live in tropical waters on shallow muddy seafloors, usually less than 50 feet deep and prefer estuaries and coastal areas near rivers, such habitats usually have abundant little fish and crustaceans for octopuses to prey upon.</p><p></p><p>Of the two species, the mimic octopus is the most adept. Unlike most octopuses, <em>Thaumoctopus mimicus</em> is active during the day, making its disguise ability very useful. They are known to be able to imitate seventeen different venomous animals and will imitate non-venomous sea creatures as well, and individuals have been observed mimicking three-dozen or so different species, including sessile (stationary) creatures like tube worms or sponges to disguise themselves as "living scenery". They also use mimicry for hunting, for example they might stalk up to a crab while disguised as a fellow crustacean interested in mating. The default colouration of a mimic octopus is white or beige with sandy-brown or ochre-brown markings – rings on their tentacles and splotches on their body. This serves as good camouflage on the turbid muddy seafloors that are their favoured habitat. Like many sand-dwelling octopuses they may bury themselves to escape threats.</p><p></p><p>Curiously, there's a species of fish that mimics the mimic octopus – the harlequin jawfish (<em>Stalix histrio</em>). This shy animal has a brown-and-beige colouration like a mimic octopus and may swim very close to the <em>Thaumoctopus</em>, appearing to be part of its body. <span style="color: purple">What it does when the octopus changes colour hasn't been observed yet.</span> <em>Stalix histrio</em> live in burrows they retreat into when threatened.</p><p></p><p>Wunderpus are nocturnal as is normal for octopuses. Its default colouration is a distinctive white and rust-brown, with rings and splotches on their arms and large white spots on their body. The pattern of these markings is unique to each individual, which is helpful for scholars who study them. The ink sac is vestigial and <em>Wunderpus photogenicus</em> cannot produce ink clouds, which is unusual but not unheard of in octopuses (see Inkless Cephalopod under Ink Variants in the separate Squid Redux entry). Wunderpus can shed arms to escape predators (see Arm-Shedding Octopus above). A final noteworthy piece of behaviour is wunderpus are aggressive towards other octopuses (including <em>Thaumoctopus mimicus</em>) and may try to asphyxiate them by looping their longest arm around the mantle-opening of their opponent, stopping the opposing octopus "inhaling" water over its gills. This could be resolved by using the suffocation rules if the wunderpus achieve a pin against an octopus it is grappling.</p><p></p><p>To create an imitating octopus, add the following special quality:</p><p></p><p><strong>Chameleon Mimicry (Ex):</strong> By altering the shape and colour of its body and tentacles the octopus can imitate the appearance and movement of another species of aquatic animal. Anyone who examines the octopus can detect the ruse with a successful Spot check opposed by the octopus’s Disguise check. Typical octopuses have no skill ranks in Disguise, giving them a Disguise skill check of –4. However, imitating octopus gain racial bonuses on their chameleon mimicry Disguise checks; against nonintelligent creatures it has a +16 bonus (Disguise +12), against dim animal intelligence (Int 1) a +12 bonus (Disguise +8), against smart animal intelligence (Int 2) a +8 bonus (Disguise +4), and against intelligent creatures a +4 bonus (Disguise +0).</p><p></p><p><strong>Sample Imitating Octopuses</strong></p><p>A typical imitating octopus is a Diminutive octopus with the following statblock:</p><p></p><p><strong>Diminutive Imitating Octopus</strong> (Diminutive Animal (Aquatic); Hit Dice: ½d8–1 (1 hp); Init: +1; Speed: 10 ft. (2 squares), swim 30 ft.; AC: 16 (+4 size, +2 Dex), touch 16, flat-footed 14; BAB/Grapple: +0/–1*; Attack: Arms +6 melee (0); Full Attack: Arms +6 melee (0) and bite +1 melee (0); Space/Reach: 1 ft./0 ft.; Special Attacks: Gnawing bite [<em>grapple or +6 melee (0)</em>], improved grab; Special Qualities: Chameleon, chameleon mimicry [<em>Disguise +0; +4 vs Int 2, +8 vs Int 1, +12 vs Int 0</em>], ink cloud [<em>2 ft. cube</em>], jet [<em>speed 200 ft.</em>], rubbery body, low-light vision; Saves: Fort +1, Ref +4, Will +1; Abilities: Str 2, Dex 15, Con 9, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 3; Skills: Climb +8, Disguise –4* [<em>see chameleon mimicry</em>] Escape Artist +12, Hide +18, Listen +3, Move Silently +4, Spot +5, Swim +10; Feats: Alertness, Blind-Fightᴮ, Weapon Finesseᴮ; CR: 1/10)</p><p></p><p>The peculiar quirks of the known species of imitating octopus could be represented by giving them the mimic octopus Skill Focus (Disguise) as a bonus feat and giving the wonderpus a tweak to its grapple racial bonus plus the Inkless Cephalopod and Arm-Shedding Cephalopod variants, which will produce the following statblocks:</p><p></p><p><strong>Mimic Octopus (<em>Thaumoctopus mimicus</em>)</strong> (Diminutive Animal (Aquatic); Hit Dice: ½d8–1 (1 hp); Init: +1; Speed: 10 ft. (2 squares), swim 30 ft.; AC: 16 (+4 size, +2 Dex), touch 16, flat-footed 14; BAB/Grapple: +0/–1*; Attack: Arms +6 melee (0); Full Attack: Arms +6 melee (0) and bite +1 melee (0); Space/Reach: 1 ft./0 ft.; Special Attacks: Gnawing bite [<em>grapple or +6 melee (0)</em>], improved grab; Special Qualities: Chameleon, chameleon mimicry [<em>Disguise +3; +7 vs Int 2, +11 vs Int 1, +15 vs Int 0</em>], ink cloud [<em>2 ft. cube</em>], jet [<em>speed 200 ft.</em>], rubbery body, low-light vision; Saves: Fort +1, Ref +4, Will +1; Abilities: Str 2, Dex 15, Con 9, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 3; Skills: Climb +8, Disguise –1* [<em>see chameleon mimicry</em>] Escape Artist +12, Hide +18, Listen +3, Move Silently +4, Spot +5, Swim +10; Feats: Alertness, Blind-Fightᴮ, Skill Focus (Disguise)ᴮ, Weapon Finesseᴮ; CR: 1/10)</p><p></p><p><strong>Wunderpus (<em>Wunderpus photogenicus</em>)</strong> (Diminutive Animal (Aquatic); Hit Dice: ½d8–1 (1 hp); Init: +1; Speed: 10 ft. (2 squares), swim 30 ft.; AC: 16 (+4 size, +2 Dex), touch 16, flat-footed 14; BAB/Grapple: +0/–1* [<em>+4 vs octopuses</em>]; Attack: Arms +6 melee (0); Full Attack: Arms +6 melee (0) and bite +1 melee (0); Space/Reach: 1 ft./0 ft.; Special Attacks: Gnawing bite [<em>grapple or +6 melee (0)</em>], improved grab [<em>+15 grapple, +20 vs other octopuses</em>]; Special Qualities: Arm-shedding, chameleon, chameleon mimicry [<em>Disguise +0; +4 vs Int 2, +8 vs Int 1, +12 vs Int 0</em>], jet [<em>speed 200 ft.</em>], rubbery body, low-light vision; Saves: Fort +1, Ref +4, Will +1; Abilities: Str 2, Dex 15, Con 9, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 3; Skills: Climb +8, Disguise –4* [<em>see chameleon mimicry</em>] Escape Artist +12, Hide +18, Listen +3, Move Silently +4, Spot +5, Swim +10; Feats: Alertness, Blind-Fightᴮ, Weapon Finesseᴮ; CR: 1/10)</p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"><strong>Social Octopus</strong></span></p><p>This octopus is so unlike other species that when its discoverer first reported it, his scientific colleagues dismissed his account out of hand. Known in the real world as the larger Pacific striped octopus (or LPSO) is currently undescribed so has no taxonomic name, but likely belongs to the genus<em> Octopus</em>. This octopus lives on muddy or sandy shallow sea floors about 150 feet deep, particularly at the mouths of rivers. They are miniscule animals with armspans less than a foot across, their bodies are usually up to 3 inches long for females and 2 inches for males, a particularly large specimen was reported to be about 4 inches long.</p><p></p><p>These cephalopods look perfectly ordinary, what's so odd about them is how they behave. Unlike all other species, this octopus is not a cannibalistic loner but highly gregarious, living in colonies of up to 40 adults sharing the same area with individual dens about 3 feet from each other. LPSO live up to 2 years or so. They do not die shortly after mating like most cephalopods, and females can reproduce several times in succession rather than perishing after the first clutch of eggs. Even more incredibly, male and female LPSO form pair bonds and the mated pairs cohabit in the same den, sharing food and den-cleaning chores while the female lays and broods her egg clutches. Mated pairs usually mate once each day, and rather than cautiously inserting his <em>hectocotylus</em> and then fleeing like a standard octopus coupling, the pair mate face-to-face, "kissing" with their beaks. This behaviour means all of the eggs are likely to have been fertilized by one male, unlike normal octopuses were the female tend to breed with multiple partners.</p><p></p><p>Like most bottom-dwelling octopuses, the LPSO prefers to eat crustaceans such as crabs and shrimp. They have a favoured trick to capture the latter. The octopus slinks up to the shrimp, hunching down to reduce its profile and stretches out an arm to reach over the shrimp to tap the crustacean on its far side. The startled shrimp flees, usually running straight into the octopus's other arms. They do not use this tactic to hunt larger animals such as crabs, possibly because they're more dangerous and might injure the octopus on its arm.</p><p></p><p>It's interesting to compare this real-life animal to the SRD's giant octopus, which can be encountered in small groups, and <em>Dragon Magazine #190's</em> deep-dwelling octopus, an intelligent social creature that lives in peaceful communities on the sea floor at abyssal depths. 3E conversion of the Deep-Dweller appear in the Creature Catalog and my Cleon Specials.</p><p></p><p><strong>Organization:</strong> Solitary, embrace (2–20) or coil (20–40).</p><p></p><p><strong>LPSO</strong> (Fine Animal (Aquatic); Hit Dice: ¼d8–1 (1 hp); Init: +2; Speed: Swim 10 ft., swim 30 ft.; AC: 20 (+8 size, +2 Dex), touch 20, flat-footed 18; BAB/Grapple: +0/–6*; Attack: Arms +3 melee (0); Full Attack: Arms +3 melee (0) and bite –2 melee (0); Space/Reach: 1 ft./0 ft., Special Attacks: Gnawing bite [<em>grapple or +3 melee (0)</em>], improved grab; Special Qualities: Chameleon [<em>+4 racial bonus to Hide</em>], ink cloud [<em>1 ft. cube</em>], jet [<em>speed 150 ft.</em>], rubbery body, superior low-light vision; Saves: Fort +1, Ref +3, Will +1; Abilities: Str 1, Dex 15, Con 11, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 8; Skills: Escape Artist +12, Hide +22, Listen +3, Move Silently +3, Spot +5, Swim +10; Feats: Alertness, Blind-Fightᴮ; CR: 1/12)</p><p></p><p>*A LPSO has a +15 racial bonus on grapple checks.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Cleon, post: 7961874, member: 57383"] [SIZE=6][B]Octopus Curiosities[/B][/SIZE] Here are a few species of octopus notable for their unusual behaviour which might rate the addition of a minor special ability. [SIZE=5][B]Coconut Octopus[/B][/SIZE] The veined octopus ([I]Amphioctopus marginatus[/I]) is also called the coconut octopus, for reasons that will become apparent. Most octopuses have a tendency to hide inside containers if threatened, and may use shells, nuts or jetsam like jars or cups for this – any shelter will do in a pinch. The coconut octopus is unusual in that it will carry such a shelter about with it during its normal routine. Veined octopuses have a preference for coconut shells, which have the advantages of being just the right size and abundant in the coastal tropical waters the species inhabits. The octopus will even seek out two matching halves of coconut shell so it can clamp them together while inside, if it only has a single half-coconut or a large seashell or the like it will hide underneath its shelter instead. These shelters are too cumbersome for coconut octopuses to easily swim while carrying them, so [I]Amphioctopus marginatus[/I] normally walks about the sea floor using two of its arms. If it has two coconut-halves it may carry them separately or tuck one half inside the other; they also sometimes hold the two halves together and roll along the ground inside the "ball", leaving enough of a gap to see outside. According to legend, a coconut octopus will crawl onto beaches or even climb coconut palms to collect coconuts, but this unlikely behaviour has never been reliably reported in the real world. The coconut octopus is a Diminutive octopus that lives on the floor of sandy or muddy bays and lagoons in tropical South seas. A typical coconut shell is hardness 5, hit points 3. Forcing open a coconut while the octopus is inside holding the halves closed requires beating the animal in a grapple check contest. [SIZE=5][B]Imitating Octopus[/B][/SIZE] A couple of species of octopus – the mimic octopus ([I]Thaumoctopus mimicus[/I]) and wunderpus octopus ([I]Wunderpus photogenicus[/I]) – use the chameleon ability commonly possessed by cephalopods in an extraordinary way. Rather than merely camouflaging themselves as part of their environment, these octopuses camouflage themselves as other animals. Imitating octopuses can still camouflage themselves like normal octopuses do, by pretending to be part of the terrain or a piece of flotsam, but may prefer their trick of imitation. An imitating octopus uses this ability to mimic poisonous sea creature to dissuade predators from attacking it. They octopuses can imitate many different venomous animals by flexing its boneless body and limbs into an approximation of their shape: flattening themselves to look like a venomous zebra sole ([I]Zebrias[/I] sp), spreading their arms to resemble spines like a lion fish ([I]Pterois[/I]) or trailing them like a jellyfish, and ever hiding their body and waving two arms to mimic the head and tail halves of a sea snake (Hydrophiinae). They also change colour and, most importantly, [I]move[/I] like the imitated creature. The masquerade still lacks details and an intelligent observer is unlikely to be fooled, especially as imitating octopuses frequently switch from one animal-disguise to another. While an animal might not wonder why the "lion-fish" it just avoided was a "snake" a few seconds ago, even a dim-witted humanoid is likely to notice. It's possible the octopuses' rapid shape-switching is an attempt to find a venomous disguise that's effective. They can mimic a particular animal if it's appropriate to the situation (i.e. becoming a sea snake to scare off damselfish which sea snakes prey upon). It's unknown how much of their mimicry is a deliberate decision and how much is purely instinctive, or whether they can learn to imitate additional creatures or have a set repertoire. Both species of imitating octopuses are modest size creatures with bodies only a few inches long and armspans of about two feet. The tentacles are fairly long and thin, about the thickness of a pencil at their base. They live in tropical waters on shallow muddy seafloors, usually less than 50 feet deep and prefer estuaries and coastal areas near rivers, such habitats usually have abundant little fish and crustaceans for octopuses to prey upon. Of the two species, the mimic octopus is the most adept. Unlike most octopuses, [I]Thaumoctopus mimicus[/I] is active during the day, making its disguise ability very useful. They are known to be able to imitate seventeen different venomous animals and will imitate non-venomous sea creatures as well, and individuals have been observed mimicking three-dozen or so different species, including sessile (stationary) creatures like tube worms or sponges to disguise themselves as "living scenery". They also use mimicry for hunting, for example they might stalk up to a crab while disguised as a fellow crustacean interested in mating. The default colouration of a mimic octopus is white or beige with sandy-brown or ochre-brown markings – rings on their tentacles and splotches on their body. This serves as good camouflage on the turbid muddy seafloors that are their favoured habitat. Like many sand-dwelling octopuses they may bury themselves to escape threats. Curiously, there's a species of fish that mimics the mimic octopus – the harlequin jawfish ([I]Stalix histrio[/I]). This shy animal has a brown-and-beige colouration like a mimic octopus and may swim very close to the [I]Thaumoctopus[/I], appearing to be part of its body. [COLOR=purple]What it does when the octopus changes colour hasn't been observed yet.[/COLOR] [I]Stalix histrio[/I] live in burrows they retreat into when threatened. Wunderpus are nocturnal as is normal for octopuses. Its default colouration is a distinctive white and rust-brown, with rings and splotches on their arms and large white spots on their body. The pattern of these markings is unique to each individual, which is helpful for scholars who study them. The ink sac is vestigial and [I]Wunderpus photogenicus[/I] cannot produce ink clouds, which is unusual but not unheard of in octopuses (see Inkless Cephalopod under Ink Variants in the separate Squid Redux entry). Wunderpus can shed arms to escape predators (see Arm-Shedding Octopus above). A final noteworthy piece of behaviour is wunderpus are aggressive towards other octopuses (including [I]Thaumoctopus mimicus[/I]) and may try to asphyxiate them by looping their longest arm around the mantle-opening of their opponent, stopping the opposing octopus "inhaling" water over its gills. This could be resolved by using the suffocation rules if the wunderpus achieve a pin against an octopus it is grappling. To create an imitating octopus, add the following special quality: [B]Chameleon Mimicry (Ex):[/B] By altering the shape and colour of its body and tentacles the octopus can imitate the appearance and movement of another species of aquatic animal. Anyone who examines the octopus can detect the ruse with a successful Spot check opposed by the octopus’s Disguise check. Typical octopuses have no skill ranks in Disguise, giving them a Disguise skill check of –4. However, imitating octopus gain racial bonuses on their chameleon mimicry Disguise checks; against nonintelligent creatures it has a +16 bonus (Disguise +12), against dim animal intelligence (Int 1) a +12 bonus (Disguise +8), against smart animal intelligence (Int 2) a +8 bonus (Disguise +4), and against intelligent creatures a +4 bonus (Disguise +0). [B]Sample Imitating Octopuses[/B] A typical imitating octopus is a Diminutive octopus with the following statblock: [B]Diminutive Imitating Octopus[/B] (Diminutive Animal (Aquatic); Hit Dice: ½d8–1 (1 hp); Init: +1; Speed: 10 ft. (2 squares), swim 30 ft.; AC: 16 (+4 size, +2 Dex), touch 16, flat-footed 14; BAB/Grapple: +0/–1*; Attack: Arms +6 melee (0); Full Attack: Arms +6 melee (0) and bite +1 melee (0); Space/Reach: 1 ft./0 ft.; Special Attacks: Gnawing bite [[I]grapple or +6 melee (0)[/I]], improved grab; Special Qualities: Chameleon, chameleon mimicry [[I]Disguise +0; +4 vs Int 2, +8 vs Int 1, +12 vs Int 0[/I]], ink cloud [[I]2 ft. cube[/I]], jet [[I]speed 200 ft.[/I]], rubbery body, low-light vision; Saves: Fort +1, Ref +4, Will +1; Abilities: Str 2, Dex 15, Con 9, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 3; Skills: Climb +8, Disguise –4* [[I]see chameleon mimicry[/I]] Escape Artist +12, Hide +18, Listen +3, Move Silently +4, Spot +5, Swim +10; Feats: Alertness, Blind-Fightᴮ, Weapon Finesseᴮ; CR: 1/10) The peculiar quirks of the known species of imitating octopus could be represented by giving them the mimic octopus Skill Focus (Disguise) as a bonus feat and giving the wonderpus a tweak to its grapple racial bonus plus the Inkless Cephalopod and Arm-Shedding Cephalopod variants, which will produce the following statblocks: [B]Mimic Octopus ([I]Thaumoctopus mimicus[/I])[/B] (Diminutive Animal (Aquatic); Hit Dice: ½d8–1 (1 hp); Init: +1; Speed: 10 ft. (2 squares), swim 30 ft.; AC: 16 (+4 size, +2 Dex), touch 16, flat-footed 14; BAB/Grapple: +0/–1*; Attack: Arms +6 melee (0); Full Attack: Arms +6 melee (0) and bite +1 melee (0); Space/Reach: 1 ft./0 ft.; Special Attacks: Gnawing bite [[I]grapple or +6 melee (0)[/I]], improved grab; Special Qualities: Chameleon, chameleon mimicry [[I]Disguise +3; +7 vs Int 2, +11 vs Int 1, +15 vs Int 0[/I]], ink cloud [[I]2 ft. cube[/I]], jet [[I]speed 200 ft.[/I]], rubbery body, low-light vision; Saves: Fort +1, Ref +4, Will +1; Abilities: Str 2, Dex 15, Con 9, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 3; Skills: Climb +8, Disguise –1* [[I]see chameleon mimicry[/I]] Escape Artist +12, Hide +18, Listen +3, Move Silently +4, Spot +5, Swim +10; Feats: Alertness, Blind-Fightᴮ, Skill Focus (Disguise)ᴮ, Weapon Finesseᴮ; CR: 1/10) [B]Wunderpus ([I]Wunderpus photogenicus[/I])[/B] (Diminutive Animal (Aquatic); Hit Dice: ½d8–1 (1 hp); Init: +1; Speed: 10 ft. (2 squares), swim 30 ft.; AC: 16 (+4 size, +2 Dex), touch 16, flat-footed 14; BAB/Grapple: +0/–1* [[I]+4 vs octopuses[/I]]; Attack: Arms +6 melee (0); Full Attack: Arms +6 melee (0) and bite +1 melee (0); Space/Reach: 1 ft./0 ft.; Special Attacks: Gnawing bite [[I]grapple or +6 melee (0)[/I]], improved grab [[I]+15 grapple, +20 vs other octopuses[/I]]; Special Qualities: Arm-shedding, chameleon, chameleon mimicry [[I]Disguise +0; +4 vs Int 2, +8 vs Int 1, +12 vs Int 0[/I]], jet [[I]speed 200 ft.[/I]], rubbery body, low-light vision; Saves: Fort +1, Ref +4, Will +1; Abilities: Str 2, Dex 15, Con 9, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 3; Skills: Climb +8, Disguise –4* [[I]see chameleon mimicry[/I]] Escape Artist +12, Hide +18, Listen +3, Move Silently +4, Spot +5, Swim +10; Feats: Alertness, Blind-Fightᴮ, Weapon Finesseᴮ; CR: 1/10) [SIZE=5][B]Social Octopus[/B][/SIZE] This octopus is so unlike other species that when its discoverer first reported it, his scientific colleagues dismissed his account out of hand. Known in the real world as the larger Pacific striped octopus (or LPSO) is currently undescribed so has no taxonomic name, but likely belongs to the genus[I] Octopus[/I]. This octopus lives on muddy or sandy shallow sea floors about 150 feet deep, particularly at the mouths of rivers. They are miniscule animals with armspans less than a foot across, their bodies are usually up to 3 inches long for females and 2 inches for males, a particularly large specimen was reported to be about 4 inches long. These cephalopods look perfectly ordinary, what's so odd about them is how they behave. Unlike all other species, this octopus is not a cannibalistic loner but highly gregarious, living in colonies of up to 40 adults sharing the same area with individual dens about 3 feet from each other. LPSO live up to 2 years or so. They do not die shortly after mating like most cephalopods, and females can reproduce several times in succession rather than perishing after the first clutch of eggs. Even more incredibly, male and female LPSO form pair bonds and the mated pairs cohabit in the same den, sharing food and den-cleaning chores while the female lays and broods her egg clutches. Mated pairs usually mate once each day, and rather than cautiously inserting his [I]hectocotylus[/I] and then fleeing like a standard octopus coupling, the pair mate face-to-face, "kissing" with their beaks. This behaviour means all of the eggs are likely to have been fertilized by one male, unlike normal octopuses were the female tend to breed with multiple partners. Like most bottom-dwelling octopuses, the LPSO prefers to eat crustaceans such as crabs and shrimp. They have a favoured trick to capture the latter. The octopus slinks up to the shrimp, hunching down to reduce its profile and stretches out an arm to reach over the shrimp to tap the crustacean on its far side. The startled shrimp flees, usually running straight into the octopus's other arms. They do not use this tactic to hunt larger animals such as crabs, possibly because they're more dangerous and might injure the octopus on its arm. It's interesting to compare this real-life animal to the SRD's giant octopus, which can be encountered in small groups, and [I]Dragon Magazine #190's[/I] deep-dwelling octopus, an intelligent social creature that lives in peaceful communities on the sea floor at abyssal depths. 3E conversion of the Deep-Dweller appear in the Creature Catalog and my Cleon Specials. [B]Organization:[/B] Solitary, embrace (2–20) or coil (20–40). [B]LPSO[/B] (Fine Animal (Aquatic); Hit Dice: ¼d8–1 (1 hp); Init: +2; Speed: Swim 10 ft., swim 30 ft.; AC: 20 (+8 size, +2 Dex), touch 20, flat-footed 18; BAB/Grapple: +0/–6*; Attack: Arms +3 melee (0); Full Attack: Arms +3 melee (0) and bite –2 melee (0); Space/Reach: 1 ft./0 ft., Special Attacks: Gnawing bite [[I]grapple or +3 melee (0)[/I]], improved grab; Special Qualities: Chameleon [[I]+4 racial bonus to Hide[/I]], ink cloud [[I]1 ft. cube[/I]], jet [[I]speed 150 ft.[/I]], rubbery body, superior low-light vision; Saves: Fort +1, Ref +3, Will +1; Abilities: Str 1, Dex 15, Con 11, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 8; Skills: Escape Artist +12, Hide +22, Listen +3, Move Silently +3, Spot +5, Swim +10; Feats: Alertness, Blind-Fightᴮ; CR: 1/12) *A LPSO has a +15 racial bonus on grapple checks. [/QUOTE]
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