Talk:Colossal Squid (5e Creature)

Trying to come up with a strong sea challenge for my party that won't end in quick victory or TPK.

I have problems with the CR. I think it should be higher, but lowered it due to the fact that it should be doable for a strong party to run it off, which is more likely than killing it outright.

Thoughts?

Why is this a monster and not a miscellaneous creature? Is this a normal squid or not? SirSprinkles (talk) 21:41, 3 July 2016 (MDT)

Changes to Save the Page

I'm trying to keep this as purely constructive as I can, I understand that making stat blocks can be rather difficult, and I can always appreciate someone who made something that I'm looking for at some point, it's extremely helpful. I just feel like the Colossal Squid has some problems. I'll cover what I feel like could be changed/removed. Topics of change/edits will be bold, and Solutions will be bold and italics and will be towards the end of Topics. Obviously, I'm not going to cover everything, and someone else might like something it has but dislike something else, but coming from a straight forward view on it and how it can be adapted to a fight similar to the usual kraken scene from movies or TV shows, to underwater duels with aquatic life. I know that when it comes to using d&d homebrew stat blocks and items, the person using them is free to change it to how they see fit, but this page, at the time of writing this is abandoned, and in a years time will be removed if it's not changed. I would love to be able to know I helped conserve this page, so that no one has to make a Colossal Squid stat block in the future and can instead use this as a base. Again, I'm looking to be as constructive as I can be with my criticism, I'm not trying to come off as rude and apologize if I do.

Ink Cloud: How I'm looking to utilize this creature is very different than how the creator intended for the fight to be handled from what I can tell (the Legendary Action Tentacle Fling, and the description tell me the Colossal squid is more so meant to be used as a kraken of sorts, attacking ships and tearing them apart to eat and also play the role of a big scary sea monster, entirely fair) But if you're using this creature in an enclosed space and not in open waters (If being fought underwater and not on a ship. My personal example: a final boss in the temple of an ocean Goddess), I feel that a 60 Ft Radius (Sphere, I'd assume?) for 10 rounds of combat, that can also poison creatures for a whole day (which is one of my biggest problems with this action. If you do not know what being poisoned does, a poisoned creature has disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks for the duration. Yes it can be cured with spells or potions or whatever the DM allows, but I just feel like a whole day is a bit much) seems a bit overkill, and is overall a seemingly boring way to make the fight go on for longer than it should. Especially since if you're running this fight in a Kraken like way, where your players are on a boat, if they fall into the water, unless they're an aquatic species or race, they'll likely have disadvantage on attack rolls anyways. Solution: I'd change this action in a few ways, the first one being to remove the poison, or at least change how long it affects players, maybe change it so that it only affects them until the ink disappears, since it's a legendary action, it recharges and can be used multiple times during the fight. I'd also change how long the ink lingers, 10 rounds of combat feels excessive, 5 seems a bit more manageable but then again, it can be adjusted to whatever the user feels is right. With these changes I feel 60 ft isn't too bad, but that again can be altered by the person who chooses to use the stat block.

Resistances and Immunities: I can understand not wanting the party Wizard to cast Fireball 7 times and kill the creature you made to be a cool encounter, and I feel the fire resistance, while a bit debatable, isn't too problematic in the end as I can entirely believe a squid is constantly covered in a slime that isn't flammable (on top of living in water, so it would technically have two layers of fire protection?) but the immunity to lightning damage is very much, similar to the ink poisoning creatures for a day: a poor excuse to keep the fight going on longer. And I say this only because, while yes, creatures don't have to be like their real world counterparts in d&d, if a creature is going to be immune, and state that it "Uses natural ability to generate electricity to subdue its prey." Then you should make that part of its actions, make its beak attack have a chance to paralyze, or its tentacles do an additional 2d12 of lightning damage. Without anything, saying it has the natural ability to generate electricity is a rather lazy work around to make a sea creature immune to what should be an attack that has no reason not to affect it. Solution: Incorporate electrical damage/effects into the Squid's attacks, or simply remove that part of the description. Again, this is one of the things someone can add or remove if they use the stat block so it's up to the creator/whoever edits this page (which I do hope happens) if they keep that in or not.

Regeneration: I can understand why regeneration is in place, simply so all of its tentacles/arms aren't cut off leaving the squid to rely on its beak for attacks only, but in my opinion, I can't think of a reasoning that you'd have to give the arms/tentacles their own health pool, it'd make more sense to consider it all part of the squid to avoid worrying about 11 different HP pools to keep track of (8 arms, 2 tentacles, the squid itself) but you can still keep in the detail of if too many arms/tentacles are removed, then it will still attempt to flee Solution: Remove Regeneration entirely, keep the squid under one whole HP pool rather than worry about a pool for each of its arms and tentacles, but keep the fleeing trait and the 28 days of growing back its limbs, that way it can still be considered a threat if the players were tasked with killing the beast.

Final Thoughts: I'm sure there's a few things I didn't cover people might consider a problem, the only other thing I could think of is the +9 to hit on its attacks, but much like the whole stat block, that can be altered by the person using this as a base. I would love to see this be changed so that it's able to be kept around, it's helpful to have something like this already made so people in the future, if looking for a Giant Squid stat block, can come across the Colossal Squid and use it instead rather than needing to make an entirely new stat block and creature. I'm not an entirely experienced DM, there may be some things that I suggested that may seem like it makes the fight too easy, but that's why I hope more people come along and offer their own advice/edit what they see fit. Here's to hoping this page can be saved, hope everyone has a good time! --VenusLeaf (talk) 18:58, 26 April 2024 (MDT)