Tentacles...So Many Tentacles....

[Palanan]

I need suggestions for a creature with tentacles, preferably a water dweller, and definitely CR 5 or below.

Ideally this would be a swamp denizen of Large or slightly larger size, and I’d prefer it to be heavy on the melee with no spellcasting. I’m open to all official 3.5 and Pathfinder content. The creepier the better, and a disturbing otherworldly vibe would be perfect.

[Nifft]

Pseudonatural Mermaid.

[PrismCat21]

Anthropomorphic Giant Squid. Add Barbarian and/or Fighter levels

[ZamielVanWeber]

Pseudonatural Mermaid.

Go for the gusto: half-farspawn mermaid!

[Zaq]

Weresquid?

[AlanBruce]

There is a creature in MM2 (which is 3.0, but I believe there is a 3.5 update somewhere), that fits just the theme you want: it lives in a swamp or marsh and is made of tentacles. Mind you, it's MM2, not a book known for accurate and fair CR, but maybe you can tone the creature down to fit what you want.

I think it had sopme SLAs, but those can be done with easily. What I do recall is that it has a LOT of attacks, wielding weapons from past victims and actually using them to lure adventurers towards him before the tentacles lash around and cut people.

Now if only i could remember the name... Darktentacles, perhaps? It definitely had tentacles in the name.

[Kayblis]

Alanbruce's talking about Darktentacles, MM2 page 54. Yeah, 12 slams that can be used for weapons, Imp Grab, Constrict, Tentacle Regeneration and Tremorsense. It's pretty much what OP wants. You can ignore the spell-like abilities, and maybe lower its HP or to-hit a little because it's CR 7(but MM2 means it can be anywhere from 5 to 9; it looks kinda right for 7 though).

[Nifft]

How about a Silverbrow Human Totemist 5 with Aberration feats from Lords of Madness?

Feats:
L1: Aberration Blood (+3 grapple); Inhuman Reach (melee reach +5 ft.)
L3: Deepspawn (gives 2 tentacles)

Soulmelds:
- Shoulders: Displacer Mantle (Totem bind); gives 2 tentacles
- Hands: Claws of the Wyrm; gives 2 claws
- Arms: Kraken Mantle (+8 swim; swim faster)
- Feet: Worg Pelt (+4 hide & move silently)


If you're playing with Flaws, also give this poor soul Scavenging Gullet and Waterspawn (both from Lords of Madness).

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by AlanBruce
There is a creature in MM2 (which is 3.0, but I believe there is a 3.5 update somewhere), that fits just the theme you want: it lives in a swamp or marsh and is made of tentacles.


Originally Posted by max5212
Alanbruce's talking about Darktentacles….

Okay, thanks—this is almost exactly what I’m looking for, although this particular creature is too strong for my needs.

Are there similar creatures along these lines with a lower CR, maybe about CR 4?

[Nifft]

Are there similar creatures along these lines with a lower CR, maybe about CR 4?

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/MM35_gallery/MM35_PG139.jpg

Grick (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/grick.htm) from the SRD has tentacles, and is CR 3. Throw two of them at your PCs.


https://i.imgur.com/xpqgiwS.jpg

Grell have lots of tentacles, and are also CR 3. They can be found in Lords of Madness (p.108).

[DrMotives]

There's the Tako, a 3.0 creature in Oriental Adventures. A cyclops octopus, they're CR 2 and medium sized, but become Large at 6 RHD. They can attack with up to 7 arms in any given round, and often carry an assortment of spears and swords. There's no suggestion for typical classes, but they're better melee beasts than casters.

[Zombulian]

Changeling Barbarian 4/Warshaper 1

Use Morphic Weapons over and over again to get an indeterminate amount of tentacles.

[cullynthedwarf]

I need suggestions for a creature with tentacles, preferably a water dweller, and definitely CR 5 or below.

Ideally this would be a swamp denizen of Large or slightly larger size, and I’d prefer it to be heavy on the melee with no spellcasting. I’m open to all official 3.5 and Pathfinder content. The creepier the better, and a disturbing otherworldly vibe would be perfect.

Pseudo Natural Octopus

[daremetoidareyo]

antropomorphic octopus has 8 arms and comes in At CR2.
If you make an anthropomorphic octopus a tauric creature, Say...on a squid, you get a CR 2 monster because you just add +1 to the base creature, not the base humanoid. It has 5d8 HD two "arms attacks" and two "bite attacks" depending on where you think a squid's head should be. (in the body trunk?)

add abberation feats and class levels for more tentacles. Add a clockwork mask of the mindflayer p21: http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/oa/20061017a pouncebarian looks promising.

[atemu1234]

How about a Silverbrow Human Totemist 5 with Aberration feats from Lords of Madness?

Feats:
L1: Aberration Blood (+3 grapple); Inhuman Reach (melee reach +5 ft.)
L3: Deepspawn (gives 2 tentacles)

Soulmelds:
- Shoulders: Displacer Mantle (Totem bind); gives 2 tentacles
- Hands: Claws of the Wyrm; gives 2 claws
- Arms: Kraken Mantle (+8 swim; swim faster)
- Feet: Worg Pelt (+4 hide & move silently)


If you're playing with Flaws, also give this poor soul Scavenging Gullet and Waterspawn (both from Lords of Madness).

Or you could sack the scavenging gullet and get Improved Natural Attack.

[Nifft]

Or you could sack the scavenging gullet and get Improved Natural Attack.

Can you clarify why you think that feat would be legal?



Improved Natural Attack [General]
Prerequisite

Natural weapon, base attack bonus +4.

[Calthropstu]

If you're willing to use pathfinder monsters, you can use the qlippoths.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by DrMotives
There's the Tako, a 3.0 creature in Oriental Adventures.

This is close to perfect, a sort of mini-darktentacles that’s exactly the right CR.

Just one question about this—how much adapting would a 3.0 creature require for a Pathfinder game?


Originally Posted by Calthropstu
If you're willing to use pathfinder monsters, you can use the qlippoths.

Very willing, and this is another good suggestion. Most of them are vastly too powerful for my needs, but the CR 2 fungal parasite is in the right range and nicely creepy.

[Greymortis]

How about the Tendriculos? It is CR6 and only has 2 tentacles, but not hard to respec it with more, and it would definitely be seen in a swamp

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Greymortis
How about the Tendriculos?

Certainly very thematic, but a little too strong for my needs. If there's a junior version, effectively a seedling tendriculous, that could be viable.

[CIDE]

Changeling Barbarian 4/Warshaper 1

Use Morphic Weapons over and over again to get an indeterminate amount of tentacles.

Doesn't work. Once you have X natural weapon (whether you used the class to make it or not) you can't make another. Any attempt to do so increases the size of said weapon. So, you make an appropriately sized tentacle (medium, for examle) in one round. Next round you try to do so again but instead of growing another the existing one becomes Large sized.

[ShurikVch]

How about the Living Spell: Black Tentacles (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/blackTentacles.htm) (or Battle Tentacles, or Blackwater Tentacle)?

[Psyren]

Elder Thing (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/aberrations/elder-thing/) might be relevant to your interests; aquatic, tentacles, no spellcasting, intelligent, CR 5. You can find them in Bestiary 4, and they are based on the HP Lovecraft critters of the same name.

[Knaight]

If you just want official mechanics, a refluffed hydra could work surprisingly well.

[ShurikVch]

The "Salvage Operation" (Dungeon #123) - adventure intended for 2nd-level party - have Old Sick Giant Squid as a CR 4 encounter (it's just 30 hp, and Str/Dex/Con is 10/8/6)

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Psyren
Elder Thing might be relevant to your interests; aquatic, tentacles, no spellcasting, intelligent, CR 5. You can find them in Bestiary 4, and they are based on the HP Lovecraft critters of the same name.

Spot-on suggestion, thank you.

This raises a couple of questions—first, what exactly do Elder Things do?! Supposedly they create alien life, which sometimes gets out of hand, and apparently they have other fearsome powers as well; but none of that is reflected in the actual statblock.

So, how do they do it? Are they masters of the arcane? Do they warp reality itself? Or do they just grab molecules with their face-tentacles and constrict until new life appears?


Originally Posted by ShurikVch
The "Salvage Operation" (Dungeon #123) - adventure intended for 2nd-level party - have Old Sick Giant Squid as a CR 4 encounter (it's just 30 hp, and Str/Dex/Con is 10/8/6)

This is a great find, thanks—looks very useful indeed.

[Psyren]

This raises a couple of questions—first, what exactly do Elder Things do?! Supposedly they create alien life, which sometimes gets out of hand, and apparently they have other fearsome powers as well; but none of that is reflected in the actual statblock.

The same way we do presumably - via magic and technology. They don't have any innately, but their description says they can use items, technology, and magic just fine - combined with their low CR and high mental stats, I would imagine many of them become wizards and other casters and do their experiments that way. I would further imagine that their Starflight and Hibernation abilities allow them to simply set off across the cosmos until they find planets where they are the biggest fish and take the whole thing over, and if they land on one less agreeable they can simply take off again.

[ShurikVch]

This raises a couple of questions—first, what exactly do Elder Things do?! Supposedly they create alien life, which sometimes gets out of hand, and apparently they have other fearsome powers as well; but none of that is reflected in the actual statblock.

So, how do they do it? Are they masters of the arcane? Do they warp reality itself? Or do they just grab molecules with their face-tentacles and constrict until new life appears?I dunno how it's in Pathfinder, but in Call of Cthulhu d20 they also got "1d4 spells".
They aren't restricted by spell's level (since spell levels don't exist in Call of Cthulhu)
They can cast at-will (since spell slots don't exist too), but it's still a spells, not sp or su (all components are still there)