Octopus, Giant

Pierre Dénys de Montfort illustration of a colossal octopus attacking a ship. — Colossal Octopus, Pierre Dénys de Montfort / Wikimedia Commons.

Armor Class: 1 [18]
Hit Dice: 8
Attacks: Tentacle or bite (1d6+2)
Special: grab/drowning, ink cloud escape
Move: Swim 9
HDE/XP: 8/800

Description

The giant octopus is, obviously, an enormous version of the normal creature. They are physically powerful as well as being clever, which makes them a serious threat to seagoing vessels.

A giant octopus normally opens with a tentacle attack. A successful tentacle attack means it has grabbed its prey; unless the victim can find a way to resist (using whatever method the player might think of and whatever rolls the GM may choose), they will be pulled into the water and thus be in danger of drowning. Once a victim is held, the octopus may use its bite as its single attack on later rounds. Don't forget to account for the weight of armor worn!

If a giant octopus fails a morale check, it will squirt out a cloud of black "ink" 40' in diameter and then jet away at twice normal speed for 2d6 rounds. Any characters being held will normally be released at this point.

Source note: This creature is converted from Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game, 4th Edition Release 142, © 2006–2025 Chris Gonnerman. The Basic Fantasy textual material is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International; this page adapts that creature to White Box.