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Worse yet, the beast and its groping tentacles seem to have skin of iron, and even when wounds are inflicted, they heal with supernatural speed!

Whoever wrote that fluff piece clearly belives that ironskin and regen should apply to the Kraken's tentacles.

Clearly the rules not agree.

However based on the fact that in that case the tentacles wouldn't even have swim, I think they did intend the tentacles to have swim, ironskin and regen 5.

Is there any kind of consensus on this?

Fluff text is fluff text, it has no impact on the rules of the game.

If there isn't something int he rulebook, on the Kraken card or in the errata somewhere that says he gets these abilities, then he doesn't.

If the Kraken has these abilities and the rules say the tentacles are part of the Kraken, then I would infer the tentacles have these abilities as well. Is there something in the rules that says the tentacles associated with the Kraken are to be treated as different monsters than the Kraken itself?

Steve-O said:

I know that Steve-O.

The rules ARE clear as written. The tentacles are seperate, and do not gain these abilities.

However, that also means they don't swim!

Which is riduculous.

It looks like a clear over-site by FFG. If you know Descent, you'll know that's a possibility.

So, the fluff above suggests that whoever wrote it also has the same interpretation as I do.

I'm currently playing RAW as I am the Overlord. I'm just surprised this hasn't been FAQed yet.

Tentacles are completely broken.

Where does it say that tentacles are separate from the monster? At best, the rules say that they have their own stats and move independently, but they are still part of the Kraken.

Yeah, I think you're right there Big Remy.

It says to place markers, it doesn't say they are seperate from it.

Thanks.

I have always played that tentacles do gain the abilities of their controller, otherwise as you say, how can they have swim? The fluff text seems to only further back this up (although as mentioned, it is just fluff text). If you look at the Kraken's card it shows to sets of abilities, one set on the top of the card, and the other for just the Kraken's "mouth", I would infer from that the Kraken's tentacles get all of its abilities. Nowhere in the rulebook does it say this, but nowhere does it say that they are seperate monsters either. It just refers to the Kraken as their "controlling figure", it is a question that needs to be asked of FFG (along with several others concerning tentacles), but in the meanwhile I think it makes sense to play that the tentacles have the abilities of their controlling figure.

can some one please tell me how any of this is important, since the tentacles on Kraken have no chance of grapling heroes... if they only stand on the oposite side of the ship, since the tentacles can not go further away from Kraken than 3 spaces.. ??

The solution to this is to create a house-rule that allows the Kraken to attack the ship itself. Makes sense IMHO, since in most sea fiction that have large squids they're attacking ships. This would A) remove the stalement (the Kraken would eventually destroy the Revenge resulting in a TPK) and B) give the heroes a sense of urgency to attack the Kraken before it was too late.

Not having played with the Kraken yet, I'm not sure what a good attack-the-ship rule for the Kraken?

-shnar

shnar said:

I agree with attacking the ship. Make it slow and epic, and not game breaking to give the heroes a sense of urgency, ie:

** At the beginning of the Overlord's Turn, if the Kraken is adjacent to The Revenge, any tentacle on The Revenge that is not currently in the same space as a hero may roll a power die. On a power enhancement, The Revenge takes one damage. No more than 2 tentacles per turn may attempt to damage The Revenge in this fashion.

The Kraken could also just wait outside of range of the ship until it has built up LARGE amounts of threat, and then using the threat move himself and his tentacles in and grab the heroes in one fell swoop regardless of which side of the ship they were on.

Of course that kind of depends on how the tentacles react when their controlling figure moves further than 3 spaces from them, my feeling is that they would follow behind kind of "dragging" from 3 spaces away to follow the Kraken where it moved, but it is really a question that needs to be answered by FFG.

Kartigan said:

I thought of that too, especially since the Kraken can perform a run action and leave it's tentacle so far behind him, it's not even funny. What happens when the Kraken moves 15 squares (with threat) and even the maximum movement of the tentacles cannot get within 3 squares of it?

I think the Kraken's tentacles should be placed on the Kraken itself, and then they would move at the same time as the Kraken, and at the beginning of an activation where a tentacle is "out of range" it must spend it's entire action to be put back on the Kraken.

--OR--

Allow the Kraken a special "swim under" move where it cannot move or attack at all that turn, but is then placed on the exact opposite side (Port / Starboard only, never Bow to Stern) of The Revenge if it begins it's turn adjacent to it.

But then, I don't write the rules, do I?

The rules for Tentacles are absolutely FUBAR, from beginning to end. There are so many questions about them I don't even know where to start. We should make a comprehensive list and send it in to FFG, I don't really know if it should be started in this thread or another, but some of them that I have are:

Do tentacles gain the abilities of their controlling figure? (my guess is yes)

What happens when the controlling figure moves further than 3 spaces away from its tentacles? (my guess is listed in my last post, basically the tentacles follow behind at a distance of three squares)

Are figures that are immune to Grapple immune to being "Grappled" by the tentacles? (my guess is no since tentacles don't technically have the "Grapple" ability)

Can threat be spent to cause the tentacles to move more than 1 space per turn when dragging a hero? (my guess here is also no)

Do tentacles block Line of Sight and prevent enemy figures from moving through them [basically, are tentacles "figures" themselves]? (I'm not really sure on this one, my instinct says "yes" but RAW seems to point to "no")

Can a figure being grappled by a tentacle attack said tentacle? (my guess is no since I'm pretty sure you can't target your own spaces)

If a hero attacks a tentacle grappling another hero does the attack hit both the grappled hero and the tentacle holding him, or only the tentacle? (my guess is yes it does hit both since attacks target spaces and not figures)

Could threat be spent to add power dice to Constrict? If the red die shows a miss with Constrict does the green dice still deal its damage? (my guess would be no threat could be spent, and a miss still deals the green dice damage since I don't think that Constrict is technically an "attack" it just replaces one, but I don't have the rulebook near me so I could be very wrong, anyone have any other thoughts on this?)

Can tentacles gain orders from their controlling figure like an aim or dodge? (okay so this seems an obvious no, but I'm trying to think of any possible questions people might have)

Those are all questions I've had or I've seen other people ask, anyone have any questions to add to that list? Anyone have alternate suggestions to what I've guessed at? ("guessed" being a key word, I'm not saying my answers are the best ones, just the best ones that I've been able to come up with that make sense to me). Also I don't have the rulebook in front of me, but when a tentacle starts its turn with a hero Grappled it may either constrict, or move itself and the hero one space, but not both right?

Kartigan said:

Correct, it's either / or, not both.

(Rule: Tentacles page 42, SoB) A tentacle that begins its activation already having Grappled an enemy figure may either Constrict (as the ability) or move the enemy figure (and itself) one space (usually to pull the enemy closer to the controlling figure’s mouth.)

Kartigan said:

Red dice? Green Dice? Wha?!?! That has nothing to do with Constrict. According to the SoB rules on page 39:

Constrict
Instead of attacking, a figure with Constrict may elect to squeeze one enemy figure that it has Grappled. The constricting figure simply spends all of its remaining movement points for the turn and rolls a black power die for each movement point spent. For each blank or power enhancement rolled, the enemy figure

I would say tentacles should be one of two things: If something happens that would make the tentacles more than 3 spaces away (either the Kraken moves or the tentacle is on the ship and it moves) then either

A) the tentacle simply does not move more than 3 spaces away (i.e. is "dragged" with the Kraken, or stays in the square on the map as the ship moves from underneath it),

B) the tentacle "submerges", remove the token from the board. The Overlord may then respawn the tentacle at the start of his next turn any empty space within 3 squares of the Kraken's head.

Not sure which ruling is better, probably the "submerge" one, since it's less complicated. Though I wonder about the respawn happening at the start of the turn, rather than at any point during the turn (i.e. if the kraken sprints to the ship, he'd lose all his tentacles and wouldn't get them till next turn).

-shnar

Fizz said:

What can I say? I'm on crack I've no idea where the Red & Green Dice came from, lol. Well I guess then my question would be could threat be spent to add or upgrade the power dice (or gain extra MPs to use in the Constriction), my guess would definitely be no since that doesn't really make any sense that you could spend threat on that for either reason.

Also I forgot to include the question about the ship moving, but I would imagine that it depends on whether or not the tentacles are "figures" since I believe the rulebook states that figures move with the ship (I really need to get home so I can have my rulebook in front of me, I don't feel like letting this slow internet download the stupid PDF). If they aren't figures, I would think they stay put. If they are though, again what happens to the Kraken? Does it drag along with it? Who the heck knows? There are so many questions that need to be answered concerning tentacles it is not even funny.

You're not on crack, you're on KRAKEN!!

have these questions been submitted yet?

Mmmmmm, Kraken. And no I have not submitted any of these questions, I was kind of hoping someone with better question writing skills might do it for me.......and because I'm lazy . Though I may submit them soon if no one else does.

I've got a submission into the new fancy Rule Question form-thingy.

I'll make sure to post as soon as I hear back (assuming that I hear back )

Any news yet?

I read in another post that someone asked Kevin if the Tentacles got the abilities (like Ironskim and Swim) of the parent monster, and he said "no".

So this raises a whole new can of worms, because if tentacles cannot swim, they just lost half their movement and get dragged by the tide!

Aye, I saw that to and thought it must be a mistake. I sent in my all the questions I had about tentacles a couple of weeks ago, but of course no response as of yet.

Yeah... nothing yet here either.

That's really too bad, because I have a game on Saturday and my heroes are bearing down on the Kraken now. I don't really have a choice except to try to do the uber-****** super threat mega move maneuver, and grab a hero, kill it, and then flee before they use their cannons to blow a new crack in The Kraken.

Fizz said:

Honestly I would completely disregard that comment since it makes absolutely no sense from a mechanics standpoint. The Ironskin I could maybe see, but Swim? So Tentacles will move like 1 space a turn?

Silver tentacles have move 4, so they could move a whopping 2 squares without swim (and if they dont have swim, the tides would move them again). There is no way in hell FFG could have playtested this and not seen such a glaring mistake. Either they didnt playtest The Kraken, or they did and they didnt get their changes to the editor in time.

Either way, my group will have to have a discussion about how to handle tentacles and The Kraken to make it actually playable.

Kevin did imply that you are empowered to rule it in the way that makes it the most fun. If the tentacles need swim to be functional, give them swim.