Any fictional or fantasy tale involving the sea is made better by the inclusion of a kraken. The alien-like appearance of this gargantuan intelligence from the deepest depths of the ocean is a physical manifestation of everything we fear about the water.
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Namely, that it’s unknowable, impossibly large, and literally movement inhibiting and suffocating to experience. Krakens inDungeons & Dragonsare made even more terrifying thanks to their history as warriors of the gods themselves at the beginning of creation. Unfortunately for us, krakens long ago broke their deific bonds of servitude in favor of becoming divinities of destruction in their own right.
8Inscrutable Aims
Like the waters they inhabit, one of the most horrifying things about krakens in play is the inability of the player characters to understand them. A kraken’s plots should remain unknowable to the player characters deep into a campaign.
After all, we fear the water because we do not knowwhat lurks inside it.
Similarly, players fear the kraken because they do not know its ultimate goals. Of course, we’re talking about a creature that wants to strangle and drown its very creators in order to take their place, so the assumption that your kraken is evil will always be there.
The key here is to keep it an assumption for as long as possible.
7Sovereigns Of The Sea
Like other legendary monsters, the kraken’s mere existence alters the landscape around its lair. Unlike other legendary monsters, the nature of this alteration is entirely up to the kraken as the regional effects that occur are identical to the eighth level spell Control Weather.
In other words, the kraken can choose to create stormy seas if its minions displease it or calm ones with bountiful harvests if they serve accordingly. This is one means by which you can throw the player characters off of their evil assumptions as a deed done for the kraken may benefit an entire coastal area for some time.
Ultimately, the idea is that the sea itself serves at the whims of the kraken as if it were a god. For all the commoners of coastal settlements who rely on the bounty of the sea know, the kraken very well may be one.
6A Menagerie Of Minions
Another of the kraken’s regional effects is that water elementals and aquatic creatures within 6 miles of its lair are aggressive toward intruders. This means that any creature in the Monster Manual and other sourcebooks with a swim speed can and will serve as a kraken’s minion.
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On top of that, creatures who rely on the water to make their living including pirates, flying predators, and coastal humanoids will also benefit from making certain a local kraken is pleased. In other words, any creature in regular contact with the water not only makes for a great minion of the kraken but has convincing reasons to keep it contented.
5No Safe Harbor
Despite their reputation as predators of the ocean, krakens can move across and breathe on land as if it were water. This means that coastal villages, riverside settlements, and even cities deep inland that happen to exist nearby lakes are all potential prey.
While most monsters from the sea can be avoided by keeping to land, the kraken has no such boundaries. This should be made clear to the player characters at some point in the middle of a campaign in order to up the stakes of the story.
A kraken’s tentacles are so far-reaching that no one is safe, especially if the creature gets what it ultimately desires.
4Tentacle, Fling, And Bite
Moving away from roleplay and towards combat mechanics, the kraken’s core kit revolves around the use of its tentacles and its stomach. The kraken has ten tentacles each of which can grapple and restrain a creature. Once a creature is hit by a tentacle and becomes both grappled and restrained, that’s where the fun starts.
Creatures caught up in the tentacles can be flung 60 feet in any direction and take fall damage for however far they travel as normal. On top of that, the kraken can fling a creature at another creature in which case both of them take the fall damage if the target fails a Dexterity saving throw.
This is a great means of dealing damage and putting distance between the kraken and its enemies.
However, the kraken’s most devious move is its bite action whereby it swallows a creature grappled by one of its tentacles whole. This action normally takes the place of the kraken’s multiattack, however, we would advise allowing it to be used in place of a tentacle or bite attack.
Only bite creatures that have been grappled by a tentacle for an entire turn though; you want the players to have an opportunity to escape this devastating effect. And it is devastating as creatures inside the kraken’s stomach take 12d6 acid damage at the start of the kraken’s turns and are both blinded and restrained while inside of it.
Furthermore, the kraken only throws up a creature if it takes 50 or more damage from a single attack from a creature already inside the kraken.
3Legendary Actions
By and far away, the kraken’s best legendary action is its ink cloud ability. This makes the area around the kraken heavily obscured for everyone but it meaning creatures inside the ink effectively suffer fromthe blinded condition.
This gives enemies a disadvantage on their attacks while the kraken now gains an advantage on its own attacks against them.
On top of this huge dice advantage, the inky cloud also deals poison damage to anyone inside of it. Needless to say, you should keep the ink cloud up at all times for as long as the kraken is being sufficiently threatened by its opponents.
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The tentacle attack, fling, and lightning storm legendary actions are useful for dealing significant amounts of damage to important targets, however, the defensive benefits that ink cloud offers outweigh this additional damage unless the kraken is already in a relatively safe position.
2Lair Actions
The kraken also has three lair actions. One of them occurs at initiative count 20 every turn, allowing the kraken to set up the other actions it will take throughout the round. The strong current action is useful for keeping powerful opponents at bay as it’s capable of placing a distance of 120 feet between the kraken and an enemy.
The other interesting lair action the kraken carries inflicts lightning vulnerability. This ability has no save and gives vulnerability to lightning damage to all creatures within 60 feet of the kraken.
This is the perfect lair action to use before double lightning storming the party with the kraken’s main action and legendary action. In addition, it’s absolutely devastating if the kraken happens to be fighting alongside minions who have access to lightning damage.
The kraken’s final lair action does a small amount of lightning damage to all creatures within 120 feet of the kraken. The damage this lair action inflicts is pretty negligible against high-level characters though, so this is better used as a roleplaying action early in a campaign than true combat ability.
1Legendary Resistance
Finally, the kraken lacks one key attribute of otherboss monsters. That attribute is legendary resistance. Without legendary resistance, the kraken becomes susceptible to brutal spells like Hold Monster that can turn your terrifying squid into nothing more than a punching bag for the players. Consequently, you should absolutely give your kraken three legendary resistance uses.
Beyond that don’t be afraid of allowing your kraken to trade its legendary actions or combat actions to destroy hampering magical effects like force cage, maelstrom, and other magic abilities that might make the battle uninteresting. The kraken is one of the biggest bads in all of D&D after all; even high-level magic pales in comparison to its power.
