Another weekend, another brand-new release from me. This time it’s back to the schedule as normal, with the results of last month’s Monster Popularity Contest (a monthly patreon poll where supporters vote to see their favorite monsters, NPCs, and other enemies come to life.) These five friendly mugs are the face commanders from the commander decks released alongside Streets of New Cappena. Each one serves a different family, and plays a different role in the glamorous politics of this 30′s-themed fantasy setting.
If you’d like early access to more content like this, the ability to vote in polls like the one mentioned above, and other patron-exclusive releases like monthly subclasses and more, you can sign up to support me for as little as $2/month!
Llawan was a cephalid empress of the Mer Empire on Dominaria. She had been married off to Emperor Aboshan by her father to create an alliance between the two cephalid houses, but the relationship between Llawan and Aboshan was loveless. Eventually, Aboshan became suspicious of his wife and had her exiled to the southern court. As a result, Llawan became a symbol of the oppressed and so her court became a rallying point for rebellious factions. Contrary to Aboshan's suspicions, Llawan's time in exile was mostly peaceful, as she did not openly make war against her husband, but merely offered a refuge for the various non-cephalic races that were being persecuted under Aboshan's reign. Llawan did not make a direct move for the throne until the Emperor's death following his use of the Mirari.
{T}: Add {C}{U}. Spend this mana only to activate abilities.
After years of fabricating visions for naive customers of the Obscura, Stafano was flummoxed by the nightmarish scenes that played out unbidden in his mind’s eve.
illustrated by Josh Hass
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But... but none of the Cephalids in recent sets have activated abilities. The one single Homarid from DOM doesn't have an activated ability. Why make a creature of a certain type that everyone knows hasn't seen the light of day in forever not mechanically connected to creatures of that type that were recently made? It makes no sense.
New Capenna isn’t even out yet and OC design already dropped.
They’re a cephalid who sparked as a child to Ravnica, where they were taken in by a kindly hooded stranger who asked for precious little in exchange for their food and shelter... who of course was a Dimir agent, intent on training the young “Simic hybrid” into a loyal mind-mage.
Esper. No details on name yet, pronouns probably they/he.
[Much like the wereweasel, I actually used a version of this in game during the 3.5 era. That wereoctopus monk was a kuo-toa, which was technically cheating (kuo-toa were aberrations, making them ineligible for the lycanthrope template), but it was a memorable encounter nonetheless. It did end in the death of a character, and I suspect that this wereoctopus similarly punches a bit above its CR class. Being one of the few monsters in PFRPG to have 9 attacks below CR 10 makes giant octopus very dangerous.]
Lycanthrope, Wereoctopus
CR 9 LN Humanoid
This rubbery skinned humanoid has a bulbous head with large eyes and a parrot like beak. Its arms are tentacles, and it moves on six additional tentacles as if they were legs.
Wereoctopuses are rare lycanthropes, most common among aquatic humanoids such as merfolk and locathath. Their physical appearances are often disturbing or strange, especially to land-dwellers, but they are not inherently evil. They are most noted for their curiosity—they tend to devote themselves to solving problems, and physical and mental training. They make excellent scholars or monastic types, but are known to cause problems due to their meddling. In combat, a wereoctopus has many attacks, which they tend to spread out over multiple foes. They favor tactics that disrupt, confuse or impede enemies over outright killing them, but will fight to the death if pressed.
Wereoctopus (Locathath Form) CR 9
XP 6,400
Locathath wereoctopus monk 8
LN Medium humanoid (aquatic, shapechanger)
Init +7; Senses low-light vision, Perception +16, scent
Defense
AC 22, touch 19, flat-footed 19 (+3 Dex, +4 Wis, +2 natural, +1 armor, +2 monk)
hp 68 (10d8+20)
Fort +11, Ref +10, Will +11; +2 vs. enchantments
Immune disease
Offense
Speed 30 ft., swim 60 ft.
Melee +1 unarmed strike +11/+6 or +11/+11/+6/+6 (1d10+4)
Ranged masterwork light crossbow +11 (1d8/19-20)
Special Attacks ki pool (8/day, cold iron, silver and magic), stunning fist (8/day, stunned, fatigued or sickened, DC 19)
Statistics
Str 16, Dex 16, Con 12, Int 12, Wis 18, Cha 6
Base Atk +7; CMB +12; CMD 31
Feats Blind-fight, Combat Reflexes (B), Deflect Arrows (B), Improved Initiative, Improved Trip (B), Improved Unarmed Strike (B), Multiattack, Stealthy, Stunning Fist (B), Toughness
Skills Acrobatics +15 (+23 when jumping), Climb +14, Escape Artist +17, Linguistics +2, Perception +16, Sense Motive +16, Stealth +15, Swim +11
Languages Aquan, Common
SQ amphibious, change shape (locathath, hybrid or giant octopus, polymorph), high jump, lycanthropic empathy (octopus and giant octopus), slow fall (40 ft.), wholeness of body (8 hp)
Ecology
Environment any aquatic or coastal
Organization solitary or band (2-10)
Treasure NPC gear (amulet of mighty fists +1, bracers of armor +1, cloak of resistance +1, masterwork light crossbow, 20 bolts, potion of bull’s strength, potion of mage armor (x2), 63 gp
Wereoctopus (Hybrid Form) CR 9
XP 6,400
Locathath wereoctopus monk 8
LN Large humanoid (aquatic, shapechanger)
Init +7; Senses low-light vision, Perception +16, scent
Defense
AC 28, touch 18, flat-footed 25 (-1 size, +3 Dex, +4 Wis, +9 natural, +1 armor, +2 monk)
hp 98 (10d8+50)
Fort +14, Ref +10, Will +11; +2 vs. enchantments
DR 10/silver; Immune disease
Defensive Abilities ink cloud
Offense
Speed 30 ft., swim 60 ft., jet 200 ft
Melee +1 unarmed strike +13/+8 or +13/+13/+8/+8 (2d8+7) or +1 bite +13 (1d8+7 plus poison and curse of lycanthropy), 8 +1 tentacles +11 (1d4+4 plus grab) or +1 unarmed strike +13/+8 (2d8+7), +1 bite +11 (1d8+4 plus poison and curse of lycanthropy), 8 +1 tentacles +11 (1d4+4 plus grab)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft. (20 ft. with tentacles)
Special Attacks constrict (1d4+7), ki pool (8/day, cold iron, silver and magic), stunning fist (8/day, stunned, fatigued or sickened, DC 19)
Statistics
Str 22, Dex 16, Con 19, Int 12, Wis 18, Cha 6
Base Atk +7; CMB +16 (+20 grapple); CMD 35
Feats Blind-fight, Combat Reflexes (B), Deflect Arrows (B), Improved Initiative, Improved Trip (B), Improved Unarmed Strike (B), Multiattack, Stealthy, Stunning Fist (B), Toughness
Skills Acrobatics +15 (+23 when jumping), Climb +17, Escape Artist +17, Linguistics +2, Perception +16, Sense Motive +16, Stealth +11, Swim +14
Languages Aquan, Common
SQ amphibious, change shape (locathath, hybrid or giant octopus, polymorph), high jump, lycanthropic empathy (octopus and giant octopus), slow fall (40 ft.), wholeness of body (8 hp)
Ecology
Environment any aquatic or coastal
Organization solitary or band (2-10)
Treasure NPC gear (amulet of mighty fists +1, bracers of armor +1, cloak of resistance +1, masterwork light crossbow, 20 bolts, potion of bull’s strength, potion of mage armor (x2), 63 gp
Special Abilities
Ink Cloud (Ex) A wereoctopus can emit a 30-foot-radius sphere of ink once per minute as a free action. The ink provides total concealment in water, and persists for 1 minute.
Jet (Ex) A wereoctopus can jet backward once per round as a full-round action, at a speed of 200 feet. It must move in a straight line while jetting, and does not provoke attacks of opportunity when it does so.
Poison (Ex) Bite—injury; save Fort DC 19; frequency 1/round for 6 rounds; effect 1d3 Str; cure 2 saves. The save DC is Constitution based.
It’s a kid now, it’s a squid now. Okay, it’s actually an octopus. Cephalids are octopus people native to the waters around Otaria on Dominaria.
What is a Cephalid (mechanically)?
Cephalids are a blue race, between 1/1 and 3/3, primarily found in Odyssey block. They have a strong subtheme of either putting cards directly from your library into the graveyard or drawing cards and discarding cards.
Can I make a Cephalid deck?
Step one: Put your library into your graveyard.
Step two: ???
Step three: Profit
Cephalids have a consistent ability to tear through their owner’s deck, but no actual payoff for doing so. They’ve no power worth noting, and the sole reward for actually having a full graveyard is drawing more cards to discard more cards. A Cephalid-heavy deck would need to care primarily about filling your graveyard, at which point you’re making some sort of messy, bad Dredge deck. Worse, they’re not even particularly good at putting your library into your graveyard on their own, and they tend to require you to untap with them before you get to start milling. Now, there are a few combos using Cephalid Illusionist to mill your entire library outright (Shuko, Nomads en-Kor, etc) but then you’re playing a Cephalid Illusionist deck, not a Cephalid deck, and any other Cephalids are dead weight.
For Commander, there are not enough Cephalids to make a Cephalid deck, even though there are two Legendary Cephalids. One of them, Llawan, Cephalid Empress, is a strong hate card for blue decks and could reasonably see play in the 99 of another deck, but makes no sense as a commander. Its only real combo potential is with the banned Painter’s Servant. The other, Aboshan, Cephalid Emperor, is a Cephalid lord that lets you tap permanents by tapping Cephalids. It’s a nice way to slow an opponent down, but it has little use as far as actually securing victory goes. Worse, a not insignificant number of Cephalids already have tap abilities, discouraging them from taking advantage of Aboshan’s.
So no, a Cephalid deck just isn’t going to work.
Is Cephalid a good creature type?
Leonin are cats, Aven are birds, and by all accounts, Cephalids should be Octopuses. Even with a Cephalid reward, the creature type isn’t doing anything for anyone, and it exists in opposition to the idea that animal-people are only given their own type if they’re somehow iconic. Cephalid as a type was a mistake, and an easily rectified mistake. Cephalids should be Octopuses, or, more reasonable, Cephalopods with Octopuses and Squids.
Now, I could go on about how Odyssey Block’s creature types were a hot mess, but the only relevant part here is the Cephalids were intentionally created to not gain benefits of other creature types for the sake of being new and different, but then weren’t given enough support to make that work. Worse, they were followed by a block that supported four different blue tribes (Wizard, Bird, Sliver, and Illusion) none of which were Cephalid. Cephalids were created, and then immediately left to die.
