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So, I'm reading an encounter in a module that involves a giant octopus.
The During Combat section says "The octopus stays in the water, attacking enemies on shore with its tentacles. It tries to grab as many victims as it can and then pull them into the water to bite and poison before it feeds on them."
How does it do this?
I assume that it makes a grab attempt on every character it hits, and if it hits more than one character, it may take a -20 penalty to its grapple checks so it can hold each character in a single tentacle instead of needing to focus all of its limbs on grappling one victim. (Hopefully this assumption is not wrong.)
If it succeeds at this, that's where things get fuzzy for me in terms of the octopus's subsequent actions.
A grapple check is a Standard Action. Does that mean that the Octopus can only pull one victim into the water at a time, and the rest just sort of dangle there from its tentacles? Or because it's taking a -20 to its grapple checks, can it use the move grapple option to move all of its grappled victims into the water at the same time with one Grapple Check? (or one for each victim?)
Assuming the octopus gets someone into the water, does it have to release them from the grapple to do a bite attack (since grappling is a standard action,) or to attack them with any tentacles that aren't currently holding victims; or can it just not elect to make grapple checks for additional constrict damage and whatnot? I know the rules pretty much state (with the grapple being a standard action,) they can't make the grapple checks and bite them at the same time.
Honestly, creatures with multiple attacks and grab are confusing and sometimes frustrating for a lot of reasons.
For one thing, with ones like octopuses and scorpions... grabbing prey and holding them tight while biting or stinging them is kind of what they do, but the rules aren't set up to parse that kind of behavior. For another, a giant monster with lots of tentacles, like a kraken, grabbing a bunch of people and waving them around and dragging them to their doom is rather iconic, but I don't know why any tentacled creature would try and grab more than one person and take the massive grapple check penalty if there's not really much they can do with multiple people in their tendrils all at once. And if they can't, well, there's an iconic fantasy/monster scene that flat out just doesn't work in Pathfinder.
Many times in this game the fluff/flavor does not match the mechanics. It would have to take -20 to grapple them, but even so on the next round it has to use a standard action to maintain a grapple. Until errata comes out the rules don't support grappling/attacking more than one opponent at once.
This would be an interpretation, maybe a bit stretched but:
Although both creatures have the grappled condition, you can, as the creature that initiated the grapple, release the grapple as a free action, removing the condition from both you and the target. If you do not release the grapple, you must continue to make a check each round, as a standard action, to maintain the hold.
When you are in grapple you have to take a standard action and a CMB check to maintain the grapple unless you release the grapple. However, creatures with grab special quality that takes -20 to CMB to make and maintain the hold does not gain grappled condition. Because it is not grappled it is not limited in action options provided to those for grappled creatures (i.e. release, maintain, damage, pin, tie up). Personally I would interpret that maintaining the grapple with -20 penalty is a free action that occupies one limb capable of grappling.
You can attack as part of the standard action to maintain a grapple.
"Once you are grappling an opponent, a successful check allows you to continue grappling the foe, and also allows you to perform one of the following actions (as part of the standard action spent to maintain the grapple)...
You can inflict damage to your target equal to your unarmed strike, a natural attack, or an attack made with armor spikes or a light or one-handed weapon. This damage can be either lethal or nonlethal."