Or does the sentence I quoted above indicate that octopi have other needs than simply breathing which cannot be met outside of water?
Since there are enough air-breathing creatures that cannot survive out of water for extended periods of time (say hello to Mr. Whale), odds are that octopi might have some difficulties with extended dryness...
The dryness is most likely the issue, but even if the only issue was breathing the witch having to cast the hex at a bad time could also be an issue. The witch going unconscious or otherwise being unable to act just when the hex is needed is an example.
Hmm... weren't octopi salt water animals to begin with?
Yeah they are salt-water creatures.
A big jar full of seawater perhaps? (Dont drop it!)
In the real world?
Seems they can last quite a while as long as they stay moist.
In dry conditions it seems 'about 10 minutes' is the norm before the gills dry and they suffocate.
http://www.inquisitr.com/162489/a-walking-octopus-biologists-explain-bizarr e-video/
So in the salty spray of a coastal area they might be okay to crawl in the air for at least several minutes. But if faced with an expanse of dry rocks in the hot sun, they might not make it very far.
Out of water their tentacles are practically useless beyond pulling the creature across the sand or boat deck. They lack the musculature to actually flail about and attack things. Also, octopi rarely live past 1 year.
In 2003, there was this story from my hometown. What the story doesn't tell you is that the first guy who saw it was so frightened he threw his fishing rod at it and ran away.
I picture some wizened old wizard carrying a staff that has a large glass globe at its top. Inside, floats a blue-ringed octopus.
Is it a familiar? It's best not to mettle in the affairs of wizards, boy, but rumour has it, that is a companion sent by an abboleth lord to "watch over" that old wizard. It's best not to get too close to it either, as it's also rumoured that it possesses mind powers, and you don't want that thing in your nightmares, do you?
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Twitch...
The plural of "octopus" is "octopuses", not "octopi". The "-us" singular to "-i" plural is Latin, but "octopus" is Greek. "Octopoda" may be used to refer to multiple species of octopuses.
And I have seen video clips of octopuses crawling across short distances out of the water. They're clever creatures.
It seems to me that a creature that can kill you just by looking at you, and wants to kill you usually lives in Australia.
It seems to me that a creature that can kill you just by looking at you, and wants to kill you usually lives in Australia.
Yeah I love this country :P
Twitch...
The plural of "octopus" is "octopuses", not "octopi". The "-us" singular to "-i" plural is Latin, but "octopus" is Greek. "Octopoda" may be used to refer to multiple species of octopuses.And I have seen video clips of octopuses crawling across short distances out of the water. They're clever creatures.
It seems to me that a creature that can kill you just by looking at you, and wants to kill you usually lives in Australia.
With octopuses/octopi/octopodes, there's a wonderful video explaining the trouble here, with the end commentary that all of them are correct:
I once had an octopus familiar in a water-filled orb. He would roll around like a hamster in a hamster ball. I enchanted the glass sphere to have the properties of both a clear spindle ioun stone as well as a iridescent spindle ioun stone.
Set me back 11,000gp, but in return the sphere was treated as an attended magical item and thus was much harder to destroy than your typical bauble. I could even have it orbit around my head as if it were another ioun stone while my octopus was inside. :D
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This is where you need to introduce a little creature we call the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus and use it for a familiar...;)
This is where you need to introduce a little creature we call the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus and use it for a familiar...;)
This is a joke, right?