CaP 18 Pre-Evo - Part 2 - Ability Discussion

[Amitghosh]

While I like both Analytic and Infiltrator on Volkraken's pre evo, Instead of Infiltrator, I suggest Illuminate and Liquid Ooze instead of pressure. On Wikipedia it says that If the Vampire Squid is threatened, it Ejects a sticky cloud of biolumenescent mucus containing innumerable orbs of blue light from its arm tips. Illuminate highlights the blue light part and and liquid ooze highlights the mucus part well. Illuminate and Liquid Ooze fit into the ability of the volkraken prevo even more because as Volkraken Pre Evo will be young, it needs some sort of defence from predators.

 

[HeaLnDeaL]

Octopodes have been seen to disassemble a sunken coconut shell, carry it for an extensive period of time and reassemble it to use as shelter.

Vampire Squid arms are quite thin, and browsing through various anatomy diagrams and pieces of research, their arms have been described as "weak." Thus, I'm not entirely sure a Vampire squid is capable of picking up that heavy of objects (not to mention the webbing potentially getting in the way).

...However, then I discovered this article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/09/120926133239.htm

More or less, in a nutshell, it describes the feeding process of Vampire Squids, and portrays the animal using long, thin filaments extended out past its body to collect various bits of organic matter. Essentially, small passing by objects literally stick to these filaments. Because of this, I think there is some flavor legitimacy to pick up. However, I also think it could support Sticky Hold even better, as it doesn't truly pick up items, but rather lets them collect/stick to its filaments.

That said, this same article also mentions a lot of goo and the such being associated with the vampire squid, so I think that Gooey and Liquid Ooze are acceptable options as well.

 

[AwkwardSquirtle]

I think Flame Body is worth considering: A little fire squid has its flame sac closer to its skin, as well as having less control over its ability than its evolved form.

 

[CerberusSONE]

Analytic and Illuminate sound like good abilities to me.
Illuminate would be much more useful to youngsters, as they would probably use their lights to signal to their parents.
Analytic sounds like something hereditary. Waiting for its prey to make moves and then attacking would be plausible for a young squid.

 

[sparktrain]

I agree that Analytic should remain the primary ability. Infiltrator still seems like it would fit flavor-wise as well, however it could be swapped out for something like Illuminate, Pickup, Liquid Ooze, etc. I really like the idea of using Rattled over Pressure for the third ability, since Rattled fits its role as an unimposing baby squid, whereas Pressure fits better for its much scarier evolution. The Rattled --> Pressure change as it evolves would capture its transition from cute baby squid to frightening vampire squid.