A tropical beach, an island paradise, a seaside escapade. Whether your adventurers are getting ready to set sail or are chilling on the beach, danger can be anywhere! Here are some ideas for coastal creature encounters.
1. Giant hermit crab
As you walk along the shoreline, you hear a *click click*, *click click*. One large boulder on the rocky shore begins to move. It’s not a boulder at all, but a large barnacled shell, about 5 feet across. Two clawed hands reach out towards you, as a giant hermit crab extends its 6 legs to stand up to it’s full height.
Without range attacks, the difficulty of a Giant Hermit Crab encounter is in it’s defense. They posses natural armour, a large shell that is both their home and protection against attackers, and are fairly strong and resilient. These creatures, however, possess no intellect or conversational capabilities.
These hermit crabs live close to the water, near shallow pools where they can spread their eggs, and are extremely territorial.
Medium beast, neutral evil
Armour Class 17 (natural armour)
Hit Points 32 (5d8 + 10)
Speed 25 ft.
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
| 14 (+2) | 8 (-1) | 14 (+2) | 1 (-5) | 8 (-1) | 2 (-4) |
Skills Stealth+2
Senses blindsight 30 ft., passive Perception 9
Languages none
Amphibious. The crab can breathe air and water.
Actions
Multiattack The crab makes two attacks with it’s claws.
Claw Melee Weapon Attack: +2 to hit, reach 5ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d6 + 2)
2. Ooze
We talk about using a gelatinous cube as a level 1 encounter in a recent post, and there are different types of oozes too. Black Pudding sludge, Gray Ooze, and Ochre Jelly are all examples in WotC’s Monster Manual.
Here is one possibility for introducing ooze combat to your seafarers.
You load up supplies from the docks to the hold of the ship, and just as the last of the crates and barrels are brought on board, you suddenly hear a scream from down below in the hold.
Allow the players to decide what to do, if they don’t engage, have the ooze(s) come up on to the deck of the ship and start eroding it’s structure. If they run down to engage, you can read this text block:
As you enter the ship’s hold, you see a large cube, translucent and not quite solid, a familiar deck-hand’s face is visible for a moment before it is sucked into the body of this gelatinous cube along with the rest of him. Suspended in the ooze, is the deck-hand, some equipment, and supplies from one of the crates.
3. Sand Roper
Suddenly, the long bull kelp stocks that were motionless a moment ago whip up from the sandy beach and wrap themselves around your ankles. As they grip you strongly, the sand begins to move in the center of the tendrils, a gaping hole opens up, rimmed with rows of sharp teeth. These kelp-like tendrils begin to pull you towards their mouth, teet hungrily gnashing towards you.
Similar to their cave-dwelling cousins, a Sand Roper is a hungry creature with gnashing teeth and long tendrils that trap and drag in their prey. While motionless, Sand Ropers blend in with their beach surroundings. While the majority of their body lies underneath the sand, their tendrils lay loosely on the surface resembling bull kelp. The Sand Roper waits for living creatures to come into it’s range and then attacks.
Large beast, chaotic evil
Armour Class 20 (natural armour)
Hit Points 93 (11d10 + 33)
Speed 10 ft.
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
| 18 (+4) | 8 (-1) | 17 (+3) | 7 (-2) | 16 (+3) | 6 (-2) |
Senses blindsight 30 ft., darkvision 60 ft, passive Perception 16
Languages none
False Appearance. While the sand roper remains motionless, it is indistinguishable from scattered kelp along the sandy beach.
Grasping Tendrils. The sand roper can have up to six tendrils at a time. Each tendril can be attacked (AC 20; 20 hit points; immunity to poison and psychic damage). Destroying a tendril deals no damage to the roper, which can extrude a replacement tendril on its next turn. A tendril can also be broken if a creature takes an action and succeeds on a DC 15 Strength check against it.
Actions
Multiattack The sand roper makes 4 attacks with its tendrils, uses Reel, and makes one attack with its bite.
Bite Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5ft., one target. Hit: 22 (4d8 + 4) piercing damage.
Tendril Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 50ft., one creature. Hit: The target is grappled (escape DC 15). Until the grapple ends, the target is restrained and has disadvantage on Strength checks and Strength saving throws, and the roper can’t use the same tendril on another target.
Reel The sand roper pulls each creature grappled by it up to 25 feet straight towards it.
4. Walrus dragon
These aggressive beasts are rare, but have been known to be glimpsed, on occasion, swimming majestically in the sea. Many legends exist around the Walrus Dragon, but their exact origin is unknown. A common belief is that they descended from a mythical water dragon who made a bargain with a devil and lost it’s ability to fly in exchange.
In addition to at sea, Walrus Dragons can also be encountered in their lairs. Typically they’ll make their lair from a natural cave formations along a rocky shoreline or on a small island, and use it to house their hordes of treasure. The Walrus Dragon collects treasures lost at sea and brings them back to their lair and will guard this treasure trove for the duration of their life.
These coastal creatures are most comfortable in the water, but can move around on land as well. Unlike dragons, they can’t fly, but have inherited a cold breath weapon from their draconic ancestors.
Suggestions for incorporating these creatures to your adventure
- A mini-boss battle
- Side quest to gain access to magical items, gold, or jewels
- As part of a reconnaissance mission to recover some artifact thought to have been long lost to the sea
- A random encounter on a sailing ship
Large beast, chaotic evil
Armour Class 17 (natural armour)
Hit Points 133 (14d10 + 56)
Speed 25 ft., swim 40 ft.
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
| 18 (+4) | 10 (0) | 18 (+4) | 6 (-2) | 11 (0) | 12 (+1) |
Saving Throws Dex +3, Con +7, Wis +3, Char +4
Skills Perception +6, Stealth +3
Damage Immunities cold
Senses blindsight 30 ft., darkvision 120 ft, passive Perception 16
Languages Common, Draconic, Aquan
Amphibious. The walrus dragon can breath air and water.
Tail Attack (2/day). As a bonus action the walrus dragon can make a tail attack.
Actions
Multiattack The walrus dragon makes three attacks: one with its bite and two with its claws.
Bite Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5ft., one target. Hit: 15 (2d10 + 4) piercing damage plus 4 (1d8) cold damage.
Claw Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) slashing damage.
Tail Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 15ft., one target. Hit: 15 (2d8 + 6) bludgeoning damage.
5. Sea hag
A ghost, a spirit, haunting the reef, an old dock or ship. Sailors tell stories of their existence, traveling port to port, until the real stories are impossible to discern from the myths.
“I heard of a ship once that sailed through those waters.” The stories would start, “It was brutally attacked and destroyed! Only one crazed sailor made it out alive, but all she could remember was the attack seemed supernatural. Nightmares from that night plagued her for years, until one day she set off on the sea alone, never to return.”
Varied versions of this story would catch the ears of travelers from island to island and port to port. The coastal creature was an old lady. The creature was a terrible monster. No one survived going in to those waters. You could pass through their territory, if only you sacrificed your most noble sailor to the sea as you were passing through.
Spin any ghost story you like to instill fear into the hearts of your adventurers, and give your Sea Hag the intrigue she deserves.