Sump Crocodilian

Saves: Strength +7, Toughness +7

Proficiencies: Stealth +6 (in water)

Senses: Sees normally in murky water and total darkness, Senses vibration in water within 60 feet

Debris Stillness. While motionless in water, the crocodilian is indistinguishable from flotsam without an Awareness check DC 16.

Sump-Armored Hide. Thick scute plating reduces all incoming damage by 3. Attacks that target its belly or open mouth (a called shot at Disadvantage) ignore this reduction.

Ambush Explosive. The crocodilian's first attack from concealment in water gains Advantage and deals an extra 2d6 damage.

Vice Bite. Melee Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 2d10 + 4 piercing damage and the target is Grappled (escape Strength check DC 14), held at the waterline.

Death Roll. One creature Grappled by the crocodilian takes 2d8 + 4 rending damage, is dragged up to 20 feet underwater, and begins to drown, holding its breath or losing 1d6 Vitality at the start of each of its turns.

Tail Sweep. Each creature within 10 feet behind the crocodilian makes an Agility Save DC 14 or takes 1d10 + 4 bludgeoning damage and is knocked Prone — often into the water.

Morale: Instinctive: submerges and departs with or without its meal when badly hurt; on land and cornered it fights with graceless fury.

Tactics: The encounter is the crossing, not the creature: who is in the water, in what order, carrying what. Take one victim, drag, and submerge — rescue under murky water is the real set-piece. On land it loses most of its advantages; luring it out is valid, hard-won counterplay.

Loot / Evidence / Hooks: Its gullet holds decades of undigested belt buckles, auspexes, and hab-keys, and its scute plates armor half the shanty district downstream.

A Sump Crocodilian is an armored ambush predator grown fat in effluent canals and flooded understructures, indistinguishable from floating debris until the water explodes. It has one move, executed perfectly for two hundred years.

Use this enemy at every water crossing, flooded corridor, and canal-side objective the party hoped was just terrain.

High durability, armored hide, devastating bite-and-grapple, death-roll drowning attacks, near-invisible in water, sluggish and beatable on land.

Debris Stillness. While motionless in water, it is indistinguishable from flotsam without a hard Awareness check.

Sump-Armored Hide. Thick scute plating reduces incoming damage; its softer belly and mouth are the called-shot answer.

Ambush Explosive. Its first attack from concealment in water gains Advantage and bonus damage.

Vice Bite. Massive bite that grabs on a hit; grabbed prey is held at the waterline.

Death Roll. Savages a grabbed target: heavy damage and dragged underwater, beginning to drown.

Tail Sweep. Close-arc strike that knocks bank-standers prone — often into the water.

Morale: Instinctive: submerges and departs with or without its meal when badly hurt; on land and cornered it fights with graceless fury.

Tactics: The encounter is the crossing, not the creature: who is in the water, in what order, carrying what. Take one victim, drag, and submerge — rescue under murky water is the real set-piece. On land it loses most of its advantages; luring it out is valid, hard-won counterplay.

Full Stat Block Priority: Medium