Water Naga — Wandering Serpent of Rivers and Coasts
A brilliant aquatic naga that travels between seasonal lairs, trades stories with river peoples and answers intrusion with venom and magic.
The Water Naga is more nomadic than most of its kin. Instead of guarding one ruin for centuries, it maintains a chain of familiar refuges along rivers, lakes and coasts, moving between them as seasons and water levels change. Its blue-green scales and bright fins can look almost jewel-like underwater, but the creature remains a territorial predator with potent venom and a natural talent for spellcasting.
At a Glance
Run It Tonight
Do not start with combat if the party enters a water naga’s territory openly. Let the naga watch from the water, ask what they want and decide whether they are interesting. Violence becomes likely when visitors ignore a warning, enter a private refuge or treat the naga like an animal rather than an intelligent local power.
Rules by Edition
Water Naga
Large Monstrosity, typically Neutral
AC 15; Initiative +3 (13)
HP 76 (9d10 + 27)
Speed 20 ft., Swim 50 ft.
19 (+4)
16 (+3)
16 (+3)
15 (+2)
14 (+2)
18 (+4)
Saving Throws Dex +6, Con +6, Cha +7
Skills Deception +7, Perception +5, Stealth +6
Immunities Poison; Poisoned
Senses Darkvision 60 ft.; Passive Perception 15
Languages Aquan, Common
CR 6 (2,300 XP); PB +3
Traits
Amphibious. The water naga can breathe air and water.
Current Rider. While swimming, the naga doesn’t provoke Opportunity Attacks when it moves out of an enemy’s reach after casting a spell.
Spellcasting. The naga uses Charisma for spellcasting (spell save DC 15, +7 to hit). It can cast the following spells without material components: at will—detect magic, minor illusion, ray of frost; 3/day each—fog cloud, invisibility, mirror image; 2/day each—sleet storm, suggestion; 1/day—control water.
Actions
Multiattack. The water naga makes one Bite and one Tail attack.
Bite. Melee Attack Roll: +7, reach 10 ft. Hit: 10 (1d12 + 4) Piercing damage plus 13 (3d8) Poison damage.
Tail. Melee Attack Roll: +7, reach 10 ft. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) Bludgeoning damage, and a Medium or smaller target must succeed on a DC 15 Strength saving throw or be pushed 10 feet.
Reaction
Canceling Cascade (3/Day). When a creature the naga can see within 60 feet casts a spell while standing in or adjacent to water, the naga forces it to make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw. On a failure, the spell is disrupted and the action is wasted, but the spell slot is not expended.
Water Naga
Large monstrosity, neutral
Armor Class 15 (natural armor)
Hit Points 58 (9d10 + 9)
Speed 20 ft., swim 40 ft.
19 (+4)
16 (+3)
13 (+1)
15 (+2)
14 (+2)
17 (+3)
Saving Throws Dex +6, Con +5, Cha +7
Skills Deception +7, Perception +5
Damage Immunities poison
Condition Immunities charmed, poisoned
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 15
Languages Aquan, Common
Challenge 6 (2,300 XP)
Traits
Amphibious. The naga can breathe air and water.
Spellcasting. The naga is an 8th-level Charisma-based spellcaster. Its useful prepared magic includes fog cloud, thunderwave, gust of wind, sleet storm, counterspell, control water and ice storm.
Actions
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d6 + 4) piercing damage, plus 22 (5d8) poison damage on a failed DC 12 Constitution saving throw, or half poison damage on a success.
Reaction
Canceling Cascade. When a creature within 60 feet casts a spell, the naga can command nearby water to break its concentration. The caster must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or lose the action without expending the spell slot.
This fifth-edition presentation is based on the open third-party Water Naga from Tegel Manor.
Water Naga CR 7
XP 3,200
N Large aberration (aquatic)
Init +6; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +17
Defense
AC 20, touch 15, flat-footed 14 (+6 Dex, +5 natural, −1 size)
hp 76 (8d8+40)
Fort +7, Ref +10, Will +9
Offense
Speed 30 ft., swim 50 ft.
Melee bite +10 (2d6+5 plus poison), tail slap +5 (1d8+2)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Spells Known CL 7th; concentration +11
3rd (5/day)—protection from energy, suggestion
2nd (7/day)—acid arrow, invisibility, mirror image
1st (7/day)—expeditious retreat, magic missile, obscuring mist, shield, true strike
0—acid splash, daze, detect magic, light, mage hand, open/close, read magic
Statistics
Str 20, Dex 23, Con 20, Int 11, Wis 17, Cha 18
Base Atk +6; CMB +12; CMD 28 (can’t be tripped)
Feats Combat Casting, Eschew MaterialsB, Lightning Reflexes, Skill Focus (Perception), Skill Focus (Stealth)
Skills Bluff +8, Knowledge (local) +4, Perception +17, Spellcraft +11, Stealth +16, Swim +13
Languages Aquan, Common; SQ amphibious
Special Abilities
Poison (Ex). Bite—injury; Fort DC 19; frequency 1/round for 6 rounds; effect 1d2 Con damage; cure 2 saves.
Spells. The water naga casts spells as a 7th-level sorcerer.
Ecology
Environment temperate water
Organization solitary, pair or nest (3–4)
Treasure standard
Water Naga
Large Aberration (Aquatic)
Hit Dice 7d8+28 (59 hp)
Initiative +1
Speed 30 ft. (6 squares), swim 50 ft.
Armor Class 15 (−1 size, +1 Dex, +5 natural), touch 10, flat-footed 14
Base Attack/Grapple +5/+12
Attack bite +7 melee (2d6+4 plus poison)
Full Attack bite +7 melee (2d6+4 plus poison)
Space/Reach 10 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks poison, spells
Special Qualities darkvision 60 ft.
Saves Fort +6, Ref +5, Will +8
Abilities Str 16, Dex 13, Con 18, Int 10, Wis 17, Cha 15
Skills Concentration +12, Listen +7, Spellcraft +8, Spot +7, Swim +11
Feats Alertness, Combat Casting, Eschew MaterialsB, Lightning Reflexes
Environment temperate aquatic
Organization solitary, pair or nest (3–4)
Challenge Rating 7
Treasure standard
Alignment usually neutral
Poison (Ex)
Injury, Fortitude DC 17; initial and secondary damage 1d8 Constitution.
Spells
Water nagas cast spells as 7th-level sorcerers and do not normally use fire spells.
Behaviour
Water nagas are more interested in their routes, seasonal refuges and stories than in conquest. They remember which villages leave offerings, which ferries cheat travellers and which river channels have become unsafe. That knowledge makes them valuable neighbours when treated with respect.
They are also territorial. A visitor who enters a private pool or lair without permission can go from conversation to poison in a moment.
Signs Before Initiative
- Bright scales caught on submerged stone look like fragments of blue-green glass.
- A riverside shrine contains food, carved stories or written news rather than coins.
- Several distant communities know the same embellished tale and disagree about where it began.
- One deep pool remains mysteriously free of crocodiles and other large predators.
- A concealed underwater tunnel connects an apparently isolated lair to a second river channel.
- Old travellers warn that the naga hates hearing the same story twice.
If Violence Starts
The naga fights from water whenever possible. Fog, concealment and illusions break lines of fire while the naga moves to a better channel or deeper pool. It bites when forced into close combat, then disengages into water rather than trading attacks unnecessarily.
Counterplay
Control the water and the fight becomes simpler. Blocking channels, forcing the naga onto dry ground or denying concealment removes much of its mobility. Poison protection matters, but so does resisting suggestion and other magic that can turn a tense negotiation into a disastrous mistake.
Seasonal Lairs
A water naga normally knows more than one home. Summer and winter lairs sit at different points along a river, coast or lake system, with temporary shelters between them. That makes a naga encounter useful for travel campaigns: the creature can carry information between settlements that otherwise rarely communicate.
Using a Water Naga in an Encounter
The missing storyteller. Three villages rely on the same naga to carry news each season. It fails to arrive, and the river between its lairs has changed.
The boring tribute. A settlement keeps offering the same ceremonial gift every year. The naga is offended not by its value but by the lack of imagination.
The disputed channel. Two communities claim the right to fish the same stretch of river and both insist the naga supports them.
The drowned archive. A seasonal lair contains generations of stories, maps and objects collected from hundreds of miles of connected waterways.
Related Nagas
Return to the Naga Bestiary, or compare the Water Naga with the territorial Guardian Naga and manipulative Dark Naga.
Rules Sources and Licensing
The D&D 3.5e Water Naga is Open Game Content from the Revised d20 System Reference Document. The Pathfinder 1e statistics derive from Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiary 3, © 2011 Paizo Publishing, LLC.
The 5e/2014 presentation is based on the open third-party Water Naga from Tegel Manor, © 2019 Frog God Games. The 5.5e/2024 block is an original compatibility adaptation.
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