DCC Bestiary - Water Weird

So, in my parade of Barrowmaze creatures, I figured I’d work on some non-undead.  Let’s DCC-ify the Water Weird.  This moist menace first appeared in The Lost Caverns of Tjocanth, and then later in the 1^st Edition AD&D Monster Manual, which credits the creature to Ernie Gygax.

Looking at the AD&D version of this creature, it originates from the Elemental Plane of Water, is undetectable in water,  AC 4 becomes 16, and it’s single drowning attack can be pretty close to the engulf and drown attack of the DCC Core Rulebook Water Elemental’s entry.  The original creature write up had no physical attacks at all, but I’ll give it a token slam attack just in case it’s fighting someone who doesn’t drown, but that’s not going to be it’s main offensive maneuver for sure. 

The original monster entry also adds some extra details, getting all fiddly about what weapons can hurt it, and how purify food and water can cause harm – I simplified this, giving it resistance to non-magical weapons and allowed holy water or a bless spell from a lawful cleric on it’s water source to cause it harm (1d4, same as holy water against an un-dead or demon).

I toyed with the original entry having a mention that a water weird can take over a water elemental, and how that would look in DCC – I didn’t put it in the stat, but I decided that if that ever happened, the new merged creature would have the sum of both elementals’ hit points, and an extra action die.  Feel free to torture your players with this scenario if you choose.

     Water Weird: Init +3; Atk slam +2 melee (1d4); AC 16; HD 6d8 (27 hp); MV 20’, Swim 60’; Act 1d20; SP elemental traits, entangle and drown, seeks watery lair, resistant to non-magical weapons; SV Fort +6, Ref +6, Will +6; AL C.
     As an elemental, it is an extraplanar creature without anatomy, they are resistant to non-magical attacks, immune to critical hits, can be controlled or banished by the appropriate wizards’ spell, and can be turned by neutral clerics.
     The water weird can wrap itself around a victim, entangling it automatically with a successful hit, requiring a DC 13 Strength check to break free.  Subsequent actions can be used to drag the opponent 10’ towards a water source, where it will begin to drown their victim if they fail a DC 13 Fortitude Save, and if failed they suffer 1d6 points of Stamina damage until removed from the water source, and if they reach 0 Stamina they perish.
     This creature needs a water source to survive, and will not wander far from a stream, pool, or fountain.  While in water, it is incredibly difficult to detect (DC 18) and can usually strike passers-by with surprise.
     As these are creatures of chaos, they take 1d4 damage from holy water or a blessing spell cast successfully upon their water source while they are in it from a lawful cleric.