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Yesterday, I discussed the unoriginal notion of monstrous PCs. I removed a brief mention of a topic that could be its own post, so now it is. (Yeah, yeah. I’m obsessed with this topic.) While I don’t know how to handle low level aquatic adventures involving landlubber PCs, I could easily handle an adventure that’s entirely underwater, and such and adventure is compelling.

Working under the assumption that I may need to convert at least some monsters for play as PC races, which I expect to be rather easy, it wouldn’t be much of a stretch to convert all the aquatics with more extensive writeups. Here’s a list:

• Aquatic Elves
• Ixitxachitls
• Locathah
• Mermen
• Nixies
• Sahuagins
• Tritons

The list above gives us six reasonable candidates for aquatic PC races (Ixitxachitl don’t work). Keep in mind that there are only seven standard PC races, so there’s certainly enough variety right now to make such an adventure interesting. Giving a Lizard Man gills isn’t much of a stretch. Also, this list includes only 1e Monster Manual races. Grabbing my Monster Manual II, I see the Merrow (Aquatic Ogre) as a weak candidate, but a candidate nonetheless. Fiend Folio gives us the bullywug, which can also be given gills. My point is that there are enough options to make this viable.

I’ve excluded monsters that absolutely make no sense as PCs, such as Dragon Turtles, Lacedons, and Mashers. Ixitxachitls won’t work despite having class levels, but that’s fine. They’re the kind of low- to mid-level boss that would work very well for aquatic adventures. In fact, there are a ton of aquatic monsters of all levels of difficulty that go largely unused or underused but become accessible with aquatic adventures, all acting under the orders of someone like Olhydra or Dagon.

As always, this is the start of a conversation. I’d be interested in your thoughts.

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