River Navigation

River Hazards

Rivers can vary greatly in their danger level, whether they are being crossed by foot or traveled by boat. From slow, lazy rivers to raging rapids and waterfalls, characters can face many water conditions.

Waterfalls

When rapids result in a sudden plunge from a far enough height, they become a waterfall. The heights these drops can reach depend on the type of terrain the river is running through. The table below can be used to create a waterfall of a random height that suits a given terrain.

Waterfalls often present significant obstacles to characters traveling by river and can force them to take major detours or abandon their attempt at traveling by river entirely.

Terrain Type	Waterfall Height
Low Hills	1d4 x 10ft
Large Hills	1d6 x 10ft
Highlands	1d8 x 10ft
Small Mountains	1d10 x 10ft
Mountainous Cliffs	1d12 x 10ft

Example Random Encounter Tables

The following are different river environments across varying levels of gameplay, complete with random encounter tables you can use when the players are traversing them. You can plug these right into your games, modify them to better suit your campaign, or simply use them as inspiration for creating and running your own river encounters.

Each river has a DC determining its foraging difficulty and an activity level suggesting how often to roll for a random encounter. Creature names with asterisks have new stat blocks listed at the end of the document.

Loblolly River (Level 1-4)

Activity Level: 1 Encounter per 4 Hrs. of Travel
Foraging DC: 10
This river meanders through the wooded hills of a small kingdom, lazily passing villages as it goes. Though it is often used as a means of transport between towns, travelers must be wary of the dangers the unassuming river poses. Bandits will set traps for merchant boats, and aggressive river animals will spontaneously attack travelers. Though bandits and dangerous wildlife pose the most direct threat, the locals are most suspicious of the river fairies known for playing pranks on any who cross their path.

Loblolly River Encounters

d100	Encounter
1-4	River rapids with DC 10
5-6	River rapids with a DC 15
7-8	A beaver dam blocking the river
9-10	Fallen trees blocking the river and being used to setup an ambush by 3d6 bandits

d100	Encounter
11-15	A waterfall 1d4 x 10 feet tall
16-17	1d4 + 4 giant otters*
18-19	1d8 + 1 giant frogs
20-21	A giant toad
22-23	1d4 + 2 wolves
24-25	1d3 black bears
26-27	1 badger or 1d4 poisonous snakes
29-30	1d4 + 4 giant badgers
31-32	1 swarm of insects
33-34	1 awakened tree
35-36	1d6 + 2 pixies
37-38	1d8 + 1 sprites
39-45	A traveling merchant boat
46-53	A fisherman (commoner)
54-58	A drowning villager (commoner)
59-67	A roaming hunter (spy)
68-73	Floating debris from a smashed boat
74-79	A riverside fort, either built by children or fairies
80-86	A traveling salesman (commoner) willing to pay the party to escort him to a nearby village they are all traveling to
87-92	2d6 bandits willing to work with the party to recover a loot stash that was pilfered by pixies
94-97	A crate of valuable goods floating into dangerous rapids (DC 15)
98-00	1d4 + 1 pixies promising the party a reward if they win a game of hide and seek along the river

Akhmuten River (Level 5-10)

Activity Level: 1 Encounter per 4 Hrs. of Travel
Foraging DC: 15
This calm river runs through an otherwise arid wasteland, providing the most significant water source in the region. Civilization flocks to it, as do all manner of ferocious beasts. Kingdoms have risen and fallen along the river’s banks, and many of the crumbling temples looming over its waters are no longer inhabited by their original creators.

The humans living here have an uneasy relationship with the crocodile worshipping lizardfolk who dwell along the untamed stretches of river and in the ruins of temples lost to previous generations. Though both groups avoid outright aggression between settlements, the lizardfolk have no qualms about preying upon stray travelers who don’t have anything of value to offer for trade.

Crag Tooth River (Level 11-16)

Activity Level: 1 Encounter per 3 Hrs. of Travel
Foraging DC: 20
This river runs through a treacherous mountain valley, with other streams constantly feeding into it. As the river charts its course through the crags, it forms deadly rapids and massive waterfalls. These mountains are home to dangerous beasts and once housed a military outpost built atop its highest peak, near the mountain spring, which serves as the river’s source. The abundance of food and ideally placed keep eventually caught the eye of Shirrys, a red dragon who declared war on the keep’s defenders. After a long bitter battle, the keep was lost and became her lair.

Now, Shirrys and her children rule the valley and hunt its inhabitants with impunity. As a result, few people attempt to traverse it, though soldiers continue to scout the area in hopes of finding a way to retake their mountain holdings. For those braving the journey, the river provides one of the few reliable ways of navigating the crags without becoming lost and subsequently dragon food. Those who follow it to its source will find a mountain spring scorched bare by dragon fire and the charred remains of those who challenged the valley’s new ruler.

River Styx (Level 17-20)

Activity Rating: 1 Encounter per 3 Hrs. of Travel
Foraging DC: 25 (Disadvantage unless remove curse spell is used while foraging)
This legendary river crosses the lower planes of the multiverse, linking together multiple underworlds and serving as a common mode of transportation for fiends. Those who drink from its waters are said to lose all memory of their past lives, and lost souls, as well as other underworld creatures, can often be found crossing its waters.

A creature that drinks from the Styx or enters its waters is targeted by a feeblemind spell (save DC 20). A creature must repeat the saving throw whenever it starts its turn in the river until it fails the save. A feebleminded creature can drink from the Styx and swim in its waters without suffering any additional effects. If a creature fails its saving throw and remains under the spell's effect for 30 consecutive days, the effect becomes permanent (no save) and the creature loses all its memories, becoming a near-mindless shell of its former self. At that point, nothing short of a wish spell or divine intervention can undo the effect.

New River Animal Stats

Giant Crocodile

Huge beast, unaligned

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• Armor Class 14 (natural armor)
• Hit Points 85 (9d12 + 27)
• Speed 20 ft., swim 40 ft.

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STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
22 (+6)	10 (+0)	17 (+3)	3 (-4)	14 (+2)	5 (-3)

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• Skills Perception +5, Stealth +3
• Senses darkvision 30 ft., passive Perception 15
• Languages ━
• Challenge 5 (1,800 XP)      Proficiency Bonus +3

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Hold Breath. The crocodile can hold its breath for 15 minutes.

Watery Lurker. The crocodile has advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks while submerged in water.

Actions

Multiattack. The crocodile makes two attacks: one with its bite and one with its tail. It can't make both attacks against the same target.

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 22 (3d10 + 6) piercing damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 17). Until this grapple ends, the target is restrained, and the crocodile can't bite another target.

Tail. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target not grappled by the crocodile. Hit: 15 (2d8 + 6) bludgeoning damage.

Death Roll. One creature the crocodile has grappled in the water must make a DC 17 Strength saving throw, taking 44 (7d10 + 6) piercing damage on a failed save or half as much damage on a successful one.

Giant River Otter

Small beast, unaligned

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• Armor Class 12
• Hit Points 4 (1d6 + 1)
• Speed 20 ft., swim 30 ft.

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STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
8 (-1)	14 (+2)	12 (+1)	6 (-2)	12 (+1)	6 (-2)

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• Skills Perception +3
• Senses darkvision 30 ft., passive Perception 13
• Languages ━
• Challenge 1/8 (25 XP)     Proficiency Bonus +2

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Hold Breath. The otter can hold its breath for 8 minutes.

Keen Sight. The otter has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight.

Pack Tactics. The otter has advantage on an attack roll against a creature if at least one of the otter's allies is within 5 feet of the creature and the ally isn't incapacitated.

Actions

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 4 (1d4 + 2) piercing damage.

Hippopotamus

Large beast, unaligned

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• Armor Class 14 (natural Armor)
• Hit Points 76 (8d10 + 32)
• Speed 30 ft.

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STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
21 (+5)	8 (-1)	18 (+4)	4 (-3)	12 (+1)	7 (-2)

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• Skills Intimidation +7
• Senses darkvision 30 ft., passive Perception 11
• Challenge 3 (700 XP)      Proficiency Bonus +2

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Blood Sweat. The hippopotamus has advantage on saving throws against disease.

Dense. The hippopotamus can move along the ground while underwater without having its movement speed reduced and does not suffer disadvantage on its bite attack while underwater.

Actions

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 18 (2d12 + 5) piercing damage.

Bonus Actions

Aggressive. The hippopotamus moves up to its speed toward a hostile creature that it can see.

1.0.0 Changes

• Public Release

1.1.0 Changes

• Revised document
• Updated all creature statblock references

1.1.1 Changes

• Replace Loblolly River art

Referenced Documents

• Crocodilians 1.1.3
• Hippopotamus 1.1.0
• Otters 1.1.0