Ahuizotl
Ahuizotl — The Encounter
Spine-maned water-dog whose tail-hand drags the drowning under · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Ahuizotl
The Ahuizotl haunts the still canals and lake margins of the drowned cities, a creature the old codices warn against by name. It is said to mimic the wail of a child or the cry of a drowning swimmer to lure the kind-hearted to the water's edge, where the hand upon its tail closes about an ankle and drags the victim under. When the body is found days later, floated up among the reeds, the eyes and the teeth are gone, taken as the beast's tribute. Fishermen leave it offerings of copal and small fish so it will hunt elsewhere; those who mock the custom are seldom seen whole again. The Pantheon of the Aztecs counts it among the lesser terrors that serve the lords of the underworld, a tireless drowner that knows no hunger but only the patient appetite of deep water.
Run Ahuizotl in Sixty Seconds
- Hold at the water. The ahuizotl is an ambusher, not a brawler. Keep it in or beside water, hidden, until a PC steps within reach of the 10-ft. tail.
- Open with the snatch. Lead with Ambush Lunge into Tail Snare to grapple one isolated target, then double Bite. The whole plan is grab-one-and-drown.
- Kill-priority: the isolated and the squishy. Always grapple the PC nearest an edge or the lowest-AC caster, then use Undertow to drag them away from their friends.
- When bloodied, dive. Below 57 HP it stops trading blows — it drags its current victim underwater and swims (50 ft.) to break line of sight, surfacing to grab again.
- Three ways to run it: canal ambush (one PC vanishes underwater), pack flanker beside an Aztec boss, or lure-hunter using the Reed-Wraith's false cries to bait a hero to the bank.
Ahuizotl
Medium monstrosity, neutral evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEAmphibious. The ahuizotl can breathe air and water, and it ignores the effects of difficult terrain created by water or mud.
Tail-Hand Drowner. Signature. A clawed hand grips the end of the ahuizotl's prehensile tail. While a creature is grappled by the tail (escape DC 15), the ahuizotl can drag it underwater as part of its move; a creature pulled below the surface that cannot breathe water begins to suffocate and has disadvantage on attack rolls. If the ahuizotl reduces a grappled creature to 0 hit points, it may attempt to gouge out the eyes and teeth as a trophy.
Ambush Lunge. On its first turn, the ahuizotl has advantage on attack rolls against any creature that has not yet acted. If it hits with Tail Snare against a surprised target, that attack is a critical hit.
Actions
Multiattack. The ahuizotl makes one Bite attack and one Tail Snare attack. If the Tail Snare hits and the target is grappled, the ahuizotl can make a second Bite against it.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 16 (3d8 + 4) piercing damage.
Tail Snare. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) bludgeoning damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 15) by the tail-hand. The ahuizotl has only one tail and can grapple one creature at a time.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Undertow (Reaction). When a creature the ahuizotl is grappling tries to move away or stand from prone, the ahuizotl can drag it 10 ft. toward the nearest deep water or pull it prone.
A water-dog the size of a wolf, bristling with bone spines and dragging a long serpentine tail tipped with a human-like grasping hand. It crouches at the reed-line, muzzle plated in carved bone, waiting for a foot to touch the shallows.
Ahuizotl, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEDrowned Lure (signature). Once per turn the Ahuizotl mimics a cry for help within 60 ft. A creature that can hear it must succeed on a DC 14 Wisdom save or move its full speed toward the sound on its next turn.
Actions
Clutching Reeds. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) bludgeoning damage, and the target's speed is halved until the start of its next turn.
Reactions
Veil of Spray. When an ally within 15 ft. is hit by a ranged attack, the Ahuizotl spits a mist; the attacker rerolls the damage and takes the lower total.
A half-seen shape of waterlogged reeds and pale silt that the ahuizotl keeps as a caller, throwing false voices across the water to bait the bank.
Guideline numbers — formula-tuned and read from the miniature's design, not yet table-proven. Tell us how it ran in the comments.
How It Fights — by Tier
Same creature, scaled threat. The traits never change; only the numbers move.
Open from cover: Tail Snare the nearest lone PC, grapple, and use Undertow to haul them toward the water and away from the group. Kill-priority is whoever is isolated near an edge. Run it as the ambush piece beside a tougher Aztec brute that holds the front.
Open with Ambush Lunge for a near-guaranteed crit on a surprised target, then Tail Snare + double Bite to pin and drown it. If the party clusters, ignore the wall and drag your one grappled victim underwater every turn so they suffocate. Pairs with a flagship Aztec boss as the snatch-and-drown threat.
Lead with Tail Snare on the squishiest caster, grapple, and Undertow them out of the formation into deep water where they fight at disadvantage. Bite the grappled target relentlessly; never trade with the front line. It is the kidnapper, not the wall — slot it behind a high-CR centerpiece.
Put Ahuizotl on the table
Download the presupported STL and run the fight tonight — the model, and the encounter that comes with it.
Get the STL on MyMiniFactory →Clay Cyanide Companion Rules v1
How a bound creature acts
- A companion acts on its owner's initiative, immediately after the owner.
- It uses the Companion block above — roughly ×0.6 HP and damage, no recharge abilities, and at most one reaction trait.
- It moves freely; it takes its Action only while its owner is conscious.
- At 0 HP a companion is broken, not dead — restored on a long rest unless your table rules otherwise.
Original Clay Cyanide material © Clay Cyanide LLC — explicitly not the non-SRD official sidekick rules.
Questions, Asked at the Table
What CR is Ahuizotl?
Natively CR 6 (Tier 2, ~2,300 XP) — a swim-50 ambush predator built to grapple and drown one isolated PC. The sheet also scales to a CR 2 read (Tier 1) and a CR 11 read (Tier 3); the traits stay identical, only AC, HP, to-hit, save DC, and damage shift.
Can Ahuizotl be a companion or ally?
It is not solo_capable — it has no legendary actions and is meant as an add-on, the snatch-and-drown piece beside a flagship Aztec boss. As an ally it makes a feral mount or canal-guardian: point it at one enemy, let it grapple and submerge them, and keep it within reach of water so it can use its swim speed and Undertow.
How do I stop it from drowning a player?
Break the grapple (escape DC 15, or deal it enough damage), keep PCs away from deep water, or have an ally with reach pull the victim back. A water-breathing or freedom-of-movement effect neutralizes its entire game plan, so it works best against parties caught unprepared at the shoreline.
Tell Us How It Ran
This work includes material taken from the System Reference Document 5.1 ("SRD 5.1") by Wizards of the Coast LLC and available at dnd.wizards.com/resources/systems-reference-document. The SRD 5.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License available at creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.
Clay Cyanide Miniatures is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored, or specifically approved by Wizards of the Coast LLC. This content is compatible with the fifth edition of the world's most popular fantasy roleplaying game. Companion rules, lore, names, and original mechanics © Clay Cyanide LLC.
Technical Specifications
32mm, 75mm
STL, Pre-supported STL
Standard or ABS-like resin, 0.05mm layer height
Yes — ready to print, optimized supports included
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