Copyright 2008 Wizards of the Coast

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Sahuagin have been in the game since at least AD&D 1. Here, they are present in the Monster Manual, and get an update in Dungeon 193.

The Lore

Back when I talked about Kuo-Toa, I mentioned I had a hard time distinguishing between the various types of “fish people with spears”. At last, we have a chance to figure out what makes kuo-toa and sahuagin different.

Sahuagin are also known as sea devils because they tend to be murderously hostile to everyone who isn’t them. These fish people are said to share several characteristics with sharks (though you can’t really see it in the illustration).

They build settlements in coastal waters using materials like stone and coral. These range in size from small villages to cities with six thousand inhabitants or more. Sahuagin society is patriarchal and heavily hierarchic: each village is ruled by a baron; princes rule groups of up to twenty villages; and each sahuagin kingdom is ruled by a king living in one of those cities.

These kingdoms seem to claim both their surrounding waters and the nearby coasts as territory. Though sahuagin sometimes trade with other people living in this territory, they’ll almost always raid their settlements and ships instead, taking what they want.

Sahuagin are deeply religious and I guess a lot of their orneriness comes from their choice of deity: they venerate Sekolah, a shark god who is one of Melora’s exarchs. Female sahuagin have an hierarchy of their own that emphasizes their role as priests, teachers, and loremasters. The main tenets of their culture and religion can be summed up as: “always be the hunter and not the hunted”; “if an action is successful, then it is right” and “meat is meat”. That last bit means they have no qualms about eating anyone, even their own when they get too weak to hunt.

Despite such brutal teachings Sekolah is still a god. Both it and its favored people hate demons with a passion, particularly Demogorgon and Dagon. So yeah, there might come a time when the party finds itself on the same side of a battle as a bunch of sahuagin.

One last bit the MV touches on is that the sea devils are very prone to genetic mutation, so lots of them have some deviation from the “typical” sahuagin form. Some of these are very prized, such as the one that gives an individual four arms and marks them as suitable for the mantle of nobility. A rare and reviled mutation is the one that produces “malenti”, sauhagin so deformed and ugly by the standards of their society that they almost resemble greenish sea elves. Considered pariahs in saghuagin society, they’re employed as ambassadors and spies to people who think they’re pretty. Their true mission is almost always to set up a backstab rather than to engage in any diplomacy in good faith.

So, in the end, what distinguishes a sahuagin from a kuo-toa? Both are deeply religious and universally hostile fish people who like hafted weapons, but:

  • Sahuagin inhabit the surface world, Kuo-toa the Underdark.

  • Sahuagin use tridents, kuo-toa use spears and harpoons.

  • Sahuagin worship Sekolah, Kuo-toa worship aboleths and/or some cthulhoid entity.

  • Sahuagin are scaly, kuo-toa are slimy.

  • Sahuagin have pretty infiltrators, kuo-toa do not.

The Numbers

Another difference is mechanical: kuo-toa are levels 14-16, while sahuagin are levels 6-10. So there is a kind of power ladder for fish people too.

Most sahuagin are Medium Natural Humanoids, though the four-armed nobles are Large. All have the Aquatic keyword, low-light vision, a land speed of 6 and a swim speed of 6 or 8.

Most sahuagin fight with tridents, which can be used in melee or thrown. The MM version has range 3/6 when thrown, and the MV version has range 5. The MM makes it explicit that the trident must be retrieved to be used in melee again, since most sahuagin only carry a single one into combat. It wouldn’t be hard to say they have two so they can thrown one as they approach.

Their signature ability is Blood Frenzy, which gives them a +1 to attacks and +2 to damage against bloodied enemies, and is an extra incentive for them to gang up on such targets.

Aside from the updated damage, the stat blocks from Dungeon are identical to the MM originals.

I’m including a small bonus here: a stat block for sharks. Though the Monster Manual lore for sahuagin mentions sharks several times, it includes no stats for sharks anywhere within it, leaving that as an exercise to the reader. The Monster Vault, despite not containing sahuagin, has stats for sharks in its animal appendix.

Shark (MV)

This can stand in for any species of shark large and aggressive enough to target humans or pal around with Sahuagin. It’s a Medium Natural Beast with the Aquatic keyword, and a Level 5 Brute with 75 HP. It swims with speed 8, and if the PCs ever push it into dry land it will only be able to flop around at speed 1 (clumsy). It has low-light vision, though you should probably give it some form of blindsense as well if you want to be realistic.

Sharks attack with a bite, of course, and the Aquatic trait means they’ll pretty much always have a +2 attack bonus on that. They also have a Blood Frenzy trait which gives them a further +2 to attacks and +4 to damage against bloodied creatures.

Sahuagin Guard

These are Level 6 Minion Brutes, with all the standard traits above. Their swim speed is 6.

Like pretty much all sahuagin, they fight with tridents, which can be used in melee or thrown, and have no other special attacks.

Sahuagin Raider

A non-minion version of the Guard, it’s a Level 6 Soldier with 70 HP. It fights with the same weapons and tactics, and has an extra ability: Opportunistic Strike, a reaction that allows it to attack a flanked enemy that shifts.

They’ll cooperate with other raiders and melee monsters to keep enemies flanked.

Sahuagin Priest

Priests are level 8 Artillery with 70 HP. They have all standard traits and their swim speed is 8.

They have the usual trident that can be used in melee or thrown, but they also have much better ranged options. Water Bolt (ranged 10 vs. AC) does physical damage, and has double the range and a damage bonus when used underwater. Spectral Jaws (ranged 20 vs. Will) makes shark jaws appear and bite into the target. This does a good chunk of physical damage, and inflicts both ongoing physical damage and a -2 penalty to all defenses (save ends both). It recharges when the target makes its save.

All of those magic attacks benefit from Blood Frenzy, by the way.

Sahuagin Baron

Barons are Large, and have four arms. They’re Level 10 Elite Brutes with the Leader keyword, 256 HP, and a swim speed of 8. They emit a Blood Healing aura 10 that heals every ally inside that starts its turn adjacent to a bloodied enemy for 5 HP.

Barons fight with the usual trident but also with their claws, which count as a second basic attack. Baron’s Fury allows them to attack with the trident and two claws per standard action.

Barons upgrade the usual Blood Frenzy to Blood Hunger, which gives them +2 to attacks and +5 to damage rolls against bloodied enemies.

We get no stats for princes or kings, but it’s possible they’d use the baron stats, maybe with a few added levels.

Sample Encounters and Final Impressions

Most sahuagin encounters will be against all-sahuagin groups, since they’re pretty xenophobic. The main exception, surprisingly, is vampires: they and the sahuagin apparently bond over their shared love of blood. Underwater encounters might involve pet sharks, too.