Specialty Cleric: Water Temple Cultist of the Crushing Wave
The Crushing Wave Priests are the devoted clergy of the Cult of the Crushing Wave, a faction within the Temple of Elemental Evil that reveres water as an unstoppable force of destruction and transformation. These priests believe that through patience, erosion, and unrelenting force, civilization itself can be dismantled and rebuilt in the image of the Elder Elemental God. They use cunning, sabotage, and devastating aquatic magic to weaken their enemies before striking with calculated brutality.
Water Temple Cultist of the Crushing Wave specialty cleric
- Chain Shirt (AC 6)
- Quarterstaff (1d8+2)
- Wave Insignia (Cult Symbol)
- Vials of Blessed Water (Used in Rituals)
- Morale: 11 (Fanatic)
- XP Value: 450
Spells of the Crushing Wave
Crushing Wave Priests draw upon the devastating and fluid magic of elemental water.
Cantrips (At Will)
- Frostbite – Inflicts cold damage and numbs an enemy.
- Shape Water – Manipulates small amounts of water.
1st-Level Spells (4 Slots)
- Ice Knife – Creates a shard of ice that explodes on impact.
- Shield – Grants a magical barrier against attacks.
2nd-Level Spells (3 Slots)
- Blur – Distorts the priest’s form, making them harder to hit.
- Hold Person – Paralyzes a humanoid target with magical force.
3rd-Level Spells (2 Slots)
- Tidal Wave – Conjures a large wave to knock down enemies.
- Wall of Water – Summons a shifting barrier of water to block attacks.
Higher-Level Spells (Optional Additions for Future Expansions)
- Watery Sphere (4th Level) – Traps creatures in a floating sphere of water.
- Summon Water Elemental (4th Level) – Calls forth an air elemental.
- Conjure Water Elemental (5th Level) – Summons a greater air elemental to obey the priest’s commands.
- Maelstrom (5th Level) – Creates a violent vortex of water, pulling in and drowning enemies.
- Tidal Resilience: The priest gains +2 to saving throws against cold-based attacks and drowning effects.
- Watery Step: Can walk across calm water for up to 3 rounds per day as though affected by a Water Walk spell.
- Crashing Wave Strike: When attacking a target adjacent to a body of water, the priest may invoke +2 to hit and damage due to the power of the waves.
Tactics & Roleplaying Notes
- Tactics: Crushing Wave Priests avoid direct confrontations unless necessary. They use ambushes, flooding, and illusions to weaken opponents before closing in for the kill. They prefer fighting near bodies of water where they can exert their full power.
- Fanaticism: These priests believe that water is the embodiment of patience and ultimate destruction, breaking down all opposition over time. They are utterly devoted to the Elder Elemental God and Belsornig, Prophet of Water.
- Appearance: Wearing sea-green robes adorned with wave patterns, their bodies often appear damp or covered in a thin sheen of water. Some have scarred wave-like tattoos, symbolizing their submission to the cult.
Rituals and Practices
- Drowning Sacrifices: New initiates or captured enemies are bound and submerged in sacred waters to either perish or be reborn as true servants of the Elder Elemental God.
- Flood Ceremonies: Rituals are performed during storms, with priests chanting at riverbanks, lakes, or ocean shores, invoking water’s destructive power to weaken the barriers between worlds.
- Sacred Immersion: Devout followers undergo periodic submersions in specially prepared water basins, believed to attune them more closely to the power of their god.
- Binding the Tide: In major ceremonies, the priests call forth water elementals, offering them tokens of servitude and forging pacts that tie these beings to the temple’s will.
- Mark of the Wave: Devotees willingly scar their bodies or get tattoos resembling crashing waves, demonstrating their submission to the inevitability of water’s dominion.
Xanathar's Guide to Everything
Frostbite
0-level (Cantrip) Evocation
You cause numbing frost to form on one creature that you can see within range. The target must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, the target takes 1d6 cold damage, and it has disadvantage on the next weapon attack roll it makes before the end of its next turn.
At higher levels: The spell’s damage increases by 1d6 when you reach 5th level (2d6), 11th level (3d6), and 17th level (4d6).
PHB
Shape Water
0-level (Cantrip) Transmutation
You choose an area of water that you can see within range and that fits within a 5-foot cube. You manipulate it in one of the following ways:
- You instantaneously move or otherwise change the flow of the water as you direct, up to 5 feet in any direction. This movement doesn't have enough force to cause damage.
- You cause the water to form into simple shapes and animate at your direction. This change lasts for 1 hour.
- You change the water's color or opacity. The water must be changed in the same way throughout. This change lasts for 1 hour.
- You freeze the water, provided that there are no creatures in it. The water unfreezes in 1 hour.
Xanathar's Guide to Everything
Ice Knife
1-level Evocation
You create a shard of ice and fling it at one creature within range. Make a ranged spell attack against the target. On a hit, the target takes 1d10 piercing damage. Hit or miss, the shard then explodes. The target and each creature within 5 feet of the point where the ice exploded must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw or take 2d6 cold damage.
At higher levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, the cold damage increases by 1d6 for each slot level above 1st.
Elemental Evil Player's Companion , pg. 168
Tidal Wave
3-level Conjuration
VGM, Page 116
Wall of Water
3-level Evocation
You conjure up a wall of water on the ground at a point you can see within range. You can make the wall up to 30 feet long, 10 feet high, and 1 foot thick, or you can make a ringed wall up to 20 feet in diameter, 20 feet high, and 1 foot thick. The wall vanishes when the spell ends. The wall's space is difficult terrain. Any ranged weapon attack that enters the wall's space has disadvantage on the attack roll, and fire damage is halved if the fire effect passes through the wall to reach its target. Spells that deal cold damage that pass through the wall cause the area of the wall they pass through to freeze solid (at least a 5-foot square area is frozen). Each 5-foot-square frozen section has an AC of 5 and 15 hit points. Reducing a frozen section to zero hit points destroys it. When a section is destroyed, the wall's water doesn't fill it.
Water Magic
Watery Sphere
4-level Conjuration
You conjure up a sphere of water with a 5-foot radius at a point you can see within range. The sphere can hover but no more than 10 feet off the ground. The sphere remains for the spell’s duration.
Any creature in the spheres space must make a Strength saving throw. On a successful save, a creature is ejected from that space to the nearest unoccupied space of the creature’s choice outside the sphere. A Huge or larger creature succeeds on the saving throw automatically, and a Large or smaller creature can choose to fail it. On a failed save, a creature is restrained by the sphere and is engulfed by the water. At the end of each of its turns, a restrained target can repeat the saving throw, ending the effect on itself on a success.
The sphere can restrain as many as four Medium or smaller creatures or one Large creature. If the sphere restrains a creature that causes it to exceed this capacity, a random creature that was already restrained by the sphere falls out of it and lands prone in a space within 5 feet of it.
As an action, you can move the sphere up to 30 feet in a straight line. If it moves over a pit, a cliff, or other drop-off, it safely descends until it is hovering 10 feet above the ground. Any creature restrained by the sphere moves with it. You can ram the sphere into creatures, forcing them to make the saving throw.
When the spell ends, the sphere falls to the ground and extinguishes all normal flames within 30 feet of it. Any creature restrained by the sphere is knocked prone in the space where it falls. The water then vanishes.
Replacement Series
Maelstrom
5-level Evocation
You conjure a 30-foot radius circle of churning water centered on a point on the ground or in a body of water which you can see within range. The whirlpool's area is difficult terrain, but it is not deep enough to require swimming. Any creature that starts its turn there or enters on its turn must make a Strength saving throw. On a failure, it takes 5d8 bludgeoning damage and is pulled 10 feet towards the center. If the spell targets an existing body of water, the damage increases by 1d8.
At higher levels: When you cast this spell 6th level or higher, the damage increases by 1d8 for each level above 5th.
“The Crushing Wave is the endless tide! The seas rise, the rivers flood—water’s wrath shall awaken the Elder Elemental God!”
Cult of the Crushing Wave (Water Temple)
- Philosophy: Transformation, adaptability, and relentless erosion. The tide will wash away the weak, leaving only those who embrace the depths.
- Leader: Belsornig, Prophet of Water
- Primary Spells: Drowning curses, ice magic, and tidal wave manipulation.
- Symbol: An X-shaped wave crest, signifying endless motion and destruction.
- Doctrine: Civilization is temporary—water will eventually consume all, whether through storms, floods, or the relentless passage of time.
Crushing Wave Reaver
Actions
Sharktoothed Longsword. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d8 + 2) slashing damage, or 7 (1d10 + 2) slashing damage if used with two hands. Against a target is wearing no armor, the reaver deals an extra die of damage with this sword. Javelin. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 30/120 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d6 + 2) piercing damage.
The foot soldiers of the Crushing Wave cult are vicious sea reavers. Many of them were pirates before they fell in with the cult, and they remain eager for blood and plunder. Crushing Wave reavers appreciate the value of stealth and surprise, and look for chances to launch sudden attacks from positions of concealment whenever possible. The soldiers of the Crushing Wave cult are highly loyal to the cult priests, but they rarely fight to the death if an avenue of retreat is open to them. Reavers carry shields made of giant crab shells, and the blades of their swords are lined with shark’s teeth.
Crushing Wave Priests
Crushing Wave priests are the fanatical core of the cult. Gathering in secretive cabals, they perform dark rituals to glorify Olhydra as the embodiment of water’s destructiveness.
Crushing Wave Priest
The priest is a 5th-level spellcaster. Its spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 13, +5 to hit with spell attacks). It knows the following sorcerer spells):
Cantrips (at will): chill touch, mage hand, minor illusion, prestidigitation, ray of frost
1st level (4 slots): expeditious retreat, ice knife,* magic missile, shield
2nd level (3 slots): blur, hold person
3rd level (2 slots): sleet storm
Crushing Wave priests are the fanatical core of the cult. Gathering in secretive cabals, they perform dark rituals to glorify Olhydra as the embodiment of water’s destructiveness. They believe that using water to kill their enemies, such as through ritual drowning, earns them Olhydra’s favor.
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