Deep Dive - The Couatl
This feathered flying serpent has taken on many forms throughout history, though it is most well known in Aztec society. There, the feathered serpent, Quetzalcoatl, was the Aztec god of wind, air, and learning and was one of the most revered gods. Quetzacoatl was treated as a patron god to scholars and priests, as it represented learning and knowledge. Even before the Aztecs, in the ancient Mesoamerican cultures like the Olmec and Totonac of Teotihuacan, this feathered serpent can be found decorating a variety of different structures.
In Dungeons & Dragons, the feathered, flying serpent is named the Couatl. In the early editions, the Couatl was a being of immense power and intelligence and, of the many editions, was one of the few beings in the Monster Manual that wouldn’t kill an adventurer immediately. Often thought of as benevolent, a Couatl always seems to have its wings in great efforts against evil, but maybe it’s hiding something across the editions… something evil and malevolent.
OD&D - Couatl
No. Appearing: 1-4
Armor Class: 5
Move: 6/18”
Hit Dice: 9
% in Lair: 15%
Treasure: B, I
No. of Attacks: 1 bite/constriction
Damage/Attack: 1-3/bite*, 2-8/turn of constriction
*also poison saving throw must be made
The Couatl first appears in the Dungeons & Dragons Supplement III: Eldritch Wizardry (1976) and, unlike many other monsters from this edition, we actually have a bit of information to talk about. They are winged, feathered, serpent-like, and quite reclusive creatures who prefer to stick to warm jungles. They are quite intelligent and outsiders often regard them as divine creatures who rarely interfere in the world around them.
They are probably considered divine because all of them can use magic, as a magic-user and as a cleric. They aren’t high level, only able to cast up to 3rd level magic-user spells or 4th level cleric spells. But, what they lack in raw power, they make up in flexibility as they are all decent in psionics. They have up to 16 different cleric abilities based on their psionics with attack and defense modes and, if you know nothing about psionics in OD&D, just assume that that is good. The more abilities you have, the greater your psionic potential, and the more psionic attacks you can make.
And maybe spells and psionic attacks just don’t do it for you. The Couatl has another way of attacking creatures by biting and then constricting them with their serpent body. If you are unlucky enough to be bit by a Couatl, you have to save against poison or become poisoned. Poison in OD&D functions the same for every creature and the poisoned creature just deals half damage. If you are curious about the duration, we are too as there is no set time limit on it. It seems as if you are simply poisoned until the DM says you aren’t or you are hit by a neutralize poison spell. Lucky for you, that is a 4th level cleric spell so maybe the Couatl who just poisoned you will be willing to remove it if you ask nicely. That is, you’ll have to squeak out your request as the Couatl can use its tail to constrict you, crushing your body slowly as it, presumably, looks on with hunger.
Of course, maybe it doesn’t look at you with hunger or even bite you, to begin with. Couatls are lawful creatures, with a few neutral tendencies, and largely avoid the outside world. Despite their lack of interest in the affairs of mortals, they speak several human languages and can speak to most serpents and avian creatures as well. We suppose that even hermits want to have some conversations with others, though we aren’t sure what exciting conversations a snake or a bird is going to have.
The Couatl makes one last appearance in the Dungeons & Dragons Supplement IV: Gods, Demi-Gods, & Heroes (1976) where there is a small section on the Mexican and Central American Indian Mythology. In this section, Quetzalcoatl appears as the feathered Serpent-God of the Mayan religion. He can appear when and where he wants, can hurl down lightning bolts, and all serpents must serve him. In fact, he has a dragon of every type and color under his beck and call, following out his orders and overseeing his commands.
Unfortunately, there is nothing in this very brief section about the Couatl and their relationship with this divine being, so maybe they just look similar and want nothing to do with each other.
AD&D - Couatl
Frequency: Very rare
No. Appearing: 1-4
Armor Class: 5
Move: 6”/18”
Hit Dice: 9
% in Lair: 10%
Treasure Type: B, I
No. of Attacks: 2
Damage/Attack: 1-3/2-8
Special Attacks: Poison, magic use
Special Defenses: Become ethereal
Magic Resistance: Standard
Intelligence: Genius
Alignment: Lawful good
Size: M (12’ long)
Psionic Ability: 60-100
Attack/Defense Modes: vary
Monster Manual, 1977 TSR Inc.
The Couatl can be found in the Monster Manual (1977), and sadly doesn’t provide much more information than what we got before. It is only found in warm jungle regions, they are typically worshipped by the humanoids that live there, and are, of course, seen as divine beings of great power and intelligence. They don’t deal with the trivial matters of the humanoid races, and why should they when they can speak to all the wonderful serpents, snakes, and birds in the jungles? The Couatl can speak most serpent and avian languages. They also spend their time flying through the ether, as in the Ethereal Plane.
In fact, according to the Dungeon Master’s Guide (1979), it is a favored tactic of the Couatl to use their constrict ability on a target, force their target, and them, to begin falling, and right before they hit the ground, going ethereal and letting their prey splat against the jungle floor. Kind of a messy meal, but maybe the Couatl aren’t very big on table manners.
Speaking of constricting prey, we finally get a bit more information on constriction! The Couatl attacks a creature, and on a success, they wrap themselves around the victim. At that point, the victim takes damage, and then every round after that, and the couatl is still constricting, the victim automatically takes more damage. Of course, you then have to worry about it biting you, and poisoning you which is a dangerous proposition in this edition. According to the Dungeon Master’s Guide, the poison of monsters are all-or-nothing. Either you save, and don’t have to worry about the poison, or you fail and you die within a minute. Those are your two options, so you better hope you are friendly with your cleric.
Going along with OD&D, the Couatl still has their cleric or magic-user abilities, as well as having psionic powers. The only new piece of power they get is the ability to polymorph themselves, though it doesn’t specify what exactly they like to polymorph into. Assuming it can polymorph based on the 4th level magic-user spell polymorph self, the Couatl can change into any form for 8 turns.
Deities & Demigods, 1980 TSR Inc.
Quetzalcoatl reappears in this edition in the Deities & Demigods (1980), though beyond a picture of a Couatl, it really has nothing to do with the creature. He assumes many forms, none of them mentioned even remotely look like the Couatl, and he is thought to be the mightiest god of the Central American Mythos, though his arch-enemy, Tezcatlipoca, might have a few things to say about that. For those wondering, Tezcatlipoca is the god of the sun, responsible for growing crops and bringing about drought and famine. Not a real nice guy, seeing as how his priests like to sacrifice humans and offer hearts to him, hoping to encourage his more benevolent side.
Deities & Demigods, 1980 TSR Inc.
2e - Couatl
Climate/Terrain: Tropical and subtropical jungles
Frequency: Very rare
Organization: Solitary
Activity Cycle: Any
Diet: Carnivorous
Intelligence: Genius (17-18)
Treasure: B, I
Alignment: Lawful good
No. Appearing: 1-4
Armor Class: 5
Movement: 6, Fl 18 (A)
Hit Dice: 9
THAC0: 11
No. of Attacks: 2
Damage/Attack: 1-2/2-8 (2d4)
Special Attacks: Poison, magic use
Special Defenses: Etherealness
Magic Resistance: Nil
Size: L (12’ long)
Morale: Elite (13-14)
XP Value: 6,000
Psionic Ability: Level 9, Dis/Sci/Dev: 4/5/18, Attack/Defense: Any/All, Power Score: Int., PSP’s: 1d100+110
Monstrous Compendium - Volume One, 1989 TSR Inc.
The Couatl is first introduced in the Monstrous Compendium, Volume One (1989) and is later reprinted in the Monstrous Manual (1993). It once again draws from the lore of culture's past and doesn’t change much from the previous editions. A creature that still resides in the warm jungle lands and the ether, the Couatl grows somewhat in its divine status. Known for its incredible intelligence and wisdom, it is a creature that was honored and admired profoundly and respectfully, it could grant gifts of health through medicine and bountiful harvests in agriculture. Despite the fact that they aren’t gods, nor trick people into believing they are, they have shrines built in their name by people hoping to be granted its gifts of health and harvest. This is the first edition to talk about how the Couatl is often thought to be a relative of a dragon, but there is no proof actually proving such a connection.
This feathered serpent is not an aggressive creature but does have a rather low opinion of evil individuals. While it won’t attack an evil creature outright, it will wait and bide its time until it can catch them red-handed doing a foul deed and attack them then. Since the Couatl can still polymorph, you might not even realize a Couatl is observing your sins until they return to their natural form and squeeze the life out of you… or, maybe a dire beast just decides to eat you if the Couatl thinks its polymorph form would be better at stopping you and your evil deeds.
Monstrous Manual, 1993 TSR Inc.
Combat for a Couatl doesn’t change. It hangs out in the back, flinging spells and psionic powers before it runs out, and then closes in and starts biting and constricting. This time, we are given specific information about its poisonous bite and it is different than you die in a minute or so if you fail the save. Now, if you fail the save, you just die immediately. Which isn’t great. We also get information on its constrict and how it will constrict a victim until it, or the Couatl, is killed. Kind of a sticky situation there. If the Couatl goes to constrict, it better be pretty confident it is going to kill its victim, either through its bites or crushing it, or else someone is eating a feathery snake that night.
Getting into the new information about Couatls, they are usually lone wolf type creatures. They like to travel and explore the world on their own, though they show no hostility to others of their own kind, in fact, they see all Couatl as belonging to the same tribe and will often, upon finding another of their kind, spend days and weeks talking about all the new information they have gathered. If they do happen to meet that special someone, they’ll mate for life and remain together. These two love bird-snakes will share a lair, which must be a big step for a creature that’s used to being alone. If they are extremely fortunate, they can give birth to their own bouncing baby Couatl. When we say extremely fortunate we mean it, as a live birth occurs approximately every 100 years. You might have thought that an amalgamation of snake and bird would result in an egg, but they don’t lay eggs - just a live-born baby bird-snake. Couatl junior will stay at home till at least 30 to 40 years of age, and maybe even up to a century before they set off independently. One has to wonder if the parents are charging rent for this late bloomer, but once they leave, they will forever be on the hunt for wisdom as they explore the world. The Couatl is one of the most intellectually curious creatures in existence and will travel to great lengths to obtain information, no matter how obscure or trivial others might see it.
Talking about how great these creatures are, you’d probably think that they’d be adherent followers of some sort of divine being. You aren’t wrong, though it isn’t who you think it is. Quetzacoatl does show up in Legends & Lore (1990), and is even described as a flying serpent covered with green feathers, but that’s about as far as it goes. Luckily for the Couatl, not all hope is lost for a divine being comes into existence in the 1992 Monster Mythology. Jazirian, the greater god of the Couatl, is a powerful being and seen as the perfect manifestation of a World Serpent. They, as the divine being is both sexless and hermaphroditic, believes in the pursuit of wisdom and knowledge, that through reflection and contemplation, one can truly ascend. Jazirian appears as a magnificent rainbow-colored Couatl that glides through the skies of the Seven Heavens of Mount Celestia, a sight that all Couatl yearn to experience at least once in their lives.
3e/3.5e - Couatl
Large Outsider (Native)
Hit Dice: 9d8 + 18 (58 hp)
Initiative: +7
Speed: 20 ft., (4 squares), fly 60 ft. (good)
Armor Class: 21 (–1 size, +3 Dex, +9 natural), touch 12, flat-footed 18
Base Attack/Grapple: +9/+17
Attack: Bite +12 melee (1d3+6 plus poison)
Full Attack: Bite +12 melee (1d3+6 plus poison)
Space/Reach: 10 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Constrict 2d8+6, improved grab, poison, psionics, spells
Special Qualities: Change shape, darkvision 60 ft., ethereal jaunt, telepathy 90 ft.
Saves: Fort +8, Ref +9, Will +10
Abilities: Str 18, Dex 16, Con 14, Int 17, Wis 19, Cha 17
Skills: Concentration +14, Diplomacy +17, Jump +0, Knowledge (any two) +15, Listen +16, Search +15, Sense Motive +16, Spellcraft +15 (+17 scrolls), Spot +16, Survival +4 (+6 following tracks), Tumble +15, Use Magic Device +15 (+17 scrolls)
Feats: Dodge, Empower Spell, Eschew Materials, Hover, Improved Initiative
Climate/Terrain: Warm forests
Organization: Solitary, pair, or flight (3-6)
Challenge Rating: 10
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Always lawful good
Advancement: 10-13 HD (Large); 14-27 (Huge)
Level Adjustment: +7
Monster Manual, 2003 WotC
The Couatl first appears in the Monster Manual (2000/2003) and is made out to be a creature of incredible beauty and intellect. The people that live nearby still revere the Couatl, who’s now a large-sized serpent with rainbow-colored wings. Couatls speak Celestial, being that they are divine creatures, Draconic, furthering the rumors of their shared heritage with dragons, and Common, to speak with the little people. They can communicate via telepathy when they feel that verbal communication is beneath them.
The Couatl is a mighty creature and has the abilities and traits to prove it, compared to 2e, one might think it’s been hitting the gym. While its melee attacks are still secondary, it still has a poisonous bite and its constriction still allows the Couatl to hold its own when it feels like getting close. Unfortunately, despite our excitement for the Couatl, its bite is no longer instantaneous death, which is probably for the best. Instead, you’ll just wish you were dead. The poison targets your Strength and decreases it by 2d4 on the initial bite, and then decreases it again by 4d4 later on, which sucks for those front line fighters who like to get their hands dirty in melee.
But the Couatl doesn’t like being in the front, so let's check out what it can do from afar. In this edition, it gains a bunch of new spellcasting abilities and brings in its psionic powers. The biggest change though is that it is now a 9th-level sorcerer as opposed to being a magic-user or a cleric. Even better, it gains cleric spells that it treats as arcane spells, meaning it doesn’t have to worry about fiddling around with a divine focus or have to worry about different spellcasting abilities. It can learn 23 spells of its choice up to 4th-level, and the book recommends such goodies as wind wall, scorching ray, and summon monster III, along with a bunch of cure wound spells. If that isn’t enough for you, it also gains psionic spell-like powers that are spells it can cast that can’t just be stopped with a counterspell or dispel magic since they aren’t technically spells. It can detect thoughts, go invisible, and even plane shift with its mind!
Player’s Handbook, 2003 WotC
To top it all off, you may not even realize you are fighting a Couatl as it still has its innate ability to change shape into a small or medium humanoid. That means if a kobold is all of a sudden throwing spells at you after catching you doing something evil, maybe the kobold is actually a Couatl and is here to ruin your life.
In the Expanded Psionics Handbook (2004), the Couatl gets a bit of a lift as this book brings in psionics for the game. This of course means that many of the monsters in the Monster Manual gets a bit of a facelift so that they are truly psionic instead of just flavor-psionic. You still use the Couatl stat block found in the Monster Manual, but with some adjustments. A psionic Couatl gets another way to change its shape with its metamorphosis power, it can protect its mind from outside intrusions with its thought shield power, and has a few other defensive abilities to help protect it against outsiders and to gauge how truthful a creature is being with it.
Complete Divine, 2004 WotC
We’ve been going on about how cool the Couatl are with all of their abilities… what if you wanted to be one? Well, you can’t actually play as a Couatl but in 2004 the Complete Divine book is released and with it are a bunch of divine-themed prestige classes. One of those classes is the Rainbow Servant, which means that your character has pilgrimaged to one of the ziggurats hidden away in the deep jungles and have been blessed with divine spellcasting from a Couatl. Adventurers who follow this prestige class gain divine spellcasting abilities to further increase their arcane abilities, grow colorful wings full of feathers, and, the most exciting part of it all, gets a d4 hit die. Alright, maybe that isn’t very exciting but rather painful, but you get wings! Sometimes, you just have to make a few sacrifices.
Dragon #307, May 2003 WotC
Of course, maybe that d4 for hit points is to much of a deal breaker, but a d8 for hit points sits so much better with you. Going back in time to Dragon #307 (May 2003) there is another prestige class you can take called The Follower of the Skyserpent. In this class, you get a poison bite attack that deals damage to a creature’s Strength, can cast fly on themselves to soar through the air, gets a long snake tail, and, at the final level of this class, you gain feathery wings that give you a permanent fly speed and changes you into an outsider instead of a humanoid. While this only takes 5 levels to get beautiful rainbow wings, it does mess with your spellcasting progression so it has its trade offs.
In the Forgotten Realm campaign text, Serpent kingdoms (2004), an origin story for this setting’s Couatl emerges, along with a brief history of them. The Couatl was born from one of the five creator races within the Faerun known as the Sarrukh. These creatures spread throughout the Faerun, and as they did, they began to embrace the darker side of their nature. Not everyone wanted to end up all brooding and evil, so a small group broke away and implored one of the great World Serpent fragments, Jazirian, a fragment of the world serpent, for assistance. Jazirian complied, and these Sarrukh were reborn as the Couatl. Outnumbered, they still waged war against their former brethren until Jazirian was killed by another fragment of the world serpent who fought with the Sarrukh. The Couatls had no choice but to retreat from the Faerun. A few brave souls returned to Faerun in an attempt to sort out all the baggage left behind by their ancestors and they took up residence in the jungles of Chult. The Couatls were also responsible for bringing humans to Chult, assisting them in migrating and surviving in those hostile lands.
Eberron has its own take on the Couatl and in the Eberron Campaign Setting (2004) and the Dragons of Eberron (2007), Couatls are the only threat to the domination of this world's dragons. Couatls are, for all practical purposes, immortal creatures in this setting, giving them a leg up of the long-living but still mortal dragon. Lore tells stories of the Couatl being created from the blood of Siberys and that they are responsible for securing away the rakshasa spirits who threatened to take over the world. The dragons and Couatl had worked together in the past, but the dragons had abandoned them in their fight against the demon overlords in the Great War. The Couatl were almost completely wiped out as they had sacrificed themselves to bind the demon overloads in a divine prison, and while some dragons felt a bit bad about it, the dragons decided to keep looking forward instead of worrying about the great loss of Couatl life.
4e - Couatl Cloud Serpent
Level 18 Artillery
Large immortal magical beast (reptile) / XP 2,000
Initiative +13/ Senses Perception +21
HP 135; Bloodied 67
AC 30; Fortitude 29, Reflex 30, Will 31
Saving Throw see twist free
Speed 6, fly 8 (hover)
Action Points 1
Bite (standard; at-will) ✦ Poison, Radiant Reach 2; +25 vs. AC; 1d6 + 4 poison and radiant damage, and ongoing 10 poison and radiant damage (save ends).
Hurtling Coils (minor 1/round; at-will) Reach 2; +23 vs. Fortitude; the target is pushed 2 squares and knocked prone.
Sky Bolt (standard; at-will) ✦ Lightning, Radiant Ranged 20; +23 vs. Refl ex; 2d10 + 6 lightning and radiant damage.
Snaking Arcs (standard; recharges when first bloodied) ✦ Lightning, Radiant Area burst 3 within 20; targets
Radiant Absorption ✦ Radiant If a couatl cloud serpent takes radiant damage, its attacks deal 5 extra radiant damage until the end of its next turn.
Twist Free A couatl cloud serpent makes saving throws against immobilized and restrained conditions at the start of its turn as well as at the end of its turn. In addition, a cloud serpent can make saving throws against immobilized and restrained conditions that do not allow saving throws and would normally end at the end of its turn or at the end of an enemy’s turn.
Alignment Unaligned / Languages Supernal
Skills Arcana +20. Diplomacy +19, Insight +21
Str 19 (+13) Dex 18 (+13) Wis 24 (+16) Con 21 (+14) Int 22 (+15) Cha 20 (+14)
Monster Manual 2, 2009 WotC
4th edition comes and relegates this noble creature to the Monster Manual 2 (2009), stripping it of its previous lore. It is now described as an ancient race that hates demons, that they are single-minded in their pursuit of the extinction of evil, and have little time for anything else. Supposedly born at the beginning of time, Couatls have fought in the great war, known as the Dawn War, between primordials and the gods. We don't know whose side they were on, but we’ll assume it was the winning side since they reside in the Astral Plane which is the home of the divine. They are still creatures of kindness and good, but they are also overly focused on the task and sometimes ignore the situation at hand. You may be trying to do something for the greater good, but if it conflicts with what the Couatl is doing at the moment, you may find yourself the target of their fury, especially when the Couatl inevitably thinks it is in the right.
We are presented with two versions of the magnificent winged snake, the Couatl Cloud Serpent, and Couatl Star Serpent. The bite and the constriction melee attacks remain, but that’s about it. Spellcasting is gone, along with any chance of them having psionic abilities. What replaces them isn’t anything to write home about, as the creature is now more of divine celestial power, with the abilities to go along with it. What that boils down to is that the Couatl now does a lot of radiant damage. Its bite still does poison damage but also does radiant damage, and you don’t have to worry about just dropping dead immediately. The Couatl can summon radiant lightning to its aid, striking down its enemies, and can absorb radiant damage to make its attacks even more devastating.
Primal Power, 2009 WotC
Our next Couatl shows up in the Primal Power (2009) book which provides all those winged-serpent lovers to become one! If you are playing the Warden class, a divine-powered ranger, you can take a paragon path at 11th level and become a Radiant Serpent. This path allows you to eventually take on a serpentine appearance surrounded by radiant light. You sprout wings, you can heal your allies, and smash your enemies down with radiant energy. The best thing about all of this is you don’t have to worry about taking a 1d4 hit die as this is tied to your Warden class.
The last bit of information can be found in The Plane Above (2010), where the Couatl takes a dramatic turn in its personality, though it is quite close to this edition’s Monster Manual 2. No longer benevolent creatures that stand for all that is good and kind in the world, they are now just jerks. When we say jerks, we really mean giant jerks who are so focused on destroying evil, that it’s more of a miracle that they fight for good and the divine and not the other way around.
It turns out their reputation of being good creatures is predicated on demons being their arch-enemies, so people just assumed they were goody-two-wings. In reality, they live to fight, and their society is based on a ranking system of how many kills and trophies they have. Not only that, but they are braggarts who love to tell stories about their conquests, embellishing them at every opportunity, of course, they don’t prune about these stories, they have bards and servants to do that. Living in their fancy cities in the cloudlands, Couatls spend their time trying to climb the social ladder when they aren’t slaying demons and other evil creatures like beholders, aboleths, and other foul creatures.
The Plane Above - Secrets of the Astral Sea, 2010 WotC
Further illustrating what jerks they are, Couatls go around the multiverse searching for adventurers, warriors, and more to take on as part of their retinue and to use them as pawns to destroy evil, and thus increase their rank in Couatl society. The text calls them retainers, but considering how it goes on to talk about how the Couatl will use “mild coercion” to get adventurers to work for them, we’re not quite sure we believe them. While Couatls won’t start off being a pushy feather-serpent, as it will attempt to use its vast treasure hoard to persuade others, it will eventually start working against the adventurers until they learn from their mistakes, apologize to the Couatl, and agree to keep working with them.
It’s not all bad for the Couatl, they do a lot of good work around the multiverse, but they are just focused on social climbing that they have forgotten that fact. As evidence of that, there is a splinter group of Couatl who have realized what a bunch of jerks they have turned into and have broken off into a group known as the Deniers. They believe in self-denial and that they shouldn’t be destroying evil just to help themselves, but to help others. They decorate their wings with ashes and give up much of their wealth to organizations that further the goals of goodness and light. Couatls who have splintered off with the Deniers hate them and have nothing but loathing for them.
5e - Couatl
Medium Celestial, lawful good
Armor Class 19 (natural armor)
Hit Points 97 (13d8 + 39)
Speed 30 ft., fly 90 ft.
STR 16 (+3) | DEX 20 (+5) | CON 17 (+3 ) | INT 18 (+4) | WIS 20 (+5) | CHA 18 (+4)
Damage Resistances radiant
Damage Immunities psychic; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks
Senses truesight 120 ft., passive Perception 15
Languages all, telepathy 120 ft.
Challenge 4 (1,100 XP)
Innate Spellcasting. The couatl's spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 14). It can innately cast the following spells, requiring only verbal components: At will: detect evil and good, detect magic, detect thoughts 3/day each: bless, create food and water, cure wounds, lesser restoration, protection from poison, sanctuary, shield l/day each: dream, greater restoration, scrying
Magic Weapons. The couatl's weapon attacks are magical
Shielded Mind. The couatl is immune to scrying and to any effect that would sense its emotions, read its thoughts, or detect its location.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 8 (1 d6 + 5) piercing damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 13 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned for 24 hours. Until this poison ends, the target is unconscious. Another creature can use an action to shake the target awake.
Constrict. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 10 ft., one Medium or smaller creature. Hit: 10 (2d6 + 3) bludgeoning damage, and the ta get is grappled (escape DC 1 5). Until this grapple ends, the target is s restrained, and the couatl can't constrict another target.
Change Shape. The couatl magically polymorphs into a humanoid or beast that has a challenge rating equal to or less than its own, or back into its true form. It reverts to its true form if it dies. Any equipment it is wearing or carrying is absorbed or borne by the new form (the couatl's choice). In a new form, the couatl retains its game statistics and ability to speak, but its AC, movement modes, Strength, Dexterity, and other actions are replaced by those of the new form, and it gains any statistics and capabilities (except class features, legendary actions, and lair actions) that the new form has but that it lacks. If the new form has a bite attack, the couatl can use its bite in that form.
Monster Manual, 2014 WotC
Arriving in 5th edition, the Couatl appears in the Monster Manual (2014) and, unfortunately, takes a few steps back in terms of lore and danger. Looking at the stat block, it is obvious the Couatl is a creature that is meant to assist the party and not to engage them in combat. The bite and constrict melee attacks remain, and while the bite is at least slightly more dangerous than 4e, it just knocks you unconscious for 24 hours or until someone shakes you awake. The Couatl retains its polymorph ability but it is restricted to humanoids and beasts that are CR 4 or less. It regains its spellcasting abilities, though it's all buffing and healing spells, probably to help whatever group of unfortunate adventurers are saddled up with it.
Looking at the lore, it harkens back to the older editions, though that isn’t necessarily a good thing. At least 4e changed some things up to make it an interesting creature to come across while 5e’s lore is all about hiding, refusing to reveal yourself to outsiders, and, in case we forgot to mention it, hiding. The Couatls were first created as guardians by some ancient being that only they can remember, and were each given special mandates to fulfill. Nowadays, those mandates have all mostly been fulfilled with just a few Couatl still waiting for their prophecies to come true. This means a lot of Couatls just twiddling their tails and waiting for time to pass them by.
This is especially a problem for the Couatl as they have a lifespan that borders on almost forever. They will eventually die from old age, but a lack of food or air is no big deal. To add to that, they can see their death up to a century in the future and, while they aren’t looking forward to it, they do accept it. Though, if their life goals haven’t been finished, they will search for a mate to reproduce with. It doesn’t sound like the Couatl believes in true love, or proper parenting either. Once their offspring is old enough to go out into the world on their own, they are tasked with completing the parent’s goal and are trained until the parent dies.
This rather lackluster bit of lore makes it difficult to try and include these creatures in a campaign. They hate revealing what they are, they hate talking to people, they are secretive, they prefer hiding and not interacting with others, and to top it all off, most of them have already finished their big quests of good and are just wasting time until they die. Not exactly a lore full of exciting adventure hooks for a DM to use. But it’s not all bad for the Couatl in this edition, as they do have a limited role in an adventure!
Tomb of Annihilation, 2017 WotC
In the Tomb of Annihilation (2017), there is a jungle guide of Chult who is a disguised Couatl who is willing to help adventurers get through the jungles and arrive in Omu. She doesn’t reveal herself to be a Couatl, unless she has to, and tries to have the adventurers clear out sources of great evil in the jungles without telling them why or revealing anything else. So while not a great traveling partner, she can at least cast a few spells to heal the party if they are feeling a bit beaten up after an encounter, not like she is going to do much during combat anyway.
The Couatl is a magnificent feathered serpent whose radiant beauty is enough to make onlookers weep. They are incredibly standoffish and want nothing, or very little, to do with outsiders as they are so wrapped up in their own quests. Despite a few strange steps here and there, they are interesting creatures, it's just a shame that much of their lore makes them reclusive jerks who can’t be bothered to help mortals.
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