Gamera is really sweet!

He is filled with turtle meat!

-Mystery Science Theater 3000 version of “The Gamera Song”

I have a great fondness for Japanese kaiju movies, and one of my favorite kaiju designs of all time is the giant turtle Gamera. Sadly, Gamera has languished in obscurity these days in comparison to a certain other big reptile whose name also begins with a G. But you can channel his spirit into your Dungeons & Dragons games via the dragon turtle, a monster that’s existed in D&D’s bestiaries since the game’s First Edition. If you’ve got a hankering to inject some good ol’ fashioned turtle power into your game and want to use an impressive creature that stands out from its draconic Monster Manual brethren, look no further!

A crafty, coin-collecting, coral cave-dwelling chelonian

Dragon Turtles carry the blood of dragons but combine this lineage with the heavy shell and aquatic prowess of your typical chelonian (another word for turtles, tortoises, and terrapins - all members of the order Chelonia). 

• With an Armor Class of 20, hit points of 341, Strength and Constitution modifiers of +7 and +5 and a staggering +11 to Constitution saving throws, dragon turtles are beefy creatures who also happen to be classified as Gargantuan. They typically dwell in coral reef caves along the coast and can move up to 40 feet per turn in water, slowing down to 20 feet on land. Considering their epic size and natural environment, dragon turtles will fit best in an adventure near a large body of water, where they could conceivably serve as inconvenient obstacles at lower levels and highly dangerous threats at higher ones. For those of you who’ve played the original Pokémon games, remember how a snoozing Snorlax ends up blocking a road with its considerable girth? You’ve got to level up your team and return with the right item needed to wake the big fella up and initiate combat, which is a good representation of how dragon turtles might serve a changing role in a D&D campaign.
• The dragon turtle’s battle repertoire is fine-tuned for destruction, with the Multiattack combo of a Bite and two Claw attacks equaling 58 damage on average. Alternatively, dragon turtles can swap the Claw strikes for a Tail whip that typically deals 26 damage and pushes opponents up to 10 feet away. Last but not least, there’s Storm Breath, where the dragon turtle exhales a stream of steam that deals an average of 52 damage on a failed save and is potent both in and out of water. These capabilities bring to mind a dockyard battle against a dragon turtle who’s knocking away sailing ships with its tail and scalding attacking militia with its breath - basically, a scene right out of a kaiju film. 
• With all of this power, think less about dragon turtles being monsters to fight, and more like forces of nature to survive. Use descriptions and adjectives usually reserved for storms and natural disasters as your reveal the impossibility of your players' situation. The monster may not even be aware of them- this elevated status for the dragon turtle can go a long way in making your players feel the awe of this encounter.
• Dragon turtles need not be violent foes, however! Their alignment is neutral, and like their winged cousins, dragon turtles are intelligent beasts who are more than willing to occasionally befriend or barter with humanoids - especially since they have the same urge to hoard treasure as all dragons. The Monster Manual flavor text outright calls them “Mercenary Monsters,” in fact, pointing out that pirates have long offered dragon turtles treasure for safe passage along the waves. Sahaugin and marids have also allied with dragon turtles, using them as colossal steeds and weapons of war, and Tomb of Annihilation features a dragon turtle named Aremag who hangs out in the bay leading to Chult’s Port Nyanzaru and asks tribute from those sailing in and around the region.

Just like how Gamera alternated between the role of destroyer and a friend to all children in his movies, there’s plenty of room for both antagonistic and helpful dragon turtles in your world. A destructive dragon turtle will lurch out of the water to confront a ship crossing its territory, giving adventurers a single chance to offer up treasure before unleashing its Storm Breath and walloping any disrespectful whippersnappers with Bite and Claw attacks. Dragon turtles might also knock weak foes into the water with a Tail strike, disappear and reappear on different sides of the ship to disorient combatants, or flat-out crunch the ship itself, sending everyone to a watery grave. 

A friendly dragon turtle, on the other hand, could be the most valuable NPC the players will ever come across. Ghosts of Saltmarsh, for instance, heavily features the sahuagin, and considering the relationship between sahuagins and dragon turtles, perhaps the fish folk have a youngling in their midst that they’re using to wreak havoc along the Saltmarsh Coast. Now, imagine that this dragon turtle is malnourished, forced to go on nightly raids, and more than willing to aid a group of kind-hearted adventurers who give it food and help it escape its captors. The party could wind up with a chelonian comrade who could change the tide of the entire campaign if they play their cards right!

Dragon turtle concepts that’ll leave players shell-shocked

Aside from mimicking the feel of the first 1965 Gamera film by creating a seaside town and having a dragon turtle run rampant on it, here are some other ways to utilize these shelled swimmers.

• D&D’s dragon turtle has roots in Chinese mythology, where the beast is a combination of two of the four mythical guardians of the cardinal directions. These guardians are formally known as the Azure Dragon of the east, the White Tiger of the west, the Black Turtle of the north, and the Vermilion Bird of the south. The image of the dragon turtle in China and other parts of East Asia was then popularized by feng shui, where the creature’s mix of both the Black Turtle and the Azure Dragon made it an auspicious figure to place in homes. A carefully researched campaign that takes inspiration from these myths could be the stuff of legend; imagine the players traveling the globe and communing with each of the four animal guardians, finally unlocking an audience with the secret fifth - the dragon turtle - in the finale. (Ironically, Gamera’s design may have been inspired by the Black Turtle as well!)
• When I ran Tomb of Annihilation, I changed Aremag substantially. Instead of a grumpy dragon turtle who demanded tribute from sailors, I made him into a loveable reptile who swam the waters between Waterdeep and Chult’s Port Nyanzaru and actually let the players ride him! Yup, there’s nothing like having a giant turtle for an aquatic steed, and I fully admit that I was influenced by the Super Nintendo RPG Seiken Densetsu 3 (recently localized in English as Trials of Mana), which features a cuddly giant turtle named Vuscav who responds to a magical drum and transports the party across the world. Any island-based campaign that sees the players traveling via water could benefit immensely from such a dragon turtle - after all, many myths (not to mention Terry Prachett’s Discworld novels) have speculated that the world itself is on the back of a giant turtle, and if it’s good enough for real-world lore, it’s good enough for your game!
• If you really want to get wild, consider this idea that I’ve been formulating ever since I found out that the upcoming Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft contains rules for creating D&D horror landscapes - dragon turtle Domain of Dread. Yep, imagine an aquatic realm where monsters of the deep reign supreme, and the Darklord ruling it all is none other than a dragon turtle. You could even open it up to all sorts of gargantuan D&D beasties to create something like the Hollow Earth featured in Godzilla vs. Kong, or the bizarre Trench in James Wan's Aquaman. Perhaps the tarrasque (a creature that deserves its own article, I know) could even make an appearance…

Whether you choose to make dragon turtles friends or foes, just remember to let Gamera serve as your guide. May your giant monsters always make players scatter in fear and amazement like civilians in a kaiju flick!

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Jeremy Blum (@PixelGrotto) is a journalist, gaming blogger, comic book aficionado, and fan of all forms of storytelling who rolled his first polyhedral dice while living in Hong Kong in 2017. Since then, he's never looked back and loves roleplaying games for the chance to tell the tales that have been swirling in his head since childhood.