Water Berserker
Water Berserker — The Encounter
Drowned titan crowned in the gold of sunken kings · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Water Berserker
Sailors who survive the Atlantean shoals speak of the Water Berserker only in whispers, for to name it loudly is to summon the flood. It is said these titans were once wardens of a sunken throne, giants set to guard the gold of kings who let the sea swallow their cities rather than yield them. When the waters closed over those halls, the wardens did not drown; they hardened into living tides, their rage curdling with the bitterness of abandonment. Now each Berserker carries a coronet and pauldrons looted from the very rulers it failed, and it batters interlopers with fists like falling cliffs. The deeper a Berserker is wounded, the more furiously the inner ocean rises in it, until its blows fall with the weight of a breaking storm. Coastal shrines still leave offerings of gold at the tideline, hoping a passing titan will mistake the gift for tribute and let the village stand another year.
Run Water Berserker in Sixty Seconds
- Hold the cone until two or more PCs bunch up, then drop Crushing Surge to prone the whole line at once.
- Open on the backline by swimming or striding to the caster and Slamming twice; this brute wants the squishy target, not the tank.
- When bloodied Tidal Fury adds 2d6 to every hit and grants Strength advantage, so warn the table and either burst it down or pull back out of reach.
- Kill-priority for the party is to drag it onto dry land away from water and keep it prone-locked; for you, chase whoever tries to stand using the Undertow reaction.
- Three ways to run it: shoreline ambusher that breaches from surf, drowned-throne guardian defending gold, or a flagship boss's bodyguard that body-blocks the casters.
Water Berserker
Huge giant (aquatic), chaotic neutral
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEAmphibious. The berserker can breathe air and water equally well.
Tidal Fury. While the berserker has half its hit points or fewer, its melee attacks deal an extra 7 (2d6) bludgeoning damage and it has advantage on Strength checks and Strength saving throws. The deeper its wounds, the higher the flood it summons within itself.
Actions
Multiattack. The berserker makes two Slam attacks.
Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 17 (3d8+5) bludgeoning damage, and if the target is a creature it must succeed on a DC 15 Strength saving throw or be pushed 10 feet away and knocked prone.
Crushing Surge (Recharge 5-6). The berserker slams both fists down, sending out a wave in a 15-foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a DC 15 Strength saving throw, taking 22 (5d8) bludgeoning damage and being knocked prone on a failure, or half as much damage and not knocked prone on a success.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Undertow. Reaction: When a creature the berserker can see within 10 feet stands up from prone or tries to move out of its reach, the berserker makes one Slam attack against that creature.
A mountainous brute of blue-green scale and corded muscle, crowned and pauldroned in the wave-shaped gold of a drowned dynasty, rising from a churning surge that follows it like a loyal tide.
Water Berserker, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINESworn Bulwark (signature). While the Water Berserker is within 5 feet of you, you and the warden each gain resistance to bludgeoning damage. The bound giant plants itself before its charge like a breakwater.
Actions
Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (3d6+4) bludgeoning damage.
Reactions
Catch the Tide. Reaction: When an ally within 5 feet of the Water Berserker would be pushed or knocked prone, the warden braces and the ally is not moved or knocked prone.
A lesser warden that swore its rage to a captain instead of a drowned king, channeling the same flood-born strength into shielding the living.
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 with Crushing Surge into the tightest knot of PCs to scatter and prone them, then wade after whoever fell. If clustered, save the cone; otherwise just Slam the front-liner and use Undertow to punish anyone who tries to crawl away. Pair it with a swarm of aquatic minions so it is never alone.
Open by charging the squishiest caster, Slam twice, and let Undertow lock them down when they flee. When bloodied, Tidal Fury turns every fist into a wrecking ball, so the party must finish it fast or get cornered against deep water. Kill-priority is the controller; pair it with archers or a spellcaster boss who exploits the prone targets it creates.
Lead with Crushing Surge to prone the line, then double-Slam and Undertow anyone who stands. When bloodied it becomes a flooding juggernaut, so bait it into a chokepoint near water for full effect. This is a brute, not a solo: pair it with a tide-caller boss or a lair that keeps shoving PCs back into its reach.
Put Water Berserker 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 Water Berserker?
Its home stat block is CR 6 (2,300 XP), tuned for a party of levels 5-10. Scaled versions are provided for tiers 1 (CR ~2) and 3 (CR ~11) so you can drop it into almost any table by swapping the AC, HP, to-hit, and save DC on its tier line.
Can Water Berserker be a companion or ally?
Yes. Use the bundled Tidewarden, Bound companion: a lesser flood-giant that braces beside one hero, granting shared resistance to bludgeoning damage and a reaction that cancels forced movement or prone on a nearby ally. It is a defensive bulwark rather than a damage engine.
Is the Water Berserker a solo boss?
No. It is a heavy-hitting brute add-on with no legendary actions, so a four-PC party will out-act it on its own. Run it as a bodyguard or front-line threat alongside a controller, caster, or larger flagship boss that benefits from the prone targets it creates.
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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