Kaoryu
Kaoryu — The Encounter
Abyssal serpent, the drowned current that collects the lost · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Kaoryu
Mariners of the warm latitudes name him the Crown of the Drowned, and they speak of him only in whispers lest the sea repeat the word. The grimoires of Lemuria hold that Kaoryu was born of the ocean's first grief, the morning the deep understood it could never touch the sky. His scales mirror constellations that no longer shine, and within each is folded the last sight of a drowned soul, for the Abyssal Serpent does not sink ships for malice. He collects memories. Every sailor lost beneath his coils becomes a single drowned star upon his hide, and his sorrow is said to be older than the tides themselves. Temples of coral and bone, the bones of cities he once embraced, still pulse faintly where he passed. Survivors of his storms describe eyes glowing far below, vast as horizons and weary as creation, watching, always watching, for the next memory to gather to himself.
Run Kaoryu in Sixty Seconds
- Hold until at least one hero is in or beside water, then surface — Crown of the Drowned only earns its keep when something is in reach to drag in.
- Open with Drowning Roar into the tightest cluster; the grapple-and-silence on a fail shuts down the enemy caster, which is your kill-priority.
- Punish casters and runners with Undertow every round — anyone who casts a spell or backs out of reach eats a 15-ft. Tail swipe.
- When bloodied, dive, drag your grappled victim deep with Crushing Coil, and lean on Surge to stay off the front-liners' opportunity attacks.
- Three ways to run him: a sorrowful god collecting one doomed PC; a flooded-lair ambush where the floor is all water; or a lieutenant paired with a bigger threat and a tide of lesser serpents.
Kaoryu
Huge dragon, neutral
CR 9 · 5,000 XP · GUIDELINEAmphibious. Kaoryu can breathe air and water.
Crown of the Drowned. Signature. Kaoryu is wreathed in a churning current. At the start of each of his turns, each creature within 10 ft. of him in or touching water must succeed on a DC 14 Strength save or be pulled 10 ft. toward him and have its speed halved until the start of its next turn. A creature pulled into his space is also grappled (escape DC 15).
Actions
Multiattack. Kaoryu makes one Bite attack and one Tail attack.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 18 (3d8+6) piercing damage plus 7 (2d6) cold damage.
Tail. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 15 (2d8+6) bludgeoning damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 17 Strength save or be knocked prone.
Drowning Roar (Recharge 5-6). Kaoryu folds the sea upon itself in a 30-foot cone. Each creature there must make a DC 14 Constitution save, taking 33 (6d10) cold damage on a failure, or half as much on a success. A creature that fails is also grappled by surging water (escape DC 14) and cannot speak or cast spells with verbal components until it escapes.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Undertow (Reaction). When a creature Kaoryu can see within 30 ft. casts a spell or moves out of his reach without taking the Disengage action, he makes one Tail attack against it.
Legendary Actions (3/Round)
Detect. Kaoryu makes a Wisdom (Perception) check.
Surge (Costs 1 Action). Kaoryu swims up to half his swim speed without provoking opportunity attacks. Each creature whose space he passes through must succeed on a DC 14 Strength save or be swept 10 ft. and knocked prone.
Crushing Coil (Costs 2 Actions). Kaoryu makes one Bite attack against a creature he is grappling. On a hit, the target also takes 9 (2d8) cold damage and the grapple's escape DC increases to 16 until it escapes.
A vast Eastern sea serpent of drowned-blue scale, his fanged maw agape and frilled fins flared, coiled upon a reef of coral and bone where shells still hum with the memory of swallowed cities.
Kaoryu, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEMemory of the Lost (signature). While within 30 ft. of Kaoryu, the Kaoryu has advantage on saving throws against being frightened, and any ally that starts its turn within 10 ft. of it regains 5 hit points the first time each round.
Actions
Spectral Tide. Melee Spell Attack: +6 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (2d8+5) cold damage, and the target's speed is reduced by 10 ft. until the end of its next turn.
Reactions
Pull Under. When an ally within 15 ft. is hit by an attack, the Kaoryu surges water around the attacker, who must succeed on a DC 14 Strength save or be pulled 10 ft. toward the nearest deep water.
A coil of luminous, half-drowned souls given shape, swimming in Kaoryu's wake like a banner of dying stars.
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 the Bite to thin the front line, then use the Tail at 15 ft. to knock down anyone who rushed in. Keep him in or beside water so Crown of the Drowned drags the squishiest hero into his coils. Pair him with a small school of aquatic minions; against a low party do not lean on the full legendary kit.
Open by surfacing into the densest cluster and firing Drowning Roar; the grapple silences the party caster, your kill-priority. Use Undertow every round to punish anyone who tries to step away or cast, and spend legendary Surge to reposition so melee can never pin you against terrain. When bloodied, dive and use Crushing Coil on whoever you grabbed. This is his home tier as a centerpiece boss.
Run him in a flooded lair where the whole floor counts as water so Crown of the Drowned hits every round. Open with Drowning Roar on recharge, hold Undertow for the party's casters, and cycle Surge and Crushing Coil to keep one hero drowning. Pair him with a bigger threat or a tide of lesser serpents; at this tier he is the lieutenant of the deep, not the lone foe.
Put Kaoryu 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 Kaoryu?
His native build is CR 9 (Tier 2, levels 5-10): AC 16, 138 HP, +9 to hit, save DC 14. As a true centerpiece boss with two legendary options plus the Undertow reaction, he plays up a band, so his home sheet sits one step below the raw CR-11 ceiling. Scaled stat lines for Tiers 1 and 3 are provided.
Can Kaoryu be a companion or ally?
Kaoryu himself is a centerpiece adversary, not a sidekick — he is solo-capable and meant to anchor an encounter. For an allied option, use the Drowned Constellation companion block: a coil of bound, half-drowned souls that heals nearby allies, slows enemies with spectral tide, and drags attackers toward deep water.
How do I keep his pull and grapple from feeling unfair?
Telegraph the current. Describe the water surging before his turn so players can choose to stand clear, and remember the pull only works in or touching water — on dry ground Crown of the Drowned does nothing. The grapple uses a clear escape DC, and Drowning Roar's silence ends the moment a caster breaks free, so there is always a counter-play.
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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