Balasubas
lunging bat-winged spearman of the fallen flight
Balasubas — The Encounter
lunging bat-winged spearman of the fallen flight · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Balasubas
Balasubas is the gatekeeper of the brood, a fallen warrior whose tainted blood lent him quickness and a hunter's patience. Born of the old watcher-lord's lineage, he carries a long barbed spear and uses it to dictate the shape of every fight. In the host he is the controller, planting himself at the edge of a melee to keep enemies at arm's length, skewering any who try to close, and herding the foe into the killing ground his kin prepare. He dives in for a single deep thrust when the moment is ripe, then resets to his measured distance. Alone he is merely a careful duelist; within the flight he is the wall of points that decides who may advance and who is pinned to die.
Run Balasubas in Sixty Seconds
- Hold your reach then fight at 10 ft. and jab anyone trying to close past Reach of the Fallen.
- Punish the approach then Bracing Step a free spear at any foe entering reach.
- Lock the priority then use Pinning Thrust to restrain the marked target for the flight.
- Dive only when clean then Skewering Dive an isolated foe for the bonus 2d8.
- Herd, don't chase then steer enemies into the warband's killing ground rather than pursuing.
Balasubas
Medium fiend, neutral evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEReach of the Fallen (Signature). Balasubas's spear has reach. When he hits a creature with it on his turn, that creature cannot move closer to him until the start of his next turn without first succeeding on a DC 14 Strength save.
Skewering Dive. If Balasubas flies at least 15 feet straight toward a target before a Spear attack and hits, the attack deals an extra 9 (2d8) piercing damage.
Actions
Multiattack. Balasubas makes two Spear attacks.
Spear. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8+3) piercing damage.
Pinning Thrust (Recharge 5-6). Balasubas drives his spear deep. One creature he can reach must make a DC 14 Dexterity save, taking 18 (4d6+3) piercing damage on a failure, or half as much on a success. On a failure the target is also restrained until the end of its next turn.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Bracing Step. When a creature enters Balasubas's reach, he can make one Spear attack against it.
He fights at the tip of a long reach, holding foes at spear's length while his kin close the killing ring behind them.
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.
Use Balasubas as the spacing controller of a small fallen band. Keep him at his reach, jab anyone who closes, and let Reach of the Fallen herd foes toward his kin. Save Pinning Thrust to lock down a fleeing target.
His native tier; run him as the flight's gatekeeper. Hold the line's edge, punish anyone entering reach with Bracing Step, and Pinning Thrust the priority target so the warband can converge. Dive in with Skewering Dive only when a foe is isolated.
Field him in a larger warband as the lockdown spear. He controls the chokepoint, restrains the kill-priority with Pinning Thrust, and keeps escape routes sealed while the flight closes. He always works the edge of the host's formation, never alone.
Put Balasubas 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 Balasubas?
Balasubas is CR 6 (2,300 XP) at his native Tier 2, with Tier 1 (~CR 2) and Tier 3 (~CR 11) lines so he can gatekeep weaker or stronger Fallen Watcher flights.
How does Balasubas fight alongside the rest of the Fallen Watchers?
He is the flight's gatekeeper and controller. He holds the edge of the melee, keeps foes at spear's length, restrains priority targets, and herds the enemy into the killing ground his kin close around them.
Is Balasubas a solo threat?
No. He has no legendary actions; his value is positioning and lockdown that only matters with allies converging, so he fights as part of the warband.
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.
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