Gnaw
snaggletoothed were-shark berserker with spiked club and gauntlet
Gnaw — The Encounter
snaggletoothed were-shark berserker with spiked club and gauntlet · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Gnaw
Gnaw is the maddest of the reef-corsairs, a snaggletoothed were-shark whose curse burned away whatever caution he once had. He fights with a spiked club in one fist and a barbed gauntlet on the other, but his favorite weapon is his own ruin of a mouth. Pain only excites him, and he wades into the thickest fighting without a care for the wounds he takes, the smell of blood pulling him deeper. The warband uses him as a spearhead, throwing Gnaw at a shieldwall to break its nerve while the cannier sharks work the flanks. He cannot be frightened and will not retreat; the only thing that stops Gnaw is meat between his teeth.
Run Gnaw in Sixty Seconds
- Go reckless then Reckless Feeding trades his defense for advantage on every swing.
- Three weapons then Multiattack lands club, gauntlet, and bite on one foe.
- Smell blood then Blood Frenzy doubles down with advantage on the hurt.
- Snap on a kill then Frenzied Snap bites again when someone drops nearby.
- Never breaks then he ignores fear and refuses to retreat, anchor the spearhead.
Gnaw
Medium monstrosity (shapechanger), chaotic evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEBlood Frenzy. Gnaw has advantage on melee attack rolls against any creature that doesn't have all its hit points.
Reckless Feeding. At the start of his turn, Gnaw can choose to attack recklessly. Doing so gives him advantage on all melee attacks this turn, but attacks against him have advantage until the start of his next turn.
Amphibious. Gnaw can breathe air and water.
Actions
Multiattack. Gnaw makes one Spiked Club attack, one Spiked Gauntlet attack, and one Bite attack.
Spiked Club. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) bludgeoning damage plus 4 (1d8) piercing damage.
Spiked Gauntlet. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) piercing damage.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) piercing damage.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Frenzied Snap. When a creature within 5 feet of Gnaw drops to 0 hit points, he can make one Bite attack as a bonus action.
Gnaw throws himself into the press with club, gauntlet, and gnashing teeth, heedless of the blows landing on him so long as something is bleeding.
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.
Charge the front line and attack recklessly for advantage, trading defense for damage. Triple-attack the nearest foe and use Frenzied Snap when one drops. He is the pack's spearhead, never a careful solo.
Lead the boarding by smashing into the shieldwall, going reckless once Blood Frenzy is online so every swing has advantage. Snap at any foe that drops. He breaks nerve up front while the smarter sharks flank.
Fight as the warband's berserker spearhead: dive into the densest enemy cluster, attack recklessly, and pile bites with Frenzied Snap as foes fall. He soaks attention and dies hard, but only works with the pack flanking, never solo.
Put Gnaw 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 Gnaw?
He is a CR 6 (2,300 XP) Tier 2 elite at his native numbers, with Tier 1 (~CR 2) and Tier 3 (~CR 11) stat lines included for scaling.
How does Gnaw fight alongside the rest of the Pirate Sharks?
He is the warband's berserker spearhead. Gnaw throws himself recklessly into the front line to break the enemy's nerve and soak attention, letting the cannier sharks work the flanks. He fights hard but always within the pack, never as a lone boss.
What is the cost of Reckless Feeding?
It gives Gnaw advantage on all his melee attacks for the turn, but every attack against him also has advantage until his next turn, so he hits hard and gets hit hard.
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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