Matt
barrel-chested were-shark gunner with a funnel-mouthed pistol
Matt — The Encounter
barrel-chested were-shark gunner with a funnel-mouthed pistol · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Matt
Matt is the gun of the reef-corsairs, a slab-muscled were-shark who scavenged a deck-gun and cut it down to fit one fist. He loads it with broken iron, coral shrapnel, and the odd tooth, and fires it into the thickest knot of defenders before a boarding. The blast rarely kills outright, but a staggered, bleeding sailor is exactly what the rest of the warband craves. Matt favors the same target twice: a shot to open the wound, then his jaws to widen it. The crew posts him at the rail to soften prey before the sharks pour over, and his powder-smoke is the signal the slaughter has begun.
Run Matt in Sixty Seconds
- Open with the boom then Hand-Cannon the most clustered target.
- Same target twice then Powder and Teeth crits the bitten foe on a 19-20.
- Smell blood then Blood Frenzy gives advantage on anything wounded.
- Reload free then spend the bonus action to keep the cannon hot.
- Stay screened then shoot from mid-range behind the melee sharks.
Matt
Medium monstrosity (shapechanger), chaotic evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEBlood Frenzy. Matt has advantage on melee attack rolls against any creature that doesn't have all its hit points.
Powder and Teeth. On a turn Matt hits a creature with his Hand-Cannon, his Bite against that same creature this turn scores a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20.
Amphibious. Matt can breathe air and water.
Actions
Multiattack. Matt fires his Hand-Cannon once and makes one Bite attack.
Hand-Cannon. Ranged Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, range 30/90 ft., one target. Hit: 17 (4d6 + 3) piercing damage. The weapon then needs an action to reload.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 18 (3d8 + 4) piercing damage.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Reload. As a bonus action, Matt can reload his Hand-Cannon if he has a free hand.
Matt raises his funnel-mouthed pistol, blasts a hole through a charging foe, then closes the distance to finish the stagger with his jaws.
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 Hand-Cannon on a clustered or charging foe, then bite the same target to exploit Powder and Teeth. Reload as a bonus action and keep shooting from behind the front-line sharks. Softens prey for the pack.
Blast the squishiest target, then close and Bite for the boosted crit chance while Blood Frenzy is live. Hang at mid-range so the melee sharks screen him. He is the warband's opener, not its anchor.
Fight as the pack's gunner: shoot the most dangerous PC each round, then dart in for a Powder-and-Teeth bite on the wounded. Let the bruisers pin while he reloads and repositions. Never trades alone.
Put Matt 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 Matt?
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 for scaling.
How does Matt fight alongside the rest of the Pirate Sharks?
He is the ranged opener. Matt's hand-cannon staggers and bloodies a target before the melee sharks reach it, and his Powder and Teeth trait rewards following his own shot with a bite. He needs the warband up front to screen him while he reloads.
How often can Matt fire the Hand-Cannon?
Once per turn, then it needs reloading. His Reload bonus action lets him fire every round as long as he has a free hand.
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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