Ivanna Balawis
Ivanna Balawis — The Encounter
Antlered Dryad of the Weeping Bough · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Ivanna Balawis
In the burned hollows where the cities of the plain once stood, the people swore that not all green things died. Ivanna Balawis is named in shepherds' charms as the bough that wept when the fire fell, a dryad bound to a single ancient tree that drank the ash and lived. Travelers describe her so: skin the blue of deep forest shade, a crown of antlered branches, leaf-laden vines trailing from her shoulders, and her arms ever crossed as though cradling some grief older than the ruin around her. She is no spiteful spirit. She shelters the lost and the hunted within her grove, parting roots to swallow them from pursuit, and asks only that no axe touch living wood. Yet woodsmen who fell her kin learn her other face, for the same vines that cradle the weary will strangle the cruel, and cold iron alone bites her bark. To honor her, leave water at a thirsty sapling and speak no lie beneath her boughs.
Run Ivanna Balawis in Sixty Seconds
- Hold position: she wants to fight on natural ground. While she's rooted she regenerates 5 HP a turn, so don't let the party think killing her is a simple race.
- Open with Strangling Vines: drop the 20-ft circle on the tightest cluster, restrain the squishies, then Multiattack-pull a freed caster back into the briar.
- Kill-priority is the mobile striker: pin or drag the party's most agile damage dealer; her Lashing Bough reach 15 ft. and 10-ft pull keep runners from kiting.
- When bloodied: she steps away via Tree Stride to a fresh tree, regenerates, and re-anchors. Bring fire or cold iron to shut down her regen and resistance.
- Three ways to run her: a lone grove-warden controller, a duo with a grappler that holds her restrained victims, or a lair guardian flanking the party off a bigger boss.
Ivanna Balawis
Medium fey, neutral good
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINETree Stride. Once on her turn, Ivanna can use 10 feet of her movement to step magically into one living tree within 5 feet of her and emerge from a second living tree within 60 feet that she can see, appearing in an unoccupied space within 5 feet of it.
Rooted Vigor (Signature). While Ivanna stands on natural ground, she has advantage on saving throws against being moved against her will and against the prone and grappled conditions, and she regains 5 hit points at the start of each of her turns. If she takes fire damage, this trait does not function until the end of her next turn.
Actions
Multiattack. Ivanna makes two attacks with her Lashing Bough, or makes one Lashing Bough attack and casts entangle.
Lashing Bough. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (3d6+3) bludgeoning damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 15 Strength saving throw or be pulled up to 10 feet toward Ivanna.
Strangling Vines (Recharge 5-6). Grasping roots erupt in a 20-foot-radius circle centered on a point Ivanna can see within 60 feet. Each creature in the area must make a DC 15 Strength saving throw, taking 21 (6d6) bludgeoning damage and being restrained until the end of its next turn on a failure, or half damage and not restrained on a success.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Thornward. Reaction: When a creature within 5 feet of Ivanna hits her with a melee attack, she lashes back. The attacker takes 7 (2d6) piercing damage and must succeed on a DC 15 Strength saving throw or be pushed 10 feet away.
An antlered, blue-skinned dryad rises half-born from a weeping tree, vines and green leaves arcing from her shoulders like sorrowful wings, arms crossed and golden bands at her wrists.
Ivanna Balawis, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEVerdant Bond (signature). While within 30 feet of Ivanna, the Ivanna Balawis shares her Rooted Vigor regeneration, regaining 3 hit points at the start of each of its turns while it stands on natural ground.
Actions
Whipping Branch. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (2d6+2) bludgeoning damage.
Reactions
Interposing Roots. When an ally within 5 feet is targeted by an attack, the Ivanna Balawis raises a root wall, granting that ally +2 AC against the triggering attack.
A knee-high sapling that walks on knotted roots, leaves quivering toward its mistress like a child holding a skirt.
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 Strangling Vines on the tightest cluster to restrain the front line, then back away through Tree Stride so melee chases roots, not her. Kill-priority is the party's mobile striker; pin them and let your Lashing Bough drag them back in. Pair her with a wood-warden brute so something tanky holds the choked enemies in place.
Lead with Strangling Vines into the densest knot of PCs, then Multiattack-pull the freed healer or caster into reach. Stay on natural ground so Rooted Vigor refunds her HP every turn, and never melee near fire effects. She shines beside a fire-throwing add or a grappler boss that holds her restrained victims while she peels the rest.
Use her as the lair's living warden: open Strangling Vines, then Tree Stride to flank and drag isolated PCs into a kill-pocket while Thornward punishes anyone who closes. She is not a solo threat, so pair her with a bigger flagship and let her field of minions and roots wall the party off from it. Kill-priority remains the party's most mobile damage dealer.
Put Ivanna Balawis 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 Ivanna Balawis?
Her home build is CR 6 (2,300 XP) for tier-2 parties (levels 5-10). The record also gives drop-in tier-1 (~CR 2) and tier-3 (~CR 11) numbers with identical traits, so you can scale her to your table without rewriting the kit.
Can Ivanna Balawis be a companion or ally?
Yes. As a neutral-good dryad she makes a natural grove-guardian patron or ally. Use her stat block at-strength as an allied NPC, or hand players the bundled Sapling companion (AC 14, 38 HP) as a smaller plant ward that shares her regeneration.
Is Ivanna a solo boss?
No. She is a control-and-punish add-on, not a centerpiece. She lacks legendary actions, so a four-PC party will out-act her alone. Pair her with a flagship threat, a grappler, or a lair full of minions and let her roots and pulls reshape the battlefield.
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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