Byatis
Byatis — The Encounter
The Berkeley Toad, serpent-bearded sleeper that drinks the gazer · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Byatis
Older grimoires name it the Berkeley Toad, though no honest toad ever wore such a beard of seeking tendrils nor such a single drinking eye. Byatis sleeps where forgotten cult-stones were raised in deep places, and it is said the spirits of those who first carved its likeness were the ones who first looked upon it and could not look away. To meet that eye is to be unmade slowly, the will pouring out of the body like water from a cracked jar while the limbs stand rooted and the mind grows quiet and content. It does not hunt; it waits, and lets the foolish and the curious walk willingly into the reach of its tongues. Scholars who survived such an encounter — there are few — describe no malice in it, only a vast, patient, swallowing hunger that regards a human soul the way a man regards a single grape. Break its stare or do not come at all.
Run Byatis in Sixty Seconds
- Hold the line of sight. Hypnotic Presence triggers at the start of Byatis's turn against everyone within 60 ft. who can see it — close eyes, fight blind, or stay behind cover to auto-pass. This is the whole fight.
- Open with the eye. Round one, lock down the worst-Wisdom PC with Hypnotic Presence and use Lure to drag your best melee target into reach before initiative even matters.
- Kill-priority: the un-charmable. Drop or distract whoever grants saves or is immune to fascination (paladins' aura, bards) first; without them the party stares while you feed.
- When bloodied, it gets greedy. Byatis swallows downed creatures to regain 15 HP each — stabilize your dying allies out of reach or it heals through your burst.
- Three ways to run it: patient swallowing horror in a cult-lair (solo); a sleeping menace the party must sneak past blindfolded (skill challenge); or paired with hollowed acolytes who herd PCs into the gaze (add-fight).
Byatis
Huge aberration, neutral evil
CR 11 · 7,200 XP · GUIDELINEHypnotic Presence. Signature. Byatis's lidless central eye drinks the will of any who behold it. At the start of each of its turns, each creature within 60 feet that can see Byatis and is not already affected must succeed on a DC 16 Wisdom saving throw or be incapacitated with fascination until the end of its next turn, unable to move and able only to stare. A creature that ends its fascination is immune to this trait for 1 minute. A creature that begins its turn unable to see Byatis automatically succeeds.
Devouring Bulk. When Byatis reduces a fascinated or grappled creature to 0 hit points, it may swallow the remains; Byatis regains 15 hit points and grows more sluggish and vast.
Actions
Multiattack. Byatis makes one Tentacle Maw attack and two Claw attacks. It can replace the Tentacle Maw with a use of Constrict against a creature it is not already grappling.
Tentacle Maw. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 18 (3d8 + 5) piercing damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 17 Constitution saving throw or take 9 (2d8) acid damage as the proboscis-tongues feed.
Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 15 (2d8 + 6) slashing damage.
Constrict. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 10 ft., one Large or smaller creature. Hit: 16 (2d10 + 5) bludgeoning damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 17). Until this grapple ends, the target is restrained and Byatis can automatically hit it with Tentacle Maw.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Drinking Gaze. When a creature Byatis can see within 60 feet ends its turn while fascinated by Hypnotic Presence, Byatis can use its reaction to drain that creature's vitality: the creature takes 13 (3d8) necrotic damage and Byatis regains that many hit points.
Legendary Actions (3/Round)
Claw. Byatis makes one Claw attack.
Lure (Costs 2 Actions). Byatis fixes its central eye on one creature it can see within 60 feet. That creature must succeed on a DC 16 Wisdom saving throw or use its reaction, if available, to move its speed toward Byatis by the most direct route, avoiding only obvious hazards.
Mind Fog (Costs 2 Actions). A wave of psychic torpor rolls from Byatis. Each creature within 30 feet must succeed on a DC 16 Wisdom saving throw or take 10 (3d6) psychic damage and have its speed halved until the end of its next turn.
A mountainous toad-thing crouches on splayed claws, its face a writhing beard of feeding tentacles around one vast unblinking eye, a spined serpentine tail lashing behind it.
Byatis, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEEmpty Stare (signature). The acolyte has advantage on saving throws against being frightened, having long since burned out the part of the mind that fears, and it cannot be surprised.
Actions
Sacrificial Blade. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) slashing damage plus 7 (2d6) necrotic damage.
Reactions
Step Into the Light. When an ally within 5 feet is hit by an attack, the acolyte can use its reaction to take the attack's damage in their place, murmuring thanks.
A robed devotee whose eyes never quite focus, kept alive only to usher others within reach of the eye.
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.
A waking horror far too big for low-level parties as a true solo; run it as a looming set-piece behind a door or pit. Open with Hypnotic Presence to lock down whoever has the worst Wisdom, then have minions drag the fascinated PC forward. Pair it with cultist adds so the party fights the room, not the eye.
Open with Hypnotic Presence, then spend legendary actions on Lure to walk the strongest melee PC into your reach before they can act. Kill-priority is whoever can break others free of fascination (bards, paladins). Use Constrict to pin a fascinated target and feed.
Genuine solo boss. Open by forcing the whole front line into Hypnotic Presence saves, then chain Drinking Gaze reactions and Mind Fog legendary actions to keep healing and keep the party slowed. Kill-priority: anyone immune to charm/fascination or who can grant party-wide saves — collapse them first, Constrict-and-feed the rest. When bloodied it grows reckless, swallowing downed PCs to heal, so down it fast or deny it kills.
Put Byatis 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 Byatis?
Byatis is built at CR 11 (7,200 XP) in its native Tier 3 form, scaled here for level 11-15 parties. Because it is a true solo boss with a punishing gaze reaction and multiple legendary actions, its sheet sits one band lower than its action economy actually plays — expect it to fight like a higher CR against a full party. Tier 1 and Tier 2 versions are provided for lower-level tables.
Can Byatis be a companion or ally?
Not Byatis itself — it is a swallowing Great Old One that regards allies as future meals. Instead, the bundled companion is The Lured Acolyte, Hollowed, a once-human devotee who can fight beside a party (or be freed from the eye's pull) and throw itself in front of attacks for the people it now follows.
How do players beat its hypnotic gaze?
Deny line of sight: a fascinated creature that cannot see Byatis automatically passes, so fighting with eyes averted (disadvantage on attacks against it), using cover, or simply being blinded all shut the trait down. Effects that end the incapacitated condition or grant a fresh Wisdom save also break free, and any creature that shrugs it off is immune for a minute.
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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