Lusca
Lusca — The Encounter
The Half-Shark, Half-Octopus Terror of the Blue Holes · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Lusca
Sailors of the warm island seas speak the name only in whispers, for to name the Lusca too loudly is to call it. It haunts the blue holes—those bottomless throats in the reef where the sea drains into lightless caverns—and there it waits, half-shark and half-octopus, neither wholly of the surface nor the deep. Fishermen tell of boats seized by arms thick as masts, of swimmers pulled screaming beneath a sudden churning slick, of the strange tide that breathes in and out of the holes as the beast shifts below. Its twin jaws can shear a hull's keel; its eight arms can drag a longboat under without a single bite. Where lesser leviathans were made to destroy or to hold the drowned world together, the Lusca was never made at all—it simply hungers, ancient and patient, and the deep has always listened to its appetite.
Run Lusca in Sixty Seconds
- Water is the weapon. The Lusca wants every fight in or beside deep water—grapple, drag under, drown. On land beside a hole it is dangerous; in the water it is lethal.
- Open with two tentacles. Round one, grab the two nearest characters with reach 20 ft. before they can spread out, then Bite a held target for advantage.
- Kill-priority = grappled swimmers. Once a PC is grappled underwater the drowning clock starts; focus Constrict and Bite on whoever cannot breathe water.
- When bloodied, scatter and submerge. Use Roiling Surge to knock the melee line prone and push them off, then retreat into deep water and pick targets from blindsight.
- Three ways to run it: a lone dock-side ambush for a small party; the centerpiece boss of a flooded blue-hole lair; or paired with Tideling spawn that herd prey into its jaws.
Lusca
Huge monstrosity, unaligned
CR 11 · 7,200 XP · GUIDELINEAmphibious. The Lusca can breathe air and water.
Drag to the Deep. Signature. A creature grappled by the Lusca cannot benefit from any speed bonus, and the Lusca can move at full speed while dragging up to two grappled creatures. At the start of each of its turns, each creature it is grappling underwater begins to drown unless it can breathe water.
Actions
Multiattack. The Lusca makes one Bite attack and two Tentacle attacks.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +11 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 22 (3d10 + 6) piercing damage. If the target is a creature it is grappling, the attack is made with advantage.
Tentacle. Melee Weapon Attack: +11 to hit, reach 20 ft., one target. Hit: 16 (3d6 + 6) bludgeoning damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 16). The Lusca has eight tentacles, each of which can grapple one target.
Legendary Actions (3/Round)
Tentacle Lash. The Lusca makes one Tentacle attack.
Constrict (Costs 2 Actions). The Lusca tightens its coils. Each creature grappled by it takes 11 (2d6 + 4) bludgeoning damage and must succeed on a DC 16 Constitution saving throw or have its breath crushed out, dropping to 0 hit points if it cannot breathe water.
Roiling Surge (Costs 2 Actions). The Lusca churns the water. Each creature within 15 feet must succeed on a DC 16 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone and pushed 15 feet away (or pulled 15 feet toward the Lusca, its choice).
A nightmare grafted from two predators: the armored head and double maw of a great shark fused to the writhing, sucker-lined arms of a colossal octopus, beaching itself over a shattered wreck.
Lusca, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINECurrent Sense (signature). The Lusca knows the location of any creature touching the same body of water within 120 feet, even through total cover.
Actions
Lashing Arm. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 12 (2d8 + 3) bludgeoning damage, and a Medium or smaller target is grappled (escape DC 14).
Reactions
Undertow. When an ally within 30 feet is hit by a melee attack, the Lusca pulls a wash of water across the field; the attacker must succeed on a DC 14 Strength save or be moved 10 feet.
A lesser spawn of the blue holes, a knot of grasping arms that herds prey toward its parent's waiting 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 from the water with a Tentacle to grapple the nearest character, then back away to deny escape. If two PCs cluster near the shore, grab one and drag it toward deep water as the kill-priority. Run it as the lone terror of a tiny dock—it will feel enormous to a low party.
Grapple two PCs on the first round, then Bite the one already held for advantage. Prioritize lightly-armored casters who can swim or fly free. Spend legendary actions to Tentacle Lash between turns so no one feels safe at range.
Open by grabbing two characters and using Drag to the Deep to start the drowning clock—that is the kill-priority pressure, not raw damage. Use Constrict on whoever is bloodied and Roiling Surge to scatter melee clusters back toward the water. Pair it with a Tideling or a flooded-cavern lair so the party never fights it on dry, stable ground.
Put Lusca 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 Lusca?
Native Challenge Rating 11 (7,200 XP), built for a Tier 3 party of levels 11-15. Because it is solo-capable, its sheet is pitched one band lower than a raw CR 11 brute so its grapple-and-drown action economy can carry a full fight; the included Tier 1 and Tier 2 lines let you drop it straight into levels 1-4 or 5-10.
Can Lusca be a companion or ally?
The Lusca itself is a mindless apex predator, not a companion. For an allied option, use the bound Tideling statblock provided—a lesser spawn of the blue holes that grapples and herds prey, suitable as a summoned guardian or a sea-witch's pet.
How do I keep a grapple-heavy monster from being a slog?
Telegraph the stakes early: describe the drowning clock out loud so escaping the grapple feels urgent, not just mechanical. Let Athletics, teleportation, or freedom-of-movement effects break free cleanly, and use Roiling Surge to reposition the party rather than stacking grapples so the table keeps moving.
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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