Mushroom Elshan
Mushroom Elshan — The Encounter
Little spore-shaman of the rotting glade · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Mushroom Elshan
In the grimoires of hedge-witches the elshan is named among the quiet folk of the deep wood, the spore-shamans who tend the cycle of rot and renewal. They are spawned where a fallen elder-tree feeds a ring of luminous fungi, and the brightest cap among that ring wakes, walks, and takes up a staff of living toadstools. An elshan claims a single glade and gardens it jealously, breathing clouds of drowsing spores over trespassers and binding their feet in creeping mycelium. It is not cruel, only territorial; offerings of carrion or fallen fruit buy safe passage, while axes and torches earn a slow poisoning. Folk who linger too long in an elshan's ring report fevered dreams and a yellow dust upon their tongues. Druids prize the elshan as a keeper of decay, for nothing it claims is ever wasted, only returned, in time, to the hungry, patient earth that birthed it.
Run Mushroom Elshan in Sixty Seconds
- Hold position — the elshan is a fragile zoner, not a duelist; keep it 20-30 ft. back behind difficult terrain and let spores do the work.
- Open with control — cast entangle (or spike growth) on the tightest cluster of PCs turn one, then spend later turns on poison spray and staff jabs.
- Kill-priority — it targets the lowest-AC backline caster first; protect your own squishies because the AI swarms whoever it can lock down.
- When bloodied — lean on Burst of Spores to blind attackers and retreat through its own Spore Cloud so pursuers take poison every step.
- Three ways to run it — (1) a lone glade-guardian skirmisher, (2) the controller anchoring a fungal warband, (3) a lair-keeper paired with a bigger boss who turns the whole arena into a spore field.
Mushroom Elshan
Small fey, neutral
CR 2 · 450 XP · GUIDELINESpore Cloud. Signature. The first time each round a creature enters a space within 5 feet of the elshan or starts its turn there, the elshan can have it make a DC 12 Constitution save. On a failure the creature takes 4 (1d8) poison damage and is poisoned until the end of its next turn.
Sporecaster. The elshan is a 4th-level spellcaster (spell save DC 12, +4 to hit with spell attacks; Wisdom). It knows: cantrips poison spray, druidcraft; 1st entangle, faerie fire; 2nd spike growth (as spore-mat).
Actions
Multiattack. The elshan casts a cantrip and makes one Staff attack, or casts one spell of 1st level or higher.
Spore Staff. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d6+2) bludgeoning damage plus 4 (1d8) poison damage.
Poison Spray (Cantrip). Ranged Spell Attack: the elshan targets one creature within 10 ft.; on a failed DC 12 Constitution save the target takes 9 (2d8) poison damage.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Burst of Spores. Reaction (when the elshan takes damage from a creature within 5 ft.): it releases a puff of spores. The attacker must succeed on a DC 12 Constitution save or be blinded until the end of its next turn.
A knee-high fungal sprite crowned by a glowing, yellow-spotted cap, swathed in a mantle of rotting leaves and leaning on a staff sprouting fresh toadstools. Where it walks, the loam blooms and breathes spores.
Mushroom Elshan, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINESymbiotic Bloom (signature). While within 10 ft. of you, you have resistance to poison damage and can't be poisoned, as the sporeling filters the air around you.
Actions
Spore Lash. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (2d4+1) poison damage.
Reactions
Drowsing Puff. When a creature you can see hits you with a melee attack, the sporeling may force it to make a DC 12 Constitution save or have disadvantage on its next attack roll.
A loyal capling that trundles at your heel, releasing healthful spores that ward off the rot it cannot abide in friends.
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 by casting entangle on the clustered front line, then drift back and pelt the restrained PCs with poison spray. Keep Spore Cloud between you and melee so anyone closing eats poison. Kill-priority: the controller wants the squishiest caster, so guard your own back rank.
Lead a fungal warband: open with spike growth across the choke, then faerie fire the dodgers. Use Burst of Spores to blind whoever breaks through. Pair it with a bigger threat (a treant or a fungal brute) and let it lock the room down while the heavy hits.
Run it as a lair-keeper: seed the whole glade with spore zones so every square punishes movement, and snipe from cover. It is an add-on, not a solo — pair it with minions or a flagship boss and let the elshan attrition the party while the centerpiece lands the kills.
Put Mushroom Elshan 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 Mushroom Elshan?
Natively CR 2 (450 XP) — a Tier 1 fey spore-caster built to control and poison. Scale it up using the Tier 2 (CR 6) or Tier 3 (CR 11) columns when you need it to threaten higher-level parties; the traits stay identical and only the numbers move.
Can Mushroom Elshan be a companion or ally?
Yes — use the Sporeling, Bound companion block. It trundles beside an ally, grants poison resistance with Symbiotic Bloom, lashes foes with spores, and can fog an attacker's aim with Drowsing Puff. It's a support familiar, not a frontline fighter.
Is the elshan dangerous in melee?
Only to those foolish enough to crowd it. Its Spore Cloud and Burst of Spores punish adjacency with poison and blindness, but its Staff and low STR mean it loses a straight fight — it wants to stay back and control the field, not trade blows.
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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