Sandwalker
Sandwalker — The Encounter
The buried death that walks beneath the dunes · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Sandwalker
The Bedu call it the sandwalker, though older tongues name it the patience of the dunes. It does not hunt as wolves hunt; it waits, sunk beneath a hand's breadth of warm sand with only its eyes attending the surface tremor of footfalls. Caravans learn too late that the smooth swell of a dune may breathe. When the moment comes the creature erupts, claws clamping a leg or throat while the tail descends again and again, pumping venom that curdles the blood to black sludge. Travelers swear the beasts grow larger the deeper one ventures toward the empty quarter, where bones of camels and men lie sucked dry beneath the shifting glass. The wise scatter rams' blood and walk only on stone, for the sandwalker will not cross bare rock, and it strikes only what it can feel moving beneath the sky.
Run Sandwalker in Sixty Seconds
- Open buried. Start the sandwalker hidden under the sand with tremorsense tracking the party; its first surfacing strike has advantage from Sand Shroud, so cash that in on the squishiest target.
- Grapple is the engine. Claw to grab, then sting the grappled creature with advantage — the venom save (DC 14) repeats the pressure each round. Don't waste attacks spreading damage; lock one victim and bury them.
- Kill-priority: whoever it holds. The DM should keep stinging the grappled target. Players must break the grapple (escape DC 14) or kill the beast — there is no third option that stops the poison.
- When bloodied, it bolts. Use Sudden Burrow as a bonus action to vanish, re-hide, and re-arm its advantaged strike. Make the party spend turns digging it out.
- Three ways to run it: lone dune-ambush skirmish; a hunting pair with a hatchling companion; or the centerpiece of a desert swarm screened by raiders and a one-eyed centaur.
Sandwalker
Large monstrosity, unaligned
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINESand Shroud. While buried beneath sand or loose earth, the sandwalker has advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks and is considered heavily obscured. The first attack it makes after surfacing from concealment is made with advantage.
Spider Climb. The sandwalker can climb difficult surfaces, including upside down on ceilings, without an ability check.
Actions
Multiattack. The sandwalker makes two claw attacks and one sting attack. If it has a creature grappled, it can use the sting against that creature with advantage.
Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6+4) slashing damage. The target is grappled (escape DC 14) if it is a Large or smaller creature and the sandwalker does not already have two creatures grappled.
Sting. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (1d10+4) piercing damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or take 14 (4d6) poison damage and be poisoned until the end of its next turn. On a success it takes half the poison damage and is not poisoned.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Sudden Burrow. (Bonus Action) The sandwalker burrows up to its burrow speed without provoking opportunity attacks, then may immediately make a Dexterity (Stealth) check to hide if it ends in sand or loose earth.
A scorpion grown vast as a warhorse, its sand-yellow carapace pitted and crusted with dune-grit, twin serrated claws splayed wide as a stinger-laden tail curls overhead like a drawn scimitar.
Sandwalker, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEBurrow Ambush (signature). While buried in sand or loose earth, the hatchling is heavily obscured and its first attack after surfacing has advantage.
Actions
Sting. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d8+3) piercing damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 12 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned until the end of its next turn.
Reactions
Scuttle Away. When hit by a melee attack, the hatchling burrows up to half its burrow speed without provoking opportunity attacks.
A juvenile broken from its egg and bound to a tamer's whistle, no larger than a hound but already quick to bury and strike.
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 buried in the sand and surface for an advantaged claw to grapple your softest target, then sting the held creature. Keep the grapple locked so the poison stacks turn over turn. Pair it with a desert raider or two so the party can't simply focus it down.
Open from ambush: surface, claw-grapple the back-line caster or healer, drag them off the rock, and sting with advantage. Kill-priority is whoever it has grappled — never let it go until that target drops. When bloodied it Sudden-Burrows away to re-hide and reset its advantaged strike, so make players spend actions hunting it.
Run it as the apex predator of a swarm — surround it with hatchlings or a centaur outrider so the action economy isn't lopsided. It grapples and stings the same locked target while minions screen it; when bloodied it burrows to reset. Pair it with a bigger threat — it is a brutal add-on, not a lone boss.
Put Sandwalker 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 Sandwalker?
Sandwalker is built natively at CR 6 (Tier 2, levels 5-10): AC 16, 127 HP, +7 to hit, save DC 14. The record also gives drop-in CR 2 (Tier 1) and CR 11 (Tier 3) versions with the same traits and only the numbers shifted, so you can field it at whatever table you're running.
Can Sandwalker be a companion or ally?
Yes — a bound Hatchling Sandwalker is included as a companion (AC 14, 76 HP) that burrow-ambushes, stings with a poison save, and scuttles away when struck. It's a strong scout-skirmisher for a desert-themed party or beast tamer, scaled to roughly 60 percent of the adult's durability.
Is Sandwalker a solo boss?
No. It has no legendary actions and a 4-PC party will out-act it, so run it as a vicious add-on. It shines paired with minions or a bigger flagship threat — a desert swarm, a hunting pair, or screening a centaur outrider — where its grapple-and-sting lock punishes anyone who can't break free.
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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