Two-Headed Roc
Two-Headed Roc — The Encounter
Twin-beaked terror of the high crags, blotting out the sun · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Two-Headed Roc
From the chronicles of the merchant Sindbad and the marvels recounted to the caliphs comes the roc, that prodigious bird whose wingbeat is mistaken for a coming storm. The two-headed strain is the elder and the worse: where a common roc hunts, this one watches with four tireless eyes, and no thief slips past its nest unseen. It nests upon the loneliest sea-crags and the spires of mountains no caravan dares, lining great bowls of uprooted trees with the bones of beasts it has carried aloft and dropped to their ruin. Each egg is the size of a war-tent, and the roc that loses one will follow the offending ship across the whole breadth of the sea, hurling boulders from on high until the hull is splinters. Sailors say to never make camp where the sky goes suddenly dark at noon, for it is no cloud, but the twin-beaked terror stooping out of the sun.
Run Two-Headed Roc in Sixty Seconds
- It cannot be surprised and shrugs off control. Two Heads gives advantage on Perception and saves vs. blinded, charmed, deafened, frightened, stunned, and unconscious — don't bank on a stun or fear chain; out-damage it.
- Open from the sky. Stoop out of the sun so the party rolls Perception at disadvantage, then land both beaks on the front-liner and rake a caster with talons.
- Kill-priority is the grapple. Once it talon-grabs a PC (escape DC 18) it flies up 60+ feet and drops them — free the ally or burn the roc down before it climbs.
- When bloodied, it gets desperate. It snatches whoever is closest and makes for altitude, trading attacks for a kidnapping; keep ranged options live.
- Three ways to run it: a lone aerial ambush over open dunes, the screaming guardian of a cliff-top nest full of eggs, or the airborne muscle paired with a larger desert tyrant.
Two-Headed Roc
Huge beast, unaligned
CR 11 · 7,200 XP · GUIDELINETwo Heads. The roc has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks and on saving throws against being blinded, charmed, deafened, frightened, stunned, and knocked unconscious. While both heads live, it cannot be surprised.
Keen Sight. The roc has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight.
Actions
Multiattack. The roc makes three attacks: two with its beaks (one from each head) and one with its talons.
Beak. Melee Weapon Attack: +12 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 17 (2d10+8) piercing damage.
Talons. Melee Weapon Attack: +12 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 23 (4d6+8) slashing damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 18). Until this grapple ends, the target is restrained, and the roc cannot use its talons on another target.
Two cruel heads crown this colossal raptor, its outstretched wings spanning wider than a galley's sail as it mantles over a nest of clutched, leather-shelled eggs. Folk of the trade-roads swear it can pluck an elephant from the dunes and carry it screaming into the clouds.
Two-Headed Roc, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINESkyward Bond (signature). While its bonded ally is within 120 feet, the fledgling has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks, and the ally cannot be surprised.
Actions
Rending Beak. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (2d8+5) piercing damage.
Reactions
Snatch and Lift. When an ally within 5 feet is hit by a melee attack, the fledgling may make a talon attack against the attacker; on a hit, a Large or smaller attacker is also grappled (escape DC 16).
A near-grown chick from the nest, fierce and loyal to the one who saved its egg, screeching warning before any ambush can land.
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.
Run it as a single circling predator that dives once, grabs the squishiest PC in its talons, and tries to fly off. Open from height so the party must ready ranged attacks; if clustered, it strafes with a beak swipe. Kill-priority: down it before it gains altitude with a grappled ally. Pair it with a sandwalker pack to pin the ground.
Open by stooping out of the sun (Perception at disadvantage to spot it), beak-beak on the front line, talons on a caster to grapple and lift. If the party clusters, it hover-strafes and stays at 30+ feet so melee cannot reach. When bloodied it grabs a target and climbs to drop them. Pairs well with a flying boss or a nesting-ground ambush.
Open with full Multiattack on the front line, then talon-grapple the most dangerous PC and fly straight up — falling damage forces a hard choice. Two Heads means no surprise and near-immunity to crowd control, so lean on raw damage and altitude denial instead. Kill-priority: free the grappled ally or down a head's worth of HP fast. Run it as the airborne enforcer beside a bigger desert tyrant or guarding a flagship boss's eyrie — do not field it as a lone solo.
Put Two-Headed Roc 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 Two-Headed Roc?
Its home tier is CR 11 (7,200 XP) for level 11-15 play: AC 18, 207 HP, +12 to hit, escape DC 18. Scaled-down CR 6 (Tier 2) and CR 2 (Tier 1) sheets are provided so it can menace lower-level parties as a flying threat without rewriting its kit.
Can Two-Headed Roc be a companion or ally?
Not the full adversary, but a Fledgling Roc, Bound is included as a loyal ally: AC 16, 124 HP, a rending beak, the Skyward Bond trait that denies surprise to its partner, and a Snatch and Lift reaction that grapples melee attackers.
Is the Two-Headed Roc a boss you can run solo?
No. It is a punishing add-on, not a centerpiece — it lacks legendary actions or a boss reaction, so a four-PC party out-acts it. Field it as the airborne enforcer beside a larger desert tyrant, or guarding a flagship boss's nesting eyrie, ideally with ground minions to pin the party.
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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