Airavata
Airavata — The Encounter
White cloud-elephant of Indra, trunks that drink the storm · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Airavata
Born from the churning of the cosmic ocean, Airavata rose white as a thundercloud, and Indra the storm-king claimed the great elephant as his mount. It is the lord of all elephants and the keeper of the eastern quarter of the sky. The grimoires record that Airavata drinks water from the underworld with its many trunks and sprays it into the clouds, where Indra's lightning churns it into the monsoon that feeds the rivers of the living world. Its tusks are pale as moonlit ivory; its tread shakes temple foundations; its trumpet is mistaken for thunder by mortals below. To meet Airavata in the world is to stand before weather made flesh, a benevolent power that crushes the wicked underfoot yet shelters the faithful beneath the rain of its blessing. Shrines are raised where its footprints fill with sweet water, and pilgrims leave gold at the burning altar it guards.
Run Airavata in Sixty Seconds
- It's weather, not a beast. Within 30 ft. the ground is difficult terrain (driving rain) for the party but not for Airavata — they fight it slow and uphill from turn one.
- Open with Monsoon Trumpet while the party is still bunched at the shrine: a 60-ft. cone, DC 17 Con, 45 thunder and prone. Then trample the prone ones.
- Kill-priority: whoever it grabs. Trunk Slam grapples and restrains a Large-or-smaller target; on a later turn it Stomps them for free. Free the grappled ally before anything else.
- When bloodied, recharge is everything. A fresh Monsoon Trumpet resets spacing and prones the line; spend legendary Surge to escape a focus-fire pile.
- Three ways to run it: awakened temple-guardian (T1 add), Indra's war-mount with a mahout rider (T2 duo), or full divine storm-boss with legendary actions and a lieutenant to heal (T3 solo).
Airavata
Gargantuan celestial, lawful good
CR 13 · 10,000 XP · GUIDELINEStorm-Bringer (signature). Airavata drank the ocean dry to make the monsoon. While it stands on the ground, the area within 30 feet is treated as difficult terrain for its enemies (driving rain and rising water), and any creature that starts its turn there can be moved 5 feet by the surge when Airavata uses its Trample. Airavata ignores this terrain.
Trampling Charge. If Airavata moves at least 20 feet straight toward a creature and then hits it with a Gore attack on the same turn, that target must succeed on a DC 17 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone. If the target is prone, Airavata can make one Stomp attack against it as a bonus action.
Magic Weapons. Airavata's tusk and trunk attacks are magical.
Actions
Multiattack. Airavata makes two attacks: one with its Gore and one with its Trunk Slam, or one with its Gore and one Stomp.
Gore. Melee Weapon Attack: +13 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 27 (4d8 + 8) piercing damage.
Trunk Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +13 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 19 (3d6 + 8) bludgeoning damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 18) if it is Large or smaller. While grappled this way it is restrained, and Airavata can slam it down for 10 (3d6) bludgeoning damage as part of a later Stomp.
Stomp. Melee Weapon Attack: +13 to hit, reach 5 ft., one prone or grappled creature. Hit: 22 (3d8 + 8) bludgeoning damage. A creature reduced to 0 hit points by this attack is left dying beneath the god's foot.
Monsoon Trumpet (Recharge 5-6). Airavata raises its trunks and trumpets a peal of thunder in a 60-foot cone. Each creature there must make a DC 17 Constitution saving throw, taking 45 (10d8) thunder damage and being knocked prone on a failure, or half damage and not knocked prone on a success.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Cloud-Tread. Reaction: When a creature Airavata can see moves within 10 feet of it, Airavata can shove that creature 10 feet away on a failed DC 17 Strength saving throw, scattering it on a gust of monsoon wind.
Legendary Actions (3/Round)
Trumpet. Airavata makes one Trunk Slam attack.
Surge (Costs 2 Actions). Airavata moves up to its speed without provoking opportunity attacks. Each creature it passes within 5 feet of takes 9 (2d8) bludgeoning damage (DC 17 Dexterity save for none).
Rain of Blessing (Costs 2 Actions). Airavata sheds a cooling rain on an ally it can see within 60 feet; that ally regains 13 (3d8) hit points and ends one condition affecting it.
A mountainous white elephant with a forest of upraised trunks and a crown of tusks, draped in temple-gold barding, standing astride a burning shrine. Storm-clouds gather where it treads.
Airavata, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEStorm-Goad (signature). Once per turn, when the mahout hits with a melee attack, the strike crackles for an extra 9 (2d8) lightning damage, and the target's speed is halved until the end of its next turn.
Actions
Ankus (Lightning Hook). Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (2d8 + 5) piercing damage.
Reactions
Steady the Mount. Reaction: When Airavata or the mahout fails a saving throw within 30 feet, the mahout barks a command word and that creature can reroll the save, using the new result.
A lightning-scarred rider perched between the tusks, ankus raised, translating the god's wrath into a battle-line that obeys.
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 an awakened temple guardian-statue: open by Goring the heaviest-armored hero, then Trunk Slam the squishiest to grapple-pin them in place. If the party clusters on the shrine, save Monsoon Trumpet to scatter them prone. Pair it with a single caster (a priest) so it isn't a pure stat-check.
Open with Trampling Charge into the front line to knock a hero prone, then bonus-action Stomp them. Kill-priority is anyone Airavata has grappled with its trunk. When bloodied, lead with Monsoon Trumpet to reset spacing before the party focuses it down.
This is the flagship boss: use legendary actions every round, Surge to trample through clustered casters, and Rain of Blessing to keep your one allied lieutenant alive. Open with Monsoon Trumpet on the bunched party, then grapple-pin the melee-dependent striker. When bloodied, recharge Trumpet is your panic button.
Put Airavata 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 Airavata?
Its native build is CR 13 (Tier 3, 10,000 XP) — a solo-capable boss with legendary actions whose sheet drops one band so it plays up a CR or two. Drop to the Tier 2 column for CR 6 play or the Tier 1 column for ~CR 2 play; the traits and actions stay identical, only the numbers move.
Can Airavata be a companion or ally?
Yes — as the divine mount of a storm-knight or temple champion it fights at the party's side, and its Rain of Blessing legendary action heals and frees an ally each round. The bound Vajra-Mahout rider is provided as a smaller allied (or rival) statblock if you want the elephant under another creature's command.
How do I keep a Gargantuan elephant from dominating a small map?
Lean into Storm-Bringer: the 30-ft. rain field makes the battlefield work against the party, so you rarely need to chase. Use Cloud-Tread and legendary Surge to reposition instead of full-moving, and the Trunk Slam grapple to lock one target rather than swinging at the whole line.
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
Played Airavata at your table? Log in with your Obsidian Tavern account to leave a balance note, a war story, or a file issue — the sharpest reports get the block revised.
Log in to comment