Andromeda
Andromeda — The Encounter
Chained Princess Offered to the Tide · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Andromeda
They chained the king's daughter to the tide-rock when the oracle named her price for a mother's pride. Andromeda of Aithiopia stands where the surf gnaws stone, bound in coils meant for the maw of the deep, and yet she does not weep. Sailors swear the braziers were lit not to guide the monster but to mark a martyr, and that her courage stilled the very waves that should have drowned her. To free her is to earn a friend of rare resolve; to leave her is to feed the abyss and curse the coast. She knows the gods are cruel and bargains anyway, trading her terror for the small mercy of a blade against her bonds. Heroes have crossed half the world to cut those coils, and the sea has never forgiven a single one of them. Where Andromeda stands, the horizon holds its breath, and somewhere beneath the foam, something vast and patient begins to rise.
Run Andromeda in Sixty Seconds
- She starts restrained. Andromeda cannot move or attack until her coils are cut (escape DC 13, or AC 13 / 10 HP per coil). The whole encounter is a race to free her.
- Open with a plea. On turn one she casts Sacred Flame at the nearest threat and uses Defiant Plea to hand an ally advantage. She is a buffer, not a damage dealer.
- Kill-priority for the enemy is HER. The boss wants its sacrifice; have monsters ignore the party and lunge for the bound princess until someone forces them off.
- When bloodied / dropped, the sea saves her once. Tide's Mercy drags her free of her coils at 1 HP the first time she would fall while bound. Use it for a dramatic beat.
- Three ways to run her: as a rescue objective (default), as a freed temporary ally who buffs the party post-rescue, or as the tragic stakes that make the real monster terrifying.
Andromeda
Medium humanoid (human), neutral good
CR 2 · 450 XP · GUIDELINEBound Sacrifice. Andromeda begins each encounter restrained by serpentine bonds (escape DC 13 or 10 minutes of cutting, AC 13, 10 HP per coil). While bound she cannot take the Dash, Disengage, or Attack actions, but she may still cast spells and use Defiant Plea. The moment her bonds are severed, she gains advantage on her next attack roll or saving throw.
Heart of the Captive. Andromeda has advantage on saving throws against being frightened or charmed. Any ally who can see her gains advantage on saves against fear while within 30 feet of her.
Actions
Multiattack. Andromeda makes two Improvised Strike attacks, or one attack and casts a cantrip if her bonds are broken.
Improvised Strike. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d6+2) bludgeoning damage, or 6 (1d8+2) slashing damage if wielding a freed shard of chain.
Sacred Flame (Cantrip). Ranged Spell Attack: The target must succeed on a DC 13 Dexterity saving throw or take 7 (2d6) radiant damage. The target gains no benefit from cover for this save.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Defiant Plea (1/turn). As a bonus action, Andromeda calls out to one creature she can see within 30 ft. That creature has advantage on its next attack roll against an enemy of hers before the start of her next turn.
Tide's Mercy. When Andromeda is reduced to 0 HP while bound, she instead drops to 1 HP and the churning sea drags her free of her coils (no longer restrained). Once per encounter.
A slender princess in a wind-torn dress rises within a teardrop arch of flaming braziers, her arm flung skyward as serpentine coils wind about her and the sea boils at her feet.
Andromeda, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEShared Doom (signature). While within 30 ft. of Andromeda, this attendant priestess grants Andromeda advantage on death saving throws and may use her reaction to take half the damage of any attack that would hit Andromeda.
Actions
Ceremonial Sickle. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 4 (1d4+2) slashing damage, and the target's next attack against Andromeda has disadvantage.
Reactions
Cut the Coils. When an ally severs one of Andromeda's bonds, the priestess may move up to 15 ft. without provoking opportunity attacks to reach her side.
A veiled attendant who followed her princess to the tide-rock, sickle in hand, refusing to let her face the deep alone.
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 her as a rescue objective, not a brawler: she opens restrained, pleading and lobbing Sacred Flame at whatever menaces her rescuers. The instant a PC cuts her coils she throws Defiant Plea to set up the kill on the real threat. Pair her with a bigger sea-monster boss who wants her dead before she is freed.
At this tier she is a hardened blessed survivor; keep her alive as a beacon while the party fights the abyssal flagship. She buffs allies' fear saves and feeds advantage with Defiant Plea every round. Kill-priority for enemies is her, since freeing her swings the encounter.
Reskin as a near-deified martyr whose courage anchors an entire coastline. She is still no solo threat, so pair her with a Kraken-scale boss; she exists to keep the party's morale up and deny the boss its sacrifice. Enemies should rush to silence her before her allies cut the coils.
Put Andromeda 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 Andromeda?
Native CR 2 (450 XP), a Tier 1 encounter for levels 1-4. She is not solo-capable; she is a rescue-objective add-on meant to share a scene with a far larger sea-monster boss. The tiers block scales her AC, HP, to-hit, and DC up to Tier 3 if you need her to survive a higher-level abyssal fight.
Can Andromeda be a companion or ally?
Yes, and it is her best use. Once a PC severs her bonds she becomes a courageous temporary ally: she buffs nearby allies' saves against fear, hands out advantage with Defiant Plea each round, and chips in with Sacred Flame. Use the companion block (Cassiopeia's Penance) if you want a second attendant figure rescued alongside her.
How do you free her, and what happens if you don't?
Cutting a coil is a DC 13 Strength (Athletics) check, an escape attempt, or simply attacking the bonds (AC 13, 10 HP each). If the party fails to free her before the boss reaches her, run it as a hard moral loss: the sea claims its sacrifice and the coastline's doom is sealed, raising the stakes of every following encounter.
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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