Bishui Golden Eyed Beast
Bishui Golden Eyed Beast — The Encounter
Serpent-maned flood-brute with eyes of molten gold · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Bishui Golden Eyed Beast
In the old river annals the Bishui is named among the beasts that rise when floodwaters break their banks. It dwells in the black silt of drowned valleys, sleeping out the dry seasons coiled in mud, and wakes only when the rains swell the torrents enough to carry it inland. Fishermen know it first by its eyes, two coins of cold gold floating on the surface at dusk, and the wise turn their boats and pray. Those who meet its gaze are said to be rooted where they stand, unable to flee as the water climbs. Serpents nest in the matted mane about its skull, and where it walks the earth softens to bog. Village elders hang bronze mirrors at the river gate to throw the creature's own golden stare back upon it, for it is told that the Bishui, like a covetous man, cannot bear to look long upon its own reflected greed.
Run Bishui Golden Eyed Beast in Sixty Seconds
- Gaze first. Open every fight with Golden Gaze on the loudest melee threat (DC 14 Wis); a fail by 5+ freezes them incapacitated, which is your whole tempo plan.
- Grapple and drag. Bite locks a Medium-or-smaller target (escape DC 15); haul it toward water where the beast swims 40 ft. and your allies don't.
- Kill-priority. Players will avert their eyes to dodge the gaze, which hands you advantage to ignore — go for whoever is still looking, then the healer.
- When bloodied, stop grappling and start sweeping: lead with Drowning Surge (4d6 + prone) on the tightest cluster, then Multiattack a prone target with advantage.
- Three ways to run it: ambush brute (rise from a flooded ford), bound-pair (with the Mirewatcher flanking), or the muscle for a flood-cult boss who hides behind it.
Bishui Golden Eyed Beast
Large monstrosity, chaotic evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEGolden Gaze. The beast's eyes shine like wet gold. A creature that starts its turn within 30 feet of the beast and can see its eyes must succeed on a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw or be frightened until the start of its next turn. On a failed save by 5 or more, the creature is also incapacitated as it freezes in dread. A creature can avert its eyes to avoid the save, gaining disadvantage on attacks against the beast until its next turn.
Amphibious. The beast can breathe air and water, and moves through water without penalty.
Brute. A melee weapon deals one extra die of its damage when the beast hits with it (included below).
Actions
Multiattack. The beast makes two attacks: one with its Bite and one with its Claws.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 18 (3d8 + 5) piercing damage. If the target is a Medium or smaller creature, it is grappled (escape DC 15) and the beast can't bite another target.
Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 16 (2d10 + 5) slashing damage.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Drowning Surge (Recharge 5-6). As a bonus action, the beast conjures a churning wave in a 15-foot cube within 30 feet. Each creature there must make a DC 14 Strength save or take 14 (4d6) bludgeoning damage and be knocked prone; on a success it takes half damage and is not knocked prone.
A hunched mountain of grey-green muscle, its serpent-tangled mane crowned with stubby horns and its jaws split in a fanged roar. The molten-gold eyes never blink, and water beads endlessly from its scaled hide.
Bishui Golden Eyed Beast, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINESilt Camouflage (signature). While in mud, marsh, or shallow water, the Bishui Golden Eyed Beast has advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks and is lightly obscured to creatures more than 20 feet away.
Actions
Raking Talons. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) slashing damage.
Reactions
Tide Guard. When an ally within 10 feet is hit by an attack, the Bishui Golden Eyed Beast may impose disadvantage on that attack roll by lunging into the blow.
A lean, half-grown spawn of the flood-brute that trails its parent through the silt, learning the killing-grounds of the drowned valleys.
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 with Golden Gaze to lock down the loudest melee threat, then wade in and Bite-grapple it. If the party clusters, save Drowning Surge to scatter and prone them. Kill-priority is anyone who breaks line-of-sight on the gaze; pair it with a flood-cult leader so the brute is the muscle, not the brain.
This is the home tier: open by gazing the highest-AC defender, then Bite to grapple and drag toward water. When clustered, Drowning Surge knocks the back line prone before they can focus-fire. It is an ADD-ON bruiser, not a boss; pair it with a bigger water-spirit or commander and let it tie up the front line while the flagship threatens the casters.
Lead with Golden Gaze to incapacitate the strongest striker, then Multiattack the grappled victim every round. Use Drowning Surge the instant the party bunches near the waterline. Still the heavy, not the centerpiece; deploy it beside a true flood-deity boss so high-level parties can't simply burst the lesser threat first.
Put Bishui Golden Eyed Beast 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 Bishui Golden Eyed Beast?
Natively CR 6 (Tier 2, ~levels 5-10): AC 15, 126 HP, +7 to hit, save DC 14, roughly 34 damage a round across Bite and Claws. Stat blocks for Tier 1 (~CR 2) and Tier 3 (~CR 11) are provided so you can drop it into any party; the traits and actions stay identical, only the numbers move.
Can Bishui Golden Eyed Beast be a companion or ally?
As a chaotic-evil flood-brute it makes a poor party pet, but its half-grown spawn, the Mirewatcher (AC 13, 76 HP), is a ready-made ally — a silt-stalking flanker with Tide Guard to shield a frontliner. A druid, river shaman, or anyone who tames the drowned valleys could plausibly bind one.
Is the Bishui solo-capable as a boss?
No. It has no legendary actions and only one recharge wave, so a focused party will collapse it before it earns its keep alone. Run it as an add-on bruiser beside a genuine flagship — a flood-deity, a water-spirit, or a cult leader — where it ties up the front line while the real boss does the dangerous work.
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 Bishui Golden Eyed Beast 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