Capricorn
Capricorn — The Encounter
The Horned Sea-Goat, Risen Where Tide Meets Sky · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Capricorn
Where the old sailors charted the turn of the year, the sea-goat was the sign that ruled the deep cold months, half mountain-beast and half thing of the abyss. The grimoires hold that it was no mere star-sign but a living guardian set at the boundary of two worlds, the upper air and the drowning dark, and that it answered to neither. Fishermen of the southern coasts still carve its horned coil upon their keels, for they say it will not drag down a vessel that names it kin, yet will hound to the depths any who plunder the reefs it watches. It rises on the longest nights, beating frost from its wings, and where it surfaces the tide runs backward and the shallows grow rimed with ice. To meet its golden, animal eyes is to feel the year itself turn against you, patient and merciless as winter water.
Run Capricorn in Sixty Seconds
- Hold near water. The sea-goat wants a pond, river, or coastline within reach; if there is none, it loses advantage and the cold burst, so fight it dry whenever you can.
- Open by surfacing. Lead with a dive-and-rise so the first gore lands the extra cold damage, then knock a front-liner prone with the Strength save.
- Kill-priority is anyone in the water. Drowning Coil restrains and grinds out cold damage every round; free the grappled ally fast or they drown.
- When bloodied, it dives. Below half HP it uses Surfacing Lunge and swim speed to break line of sight under the surface and ambush the squishiest target.
- Three ways to run it: a lone reef guardian harrying ships, the watch-dog beside a zodiac flagship boss, or a frostbound omen-beast that rises on the longest night.
Capricorn
Large monstrosity, neutral evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEAmphibious. The sea-goat can breathe air and water equally well.
Tide and Sky. Signature. While in or touching a body of water, the sea-goat has advantage on attack rolls. The first time on a turn it surfaces from water or dives down from flight at least 20 feet, its next melee attack that hits deals an extra 9 (2d8) cold damage as it drags brine and freezing spray with it.
Actions
Multiattack. The sea-goat makes one Horn Gore attack and two Rending Claw attacks.
Horn Gore. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 15 (2d10 + 4) piercing damage, and a Large or smaller target must succeed on a DC 15 Strength saving throw or be pushed 10 feet and knocked prone.
Rending Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) slashing damage.
Drowning Coil (Recharge 5-6). The sea-goat lashes its serpentine tail at one creature within 10 feet. The target must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw or take 18 (4d8) bludgeoning damage and be grappled (escape DC 15). While grappled this way the target is restrained, and at the start of each of the sea-goat's turns it takes 9 (2d8) cold damage.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Surfacing Lunge. Reaction. When a creature the sea-goat can see hits it with a melee attack while it is in water, the sea-goat may swim up to 20 feet without provoking opportunity attacks, ending in water or air.
A horned, fish-tailed terror rears from the surf, four taloned arms spread beneath vast feathered wings as its scaled coil churns the black water below.
Capricorn, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEFrost-Wake (signature). When the Capricorn moves through or out of water, the first creature it passes within 5 feet of must succeed on a DC 13 Constitution saving throw or have its speed halved until the end of its next turn.
Actions
Goring Butt. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (2d4 + 4) piercing damage.
Reactions
Tidewards. When an ally within 5 feet is hit by an attack, the Capricorn can shove between them and the attacker, granting the ally resistance to that attack's damage.
A young sea-goat, barely larger than a pony, that paddles in the wake of its sire and snorts plumes of freezing mist.
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 from the water with Horn Gore to knock the front-liner prone, then claw at whoever stands up. Drowning Coil pins the squishiest target near the shore. Kill-priority is anyone trying to flee inland; it has no business here without a bigger flagship piece beside it.
Open by diving and surfacing for the bonus cold burst, then gore-and-prone the tank and claw a caster. Save Drowning Coil for the lowest-AC PC and drag them into deep water where it has advantage. This is the watch-dog piece: pair it with a flagship boss and let it guard the flanks while picking off stragglers near the surf.
Open with Drowning Coil on the strongest melee to lock them in freezing water, then Multiattack the casters. Surface and dive each round for the cold rider. Kill-priority is anyone with fire or fly; pair it with a larger threat so it can fixate on the back line rather than soak the party's burst alone.
Put Capricorn 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 Capricorn?
Capricorn is CR 6 (2,300 XP) at its native tier 2, tuned for a party of levels 5-10. Scaled tiers are provided for levels 1-4 and 11-15 with the same traits and only the numbers moved.
Can Capricorn be a companion or ally?
The full sea-goat is built as an adversary, but the included Brine-Calf, Bound is a downscaled juvenile sea-goat (AC 14, 76 HP) suited as an ally, mount, or summoned guardian for a water-themed character.
Is Capricorn a solo boss?
No. It is not solo_capable and has no legendary actions. Run it as an add-on that guards the flanks of a larger flagship boss, or as a recurring reef-guardian threat in serial encounters.
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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