Danu
Danu — The Encounter
Celtic Mother of Waters, Goddess of the Sacred Tree and Well · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Danu
Before the rivers had names, the waters fell from the heavens and gathered, and where they gathered Danu rose. She is the mother from whom the bright folk descend, the Tuatha De Danann who bear her name as a child bears the name of a hearth. The old singers say she is not separate from the great tree nor from the well that feeds its roots; tree, water, and goddess are one breathing thing, and to wound any of the three is to wound all. Pilgrims who sicken come to drink at her font, and those who come with honest grief are sent away whole. Yet she is no idle nurse. When the careless put torch to her groves or foul her springs, the roots remember, and the same waters that heal can rise to drown. She gives life freely and reclaims it without malice, as a river reclaims the bank.
Run Danu in Sixty Seconds
- Frame her right: Danu is the Celtic mother goddess of the sacred tree and well, a neutral good celestial, not a fiend. She nurtures by default and only turns lethal when her groves or waters are defiled.
- Hold the well: keep her within 30 ft. of her font so Mother of Waters gives advantage and the once-per-day drop-to-1 save. The party's real win condition is dragging or luring her out of that aura.
- Open with control: lead with entangle or a Reaching Bough grapple to pin the front line, then Wellspring Torrent (Recharge 5-6) the cluster for 10d6 cold and prone.
- When bloodied: she stops attacking and turns to survival, spending legendary actions on Cleansing Tide each round and Verdant Surge to keep melee off her, racing to outheal the party.
- Three ways to run her: a healing grove-guardian boss (T3 with well aura), a mid-game controller add (T2 with Well-Wardens), or a gentle avatar that only fights if provoked (T1, drop legendary actions).
Danu
Large celestial, neutral good
CR 11 · 7,200 XP · GUIDELINEMother of Waters. Danu and her sacred well are one. While she stands within 30 ft. of running water or her font, she has advantage on saving throws and her spells ignore resistance to cold damage. If she would drop to 0 hit points within that aura, she instead drops to 1 hit point (once per day) as the well surges to sustain her.
Innate Spellcasting. Danu's spellcasting ability is Wisdom (spell save DC 17, +9 to hit with spell attacks). She can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components: At will: druidcraft, entangle, healing word; 3/day each: call lightning, plant growth, wall of water; 1/day each: commune with nature, tree stride.
Magic Resistance. Danu has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Actions
Multiattack. Danu makes two Reaching Bough attacks, or makes one Reaching Bough attack and casts a spell.
Reaching Bough. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 18 (3d8 + 4) bludgeoning damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 17 Strength saving throw or be grappled (escape DC 17) by ensnaring roots.
Wellspring Torrent (Recharge 5-6). Danu calls a surge from her sacred font in a 30-foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a DC 17 Dexterity saving throw, taking 35 (10d6) cold damage and being knocked prone on a failed save, or half damage and not knocked prone on a success.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Tending Hand. As a bonus action, Danu touches a creature within 10 ft. or herself, ending one disease or one of the following conditions affecting it: blinded, deafened, paralyzed, or poisoned.
Legendary Actions (3/Round)
Quickening Root. Danu makes one Reaching Bough attack.
Cleansing Tide (Costs 2 Actions). Danu heals herself or one creature she can see within 60 ft. for 16 (3d8 + 3) hit points and ends one condition she could end with Tending Hand.
Verdant Surge (Costs 2 Actions). Difficult terrain of grasping growth erupts in a 20-foot radius around Danu until the start of her next turn. Each creature that starts its turn there must succeed on a DC 17 Strength saving throw or have its speed reduced to 0 until the end of its turn.
A serene goddess stands cradled within the trunk of a great World Tree, its boughs spreading like a green crown above a sacred well that brims with ever-flowing water around her feet.
Danu, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINERooted Vigil (signature). While within 20 ft. of a natural water source, Danu has advantage on Strength checks and saving throws and cannot be moved against its will.
Actions
Tangling Limb. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 16 (3d6 + 5) bludgeoning damage, and a Medium or smaller target is grappled (escape DC 15).
Reactions
Sheltering Bark. When an ally within 10 ft. is hit by an attack, Danu interposes its trunk, reducing the damage by 8 (2d6 + 1).
A walking offshoot of the World Tree, planted by Danu to guard her well and turn aside those who come to defile it.
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 lesser grove-spirit avatar: open with entangle to lock a clustered party, then jab with Reaching Bough. Kill-priority is whoever is grappled and isolated. At this scale drop Wellspring Torrent to 4d6 and skip legendary actions; pair her with a stronger fey or beast as the real threat.
Open by anchoring the front line with grasping roots, then alternate Reaching Bough and a heal to outlast the party. If foes cluster, Wellspring Torrent for cold damage and prone. She is durable but not a true boss here, so give her one or two Well-Warden adds and let her play the controller.
Centerpiece boss. Open by staying within 30 ft. of her font for the Mother of Waters aura, grapple the melee with Reaching Bough, then Wellspring Torrent the cluster. Spend legendary actions on Cleansing Tide to undo burst damage and Verdant Surge to pin runners. Kill-priority for the party is to break her from the well, the moment she leaves the aura she loses her safety net.
Put Danu 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 Danu?
Her native build is CR 11 (Tier 3, levels 11-15) as a solo centerpiece boss: AC 18, 195 HP, +9 to hit, save DC 17, with legendary actions. Scaled-down Tier 1 (~CR 2) and Tier 2 (~CR 6) versions are provided for lower-level tables, dropping the legendary actions at Tier 1.
Can Danu be a companion or ally?
Yes. As a benevolent mother goddess she makes a natural patron or sanctuary-keeper rather than a recurring combatant. Use the Well-Warden (Bann) as a planted ally that fights alongside the party, while Danu herself grants healing, commune with nature guidance, or tree stride passage as a quest reward.
Is Danu solo-ready, or does she need backup?
She is genuinely solo-capable at Tier 3 thanks to legendary actions, her self-healing, and the well aura that can save her from a killing blow once per day. At lower tiers she loses the legendary actions and plays better as a controller paired with Well-Wardens or other fey threats.
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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