Glaucus
Glaucus — The Encounter
Fisherman who ate the deathless grass and became the tide · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Glaucus
Before the scales, Glaucus was a fisherman who watched his catch leap from the deck and return alive to the waves the instant it touched a certain pale grass growing on the shore. He ate of it himself, and the sea took him for its own: his skin went the color of deep water, his hands grew fins and claws, and his lungs learned the breath of both worlds. The old sea-powers washed the mortality from him in nine rivers, and what surfaced was neither man nor wholly god but a tide that walks. He studied no temple's rite, only the discipline of moving water against stone, and from it built a fighting art that yields, redirects, and drowns. Sailors leave him offerings of fishhooks and first catches; he answers honest prayers and ignores greedy ones. To strike him is to strike the surf, which simply closes again and pulls you under.
Run Glaucus in Sixty Seconds
- What he is a slippery skirmisher-monk, not a stand-and-trade boss; he is built to flank a bigger threat and never get pinned.
- Open with Wave Crash on the most clustered or squishiest target to knock it prone and Douse it, setting up advantage on the follow-up melee.
- Kill-priority enemy controllers and back-line casters; his 40 ft. move plus swim and Riptide Withdrawal let him reach them turn one.
- When bloodied lean on Parting Water and Riptide Withdrawal to kite — bank the reaction for the biggest hit, then Disengage into water where opportunity attacks are at disadvantage.
- Three ways to run him (1) duelist who isolates one PC, (2) controller who spams Wave Crash knockdowns near water, (3) bodyguard who screens a flagship sea-boss and peels attackers off it.
Glaucus
Medium humanoid (dragonborn), neutral
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEAmphibious. Glaucus can breathe air and water.
Flowing Step. Difficult terrain that is liquid or wet does not slow Glaucus, and opportunity attacks against him are made with disadvantage. He never falls prone from a failed save while in or on water.
Tide-Shaper (signature). Glaucus channels the deathless brine through his hands. He may end one effect on himself that allows a save at the end of his turn (recharge 5-6), and the first creature he hits each turn is doused: until the start of his next turn that creature is coated in clinging water, granting Glaucus advantage on his next attack against it and dealing 5 (2d4) cold damage if it is hit by lightning damage.
Actions
Multiattack. Glaucus makes three Brine Strikes, or two Brine Strikes and one Wave Crash.
Brine Strike. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) bludgeoning damage plus 5 (2d4) cold damage.
Wave Crash. Ranged Spell Attack: +6 to hit, range 30 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (3d6 + 3) cold damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 14 Strength save or be pushed 10 ft. and knocked prone.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Riptide Withdrawal (bonus). Glaucus takes the Dash or Disengage action, or stands from prone without provoking opportunity attacks.
Parting Water (reaction). When Glaucus is hit by an attack, he can use his reaction to gain a +3 bonus to AC against that attack, possibly causing it to miss; he then moves up to 10 ft. without provoking opportunity attacks.
A lithe, blue-scaled draconian frozen mid-kata, one webbed claw raised and the other trailing a conjured blade of living water, robes belted with sea-knotted gold.
Glaucus, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEWater Form (signature). The elemental can move through a space as narrow as 1 inch wide without squeezing, and gains advantage on attacks against any creature that is grappled, restrained, or prone.
Actions
Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) bludgeoning damage.
Reactions
Engulfing Surge. When a creature within 5 ft. fails a save against being pushed or knocked prone, the elemental can use its reaction to grapple it (escape DC 13).
A coil of cold, near-colorless water that Glaucus calls up from any wet ground, shaped roughly to a man and just as roughly dispersed.
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 Wave Crash to knock a clustered front-liner prone, then close and Brine Strike the prone target with advantage from Doused. Use Riptide Withdrawal every round so melee can never pin him. Pair him with a heavier brute or caster; Glaucus is the slippery skirmisher, not the kill threat.
Open by Dousing the squishiest caster with Wave Crash (prone + your next-attack advantage), then triple Brine Strike to dump cold damage. Hold Parting Water for the biggest incoming hit and reposition out of melee. Pair him with a flagship sea-boss; he is the deny-and-reposition piece that punishes anyone who clumps near water.
Lead with Wave Crash to scatter a clustered line, then Multiattack the prone, Doused target. Kill-priority is enemy controllers; his mobility lets him cross the field each turn. He still wants a bigger threat beside him to soak attention while he peels casters off the back rank.
Put Glaucus 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 Glaucus?
Natively CR 6 (Tier 2, levels 5-10): AC 16, HP 123, attacks at +7, save DC 14, about 30-40 damage per round across three strikes. Scale him to CR 2 or CR 11 with the Tier 1 / Tier 3 lines without changing any of his traits.
Can Glaucus be a companion or ally?
Yes. As a former mortal fisherman who answers honest prayers, he makes a natural neutral patron or guide for a seafaring party. Use the bound Pale Brine-Elemental statline as his summoned ally, or run Glaucus himself as a temporary ally who fights beside the party against a shared sea-threat.
Is Glaucus a solo boss?
No. He has no legendary actions and is designed as an add-on skirmisher. Pair him with a flagship adversary — a sea-deity, a leviathan, or a pirate-lord — where he plays the mobile deny-and-reposition piece rather than the centerpiece.
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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