Gumiho
Gumiho — The Encounter
Nine-tailed fox spirit who wears a borrowed face · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Gumiho
Of the fox-spirits that haunt the mountain shrines, none is feared as the nine-tailed gumiho, for a fox that lives a thousand years grows that many tails and learns to wear the shape of a beautiful woman. She keeps to the lonely gates and lantern-lit paths where travelers pass at dusk, offering a smile, a bowl of wine, a place to rest. Those who follow her home are seldom seen again, for the gumiho prizes the warm liver and the living breath of mortals above all things, and she takes them slowly, so the borrowed face never slips. Some tales say a gumiho who abstains from human flesh for a thousand days may at last become human in truth, and so a few are met not as monsters but as creatures starving between two natures. To bind one, the wise hang mirrors at the threshold, for no fox can hold its mask in glass.
Run Gumiho in Sixty Seconds
- She is a manipulator, not a brawler. Open with charm/dominate on your hardest hitter and turn the party against itself before claws ever come out.
- Kill-priority is whoever breaks charms. She targets the cleric, the mirror-bearer, anyone who can end domination first.
- When bloodied, she does not die. Three tails are three free saves at 1 HP, so commit a single big burst rather than chipping her down.
- Three ways to run her: the shrine ambush (lone woman at a lantern gate), the social trap (a beloved NPC who is already her), or the boss fight (full legendary actions, fox-fire familiar lighting the dark).
Gumiho
Medium fey (shapechanger), neutral evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEShapechanger. The gumiho can use its action to polymorph into a Small or Medium humanoid it has seen, or back into its true nine-tailed form. Its statistics, other than its size, are the same in each form. It reverts to its true form if it dies.
Nine Tails. Signature. The gumiho channels its years through its nine tails. While it has at least one tail, it has advantage on saving throws against being frightened or knocked prone, and the first time each round a creature within 10 ft. starts its turn there, that creature must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom save or be unable to take reactions until its next turn, lulled by drifting fur. When the gumiho is reduced to 0 hit points, if at least three tails remain it instead drops to 1 hit point and one tail withers away (it can do this no more than three times).
Innate Spellcasting. The gumiho's innate spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 15). It can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components: At will: charm person, disguise self, minor illusion; 3/day each: suggestion, invisibility; 1/day: dominate person.
Actions
Multiattack. The gumiho makes two Claw attacks, or one Claw attack and casts a spell.
Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8+4) slashing damage.
Devour Vitality (Recharge 5-6). The gumiho touches one creature it can reach that is charmed by it or unable to take reactions. The target must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw, taking 22 (4d10) necrotic damage on a failure, or half as much on a success. The gumiho regains hit points equal to the damage dealt.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Fox Step. Bonus Action. The gumiho moves up to half its speed without provoking opportunity attacks, leaving a flicker of fox-fire where it stood.
Legendary Actions (3/Round)
Whispered Word. The gumiho forces one creature within 30 ft. that can hear it to make a DC 15 Wisdom save or be charmed until the end of its next turn.
Lash of Tails (Costs 2 Actions). The gumiho makes one Claw attack against each creature within 10 ft. of it.
Veiling Glamour. The gumiho casts disguise self or minor illusion, or moves up to its speed without provoking opportunity attacks.
A serene woman in flowing robes stands beneath a moonlit gate, but the nine fox tails fanned behind her betray the hunger underneath the borrowed smile. Stone lanterns light the spot where she waits for the lonely traveler.
Gumiho, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEFox-Fire Familiar (signature). Gumiho is a darting wisp of blue fox-flame. It can occupy another creature's space and provides its bonded ally advantage on Charisma (Deception) checks made against any creature within 15 ft. of it.
Actions
Ember Bite. Melee Spell Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (2d6+2) fire damage, and the target sheds dim light in a 5-ft. radius until the end of its next turn, unable to benefit from being hidden.
Reactions
Will-o-Lure. When a creature the familiar can see moves within 10 ft. of it, Gumiho flares; that creature must succeed on a DC 13 Wisdom save or move 5 ft. toward the flame instead.
A spark struck from the gumiho's tails, kept on a leash of want, that lights false paths and gutters out the dark a victim might flee into.
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 charm person on the most isolated PC, then lead them off with Fox Step. Save Devour Vitality for a charmed target so the heal lands. Pair her with thugs or a shrine cult so the party can't simply gang the lone fox.
She is a solo trickster: open from invisibility with dominate person on the party's striker, then spend legendary Whispered Word to keep someone charmed every round. Kill-priority is the PC with mirrors or counterspell-style magic. When bloodied she burns tails to survive, Fox Steps to a charmed wall of allies, and uses Devour Vitality on the dominated PC to top off.
Run her as a true thousand-year fox: lead with dominate person, then alternate Lash of Tails and Whispered Word between rounds. Kill-priority is whoever can dispel her charms. She will outlive three death-saves on her tails, so pressure her with single big bursts rather than chip damage.
Put Gumiho 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 Gumiho?
Her native sheet is CR 6 (2,300 XP), tuned for a level 5-10 party. Scaled blocks for tiers 1 (~CR 2) and 3 (~CR 11) are provided. As a solo with legendary actions she plays up a band, so treat her as a centerpiece rather than one of several.
Can Gumiho be a companion or ally?
Yes, but warily. A gumiho seeking to abstain from human flesh and become human in truth makes a compelling reluctant ally; her charm and shapeshifting are superb for infiltration, though every party should wonder what she eats. Her bound fox-fire familiar Yeou-bul is the safer party-side option.
How do you fight a gumiho fairly?
Deny her the charm. Hang mirrors at thresholds (no fox holds its mask in glass), protect your support casters, and never let her isolate a single PC at a lonely gate. Force her into the open where her tricks matter less than your numbers.
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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