Manaia
Manaia — The Encounter
Bird-headed warden of sky, land, and sea · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Manaia
In the old tellings of the southern seas, the manaia is the messenger that walks between the three realms: the head of the bird for the sky, the body of the man for the land, and the tail of the fish for the waters below. Carved into prow and lintel, its likeness wards the home against ill spirits and carries the prayers of the living to the ancestors. It is no idle ornament. When the boundaries between worlds are torn open, a manaia takes flesh to set them right, descending on membraned wings with blade and club in hand. It speaks with birds and with the creatures of the tide alike, and the frightened find their courage restored in its shadow. To strike at one under its protection is to invite the wrath of three worlds at once. Sailors still carve its coiling form before any long voyage, trusting the warden to see them home across sky, shore, and sea.
Run Manaia in Sixty Seconds
- It is a bodyguard, not a boss. Pair the manaia with a flagship threat. Its whole job is to keep that threat alive with Guardian's Rebuke and to lock down whoever the party most wants to reach.
- Open with the warclub. Lead on the strongest melee attacker, force the DC 14 Con save, and stun them out of a turn before the party can pile damage onto your boss.
- Kill-priority is the ward. The manaia always positions between attackers and the ally it protects; it will tail-grapple anyone trying to slip past it to the back line.
- When bloodied, take the water or the air. Warden of Three Realms means terrain never slows it. Flee to a pool or a ledge, reset, and keep shielding.
- Three ways to run it: escort (guards a single boss), gatekeeper (blocks a chokepoint with grapple and stun), or duo (fight beside Tai the Tide-Drawn for relentless drag-and-pin control).
Manaia
Medium celestial, neutral good
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEWarden of Three Realms. The manaia is at home in sky, on land, and in water. It ignores difficult terrain, cannot be knocked prone while it has at least 1 hit point, and gains a swim speed equal to its walking speed while in water. This is its signature gift as guardian of the three worlds.
Spirit-Touched Weapons. The manaia's weapon attacks are magical. When it hits with any weapon, the target takes an extra 7 (2d6) radiant damage (included below).
Actions
Multiattack. The manaia makes two attacks: one with its serrated blade and one with its tail or warclub.
Serrated Blade. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) slashing damage plus 7 (2d6) radiant damage.
Warclub. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) bludgeoning damage plus 7 (2d6) radiant damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or be stunned until the end of its next turn.
Lashing Tail. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) bludgeoning damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 15) if it is Medium or smaller.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Guardian's Rebuke (Reaction). When a creature the manaia can see attacks an ally within 30 feet, the manaia can impose disadvantage on that attack roll. If the attack still hits, the attacker takes 7 (2d6) radiant damage.
A serpent-tailed sentinel with the proud head of a bird and a human warrior's torso, wings spread between worlds. It hovers over a carved base, serrated blade in one hand and warclub in the other, scaled tail coiled like a fish drawn from the deep.
Manaia, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEBorne on the Current (signature). Manaia has a swim speed of 40 ft. and can breathe air and water. While in or adjacent to water, attack rolls against Manaia have disadvantage.
Actions
Barbed Spear. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft. (10 ft. thrown), one target. Hit: 10 (1d8 + 4) piercing damage plus 4 (1d8) cold damage.
Reactions
Undertow. When an enemy within 10 ft. moves, Manaia can attempt to drag them 5 ft. toward the nearest water or difficult terrain (DC 14 Strength save to resist).
A scaled lesser spirit of the shallows that surfaces to fight beside the warden, spear flashing like a leaping fish.
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 the warclub on the loudest front-liner to stun and stall. If foes cluster on an ally, spend Guardian's Rebuke to punish the attacker. Kill-priority is whoever threatens its ward; pair it with a bigger threat so the party cannot ignore the chip damage.
Open by flying in, tail-grappling the squishiest caster, then warclub-stunning the strongest melee. Use Guardian's Rebuke every round to shield the flagship boss it escorts. When bloodied, retreat to water or high ground where it ignores terrain and reposition; this is the bodyguard piece, not the centerpiece.
Lead with a tail grapple to pin a key target, then alternate stunning warclub and radiant blade. Spend the reaction to protect the encounter's true boss. Kill-priority on its ward; against a party this tier, run it as a mobile guardian add screening a legendary threat.
Put Manaia 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 Manaia?
Manaia is built at CR 6 (2,300 XP) in its native Tier 2 form, sized for a party of levels 5-10. Scaled stat blocks for Tier 1 (levels 1-4) and Tier 3 (levels 11-15) are provided so you can drop it into almost any table.
Can Manaia be a companion or ally?
Yes. As a neutral good guardian spirit, the manaia makes a natural protector ally, screening a wounded NPC or PC, restoring courage to the frightened, and using Guardian's Rebuke to ward whoever it has sworn to guard. Tai, the Tide-Drawn, can join as its companion.
Is Manaia a solo boss?
No. The manaia has no legendary actions and is designed as an add-on guardian. Run it alongside a stronger flagship adversary, where its bodyguard reaction and stun-and-grapple control shine; alone it lacks the action economy to anchor a fight.
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 Manaia 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.
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