Moro no Oni 1
Moro no Oni 1 — The Encounter
River-Born Demon of the Reeds, Naginata in Webbed Hand · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Moro no Oni 1
They say a Moro no Oni begins as a drowned thing that refused to stay drowned. It comes up out of the reed-beds with the patience of still water, and where it walks the frogs go silent. Fishermen know the signs: a hat bobbing among the rushes that is not a man's hat, a wet footprint with too many toes, a naginata-haze of bright steel against the dusk. It does not roar. It waits at the ford until a traveler is knee-deep and committed, then the long blade comes hooking out of the dark and takes them by the throat or the hamstring, dragging them down to where it can feed at leisure. Offerings of cucumber and a respectful bow are sometimes enough to buy passage; sometimes they are not. Older villages carve its likeness above the well, half ward, half apology, in the hope that a demon honored is a demon that hunts the next valley instead of this one.
Run Moro no Oni 1 in Sixty Seconds
- Hold at the water. This oni wants a ford, marsh, or riverbank — set the fight there. Near water it gets Riverward Slip and Stealth advantage; on dry ground it is far easier to corner.
- Open with the hook. First swing should hit a PC who hasn't acted yet so Reed-Stalker grapples them, then drag toward the water. The grab is the whole plan; the damage is secondary.
- Fight at 10 feet. Use Reach of the Naginata plus Sidelong Lunge to attack then skate out of melee every turn, slowing whoever it strikes at max reach.
- Kill-priority: the one it grabbed. Focus Raking Claws (advantage while grappling) on the hooked target; everything else is a distraction.
- Three ways to run it: ferryman, ambusher, or boss's hound. A toll-taking guardian of a crossing, a silent reed-bed ambush at dusk, or a skirmisher leashed to a bigger yokai it drags prisoners to.
Moro no Oni 1
Medium fiend (yokai), neutral evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEAmphibious. The oni can breathe air and water.
Reed-Stalker. The oni has advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks made while in or within 5 feet of water, mist, or tall vegetation. After it hits a creature that has not yet acted in combat, that creature is also grappled (escape DC 14) as the oni hooks it with the curved blade.
Reach of the Naginata. The oni's polearm strikes have 10 ft. reach. The first time on a turn it hits a target at maximum reach, the target's speed is reduced by 10 ft. until the start of its next turn.
Actions
Multiattack. The oni makes two attacks with its naginata.
Naginata. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 12 (2d6+3 plus 1d6) slashing damage, and on a critical hit the target also takes 4 (1d8) bleeding (necrotic) damage.
Raking Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (2d4+3) slashing damage. If the oni is grappling the target, this attack is made with advantage.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Sidelong Lunge (Bonus Action). The oni shifts up to 10 feet without provoking opportunity attacks, then may make one Raking Claws attack.
Riverward Slip (Reaction). When the oni takes damage from an attack while within 5 feet of water, it may halve that damage and slide 5 feet into or along the water, going prone in the shallows.
A crouching river-demon the color of pond-scale, beak split in a needle-toothed grin beneath a wide straw hat, balancing a tall hook-bladed naginata it has never once set down.
Moro no Oni 1, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEMarsh-Cunning (signature). Moro no Oni 1 has advantage on saving throws against being grappled or restrained, and ignores difficult terrain made of water, mud, or reeds.
Actions
Hooked Sickle. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d8+3) slashing damage, and the target is pulled 5 feet toward Moro no Oni 1.
Reactions
Cover the Master. When an adjacent ally would be hit by an attack, Moro no Oni 1 raises its broad straw hat and imposes disadvantage on that attack roll.
A smaller, dripping cousin that scuttles at the demon's heel, dragging the wounded into the shallows so its master may feed unhurried.
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 cover at a chokepoint or ford so the first hit grapples a low-level target. Drag that prisoner toward water and full-attack it; let the party split to rescue. Pair it with a larger yokai flagship so this piece is the snare, not the wall.
Open with a max-reach naginata strike to grapple and slow the most mobile PC, then Sidelong Lunge out of melee every turn so it fights from 10 ft. Kill-priority: the squishy it has hooked. Fight near water for Riverward Slip; it is a skirmisher add-on, so pair it with a heavier boss it can feed prisoners to.
Run it as a fast flanker beside a true boss. Grapple-hook the back-line caster, drag them out of formation, and use Sidelong Lunge to stay sticky. Kill-priority: whoever the party needs concentration on. Keep water adjacent so Riverward Slip blunts the nova that tries to drop it.
Put Moro no Oni 1 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 Moro no Oni 1?
Native CR 6 (Tier 2, ~levels 5-10): AC 16, 114 HP, +6 to hit, save DC 14. Scale it with the printed tier table — CR 2-ish at Tier 1, CR 11-ish at Tier 3 — keeping its traits identical and only moving the numbers.
Can Moro no Oni 1 be a companion or ally?
Yes, but it's a brutal one. As an ally it's a grapple-skirmisher that hooks a single foe with its naginata and drags them off; it works best leashed to a stronger patron. For a friendlier table option, field Kawazu, the Hat-Bearer instead.
Is Moro no Oni 1 a solo boss?
No — solo_capable is false. It has no legendary actions and folds quickly to focused fire. Run it as an add-on skirmisher beside a flagship yokai, where its grapple-and-drag tactics make it punch above its weight.
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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