Nuwa
Nuwa — The Encounter
Serpent-Tailed Mother who Mended the Broken Sky · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Nuwa
Before the ten thousand things had names, when the four pillars of the sky buckled and fire poured through a wound in heaven, it was Nuwa who climbed the breach. With her own hands she smelted five-colored stones to mend the sky, severed the legs of a great turtle to prop the cardinal points, and gathered the ash of burned reeds to dam the rushing floodwaters. The same hands shaped the first people from yellow river-clay—the careful ones by finger, the multitude flung from a cord dragged through mud. Below the waist she is serpent, the coil that binds creation; above, she is mother and sovereign. Petitioners carve her likeness for matchmaking, childbirth, and the staunching of disasters, for she is the menderess: where the world tears, she stitches; where it empties, she fills. She does not seek battle, but those who would unmake what she wove find her patient, unyielding, and very hard to kill.
Run Nuwa in Sixty Seconds
- She is a healer-tank, not a nuker. The whole fight is attrition: Sky-Mender's Boon heals 10 every turn and her reaction patches allies, so a slow party loses by exhaustion. Force the pace.
- Open with Molding Word. Drop the 30-ft cone on the clustered party turn one to restrain the back line, then Constrict the front-liner to peel them off the healer.
- Kill-priority is her action economy, not her HP bar. Strip her reaction (Patch the Cracks) and deny legendary actions by spreading out; if she can't Coiling Glide to allies, her healing dries up.
- When bloodied, she fights to mend, not to win. She will spend 1/day Mass Cure Wounds and turtle behind a Word of Making clay wall. Burst her in the round you bloody her or she resets.
- Three ways to run her: wounded river-spirit miniboss (T1), pillar-guardian of a sacred site mid-dungeon (T2), or the climactic world-mother defending creation itself (T3, solo with Goujiao).
Nuwa
Large celestial, lawful good
CR 11 · 7,200 XP · GUIDELINESky-Mender's Boon. Signature. At the start of each of Nuwa's turns, she or one creature she can see within 30 ft. regains 10 hit points. While she has 1 or more hit points, allies within 30 ft. have advantage on saving throws against being frightened. When the wounded sky cracks, she patches it.
Innate Spellcasting. Nuwa's spellcasting ability is Charisma (save DC 17, +9 to hit). She casts without material components: at will—mending, sacred flame, shield of faith; 3/day each—cure wounds, healing word; 1/day each—mass cure wounds, wall of stone.
Actions
Multiattack. Nuwa makes one Constrict attack and one Scepter attack, or she casts a spell and makes one attack.
Constrict. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 22 (4d8 + 4) bludgeoning damage, and a Large or smaller target is grappled (escape DC 16). Until the grapple ends, the target is restrained.
Mending Scepter. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 18 (3d8 + 4) radiant damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 17 Wisdom saving throw or be unable to take reactions until the end of its next turn.
Molding Word (Recharge 5-6). Nuwa shapes living clay into binding form in a 30-foot cone. Each creature there must make a DC 17 Constitution saving throw, taking 36 (8d8) force damage and being restrained until the end of its next turn on a failure, or half as much damage and not restrained on a success.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Patch the Cracks (Reaction). When an ally Nuwa can see within 30 ft. takes damage, she grants that ally resistance to that instance of damage and it regains 5 hit points.
Legendary Actions (3/Round)
Scepter Strike. Nuwa makes one Mending Scepter attack.
Coiling Glide. Nuwa moves up to her speed without provoking opportunity attacks. If she ends adjacent to an ally, that ally regains 5 hit points.
Word of Making (Costs 2 Actions). Nuwa casts cure wounds or sacred flame, or conjures a 10-foot wall of clay (AC 15, 30 hit points) in an unoccupied space she can see within 60 ft. that lasts until the start of her next turn.
Crowned and robed in flowing silk, the great mother rises from storm-clouds on a coiling jeweled serpent's tail, one hand raising the scepter that patched the shattered heavens, the other open in blessing.
Nuwa, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEPillar of the World (signature). Allies within 10 ft. of Nuwa have half cover and cannot be knocked prone. While Nuwa is within 30 ft. of Nuwa, she has advantage on Constitution saving throws.
Actions
Shell Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 16 (2d10 + 5) bludgeoning damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 15 Strength save or be knocked prone.
Reactions
Brace the Sky. When a creature within 5 ft. would be hit by an attack, Nuwa grants it +3 AC against that attack, possibly causing it to miss.
The ancient turtle whose four severed legs once propped the corners of heaven, now a living buttress lumbering at the goddess's side.
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 wounded local river-deity, not a world-mother. Open with Constrict on the party's striker to pin them, then heal whoever the enemy clusters on. Kill-priority is the constrained PC's allies; without legendary actions here, lean on Sky-Mender's Boon to outlast a 4-PC party.
A mid-fight pillar-guardian. Open with Molding Word on a clustered party to restrain the back line, then Constrict the front-liner. She tanks while healing; focus-fire her or she resets the encounter every round. Pair her with Goujiao to make melee miserable.
Home tier, solo boss with legendary actions. Open with Molding Word to lock down the cluster, Constrict the biggest threat, and spend legendary actions on Coiling Glide + Scepter Strike to stay mobile and topped-up. Kill-priority her healing engine: until she is bloodied she will out-mend most parties, so burst her or strip her reactions. She plays up roughly two CR thanks to legendary actions and self-healing.
Put Nuwa 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 Nuwa?
Her native sheet is CR 11 (7,200 XP), built for level 11-15 parties as a solo boss with legendary actions. Scaled-down CR ~2 and CR ~6 stat lines are provided in the tiers table for lower-level tables; the traits and actions are identical, only the numbers move.
Can Nuwa be a companion or ally?
Yes. As the creator-mother she makes a natural patron or temporary ally rather than a follower—use her Innate Spellcasting and Patch the Cracks reaction to keep a wounded party alive, and let Sky-Mender's Boon read as divine favor. For a controllable battlefield ally, the bound turtle-pillar Goujiao is the cleaner pick.
Is Nuwa intended as a boss or an add-on?
A boss. She is a genuine centerpiece: solo_capable with legendary actions and strong self-healing, so she anchors an encounter alone or alongside Goujiao. If you want her as an add-on instead, run a lower tier and treat her as the support healer behind a bigger flagship threat.
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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