Pangu
Pangu — The Encounter
First-Born giant whose axe split heaven from earth · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Pangu
Before sky and soil knew one another, all was a black egg of churning chaos, and within it slept Pangu, the First-Born. For eighteen thousand years he grew, until the shell could no longer hold him, and he rose with his great cleaver and clove the murk in two. The clear and light drifted upward to become the heavens; the heavy and dark settled below to become the earth. Fearing the two would close again, Pangu set his feet upon the ground and his crown against the sky, and for eighteen thousand more years he pushed them apart, growing taller by the day until the gulf between them was fixed forever. When at last his labor was done, the giant lay down and died, and his breath became the wind and clouds, his voice the thunder, his eyes the sun and moon, his blood the rivers, and his bones the mountains. To rouse him is to stir the architecture of the world.
Run Pangu in Sixty Seconds
- He is a boss, not an add. Pangu is solo_capable at tier 3 with legendary actions — drop him in as the centerpiece of a creation-myth set piece, not as one giant in a crowd.
- Open wide. Lead with Heaven-Earth Sundering down the line the party clustered in; the prone-on-fail plus difficult terrain sets up his whole turn.
- Kill-priority: the anchor. Use Titan's Footing and Sundering Cleaver to shove the tank or healer away and prone, then carve the exposed backline.
- When bloodied, spend legendary actions on Quake-Step every round to keep meleers prone and force ranged-only retaliation while you reposition.
- Three ways to run him: as a raw force-of-nature solo (tier 3 + legendaries), as a tier-2 brute paired with archer minions, or as a tier-1 lone landmark the party must outwit rather than out-damage.
Pangu
Huge giant, neutral
CR 11 · 7,200 XP · GUIDELINESundering Cleaver. Pangu wields the world-splitting axe with which he parted sky from soil. Once on each of his turns when he hits a creature with the axe, the target must succeed on a DC 17 Strength saving throw or be pushed 15 feet and knocked prone as the blow drives them earthward.
Primordial Constitution. Pangu has advantage on saving throws against being charmed, frightened, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, or put to sleep.
Mountainous Frame. Pangu can move through the space of any creature smaller than Huge. He does not provoke opportunity attacks when he leaves a creature's reach in this way.
Actions
Multiattack. Pangu makes two attacks with his world-splitting axe.
World-Splitting Axe. Melee Weapon Attack: +11 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 22 (3d10 + 7) slashing damage.
Heaven-Earth Sundering (Recharge 5-6). Pangu drives the axe into the ground, splitting the earth in a 30-foot line that is 5 feet wide. Each creature in that line must make a DC 17 Dexterity saving throw, taking 36 (8d8) force damage and falling prone on a failed save, or half as much damage and remaining standing on a success. The struck ground becomes difficult terrain until the end of Pangu's next turn.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Titan's Footing. Reaction. When a creature Pangu can see hits him with a melee attack, he may shove with his shoulder. The attacker must succeed on a DC 17 Strength saving throw or be pushed 10 feet away.
Legendary Actions (3/Round)
Stride. Pangu moves up to half his speed without provoking opportunity attacks.
Hewing Blow. Pangu makes one World-Splitting Axe attack.
Quake-Step (Costs 2 Actions). Pangu stamps the earth. Each creature within 10 feet of him must succeed on a DC 17 Dexterity saving throw or take 11 (2d10) thunder damage and be knocked prone.
A weathered colossus of cliff-hard muscle, Pangu hefts a world-splitting cleaver over one shoulder, his horned mantle and braided beard caked with the dust of a young creation, standing astride riven stone that still glows along its fissures.
Pangu, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEBreath of Day and Night (signature). When Pangu opens its eyes the region is bathed in daylight; when it closes them, darkness falls. As a bonus action it may shed bright light in a 30-foot radius or extinguish it, dimming the area to darkness for 1 minute.
Actions
Serpent's Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 17 (2d12 + 4) piercing damage.
Reactions
Coiling Ward. When Pangu is hit by a ranged attack, Pangu may interpose its coils, granting Pangu resistance to that attack's damage.
A vast crimson torch-dragon whose waking and sleeping turn the very day, summoned to ward the giant's flank while the world is unmade.
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 by stepping into the densest cluster and using Heaven-Earth Sundering to scatter and prone the party before they can focus fire. Kill-priority is anyone who keeps standing up to flank; use Sundering Cleaver to keep them on their backs. At this tier run him as a lone landmark threat, not a swarm member.
Lead with two axe swings on the squishiest target in reach, then Sundering Cleaver to shove a healer or caster prone and out of position. Recharge Heaven-Earth Sundering whenever two or more PCs line up. Pair him with ranged minions so the party cannot both close on him and dodge his line attack.
Solo boss: open with Heaven-Earth Sundering down the line where the party stacked, then spend legendary actions on Hewing Blow and Quake-Step to keep meleers prone and at range. Kill-priority is the party's anchor (cleric or tank) — shove him away with Titan's Footing, then carve the exposed backline. When bloodied, lean on Quake-Step every round to deny footing.
Put Pangu 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 Pangu?
Pangu is built as a CR 11 solo boss at his native third tier (levels 11-15), worth 7,200 XP. He also scales down to a tier-2 brute (~CR 6) and a tier-1 landmark threat (~CR 2); the trait kit is identical at every tier, only the numbers change.
Can Pangu be a companion or ally?
As a world-shaping titan he is far too large and willful to serve as a party companion, but the encounter ships with Zhulong, Stirred — a torch-dragon ally (AC 15, 124 HP) whose waking and sleeping turn day to night and who shields Pangu from ranged fire. Use Zhulong as the allied or summoned piece beside the giant.
Is Pangu safe to publish without IP concerns?
Yes. Pangu is drawn entirely from public-domain Chinese creation mythology — the First-Born giant who split heaven from earth and whose body became the world. No proprietary fantasy cosmology, names, or characterizations are used, so the identity is clean.
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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