Serpopards
Serpopards — The Encounter
Long-Necked Sentinel of the Nile, Guardian of the Sealed Gate · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Serpopards
Carved upon the oldest cosmetic palettes of the Two Lands, the serpopard twines its leopard's body upon a neck like a hunting cobra. The scribes name them threshold-things: shaped by temple-craft to stand where the worlds of the living and the embalmed press against one another. Where two of them meet, their necks entwine into a single knot, and that knot is a seal no looter may pass. This one has been girded in scale-wraps and given the spear and the sun-disc shield of a tomb-soldier, set to guard a sealed gate against all who would break the offerings of the dead. It does not hunger, does not tire, and does not flee; it simply watches, and when a foot crosses the warded line its long neck strikes out faster than a man can step back. To slay it, the priests warn, is to break a covenant older than the dynasties, and the dust beyond the gate remembers every name that did so.
Run Serpopards in Sixty Seconds
- Hold, don't chase. The serpopard is a gate-keeper, not a hunter. Plant it on a threshold or tomb line and let the party walk into its 10-ft. reach.
- Open with Coiled Lunge. The first PC to step into its reach eats a free spear attack via Sinuous Reach before they even act, set the tone immediately.
- Kill-priority: the line-crosser. Always spend attacks on whoever is trying to slip past the gate, not the nearest body.
- When bloodied, it digs in harder rather than fleeing (it is immune to frightened and never breaks watch). Use Shield Bash to knock a striker prone and stall their advance.
- Three ways to run it: (1) lone choke-point warden, (2) a Twin-Necked pair flanking a doorway with the +1 AC seal, (3) a screen in front of a flagship caster boss who shelters behind its reach.
Serpopards
Medium monstrosity, lawful neutral
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINESentinel's Vigil. The serpopard has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks and cannot be surprised while it stands watch over a ward, threshold, or tomb it has been bound to guard.
Sinuous Reach. Signature. The serpopard's impossibly long neck and braced spear let it threaten a wide arc. Its melee reach is 10 ft., and once per turn when a creature it can see enters its reach it can use its reaction to make a Ceremonial Spear attack against that creature (the Coiled Lunge reaction).
Actions
Multiattack. The serpopard makes two Ceremonial Spear attacks, or one Ceremonial Spear attack and one Shield Bash.
Ceremonial Spear. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 16 (2d10 + 4) piercing damage. If the target is Large or smaller it must succeed on a DC 14 Strength saving throw or be pushed 5 ft. away.
Shield Bash. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) bludgeoning damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or be knocked prone.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Coiled Lunge (Reaction). In response to a creature entering its 10-ft. reach (see Sinuous Reach), the serpopard makes one Ceremonial Spear attack against that creature.
A tall, jackal-faced warrior on a serpent's long neck, clad in gilded Nile scale-wraps, bracing a ceremonial spear over a sun-disc shield as it eternally keeps watch.
Serpopards, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEEntwined Seal (signature). While within 10 ft. of an ally, the Serpopards and that ally each gain a +1 bonus to AC as their long necks weave a shared guard.
Actions
Warding Spear. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) piercing damage.
Reactions
Interpose. When an ally it can see within 5 ft. is hit by an attack, the Ward can use its reaction to swap places with that ally (if Medium or smaller) and become the target instead.
A second sentinel whose neck loops toward its partner's, the pair forming a living gate that closes the gap an intruder hopes to slip through.
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 holding the threshold and letting the party come to it so Coiled Lunge fires on the first foe to step in. If they cluster at the choke, spear the front-liner and Shield Bash to knock it prone. Kill-priority: whoever tries to slip past the gate. Pair it with a caster boss who hides behind its reach.
Open by guarding a doorway or tomb line; Sinuous Reach plus Coiled Lunge punishes the first PC to advance, so make them eat a free spear attack. When clustered, Multiattack the closest melee threat and bash the squishiest into prone. Kill-priority: anyone heading for the sealed gate. This is the warder piece, pair it with a bigger threat like a high-priest or sphinx that it screens.
Open by anchoring a 10-ft. reach zone the party must cross, baiting Coiled Lunge on entry. If they bunch up, spear the front and bash a striker prone to break their action economy. Kill-priority: teleporters and fliers trying to bypass the gate. Run two as a Twin-Necked seal flanking a flagship boss.
Put Serpopards 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 Serpopards?
Native CR 6 (Tier 2, levels 5-10): AC 16, 120 HP, +7 to hit, save DC 14. Scale it down to CR 2 for Tier 1 or up to roughly CR 11 for Tier 3 using the tier table, the traits and actions stay identical, only the numbers move.
Can Serpopards be a companion or ally?
Yes. The Twin-Necked Ward, Bound (AC 15, 72 HP) is a defender ally whose Entwined Seal grants a shared +1 AC and whose Interpose reaction lets it swap places with a hit ally, ideal for a guardian-NPC or a tank-style sidekick.
Is the serpopard a real myth and is this version IP-safe?
Yes. Serpopards are genuine public-domain iconography from predynastic Egyptian art (the Narmer Palette and similar cosmetic palettes), long-necked leopard hybrids that often entwine into a sealing knot. This stat block draws only on that folklore and SRD-safe rules, so it is clean to publish.
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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