Sheshanaga
Sheshanaga — The Encounter
The thousand-headed serpent on whose coils the cosmos rests · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Sheshanaga
Before the first dawn, when nothing had yet been measured, the great serpent floated upon the shoreless ocean and let the sleeping cosmos rest upon its coils. It is called the Endless One, for its thousand hoods stretch beyond counting and its body has neither beginning nor close. The seven heads seen by mortals are only the tips of an immensity coiled through the deep waters of creation, and when at the close of an age the serpent yawns, fire pours from its mouths and the worlds are unmade so they may be made again. Sages say it holds the earth steady as a crown holds a jewel; were it ever to shift its weight, mountains would fall and seas would climb. It guards the sleeping and the dreaming, and the wise approach it not with steel but with reverence, for to wound the World-Bearer is to crack the foundation of all things.
Run Sheshanaga in Sixty Seconds
- Hold the heads. Many-Headed regrows a head (and heals 10 HP) at end of turn unless it took fire or radiant damage that round. Make sure your party knows: keep fire or radiant landing every round or this fight never ends.
- Open with Sweep of the Hoods. Lead with the 30-ft cone to knock as many PCs prone as possible, then Constrict your biggest melee threat so it stays pinned next to you.
- Kill-priority is the silencer's target. Use Constrict + Tightening Coils on the enemy caster to grapple, crush, and shut off verbal spells. A silenced healer is a dead party.
- When bloodied (103 HP), it sheds discretion. Lean on Venom Spray and Sweep to hit clustered PCs, and reposition so casters can't easily land the fire/radiant that stops your heads.
- Three ways to run it: (1) cosmic boss, full legendary kit solo; (2) lair guardian with naga warrior adds, leaning on grapple; (3) puzzle-monster where the party must discover fire/radiant is the only off-switch.
Sheshanaga
Gargantuan celestial (naga), lawful good
CR 13 · 10,000 XP · GUIDELINEMany-Headed. Sheshanaga has seven cobra heads. While it has more than one head, it has advantage on saving throws against being blinded, charmed, deafened, frightened, stunned, and knocked unconscious. Whenever Sheshanaga takes 30 or more damage in a single turn, one of its heads dies. If all its heads die, the serpent is slain. At the end of its turn, it grows one head for each head that died since its last turn, unless it has taken fire or radiant damage since then. Sheshanaga regains 10 hit points for each head it grows.
World-Bearer's Poise. Signature. Sheshanaga is the still axle of creation. It cannot be moved against its will, knocked prone, or restrained, and it ignores difficult terrain. The first time each turn a creature within 15 ft. is reduced to 0 hit points or fails a save against the serpent's coils, Sheshanaga regains 10 hit points as the world settles upon it once more.
Actions
Multiattack. Sheshanaga makes two Bite attacks and uses Constrict.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +12 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 18 (3d8+7) piercing damage plus 9 (2d8) poison damage.
Constrict. Melee Weapon Attack: +12 to hit, reach 20 ft., one Huge or smaller creature. Hit: 21 (3d10+7) bludgeoning damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 17). Until the grapple ends, the target is restrained, and Sheshanaga can't constrict another target.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Tightening Coils. When a creature grappled by Sheshanaga's Constrict starts its turn, the serpent can use its reaction to crush, dealing 14 (2d10+3) bludgeoning damage to that creature. The creature must then succeed on a DC 17 Constitution saving throw or be unable to speak or cast spells with verbal components until the start of its next turn.
Legendary Actions (3/Round)
Lash. Sheshanaga makes one Bite attack.
Sweep of the Hoods (Costs 2 Actions). Sheshanaga sweeps its seven heads in a 30-foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a DC 17 Dexterity saving throw, taking 22 (4d10) bludgeoning damage and being knocked prone on a failure, or half damage on a success.
Venom Spray (Costs 2 Actions). Sheshanaga spews venom in a 30-foot line. Each creature in the line must make a DC 17 Constitution saving throw, taking 27 (6d8) poison damage on a failure, or half as much on a success. A creature that fails is also poisoned until the end of its next turn.
A colossal serpent rears from its own endless coils, seven jeweled cobra hoods flared wide above a body thick as temple pillars, the slow weight of the world balanced on its glittering scales.
Sheshanaga, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINELiving Gemstone (signature). Sheshanaga is a serpent-spirit crowned with the world-jewel. Allies within 15 ft. of it have advantage on saving throws against being frightened or poisoned, and the jewel sheds dim light in a 20-foot radius that cannot be extinguished by nonmagical means.
Actions
Venom Fang. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8+4) piercing damage plus 7 (2d6) poison damage.
Reactions
Warding Glimmer. When an ally within 15 ft. is hit by an attack, Sheshanaga flares its jewel; the ally gains a +3 bonus to AC against that attack, possibly causing it to miss.
A lesser naga that twines about the World-Bearer's coils, its hood crowned by a luminous gem that wards those it deems worthy.
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 a single hood as a guardian of a sacred pool. Open with Constrict on the loudest melee fighter and use Tightening Coils to crush and silence a caster. Kill-priority is anyone with fire; remove the regenerating-head trait at this tier so a CR2 add stays fair.
A temple-deep coil that grapples and crushes while minions screen for it. Open Constrict on the frontline, Bite the healer, and use Tightening Coils every round to shut down verbal spellcasting. Pair it with naga warriors or a rakshasa as the real brain; it is the wall, not the boss yet.
Solo centerpiece. Open with Sweep of the Hoods to knock the party prone, Constrict the heaviest hitter, and crush-silence the caster with Tightening Coils. When bloodied, deny party fire/radiant by spreading out via Venom Spray, since fire is the only thing that stops its heads from regrowing; kill-priority for the party is the fire/radiant source.
Put Sheshanaga 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 Sheshanaga?
Its native build is CR 13 (10,000 XP), tuned for an 11th-15th level party. Because it is a true solo boss with a full legendary kit and a punishing reaction, its sheet drops one band so the action economy plays up. Scaled-down CR2 and CR6 stat lines are provided in the tiers.
Can Sheshanaga be a companion or ally?
The World-Bearer itself is too vast to bind, but Nagaratna, the Crown-Jewel, is its provided companion: a luminous serpent-spirit that wards allies against fear and poison and flares its gem to deflect incoming attacks. Use it when you want naga power on the party's side.
How do players actually beat it?
By exploiting Many-Headed: it regrows heads and heals every turn unless it takes fire or radiant damage. The party must commit a reliable source of fire or radiant each round, then chunk it for 30+ damage in a turn to lop off heads. Spread out to blunt the cone and line attacks, and free grappled allies fast before Tightening Coils silences a caster.
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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