Tambanokano
Tambanokano — The Encounter
The Eclipse-Crab whose claws swallow sun and moon · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Tambanokano
The fisherfolk of the southern isles speak of Tambanokano, the crab so vast that the sea itself answers its hunger. When it stirs in the deep, the tide draws back to bare the reef; when it rises, the waters climb the shore and drown the lowlands. The eldest tellings name it the cause of eclipses: hungry beyond reckoning, the great crab climbs the unseen ladder between sky and ocean to seize the sun in one claw and the moon in the other, and for a breath the world goes dark until the lights tear free of its grip. No spear pierces its shell, no net holds its bulk. Pearl-divers leave it offerings of buffalo and rice wine where the foam runs red at dusk, and beg it to keep to the trench. It answers nothing. It only hungers, and the moon, climbing again, is its escaped and shining prey.
Run Tambanokano in Sixty Seconds
- Hold the line at the water. Tambanokano wants you in the shallows - it has swim 40 ft. and grapples on every Claw. Fight it on dry, open ground if you can choose.
- Open with a double-grab. Two Claws, two targets grappled, then Multiattack swaps a Claw for Crush to lock one down restrained. That is your turn-one nightmare for the party.
- Kill-priority: free the grappled PC. A restrained character is taking Crush damage every round - escape DC 16 or an outside hand. Break the grip before you chip the shell.
- When bloodied, it stops sharing claws around and pins one victim, Crushing every round while Snapping Pincer answers anyone who closes - peel it off fast.
- Three ways to run it: as a lone tide-monster terror over a flooded reef; as a centerpiece beast with buffalo-clan skirmishers; or as the muscle beside a bigger boss like a Bakunawa, where it just removes two PCs from the fight.
Tambanokano
Huge monstrosity, unaligned
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEAmphibious. The Tambanokano can breathe air and water.
Tide-Drinker. Folk say the great crab climbs to bite the sun and moon. Once per turn, when the Tambanokano hits a creature it is grappling, the strike deals an extra 7 (2d6) bludgeoning damage and the water around it surges: the ground within 10 ft. of the crab becomes difficult terrain until the start of its next turn as the swell rushes out.
Actions
Multiattack. The Tambanokano makes two Claw attacks. It can replace one Claw with a use of Crush, and can use Crush only against a creature it is grappling.
Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 16 (2d10 + 5) bludgeoning damage. If the target is a Large or smaller creature, it is grappled (escape DC 16). The crab has two claws, each of which can grapple only one target.
Crush. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature grappled by the crab. Hit: 22 (4d8 + 5) bludgeoning damage, and the target is restrained until the grapple ends.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Snapping Pincer. Reaction. When a creature the Tambanokano can see ends its move within 10 ft. of the crab, the crab makes one Claw attack against it. On a hit, the target is grappled as normal.
A mountain of barnacled shell hauls itself from the surf on jointed legs, one pincer bloated to monstrous size, its jagged mandibles parting around a wet, cavernous maw.
Tambanokano, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEReef-Sense (signature). Tambanokano has blindsight 30 ft. and cannot be surprised while in or adjacent to water.
Actions
Pincer. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) bludgeoning damage, and a Medium or smaller target is grappled (escape DC 14).
Reactions
Undertow. When an ally within 10 ft. is hit by a melee attack, Tambanokano surges the water and slides that ally 5 ft. to an unoccupied space, granting it +2 AC against that attack.
A lesser eclipse-crab, scarcely the size of a war-canoe, bound by reef-charms to a diver's command.
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 lurching from the surf and grabbing the nearest melee fighter with a Claw, then dragging them into the shallows. Keep the grappled target Crushed and restrained while a second front-line PC works the legs. At this tier it is a terrifying set-piece monster - pair it with a flooded map and a few buffalo-clan skirmishers, not solo against a fresh party.
Open by grabbing two PCs at once - one claw each - then alternate Crush on whoever is restrained, using Snapping Pincer to punish anyone who steps clear. Kill-priority is the grappled casters; Tide-Drinker churns the footing so support can't reach them. Run it as a centerpiece beast with buffalo-clan minions or alongside a Bakunawa-tier threat, not as a lone duel.
Lead with Snapping Pincer baiting, grab the two squishiest PCs and immediately Crush to restrain. Hold both grapples and let Tide-Drinker lock the battlefield in difficult terrain so rescuers crawl. It out-grapples a party but cannot out-act four turns of focus fire alone - field it as the muscle of a lair fight with a spellcasting handler or a swarm of lesser crabs.
Put Tambanokano 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 Tambanokano?
Natively CR 6 (Tier 2, ~levels 5-10): AC 16, 138 HP, +8 to hit, grapple/restrain escape DC 16. The block also scales down to a CR 2-ish Tier 1 version and up to a CR 11-ish Tier 3 version - same traits and actions, only the numbers move.
Can Tambanokano be a companion or ally?
Yes - use the bound lesser eclipse-crab 'Talahib' in the companion block (AC 14, 82 HP) as a grappling bruiser with a protective Undertow reaction. The full Tambanokano is built as an adversary, not a player ally.
Is Tambanokano a solo boss?
No. It is a punishing grappler but lacks a legendary action kit, so a four-player party can out-act it over time. Run it as a centerpiece beast with minions or paired with a larger threat rather than a one-on-one duel.
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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