Tangaroa
Tangaroa — The Encounter
Polynesian sea-father who commands the sharks of the deep · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Tangaroa
Tangaroa is the sea itself given a glaring, muscled shape: father of the tides, of the fish, and of all that swims in the salt dark. The Polynesian peoples remember him as the brother who quarreled with the wind and the forest, retreating beneath the waves to rule a kingdom no boat may map. Fishermen pour the first catch back to him; pearl-divers whisper his name before the plunge. When he is angered, the reef boils and the sharks come in their hundreds, for they are his hunting hounds and answer his every gesture. He is not cruel, only vast and indifferent as the ocean, and he reckons drowned sailors no differently than spent rain. To meet him is to stand before the patience of deep water, which forgives nothing and forgets less, and which will always, in the end, reclaim what walks the shore.
Run Tangaroa in Sixty Seconds
- Terrain first: the 30-ft. water ring is difficult terrain and Tide-Caller drags fliers and dashers down — set this up before initiative so PCs feel the ocean fighting them.
- Open with control: Riptide (or Call the Sharks) to pull the party into the water and prone them, THEN swing — a prone, grappled party can't out-act him.
- Kill-priority: Tangaroa drowns the support — whoever frees allies from grapple/prone or restores speed dies first; Maw of the Deep is his pin tool.
- When bloodied: lean on Undertow every round and Call the Sharks on recharge; he stops chasing and makes the PCs come to him across his lethal tide.
- Three ways to run him: SOLO god of the deep (T3, full legendary kit) / co-boss beside a flagship (T2 numbers) / scaled-down tide-spirit with shark minions (T1) — same kit, just move the numbers.
Tangaroa
Huge celestial (titan), neutral
CR 11 · 7,200 XP · GUIDELINEAmphibious. Tangaroa can breathe air and water.
Tide-Caller. Signature. The first time each turn a creature within 30 ft. of Tangaroa enters or starts in difficult terrain made of water, or is grappled by him, it must succeed on a DC 16 Strength saving throw or be pulled 10 ft. toward him and knocked prone. The ground within 30 ft. of Tangaroa is difficult terrain for creatures other than him.
Sea Sovereign. Tangaroa has advantage on saving throws against being charmed, frightened, or paralyzed. Beasts of the sea (sharks, whales, and similar) will not willingly attack him.
Actions
Multiattack. Tangaroa makes two Tidal Fist attacks. He can replace one with Call the Sharks (if available).
Tidal Fist. Melee Weapon Attack: +12 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 22 (3d8 + 7) bludgeoning damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 16 Strength saving throw or be pushed 15 ft. away and knocked prone.
Surge. Ranged Spell Attack: +9 to hit, range 60 ft., one target. Hit: 18 (4d6 + 4) cold damage as a lash of black seawater, and the target's speed is halved until the end of its next turn.
Call the Sharks (Recharge 5-6). Tangaroa hurls a crushing wave in a 30-foot cone, riding it with his shark host. Each creature in the area must make a DC 16 Dexterity saving throw, taking 36 (8d8) bludgeoning damage and being knocked prone on a failure, or half damage on a success. Creatures that fail are also grappled (escape DC 16) by the surge until the start of Tangaroa's next turn.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Undertow (Reaction). When a creature Tangaroa can see within 30 ft. moves or casts a spell, he can lash out with a wave. The creature must succeed on a DC 16 Strength saving throw or have its movement reduced to 0 until the end of its turn (if it was moving) or take 13 (3d6 + 3) cold damage (if it cast a spell).
Legendary Actions (3/Round)
Surge. Tangaroa makes one Surge attack.
Riptide (Costs 1 Action). Each creature within 20 ft. of Tangaroa must succeed on a DC 16 Strength saving throw or be pulled 15 ft. toward him and knocked prone.
Maw of the Deep (Costs 2 Actions). A spectral hammerhead shark surges from the water. Make a melee attack: +12 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 27 (4d8 + 7) piercing damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 16).
Rising from a churning wave, this Huge sea-father snarls beneath a crown of bound hair, his scarred arms thrown wide as hammerhead and great sharks coil through the surge at his heels. The whole base is living water rendered in frozen crystal motion.
Tangaroa, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEBlood in the Water (signature). Tangaroa has advantage on attack rolls against any creature that doesn't have all its hit points, and its swim speed is 60 ft.
Actions
Savage Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 17 (3d8 + 4) piercing damage. If the target is a creature, it is grappled (escape DC 14).
Reactions
Feeding Frenzy. When an ally within 30 ft. reduces a creature to half its hit points or fewer, Tangaroa can move up to its swim speed toward that creature without provoking opportunity attacks.
A great hammerhead bound to Tangaroa's will, gliding through wave and surf as the god's foremost hunting hound.
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 with Call the Sharks on the clustered party to scatter and knock them prone, then wade in with Tidal Fist on the squishiest target. Use Tide-Caller terrain to keep melee PCs from massing on him. As a lesser tide-spirit here, pair him with a school of reef minions rather than running him as a full god.
Lead with Surge to halve the healer's or caster's speed, then Multiattack the kill-target. Hold Undertow for the first PC who tries to dart past or cast through the difficult-terrain ring. Strong as a co-boss alongside a Chuya/CCM flagship rather than the sole encounter at this band.
Solo-viable: open by yanking the party into the water with Riptide, then Call the Sharks for the cone. Spend legendary actions on Maw of the Deep to grapple the front-liner and Surge the backline; punish every cast/dash with Undertow. Kill-priority is whoever can cure the prone/grapple lock — drown them first.
Put Tangaroa 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 Tangaroa?
Native CR 11 (Tier 3, ~7,200 XP) as a solo-capable boss — his legendary actions and the Undertow reaction let him play up against a 4-PC party. Scale him down to the Tier 2 (~CR 6) or Tier 1 (~CR 2) line for lower-level tables; the kit is identical, only the numbers move.
Can Tangaroa be a companion or ally?
Not directly — he is a Huge sea-father, far too vast to follow a party. But his bound hammerhead, Mako (AC 13, 90 HP), can serve as a companion or allied summon, hunting wounded foes with Blood in the Water and Feeding Frenzy.
Does Tangaroa work without water terrain?
He's strongest at a coast, reef, or flooded ruin where his tide ring and Call the Sharks shine, but he isn't helpless on dry land — he can surge up rivers, floodwater, or rain-soaked battlefields. Just expect his control tricks to feel weaker far from the sea, so place the fight near deep water for the intended experience.
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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