Taniwha
Taniwha — The Encounter
Armored guardian-serpent of the deep river places · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Taniwha
Where a river bends deep and a tribe keeps no fishing, ask why; a taniwha sleeps in that hollow of the water. These armored guardian-serpents are older than the carved posts that mark their pools, and the people who share their banks treat them with the deference owed to a chief. A taniwha that is honored will turn back a flood, foul an enemy's canoe, and carry word of trespass on the current. A taniwha that is insulted, fished out, or fouled becomes a devouring thing, dragging the careless under and crushing the bold beneath its tail. They do not chase across dry land for long, for their weight is meant for the deep; but in their own waters nothing escapes the coil and the undertow. To cross a taniwha's stretch of river, one offers a green branch and asks leave aloud.
Run Taniwha in Sixty Seconds
- It lives in the water. Stage the fight on a river, lake, or flooded ruin; on dry land it is half a monster. The map is the encounter.
- Open with grab-and-drown. Undertow pulls a PC into deep water, Bite grapples (escape DC 15), and Drowning Coils starts the suffocation clock. That is the whole game plan.
- Kill-priority for the party: water-breathers. Anyone who can breathe or cast Water Breathing defuses the drown. The taniwha targets them first; smart parties protect them.
- When bloodied, it dives and resets, surfacing to grapple a fresh target rather than trading blows on the surface. Recharge Tail Sweep punishes anyone who clusters to free the grappled ally.
- Three ways to run it: a deferential guardian that demands tribute to pass; an enraged drowner after its pool was fouled; or a lair-beast paired with a bigger flagship boss while it controls the water.
Taniwha
Large dragon, neutral
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEAmphibious. The taniwha can breathe air and water.
Hold Breath (on land). Out of its waters the taniwha is heavy and slow, but relentless; it has advantage on saving throws against being moved while it is in contact with the ground.
Drowning Coils. Signature. A creature grappled by the taniwha is dragged into the water at the start of the taniwha's turn (it may swim while grappling). A creature that ends its turn grappled and submerged begins to suffocate unless it can breathe water.
Actions
Multiattack. The taniwha makes one Bite attack and one Claw attack. If the Bite hits a Large or smaller creature, the taniwha can grapple it (escape DC 15).
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 18 (3d8 + 5) piercing damage.
Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 12 (2d6 + 5) slashing damage.
Tail Sweep (Recharge 5-6). The taniwha sweeps its armored tail in a 15-foot cone. Each creature there makes a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw, taking 21 (6d6) bludgeoning damage and being knocked prone on a failure, or half damage on a success.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Undertow. Reaction. When a creature the taniwha can see starts its turn within 10 feet of it in water, the taniwha may pull that creature up to 10 feet toward it; the creature must succeed on a DC 15 Strength save or be pulled.
A river-long water-dragon sheathed in ridged stone-grey plates and rows of spines, its crocodilian maw bristling with teeth as it heaves up from a rocky pool.
Taniwha, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINERiver-Sense (signature). While in or adjacent to water, the Taniwha has advantage on Perception checks and cannot be surprised.
Actions
Snapping Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) piercing damage.
Reactions
Drag Down. When an adjacent creature in water hits an ally, the Taniwha may pull the attacker 5 feet and impose disadvantage on its next attack this turn.
A younger river-guardian, smaller and quicker, that has chosen a worthy keeper of its waters to swim beside.
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 from the water: surface, Bite-grapple the lightest-armored PC, and drag them under on your turn. If the party clusters on a bank, save Tail Sweep for it. Pairs with a flooded map and weak swimmers; keep it near deep water so retreating to land costs the party their footing.
Open with Undertow to pull a target into the river, then Bite-grapple and start Drowning Coils so the suffocation clock runs. Kill-priority is whoever can breathe water or cast Water Breathing; remove them and the fight becomes a drowning race. Tail Sweep the shoreline when 2+ PCs bunch up, and never let the party fight it fully on dry land.
Run it as a lair guardian of a flooded ruin, not a solo: pair it with a bigger threat (a flood-priest or an elemental) and let it control the water while they control the room. Open with Undertow, grapple, and Drowning Coils on the strongest swimmer; Tail Sweep clustered melee. It excels at sustained grapple-and-drown pressure while minions or a flagship boss do the killing.
Put Taniwha 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 Taniwha?
Its home tier is CR 6 (Tier 2, levels 5-10): AC 16, HP 126, +7 to hit, save DC 15. Scale it to CR 2 for a Tier 1 party or up to CR 11 as a Tier 3 lair guardian using the tier table.
Can Taniwha be a companion or ally?
Yes. A younger river-guardian, the Tide-Marked (AC 14, 75 HP), can swim beside a worthy keeper of its waters, dragging foes under and warning of every ripple. It is a water-bound ally, strong in its element and sluggish out of it.
Is Taniwha solo-boss material?
Not on its own. It has a punishing grapple-and-drown kit but no legendary actions, so a four-PC party out-acts it. Run it as a lair guardian or pair it with a bigger flagship threat that controls the dry ground while the taniwha owns the water.
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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