Tanuki 3
Tanuki 3 — The Encounter
Straw-hatted trickster of the moonlit road, twin blades drawn · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Tanuki 3
The bake-danuki is no mere beast but a shapeshifter of old repute, said to drum upon its own belly beneath the autumn moon and to pay for sake with leaves that look like coin until dawn. This one has set aside its drum for two short blades, learning the way of the wandering swordsman it once mimicked for sport. It haunts mountain passes and lantern-lit crossroads, picking quarrels with the proud and the cruel, slipping coin from the rich into the bowls of the poor. Travelers tell of a stranger in a low straw hat who fought beside them through an ambush, only to vanish at sunrise leaving nothing but a scatter of leaves and a paw-print in the mud. It bears no true malice, only an endless appetite for jest, drink, and the sweet confusion of mortals who cannot tell what is real. Cross it kindly and it may guard your road; mock it, and you will swing at empty air all night.
Run Tanuki 3 in Sixty Seconds
- Identity A shapeshifting raccoon-dog yokai duelist, not a beast — it can wear any face until you damage it (DC 15 Insight to spot the ruse).
- Open Lead with Moonlit Veil to blind the cluster, then Multiattack the squishiest target while Twin-Blade Duelist hands it advantage on creatures that haven't acted.
- Kill-priority It hunts your healer and casters; Phantom Swap eats your first big hit and Trickster's Step lets it Disengage or Hide every turn — burst it fast or it dances all night.
- When bloodied Have it Phantom Swap away, re-disguise as a downed ally or NPC, and re-enter the fight from an unexpected flank.
- Three ways to run it (1) Lone road-ambusher testing the party's mercy; (2) blade-arm flanker beside an oni or tengu boss; (3) trickster patron who fights with the PCs, then vanishes at dawn leaving only leaves.
Tanuki 3
Small fey (shapechanger), chaotic neutral
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINETwin-Blade Duelist. The tanuki fights with two short blades. When it takes the Attack action with both, it gains advantage on the second swordstrike against any creature that has not yet acted in the current round.
Bewitching Disguise. Signature. As an action, the tanuki magically takes the appearance of any Small or Medium humanoid it has seen, leaves clinging to it as folds of clothing. A creature can see through the ruse only with a successful DC 15 Wisdom (Insight) check, and only if it has reason to be suspicious. Damaging the tanuki ends the disguise.
Leaf-Coin Cunning. The tanuki has advantage on saving throws against being charmed or frightened, and magic cannot put it to sleep.
Actions
Multiattack. The tanuki makes two Swordstrike attacks.
Swordstrike. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (1d8+4) slashing damage plus 7 (2d6) damage of a type of the tanuki's choice (cold, fire, or lightning) as moonlit illusion bites home.
Moonlit Veil (Recharge 5-6). The tanuki conjures a swirl of phantom leaves and lantern-light in a 15-foot cube within 30 feet. Each creature in the area must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or be blinded until the end of its next turn. The tanuki can immediately move up to half its speed without provoking opportunity attacks.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Trickster's Step (Bonus Action). The tanuki takes the Disengage or Hide action. When it Hides this way, it may swap places with one willing ally within 10 feet.
Phantom Swap (Reaction). When the tanuki is hit by an attack it can see, it may leave behind an illusory double and teleport up to 15 feet to an unoccupied space it can see. The triggering attack still hits, but the attacker has disadvantage on its next attack against the tanuki this round, fooled by the lingering image.
A wide straw kasa hides its mischievous masked face as this raccoon-dog yokai strides upright in a sky-blue kimono, a katana spinning in each paw. Sandal-clad and rope-belted, it walks the moonlit road as something between a beggar-monk and a duelist.
Tanuki 3, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEBelly-Drum Rhythm (signature). Once per turn as a bonus action, Tanuki 3 beats a rolling tattoo; one ally within 20 feet that can hear it gains advantage on its next attack roll before the start of the companion's next turn.
Actions
Paired Daggers. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (2d4+3) slashing damage, and the target cannot take reactions until the start of its next turn.
Reactions
Leaf-Coin Trick. When an adjacent enemy hits an ally, Tanuki 3 flings a fistful of illusory coins; the attacker must succeed on a DC 13 Wisdom save or have disadvantage on its next attack roll.
A smaller cousin in a tattered hat, ever drumming and ever grinning, it tags along for the mischief and stays for the loyalty.
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 Bewitching Disguise to walk into the party as a friendly traveler, then strike the spellcaster on the first round. If clustered, save Moonlit Veil to blind the front line and slip away. Pairs with a yokai warband or an oni captain as its blade-arm.
Open by spending Moonlit Veil to blind the cluster, then Multiattack the lowest-AC backliner while Twin-Blade Duelist grants advantage. Kill-priority is the healer; use Phantom Swap to shrug the first big hit and Trickster's Step to vanish each round. Run it as a duelist flanker beside a tougher oni or tengu boss, never alone.
As an elder bake-danuki, lead a lair of lesser yokai: open with Moonlit Veil, swap copies between disguised minions, and harry the casters. Kill-priority stays the support PCs while it skirmishes. Pair it with a bigger threat (an oni warlord or kitsune sorcerer) and let it tie up the party while the heavy hitter lands the blows.
Put Tanuki 3 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 Tanuki 3?
Its home tier is CR 6 (Tier 2, levels 5-10): AC 16, 119 HP, +7 to hit, save DC 15. Scaled stat lines for Tier 1 (~CR 2) and Tier 3 (~CR 11) are in the tiers table — traits and actions stay identical, only the numbers move.
Can Tanuki 3 be a companion or ally?
Yes. As a chaotic-neutral trickster with no true malice, the tanuki readily fights beside a party it likes — guarding a road or repaying a kindness — then slips off at dawn. Use the Hat-and-Sandal companion block for a smaller bound ally drumming buffs and flinging leaf-coin tricks.
Is the tanuki a solo boss?
No. It is a slippery skirmisher and flanker, not a centerpiece — it lacks legendary actions and folds quickly under focused fire. Run it alongside a heavier threat such as an oni or tengu, or amid a lair of lesser yokai, and let it harry the party's support while the big bad lands the killing blows.
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
Played Tanuki 3 at your table? Log in with your Obsidian Tavern account to leave a balance note, a war story, or a file issue — the sharpest reports get the block revised.
Log in to comment