Tartalo
Tartalo — The Encounter
The One-Eyed Shepherd-Eater of the Basque Crags · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Tartalo
In the high crags of the Basque country the shepherds speak in whispers of Tartalo, the one-eyed eater of men. He keeps a cave-fold of stone, and into it he herds the travellers and herdsmen who lose their way, fattening them as a farmer fattens lambs. The bones about his throat are kept as keepsakes of those he has already devoured; the great hook is for the ones who run. Folk tales tell that he can be blinded and tricked, for his single eye makes him slow to judge a fleeing man, and more than one captive has escaped by spitting his own eye on a roasting-spit and slipping past the giant in his blind rage. Yet for every clever escape, a dozen flocks and a dozen men have vanished into his maw, and the mountain passes still empty when the mist comes down and Tartalo walks.
Run Tartalo in Sixty Seconds
- Reach first: his Hook and Chain hits at 15 ft. and drags — make the front line step up before your back line is yanked into the cave.
- Open with the hook: grab the lowest-AC target you can reach, pull them in, and start Devour the Pinned next round to pressure a swallow.
- Kill-priority: whoever is grappled must be freed fast, because a downed-while-grappled PC is swallowed and presumed eaten.
- When bloodied: lean on Ravenous Roar (recharge 5-6) to frighten your hardest striker and buy a turn of free attacks.
- Three ways to run him: as a lone shepherd-eater terrorizing a pass; as the warden of a bone-cave with minion beasts; or paired beneath a bigger boss as its larder-keeper.
Tartalo
Large giant, chaotic evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINESingle Burning Eye. Tartalo has only one great eye. He has disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight, and on ranged weapon attack rolls beyond 30 feet. The flame of his hunger never quite lets him judge distance.
Devour the Pinned. When Tartalo starts his turn grappling a creature, he may bite it as a free action: the target takes 11 (2d6+4) piercing damage. A creature he reduces to 0 hit points this way is swallowed whole and presumed eaten.
Actions
Multiattack. Tartalo makes two attacks: one with his Hook and Chain and one with his Fist, or he uses Hook and Chain to drag and grapple.
Hook and Chain. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 17 (2d10+5) slashing damage, and if the target is Large or smaller it is grappled (escape DC 15) and pulled up to 10 feet toward Tartalo.
Fist. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (2d8+5) bludgeoning damage.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Ravenous Roar. (Reaction, recharge 5-6) When a creature Tartalo can see hits him with a melee attack, he answers with a roar of cannibal hunger. The attacker must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or be frightened of Tartalo until the end of its next turn.
A hulking, gore-streaked cyclops crouches over a butcher's bed of bones, a single rheumy eye fixed on his next meal. Loops of skull-charms and stolen chain hang from his neck, and a great iron hook swings ready to drag the living into reach.
Tartalo, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINESure-Footed (signature). Tartalo ignores difficult terrain made of rock, scree, or slopes, and has advantage on saving throws against being knocked prone.
Actions
Ram. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (2d4+4) bludgeoning damage, and a Medium or smaller target must succeed on a DC 13 Strength save or be knocked prone.
Reactions
Bolt the Pen. When an ally within 10 feet is grappled, Tartalo may move up to its speed and shoulder the grappler; the grappler must make a DC 13 Strength save or release the grapple.
The last beast of a devoured flock, this great horned ram followed the cries of its dead shepherds and now charges anything that smells of the giant's cave.
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 hooking the front-line PC and dragging them clear of the party, then bite the pinned victim every round. Kill-priority is whoever tries to free the grappled ally. Pair him with a goblin or wolf pack so the party can't simply gang the lone brute.
Lead with Hook and Chain to grab the squishiest reachable target and pull them in, then Multiattack and Devour the Pinned to threaten a swallow. Spend Ravenous Roar the moment a striker bloodies you to frighten and break their tempo. He fights best at a cave mouth with one path in, where his 15-ft. reach controls the choke.
At this tier Tartalo is a lair brute, not a solo: run him in his bone-cave with several lesser giants or beasts so the action economy holds. Open by hooking a caster, frighten the melee with Ravenous Roar, and force the party to choose between rescuing the swallowed victim and dropping the wall of muscle. Pair him with a bigger flagship threat as the warden of its larder.
Put Tartalo 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 Tartalo?
Natively CR 6 (Tier 2, ~levels 5-10): AC 15, 126 HP, +7 to hit, save DC 14. The record also gives Tier 1 (~CR 2) and Tier 3 (~CR 11) versions with the same traits and rescaled numbers, so you can drop him into almost any party.
Can Tartalo be a companion or ally?
Not really — he is a chaotic-evil cannibal giant built as an adversary. If you want a friendly figure at the table, use the included companion Aker, the Stolen Ram, the last beast of a flock he devoured, which fights against the giant.
How do I keep one giant from being out-actioned by a 4-PC party?
Below Tier 3 his grapple-and-swallow threat forces the party to spend actions on rescue, which evens the economy. From Tier 3 up, don't run him solo — give him minions or pair him with a flagship boss, exactly as the Tier 3 tactics describe.
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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