Tikbalang
Tikbalang — The Encounter
Horse-headed trickster of the rain-soaked forest paths · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Tikbalang
Where the trail forks beneath dripping canopy and the rain will not stop, the Tikbalang waits. It wears the skull and mane of a horse upon the body of a tall, gaunt man, its legs ending not in feet but in hooves that leave no print in the mud. Folk of the islands say it delights not in killing but in confounding: it crouches above the path, lets out a braying laugh, and the road behind you forks into a hundred roads, all wrong. Travelers walk in circles until dawn, certain they are nearly home. To break the spell you must turn your shirt inside out, or offer it sweet tobacco and ask its leave. Those who win its respect, it is said, may pluck a golden hair from its mane and command it as a steed of storm and shadow. Those who mock it are led off cliffs by its laughter.
Run Tikbalang in Sixty Seconds
- What it is A horse-headed forest fey trickster, Large, fast (50 ft.), built to herd and confound rather than grind. SRD fey, no spells, no flight.
- Open with Lead Astray (DC 14 Wis) on the party's mobility or perception lynchpin, then trip the tank with a Hoof to break the formation immediately.
- Kill-priority It wants to isolate and confuse the squishiest backliner; players should focus anyone with Stealth advantage and lock it down before it leaps the line.
- When bloodied It stops trading and kites: Whirlwind Vanish after every melee hit, re-Lead Astray on recharge, and lead pursuers toward hazards (cliffs, bogs).
- Three ways to run it (1) Solo trail-ambusher harassing travelers; (2) one of several fey in a haunted-wood lair; (3) trickster lieutenant flanking for a bigger boss while the party fights the wrong direction.
Tikbalang
Large fey, chaotic neutral
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEBewildering Trickster. A traveler who passes the tikbalang while wearing their shirt inside out is immune to its Lead Astray action until the start of the tikbalang's next turn. Otherwise, the tikbalang's mocking presence is hard to shake.
Standing Leap. The tikbalang's long jump is up to 30 feet and its high jump up to 15 feet, with or without a running start.
Forest Strider. Difficult terrain composed of rain, mud, undergrowth, or rocky ground costs the tikbalang no extra movement, and it leaves no tracks unless it chooses to.
Actions
Multiattack. The tikbalang makes two Raking Claw attacks and one Hoof attack.
Raking Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 12 (2d8+4) slashing damage.
Hoof. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6+4) bludgeoning damage, and a Large or smaller target must succeed on a DC 14 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.
Lead Astray (Recharge 5-6). The tikbalang fixes its gaze on one creature it can see within 30 feet. The target must succeed on a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw or be afflicted with bewildering false paths for 1 minute. While afflicted, the creature's speed is halved, it has disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks, and whenever it moves it must move toward the tikbalang's choice of direction. The creature repeats the save at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on a success.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Whirlwind Vanish. Reaction: When a creature the tikbalang can see ends a melee attack against it, the tikbalang moves up to half its speed without provoking opportunity attacks, vanishing into a sudden gust of leaves and rain-mist.
A towering horse-headed fey looms on its rocky perch, sinew and chain straining over a man's torso, its long-fingered claws spread to herd lost wanderers into the deep wood.
Tikbalang, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEGolden Hair Pact (signature). A creature that plucked one of Tikbalang's golden hairs may command it as a mount. While mounted, the rider ignores difficult terrain from rain, mud, and undergrowth.
Actions
Raking Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d8+2) slashing damage.
Reactions
Veil of Rain. When an ally within 10 feet is targeted by an attack, Tikbalang conjures a curtain of mist; the attacker has disadvantage on that attack roll.
A tikbalang who was bested at its own riddle and gave up a golden hair, now loping at its rider's heel like a half-tamed storm.
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 Lead Astray on the party's pathfinder to scatter the marching order, then dart in with claws and retreat using Whirlwind Vanish. Kill-priority is whoever can grapple or root it in place. Run it as a single forest ambusher harrying a low-level party along a trail.
Open by hoof-tripping the front-line tank prone, then Lead Astray the controller so the party can't reposition. If clustered, it leaps over the line to claw the backline and vanishes on the first riposte. Pair it with a bigger forest threat or a pack of lesser fey minions; it is a skirmishing herder, not a stand-and-fight boss.
Lead Astray the heaviest hitter every recharge to keep them walking the wrong way while it flanks the casters. Trip-then-claw isolated targets and Whirlwind Vanish out of every counterattack. Run it with a lair of false-path illusions and minions; it shines as the trickster lieutenant beside a flagship boss, never alone.
Put Tikbalang 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 Tikbalang?
Its home tier is CR 6 (2,300 XP), tuned for a level 5-10 party. The record also gives ready-scaled CR 2-ish (levels 1-4) and CR 11-ish (levels 11-15) lines so you can drop it into almost any table without rebuilding the block.
Can Tikbalang be a companion or ally?
Yes. Folklore says a traveler who bests the tikbalang and plucks a golden hair from its mane may ride it. Use the Storm-Mane, Bound companion sidecar (AC 14, 68 HP) as a tamed mount or guide that ignores forest terrain and veils allies in rain-mist.
Is Tikbalang solo boss material?
No. It has no legendary actions and only a single escape reaction, so a four-PC party out-acts it quickly. Run it as a skirmisher and herder alongside minions or a flagship boss, leaning on Lead Astray and hit-and-run rather than standing toe to toe.
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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