Tipua
Tipua — The Encounter
Spirit-haunted guardian of the spiral shell and shore · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Tipua
Not every tipua wears a face. Some are a stone in the river, a twisted tree, a shell upon the strand into which an old spirit has crept and made its home. This one took a great spiral shell on a sacred shore and grew long arms of weed and sinew, that it might keep the tapu of its waters as the ancestors decreed. Fisherfolk who honor it leave the first catch upon the rocks and pass unharmed; those who foul the spring or break the prohibition feel the tendrils close about their ankles and the cold pull of the tide. It cannot speak, yet it knows every word said upon its shore, and it remembers the names of the careless long after the sea has given back their bones. To bind such a guardian is forbidden; to befriend one is to inherit its watch.
Run Tipua in Sixty Seconds
- It owns the ground. Tapu Ground frightens anyone who ends their turn within 10 ft. while the Tipua is near its shell or shore, so fight it where it stands, not where you want.
- Open with grapples. Lead with two Tendril attacks to seize front-liners (escape DC 14), then funnel the Maw into a grappled target every round.
- Kill-priority: the shovers. Anything trying to force it off its tapu ground or break a grapple dies first; everything else can wait in its tendrils.
- When bloodied, lean on Retreat to Shell every round to soak the party's biggest hit, and let Tentacle Surge punish anyone who steps in close to finish it.
- Three ways to run it: a tide-locked chokepoint guarding a sacred spring, an ambush that erupts from a quiet shore, or a paired anchor beside a flagship sea-spirit that holds the melee while the boss works the casters.
Tipua
Large aberration, neutral
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINETapu Ground (Signature). The Tipua is bound to a sacred place. While within 60 feet of its shell or shore, it has advantage on saving throws against being moved or charmed, and any hostile creature that ends its turn within 10 feet of the Tipua must succeed on a DC 14 Wisdom save or be frightened of it until the start of that creature's next turn.
Tentacle Surge. When the Tipua takes 20 or more damage in a single turn, its writhing tendrils lash outward. The first creature to start its turn within 10 feet of the Tipua before the end of its next turn takes 7 (2d6) bludgeoning damage.
Actions
Multiattack. The Tipua makes two Tendril attacks and one Maw attack.
Tendril. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8+4) bludgeoning damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 14) if it is a Large or smaller creature. The Tipua has up to four tendrils, each grappling one target.
Maw. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature grappled by the Tipua. Hit: 14 (2d10+4) piercing damage.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Retreat to Shell. Reaction. When a creature the Tipua can see hits it with an attack, the Tipua withdraws into its spiral shell, gaining +3 AC against that attack. Until the start of its next turn its speed is 0 and it cannot make Tendril attacks beyond 5 feet.
A barnacled spiral shell wreathed in palms and tide-wrack, its coils unfurling into questing tendrils above a ringed, anemone maw. The thing does not hunt so much as endure, a place made flesh that drowns those who trespass its waters.
Tipua, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEGuardian's Vow (signature). While within 30 feet of the creature it has sworn to protect, the whelp has advantage on attack rolls against any enemy that damaged its ward this turn.
Actions
Snapping Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (2d6+2) piercing damage.
Reactions
Tide-Drag. Reaction. When an enemy within 5 feet of the whelp's ward hits that ward, the whelp may shove it, pushing it 5 feet away on a failed DC 13 Strength save.
A young serpent-thing of the shallows, scaled and many-finned, that twines about its chosen keeper and bares needle teeth at any who draw near.
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 lashing a tendril at the nearest swimmer or melee fighter to grapple and drag toward the maw. If the party clusters near the shore, let Tapu Ground frighten one and pick off the isolated grappled target. Pairs with a coastal lair or a flagship sea-spirit; it anchors a chokepoint, it does not chase.
Open by grappling two front-liners with Tendrils, then feed the Maw into whichever is grappled. Kill-priority is anyone trying to break grapples or shove it off the tapu ground. When struck hard, Retreat to Shell to tank the alpha strike, then surge tendrils next turn. Pair it with minions or a larger threat that pressures the casters while it locks the melee.
Open by grappling up to four targets and dragging them into a deadly cluster around the maw, then mince the most grappled PC. Use Retreat to Shell to blunt smites and crits. This is a lair anchor, not a solo: surround it with whelps or chained guardians and place it beside a bigger boss so the party cannot simply burn it from range.
Put Tipua 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 Tipua?
Its home statline is CR 6 (2,300 XP) for tier-2 parties (levels 5-10). The record also gives drop-in numbers for tier 1 (~CR 2) and tier 3 (~CR 11), with identical traits and actions across all three.
Can Tipua be a companion or ally?
The adversary itself is a bound place-guardian and resists being controlled, but the record includes a Taniwha-Whelp, Bound companion (AC 14, 38 HP) that swears to protect an ally and grows fierce when its ward is harmed.
Is the Tipua a demon or evil spirit?
No. It is a neutral aberration guardian drawn from Maori folklore, a spirit lodged in a shell or shore to keep a sacred prohibition. Honor its waters and it lets you pass; foul them and it drowns you.
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 Tipua 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