Tiyanak
Tiyanak — The Encounter
The Weeping Infant of the Forest, Whose Cry Is a Snare · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Tiyanak
In the deep forests and roadside thickets, travelers hear it first: the thin, broken wail of a child left to die. Charity is the snare. The tiyanak is no infant but a fiend wearing the shape of one, born (the elders say) of children dead before baptism or buried unblessed, now turned hateful toward the living. When a kind soul gathers it up to comfort it, the soft face splits, the gums bristle with fangs, and the tiny hands become hooks. It drinks the blood of the merciful and laughs in a baby's voice as it feeds. Hunters who know its ways turn their clothing inside out, for confusion breaks its cunning, and they never follow a cry into the dark without iron and salt. To pity the tiyanak is to die pitied by no one; the forest keeps its silence, and only the weeping carries on, waiting for the next gentle heart.
Run Tiyanak in Sixty Seconds
- The cry is the trap. Open every Tiyanak encounter with Weeping Lure before any blade is drawn. A failed DC 13 Wis save drags a PC toward the sound and into the brood's reach, splitting the party exactly where you want it.
- Punish the merciful. False Innocence lets a still tiyanak read as a helpless babe; the PC who scoops it up eats a surprise Fanged Bite. Spring this once per session for maximum table groan.
- Kill-priority: the strays. Tiyanaks gang the isolated. The lured-away PC takes both Talons plus the 2d4 blood-gorge; rescue them fast or they drop.
- When bloodied, they vanish. A hurt tiyanak Scuttles into the undergrowth as a bonus action, no opportunity attacks. Don't let players assume a kill; let it reappear two rounds later, fed and grinning.
- Three ways to run it: a lone lure-and-ambush horror on a lonely road; a brood of three to five splitting the party in the woods; or ambient vermin swarming a bigger boss's lair. Never make it the solo climax.
Tiyanak
Small fiend (shapechanger), neutral evil
CR 2 · 450 XP · GUIDELINEWeeping Lure. The tiyanak's signature snare. The tiyanak mimics the cry of an abandoned infant. A creature that hears it and cannot see the tiyanak must succeed on a DC 13 Wisdom saving throw or move toward the sound on its next turn, taking the most direct route. A creature that fails by 5 or more also has disadvantage on its first attack roll against the tiyanak that round, drawn in by pity. Once a creature succeeds on this save, it is immune to that tiyanak's Weeping Lure for 24 hours.
False Innocence. While the tiyanak holds still and feigns a helpless infant, it appears to creatures relying on sight as a harmless babe. A creature must succeed on a DC 13 Wisdom (Insight) check, or take damage from the tiyanak, to discern the ruse.
Actions
Multiattack. The tiyanak makes two Talon attacks. If both hit the same target, the target also takes 5 (2d4) necrotic damage as the creature gorges on its blood.
Talon. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (2d4 + 3) slashing damage.
Fanged Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature the tiyanak has surprised or that is grappled, restrained, or prone. Hit: 8 (1d8 + 3) piercing damage plus 4 (1d8) necrotic damage.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Scuttle. Bonus Action. The tiyanak moves up to half its speed without provoking opportunity attacks, vanishing into undergrowth or shadow.
A bloated, fanged infant with pointed ears and grasping talons, perched amid a tangle of clawed roots and leathery wings, its grin too wide for so small a face.
Tiyanak, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEBlood Scent (signature). The spawn has advantage on attack rolls against any creature that is missing half or more of its hit points.
Actions
Raking Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d8 + 2) slashing damage.
Reactions
Shrieking Recoil. When the spawn is reduced to half its hit points or fewer, it lets loose a piercing shriek. Each enemy within 10 ft. must succeed on a DC 12 Constitution saving throw or be deafened until the end of its next turn.
A lesser blood-drinker that flocks to the tiyanak's cries, half-grown and hungry, snapping at whatever the brood leaves bleeding.
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 cover with Weeping Lure to scatter the party toward the noise, then pick off whoever rushes in alone. Hit grappled or prone targets with Fanged Bite for the necrotic bonus, and Scuttle away the instant a frontliner turns on it. Run them in packs of three to five so the lure pulls fresh victims every round.
As a mid-tier menace, lead a brood that flanks a single isolated PC while the lure keeps reinforcements wandering off. Kill-priority is whoever broke from the group; gang the Multiattack on them. Pair these with a larger ambush predator or a swamp-witch boss so the tiyanaks soften and isolate while the bigger threat finishes.
At this tier they are lair-dwelling vermin, not a centerpiece. Deploy a swarm of them as ambient menace around a flagship boss's haunted wood, using Weeping Lure en masse to split the party and Scuttle to keep them untouchable. Always pair with a bigger threat; alone they are a delaying horror, never the climax.
Put Tiyanak 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 Tiyanak?
Its home stat block is CR 2 (450 XP), a Tier 1 ambusher. The record also provides scaled Tier 2 and Tier 3 versions of the same traits and actions so you can drop a brood into a level 5-10 or 11-15 game without rebuilding it.
Can Tiyanak be a companion or ally?
Not the tiyanak itself, but the record includes a bound companion, the Manananggal-Spawn (AC 13, 26 HP), a lesser blood-drinker drawn to the cries. It hunts the wounded with Blood Scent and shrieks when it is hurt, making a fittingly feral familiar for a cursed or folkloric character.
Is the Tiyanak a solo boss?
No. It has no legendary actions and only a defensive Scuttle reaction, so a four-PC party out-acts a single one easily. It shines as an add-on in packs or as ambient menace around a flagship threat; build encounters with three to five of them, or pair a brood with a bigger predator or witch.
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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