Tsuchigumo
Tsuchigumo — The Encounter
Earth-Spider of the Old Hills, Devourer Beneath the Mound · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Tsuchigumo
In the old chronicles the tsuchigumo were named earth-spiders, things that dwelt in pits and hill-hollows long before the settled clans drove their stakes into the soil. To call one a mere beast is folly. It wears a face that is almost a man's, and it speaks in dreams to those who sleep above its burrow, learning their names and their fears before it ever shows a single leg. The hunters of the western provinces tell that a tsuchigumo cannot be slain by daylight assault alone; it must first be drawn from its mound, for in the dark of the earth it is invisible and patient beyond mortal reckoning. Its silk is barbed and weeps a numbing poison, and the bitten do not die swiftly but are wrapped and stored against the spider's hunger. Where one is found, a whole brood of lesser web-spinners often lurks, and the wise burn the hill rather than enter it.
Run Tsuchigumo in Sixty Seconds
- Hold it buried. Keep the Tsuchigumo invisible under floor or web until the party bunches up. Buried Ambusher gives surprise advantage and disadvantage on the first save, so the opening Ensnaring Threads usually sticks.
- Open with Ensnaring Threads. Drop the 10-ft. cube on the clustered back line, not the tank. Restrained casters and archers lose tempo cutting free while the spider chews the front.
- Kill-priority: whoever frees allies. Bite the low-CON target to poison them and shave their saves; punish anyone spending actions on Strength checks to release teammates.
- When bloodied, go vertical. Spider Climb to the ceiling and hurl Threads from above so melee has to chase. Skittering Withdraw lets it slip a fighter's reach every round.
- Three ways to run it: (1) lurking pit-ambush with a giant-spider brood, (2) lieutenant flanking a flagship oni, (3) lair apex in a web-warren — never a clean solo, it has no legendary kit.
Tsuchigumo
Large monstrosity, neutral evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINESpider Climb. The tsuchigumo can climb difficult surfaces, including upside down on ceilings, without an ability check.
Web Walker. The tsuchigumo ignores movement restrictions caused by webbing.
Buried Ambusher. Signature. While motionless beneath earth, web, or debris, the tsuchigumo is invisible. On the first turn of combat, creatures it has not yet acted against have disadvantage on saving throws against its Ensnaring Threads, and the tsuchigumo has advantage on its first melee attack against any creature surprised by its emergence.
Actions
Multiattack. The tsuchigumo makes one Bite attack and one Claw attack. It can replace the Claw with a use of Ensnaring Threads if available.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6+4) piercing damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or take 9 (2d8) poison damage and be poisoned until the end of its next turn.
Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8+4) slashing damage.
Ensnaring Threads (Recharge 5-6). The tsuchigumo hurls a snarl of barbed silk at a point within 30 ft. Each creature in a 10-foot cube must make a DC 14 Dexterity saving throw. On a failure, a creature takes 7 (2d6) slashing damage and is restrained by webbing; on a success, it takes half damage and is not restrained. A restrained creature can use an action to make a DC 14 Strength check, freeing itself on a success. The webbing has AC 10, 15 hit points, and is immune to poison and psychic damage.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Skittering Withdraw. When a creature within 5 ft. of the tsuchigumo hits it with a melee attack, the tsuchigumo can move up to half its speed without provoking opportunity attacks from that creature.
A boar-sized horror of glistening blue chitin, its swollen abdomen bristling with barbed spines lit by veins of ember-orange, crowned by a leering near-human skull whose jaws drip with venom.
Tsuchigumo, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINESilken Sentinel (signature). Tsuchigumo senses any creature touching its webs within 60 ft. and cannot be surprised while at least one web strand remains within that range.
Actions
Venom Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d8+3) piercing damage plus 4 (1d8) poison damage.
Reactions
Snare the Faller. When a creature within 15 ft. of Tsuchigumo fails a saving throw, the lesser spider flings silk at it; the creature's speed is reduced to 0 until the end of its next turn.
A house-dog-sized brood-spawn bound to the elder's will, scuttling at its flank to anchor the webs and silence the wounded.
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 beneath the floor with Buried Ambusher, then Ensnaring Threads the clumped party so they waste a turn cutting free. Bite the lowest-CON target to stack poison, and use Skittering Withdraw to keep out of the fighter's reach. Pair it with a couple of giant spiders or a swarm so the webbed PCs stay surrounded.
Stay buried until the party clusters, then erupt and lead with Ensnaring Threads on the back line to lock down casters and ranged DPS. Kill-priority is whoever frees allies fastest; Bite them to poison and shorten their saves. When bloodied it climbs the walls or ceiling and rains Threads from above, forcing melee to chase. Best paired with a flagship oni or a brood lair rather than run alone.
Run it as the lair's apex predator amid a web-choked warren of minions, never as a true solo. Open with Threads to split the party across difficult terrain, then collapse on isolated targets with Bite-poison and full Multiattack. Use ceilings and tremorsense to reposition every round via Skittering Withdraw; pair it with a bigger threat so the action economy never lets the PCs out-act it.
Put Tsuchigumo 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 Tsuchigumo?
Its home statline is CR 6 (2,300 XP), built for Tier 2 parties (levels 5-10). The record also includes a CR 2-ish Tier 1 scale and a CR 11-ish Tier 3 scale; the traits stay identical and only AC, HP, to-hit, save DC, and damage shift between bands.
Can Tsuchigumo be a companion or ally?
The elder earth-spider is an adversary, but its bound brood-spawn Brood-Threnody (AC 13, 45 HP) works as an ally or summoned guardian — it anchors webs, snares the wounded, and bites with venom while the party fights.
Is Tsuchigumo a solo boss?
No. It has no legendary actions and only a defensive reaction, so a four-player party will out-act it on its own. Run it as an ambusher with a giant-spider brood or as a lieutenant beside a bigger flagship threat such as an oni.
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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