Spence
Spence — The Encounter
Shark-jawed ascetic of the tide-temple, fists like riptides · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Spence
In the drowned cloisters where the tide breathes through coral colonnades, the sharkmen keep an older faith than any landbound creed. Spence is reckoned among their tide-monks, sworn to a discipline that treats the body as both prayer and weapon. He took no blade, for the sea gave him better: jaws, claws, and a stillness that breaks like a wave. Pilgrims who watch him train say he does not strike at his foe but at the moment of their weakness, smelling the spilled blood of a fight the way a current smells the shore. The crimson sashes wound about his waist are stained, the temple insists, not with dye but with the vows of every duel he has finished. He fasts between killings and meditates on the rhythm of the surf, and when he moves it is sudden, total, and merciful only in its speed.
Run Spence in Sixty Seconds
- Smell blood: the instant any PC drops below half HP or takes piercing/slashing damage, Spence gets advantage and an extra 2d6 jaw bite against them — steer him there every turn.
- Open with the rush: 40-ft. move, Multiattack, and a Flurry Strike that shoves or trips a backline caster before they can act.
- When bloodied: use Deflect Blow on the biggest incoming hit, then bonus-action Disengage with Step of the Riptide so melee PCs can't lock him down.
- Kill-priority: wounded strikers and any prone target — his whole kit rewards finishing the weak.
- Three ways to run him: lone duelist circling one PC; pack alpha with Riptide and reef minions; or elite bodyguard chained to a bigger aquatic boss.
Spence
Medium monstrosity, lawful neutral
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEUnarmored Defense. While Spence wears no armor and wields no shield, his AC includes his Wisdom modifier.
Blood in the Water. Signature. Spence has advantage on melee attack rolls against any creature that is missing half or more of its hit points, or that has taken any piercing or slashing damage since the end of his last turn. The first time each turn he hits such a prey, the strike deals an extra 7 (2d6) piercing damage from his rending jaws.
Tidal Step. Spence's movement does not provoke opportunity attacks while he is dashing, and he ignores difficult terrain made of mud, sand, or shallow water.
Actions
Multiattack. Spence makes three Flurry Strikes, or two Flurry Strikes and one Bite.
Flurry Strike. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (1d8+4) bludgeoning damage, and if the target is a creature it must succeed on a DC 15 Strength saving throw or be pushed 10 feet away or knocked prone (Spence's choice).
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6+4) piercing damage.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Step of the Riptide (Bonus Action). Spence takes the Dash or Disengage action, or makes one unarmed Flurry Strike.
Deflect Blow (Reaction). When Spence is hit by a melee attack he can see, he reduces the damage by 1d10 + 7. If he reduces it to 0, he may immediately move 5 feet without provoking opportunity attacks.
A towering shark-headed monk, bare-chested and corded with muscle, draped in crimson-and-gold temple silks with a single ornate teal pauldron. He stands flat-footed and patient on clawed feet, jaws parted in a permanent grin of teeth, waiting for the first drop of blood.
Spence, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEPack Surge (signature). While within 10 feet of an ally that hit a creature this turn, Spence has advantage on its next attack against that creature.
Actions
Raking Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (2d4+4) slashing damage.
Reactions
Undertow. When an enemy within 5 feet stands up from prone, Spence can make one Raking Claws attack against it.
A lean reef-hunter that trails the monk like a devoted hound, finishing what his fists begin.
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 Bite on the most wounded PC to trigger Blood in the Water, then use Step of the Riptide to reposition. Kill-priority: low-HP strikers. Pair him with a flagship aquatic threat or a pack of reef minions; he is a skirmisher, not the main event.
Open by closing 40 ft. and Flurry-striking to knock a caster prone, then Bite for the bleed. When a PC drops below half, Blood in the Water hands him advantage and bonus jaw damage, so funnel him toward the most hurt target. Lean on Deflect Blow to shrug the biggest hit each round; run him alongside a bigger boss or a coral-warren lair.
Use him as an elite enforcer beside a larger aquatic warlord or in a flooded lair with minions, not solo. Open on the bloodied PC for stacked advantage, Deflect the hardest blow, then Step of the Riptide out of reach so the party can never pin him. Kill-priority: anyone already bleeding.
Put Spence 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 Spence?
Spence is built at CR 6 (2,300 XP) in his native Tier 2 band, tuned for a 5th-10th level party. The stat record also gives downscaled Tier 1 (~CR 2) and upscaled Tier 3 (~CR 11) numbers so you can drop him into almost any table by swapping AC, HP, to-hit, and save DC.
Can Spence be a companion or ally?
Yes. Run him as a sworn tide-monk bodyguard or a dueling master who trains a player, and bring along Riptide, Bound as his reef-hunter companion. As an ally his Deflect Blow and shove-prone Flurry Strike make him a strong defensive partner who controls the front line.
Why is Spence a monstrosity instead of a humanoid?
He is a sharkman — a true shark-headed aquatic predator with blindsight in water, a swim speed, and rending jaws — so SRD types him as a Medium monstrosity rather than a humanoid. His monk discipline is learned skill layered over a predator's body.
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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