Baalzebub
Baalzebub — The Encounter
Lord of the Flies, the buzzing prince of corruption · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Baalzebub
Among the first to plummet burning into the Abyss, Baalzebub rose changed: where pride scarred Lucifer and wrath warped Samael, gluttony and decay remade Baalzebub into the Lord of the Flies. His angelic form sloughed away into segmented chitin and a crown of writhing tendrils, each ending in barbs that drink, and every wound he takes erupts into a fresh swarm. Where he passes, larders spoil, wells turn brackish, and the dying draw flies before their last breath. Cultists who venerate corruption leave offerings of carrion at his name, believing his haze of flies carries prayers into Hell. He rules the rebel angels not by force of arms but by the patient certainty of rot — for all things fall, and Baalzebub is the buzzing that waits at the end of every banquet.
Run Baalzebub in Sixty Seconds
- Aura first — the Plague of Flies is the whole engagement: 2d6 poison and disadvantage on attacks to anyone within 10 ft. who starts their turn there. Announce it every round so melee PCs feel the cost of standing close.
- Grapple-then-stab — Tendrils grapple, the Proboscis only hits a grappled target. Lock down one PC, then drain them. Kill-priority is the grappled creature, not whoever's loudest.
- Kill-priority for the party — point a poison-immune or ranged PC at him; the aura and proboscis both lean on poison, so resistance neuters half his output.
- When bloodied — lean on Swarm Cloak: halve a big hit and reform 15 ft. away near the squishiest target, resetting the grapple game and frustrating focus-fire.
- Three ways to run it — (1) lone corruptor harassing a chokepoint, (2) wingman to a Prince of Hell boss, (3) a hive-lord flanked by 2-3 Carrion Drones for a true swarm fight.
Baalzebub
Large fiend (devil), lawful evil
CR 11 · 7,200 XP · GUIDELINEPlague of Flies. Signature. Baalzebub is wreathed in a living haze of biting flies. Any creature that starts its turn within 10 feet of him takes 7 (2d6) poison damage and must succeed on a DC 16 Constitution saving throw or have disadvantage on attack rolls until the start of its next turn as the swarm crawls over its eyes.
Magic Resistance. Baalzebub has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Devil's Sight. Magical darkness doesn't impede Baalzebub's darkvision.
Actions
Multiattack. Baalzebub makes two Tendril attacks and one Proboscis attack.
Tendril. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 16 (3d8 + 3) slashing damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 16) if it is Large or smaller.
Proboscis. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature grappled by Baalzebub. Hit: 14 (2d8 + 5) piercing damage plus 9 (2d8) poison damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 16 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned until the end of its next turn.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Swarm Cloak (Reaction). When a creature Baalzebub can see hits him with an attack, he can scatter into flies, halving the damage and immediately reforming up to 15 feet away. He cannot use this reaction while grappling a creature.
A nightmare of clustered chitin and gossamer fly-wings, Baalzebub hangs in the air on a halo of barbed tendrils, his compound eye fixed on rot and ruin below.
Baalzebub, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINESpore Trail (signature). The drone leaves a trail of rotting spores in each space it leaves on its turn. The trail lasts 1 minute; a creature that enters it takes 4 (1d8) poison damage.
Actions
Barbed Sting. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (2d6 + 2) piercing damage plus 4 (1d8) poison damage.
Reactions
Death Burst. When the drone drops to 0 hit points, each creature within 5 feet must make a DC 13 Constitution saving throw, taking 7 (2d6) poison damage on a failure, or half as much on a success.
A bloated outrider of Baalzebub's swarm, kept whole by his will and let loose to herald his arrival in a drone of wings.
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 the fly aura active so meleeing it costs 2d6 poison every round, then grapple the squishiest PC and stab with the proboscis. If the party clusters, hover overhead and let the aura grind them. Pair it with a bigger threat — this is the corruption piece, not the centerpiece.
Grapple a backline caster with a tendril and drag them into the aura, then proboscis them while they're poisoned. Use Swarm Cloak to dodge the burst-damage nova. Kill-priority should be whoever has poison resistance; deny them by spreading the grapple around. Best run beside a Prince-tier boss as the support corruptor.
Open by flying into the densest cluster so the aura hits multiple PCs with disadvantage, then full Multiattack: grapple two, proboscis the grappled one. When hit hard, Swarm Cloak away and reform behind the healer. He is an add-on flagship-support — pair him with Lucifer or Samael so the party can't focus him down.
Put Baalzebub 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 Baalzebub?
Natively CR 11 (Tier 3, ~level 11-15) as a Prince of Hell. He is not solo_capable — he has no legendary actions, so run him as a powerful add-on beside a flagship boss. The stat block also scales down to CR ~2 (Tier 1) and CR ~6 (Tier 2) using the same traits with smaller numbers.
Can Baalzebub be a companion or ally?
Baalzebub himself is far too proud and malign to serve mortals, but his Carrion Drone, Bound makes a fitting companion — a bloated swarm-outrider (AC 14, 52 HP) with a poison Barbed Sting, a Spore Trail it leaves behind, and a Death Burst when it falls. Use it as a corruption-flavored ally or a summoned pet for a plague-themed caster.
Why does poison matter so much against Baalzebub?
Almost every threat he poses — the Plague of Flies aura, the Proboscis rider, and his drones — is poison damage, and he is immune to poison and the poisoned condition. Parties with poison resistance or ranged attackers can blunt him hard, while those who crowd into melee will bleed every single round.
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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