KING BALAM
KING BALAM — The Encounter
Crowned transmuter-king who turns wine to coin and men blind · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is KING BALAM
Balam is named a terrible and wise King among the seventy-two spirits of the Goetia, lord over forty legions that march at his crowned word. The grimoires give him many faces and many gifts: he turns wine into water and water into wine, and lesser metals into coin, so that kingdoms enrich and ruin themselves at his pleasure. He grants true invisibility to those who barter for it, and he answers fully of things past, present, and yet to come, withholding nothing and lying in nothing. Conjurers who call him learn quickly that his honesty is its own cruelty, for he tells men exactly how they will fall. Clad here as an arcane transmuter, he is reshaper of matter and destiny alike, his flail leaving flesh half-turned to dull metal. To strike his bargain is to accept that what he gives, he can always unmake.
Run KING BALAM in Sixty Seconds
- Frame him as the front-line bruiser, not the boss. King Balam pins the melee and slows them while a bigger threat works the backline.
- Open with two Spiked Flail swings on the heaviest fighter; Transmuting Strikes halves that target's speed and taxes its next attack, locking the line.
- Kill-priority for the party should be the enemy healer or controller, because Crowned Word (recharge 5-6) blinds and silences reactions on exactly that role.
- When bloodied, use Veil of the King to vanish, reposition past the front rank, and reappear swinging on the casters.
- Three ways to run him: brute (flail every turn, ignore subtlety), warden (slow and hold one fighter all fight), or saboteur (Veil + Crowned Word to harry the backline).
KING BALAM
Large fiend (devil), lawful evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEMagic Resistance. Balam has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Transmuting Strikes. Signature. Balam's flail is steeped in alchemical corruption. The first time he hits a creature each turn, that creature must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution save or its body partly seizes into base metal: its speed is halved and it has disadvantage on its next attack roll until the end of its next turn.
Actions
Multiattack. Balam makes two Spiked Flail attacks and uses Crowned Word if available.
Spiked Flail. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) bludgeoning damage plus 7 (2d6) acid damage.
Crowned Word (Recharge 5-6). Balam fixes a creature he can see within 60 ft. with his triple gaze and speaks a binding decree. The target must succeed on a DC 14 Charisma save or be blinded and unable to take reactions until the end of its next turn, then take 14 (4d6) psychic damage.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Veil of the King. Bonus Action (Recharge 6). Balam wraps himself in occult shadow and turns invisible until the start of his next turn or until he attacks or casts a spell.
A towering horned king in acid-pitted, spike-crusted plate, hefting a brutal flanged flail. Three faces leer from his crowned helm, and his cloak hangs like a banner of forty marched legions.
KING BALAM, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEAlchemist's Tithe (signature). When KING BALAM reduces a creature to 0 hit points, a fistful of cursed coin spills from the wound; she or an ally within 5 ft. gains 5 temporary hit points.
Actions
Mercury Lash. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (2d6 + 3) slashing damage plus 4 (1d8) acid damage.
Reactions
Transmute Ward. When an ally Balam can see within 30 ft. is hit by an attack, KING BALAM turns her own skin to brass; she takes half the damage in the ally's place.
A lean brass-skinned herald who carries Balam's ledger and his lash, weighing every soul in coin before it is spent.
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 closing to flail range; Transmuting Strikes halves a frontline fighter's speed so the party can't peel away. Save Crowned Word to blind whoever the casters hide behind. Pair him with a bigger Ars Goetia king or a pack of imps; alone he is a tough mini-boss for low levels.
Open by flailing the heaviest melee threat and slowing it with Transmuting Strikes, then Crowned Word the enemy healer or controller. When bloodied, Veil of the King turns him invisible so he repositions and hits the squishy backline. He is the heavy-hitter add-on, not the boss; pair with a flying flagship and let Balam pin the front.
Lead with both flail swings on the tank, slowing them, then Crowned Word to lock down a key caster every other round. Use Veil to blink between targets and avoid focus fire. Even scaled up he wants a true solo boss beside him; he is the bruiser that punishes anyone who breaks formation.
Put KING BALAM 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 King Balam?
His home statline is CR 6 (Tier 2, ~levels 5-10), worth 2,300 XP. The sheet also scales to a CR 2 build for Tiers 1 and a CR 11 build for Tier 3; the traits and actions stay identical and only the numbers move.
Can King Balam be a companion or ally?
As a fiend who bargains in coin and prophecy, yes, but only by infernal pact, never as a friendly NPC. A bound conjuror might wield him; the included companion Tessarae, Bound is the table-ready ally version if you want his power on the players' side.
Is King Balam meant to be fought solo?
No. He is solo_capable=false: a heavy-hitting add-on built to fight alongside a flagship boss. Drop him next to a flying or spellcasting Goetia king and let Balam pin the melee while the boss controls the field.
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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