The Devil
The Devil — The Encounter
Horned tempter enthroned upon a mountain of the damned · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is The Devil
He is named in the older codices as Akerbeltz, the Black Goat of the thin places, and in the newer ones simply as the Devil of the fifteenth trump. He does not hunt souls; he is offered them. From the caverns of Zugarramurdi, where the veil between worlds wears thin, he raised a throne of the bound and the broken, and there he sits collecting the willing and the weak alike. His gift is always a chain dressed as a crown: storms for the desperate farmer, fine raiment for the cold, power for the ambitious, each granted with a smile and a price paid later. The covens that revered him learned too late that reverence and bondage share a single root. Where elves and lamia and witches still gather in the deep dark, his whisper waits, patient as stone, certain that every promise made beneath his horns is a debt he need never forgive.
Run The Devil in Sixty Seconds
- Stays put The Devil fights from its bone mound for the advantage and the bloodied fright pulse, so don't chase the party off it; make them come to the throne.
- Open with Hellfire Bolt Drop the recharge sphere on the tightest cluster turn one, then Multiattack the nearest target and knock it prone with Horns.
- Kill-priority is the charmed Use the tempter whisper and Whispered Promise legendary to lock the party's striker or healer; focus fire whoever you've charmed before they shake it.
- When bloodied The mound shudders: anyone within 10 ft. who fails DC 16 Wis is frightened, then spend Wingstorm to push melee off and fly clear if surrounded.
- Three ways to run it Solo legendary boss at T3; a charm-and-burn controller paired with one elite at T2; a mini-boss with two cultist adds at T1.
The Devil
Large fiend (devil), lawful evil
CR 11 · 7,200 XP · GUIDELINEMagic Resistance. The Devil has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Throne of the Damned. Signature. The Devil rises from a mound of bound souls within 10 ft. of its base. While it stands on the mound, it has advantage on Charisma (Intimidation) checks and on saving throws to maintain concentration. When it is reduced to half its hit points or fewer, the bones beneath it shudder: each creature within 10 ft. of the mound must succeed on a DC 16 Wisdom saving throw or be frightened of the Devil until the end of its next turn.
Infernal Tempter. When a creature the Devil can see ends its turn within 30 ft., the Devil may telepathically whisper a promise of power. The creature must succeed on a DC 16 Wisdom saving throw or be charmed until the end of its next turn; while charmed this way it cannot willingly move closer to the Devil's enemies. A creature that saves is immune for 24 hours.
Actions
Multiattack. The Devil makes two attacks: one with its Horns and one with its Raking Claws. It can replace the claw attack with a use of Hellfire Bolt if available.
Horns. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 18 (3d8 + 5) piercing damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 16 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.
Raking Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 16 (3d6 + 5) slashing damage plus 7 (2d6) fire damage.
Hellfire Bolt (Recharge 5-6). The Devil hurls a mote of black fire at a point it can see within 60 ft. Each creature in a 10-foot-radius sphere must make a DC 16 Dexterity saving throw, taking 28 (8d6) fire damage on a failure, or half as much on a success. This damage ignores resistance to fire.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Wings (Reaction). When a creature the Devil can see moves out of its reach, the Devil beats its great bat wings and makes one Horns attack against that creature.
Legendary Actions (3/Round)
Claw. The Devil makes one Raking Claws attack.
Whispered Promise (Costs 2 Actions). The Devil targets one creature it can see within 30 ft. That creature must succeed on a DC 16 Wisdom saving throw or be charmed until the end of the Devil's next turn.
Wingstorm (Costs 2 Actions). The Devil beats its wings. Each creature within 10 ft. must succeed on a DC 16 Strength saving throw or be pushed 15 feet away and knocked prone. The Devil can then fly up to half its flying speed.
A horned king of damnation looms with vast leathery wings spread wide, rising from a heaped cairn of skulls and chained bones, a crown of flame-tipped spines blazing above its brow.
The Devil, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINETempter's Oath (signature). Once per short rest, a creature the bound Devil can see within 30 ft. that fails a DC 14 Charisma saving throw gains advantage on its next attack roll but takes 7 (2d6) necrotic damage when that attack resolves, hit or miss.
Actions
Searing Horns. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) piercing damage plus 4 (1d8) fire damage.
Reactions
Infernal Ward. When an ally within 10 ft. is hit by an attack, the bound Devil flares its wings; the ally gains resistance to that attack's damage.
Shackled by a binder's sigil rather than worship, this lesser aspect of the Black Goat lends its fire to those it has not yet learned to betray.
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 charm whisper on the party's striker so it can't close, then wade in with Horns to knock a frontliner prone. Keep it on the bone mound for the fright pulse when bloodied. At this tier run it as a single mini-boss with two cultist adds, not a true solo.
Lead with Hellfire Bolt into the clustered party, then Multiattack the prone target. Use Wings reaction to punish anyone disengaging. Kill-priority: the healer it has charmed. Pair it with one elite to soak melee while it whispers and burns.
Solo boss: open with Hellfire Bolt on the cluster, Multiattack the nearest tank prone, then spend legendary actions on Whispered Promise to pin the party's burst dealer. When bloodied, Wingstorm to scatter melee and reset the fright field. Kill the charmed allies before they reach you.
Put The Devil 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 The Devil?
CR 11 (7,200 XP) at its native third tier, built as a solo-capable legendary boss for levels 11-15. The tiers array also gives downscaled CR 2 and CR 6 versions for tier 1 and tier 2 tables, which drop the legendary actions and run it as a paired or supported threat.
Can The Devil be a companion or ally?
Yes, in the bound aspect 'Akerbeltz, Bound' (AC 14, 95 HP). Shackled by a binder's sigil rather than served, it lends fire to allies, hands out a risky Tempter's Oath buff, and wards a nearby ally with its wings, while it has not yet learned to betray its captor.
Why is it immune to fire but only resistant to cold?
It is a fiend of hellfire, so flame and poison can't touch it, but the cold of the thin places is something it endures rather than ignores. Its leathery hide also shrugs off nonmagical weapons, so arm your players with magic or fire damage to cut it down quickly.
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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