Zyrakkath
Zyrakkath — The Encounter
Scaled enforcer who answers every argument with the Cleftfang · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Zyrakkath
Marked in the orange-and-ash heraldry of the Alpha Draconis, Zyrakkath is named in barracks-whispers not as a warrior but as a sentence carried out. Where his kin form shield-walls and weigh advantage, he has only ever known the forward step. The Cleftfang was forged from the failed plate of those he executed, its blades reheated and rehammered so that no two teeth match, and it bites through mail and marrow with equal indifference. They say he was set loose upon deserters and oath-breakers, a living reprisal sent ahead of the column so that the rest need never bloody their hands. He does not parley, does not feint, and does not retreat; a wound only fixes his attention. Quartermasters who outfitted him learned to bury his name in the ledgers, for to write it plainly was to invite the question of where the bodies went, and the only honest answer was: wherever Zyrakkath had last been pointed.
Run Zyrakkath in Sixty Seconds
- He never backs up. Zyrakkath always presses forward toward the nearest living thing; he has no ranged option, so the party that kites him is the party that wins.
- Open with Reckless Advance. Turn one, swing twice with advantage at the toughest defender to draw melee in close, then start collecting Punishing Riposte reactions.
- Kill-priority: clustered melee. He wants bodies in reach so Punishing Riposte and Cleftfang Momentum keep firing. Spread out and he loses half his output.
- When bloodied, he speeds up, not slows down. A wound just turns on Reckless Advance every turn; expect crits and prone, and watch him hop to a fresh target on each kill.
- Three ways to run him: (1) lone terror unit ahead of a mob, (2) bodyguard-executioner beside a caster boss, (3) arena duelist where Punishing Riposte punishes anyone who trades blows.
Zyrakkath
Medium humanoid (dragonborn), lawful evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEReckless Advance. At the start of its turn, Zyrakkath can gain advantage on all melee weapon attack rolls it makes this turn. If it does, attack rolls against it have advantage until the start of its next turn.
Cleftfang Momentum. Signature. Once on each of its turns, when Zyrakkath reduces a creature to 0 hit points or scores a critical hit with the Cleftfang, it can move up to 10 feet without provoking opportunity attacks and immediately make one Cleftfang attack as part of the same action.
Actions
Multiattack. Zyrakkath makes two Cleftfang attacks.
Cleftfang. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 16 (2d10 + 4) slashing damage. On a critical hit, the target must succeed on a DC 15 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.
Tail Sweep. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (1d6 + 4) bludgeoning damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 15 Strength saving throw or be pushed 5 feet away.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Punishing Riposte. Reaction. When a creature Zyrakkath can see hits it with a melee attack, Zyrakkath makes one Cleftfang attack against that creature.
A towering dragonblooded brute in cracked split-plate, gripping a black-hafted axe whose jagged, asymmetrical blades are ringed with cruel spikes. He plants his clawed feet wide, leaning into the next kill rather than away from it.
Zyrakkath, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEGoad the Brute (signature). Bonus Action. Zyrakkath snarls a command. One allied creature it can see within 30 feet can use its reaction to move up to half its speed toward an enemy.
Actions
Serrated Hatchet. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) slashing damage.
Reactions
Shield the Enforcer. Reaction. When an ally within 5 feet is hit by an attack, Zyrakkath can take half the damage in its place.
A leaner dragonkin retainer who keeps to Zyrakkath's flank, hatchet ready, snapping orders the brute is too single-minded to give himself.
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 charging the softest-looking target and using Reckless Advance only if the party can't punish it. Use Cleftfang Momentum to leap to a new victim the instant one drops. Pair him with a goblin or kobold mob so low-level parties face him as the terror unit, not the whole fight.
Open with Reckless Advance and two Cleftfang swings on the highest-AC defender to bait melee, then Punishing Riposte everyone who hits back. Kill-priority is whoever is closest and softest; chain Cleftfang Momentum on every crit or kill to swim through the back line. Pair him with a bigger boss or a brace of archers so the party can't simply gang the lone brute down.
Run him as a frontline executioner in a lair or warband, not solo. Open by closing on the casters, advantage up, and Punishing Riposte the melee that swarms him. With minions tying up the party, lean on Cleftfang Momentum to relocate onto a downed PC's neighbor every round; pair him with a flying or spellcasting flagship so the action economy stays against the players.
Put Zyrakkath 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 Zyrakkath?
Natively CR 6 (Tier 2, ~levels 5-10): AC 16, 127 HP, +7 to hit, save DC 15. Scaled stat lines for Tier 1 (CR ~2) and Tier 3 (CR ~11) are in the tiers table so you can drop him into any party.
Can Zyrakkath be a companion or ally?
Yes, but he is a blunt instrument. As an NPC ally he charges the nearest enemy and rarely follows nuanced orders; pair him with the Cinderscale companion block (AC 14, 76 HP) who barks the commands Zyrakkath is too single-minded to give himself.
Is Zyrakkath a true dragon?
No. He is a Medium dragonblooded humanoid (dragonborn) shock trooper, not a winged dragon. He has fire resistance and a punishing two-handed axe, but no breath weapon or flight; run him as elite melee muscle, not an aerial threat.
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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