Derygon the Hedonist
Derygon the Hedonist — The Encounter
Rose-cradled tempter of Sodom, sweet rot made flesh · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Derygon the Hedonist
When the cities of the plain drowned in their own appetites, not every pleasure perished in the fire. Some sweetness was too cunning to burn. Derygon was that sweetness, congealed: a demon of indulgence that took the shape it knew mortals could never refuse, the helpless innocence of a sleeping child, cradled in roses and thorned in patience. The grimoires of the salt-wastes name it the Hedonist, for it does not hunt with claw or fang. It hunts with want. Pilgrims who crossed the ruins of Sodom and Gomorrah swore they heard an infant weeping among the briars, and those who went to comfort it were never wept for in turn. Derygon feeds on the rapture it sows, drinking down the joy of the charmed until they are hollow petals. The roses about its cradle are said to be the faces of all who loved it last.
Run Derygon the Hedonist in Sixty Seconds
- Before initiative have any PC who can see Derygon roll the DC 15 Wis save for Intoxicating Beauty so the fight opens with someone already charmed and useless.
- Open Vine Lash on a charmed front-liner to drag them 10 ft into the thorn aura, then Drink Delight on that same target to heal off their bliss.
- Kill-priority is whoever can break the charmed condition (cleric, paladin, anyone with Calm Emotions or Lesser Restoration). The aura is the whole engine.
- When bloodied burn Honeyed Word every round to blunt the heaviest hitter and keep Drink Delight on cooldown for self-healing.
- Three ways to run it: a lone shrine-guardian for tier 1; the back-line controller beside a tempter flagship for tier 2; or a charm-lieutenant in a full rose-lair at tier 3, never solo.
Derygon the Hedonist
Medium fiend (demon), chaotic evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEBower of Thorns. Derygon is wreathed in a living cradle of roses and barbed vines. The ground within 10 feet of it is difficult terrain for its enemies. A creature that ends its turn within 10 feet of Derygon, or that strikes it with a melee attack, takes 5 (1d10) piercing damage from the thorns.
Intoxicating Beauty. Signature. Derygon exudes an aura of sweet, narcotic pleasure. When a creature starts its turn within 20 feet of Derygon, it must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or be charmed until the start of its next turn. While charmed this way, the creature must spend its action gazing upon Derygon and gains no benefit from being in a position of advantage. A creature that succeeds is immune to this aura for 24 hours.
Magic Resistance. Derygon has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Actions
Multiattack. Derygon makes two Vine Lash attacks and uses Drink Delight if it is available.
Vine Lash. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 16 (3d8 + 3) slashing damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 15 Strength saving throw or be pulled up to 10 feet toward Derygon.
Drink Delight (Recharge 5-6). Derygon targets one creature it can see within 30 feet that is charmed by it. The target must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw, taking 27 (6d8) psychic damage on a failed save, or half as much on a success. Derygon regains hit points equal to the damage dealt.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Honeyed Word (Reaction). When a creature Derygon can see within 30 feet makes an attack roll against it, Derygon can whisper a promise of bliss. The attacker must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or have disadvantage on that attack roll.
A heart of golden infernal plate and blood-red roses cradles a pale, foetal thing that suckles its thumb in beatific sleep. To look upon Derygon is to ache with longing; to draw near is to drown in it.
Derygon the Hedonist, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEGrasping Briar (signature). Difficult terrain spreads in a 5-foot radius around the Derygon the Hedonist. The first time a creature enters that area on a turn, it must succeed on a DC 13 Dexterity save or be restrained until the start of its next turn.
Actions
Rake of Thorns. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (2d6 + 2) piercing damage.
Reactions
Shielding Bramble. When an ally within 5 feet is hit by an attack, the Derygon the Hedonist interposes a wall of vines, reducing the damage by 1d8.
A knot of crawling rose-vine torn from Derygon's bower, still seeking a warm thing to wrap around.
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 Intoxicating Beauty before initiative if you can, then peel charmed PCs off their party with Vine Lash's pull. Kill-priority is the cleric or whoever can end the charmed condition. Run it as a single creepy guardian of a rose-choked shrine; pair it with a couple of thorn swarms to make the bower feel alive.
Lead with the aura, pull a charmed front-liner into the thorns, then Drink Delight that same target to heal while it stays charmed. Use Honeyed Word on the party's biggest hitter. It cannot solo a 4-PC party, so pair it with a tempting flagship (a Goetic seducer-spirit or a fire-priest of the fallen cities) and let Derygon lock down the back line while the boss hammers the front.
Now a lieutenant in a larger temptation-lair: it should never fight alone. Keep it central in its bower so the difficult terrain and thorn damage tax everyone, charm-lock the party's controllers, and feed Drink Delight every recharge for sustain. Kill-priority for the DM's allies is still anyone who removes charmed; otherwise let the bigger threat finish what Derygon's bliss begins.
Put Derygon the Hedonist 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 Derygon the Hedonist?
Natively CR 6 (a tier-2 threat for levels 5-10), with stat lines provided to rescale it to roughly CR 2 for tier 1 or CR 11 for tier 3. The traits and tactics stay identical; only AC, HP, to-hit, save DC, and damage shift between bands.
Can Derygon be a companion or ally?
Derygon itself is a temptation-demon villain, but its bower spawns the Thornling, Bound, a smaller rose-vine guardian (AC 14, 38 HP) included here as a controllable ally that restrains foes and shields a friend each round. Use it as a hazard-pet rather than fielding Derygon on the party's side.
Is Derygon a solo boss?
No. It is a control-and-drain add-on with no legendary actions, so a four-PC party will out-act it on its own. Pair it with a flagship tempter or a fire-priest of the fallen cities and let Derygon charm-lock the back line while the bigger threat presses the front.
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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