Gerard
Gerard — The Encounter
Dragon-slayer of Lydia, wreathed in serpent-fire · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Gerard
They name him Gerard of Lydia, the knight who rode against the worm that demanded a tribute of maidens and slew it at the spring's edge. The grimoires hold that he did not merely kill the dragon but bound a thread of its fire, so that ever after a serpent of living flame coils about his blade and answers his will. He is no sorcerer; the fire is a relic of faith and slaughter both, kindled by a saint's resolve and the death-heat of the beast. Folk of the borderlands carve his likeness above doorways against plague and against the wyrms that still nest in the deep forests. When the old songs are sung, the fire-serpent rears in the smoke of the hearth, and the brave swear they have seen it turn its molten head toward any who would harm the helpless. He fights, the chroniclers warn, hardest when his own blood runs.
Run Gerard in Sixty Seconds
- Hold his blade attacks until you've placed Lash of Flame (Recharge 5-6); the cone is your only AoE, so wait for two or more PCs to cluster before you fire it.
- Brand one target every turn with Serpent-Fire Brand, the extra 2d6 plus the ongoing burn punishes whoever you most want dead. Pick the healer or controller.
- Open by closing on the back line; he has no ranged option, so spend his first turn reaching the squishy casters and Multiattacking.
- When bloodied (below half HP) he attacks with advantage, lean in, don't retreat. This is his payoff turn.
- Three ways to run him: (1) forest ambush with wolves/brigands at T1, (2) a dragon-cult champion screening a bigger boss at T2-3, (3) a redemptive ally who fights beside the party against the worm.
Gerard
Medium humanoid (human), lawful good
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINESerpent-Fire Brand. Gerard's blade is sheathed in a coiling ribbon of living flame. The first time he hits a target on each of his turns, that creature takes an extra 7 (2d6) fire damage and must succeed on a DC 14 Dexterity saving throw or catch fire, taking 3 (1d6) fire damage at the start of each of its turns until it or an adjacent creature uses an action to douse the flames.
Saint's Resolve. Gerard has advantage on saving throws against being frightened, charmed, or poisoned. While below half his hit points, he has advantage on attack rolls (the dragon-fire surges around him).
Actions
Multiattack. Gerard makes two Blessed Longsword attacks.
Blessed Longsword. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (1d8+4) slashing damage, or 9 (1d10+4) slashing damage if used in two hands, plus 4 (1d8) radiant damage.
Lash of Flame (Recharge 5-6). Gerard sweeps the serpent of fire in a 15-foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a DC 14 Dexterity saving throw, taking 21 (6d6) fire damage on a failed save, or half as much on a success. A creature that fails is knocked prone as the coiling flame buckles its footing.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Coiling Ward (Reaction). When a creature Gerard can see hits him with an attack, he interposes the living flame, reducing the damage by 7 (2d6). If the attacker is within 5 feet, it takes 7 (2d6) fire damage.
A grey-haired knight in blessed plate plants his feet and raises a longsword, a vast serpent of molten fire coiling around him in a great burning halo. He is the dragon-slayer remembered in scripture and Slavic song, the flame of the beast he felled now bent to his own hand.
Gerard, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINELiving Flame (signature). The serpent is made of fire and sheds bright light in a 15-foot radius. It can move through any space as small as 1 inch wide without squeezing, and it ignites unattended flammable objects it touches.
Actions
Searing Coil. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 12 (2d8+3) fire damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 13 Strength save or be pulled 5 feet toward the serpent.
Reactions
Flare Guard. When an ally within 10 feet is hit by an attack, the serpent flares; the attacker takes 5 (1d10) fire damage.
The coiling ribbon of dragon-fire that orbits Gerard, half weapon and half ghost of the worm he slew.
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 Lash of Flame on the tightest cluster, then close to Multiattack the squishiest caster. Use Coiling Ward on the first big hit. Pair him with forest minions (wolves, brigands) so the party can't gang the knight.
Open by closing on the back-line and dumping Lash of Flame when two or more PCs bunch. Brand the same target every turn to stack the burning damage; kill-priority is the healer. Below half HP he hits with advantage, so push him to bloodied alongside a bigger threat rather than running him alone.
Run him as the champion guarding a true flagship boss or in his fire-warded lair, not solo, a high-tier party will out-act one knight. Lead with Lash of Flame on clusters, brand the controller, and spend Coiling Ward to keep him standing long enough to reach bloodied, where his advantage makes him deadly.
Put Gerard 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 Gerard?
Gerard is built as a Challenge Rating 6 adversary (2,300 XP) at his native Tier 2 (levels 5-10). The record also gives scaled Tier 1 (~CR 2) and Tier 3 (~CR 11) numbers so you can drop him into almost any table without rebuilding the block.
Can Gerard be a companion or ally?
Yes. As a lawful-good dragon-slayer he makes a natural party ally or patron, and the Brand-Serpent companion sheet lets him fight beside the heroes against a greater worm. Run his stat block straight as a powerful NPC, or hand the players the serpent as a temporary boon.
Why is his fire a serpent, and is that lore official?
The coiling fire-serpent is our in-world reading of the render: Gerard of Lydia is the dragon-slayer saint of folklore and Slavic song, and we frame the flame as a relic of the worm he felled. It's grounded entirely in public-domain hagiography and myth, no proprietary cosmology required.
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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