Shadowbane
Shadowbane — The Encounter
Skull-faced hexer of the gallows, who curses by lantern-light · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Shadowbane
They hanged the conjurer called Shadowbane at the autumn crossroads, and the rope did its work, yet by the next hallowed night he walked again beneath the same wide hat that had shadowed the noose. The grimoires hold that a hexer who dies with a curse unspoken returns to finish it, bound to no breath and beholden to no grave. His ringed staff is no priest's crook but a focus for the gallows-light, that guttering flame seen above the bodies of the unburied; with it he marks the dying so that their last spark turns against the living around them. He is courteous in the old fashion, bowing and offering an open hand, for the syndicate of jacks that keeps him taught him that a smile loosens a throat better than a blade. Salt at the threshold and a lantern kept burning hold him at bay a while, but he is patient, and the night is long.
Run Shadowbane in Sixty Seconds
- Hold until the party clusters, then lead with Gallows Curse for AoE psychic plus frightened on the front rank.
- Open with Withering Bolt on the healer or support caster to shut off all healing for a round.
- Kill-priority is the party's healer or buffer; this is a tormentor that punishes whoever keeps the team standing.
- When bloodied, lean on Step Through Shadow every turn so melee whiffs, and feed Hexstaff Focus by finishing low targets near the cluster.
- Three ways to run it: lantern-keeper of an undead lair, hexer escorting a melee flagship, or a syndicate assassin who curses then vanishes into the dark.
Shadowbane
Medium undead, neutral evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINETurn Resistance. Shadowbane has advantage on saving throws against any effect that turns undead.
Hexstaff Focus. Signature. While Shadowbane holds its ringed staff, any creature reduced to 0 hit points by its spells or the staff is marked with a guttering hex-light. At the start of Shadowbane's next turn, each other creature within 10 feet of a marked target takes 9 (2d8) necrotic damage as the light bursts.
Actions
Multiattack. Shadowbane casts a cantrip or a spell, then makes one Hexstaff attack.
Hexstaff. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (3d6 + 4) necrotic damage.
Withering Bolt (Cantrip). Ranged Spell Attack: +6 to hit, range 120 ft., one target. Hit: 18 (4d8) necrotic damage, and the target can't regain hit points until the start of Shadowbane's next turn.
Gallows Curse (Recharge 5-6). Shadowbane points at one creature it can see within 60 feet. The target must make a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw, taking 27 (6d8) psychic damage and being frightened until the end of its next turn on a failure, or half as much damage and not frightened on a success.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Step Through Shadow. As a bonus action, Shadowbane teleports up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space it can see that is in dim light or darkness.
Hexed Retort. When a creature within 60 feet hits Shadowbane with an attack, Shadowbane can use its reaction to impose disadvantage on that creature's next attack roll before the start of its next turn.
A grinning skull peers from beneath a broad witch-hat as the hexer extends one gloved hand in cruel welcome, the other gripping a ringed staff whose prismed orb leaks cold light across the pumpkin-strewn ground.
Shadowbane, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEHex-Lantern (signature). Shadowbane sheds dim light in a 20-foot radius. A creature that starts its turn in this light and is below half its hit point maximum has disadvantage on its next saving throw against being frightened.
Actions
Cold Flame. Ranged Spell Attack: +5 to hit, range 60 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (3d6 + 3) necrotic damage.
Reactions
Flicker Out. When Shadowbane is hit by an attack, it can use its reaction to halve the damage and teleport 15 feet.
A drifting wisp of cold blue flame torn from the lantern of an unburied gibbet, it follows the hexer like a faithful, hungering hound.
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 from 120 ft. with Withering Bolt on the party's healer, then Step Through Shadow into cover. Use Gallows Curse the moment two or more PCs cluster. Pair it with skeleton minions; it is a back-line tormentor, not a duelist.
Open on the best healer with Withering Bolt to lock out healing, then teleport behind terrain each round so melee never lands twice. Kill-priority is whoever the party leans on for support; finish them with Hexstaff so Hexstaff Focus bursts on the cluster. Run it beside a melee flagship or a pack of undead so the party can't simply rush it.
Hold Gallows Curse until the party bunches, then drop frightened on the front line and Withering Bolt the healer. Step Through Shadow keeps it untouchable; Hexed Retort blunts your hardest hitter. Use it as the lair's hexer paired with a bigger threat or a swarm of bound dead, never as the sole boss.
Put Shadowbane 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 Shadowbane?
Shadowbane is built as a CR 6 (2,300 XP) undead spellcaster at its native Tier 2. The record also provides scaled Tier 1 (~CR 2) and Tier 3 (~CR 11) statlines so you can drop it into a level 1-4 or 11-15 party without rebuilding it.
Can Shadowbane be a companion or ally?
As written Shadowbane is an adversary, but its bound wisp Gallows-Light is a ready-made companion (AC 13, 66 HP) that hexes and lights the field. A neutral-leaning party could parley with the hexer if they help him complete an unfinished curse.
Is Shadowbane a solo boss?
No. Shadowbane is an add-on caster with no legendary actions, so a four-PC party will out-act it on its own. Pair it with a melee flagship, undead minions, or a lair to give it the breathing room its hexes need.
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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