Warlock
Warlock — The Encounter
Skull-faced sorcerer who hovers on wings of dead-tree shadow · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Warlock
They call him the Hollow General, though the name carved on the reliquary of his staff is older and unspoken. Once a battlefield mage who bartered his face to the dark between stars, he returned with a skull for a head and starfire for a voice. He does not march; he hovers above the slaughter on wings woven from the shadows of dead trees, and where his ash-grey hand traces a sigil, a soldier forgets how to live. Grimoires of the watcher-orders warn that his power is not raw flame but punctuation: every gesture finishes a sentence the stars began, and the sentence is always a death. He keeps no court, raises no banner, and answers to no crown. He arrives where empires are deciding their fate, hangs silent in the smoke, and edits the outcome. Those who survive his passing speak of a cold that lives behind the eyes long after the cold leaves the air.
Run Warlock in Sixty Seconds
- He flies and hovers — fly 40 ft. with no opportunity attacks while airborne. Make the party deal with a target they can't simply walk up to; melee-only PCs will be miserable.
- Open with crowd control — fear (T1) or Astral Rebuke / hunger of hadar (T3) before anyone acts. Establish that staying clumped near him is fatal.
- Kill-priority is the healer — his Voidfire Bolt stops hit-point regain for a round. Lock down the party's recovery and the attrition tilts hard his way.
- When bloodied, Drink the Light — the legendary action drains nearby PCs to heal him. If he's surrounded, that's a free reset; if isolated in the air, he just keeps sniping.
- Three ways to run him: aloof artillery (stay high, Voidfire Bolt + legendaries), counter-caster tyrant (Sigil of Dread punishing every spell), or void executioner (close in, Drink the Light, Astral Rebuke, finish the bloodied).
Warlock
Medium humanoid (spellcaster), neutral evil
CR 9 · 5,000 XP · GUIDELINEHovering Dread. The warlock floats above the ground on a mantle of shadow-wings and need not touch the earth. He ignores difficult terrain and is not subject to opportunity attacks for moving out of a creature's reach while flying.
Voidfire Caster (Signature). The warlock is a 9th-level spellcaster (spellcasting ability Charisma, spell save DC 16, +8 to hit). He knows: at will: chill touch, mage armor, minor illusion; 3/day each: hold person, scorching ray, fear; 1/day each: hunger of hadar, blight. When he reduces a creature to 0 hit points with a spell, dark wings flare and each enemy within 10 ft. takes 5 (1d10) necrotic damage.
Actions
Multiattack. The warlock makes two attacks with Voidfire Bolt, or casts one spell and makes one Voidfire Bolt attack.
Voidfire Bolt. Ranged Spell Attack: +8 to hit, range 120 ft., one target. Hit: 18 (4d6+4) necrotic damage, and the target can't regain hit points until the start of the warlock's next turn.
Draculex Spire. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 12 (2d6+5) bludgeoning damage plus 7 (2d6) necrotic damage. On a hit, the warlock may push the target 10 ft. away.
Astral Rebuke (Recharge 5-6). The warlock unleashes a cone of cold starfire in a 30-foot cone. Each creature in the area makes a DC 16 Dexterity saving throw, taking 38 (7d10) cold and necrotic damage on a failed save, or half as much on a success. Creatures that fail are knocked prone by the blast.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Shadow Step (Bonus). The warlock teleports up to 30 ft. to an unoccupied space he can see that is in dim light or darkness, and has advantage on the next attack he makes before the end of his turn.
Sigil of Dread (Reaction). When a creature the warlock can see casts a spell or moves within 30 ft. of him, he can lash out: that creature makes a DC 16 Charisma saving throw, taking 11 (2d10) necrotic damage on a failure and being unable to take reactions until the end of its turn.
Legendary Actions (3/Round)
Voidfire Bolt. The warlock makes one Voidfire Bolt attack.
Sigil Step (Costs 1 Action). The warlock uses Shadow Step, then each creature within 5 ft. of his destination makes a DC 16 Wisdom saving throw or has disadvantage on attack rolls until the end of its next turn.
Drink the Light (Costs 2 Actions). Each creature within 15 ft. of the warlock makes a DC 16 Constitution saving throw, taking 14 (4d6) necrotic damage on a failure. The warlock regains hit points equal to half the total damage dealt.
A skull-faced general hangs in the air on a cloak of dead-tree shadow, one clawed hand raised mid-incantation, the other gripping a dragon-skull staff above a tide of bat-winged dark.
Warlock, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEBound to the Reliquary (signature). While within 60 ft. of its master, the familiar has advantage on saving throws and cannot be frightened. If the warlock falls, the familiar gains advantage on all attack rolls for one minute as it avenges him.
Actions
Raking Talons. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8+4) slashing damage plus 4 (1d8) necrotic damage.
Reactions
Interpose Wing. When the warlock within 10 ft. is hit by an attack, the familiar can swoop in and take half the damage, granting its master resistance to that instance.
A shard of the dragon-skull staff given wings — a small, screeching guardian of voidfire and bone that circles its master like a question waiting to be answered.
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 fear to scatter the front rank, then hover and pick off the nearest melee threat with Voidfire Bolt. Keep distance and use Shadow Step the instant a fighter closes. Pair him with a few winged minions so the party can't all converge on one target.
Lead with Astral Rebuke when the party clusters, then Sigil of Dread anyone who tries to counter-cast. Kill-priority is the enemy healer — chill touch and Voidfire Bolt deny their regeneration. Run him as a lieutenant beside a heavier bruiser that holds the line while he edits the battlefield from above.
Solo-viable: open with hunger of hadar to anchor the party, then alternate Astral Rebuke and legendary Voidfire Bolts so they never get a clean round. Spend Sigil of Dread to punish every spellcaster's turn and Drink the Light when bloodied to claw HP back. Hold the high air, force them to come to you, and teleport away from anyone who reaches melee.
Put Warlock 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 Warlock?
His home sheet is CR 9 (5,000 XP), a Tier 3 solo-viable caster boss for levels 11-15. His real action-economy kit — three legendary actions plus the Sigil of Dread reaction — lets him play up a CR or two, which is why his raw numbers sit one band below pure Tier 3. Scaled-down Tier 1 and Tier 2 versions are provided for levels 1-4 and 5-10.
Can Warlock be a companion or ally?
As written he's an aloof villain who answers to no one, but nothing stops a desperate party from striking a bargain. If you want him at the table, run the bound Spire-Familiar as a player-side companion instead, or treat the warlock as a temporary patron whose price always comes due.
How do I keep him from being a boring 'caster stands still' fight?
Lean on his mobility. Use Hovering Dread and Shadow Step to reposition every round so the party never pins him, drop the battlefield into dim light to fuel his teleports, and time Astral Rebuke for when they cluster. The fight should feel like chasing a ghost that keeps editing the terrain out from under you.
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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