BRUTE 01
BRUTE 01 — The Encounter
Hulking enforcer of the Yellow Sign, who walks where others stalk · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is BRUTE 01
When silence is no longer sufficient, the Yellow Sign sends a thing that does not stalk. It walks. The brute is deployed openly, a visible declaration that resistance has already become obsolete, that there will be no discussion, no correction, no retreat. Encased head to heel in plate gone brown with old blood, it carries a maul of jagged iron and a blade it never sheathes. The blade is not a tool of execution but a marker of inevitability; the brute plants it and drags it as it advances, letting the edge grind across stone and earth, not to threaten but to announce arrival. The sound alone fractures morale. Those who hear it often break and run before the first blow lands, which is the point. Behind it follows whatever ruin the Sign has ordained, and the brute simply clears the road, body by body, with the patience of a creature that has never once been made to stop.
Run BRUTE 01 in Sixty Seconds
- Hold the brute as a front-line wall, not a finisher; its job is to clog the lane and make players afraid to step in, not to chase down stragglers.
- Open with Inevitable Advance the moment a cluster forms, then drag-scrape it every turn so the whole knot of PCs fights at disadvantage.
- Kill-priority: maul the lightly-armored backliner or healer to knock it prone, then spend Multiattack on that same target so the follow-up swing gets advantage.
- When bloodied, it does not retreat (it is immune to frightened and never breaks) so just keep grinding the same target down and lean on Grim Riposte against melee attackers.
- Three ways to run it: a lone roadblock enforcer; the muscle escorting a Yellow-Sign cultist caster; or paired with a bigger flagship as the unkillable bodyguard that buys the boss time.
BRUTE 01
Large monstrosity, lawful evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEInevitable Advance. The brute drags its weapon along the ground as it walks, and the grinding scrape unmoors the will of the living. Each creature of the brute's choice within 30 ft. that can hear it and that starts its turn there must succeed on a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw or have disadvantage on attack rolls until the start of its next turn. A creature that fails by 5 or more is also frightened of the brute until the end of that turn.
Brute Force. A melee weapon deals one extra die of its damage when the brute hits with it (included below).
Actions
Multiattack. The brute makes two attacks: one with its spiked maul and one with its cleaving blade.
Spiked Maul. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 19 (3d8 + 5) bludgeoning damage, and if the target is Large or smaller it must succeed on a DC 15 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.
Cleaving Blade. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 17 (3d6 + 5) slashing damage.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Grim Riposte. When a creature the brute can see hits it with a melee attack, the brute can use its reaction to make one Cleaving Blade attack against that creature.
A mountain of blood-caked plate hunched beneath a yellow tabard, its horned great-helm faceless, one fist crushing a spiked maul while a heavy blade scrapes the stone beside it.
BRUTE 01, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEHeld the Line (signature). BRUTE 01 once stood against the brute and lived, and the memory steadies those beside him. Allies within 10 ft. of BRUTE 01 have advantage on saving throws against being frightened.
Actions
Guard's Halberd. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (2d10 + 3) slashing damage.
Reactions
Brace. When an ally BRUTE 01 can see within 5 ft. is hit by a melee attack, BRUTE 01 can use his reaction to grant that ally +2 AC against that attack, possibly causing it to miss.
A veteran sergeant who survived a brute's advance once and carries the unwanted knowledge of how to make others stand when their legs say run.
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 dragging the blade to lock down ranged attackers, then close on the squishiest target and try to knock it prone with the maul. Kill-priority is whoever the party leans on for healing. Pair it with a small mob of cultists so the prone target gets piled on.
Wade into the front line and use Inevitable Advance every turn to strip attack rolls from the cluster around you. Maul the prone-able target first, then Multiattack the same victim so the second hit lands with advantage from the prone. Let melee fighters trade with you and punish them with Grim Riposte.
This is a wall, not a finale, so run it as the bodyguard or vanguard for a bigger threat behind the lines. Plant it between the party and your caster, frightening melee away while the real menace works. With minions or a lair, it soaks attacks and Grim Riposte makes meleeing it expensive.
Put BRUTE 01 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 BRUTE 01?
Its home build is CR 6 (Tier 2, ~2,300 XP) with AC 17 and 127 HP. The record also gives a CR 2 Tier 1 build (AC 14, 51 HP) and a CR 11 Tier 3 build (AC 18, 187 HP) so you can drop it into any party with no rebuilding.
Can BRUTE 01 be a companion or ally?
Not the brute itself, it is a relentless enforcer of the Yellow Sign and answers to no one. The included ally, Aldric the Spared, is a veteran who once survived its advance and now steadies frightened allies, so you can field the human side of the encounter as a companion instead.
Is BRUTE 01 a solo boss?
No. It has a punishing reaction and a morale aura but no legendary actions, so a full party will out-act it. Run it as muscle, a roadblock, or the bodyguard for a larger flagship threat rather than as a standalone centerpiece.
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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