Crasis
Crasis — The Encounter
Plague-Worm of the Coiling Pestilence, the Spined Devourer · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Crasis
Where the wells run black and the cattle bloat unburied, the old shepherds whisper of Crasis, the Coiling Pestilence. It is said the worm was no beast born of any womb but a sickness given a body, a plague that grew teeth and a spine and learned to crawl from the grave-pits it once only haunted. Its armored coils ring the ruin of villages like a crown of rot, and the second blind head upon its stalk is the part that hungers, tasting the air for the warmth of the still-living. Priests who have faced it report that wounds dealt to Crasis weep a contagion that no common balm can stem, and that those it merely brushes wither within days, their flesh refusing to knit. Salt, fire, and consecrated ground slow it; nothing yet recorded has slain it without grievous cost. It is counted among the worst of the plague-things loosed in the season men name the Wrath of God.
Run Crasis in Sixty Seconds
- Hold the coil. Crasis is a fortress that bites back. Keep it coiled so it has half cover and a 15-foot ring of difficult terrain, and let melee come to it.
- Open with Spew Rot. If it's recharged, lead with the 30-foot cone on the tightest cluster of PCs to seed the wasting plague before anyone is hurt.
- Kill-priority for the DM: the cure. Bite and chase whoever can cast Lesser Restoration or Protection from Poison first; the plague is the whole point.
- When bloodied, swallow. Below half HP, prioritize crit/infected Bites to grapple and swallow a single PC, removing them from the fight while minions mob the rest.
- Three ways to run it: lair, swarm, or ambush. A coiled lair boss with cover; the anchor of a plague horde; or a burrowing tremorsense ambusher that erupts under the back line.
Crasis
Huge aberration, neutral evil
CR 11 · 7,200 XP · GUIDELINEPestilent Hide. A creature that touches Crasis or hits it with a melee attack while within 5 feet takes 7 (2d6) poison damage. The first time a creature takes this damage on a turn, it must succeed on a DC 16 Constitution saving throw or contract a wasting plague: until cured, the creature can't regain hit points and takes 7 (2d6) necrotic damage at the start of each of its turns.
Two-Headed Horror. Crasis has advantage on saving throws against being blinded, charmed, deafened, stunned, or knocked unconscious. Its second, stalk-borne maw lets it threaten foes it cannot see directly (see Multiattack).
Coiling Bulwark. While Crasis remains coiled, the spiral of armored body grants it half cover and difficult terrain fills a 15-foot radius around it from its writhing legs.
Actions
Multiattack. Crasis makes one Bite attack with its primary maw, one Bite attack with its stalk-head, and one Scythe Sweep attack.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 20 (3d8 + 6) piercing damage plus 7 (2d6) poison damage. On a critical hit or against a creature already infected by Pestilent Hide, the target is grappled (escape DC 16) and swallowed whole on Crasis's next turn.
Scythe Sweep. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 17 (2d10 + 6) slashing damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 16 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.
Spew Rot (Recharge 5-6). Crasis vomits a 30-foot cone of festering bile. Each creature in the cone makes a DC 16 Constitution saving throw, taking 36 (8d8) necrotic damage on a failed save, or half as much on a success. A creature that fails also contracts the wasting plague (see Pestilent Hide).
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Lashing Stalk (Reaction). When a creature Crasis can sense moves within 10 feet of it, Crasis makes one Scythe Sweep attack against that creature.
Crasis rears from its own armored coils, a leviathan worm of overlapping scale-plates whose spine bristles with scythe-legs, crowned by a fang-lined maw and horns of bone, while a second blind head sways on a fleshy stalk at its flank.
Crasis, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEPlague Shepherd (signature). While Crasis is within 30 feet of a creature infected by a wasting plague, that creature has disadvantage on saving throws to end or resist disease and necrotic effects.
Actions
Rending Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 15 (3d6 + 5) piercing damage plus 4 (1d8) necrotic damage.
Reactions
Carrion Recoil. When a creature within 5 feet hits Crasis, it takes 5 (2d4) poison damage as the spawn bursts a pustule of rot.
A lesser brood-worm calved from Crasis's coils, Crasis drags itself in its parent's wake, finishing the dying and spreading the rot wherever it slithers.
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 a Bite from the stalk-head so the party can't tell which end is the threat, then keep the coil between you and the casters for half cover. If foes cluster, hold Spew Rot until you catch two or more. Kill-priority: the cleric who can cure the wasting plague; pair Crasis with cultists or plague crawlers to screen its flanks.
Lead with Spew Rot on the densest knot of PCs to seed the plague, then full Multiattack the infected to deny their healing. Use Lashing Stalk to punish anyone trying to slip past your reach. Kill-priority: ranged healers; run Crasis as the anchor of a plague horde, not alone.
Stay coiled in the lair so the 15-foot difficult terrain and half cover blunt the alpha strike, then Spew Rot the clustered front line and bite the survivors to grapple-and-swallow. Lashing Stalk turns every flank attempt into a free Scythe Sweep. Kill-priority: whoever brings Lesser Restoration or radiant burst; pair it with a bigger threat or a teeming plague swarm so the party can't focus it down.
Put Crasis 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 Crasis?
Crasis is built at CR 11 (7,200 XP) on its native Tier 3, a deadly centerpiece for an 11th-15th level party. The record also provides scaled Tier 1 and Tier 2 stat lines so you can drop it into lower-level games without rebuilding it.
Can Crasis be a companion or ally?
Crasis itself is a Huge plague-worm horror, far too vast and mindless to befriend. The record instead supplies a bound companion, Festermaw, a lesser brood-worm calved from its coils that a plague-touched warlock or cultist could leash as an ally.
Is Crasis meant to fight a party alone?
No. Crasis is an add-on monster, not a solo boss; it lacks a legendary-action kit, so a full party will out-act it. Run it coiled in its lair with cover, or as the anchor of a plague horde alongside cultists, crawlers, or a bigger flagship threat.
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
Played Crasis at your table? Log in with your Obsidian Tavern account to leave a balance note, a war story, or a file issue — the sharpest reports get the block revised.
Log in to comment