Grimgloom
Grimgloom — The Encounter
The Blind Hewer, butcher of the pit's red gates · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Grimgloom
In the old testimonies of bound spirits, Grimgloom is named among the hewers — those scarred soldiery of the pit set to guard its red gates and herd the damned. Stripped of sight in some ancient mutilation, it was remade keener: it tastes the air, counts the breaths, and knows a coward's racing pulse from a warrior's steady one. The grimoires warn that Grimgloom cannot be deceived by mirage or fair illusion, for it perceives only the true shapes of things by sound and the heat that bleeds off living flesh. It serves a greater spirit gladly, for it has no ambition save slaughter; where a captain points, Grimgloom flies on leathered wings and brings down the line. Those who have escaped its reach describe the same horror — the wet click of its head turning, the fire kindling along the trident, and the patient certainty with which a blind thing finds you in absolute darkness.
Run Grimgloom in Sixty Seconds
- Blindsight, not eyes — Grimgloom ignores invisibility, illusions, darkness, and the blinded condition within 60 ft.; tell the rogue their stealth-in-the-dark plan does nothing here.
- Open by diving the backline — fly over the frontliners and land on the squishiest caster, then Multiattack (Trident-Mace + claw, prone on a failed STR save).
- Punish movement — Hurl Into the Dark hits anyone who walks past it; clever players will try to slip by, so make them pay or take the Disengage tax.
- Kill-priority is whoever's bloodied — Sundering Cleave gives a free attack when it drops someone, so finish low-HP targets to chain into the next.
- Three ways to run it — as a gate-guard lieutenant beside a boss, as the anchor of a devil warband, or as an airborne skirmisher that dives, cleaves, and lifts off; never as a stand-alone solo.
Grimgloom
Large fiend (devil), lawful evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEEyeless Hunter. Grimgloom has no eyes and is unaffected by anything that requires sight, including illusions, gaze effects, and the blinded condition. Within its blindsight it perceives prey perfectly; beyond 60 feet it is effectively blind and attacks at disadvantage.
Magic Weapons. Grimgloom's weapon attacks are magical. While it wields its trident-mace it deals an extra 4 (1d8) fire damage on a hit (included below).
Sundering Cleave. Signature. When Grimgloom reduces a creature to 0 hit points with a melee attack on its turn, it may immediately make one Trident-Mace attack against a different creature within reach as part of the same action.
Actions
Multiattack. Grimgloom makes two attacks: one with its Trident-Mace and one with its Rending Claw.
Trident-Mace. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8+4) bludgeoning damage plus 4 (1d8) fire damage.
Rending Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6+4) slashing damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 14 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Hurl Into the Dark (Reaction). When a creature Grimgloom can perceive moves within 5 feet of it without using the Disengage action, Grimgloom makes one Rending Claw attack against that creature.
A blind, crimson-winged devil of rippling muscle and fused infernal plate, Grimgloom hefts a fire-wreathed trident-mace and grins through an eyeless, ring-pierced face. It hears every heartbeat in the dark and walks toward the loudest one.
Grimgloom, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEReads the Dark (signature). Your bound devil shares its blindsight 60 ft. with you while you are within 10 feet of it; you cannot be surprised while you can hear and neither of you can be blinded.
Actions
Trident-Mace. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d8+2) bludgeoning damage plus 4 (1d8) fire damage.
Reactions
Guarding Cleave. When an enemy within 10 feet hits an ally you can see, the bound devil makes one Trident-Mace attack against that enemy.
Sworn to a binder's circle, Grimgloom hunts at the side of the one whose voice it has learned, a blind blade that never loses you in the smoke.
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 flying in and bullying the loudest, lowest-HP caster with the Trident-Mace; this is a brutal scare-piece for low-level parties, so use it sparingly. Lean on blindsight to ignore the rogue's hide-in-the-dark plan. Pair it with two or three lesser devil minions rather than alone.
Open with a dive, Multiattack the squishiest target, and use Hurl Into the Dark to punish anyone who steps past it. Sundering Cleave makes it a wrecking ball against clustered low-HP foes, so kill-priority should be the caster line. Run it as a frontline enforcer beside a flagship boss or a knot of cultists — it is a lieutenant, not a soloist.
Field it as the muscle in a lair fight: it flies between threats, cleaves through summoned minions, and bodyguards a spellcasting master with Hurl Into the Dark. Focus its claws on whoever just dropped an ally to chain Sundering Cleave. Always pair it with a bigger threat or a swarm — alone, a high-tier party out-acts it.
Put Grimgloom 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 Grimgloom?
Grimgloom is built at CR 6 (2,300 XP) as its native Tier 2 stat block — a fair centerpiece for a party of levels 5-10. The record also includes scaled Tier 1 (~CR 2) and Tier 3 (~CR 11) versions so you can drop it into almost any table by swapping the AC, HP, to-hit, and save DC.
Can Grimgloom be a companion or ally?
Yes. The 'Grimgloom, Bound' companion profile (AC 16, 76 HP) models a binder who has sworn the blind devil to a circle. It shares its blindsight, guards an ally with Guarding Cleave, and swings the fire-wreathed Trident-Mace — a strong frontline ally for a darker-themed party, subject to your DM's ruling on summoned fiends.
Why does Grimgloom have no eyes, and can it be blinded?
Grimgloom was mutilated and remade as a blind hunter; it perceives the world through 60-foot blindsight (heat and sound), so it cannot be blinded and is immune to illusions, invisibility, and gaze effects within that range. Beyond 60 feet it is effectively blind and attacks at disadvantage — back up and you take away its edge.
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 Grimgloom 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.
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