Karakoncolos
Karakoncolos — The Encounter
Antlered Winter Fiend of the Riddling Frost · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Karakoncolos
Where winter folk bar their doors through the longest nights, they whisper of the karakoncolos, the antlered thing that prowls the buried roads. It does not break down doors; it waits beyond the last footprint, hooded in blizzard, and calls travelers by name. To those who lose the path it poses crooked riddles, and a wrong answer earns a crushing blow or a slow march into drifts that never end. Hunters who survive describe a beast taller than two men, its hide knotted with frost, antlers wide as a cart, claws like splintered ice. It feeds on the cold-stilled and the misled, dragging the frozen down into snow-packed burrows. Charcoal smudged on the brow, a true name spoken aloud, or a riddle answered honestly are said to send it shuffling back into the storm. It returns each midwinter, and the dark of the year is its season.
Run Karakoncolos in Sixty Seconds
- Stage the snow first. Set heavy snow or fog on the map before initiative so Snowbound Ambusher matters; the karakoncolos starts hidden 30 ft. out.
- Open with the riddle. Hit the scout with Riddle of the Frozen Road on approach to charm-and-drift one PC away from the group, then close.
- Hold Killing Frost. Wait until two or more PCs cluster, then drop the 30-ft. cone; the speed halving keeps them in melee range for Frostclaw.
- Kill-priority is the de-concealer. Whoever lights up the field (faerie fire, daylight, see invisibility) ends the ambush, so the fiend Snow Lurches them first.
- Three ways to run it. A lone road-stalker that charms and isolates; a snow-lair fight with hoarfrost cubs; or a midwinter set-piece paired with a bigger boss.
Karakoncolos
Large fiend, neutral evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINESnowbound Ambusher. The karakoncolos has advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks made in snow, ice, or fog. When it is in heavy snow or a blizzard it is heavily obscured to creatures more than 15 feet away, and it can take the Hide action even while being observed in such conditions.
Riddle of the Frozen Road. Signature. When the karakoncolos reduces a creature to 0 hit points or when a creature first comes within 30 feet of it, the fiend poses a deceitful riddle. That creature must succeed on a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw or become charmed until the end of its next turn, wandering one step deeper into the cold. While charmed this way, the creature moves at half speed and takes 7 (2d6) cold damage at the start of each of its turns as the frost gnaws at it.
Actions
Multiattack. The karakoncolos makes two Frostclaw attacks. If both hit the same target, the target must succeed on a DC 14 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.
Frostclaw. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) slashing damage plus 7 (2d6) cold damage.
Killing Frost (Recharge 5-6). The karakoncolos exhales a gale of biting rime in a 30-foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a DC 14 Constitution saving throw, taking 28 (8d6) cold damage on a failed save, or half as much on a success. A creature that fails has its speed halved until the end of its next turn.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Snow Lurch (Reaction). When a creature the karakoncolos can see ends its movement within 10 feet of it, the fiend can make one Frostclaw attack against that creature.
A shaggy mountain of frost-matted fur crowned with vast branching antlers, its limbs sheathed in jagged icicles, the karakoncolos hunches at the edge of the lantern-light where the snow road ends.
Karakoncolos, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEFrost-Wreathed (signature). The cub has resistance to cold damage, and difficult terrain made of snow or ice does not cost it extra movement.
Actions
Rending Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (2d4 + 4) piercing damage plus 3 (1d6) cold damage.
Reactions
Pack Lurch. When an ally within 10 feet is hit by an attack, the cub can move up to half its speed toward the attacker without provoking opportunity attacks.
A waist-high tangle of icicle fur with stubby antler buds, the cub trails its sire through the drifts, snapping at whatever the storm leaves behind.
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 the snow with Riddle of the Frozen Road on the scout, then Snow Lurch the first PC who closes. Kill-priority is anyone charmed and dragged off alone. Pair it with a wolf pack or a larger winter boss; it is a lurking ambusher, not a one-creature fight.
Hide in the blizzard, open with the riddle to charm a frontliner, then Killing Frost the moment the party clusters to regroup. Use Snow Lurch to punish anyone advancing through the drifts. Kill-priority is the caster who can dispel its concealment; pair it with hoarfrost cubs or minion elves.
Lead a midwinter lair: stalk from heavy snow, charm a PC into the killing cone, then open Killing Frost on the bunched party. Use Snow Lurch every round to tax movement. It is not a solo boss at this tier; pair it with a bigger winter threat and let the cubs and lair hazards carry the action economy.
Put Karakoncolos 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 Karakoncolos?
Native CR 6 (2,300 XP), tuned for a Tier 2 party of levels 5-10. Scale it down to roughly CR 2 for Tier 1 or up to about CR 11 for Tier 3 using the per-tier AC, HP, to-hit, and save DC in the tiers block; traits and actions stay identical.
Can Karakoncolos be a companion or ally?
The fiend itself is an adversary, but the bundle includes the Hoarfrost Cub, Bound, a tougher minion you can run as a frost-resistant ally or pet. It harries the karakoncolos's foes with Rending Bite and Pack Lurch and shrugs off snow terrain.
How do players survive its riddle?
The charm only lasts until the end of the target's next turn, so allies can break it with a shove, a save bonus, or simply by keeping the charmed PC from wandering into the cold. Lore tricks (a true name, charcoal on the brow, an honest answer) make great narrative outs you can reward with advantage on the save.
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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