Mandrakes
Mandrakes — The Encounter
Root-Born Screamers, whose shriek unstrings the living · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Mandrakes
Where a hanged man's last breath waters the ground, the soil quickens and a mandrake claws its way upward. Grimoires of the old hedge-witches warn that the root grows in a man's likeness, and that to pull it whole is to hear the scream that unstrings the heart. The wise loose a starving dog upon the leaves and stop their own ears, for the cry that kills the beast spares the master. Once free of the earth, a mandrake does not lie quiet. It walks on knotted limbs, hunting in clutches through hedgerow and barrow, dragging the slow and the curious back into the dark loam to feed its kin. The golden fruit one bears is no gift but a lure, swollen with sleep-sap; those who taste it wake rooted to the spot, throats already closing, while the screamers gather to sing them under. Salt the ground, and burn what crawls.
Run Mandrakes in Sixty Seconds
- Hold buried. Start the mandrakes motionless as ordinary roots (False Appearance); they only erupt once a PC steps within reach, granting surprise on the first grapple.
- Open with the grab. Lead with Rending Claw to grapple the lowest-AC target (escape DC 12), then drag it toward the rest of the clutch on the next turn.
- Kill-priority is the grappled PC. Gang the held character; a deafened, grappled caster can't reliably cast verbal spells and can't hear allies.
- When the party clusters, scream. Fire Killing Shriek (Recharge 5-6) the instant two or more PCs bunch up to free a friend, for 3d6 psychic and a deafen.
- Three ways to run it: ambush patch (buried, surprise grapple), pursuit pack (chase fleeing PCs with burrow), or lair guardians (on soil, Rooted Recovery makes them a grinding wall) — always as add-ons to a bigger boss.
Mandrakes
Medium plant, neutral evil
CR 2 · 450 XP · GUIDELINEFalse Appearance. While the mandrake remains motionless and half-buried in soil, it is indistinguishable from an ordinary tangle of roots.
Rooted Recovery. At the start of its turn, if the mandrake is standing on natural earth or soil, it regains 3 hit points unless it is in sunlight or has taken fire damage since its last turn.
Actions
Multiattack. The mandrake makes two Rending Claw attacks.
Rending Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (2d4+2) slashing damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 12) by the creature's clutching roots.
Killing Shriek (Recharge 5-6). The mandrake tears its root-mouth wide and looses a soul-rending scream. Each creature within 15 feet that can hear it must make a DC 12 Constitution saving throw, taking 10 (3d6) psychic damage and being deafened until the end of its next turn on a failed save, or half damage with no deafness on a success.
A clutch of root-bodied homunculi pried from cursed soil: bark-skinned, leaf-sprouting things with screaming knotholes for mouths, one cradling a swollen golden fruit like an offering.
Mandrakes, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEWarding Wail (signature). As a reaction when an ally within 15 feet is hit by an attack, Mandrakes shrieks; the attacker must succeed on a DC 12 Constitution save or be deafened until the end of its next turn.
Actions
Rending Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (2d4+2) slashing damage.
Reactions
Rooting Step. When forced to move, Mandrakes may instead sink its roots and reduce that forced movement to 0 feet.
A smaller mandrake tamed by salt-iron rings, kept to scream on command and guard the one who pulled it free.
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 buried as False Appearance roots, then erupt and grapple the squishiest PC to drag toward the others. Hold Killing Shriek for when the party clusters to free a grappled ally. Kill-priority is whoever is grappled; pair a clutch of three with a bigger fey or plant boss as add-ons.
Run them as an ambush hedge: lurk hidden, then grapple and pull casters out of formation. Shriek when two or more PCs bunch to break a grapple. These are minions for a flagship grove-warden or witch-queen, not a standalone fight.
Deploy a screaming thicket of them around a lair: rooted recovery makes them grind through high-level parties on home soil. Stagger Killing Shrieks so the deafen never lapses. Pair with a bigger threat and let the mandrakes lock down movement while it lands the heavy blows.
Put Mandrakes 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 Mandrakes?
Native CR 2 (450 XP) at Tier 1 as a Medium plant. The stat record also scales the same kit to Tier 2 (about CR 6) and Tier 3 (about CR 11) by moving only the numbers; the traits and actions stay identical across all three.
Can Mandrakes be a companion or ally?
Yes. Screamroot, Bound is a tamed smaller mandrake (AC 13, 29 HP) that wails to deafen attackers who strike an ally and can root itself against forced movement. It is a defensive, control-flavored companion, not a damage dealer.
Why is a mandrake's shriek psychic rather than thunder damage?
Folklore holds the mandrake's cry kills by terror and madness, not concussive force, so Killing Shriek deals psychic damage and deafens. Creatures that can't hear it (or are immune to being deafened) still take damage but ignore the deafen rider.
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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