Mari Lwyd
Mari Lwyd — The Encounter
The Grey Mare who knocks at midwinter doors · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Mari Lwyd
When the longest nights close in, the Grey Mare walks the frostbound lanes. Folk dress a horse's skull in ribbon and white shroud and carry it door to door, and where the rite is honored the dead spirit is only a guest who trades rhyme for cake and ale. But the true Mari Lwyd needs no bearers. It comes of its own accord, knuckles rapping at the threshold, snapping jaw clacking out verses that demand an answer. Refuse the duel, or lose it, and the door must open the hungry guest crosses in to feast on warmth, on years, on the marrow of the living. It cannot be slain by mortal steel alone, only outwitted or outsung. Those who best it find the lane empty by dawn, frost melting on the step. Those who fail are remembered only as another candle gone dark before the solstice turned.
Run Mari Lwyd in Sixty Seconds
- Phase, do not march. Incorporeal Pall lets it walk through walls and bodies open from inside the room, behind the back line, not through the front door.
- Open with the rhyme. Rhyming Challenge (bonus action) charms one PC, killing their reactions and tanking their attacks against you spend it on the fighter or the counterspeller every turn.
- Kill-priority: casters. Skull Bite permanently cuts a target's hit-point maximum until a long rest, so bite the low-CON caster and let Grave-Cold Touch's slow keep them in reach.
- When bloodied, stop trading and use Toll the Bone-Bells on the strongest attacker, then phase a wall away to reset and Challenge again from cover.
- Three ways to run it: a door-knocking dread-guest stalking a single household, the herald leading a procession of midwinter undead, or a riddling lieutenant guarding a greater frozen power give nonmagical parties a magic weapon or it laughs off their steel.
Mari Lwyd
Medium undead, neutral evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEIncorporeal Pall. The Mari Lwyd can move through other creatures and objects as if they were difficult terrain. It takes 5 (1d10) force damage if it ends its turn inside an object.
Rhyming Challenge. Signature. The Mari Lwyd's existence is bound to a duel of verse it must be answered. As a bonus action it issues a rhyme to one creature it can see within 30 ft. that can hear it. That creature must succeed on a DC 14 Charisma saving throw or be charmed until the end of its next turn, compelled to answer in kind it can take no reactions and has disadvantage on attack rolls against the Mari Lwyd while charmed. A creature that succeeds is immune to this trait for 24 hours.
Actions
Multiattack. The Mari Lwyd makes two attacks: one with its Skull Bite and one with its Grave-Cold Touch.
Skull Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (2d8+5) piercing damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or its hit point maximum is reduced by an amount equal to the damage taken until it finishes a long rest.
Grave-Cold Touch. Melee Spell Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 18 (4d6+4) cold damage, and the target's speed is halved until the start of the Mari Lwyd's next turn.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Toll the Bone-Bells. Reaction, when a creature the Mari Lwyd can see within 30 ft. reduces it to 0 hit points or attempts to leave its sight: the creature must succeed on a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw or be frightened of the Mari Lwyd until the end of its next turn.
A towering procession-wraith of bone and trailing grave-cloth, its bleached horse skull crowned in a halo of spines, one clawed hand raised to rap upon a door that should have stayed shut.
Mari Lwyd, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINECarol of Welcome (signature). Once per short rest, the bearer of the skull may sing a charm: each ally within 15 ft. gains 7 (2d6) temporary hit points and advantage on its next saving throw against fear.
Actions
Snapping Jaw. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6+4) piercing damage.
Reactions
Mournful Clatter. When an ally within 10 ft. is hit, the Bound skull rattles its jaw the attacker must succeed on a DC 13 Wisdom save or be frightened until the end of its turn.
A horse skull dressed in faded ribbon and silver bell, half-tamed by the rite that named it, now answering to a living hand.
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 Rhyming Challenge on the loudest PC to lock down their reactions, then glide through a wall and Grave-Cold Touch the squishiest caster. Kill-priority: anyone who can answer riddles or counter fear. At this tier it is a haunted-house centerpiece pair it with a swarm of grave-clad caroler skeletons.
Open by phasing through the wall behind the party, Challenge the face-character, then Multiattack the slowed target so Skull Bite shreds their hit-point maximum. Use Toll the Bone-Bells to pin anyone trying to flee or finish it. Not a solo it shines leading midwinter undead or guarding a bigger fiend; let nonmagical fighters waste rounds on its resistance while it drains the casters.
Phase between clustered PCs, Challenge to strip a key reaction, then Multiattack to stack max-HP loss before the cleric can restore. Save Toll the Bone-Bells for the moment it drops. At this level run it as a lieutenant in a frozen lair beside a larger undead lord or winter fiend it is an add-on threat, never the lone boss.
Put Mari Lwyd 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 Mari Lwyd?
Native CR 6 (2,300 XP), built for a Tier 2 party of levels 5-10. The sheet scales down to roughly CR 2 for Tier 1 and up to about CR 11 for Tier 3 traits stay identical; only AC, HP, to-hit, save DC, and damage move between the bands.
Can Mari Lwyd be a companion or ally?
Yes use the companion block, The Ribboned Skull, Bound: a half-tamed horse skull carried by a living bearer (AC 13, 74 HP) that buffs the party with its Carol of Welcome, snaps with its jaw, and frightens attackers via Mournful Clatter. It is a lighter echo of the full wraith, fit to march beside the party rather than against it.
Is Mari Lwyd a solo boss?
No. It carries strong control (Rhyming Challenge, Toll the Bone-Bells) but no legendary actions, so a four-PC party will out-act it on its own. Run it as a centerpiece for weaker tables or as a lieutenant beside a larger threat at higher tiers it loses steam as a lone fight.
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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