Phantomglide
Phantomglide — The Encounter
The cowled wraith that slips between shadow and breath · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Phantomglide
Among the things that lingered after Sodom burned, the Phantomglides are counted the cruelest. The grimoires hold that they were once watchmen and sentries who, at the hour of judgment, fled rather than warn their kin, and so were denied both the mercy of death and the dignity of rest. Now they drift the ash, neither wholly here nor gone, their flight silent as a held breath. Where a Phantomglide passes, lamps gutter and the warmth leaves a room. It does not hunt for hunger but for the thing it abandoned: the witness it never bore. Its scythe-arm reaps the years from those it strikes, and its talons drink the very vigor of the soul, so that the wounded waste even after the wraith has gone. Scholars warn that sunlight unmakes its confidence, and that a blade quickened with holy or magical purpose can bite where steel slides through. It cannot speak, only remember.
Run Phantomglide in Sixty Seconds
- Hold it back, then strike. Open by gliding through a wall or pillar with Phantom Glide and use Incorporeal Lunge so the first Spectral Talon lands with advantage on a low-AC target.
- Kill-priority is its current victim. The Spectral Talon shaves the hit-point maximum every hit and it cannot be healed back without a long rest, so it will gladly murder one PC over several rounds.
- When bloodied, fade and reposition. Vanish as a bonus action, slip into solid stone, and re-emerge next to a fresh, softer target instead of trading blows in the open.
- Three ways to run it. Ambush stalker (lurk in walls, Vanish, pick off stragglers), drain-assassin (lock onto one PC and erase their max HP), or skirmish-wing (a flight of them screening a bigger undead boss).
- Remember its outs. Nonmagical weapons are resisted and it shrugs most damage types, but sunlight cripples its rolls and magical or radiant attacks land clean, so play to those weaknesses.
Phantomglide
Medium undead, neutral evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEPhantom Glide. The wraith 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. While it has not been targeted by an attack since the start of its last turn, its movement does not provoke opportunity attacks.
Sunlight Weakness. While in sunlight, the wraith has disadvantage on attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws.
Incorporeal Lunge. On a turn it has not yet attacked, when the wraith emerges from total cover or from inside an object adjacent to a creature, its first Spectral Talon attack that turn is made with advantage.
Actions
Multiattack. The wraith makes two attacks: one with its Reaping Scythe and one with its Spectral Talon.
Reaping Scythe. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 16 (2d10 + 4) slashing damage plus 7 (2d6) necrotic damage.
Spectral Talon. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) necrotic damage, and the target's hit point maximum is reduced by an amount equal to the necrotic damage taken. This reduction lasts until the target finishes a long rest.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Vanish (Bonus Action). The wraith becomes invisible until the start of its next turn or until it attacks. It can take the Hide action as part of this bonus action even while observed, melting into its trailing shroud.
Wraithward (Reaction). When a creature the wraith can see hits it with a melee attack, the wraith partially fades, halving the damage and then sliding up to 10 feet without provoking opportunity attacks.
A cowled, plate-shrouded specter glides on a trailing shroud of darkness, one arm tapering into a long reaping scythe, the other into splayed crimson talons. A single coal-red eye burns within the hood as it slips between the living like cold mist.
Phantomglide, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEShroudstep (signature). Once on each of its turns, the bound wraith can move through a creature or object as difficult terrain and become invisible until the start of its next turn or until it attacks.
Actions
Spectral Talon. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (2d4 + 4) necrotic damage, and the target cannot regain hit points until the start of the wraith's next turn.
Reactions
Fade. When hit by a melee attack, the bound wraith halves the damage and slides 10 feet away without provoking opportunity attacks.
Bound by oath or rite rather than judgment, this lesser specter scouts ahead and slips behind enemy lines, marking the fleeing for its keeper.
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 cover with Incorporeal Lunge for advantage, then Vanish as a bonus action so the party loses it before it strikes again. Kill-priority is whoever it has wounded, since the hp-max reduction stacks across rounds. Pair it with skeleton or zombie blockers that pin the front line while the wraith glides through walls to reach back-rank casters.
Lead with Phantom Glide through a wall, hit the softest target with Reaping Scythe + Spectral Talon, then Vanish. Use Wraithward to halve the first big melee swing and reposition. Hammer the same PC each round so the hp-max drain compounds, and retreat into stone if focus-fired since nonmagical weapons barely scratch it.
Run several Phantomglides as a flying skirmish wing for a larger undead lord, gliding through the lair's walls to swarm one PC and erase their hit-point maximum. Open with Lunge, Vanish between strikes, and use Wraithward to bleed melee. Do not field it alone at this tier; pair it with a bigger threat so the party cannot simply out-act a lone striker.
Put Phantomglide 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 Phantomglide?
Its home tier is CR 6 (2,300 XP), built for level 5-10 parties: AC 16, 120 HP, +7 to hit, save DC 15. Scaled stat lines for tiers 1 (CR ~2) and 3 (CR ~11) are in the tier table so you can drop it into any party.
Can Phantomglide be a companion or ally?
Yes. The 'Phantomglide, Bound' sidebar gives a leaner ally version (AC 15, 72 HP) with Shroudstep, a hp-regen-denying talon, and a Fade reaction, suited to a necromancer player or an oath-bound NPC scout rather than a boss.
Why isn't Phantomglide a solo boss?
It is a fast, evasive striker, not a centerpiece. It has strong mobility and a reaction but no legendary actions, so a four-PC party would out-act it on its own. Run it as an add-on to a larger undead threat or in a pack of two or three.
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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