Yog-Sothoth
Yog-Sothoth — The Encounter
The Gate and the Key, coterminous with all space and time · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Yog-Sothoth
It is written in the margins of forbidden almanacs that Yog-Sothoth is the Gate and the Key alike, coterminous with all space and all time. It does not dwell in any place, for it is in every place at once, pressed thin against the membrane that holds the waking world apart from the outer dark. The conjurer who learns its true names may bid it part the veil, and through that void come things best left unnamed; yet the price is steep, for to gaze into its central darkness is to perceive the whole of one's life laid bare end to end, past and future folded into a single unbearable instant. Cultists raise iron gates at the world's lonely crossroads and chant beneath the dark of the moon, hoping the congeries of globes will deign to manifest. When it answers, the air curdles, time stutters, and reason flees the mind like water through cupped hands.
Run Yog-Sothoth in Sixty Seconds
- It cannot be flanked. Coterminous Presence means no surprise, ignores difficult terrain, and lets it swap with a spawn or gate at the start of its turn, so positioning to pin it almost never works.
- Open by grappling the tank. A Tendril grapple restrains and deals ongoing psychic damage each turn; lock down the front-line PC, then pull Warp the Gate out whenever two or more cluster up.
- When bloodied (104 HP), go vertical and slippery. Lean on Step Outside Time to teleport free of melee and Unravel the Mind to incapacitate the party's control caster before they recover.
- Kill-priority is the rift-stopper. Whoever can counter, dispel, or out-teleport the gate dies first via Unravel the Mind and focused tendrils.
- Three ways to run it: (1) lone dread boss with legendary actions every round; (2) gatekeeper amid a cult lair raising the rift; (3) a slow attrition siege where The Gate Shuts punishes every retreat.
Yog-Sothoth
Huge aberration, chaotic evil
CR 13 · 10,000 XP · GUIDELINECoterminous Presence. Yog-Sothoth exists at all points at once. It is unaffected by difficult terrain, cannot be surprised, and has advantage on saving throws against being moved or restrained. At the start of each of its turns, it may swap places with one tendril-spawn or open gate within 60 feet.
Maddening Aura. A creature that starts its turn within 20 feet of Yog-Sothoth and can see it must succeed on a DC 17 Wisdom saving throw or take 10 (3d6) psychic damage and have disadvantage on its next attack roll. A creature that fails by 5 or more is also frightened until the start of its next turn.
Magic Resistance. Yog-Sothoth has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Actions
Multiattack. Yog-Sothoth makes three Tendril attacks, or it makes two Tendril attacks and uses Warp the Gate.
Tendril. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 18 (3d8 + 5) bludgeoning damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 17). Until this grapple ends, the target is restrained and takes 7 (2d6) psychic damage at the start of each of its turns.
Warp the Gate. Yog-Sothoth tears open a rift in space within 60 feet. Each creature within 15 feet of the rift must make a DC 17 Constitution saving throw, taking 27 (6d8) force damage on a failed save, or half as much on a success. A creature reduced to 0 hit points by this damage is flung beyond the gate and vanishes (it can be returned only by powerful magic).
Bonus Actions & Reactions
The Gate Shuts (Reaction). When a creature Yog-Sothoth can see casts a spell or moves out of its reach, Yog-Sothoth lashes a tendril at it: the creature takes 13 (2d8 + 4) bludgeoning damage and its speed is reduced to 0 until the end of its next turn. Yog-Sothoth can use this reaction even while it has used its action this turn.
Legendary Actions (3/Round)
Lashing Tendril. Yog-Sothoth makes one Tendril attack.
Step Outside Time (Costs 2 Actions). Yog-Sothoth teleports up to 60 feet to an unoccupied space it can see and may immediately make one Tendril attack against a creature within reach of its arrival.
Unravel the Mind (Costs 2 Actions). Yog-Sothoth fixes one creature it can see within 60 feet with its central void. The target must succeed on a DC 17 Wisdom saving throw or take 18 (4d8) psychic damage and be incapacitated until the end of its next turn.
A swirling pillar of moss-green and blood-red tendrils crowned by a yawning black void, this congeries of iridescent globes leers from its mid-mass and roils above an arcane gate, neither inside nor outside the world.
Yog-Sothoth, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINECoterminous Echo (signature). While within 60 feet of Yog-Sothoth, the Yog-Sothoth cannot be surprised and has resistance to psychic damage. If Yog-Sothoth uses Coterminous Presence, this creature may move up to 15 feet as a free reaction.
Actions
Grasping Coil. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (2d8 + 5) bludgeoning damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 15).
Reactions
Veil Step. When a creature it can see ends its turn within 5 feet, the Yog-Sothoth teleports up to 20 feet to an unoccupied space it can see.
A lesser bud of the congeries, a single writhing cluster of globes and feelers torn loose to do the Gate's bidding.
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 Maddening Aura to soften melee before they close, then grapple the squishiest caster with a Tendril and drag the fight to a stalemate. Kill-priority is anyone who can cast Dispel-like magic. Pair it with a screen of cultists so the party cannot simply gang the pillar.
Lead with Warp the Gate the moment two or more PCs cluster, then grapple to lock down the highest single-target damage dealer. Use The Gate Shuts to punish kiting casters. Run it alongside a horde of Tendril-Spawn so the action economy never favors the party.
As a centerpiece boss, open by grappling the front-line tank, then alternate Warp the Gate on clusters with Unravel the Mind on the party's best save-or-suck caster. Spend legendary actions on Lashing Tendril every turn and Step Outside Time to escape encirclement; The Gate Shuts taxes anyone who tries to disengage or cast. Kill-priority is whoever can teleport or counter its rifts; surround it with Tendril-Spawn and a cultist lair to keep the gate open.
Put Yog-Sothoth 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 Yog-Sothoth?
Natively CR 13 (Tier 3, ~levels 11-15), and it is built as a genuine solo boss: a punishing reaction (The Gate Shuts) plus two real legendary options (Step Outside Time, Unravel the Mind) let it trade blows with a full party. Scale it down to CR 6 for Tier 2 or roughly CR 2 for Tier 1 using the tier table; the traits and actions stay identical, only the numbers move.
Can Yog-Sothoth be a companion or ally?
Not as the cosmic entity itself, but its Tendril-Spawn, Bound (AC 14, 124 HP) can serve a warlock or cultist patron-bound character as a summoned thrall. It teleports to harass nearby foes, grapples with its coils, and grows stronger near its progenitor via Coterminous Echo.
Is Yog-Sothoth safe to use in published or commercial adventures?
Yes. Yog-Sothoth originates in the cosmic horror fiction of H.P. Lovecraft, which is in the public domain, and this stat block uses only generic SRD 5.1 mechanics and the aberration type. No proprietary D&D cosmology or trademarked terms are used.
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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