Zarakith
Zarakith — The Encounter
The Sapphire Wyrm-Steed, terror that stoops from a roaring sky · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Zarakith
The grimoires name Zarakith among the wind-broken wyrms: a lesser dragon bred not for hoarding but for the hunt, lean and tireless on the wing. Such steeds were captured young from cliff-eyries by sky-marauders and bound with harness and cruel bit, taught to stoop upon caravans and rooftop sentries alike. Folklore holds that these sapphire drakes never truly tame; they suffer a rider only so long as blood is promised, and a starved one will turn upon its master as readily as upon any prey. Their lightning is said to be the swallowed fury of the storms they nest within, hoarded in the gullet and spat in a single searing line. Villages along the high passes still ring iron bells at dusk, for the surest warning of Zarakith's coming is silence: the birds fall quiet, the wind drops, and then the sky tears open with a roar and a rush of folded wings.
Run Zarakith in Sixty Seconds
- It's a flyer, run it like one. Stay airborne, dive in, claw, and Flyby straight back out of reach every single turn. Grounded, it's half as scary.
- Open with Stooping Dive. Move 30+ ft. toward the softest target, hit with a Talon, knock prone and grapple. That isolates a caster and sets up the Bite.
- Kill-priority: back-line. It ignores the front-line tank and stoops past to the ranged caster or healer it can reach in one move.
- When bloodied, it stops trading blows: it grabs a downed ally (or its rider) and lifts away, then re-stoops next turn rather than slugging it out.
- Three ways to run it: lone harrying hit-and-run drake; a war-steed with a lance rider on its back; or a pack of three diving from different angles to scatter the party.
Zarakith
Large dragon, neutral evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEFlyby. The drake doesn't provoke opportunity attacks when it flies out of an enemy's reach.
Stooping Dive. Signature. If the drake moves at least 30 feet straight toward a target and then hits it with a Talon attack on the same turn, the target takes an extra 7 (2d6) damage and must succeed on a DC 14 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone. While prone from this dive the target is also grappled (escape DC 14) if the drake remains adjacent.
Actions
Multiattack. The drake makes one Bite attack and two Talon attacks.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 15 (2d10+4) piercing damage.
Talon. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6+4) slashing damage.
Storm Breath (Recharge 5-6). The drake exhales a line of crackling lightning 30 feet long and 5 feet wide. Each creature in the line must make a DC 14 Dexterity saving throw, taking 22 (5d8) lightning damage on a failed save, or half as much on a success.
A sleek, sapphire-and-violet winged drake the size of a warhorse, ridden into battle with a barbed lance and a rider's harness lashed to its spined back. Its wings are weathered like old sailcloth and its eyes glint with a cold, raiding hunger.
Zarakith, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINESky-Bond (signature). While its rider is mounted, the drake can use its reaction to impose disadvantage on one attack roll made against the rider, taking the blow on itself instead.
Actions
Talon. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6+4) slashing damage.
Reactions
Wingbeat Lift. When an ally adjacent to the drake is reduced to 0 hit points, the drake may immediately fly up to half its speed carrying that ally, removing them from melee.
Half-tamed and ever-watchful, the bound drake fights to keep its rider aloft and alive, knowing its own freedom dies with them.
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 air with a Stooping Dive to drop your softest target prone, then circle out with Flyby so the party can't pin it. Save Storm Breath for when two or more PCs cluster. Kill-priority: the squishiest ranged caster it can reach in one swoop.
Lead with a 30-foot dive into Talons to prone-and-grapple the back-line, then Bite to finish. Recharge Storm Breath down a clustered line whenever it's up. Never linger in melee: Flyby out every turn and re-stoop. Pairs naturally with a mounted rider or a sky-raiding warband.
Run it as the airborne muscle of a larger threat, not alone: a flight of these drakes, or one carrying a boss caster who blasts while the drake repositions. Open with dives on isolated PCs, Storm Breath on clusters, and use Flyby to deny melee. Pair it with a bigger threat that punishes the party for looking up.
Put Zarakith 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 Zarakith?
Native CR 6 (2,300 XP) as a Tier-2 winged drake. Numbers scale down to roughly CR 2 for Tier 1 and up to roughly CR 11 for Tier 3 using the bands in the tiers block.
Can Zarakith be a companion or ally?
Yes. Use the companion block 'Zarakith, Bound' (AC 16, HP 76) as a half-tamed flying mount: it shields its rider with Sky-Bond and can carry a fallen ally clear of melee, but it stays loyal only while fed and never fully tame.
How do I keep it from just being a punching bag in melee?
Always use its flight. Dive in, attack, then Flyby out of reach so it eats no opportunity attacks. If the party grounds it, that's their win condition; reward readied attacks and grapples that pin its wings.
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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