Aka Manto
Aka Manto — The Encounter
The Black Cloak who offers a fatal choice · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Aka Manto
They whisper of him in the stalls that no living hand has cleaned: the Black Cloak, who waits where the lamplight fails. He was a priest once, charged at the Gate of Ashura with weighing the souls that crossed between worlds, until pride curdled his mercy into a game. Now his crimson cloak drinks the warmth from the air, and his voice slides under the door like cold water. He asks two questions and grants only death, taking red or blue as the victim chooses, or choosing for those who cannot answer. The golden spire above him is the stolen finial of a burned shrine; the lanterns swinging from it hold the last breaths of those he has flayed. He hoards no treasure and seeks no throne. He wants only the moment of the choosing, the small terror in the eyes before the cloak closes, again and again, until the gate itself forgets him.
Run Aka Manto in Sixty Seconds
- Hold for the choice. The whole gimmick is The Fatal Choice - it fires when he drops someone to 0 OR on any frightened target within 30 ft. Frighten first (Lantern Flicker), then cash it in for 4d8 necrotic and a self-heal.
- Open with fear, not damage. Drift through a wall, end adjacent to the squishiest PC, and trigger Lantern Flicker so they're frightened going into your turn.
- Kill-priority is whoever is already frightened. A frightened creature is a free Fatal Choice and a free heal - chase that target, not the tank.
- When bloodied, go incorporeal and kite. Phase into a wall, drop Ofuda of Withering on the clump from cover, and refuse to give the front line a clean melee swing.
- Three ways to run him: (1) ambush stalker in a haunted corridor, picking off stragglers; (2) paired terror-engine beside a Gate of Ashura boss; (3) ritual-site guardian who frightens, snares, then offers the choice to a captured NPC for dread.
Aka Manto
Medium undead (yokai), neutral evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEThe Fatal Choice. Signature. When Aka Manto reduces a creature to 0 hit points, or as an action against a frightened creature it can see within 30 ft., it offers a forced choice: "Red, or blue?" The target makes a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw. On a failure, whatever answer it gives, the creature is wrapped in a deathly cloak and takes 18 (4d8) necrotic damage of the chosen color (red: flaying; blue: strangling). A creature that refuses to answer takes this damage automatically. Aka Manto regains hit points equal to half the damage dealt.
Incorporeal Passage. Aka Manto 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.
Actions
Multiattack. Aka Manto makes two Cloak-Snare attacks, or one Cloak-Snare and casts a spell from its repertoire.
Cloak-Snare. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 16 (3d8 + 3) necrotic damage, and the target's speed is halved until the end of its next turn as the crimson cloak coils around it.
Ofuda of Withering (Recharge 5-6). Aka Manto hurls a paper ward at a point it can see within 60 ft. Each creature in a 15-foot cube there makes a DC 15 Constitution saving throw, taking 27 (6d8) necrotic damage on a failure, or half as much on a success. A humanoid reduced to 0 hit points by this damage rises as a husk under no one's command.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Lantern Flicker (Reaction). When a creature ends its turn within 5 ft. of Aka Manto, it can make a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw. On a failure, the creature is frightened of Aka Manto until the end of its next turn.
A towering, blue-fleshed corpse-sorcerer in funeral robes, crowned with a golden temple spire from which paper scrolls and lanterns sway. He drapes a flayed offering over one arm and dangles gilt ofuda from his waist.
Aka Manto, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEStrangling Shroud (signature). When Aka Manto hits a creature already grappled or restrained, that creature must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution save or be unable to speak or cast spells with verbal components until the end of its next turn.
Actions
Cloak Lash. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (3d6 + 3) necrotic damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 13).
Reactions
Shared Dread. When a creature within 10 ft. is frightened, Aka Manto deals an extra 4 (1d8) necrotic damage on its next hit against that creature.
Aka Manto's silent twin in funeral blue, who finishes what the red cloak begins.
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 darkness with Lantern Flicker to frighten the closest PC, then use The Fatal Choice on it next turn. Keep range with Cloak-Snare and only commit Ofuda when two or more are clustered. Pair it with a bigger threat - it is the terror-and-attrition piece, not the wall the party breaks against.
Drift through walls to reach a backline caster, frighten them with Lantern Flicker, then strangle with Cloak-Snare to halve their speed. Hold Ofuda of Withering for the round the party bunches up. Kill-priority any frightened target so The Fatal Choice triggers and heals him; pair with melee bruisers who pin runners in place.
Phase between cover, never standing in the open, and lead with Ofuda before the line closes. Frighten and snare the highest-DPR PC, then end it with The Fatal Choice for the heal. He is an elite skirmisher-add to a flagship boss - let the boss hold the front while Aka Manto picks off whoever strays.
Put Aka Manto 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 Aka Manto?
Natively CR 6 (Tier 2, ~levels 5-10): AC 15, 123 HP, +6 to hit, save DC 15. Drop to the Tier 1 line for a CR 2-3 mid encounter, or use the Tier 3 line (AC 18, 207 HP, +8, DC 17) for an elite skirmisher in an 11-15 fight. He is solo_capable=false - an add-on threat, not a centerpiece boss.
Can Aka Manto be a companion or ally?
Not really as written - he is a predatory yokai who answers to no one and exists only to extract the fatal choice. If you must, a warlock with a death or shrine-guardian patron could bind him for a single grim favor, but he will twist any bargain and turn on the binder the moment the wording allows.
How do I keep The Fatal Choice from feeling like a save-or-die?
It is not save-or-die - it is bonus necrotic damage plus a self-heal, gated on the target already being frightened or at 0 HP. Telegraph the 'Red or blue?' line a round early so players feel the dread building, let immunity to the frightened condition shut down the easy trigger, and remember a successful DC 15 Wisdom save negates it entirely.
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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