Baba Yaga
Baba Yaga — The Encounter
The bone-mother of the forest, who eats the lost · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Baba Yaga
Hear, and do not stray from the path. Beyond the birch-line dwells the grandmother who is older than the boyars, older than the church-bells, older perhaps than the forest itself. She keeps a hut that walks on the legs of a great fowl, ringed by a fence of bones whose skulls burn green at dusk. She grinds her enemies in an iron pestle and rides the storm in her mortar, sweeping away her trail with a broom of birch. Some who came to her seeking fire returned wiser; most did not return at all. She knows the true name of every river and the hour of every traveller's death, and she will trade such knowledge gladly, for she is bound by old laws and never lies outright. But woe to the rude, the idle, and the greedy who knock at her door, for the grandmother is always hungry, and the cauldron is always warm. Address her with courtesy, finish every task she sets, and perhaps she will let you leave.
Run Baba Yaga in Sixty Seconds
- Open with dominate person or polymorph on the deadliest martial before initiative settles in your favor, neutralizing one PC for free.
- Kill-priority is the caster who can counterspell or dispel her wards. If the party has one, she frightens or curses them first.
- Mobility is her armor: every round, use Step of the Hut to teleport away from melee, dealing 4d6 necrotic to whoever she lands next to.
- When bloodied (97 HP), she leans on Withering Whisper and Hex of the Hungry Wood to lock out healing and stall, racing the party's resources.
- Three ways to run her: as a lone legendary boss in her hut-lair, as a quest-giver who turns hostile when insulted, or as the patron behind a coven of lesser hags.
Baba Yaga
Medium fey (hag), neutral evil
CR 11 · 7,200 XP · GUIDELINEInnate Spellcasting. Baba Yaga's spellcasting ability is Wisdom (spell save DC 16, +9 to hit). She can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components: At will: minor illusion, ray of frost, vicious mockery; 3/day each: hold person, lightning bolt, polymorph; 1/day each: bestow curse, contagion, dominate person.
Hut of the Bone Fence. Signature. A spectral chicken-legged hut answers Baba Yaga's will. As a bonus action she may step into shadow and reappear in an unoccupied space within 60 ft. she can see; the first creature she ends adjacent to takes 14 (4d6) necrotic damage as grasping roots erupt. The skull-posts of her fence shed a sickly green light, and a creature that starts its turn within 10 ft. of her must succeed on a DC 16 Wisdom save or be frightened until the start of its next turn.
Magic Resistance. Baba Yaga has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Actions
Multiattack. Baba Yaga makes two attacks: one with her Iron Pestle and one with her Gnarled Staff, or she casts a spell.
Iron Pestle. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 18 (3d8 + 5) bludgeoning damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 16 Constitution save or be knocked prone as bones grind.
Gnarled Staff. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) bludgeoning damage plus 9 (2d8) necrotic damage.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Withering Whisper. Reaction (recharge 5-6). When a creature Baba Yaga can see hits her with an attack, she rasps a curse: the attacker must succeed on a DC 16 Wisdom save or have disadvantage on attack rolls until the end of its next turn.
Legendary Actions (3/Round)
Cantrip. Baba Yaga casts a cantrip.
Step of the Hut (Costs 2 Actions). Baba Yaga uses Hut of the Bone Fence, teleporting up to 60 ft.
Hex of the Hungry Wood (Costs 2 Actions). One creature within 60 ft. must succeed on a DC 16 Wisdom save or take 18 (4d8) necrotic damage and be unable to regain hit points until the end of Baba Yaga's next turn.
A hunched crone with wild root-tangled hair perches upon a throne of living wood, an iron pestle in one fist and a skull-crowned staff in the other, while a fence-post skull watches with green-lit eyes.
Baba Yaga, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEChicken-Legged Stride (signature). The hut moves 40 ft. on a turn and can stand from prone for no cost. When it enters a creature's space, that creature must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity save or be knocked prone and take 9 (2d8) bludgeoning damage.
Actions
Skull-Fence Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 16 (2d10 + 5) piercing damage as the bone fence snaps shut.
Reactions
Slam the Door. When an ally within 5 ft. is hit by an attack, the hut interposes a wooden wall, reducing the damage by 10 (2d8 + 1).
Baba Yaga's hut of chicken legs stomps to her defense, its bone-fence jaw gnashing and its shutters slamming like a startled beast.
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 hold person on the strongest melee, then keep the staff's 10-ft. reach between you and the party. If they cluster, drop ray of frost and reposition with the Hut bonus action so no one pins you down. Pair her with goblin or wolf adds so she never trades blows directly.
Lead with lightning bolt down a line, then polymorph the party's hardest hitter into something harmless. Kite with Step of the Hut whenever a frontliner reaches you, and use Frightened aura to peel ranged attackers off the wall. Best run alongside a bruiser brute so she stays the back-line caster.
Open by dominating or polymorphing the most dangerous PC, then spend legendary actions on Step of the Hut to stay untouchable and Hex of the Hungry Wood to shut down a healer. Kill-priority is whoever can dispel or counterspell her. As a true solo, alternate teleport, big spell, and Withering Whisper to bleed the party turn after turn.
Put Baba Yaga 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 Baba Yaga?
Her native build is CR 11 (7,200 XP) for tiers 11-15. Because she has legendary actions and strong control magic, she plays as a true solo boss; the tier table also gives scaled-down CR 2 and CR 6 builds for lower-level tables.
Can Baba Yaga be a companion or ally?
Not personally, but her bound Walking Hut can fight on a hero's side or guard a location. Baba Yaga herself never lies outright and may trade knowledge for service, making her a dangerous quest-giver rather than a loyal ally.
Is she vulnerable to anything?
Yes. Magic Resistance and resistance to nonmagical weapons make her hard to grind down, but she has no defense against forced movement that drags her out of her lair, and silencing her shuts off most of her threat. Win the action economy on her caster turns and she folds fast.
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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