Crom Cruach
Crom Cruach — The Encounter
The Bowed One of the Mound, who feasts on firstborn blood · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Crom Cruach
Set thy offering before the Bowed One, and bow thou lower still. Crom Cruach is the crooked god of the mound, the serpent-idol that the old tribes ringed with twelve lesser stones of stone and one of gold, and to it they gave the firstborn of their herds and, in the famine years, the firstborn of their own. It does not hunt as beasts hunt; it waits, coiled and patient as winter, while the people are taught to bring the blood themselves. Where the tribute fails, the milk sours, the corn withers in the ear, and the cattle fall down dead in the byre, for the god takes its due whether freely given or no. Wise grimoires name it a devil that learned to be worshipped, fattening on dread and devotion alike. To strike it is to strike the faith of every village that fed it; to leave it is to be eaten slowly, one harvest at a time.
Run Crom Cruach in Sixty Seconds
- Hold its turn-economy in mind Crom Cruach is solo_capable at T3 with three legendary actions; do not also throw a wall of adds at the party or the action math tips into a slog.
- Open by grappling lead with Constrict on the toughest front-liner so it is restrained, then Bite it and lean on Coil and Strike to punish anyone who steps in to help.
- Feed the serpent Tribute of Blood heals it 15 and grants save advantage whenever a creature near it is bloodied or dropped, so keeping it next to a dying PC is the boss's whole game plan.
- When bloodied Slither it onto a corpse or downed ally to trigger Tribute of Blood every round, and spend Demand Tribute to drain and frighten the party's healer.
- Three ways to run it as a lurking guardian of the mound that ambushes from underground (tremorsense + burrow), as a worshipped god-idol defended by Gorm and cultists, or as a famine-bringing wandering terror that the village begs the party to slay.
Crom Cruach
Huge fiend (devil), lawful evil
CR 11 · 7,200 XP · GUIDELINETribute of Blood. Signature. Crom Cruach hungers for offered life. The first time on each of its turns that a creature within 5 feet of it drops to 0 hit points or is reduced to bloodied (half hit points or fewer), Crom Cruach regains 15 hit points and its next saving throw before the start of its next turn is made with advantage. While Crom Cruach has taken no damage since the end of its last turn, it has advantage on attack rolls (it gorges, unmolested, on the slain).
Dread Idol. Each creature that starts its turn within 20 feet of Crom Cruach and can see it must succeed on a DC 16 Wisdom saving throw or be unable to take reactions until the start of its next turn, cowed by the looming idol. A creature that succeeds is immune to this trait for 24 hours.
Serpentine Body. Crom Cruach can move through any opening large enough for a Large creature without squeezing, and it does not provoke opportunity attacks when it slithers more than half its speed in a straight line.
Actions
Multiattack. Crom Cruach makes one Bite attack and one Constrict attack, or it makes two Bite attacks.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 22 (3d10 + 6) piercing damage plus 9 (2d8) necrotic damage. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 16 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned until the end of its next turn.
Constrict. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 15 ft., one Large or smaller creature. Hit: 18 (3d8 + 6) bludgeoning damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 16). Until this grapple ends, the target is restrained, and Crom Cruach can constrict only one creature at a time.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Coil and Strike (Reaction). When a creature Crom Cruach can see ends its movement within 15 feet of it, Crom Cruach makes one Bite attack against that creature.
Legendary Actions (3/Round)
Lash. Crom Cruach makes one Bite attack.
Slither (Costs 1 Action). Crom Cruach moves up to half its speed without provoking opportunity attacks. If it is grappling a creature, that creature moves with it.
Demand Tribute (Costs 2 Actions). Crom Cruach fixes its gaze on one creature it can see within 60 feet. That creature must succeed on a DC 16 Wisdom saving throw or take 13 (3d8) necrotic damage and be frightened of Crom Cruach until the end of its next turn. Crom Cruach regains hit points equal to the necrotic damage dealt.
A Huge coiled serpent-idol of scaled green stone-flesh rears from a mound ringed with sacrificial standing stones, its horned and frilled head crowned with bone, its fanged maw forever bent toward the blood spilled at its base.
Crom Cruach, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEBlood Offering (signature). When a creature within 30 feet of Crom Cruach drops to 0 hit points, Crom Cruach channels the spilled life into a warded ally of his choice within 30 feet, granting that ally 10 temporary hit points and advantage on its next attack roll.
Actions
Sacrificial Sickle. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) slashing damage plus 7 (2d6) necrotic damage.
Reactions
Ward of the Idol. When an ally Crom Cruach can see within 30 feet takes damage, Crom Cruach intones a litany and reduces that damage by 8. He can use this reaction only if Crom Cruach is on the battlefield.
Crom Cruach is the last keeper of the bowed god, a gaunt priest in stone-grey robes who tends the mound and turns every death on the field into a gift laid at his master's coils.
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 Bite from cover, then Coil and Strike anyone who closes. Grapple the squishiest target with Constrict and drag it away from its healers. Pair it with cultist adds so Tribute of Blood keeps topping it off; kill-priority is anyone who can free the grappled victim.
Lead with Multiattack, biting then constricting the front-liner so it is restrained for follow-ups. Slither in straight lines to dodge opportunity attacks and reach the back rank. Hold Coil and Strike as a punish; focus the party's healer first so Tribute of Blood compounds in your favor.
Run it as a true solo boss: open by constricting the melee anchor, then spend legendary Lashes on the controllers. Use Demand Tribute on whoever drops below half to heal off their fear. When bloodied, retreat with Slither to a fed corpse so Tribute of Blood refills you each turn; kill-priority for the party is breaking the grapple before you swallow their friend.
Put Crom Cruach 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 Crom Cruach?
Its home sheet is CR 11 (7,200 XP), built as a Tier 3 solo boss for levels 11-15. Because it has legendary actions and a reaction it plays up a band, so the stat block sits one tier below where its raw threat would otherwise land. The tiers array also gives drop-in CR 2 (T1) and CR 6 (T2) versions with identical traits and only the numbers scaled.
Can Crom Cruach be a companion or ally?
Not directly. Crom Cruach is a worshipped devil-idol and a centerpiece adversary, not an ally. If you want the mound's power on the party's side, use its companion Gorm the Stone-Priest, who turns battlefield deaths into wards and buffs and can be recruited or coerced once his god is destroyed.
Is Crom Cruach safe to publish without IP concerns?
Yes. Crom Cruach is genuine public-domain Celtic mythology, the bowed serpent-god of the mound recorded in early Irish sources, and is statted here using only generic SRD types and conditions. No proprietary cosmology, ranks, or named D&D entities are referenced, so it is marked ip_status clean.
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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