Engkanto
Engkanto — The Encounter
Jealous spirit of grove and gem, who curses the careless · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Engkanto
Where the old forests press close and the springs run cold and clear, the engkanto keep their courts. They are the unseen folk of grove and gem, beautiful and proud, and they reckon the land theirs by a claim older than any village. A traveler who drinks without asking, who fells a marked tree or fails to murmur "tabi-tabi po" — by your leave — when crossing a mound, earns their cold attention. The spirit's vengeance is rarely a blow at first; it is a wasting in the limbs, a fever with no cause, a curse worn like a second skin. Folk who offend an engkanto are carried to the healer babbling of a face seen at the wood's edge, crowned in leaves and stones. Only an offering left at the right tree, or a healer who knows the spirit's true name, can lift the affliction. They covet bright gems above all, and bind their wrath into the stones atop their staves.
Run Engkanto in Sixty Seconds
- It runs from cover, never the open. The engkanto is a control caster — keep it near trees or water so Step Through the Green is always online and the party can never pin it down.
- Open with Withering Gaze on their best attacker. Necrotic damage plus disadvantage on attacks immediately blunts the party's burst turn and buys you positioning.
- Kill-priority for the DM is the iron-carrier and the cleric. They are immune to or quick to undo your charms and curses — debuff them with bestow curse before they ruin your hex economy.
- When bloodied, lean on the hex. Spend your 3/day curses freely and use Spiteful Hex on every melee hit; trade your shrinking hit points for stacked disadvantage on the whole party.
- Three ways to run it: the jealous grove-guardian that ambushes trespassers, the spiteful curse-bringer behind a village's wasting sickness, or a debuff specialist paired with a heavier boss to soften the party first.
Engkanto
Medium fey, neutral
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINESpirit's Jealousy. The engkanto guards a grove, spring, or mound it deems its own. Signature: any creature that damaged or trespassed against the engkanto this turn has disadvantage on its next saving throw against the engkanto's curses before the start of the engkanto's next turn. The spirit will not forgive a slight while a single intruder still stands on its ground.
Innate Spellcasting. The engkanto's spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 15). It can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components: at will — charm person, entangle, minor illusion; 3/day each — bestow curse, major image; 1/day each — confusion.
Actions
Multiattack. The engkanto makes two Gem-Staff attacks, or makes one Gem-Staff attack and uses Withering Gaze.
Gem-Staff. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 16 (3d8 + 3) bludgeoning damage plus 9 (2d8) psychic damage as the gem flares.
Withering Gaze. The engkanto fixes its eyes on one creature it can see within 30 ft. The target must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or take 18 (4d8) necrotic damage and have disadvantage on attack rolls until the end of its next turn as a blight of bad luck settles over it.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Step Through the Green (Bonus Action). If the engkanto is within 5 ft. of foliage, a tree, or running water, it magically teleports up to 30 ft. to an unoccupied space it can see within 5 ft. of similar terrain.
Spiteful Hex (Reaction). When a creature the engkanto can see hits it with an attack, the engkanto curses the attacker: it must succeed on a DC 15 Charisma saving throw or subtract 1d6 from its next attack roll or saving throw before the end of its next turn.
A lithe, leaf-crowned nature-spirit with bark-mottled skin, fanged crest, and a tall staff capped with a glowing gem that pulses in time with its moods. It moves like wind through reeds — present one moment, vanished into the green the next.
Engkanto, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEGlamoured (signature). The lambana is invisible while it remains within 10 ft. of foliage or running water and takes no action other than moving.
Actions
Thorn Lash. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (2d6 + 2) piercing damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 13 Strength save or be pulled 5 ft. toward the lambana.
Reactions
Pollen Veil. When a creature within 5 ft. hits the engkanto, the lambana bursts a sac of stinging pollen; the attacker must succeed on a DC 13 Constitution save or be blinded until the end of its next turn.
A tiny winged grove-sprite that orbits the engkanto, scattering pollen and hauling careless intruders into thorns.
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 cover with charm person on the loudest melee fighter, then back away using Step Through the Green. If the party clusters, drop entangle to root them while you pelt with Gem-Staff. Kill-priority is anyone holding a holy symbol or carrying iron — it cannot charm them and they will break your hexes. Pair it with a forest beast or a second engkanto; this version is an ambush nuisance, not a wall-buster.
Open with Withering Gaze on the party's best damage-dealer, then teleport to keep 30 ft. of trees between you and the front line. When two or more foes bunch, spend a 3/day on bestow curse on the healer and let Spirit's Jealousy stack disadvantage on whoever just hit you. Reserve Spiteful Hex for the rogue's big crit. It is a control-and-attrition piece — pair it with a melee bruiser (a duwende brute or a treant-kin) so foes must choose between the wall and the curse.
Lead with confusion on a clustered party, then teleport and rain Withering Gaze each turn while the front line scatters. Kill-priority is the dispeller — bestow curse them first so their concentration breaks. At this tier it survives long enough to be a recurring tormentor; pair it with a true flagship boss and let the engkanto debuff while the boss kills. Never let it stand in the open away from foliage — strip its terrain and it loses Step Through the Green.
Put Engkanto 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 Engkanto?
Its home stat block is CR 6 (2,300 XP), tuned for a party of levels 5-10. The record also provides a CR 2-style version for levels 1-4 and a CR 11-style version for levels 11-15; traits and tactics stay identical, only the numbers move.
Can Engkanto be a companion or ally?
Yes. A grateful or appeased engkanto makes a fine patron-spirit ally — it shines as a controller, slowing foes with entangle and confusion and cursing them with Withering Gaze while staying near cover. It is not a frontliner; let it debuff from the treeline while sturdier allies hold the line.
Is the engkanto a fey or an undead?
A fey. Despite its necrotic curses and wasting sickness, the engkanto is a living nature-spirit of grove and spring, not a risen dead thing — it is immune to being charmed but otherwise breathes, schemes, and covets like the proud folk it is.
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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