Giltinė
Giltinė — The Encounter
Horned Baltic goddess of death, whose touch ends all breath · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Giltinė
In the old Baltic faith she is Giltinė, sister of fortune and bringer of the last hour, draped in white linen as the dead are draped. The grimoires of the northern forests warn that she walks unseen through homes where someone is meant to die, and that her tongue is steeped in the poisons she has licked from a thousand corpses. To meet her on the road is no omen but a verdict already passed. She cannot be bribed, for she takes pauper and king alike, and she cannot be outrun, for she knows the appointed moment of every breathing thing. Cunning folk say only one trick has ever cheated her: a man who scattered her bones across a swift river, so that she could not gather herself before the dawn. Yet she always returns, patient as the grave, to finish the count she keeps. Where she has passed, the living grow quiet, and the dying grow calm, knowing the long road is nearly walked.
Run Giltinė in Sixty Seconds
- Hold Giltinė is a Tier-3 solo boss (CR 11) with three legendary actions per round — read her legendaries before the fight so you can spend them on a clean turn.
- Open with Mark the Dying on the healer, then Deathly Touch the same target so its lowered hit point maximum and disadvantage stack into a quick kill.
- Kill-priority: always swing at whoever is closest to death — Bringer of the Final Breath heals her and improves her crits every time a creature drops, so she snowballs off downs.
- When bloodied she stops trading blows: Glide out of reach, save Veil of the Grave for the biggest incoming hit, and pick off the wounded from the edges.
- Three ways to run her: as a grim reaper-of-the-marked who hunts the dying; as a stalker who turns invisible (Veil) and strikes from new angles; or as a relentless wall the party must scatter into water — remind them she reforms unless her bones cross running water.
Giltinė
Medium undead, neutral evil
CR 11 · 7,200 XP · GUIDELINEBringer of the Final Breath. Signature. Giltinė knows the moment of every creature's death. When a creature she can see within 60 ft. drops to 0 hit points, Giltinė regains 10 hit points and her next weapon attack before the end of her next turn scores a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20.
Tongue of Venom. Folk tales say Giltinė licks the dead with a poison tongue. When she is reduced to 0 hit points, she is not destroyed; instead she crumbles to grave-dust and reforms in 1d4 days at the nearest cemetery, unless her bones are scattered across running water.
Actions
Multiattack. Giltinė makes two attacks with her Bone Scythe.
Bone Scythe. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 18 (3d8 + 5) slashing damage plus 13 (3d8) necrotic damage. A creature reduced to 0 hit points by this attack dies instantly.
Deathly Touch (Recharge 5-6). Giltinė reaches toward one creature she can see within 30 ft. The target must make a DC 17 Constitution saving throw, taking 36 (8d8) necrotic damage on a failed save, or half as much on a success. The target's hit point maximum is reduced by an amount equal to the necrotic damage taken until it finishes a long rest, and Giltinė regains hit points equal to half the damage dealt.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Veil of the Grave. Reaction. When a creature Giltinė can see hits her with an attack, she wraps herself in funeral shadow, halving the damage and turning invisible until the start of her next turn.
Legendary Actions (3/Round)
Glide. Giltinė moves up to her speed without provoking opportunity attacks.
Reaping Stroke. Giltinė makes one Bone Scythe attack.
Mark the Dying (Costs 2 Actions). Giltinė points at one creature she can see within 60 ft. The target must succeed on a DC 17 Wisdom saving throw or have disadvantage on death saving throws and on saving throws against Giltinė's effects until the end of her next turn.
Horned and gaunt, her face a leering skull, Giltinė strides over a field of the freshly dead with a great bone scythe-blade in her grip and a severed skull cradled in her arm. Where her bare foot falls, the soil gives up its corpses.
Giltinė, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEToll the Bell (signature). At the start of each of its turns, Giltinė wails. Each creature of its choice within 20 ft. that can hear it has disadvantage on the next death saving throw it makes before the start of Giltinė's next turn.
Actions
Grave-Iron Sickle. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) slashing damage plus 7 (2d6) necrotic damage.
Reactions
Shroud the Mistress. When a creature within 5 ft. of Giltinė targets Giltinė with an attack, Giltinė steps into the path, becoming the target instead.
A withered, white-shrouded herald who rings a cracked iron bell before the goddess, announcing each death she comes to collect.
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 Deathly Touch on the squishiest caster to drop its hit point maximum, then close with the scythe. Keep Veil of the Grave for the first big hit. If the party clusters, glide between them and pick off anyone already wounded — her crit-on-19 trait makes finishing a downed ally brutal.
Kill-priority is whoever is closest to death — Bringer of the Final Breath rewards killing the dying. Lead with Deathly Touch, Multiattack the marked target, and use Veil of the Grave on the heaviest hitter's turn. Glide out of melee if surrounded so she always strikes the wounded.
Run her as the centerpiece boss. Open by spending legendaries on Mark the Dying against the party healer, then Deathly Touch and full Multiattack on the marked target. When bloodied, lean on Veil of the Grave and Glide to dance around the front line, and always reap whoever is on death saves — her healing and improved crits snowball off every drop.
Put Giltinė 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 Giltinė?
Her native build is CR 11 (Tier 3, levels 11-15), a solo boss with legendary actions. The card also gives drop-in CR 2 and CR 6 versions — same traits and tactics, only the AC, HP, to-hit, save DC, and damage shift to suit lower-level parties.
Can Giltinė be a companion or ally?
She is built as an adversary and centerpiece boss, so she does not make a balanced player ally. If you want a death-themed helper at the table, use her companion Marras, the Bone Crier — a bell-tolling herald who shields its mistress and curses enemies' death saves.
Is Giltinė safe to use in my campaign?
Yes. She is drawn straight from public-domain Baltic folklore — the goddess of death who knows every creature's final hour — and uses only generic SRD undead mechanics, so she slots into any setting without proprietary lore.
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
Played Giltinė at your table? Log in with your Obsidian Tavern account to leave a balance note, a war story, or a file issue — the sharpest reports get the block revised.
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