Hans Trapp
Hans Trapp — The Encounter
The Excommunicated Scarecrow Who Hungers in the Snow · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Hans Trapp
Once a knight of proud and wealthy line, Hans Trapp fell to greed and sorcery until the Church cast him out and stripped his name. Driven into the wild hills, he clothed himself in sackcloth and straw and stood among the harvest scarecrows, motionless for days, that he might seize the children who strayed too near. When at last he was struck down by a bolt from a clear winter sky, the earth refused his rest, and he rose stiff and reaping-armed to walk the snows each Yuletide. Now he is told of to frighten the disobedient: stand still in the field, the elders say, and the scarecrow that was not there before will reach for you. He hungers without end and remembers nothing of mercy, only the warmth of a small life clutched in his branches. Where he passes, frost blackens the wheat and the dogs will not bark.
Run Hans Trapp in Sixty Seconds
- Hold him as scenery. Place Hans Trapp on the board as 'just a scarecrow.' He acts on the round the party clusters within reach; the first strike has advantage and an extra 2d8.
- Open with the grab. Land both Clawing Branches on one PC to grapple, then Devouring Lunge to deal necrotic and heal himself half. He wants prey held, not enemies dead at range.
- Kill-priority is escape, not damage. His Reaping Reach and Drag to the Post punish anyone who tries to walk away. Free or kill the grappled PC fast or he heals every round.
- When bloodied, he leans on the field. Falling low, keep a victim grappled for the heal and let Dread of the Bogeyman tax the party's attack rolls while allies close the gap.
- Three ways to run him: ambush scarecrow in a snowbound farm, recurring Yuletide stalker who vanishes and returns, or the add-on terror flanking a larger Dark-Christmas boss.
Hans Trapp
Large undead, neutral evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEEffigy Stillness. While Hans Trapp remains motionless on his post, he is indistinguishable from an ordinary scarecrow. The first attack he makes from this state has advantage, and a creature surprised by it takes an extra 9 (2d8) damage.
Reaping Reach. His gnarled branch-arms unfurl to monstrous length. His melee reach is 10 ft., and he may make opportunity attacks against creatures that begin their turn within 15 ft. of him.
Dread of the Bogeyman. Each creature that starts its turn within 20 ft. of Hans Trapp and can see him must succeed on a DC 14 Wisdom save or have disadvantage on attack rolls until the start of its next turn. A creature that succeeds is immune to this trait for 24 hours.
Actions
Multiattack. Hans Trapp makes two Clawing Branch attacks. If both hit one creature, the target is grappled (escape DC 14).
Clawing Branch. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (2d10 + 4) slashing damage.
Devouring Lunge. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature grappled by him. Hit: 18 (4d6 + 4) necrotic damage, and Hans Trapp regains hit points equal to half the damage dealt.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Drag to the Post (Reaction). When a creature Hans Trapp has grappled tries to move away, he may pull it 10 ft. back toward his post and make a Clawing Branch attack against it.
A towering scarecrow lashed to a wind-bleached cross, its sackcloth face crowned with antlers, dangling fangs, and bone charms, its branch-arms spread wide above a snowbound field where two frightened villagers cower at its roots.
Hans Trapp, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEShamble of Straw (signature). The Wretch cannot be frightened, and the first time each turn it takes damage it sheds straw and ignores 5 of that damage.
Actions
Sickle Hands. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) slashing damage.
Reactions
Stand in the Way. When Hans Trapp would be hit by an attack, the Wretch within 5 ft. may take the hit instead if it can reach the attacker's line.
A lesser effigy stitched from a stolen child, made to stand sentinel in the field beside its master and lurch to life when strangers draw near.
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 Effigy Stillness for the surprise spike, then grab the softest target and drag it off. Kill-priority is anyone who breaks the grapple; let the rest waste turns swinging at a thing that reaches back. Pair him with a bigger Yuletide horror so the party can't focus him down.
Stand silent until the party clusters near the post, then lunge: surprise attack, grab a caster, Devouring Lunge to heal off them. Use Drag to the Post every round to deny escape and keep your grappled prey in the kill-zone. This is the field-terror centerpiece of a winter ambush, not a duel; back him with hostile cultists or undead villagers.
At this tier his reach and grapple-heal make him a sustained menace, but he still lacks legendary actions, so pair him with a true flagship boss. Open from stillness on the most isolated PC, grapple-and-drain to stay topped off, and Drag any escapee back. Kill-priority the healer that undoes his self-healing, then resume feeding.
Put Hans Trapp 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 Hans Trapp?
Natively CR 6 (Tier 2, levels 5-10): AC 15, HP 127, +7 to hit, save DC 14. Tier cards scale him down to roughly CR 2 for levels 1-4 and up to roughly CR 11 for levels 11-15. He is an add-on terror, not a solo boss, so pair him with a flagship threat.
Can Hans Trapp be a companion or ally?
Not him, but the diorama's lesser effigy travels with him as The Strawbound Wretch, Bound (AC 13, HP 76) -- a straw-stuffed sentinel that shrugs off damage, swings sickle-hands, and throws itself in front of attacks meant for its master.
Why is Hans Trapp undead rather than a fiend?
The legend is an excommunicated man slain by a bolt from the sky whose corpse refused to rest and rose to reap. That is a folkloric revenant -- a body that walks again -- so he is statted as undead, with necrotic feeding and immunity to fear and exhaustion to match the bogeyman that cannot be scared off or worn down.
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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