Haunebu
Haunebu — The Encounter
Jackal-headed guardian of the silent gates of the dead · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Haunebu
Where the old kings were laid down in the dark, the embalmers carved guardians who would never sleep. The Haunebu were warriors chosen at the moment of their own dying and remade with the head of the jackal, that they might walk the threshold between the breathing world and the silent one. They keep the gates of the tomb not from greed but from duty: no living thief shall pass, and no restless dead shall wander out. The gem in the shield is said to be a fragment of the first dawn that lit the underworld road, and by its rose-fire the guardian sees the soul behind the flesh. They speak little, for the funerary tongue is a language of weights and judgments. To bargain with a Haunebu you must prove you carry no theft and no malice in your heart, and even then it will only step aside, never aside long. Strike one down and it falls without complaint, having simply finished its watch.
Run Haunebu in Sixty Seconds
- Hold the line. The Haunebu is a doorway, not a duelist. Set it in a chokepoint or in front of a bigger threat and make the party fight through it.
- Open with Soul-Light Burst. Tag a ranged attacker or caster for radiant damage and the to-hit penalty before melee starts, then close in next turn.
- Kill-priority: low-HP first. The Warding Gem trait gives advantage on your next attack whenever someone near you drops, so always swing at whoever is closest to dying.
- Reaction discipline. Save Shield of the Threshold for the party's biggest hit each round; a forced miss reflects radiant damage and stretches your survival.
- Three ways to run it: lone gate-warden guarding a relic; a pair flanking a tomb-priest; or a three-model honor guard escorting an undead flagship deeper in.
Haunebu
Medium humanoid (jackal-folk), lawful neutral
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEKeen Smell. The guardian has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on smell. No intruder masks the scent of the living within its halls.
Warding Gem (Signature). The rose-fire gem set in its shield channels the boundary between life and death. While the guardian holds its shield, when a creature it can see within 30 ft. drops to 0 hit points, the guardian's next attack before the end of its next turn is made with advantage as it ushers the dying soul onward. Additionally, the guardian cannot be frightened.
Actions
Multiattack. The guardian makes two attacks: two with its khopesh, or one with its khopesh and one with its Soul-Light burst.
Khopesh. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6+4) slashing damage. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 14 Strength saving throw or be pulled 5 ft. toward the guardian as the hooked blade catches it.
Soul-Light Burst. Ranged Spell Attack: +6 to hit, range 60 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (3d8) radiant damage, and a creature reduced to 25 hit points or fewer by this damage has disadvantage on its next attack roll as the funerary light dazzles it.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Shield of the Threshold (Reaction). When an attacker the guardian can see hits it with an attack, the guardian raises its warded shield, gaining +3 AC against that attack. If this causes the attack to miss, the attacker takes 7 (2d6) radiant damage.
A jackal-headed sentinel in gilded scale, one fist closed on a hooked khopesh and the other braced behind a great round shield whose rose-fire gem pulses like a captive heart.
Haunebu, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEPack Sense (signature). Haunebu has advantage on attack rolls against a creature if at least one of the jackal's allies is within 5 ft. of that creature and isn't incapacitated.
Actions
Rending Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (2d6+3) piercing damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 13 Strength save or be knocked prone.
Reactions
Threshold Howl. When a creature within 30 ft. of Haunebu drops to 0 hit points, Haunebu howls; each ally within 30 ft. that can hear it gains 5 temporary hit points.
A lean black jackal bound to the guardian's watch, ears pricked for the scent of the living who do not belong among the dead.
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 Soul-Light Burst from behind the shield, then close to khopesh range and pull the squishiest intruder forward. If the party clusters, focus the lowest-HP target so the Warding Gem trait keeps handing you advantage. Pair it with a tomb-priest or an undead flagship; the Haunebu is the doorway you must break to reach the real threat.
Plant it in a chokepoint and let Shield of the Threshold punish the first big hit each round. Multiattack the front-liner, using the khopesh pull to drag healers out of cover, and Soul-Light Burst anyone who tries to range it. Kill-priority for the party should be its shield arm; until then it is the wall in front of the boss, not the boss.
Run two or three as an honor guard around a flagship lich-king or god-tomb avatar. Stagger their Shield reactions so one is always warded, and chain Soul-Light Bursts on whoever the party drops low to deny the rally. They are durable add-ons that buy the centerpiece time; do not expect them to win the fight alone.
Put Haunebu 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 Haunebu?
Its home tier is CR 6 (2,300 XP), tuned for a party of levels 5-10 as an elite add-on. The stat block scales down to roughly CR 2 for levels 1-4 and up to roughly CR 11 for levels 11-15; traits stay identical and only the numbers move.
Can Haunebu be a companion or ally?
Yes. As a duty-bound guardian rather than a malicious foe, a Haunebu makes a natural sworn protector once a party proves it carries no theft or malice. Use the included companion, Hooktail the Bound Jackal, as a ready-made allied creature, or run a lone Haunebu as a paladin-flavored bodyguard for an NPC.
Is the Haunebu solo-capable?
No. It has no legendary actions and is built as an add-on guardian, so a single one will be overwhelmed by a full party's action economy. Use it as the wall in front of a flagship boss, or field it in pairs and trios to defend a tomb or relic.
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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