King Leonidas
King Leonidas — The Encounter
The Spartan King Who Held the Hot Gates · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is King Leonidas
He is the king who chose the narrow place. Where the road pinched between mountain and sea, he set his shields and refused the tide of an empire, asking only that his death cost the invader dearly. The grimoires of the war-poets remember him not as a sorcerer or a monster but as something rarer: a mortal who made discipline into a wall no king's gold could buy past. Each of his picked spearmen knew the man beside him better than a brother, and that knowing was their armor. When arrows blotted the sun they answered that they would fight in the shade. He fell at last, buried under spears, and the pass was named for the heat of the springs that boiled there. To raise his sculpt is to summon not a demigod but the idea of the held line, the few who do not break, the cost an enemy pays for every step forward.
Run King Leonidas in Sixty Seconds
- He is a wall, not a hammer. Stand him in a chokepoint and make the party come to him one at a time. His whole job is to deny ground and outlast.
- Open by bracing. Don't move turn one. War Spear gets its push rider when he stays put, so let them close, then shove them back and reset the kill box.
- Kill-priority for the king. Strike whoever slips past the line, flankers and casters first. Shield Bash the front bruiser prone to lock their melee in place.
- When bloodied, Phalanx Discipline hands him advantage on his next attack, so dump it on the lowest-AC target, and lean on Spartan Resolve to halve incoming hits.
- Three ways to run him: as the anchor of a hoplite/skeleton line he buffs with Hold the Line; as a tough lieutenant guarding a bigger boss; or as a duel-the-champion set piece on the cliff base.
King Leonidas
Medium humanoid (human), lawful neutral
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEHold the Line. Signature. While the king is not incapacitated, every allied creature within 10 feet of him has advantage on saving throws against being frightened and gains a +2 bonus to AC against the first attack made against it on each of its turns. The king embodies the unbroken shield wall.
Phalanx Discipline. The king does not provoke opportunity attacks when he moves so long as he ends his movement adjacent to an ally. If he is reduced to half hit points or fewer, his next attack is made with advantage.
Actions
Multiattack. The king makes two attacks with his war spear, or one with his spear and one Shield Bash.
War Spear. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 16 (2d10 + 4) piercing damage. If the king has not moved this turn, the target must succeed on a DC 14 Strength saving throw or be pushed 5 feet back.
Shield Bash. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (1d8 + 4) bludgeoning damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 14 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Spartan Resolve (Recharge 5-6). When the king is hit by an attack, he can use his reaction to raise his hoplon and halve the damage taken. If the attacker is within 5 feet, it must then succeed on a DC 14 Strength saving throw or be pushed 5 feet away.
A bronze-crested king stands braced at a cliff's edge, spear raised overhead, his great round hoplon angled to catch the next blow while his cape snaps in the mountain wind.
King Leonidas, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEFight in the Shade (signature). While within 10 feet of the king, King Leonidas cannot be frightened and has advantage on saving throws against effects that would move him against his will.
Actions
Hoplite Spear. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) piercing damage.
Reactions
Cover the King. When the king within 5 feet of King Leonidas is hit by an attack, King Leonidas can use his reaction to take half the damage from that attack.
The king's chosen man, dry of wit and unbreakable of nerve, who jokes at the size of the enemy host even as it darkens the sky.
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 by planting himself in a doorway or chokepoint so only one or two heroes can reach him, then make full attacks while Hold the Line buffs any minions beside him. If clustered, use Shield Bash to drop the front hero prone. Kill-priority is whoever flanks past him; pair him with a goblin or skeleton line so he is the anchor, not the army.
Open in a corridor or atop the cliff base where the party must come to him one at a time. Spend Spartan Resolve to shrug off the biggest hit and shove the striker back, then War Spear the pushed target. When bloodied, Phalanx Discipline gives advantage, so lead with the spear on the squishiest caster. He is the captain piece, pair him with a flagship monster or a unit of hoplite adds he buffs.
Run him as the unbreakable lieutenant of a larger boss. Hold a line in front of the boss so the party must spend turns prying him loose. Use Shield Bash to keep the melee bruiser prone and War Spear's push to break up cluster casts. Kill-priority is the party healer if it ever steps within 10 feet; otherwise he simply will not move, and the clock is the enemy.
Put King Leonidas 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 King Leonidas?
His home stat block is CR 6 (2,300 XP), tuned for a party of levels 5-10. Tier cards scale him down to roughly CR 2 for levels 1-4 and up to roughly CR 11 for levels 11-15; the traits stay identical and only the numbers move.
Can King Leonidas be a companion or ally?
Yes. He is built as an add-on captain rather than a solo boss, so he slots naturally beside player heroes or a flagship monster. His Hold the Line aura makes him an excellent NPC commander for a defensive last-stand scenario, and the companion Dienekes can join the same shield wall.
Is he solo-capable?
No. He has no legendary actions, so a full party will eventually crack the line. He shines as the immovable anchor of an encounter, pair him with minions he buffs or a larger threat he protects, and let his Spartan Resolve reaction stretch the fight.
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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