Père Fouettard
Père Fouettard — The Encounter
The Whipping Father, butcher-bogey who flays the wicked · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Père Fouettard
In the cold villages along the Rhine they whisper of the Whipping Father, who walks the longest nights at the heel of the gift-giver. Once, the tale runs, he was a mortal butcher who lured three boys into his shop with the promise of warmth and murdered them for their purses. For this he was cursed to walk forever as the saint's shadow, scourging the wicked he once was. He carries a soot-black ledger of every cruelty and lie a child has spoken, a flensing whip to flay the guilty, and a sack to carry the unrepentant into the dark. Where the bright Father leaves sweets, the Whipping Father leaves coal, switches, and welts. Parents invoke his name to make children behave, and on the bitterest nights they bar the door, for the Tally is never empty and the Father remembers every name he has read aloud.
Run Père Fouettard in Sixty Seconds
- Hold first. Open with Looming Dread on the densest knot of PCs so their first swings miss, then pick your mark before committing the cleaver.
- Whip to control. The Flensing Whip's 15-ft. reach yanks and prones a back-liner; a proned, frightened, or grappled target triggers Tally of the Wicked for advantage and bonus damage, so chain prone into Snatch the Naughty.
- Kill-priority is the rescuer. Whoever moves to free the sacked victim eats Crack of the Lash; focus the controller or healer who can undo your grapples.
- When bloodied, get greedy. Bag a downed PC and drag the sack toward your boss or an exit; halved speed is worth removing a body from the fight.
- Three ways to run him: the cruel enforcer of a Dark Christmas warband (pair with Saint Nick), a lone bogeyman stalking a snowed-in village, or a moral test where freeing the child matters more than the kill.
Père Fouettard
Medium fiend, lawful evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINETally of the Wicked. Père Fouettard keeps a soot-black ledger of names. He has advantage on attack rolls against any creature that is frightened, prone, or grappled, and his whip deals an extra 7 (2d6) damage to such a creature (already included below when the rider applies).
Looming Dread. When a creature that can see Père Fouettard starts its turn within 20 feet of him, it must succeed on a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw or have disadvantage on its next attack roll, as old guilt rises unbidden. A creature immune to the frightened condition automatically succeeds.
Actions
Multiattack. Père Fouettard makes two attacks: one with his Flensing Whip and one with his Butcher's Cleaver.
Flensing Whip. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8+4) slashing damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 15 Strength saving throw or be pulled up to 10 feet toward Père Fouettard and knocked prone.
Butcher's Cleaver. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 15 (2d10+4) slashing damage.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Snatch the Naughty (Bonus Action). Père Fouettard makes one grapple check (DC 14) against a creature within 5 feet that is prone or frightened. On a success he hauls the victim into the sack at his belt; while sacked the creature is blinded and restrained, but Père Fouettard's speed is halved.
Crack of the Lash (Reaction). When a creature within 15 feet that Père Fouettard can see attempts to move away from him, he makes one Flensing Whip attack against it.
A towering, fur-cloaked butcher with a wild grey beard and a lash uncoiling from his fist, he stands over a snowbank where a small bound figure lies trembling. Every line of his greatcoat and cruel grin promises that this Father came not to give but to take.
Père Fouettard, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEPleading Cry (signature). Once per short rest, as an action, the bound child wails. Each hostile creature within 30 feet that can hear it must succeed on a DC 13 Wisdom save or be unable to take reactions until the end of its next turn, shamed into stillness.
Actions
Frostbitten Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d6+2) piercing damage plus 2 (1d4) cold damage.
Reactions
Squirm Free. When grappled or restrained, the child uses its reaction to make a DC 12 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check; on a success it slips loose and moves up to 10 feet without provoking opportunity attacks.
A small, half-frozen victim hauled from the Father's sack, more spirit than survivor, that clings to whoever cuts its bonds.
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 cracking the whip to drag your most lightly armored target prone, then close with the cleaver. If the party clusters, use Looming Dread to soften their hits before you wade in. Kill-priority is the healer; pair him with a couple of switch-wielding elves so he is the heavy that anchors the line.
Whip first to yank and prone a back-line caster, then Snatch the Naughty to bag them as a bonus action, halving your speed but removing them from the fight. Crack of the Lash punishes anyone who tries to flee with the sacked victim. Kill-priority is whoever frees the captive; this is the muscle piece in a Dark Christmas warband, pair him with a flagship boss like an armored Saint Nick.
Lead with Looming Dread on the cluster, then whip-pull and prone the strongest melee threat so Tally of the Wicked turns every swing into advantage. Bag a downed PC with Snatch the Naughty and keep Crack of the Lash held for rescuers. Kill-priority is the controller who frees grappled allies; run him alongside a bigger horror so he handles isolation while the boss deals death.
Put Père Fouettard 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 Père Fouettard?
Natively CR 6 (Tier 2, levels 5-10): AC 15, 127 HP, +7 to hit, save DC 15, about 28-40 damage per round between whip and cleaver. Scaled stat blocks for Tier 1 (CR 2-ish) and Tier 3 (CR 11-ish) are provided in the tiers section so he stays threatening at any table.
Can Père Fouettard be a companion or ally?
Not as written; he is lawful evil and built as an adversary, the muscle in a Dark Christmas warband rather than a solo boss. The model does double as the Sacked Child companion, a half-frozen victim a good party can free and adopt, with its own small stat block above.
Is Père Fouettard solo-capable?
No. He has no legendary actions and is designed as an add-on threat, so drop him beside a flagship boss such as an armored Saint Nick or Krampus rather than running him alone against a full party. His whip-pull, grapple-sack, and Crack of the Lash reaction make him an excellent isolation piece in a larger 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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