Santelmo
Santelmo — The Encounter
The Wandering Fireball, Grinning Flame of the Marsh · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Santelmo
Travelers of the lowland marshes know the santelmo by the orphaned light that bobs across the reeds at dusk, soft and inviting as a neighbor's torch. Those who follow it are led in circles until the dry ground gives way beneath them, and the laughter that crackles in the flame is the last sound they hear. Folk say a santelmo is the unquiet soul of one who drowned or died untended in the wild, neither cruel nor kind but lonely, hungry for company it can only ruin by its touch. Fisherfolk leave bamboo and river-stones at crossings to buy its mercy, and warn children never to answer a light that calls without a voice. It cannot be cut nor crushed, for steel passes through it like smoke, and only true magic, deep water, or a stolen offering laid down will make it gutter and fade into the night it came from.
Run Santelmo in Sixty Seconds
- It is a lure, not a brawler open by drifting into the open as a friendly light and pulling one or two PCs off-formation with Lantern Lure before anyone realizes the torch has no torchbearer.
- Kill-priority whoever can put it out goes first or last to fail your save: target anyone with water, create-water, or magic weapons, since nonmagical steel just passes through its Fire Form.
- The ignite tick is the real damage a single Touch sets a PC on fire for 1d6 every turn until someone burns an action to douse it, so it taxes the party's actions even when it misses.
- When bloodied it stops trading blows and plays keep-away, using Guttering Dodge and fly speed to hover over water or narrow gaps where melee cannot reach.
- Three ways to run it a lone will-o'-marsh that herds the party into a trap, a flickering pack of lanterns that scatters formation, or the harassing add-on orbiting a bigger fire boss.
Santelmo
Medium elemental, chaotic neutral
CR 2 · 450 XP · GUIDELINEFire Form. The santelmo can move through a space as narrow as 1 inch wide without squeezing. A creature that touches it or hits it with a melee attack while within 5 feet of it takes 3 (1d6) fire damage. It can enter a hostile creature's space and stop there. The first time it enters a creature's space on a turn, that creature takes 3 (1d6) fire damage and catches fire; until someone uses an action to douse the fire, the creature takes 3 (1d6) fire damage at the start of each of its turns.
Illumination. The santelmo sheds bright light in a 20-foot radius and dim light for an additional 20 feet.
Lantern Lure (signature). The grinning flame drifts ahead like a friendly torch, then is gone. A creature that ends its turn within 30 feet of the santelmo and can see its light must succeed on a DC 12 Wisdom saving throw or be lured: on its next turn it must move at least half its speed toward the santelmo by the most direct route, ignoring difficult terrain but not obvious hazards. A creature that fails this save against the same santelmo twice in one minute is immune to its Lantern Lure for 24 hours.
Actions
Multiattack. The santelmo makes two Touch attacks.
Touch. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d6 + 3) fire damage. If the target is a creature or a flammable object, it ignites; until a creature takes an action to douse the fire, the target takes 3 (1d6) fire damage at the start of each of its turns.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Guttering Dodge. When a creature the santelmo can see hits it with an attack, the santelmo flickers low: the attack has disadvantage if it can move at least 5 feet without provoking opportunity attacks.
A grinning, fanged face leers from within a twisting pillar of cold green-gold flame, rising from a heap of marsh stones and split bamboo left as offerings. It drifts above the bog like a wandering lantern, beckoning the lost ever deeper.
Santelmo, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEBorrowed Light (signature). The Santelmo sheds dim light in a 10-foot radius and can extinguish or rekindle it as a bonus action. While lit, it has advantage on Charisma (Intimidation) checks against the superstitious.
Actions
Ember Lash. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d8 + 2) fire damage.
Reactions
Smother. When an ally within 5 feet catches fire, the Santelmo can use its reaction to beat out the flames, ending the ongoing fire damage on that creature.
A bog-walker marked by the wandering flame, carrying a sliver of its cold light in a cupped lantern and forever cold to the bone.
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 drifting into the light and pulling stragglers off the path with Lantern Lure, then dart into a lured target's space for the ignite tick. Kill-priority is anyone carrying water or magic that can douse it. Pair it with a heavier marsh threat (a giant, a bog hag, an ambush) and let the santelmo herd the party into the kill zone while staying just out of melee.
Run several santelmos as a flickering swarm of marsh-lanterns that scatter the party with Lure and stack ignite ticks. Keep them mobile with Guttering Dodge and never let one sit in melee. They are the harassment piece flanking a larger fire elemental or aswang boss, not the centerpiece.
At this tier the santelmo is a roaring bonfire-spirit that Lures whole clusters and burns through them with doubled-up Touch ticks. Open on the back line, ignite casters, and reposition every round. It still serves as the mobile add-on to a true flagship fire boss rather than soloing the encounter.
Put Santelmo 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 Santelmo?
Its home stat block is CR 2 (450 XP), a Tier 1 fire-spirit skirmisher for level 1-4 parties. The record also scales it to Tier 2 (level 5-10, CR ~6) and Tier 3 (level 11-15, CR ~11) by moving only the numbers.
Can Santelmo be a companion or ally?
Not the santelmo itself, but the record includes Wisp-Touched, Bound, a bog-walker marked by the flame who carries a sliver of its cold light, lashes with embers, and can smother fire on a burning ally. Use it as a sidekick or a hireling guide.
Why can't my fighter just hit it?
Santelmo's Fire Form gives resistance to nonmagical bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing, so mundane weapons do half damage and melee attackers take 1d6 fire for the privilege. Bring magic weapons, fire-immune front-liners, or douse it with water and area spells.
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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