The Fool
The Fool — The Encounter
The grinning jester of the Tarot, who dances where others fall · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is The Fool
He is the nameless card, numbered zero, who walks the cliff edge with his head turned to the sky. The Fool belongs to no court and answers to no king, for he is the empty space from which all the other cards spill. Folk who meet him on a moonlit road remember a jester who juggled their secrets, laughed at their grief, and vanished leaving them somehow lighter and somehow robbed. He carries a mask that wears a face not his own, and a blade he seems never to mean, and yet the wounds it leaves do not close cleanly. Scholars of the trumps argue whether he is innocent or mad, blessed or cursed, and the Fool delights that they cannot decide. To bind him is to invite chaos into your house; to ignore him is worse, for the Fool remembers a snub far longer than he remembers a kindness, and his revenge always arrives dressed as a joke.
Run The Fool in Sixty Seconds
- Hold Open at range with Grinning Mask, then dart in with Tumbling Step so the party never gets a clean swing — the Fool wants to be everywhere and nowhere.
- Last Laugh Each round, ask which enemy roll matters most (the big save, the rogue's sneak attack) and spend your reaction to gut it with disadvantage.
- Fool's Luck Remember the d6 every time he's hit or fails a save — on a 4+ he simply isn't there, so describe the caper, not the hit.
- When bloodied Stop trading blows. Disengage, kite with the Mask, and make the party chase a laughing target through difficult terrain he ignores.
- Three ways to run him Heckling skirmisher in a bigger boss's retinue; trickster who 'helps' the party for a cruel price; or a recurring jester who keeps escaping to torment them later.
The Fool
Medium fey, chaotic neutral
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEFool's Luck. Signature. The Fool's recklessness is uncanny. Once per turn, when the Fool fails a saving throw or is hit by an attack, it may roll a d6; on a 4 or higher it instead succeeds on the save or causes the attack to miss, capering away unharmed. A creature that watches this cannot easily mark where it will next stand.
Capering Dodge. When the Fool moves, it does not provoke opportunity attacks from any creature it can see. Difficult terrain costs it no extra movement.
Actions
Multiattack. The Fool makes two attacks: one with its Mocking Blade and one with its Grinning Mask, or two with its Mocking Blade.
Mocking Blade. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (2d8+5) slashing damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or have disadvantage on the next attack roll it makes before the end of its next turn as it is thrown off by the Fool's jeers.
Grinning Mask. Ranged Spell Attack: +7 to hit, range 60 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (3d6+3) psychic damage as the laughing mask whispers cruel truths.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Tumbling Step (Bonus Action). The Fool takes the Dash or Disengage action, then may make a single Mocking Blade attack if it ends within reach of a creature.
Last Laugh (Reaction). When a creature within 30 ft. that the Fool can see makes an attack roll or saving throw, the Fool can cackle and impose disadvantage on the roll. The creature must be able to hear the Fool.
A leering harlequin in a belled cap and ruffed collar, frozen mid-caper above a circle of carved faces, one hand thrusting a grinning mask skyward while a slender blade trails from the other.
The Fool, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEWorn Face (signature). While a creature holds the mask to its face, it has advantage on Charisma (Deception) checks and is immune to the frightened condition. Removing the mask requires an action and a DC 13 Charisma saving throw, for it whispers reasons to keep it on.
Actions
Whispered Mockery. Ranged Spell Attack: +6 to hit, range 60 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (3d6) psychic damage, and the target has disadvantage on its next saving throw.
Reactions
Borrowed Grin. When the bearer is reduced to 0 hit points, the mask laughs once and the bearer may immediately make a death saving throw with advantage.
A laughing porcelain mask that never stops smiling, light as paper and cold as a stranger's pity.
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 Grinning Mask from range, then Tumbling Step into melee and out again so the party never pins him. Kill-priority is anyone who can grapple or web him, since Fool's Luck only saves him while he can move. Pair him with a flashier threat (a witch, a fey lord) and let the Fool harass flanks while the boss does the killing.
Open by Mocking-Blade-ing the party's heaviest hitter to blunt their next swing, then Last Laugh the enemy with the scariest save coming up. When bloodied, lean on Fool's Luck and Tumbling Step to bleed away and snipe with the Mask. He shines beside minions or in a hall of mirrors and traps; pair him with a bigger threat rather than running him as the whole fight.
Lead with Last Laugh to wreck a key save, then Multiattack the controller or healer. Use Capering Dodge and Tumbling Step to stay un-cornered; kill-priority for the party is anything that locks him down. Run him with a lair of belled curtains, a circle of carved faces that animate, and a heavier patron-fiend so the Fool plays the gleeful lieutenant, not the lone act.
Put The Fool 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 The Fool?
Natively CR 6 (Tier 2, ~level 5-10), a roughly 2,300 XP skirmisher built around evasion and disruption. Tier 1 and Tier 3 versions on the sheet rescale his AC, HP, to-hit and save DC for level 1-4 and 11-15 parties; the traits and actions never change.
Can The Fool be a companion or ally?
Not really himself — he serves no one for long. But his Grinning Mask, Bound (AC 14, ~74 HP) can be looted or granted as a companion item: it whispers mockery at range, lends Deception advantage and fear immunity to its bearer, and laughs them through a death save. The catch is it does not like coming off.
Is The Fool a solo boss?
No. He has no legendary actions and a 4-PC party will out-act him over a round, so run him as an add-on — a heckling lieutenant beside a heavier threat, or the centerpiece of a trap-filled lair full of minions. His kit is built to frustrate, not to soak a whole party's turn.
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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