Virgil
Virgil — The Encounter
The Poet-Shade Who Walks the Living Through Hell · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Virgil
He was the greatest poet of an empire long fallen, and death did not grant him rest so much as a duty: to walk the living down through the rings of the dead and back up into the light again. Summoned by a power higher than himself, he takes a trembling mortal by the wrist and descends, naming each torment they pass so that knowing it will rob it of its terror. He does not fight as warriors fight. He commands the damned by right of speech, bidding restless spirits be still and turning aside the fiends that crowd the path, for they remember when poets were heard in the courts of the underworld. His lantern is no relic of magic but of resolve — a small unkillable flame that says, to every horror that leans close, that this soul is under escort and may not be touched. When at last his charge stands again beneath the stars, Virgil turns back into the dark, for the road down must always be walked again.
Run Virgil in Sixty Seconds
- What he is a spectral poet-guide, not a bruiser: a flying caster who debuffs, denies healing, and keeps your real boss calm and unfrightened.
- Open with hold person or fear on the party's hardest striker, then Withering Verse so it cannot heal back up.
- Kill-priority drop him to strip the fear-immunity bubble off your fiends and undead — while he's up, half your monster manual shrugs off frightened.
- When bloodied phase through a wall with Incorporeal Movement, recover line of sight, and hit the cluster with Lantern Flare (fiends and undead save at disadvantage).
- Three ways to run him (1) escort/buffer beside a flagship boss; (2) controller in a haunted-lair fight with grasping shades; (3) a chase obstacle who delays and misdirects rather than killing.
Virgil
Medium undead (spirit), lawful neutral
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEIncorporeal Movement. Virgil can move through other creatures and objects as if they were difficult terrain. He takes 5 (1d10) force damage if he ends his turn inside an object.
Lantern of Safe Passage. Signature. Virgil carries a guttering lantern whose light cannot be quenched. Each ally within 20 feet of the lantern has advantage on saving throws against being frightened and against the spells and abilities of fiends and undead. While the lantern is lit, the surrounding darkness, however magical, cannot conceal a hostile creature from Virgil.
Spellcasting. Virgil casts spells using Intelligence (spell save DC 15, +7 to hit). He can innately cast the following without material components: at will — guidance, light, mage hand, minor illusion; 3/day each — detect thoughts, dispel magic, fear, hold person; 1/day each — banishment, hypnotic pattern.
Actions
Multiattack. Virgil makes two Withering Verse attacks, or casts a spell and makes one Withering Verse attack.
Withering Verse. Ranged Spell Attack: +7 to hit, range 60 ft., one target. Hit: 18 (4d6+4) necrotic damage, and the target cannot regain hit points until the start of Virgil's next turn.
Lantern Flare (Recharge 5–6). Virgil raises the lantern and a column of pale fire flares in a 20-foot radius centered on himself. Each enemy in the area must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw, taking 22 (5d8) radiant damage on a failed save, or half as much on a success. Fiends and undead have disadvantage on this save.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Guide's Warning. Reaction. When an ally Virgil can see within 30 feet is hit by an attack, he can speak a verse of caution. The attacker rerolls the attack and must use the lower result; if the attack now misses, the ally can move up to half its speed without provoking opportunity attacks.
A toga-clad shade drifts above a churning floor of grasping hands and cold flame, one arm outstretched to point the way forward, the other lifting an iron lantern whose light the dark cannot eat. He is calm where everything around him screams.
Virgil, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEUnquenchable Flame (signature). The lantern sheds bright light in a 20-foot radius and dim light for another 20 feet; this light cannot be extinguished or suppressed by magic of 5th level or lower. The bearer and allies within the bright light have advantage on saving throws against being frightened.
Actions
Searing Light. Ranged Spell Attack: +5 to hit, range 40 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d8+2) radiant damage; a fiend or undead hit this way sheds light and cannot benefit from invisibility until the end of its next turn.
Reactions
Ward the Charge. When an ally within 10 feet would be frightened, the lantern flares and the ally may reroll the save with advantage.
An iron-and-glass lantern that hovers at a guide's shoulder, its flame the color of a held breath. Carried into any darkness, it insists on the way out.
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 from range with Withering Verse to deny healing on a front-liner, and keep the lantern between your party and any low-level fiends to shut down their fear effects. If the PCs cluster on him, drift through a wall with Incorporeal Movement and reposition — he is a delayer, not a brawler. Pair him with grasping spirits or imps so the party can't simply ignore his escort.
Open by Multiattacking — cast hold person or fear on the most dangerous striker, then a Withering Verse to lock out its healing. Save Lantern Flare for when two or more enemies bunch within 20 feet, and use Guide's Warning to protect your real boss when a big hit lands. Kill-priority him only if the party wants to drop your fiends' morale buff; otherwise he plays best beside a heavier threat that he shields and steers.
Run him as the brain of a lair fight: banishment removes the party's anchor while your damned minions swarm, and Lantern Flare punishes the clustered casters. Lead Guide's Warning on the turn your bigger threat takes its hardest hit. He is no solo — pair him with a larger fiend or a horde of grasping shades and let him be the one who never panics while everything else does.
Put Virgil 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 Virgil?
His home build is CR 6 (2,300 XP) for a Tier 2 party of levels 5–10: AC 15, 110 HP, +7 to hit, save DC 15. The sheet scales down to ~CR 2 for Tier 1 and up to ~CR 11 for Tier 3 using the numbers in the tiers table — the traits and actions stay identical, only the values move.
Can Virgil be a companion or ally?
Absolutely — he is written first as a guide, not a villain. As an ally he is a superb escort NPC: his lantern grants advantage against fear, Guide's Warning saves a PC from a brutal hit, and his control spells lock down the worst enemy on the field. Use him to lead a party safely through a hostile region, then have him slip back into the dark when his duty is done.
Is Virgil a fighter or a support caster?
Support and control. He has only one real damage attack (Withering Verse) and a recharge burst (Lantern Flare); his value is denying healing, shutting off fear, banishing or holding the strongest enemy, and protecting allies with his reaction. Field him beside a heavier threat or a swarm — he is the one who keeps everything else steady, not the one who delivers the killing blow.
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
Played Virgil at your table? Log in with your Obsidian Tavern account to leave a balance note, a war story, or a file issue — the sharpest reports get the block revised.
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