Xerxes
Xerxes — The Encounter
The King of Kings, crowned in horn and blood · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Xerxes
They name him the King of Kings, though no living crown sits upon his horned brow. In the old chronicles Xerxes was a conqueror who counted nations as a miser counts coin, and when at last he marched his hosts into the sea and the storm devoured them, his pride refused the grave. What rose from that drowned army was no man but a sworn thing of the lower pacts, bound by oath to rule and to ruin. He wears the plate of a hundred surrendered captains, and the trophy at his belt was once a champion who knelt too late. Where his banner falls, vassals fight on past death, for to flee his presence is to feel his will crawl behind the eyes like a fever. Grimoires counsel that he cannot be bargained with as other spirits are; he hears only the language of submission, and answers every plea with a decree.
Run Xerxes in Sixty Seconds
- Hold Dread Decree for a tight cluster—one good roll frightens half the party and feeds Tyrant's Aura for the rest of the fight.
- Open by closing on the back-line caster; his 30-ft. speed-equivalent reach (10 ft.) and prone-rider let him pin a martial on turn one.
- Kill-priority: drop whatever ends the frightened condition first (cleric, paladin, bard)—without it the aura grinds the table down.
- When bloodied, remember Relentless Conqueror: the first hit that would drop him leaves him at 1 HP and adds 2d6 to his next strike—plan for one extra round.
- Three ways to run him: a lone heavy-infantry champion in a war scene; the warden of a deathless phalanx (add Drowned Guard); or the right hand of a flagship boss, screening it while it casts.
Xerxes
Medium fiend (devil), lawful evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINETyrant's Aura. Each enemy that starts its turn within 10 feet of Xerxes has disadvantage on saving throws against being frightened. A creature already frightened of Xerxes that starts its turn in this aura takes 5 (1d10) psychic damage as his will presses on its mind.
Relentless Conqueror. If damage reduces Xerxes to 0 hit points, he drops to 1 hit point instead (once per day) and the next creature he hits before the end of his next turn takes an extra 7 (2d6) damage.
Actions
Multiattack. Xerxes makes two attacks with his Horned Halberd.
Horned Halberd. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 15 (2d10 + 4) slashing damage. If the target is a Large or smaller creature, it must succeed on a DC 15 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.
Dread Decree (Recharge 5–6). Xerxes points his halberd and issues a conquering command. Each enemy within 30 feet that can see or hear him must make a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw. On a failure, a creature is frightened of Xerxes for 1 minute and takes 18 (4d8) psychic damage; on a success, it takes half damage and isn't frightened. A frightened creature can repeat the save at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on a success.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Conqueror's Riposte (Reaction). When a creature Xerxes can see within 10 feet hits him with a melee attack, he makes one Horned Halberd attack against that creature.
A broad, bull-horned despot sheathed in crimson infernal plate, Xerxes plants a skull-crowned halberd amid a pool of blood, a flayed beast-trophy swaying at his hip.
Xerxes, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEPhalanx Oath (signature). While within 10 feet of an ally, the Immortal has advantage on saving throws against being frightened and adds +2 to its AC against the first attack it can see each round.
Actions
Spear. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (1d8 + 3) piercing damage, plus 3 (1d6) fire damage.
Reactions
Shield Wall. When an ally within 5 feet is hit by an attack, the Immortal can impose disadvantage on that attack roll; if it still hits, the Immortal takes half the damage.
One of the deathless ranks that drowned with the king and rose with him, sworn to hold the line until the sea gives back its dead.
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 Dread Decree to frighten the cluster, then wade in and knock the front-liner prone with the halberd. Kill-priority is whoever can remove fear (a cleric or paladin). At this tier pair him with two or three skirmishers, not alone—his aura punishes a frightened party hard.
Open by closing on the squishiest caster, drop Dread Decree on the bunched party, then Multiattack to prone-lock a martial. Hold Conqueror's Riposte to tax melee that surrounds him. Use him as a heavy-infantry champion anchoring a flagship boss or a wall of Drowned Guard—his Tyrant's Aura makes any frightened PC bleed each turn.
Run him as the conquering vanguard of a larger threat, never solo—he lacks the action economy to out-trade a high-tier party alone. Lead with Dread Decree, then prone-lock and Riposte through a lair of deathless guard. Kill-priority for the party is the fear-remover; for Xerxes, the lowest-HP caster he can reach.
Put Xerxes 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 Xerxes?
Natively CR 6 (Tier 2, ~levels 5–10): AC 17, 127 HP, +7 to hit, save DC 15. Scale him down to CR 2 for a Tier 1 party or up to CR 11 for Tier 3 using the tier table—the traits and actions stay identical, only the numbers move.
Can Xerxes be a companion or ally?
He's built as an adversary, but a desperate or domination-minded party could bind him—he answers only to submission and oaths, never bargains. For a friendlier table-side option, use the Immortal of the Drowned Guard companion block as a sworn ally instead.
Is Xerxes a solo boss?
No. He has no legendary actions, so a four-PC party will out-act him. Run him as an add-on champion—anchor him to a flagship boss or a phalanx of Drowned Guard, and lean on Dread Decree and his Tyrant's Aura to make a frightened party pay.
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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