Zahhak
Zahhak — The Encounter
The Serpent-Shouldered Tyrant, Cursed King of the Shahnameh · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Zahhak
In the Shahnameh it is written that Zahhak was a prince seduced by a whispering fiend, who kissed his shoulders as reward for parricide. Where the devil's lips touched, two serpents sprouted, and no blade could cut them away; for every head struck off, two grew in its place. The court physicians, the devil disguised among them, decreed the only cure: each day the serpents must be fed the brains of two youths, lest they turn and devour the king himself. So Zahhak ruled a thousand years in blood, his dungeons emptied of the young, until the smith Kaveh raised his apron as a banner and the hero Fereydun rose from the people. Fereydun did not slay him, for prophecy forbade it; instead he bound the tyrant in chains beneath a mountain, where Zahhak strains against his fetters still, dreaming of the day his serpents feast again.
Run Zahhak in Sixty Seconds
- Heads are the clock. Three heads means three bites every round and an opportunity attack per head. Until the party kills heads, they take roughly 75+ damage a turn just from teeth.
- Fire is the answer, hide it from them. Any head that drops grows back as TWO unless Zahhak took fire damage that round. Don't volunteer this; let them discover it as heads multiply.
- Open by clustering. Lead with Tail Sweep to knock a target prone, then bite or Devouring Lunge the prone victim. Prone plus grapple from Crushing Claw sets up your biggest hits.
- Kill-priority is the caster. Pact-Cursed frightens the front line at half HP and each time a head dies, breaking concentration and locking martials out of attacks, exactly when the party needs offense.
- Three ways to run it: the unkillable tyrant (lean on regrowth, force a fire solution), the chained terror (fewer heads, lair-bound, a dungeon centerpiece), or the omen-spawn (scale to a lesser tier as a herald of the king to come).
Zahhak
Huge dragon, lawful evil
CR 13 · 10,000 XP · GUIDELINEThree Hungering Heads. Zahhak has three serpent heads. While it has more than one head, it has advantage on saving throws against being blinded, charmed, deafened, frightened, knocked unconscious, and stunned. Whenever Zahhak takes 30 or more damage in a single turn, one of its heads dies. If all its heads die, Zahhak dies. At the end of its turn, it grows two heads for each of its heads that died since its last turn, unless it has taken fire damage since its last turn. Zahhak regains 15 hit points for each head regrown in this way.
Reactive Heads. For each head Zahhak has beyond one, it gets an extra reaction that can be used only for opportunity attacks.
Pact-Cursed. Signature. A devil's bargain festers in Zahhak's flesh. The first time each turn Zahhak is reduced below half its hit points or loses a head, each creature within 10 ft. must succeed on a DC 16 Wisdom save or be frightened until the end of its next turn as the serpents shriek for brains.
Actions
Multiattack. Zahhak makes as many Serpent Bite attacks as it has heads.
Serpent Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 18 (3d8+5) piercing damage plus 7 (2d6) poison damage.
Crushing Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 21 (3d10+5) slashing damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 17) if it is Large or smaller.
Legendary Actions (3/Round)
Detect. Zahhak makes a Wisdom (Perception) check.
Tail Sweep. Zahhak swings its tail at one creature within 15 ft. The target must succeed on a DC 17 Dexterity save or take 14 (2d8+5) bludgeoning damage and be knocked prone.
Devouring Lunge (Costs 2 Actions). One head strikes at a grappled or prone creature within 10 ft. The target must make a DC 17 Dexterity save, taking 28 (5d8+5) piercing damage on a failure, or half as much on a success.
A Huge tyrant in dragon's shape, scaled and bat-winged, with three barbed serpent-necks rising from its shoulders where a man's arms once were. It rears over a shattered slab, jaws splayed, ever hungry.
Zahhak, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINESmith's Defiance (signature). Allies within 10 ft. of the banner-bearer have advantage on saving throws against being frightened. Once per turn, when an ally within 10 ft. is frightened, the banner-bearer can end that condition with a shout (no action).
Actions
Forge Hammer. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (2d8+5) bludgeoning damage, and a struck serpent head can't regrow until the end of the banner-bearer's next turn.
Reactions
Raise the Apron. When an ally within 10 ft. is hit by a Serpent Bite, the banner-bearer adds 3 to that ally's AC against the triggering attack, possibly causing it to miss.
A leather-aproned rebel hoisting the smith's banner, a rallying point against the serpent-king's terror.
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.
Scale Zahhak down to a lone serpent-spawn omen, not the tyrant himself. Open by frightening the cluster, then bite the spellcaster; flee at half HP to keep the legend alive. Pair with a feeding-pit hazard so the party feels the curse without being overrun.
A young or chained Zahhak with two heads instead of three. Open against the bunched-up melee with Tail Sweep to prone, then bite the prone target with Devouring Lunge. Remind players that fire stops the heads regrowing, then watch them scramble for torches.
Full solo boss. Open with Multiattack on the nearest melee, spending legendary Tail Sweep to drop a target prone for next turn's Devouring Lunge. Kill-priority: anyone wielding fire, because fire is the only thing stopping heads from regrowing, so a party without it is already losing. When bloodied, Pact-Cursed frightens the front line, breaking concentration on your worst threats.
Put Zahhak 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 Zahhak?
Zahhak is built as a CR 13 solo boss (10,000 XP), a genuine centerpiece for an 11th-15th level party. Its native sheet is band-dropped from Tier 3 because its action-economy kit (three reactive heads, regrowing heads, two legendary options plus a frightening reaction) lets it play up against four PCs. Scale it down to the Tier 1 or Tier 2 columns to use it as a herald or a chained, weakened tyrant.
Can Zahhak be a companion or ally?
Not Zahhak himself; he is a tyrant cursed by a devil's pact and is meant to be the enemy. The accompanying companion stat block, Kaveh's Banner-Bearer, represents the rebel rallying point from the Shahnameh and can fight alongside the party, shielding allies from fear and stopping severed serpent heads from regrowing for a round.
Why do the heads keep coming back?
The Three Hungering Heads trait mirrors the myth: cut one off and two grow in its place. A head dies when Zahhak takes 30+ damage in a turn, but at the end of its turn it regrows two heads per head lost unless it took fire damage that round. Fire is the only reliable way to stop the regrowth, so a smart party brings torches, flaming weapons, or fire 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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