BRUTE 05
BRUTE 05 — The Encounter
Blood-drowned champion of the Yellow Sign · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is BRUTE 05
They call him a Brute, but the worshippers of the Yellow Sign know better: he was a soldier once, marched into Carcosa beneath tattered banners and never marched out. The Sign found him there, between the twin suns and the cloud-waves of Hali, and it filled the hollow of his helm twice over, so that two faces now watch from one ruined body. Drowned in the blood of those who knelt too slowly, he no longer remembers a name, only the wet rhythm of the glaive and the pale mask that smiles behind his eyes. Where he passes, men weep without knowing why and dream of a city draped in yellow. He does not lead the faithful; he is sent ahead of them, a tide of slaughter to clear the road for stranger things that follow. Cut him and he laughs, for the Sign feeds him with every death he deals.
Run BRUTE 05 in Sixty Seconds
- Hold position. The Brute is an anvil, not a duelist. Plant it in the chokepoint or doorway, charge in once to scatter the party, then let reach 10 ft. punish anyone who closes.
- Open with Crushing Charge. Line it up through two or three PCs on turn one for prone + bludgeoning; nothing else this turn matters more than putting bodies on the floor.
- Kill-priority: the already-wounded. Drowned in Slaughter heals the Brute and grants advantage whenever it hits a bloodied target or drops someone, so it deliberately swings at the hurt PC, not the fresh tank.
- When bloodied, lean on the loop. It does not retreat; it doubles down, hunting kills to refill its own HP. Players must out-damage the heal or split its attention with the Acolyte.
- Three ways to run it: as a doorway anvil that the party must get past; as a charging shock-trooper sent ahead of a cult mob; or as bound muscle beside a Carcosan caster who keeps it alive while it grinds the front line.
BRUTE 05
Large aberration, chaotic evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINETwo-Headed Watch. The brute carries a second helm-bound head upon its shoulder. It has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks and on saving throws against being blinded, deafened, stunned, or knocked unconscious, and it cannot be surprised while at least one head is conscious.
Drowned in Slaughter. Signature. The brute wades in its own gore. The first time on each of its turns that it reduces a creature to 0 hit points or hits a creature already below half its hit points, the brute regains 9 hit points and its next attack before the end of the turn is made with advantage.
Actions
Multiattack. The brute makes two glaive attacks.
Twin-Bladed Glaive. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 16 (2d10 + 5) slashing damage, and if the target is a creature it must succeed on a DC 14 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.
Crushing Charge (Recharge 5-6). The brute moves up to its speed in a straight line and slams through one creature in its path. That creature must make a DC 14 Strength saving throw, taking 22 (4d8 + 5) bludgeoning damage and being knocked prone on a failure, or half as much damage on a success.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Butcher's Reprisal. Reaction. When a creature the brute can see hits it with a melee attack, the brute makes one glaive attack against that creature.
A hulking slab of muscle locked in cracked, bone-yellow plate caked with old blood, it shoulders a second skull-helmed head and drags a double-bladed glaive through a tide of gore.
BRUTE 05, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEWhisper of the Sign (signature). When the bound brute drops a creature to 0 hit points within 30 feet, the acolyte may use its reaction to grant the brute 5 temporary hit points.
Actions
Ritual Dagger. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d4 + 3) piercing damage plus 5 (2d4) psychic damage.
Reactions
Pallid Ward. When the brute is hit by an attack, the acolyte may impose disadvantage on that attack roll. The acolyte must be within 30 feet and have line of sight.
A robed devotee in a yellow half-mask who chants the brute forward and steals strength from the dying to keep its tide of blood rising.
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 Crushing Charge into the most clustered PCs to knock several prone, then hew the nearest with the glaive. Drowned in Slaughter heals it on every kill, so finish low PCs FAST or it snowballs. Pair it with the Acolyte or a caster behind it; do not run it alone.
Open by charging into the back line to scatter and knock prone, then Multiattack the squishiest reachable target. Kill-priority is anyone already bloodied, since hitting them triggers self-heal and advantage. Butcher's Reprisal punishes melee, so frontline characters should expect a free hit back; bring it alongside an Acolyte or a larger threat as the anvil that holds the party in place.
Use it as elite muscle with minions or in a Yellow-Sign lair, never as the lone threat. Charge to prone the cluster, then Multiattack the lowest target to fuel its heal-and-advantage loop. Focus-fire it down or peel it with control, and expect Butcher's Reprisal whenever the front line swings at it.
Put BRUTE 05 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 BRUTE 05?
Its home statline is CR 6 (2,300 XP) for a Tier 2 (levels 5-10) party. Scaled-down Tier 1 (~CR 2) and scaled-up Tier 3 (~CR 11) versions are provided; only the AC, HP, to-hit, and save DC change, never the traits or actions.
Can BRUTE 05 be a companion or ally?
Not as a player companion; it is a mindless slaughter-engine bound to the Yellow Sign. The bundled ally is the Carcosan Acolyte who chants it forward, wards its hits, and feeds it temporary hit points from the dying. Use the Acolyte stat block if you want a controllable NPC.
Is BRUTE 05 a boss or an add-on?
An add-on. It has no legendary actions and only a single melee reaction, so a four-PC party out-acts it; deploy it as elite muscle beside a real flagship boss, a cult mob, or in a Yellow-Sign lair rather than as a lone centerpiece.
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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