Zaldy
Zaldy — The Encounter
Ram-Headed Peddler of Trinkets and Hidden Curses · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Zaldy
They call him Zaldy, the Greedful Artificer, though no two ledgers spell his name alike. He came down out of the high passes one drought-year with a pack that should have broken a mule's back, and he has been walking the trade roads ever since, selling wonders no honest smith could forge. His horns mark him kin to the old hill-folk who bargained with hungrier things than men, and the talismans rattling at his belt were not all bought willingly. Every trinket he peddles works precisely as promised and ruins the buyer in some way he never thought to ask about. Scholars who survived his company warn that his true trade is not in goods but in obligation: each coin he takes is a thread, and he is patient enough to pull every one. Where his cart-tracks fade, debts come due.
Run Zaldy in Sixty Seconds
- Glass cannon Zaldy wants distance. Open with Hexbolt on your hardest hitter, then a trinket into any two clustered PCs for a DC 13 Dex save.
- Kill-priority drop him first if you can reach him; he has low HP but Disengages and Hides as a bonus action, so commit a grappler or a ranged shooter to lock him down.
- Watch the reaction the first PC to hit him risks being knocked prone by scattered coins while he slips 10 ft. away clean.
- When bloodied he burns his last trinkets and retreats toward his Bound pack or his guards, fighting purely to escape with the coin.
- Three ways to run him a road-ambush con artist, the spider in a marketplace web of debts, or a craven lieutenant beside a real boss who shields him.
Zaldy
Small humanoid (beastfolk), neutral
CR 2 · 450 XP · GUIDELINEPeddler's Wares. Zaldy's overstuffed pack holds a curse for every coin. He begins combat with 3 trinkets. As a bonus action he may produce and hurl one trinket at a point within 30 ft.: each creature within 10 ft. of that point must make a DC 13 Dexterity saving throw, taking 7 (2d6) fire, acid, or cold damage (his choice) on a failed save, or half as much on a success. When his trinkets run out, this trait is spent.
Cunning Haggler. Zaldy can take the Disengage or Hide action as a bonus action.
Actions
Multiattack. Zaldy makes two Staff attacks, or casts one of his enchanted bolts.
Bound Staff. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d6+1) bludgeoning damage plus 3 (1d6) force damage.
Hexbolt. Ranged Spell Attack: +5 to hit, range 60 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (2d8+1) force damage, and the target has disadvantage on the next attack roll it makes before the end of its next turn.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Coward's Bargain (Reaction). When a creature Zaldy can see hits him with an attack, he scatters a fistful of slick coins. The attacker must succeed on a DC 13 Dexterity saving throw or be knocked prone, and Zaldy may move up to 10 ft. without provoking opportunity attacks.
A ram-skulled peddler in scarlet-and-gold robes, bent under a tower of scroll-cases and wrolled curiosities, leaning on a worn pilgrim's staff. He smiles too widely and prices everything just out of reach.
Zaldy, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEAnimated Pack (signature). Zaldy is the merchant's enchanted bundle given crawling life. It can squeeze through any space large enough for a Small creature and ignores difficult terrain.
Actions
Strap Lash. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d8+2) bludgeoning damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 12) if it is Medium or smaller.
Reactions
Spill the Goods. When a creature starts its turn within 5 ft., Zaldy may dump rolling wares; that creature must succeed on a DC 12 Dexterity saving throw or its speed is halved until the start of its next turn.
The pack walks when its master will not, a loyal heap of straps and crates that herds the unwary toward Zaldy's waiting smile.
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 at range with Hexbolt on the party's heaviest hitter, then lob a trinket where two foes cluster. Treat Zaldy as a glass-cannon kiter: he Hides or Disengages as a bonus action and trades hits with Coward's Bargain, so pin him with melee or a grapple before he peels away. Pair him with Tagalong or a knot of thugs so the front line never reaches him cleanly.
Run him as the brains behind a raiding band: he opens with a trinket into a cluster, then Hexbolts to shut down the boss's best attacker. Kill-priority him before his trinkets and reaction dry up, but expect him to keep bodies between you and his robes. Pair him with a bigger threat whose minions soak the charge while he debuffs from the back rank.
Here Zaldy is a lieutenant or quartermaster, never the centerpiece. He salts the field with trinkets, layers Hexbolt debuffs onto the party's damage-dealer, and uses Coward's Bargain to stay just out of reach. Pair him with a lair or a flagship boss; on his own a high-tier party out-acts him fast, so lean on minions, cover, and chokepoints to keep him alive.
Put Zaldy 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 Zaldy?
Native CR 2 (Tier 1, ~450 XP), built as an add-on skirmisher-controller rather than a solo boss. The Tier 2 and Tier 3 columns rescale the same kit to CR 6 and CR 11 so he can ride along with higher-level threats; the traits and actions never change, only the numbers.
Can Zaldy be a companion or ally?
Yes. A party that pays his price (or his debt) can hire the peddler as a hireling artificer: his Hexbolt and trinkets soften a room, and his animated pack Tagalong hauls loot and grapples stragglers. Just remember every bargain with Zaldy has a hook in it.
Is Zaldy meant to fight alone?
No. He is fragile and built to support a larger fight. Field him with minions, a lair, or a flagship boss so the front line is busy while he kites, debuffs, and seeds the floor with cursed trinkets from safety.
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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