Arkhan the Defiled
Arkhan the Defiled — The Encounter
An oath-breaking warlord risen in gilded armor and rotted spite · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Arkhan the Defiled
In life he was a sworn shield-lord, gold-armored and famed, who broke his oath at the decisive hour and let his banner-men be slaughtered to save his own skin. He died old and unpunished, yet the dead he abandoned would not have it. They dragged his spirit back into the corpse and gilded armor of his prime, and now the broken vow holds him upright like a splint of iron. Arkhan the Defiled marches still, hunting the living as proxies for an absolution he will never earn. The blue flame of his crest is the cold of the grave he cheated; the skulls beneath his boots are kept as witnesses, never as trophies. Strike him down and he rises again where the vow is heaviest, for an oath unkept is a chain, and a chain does not rot. Only by undoing the betrayal that bound him, or by sanctified fire, is he laid to rest.
Run Arkhan the Defiled in Sixty Seconds
- Identity An oath-breaking warlord risen in gilded plate, swinging a necrotic greatsword. He is an elite ADD-ON, not a solo boss - field him with minions or a bigger threat.
- Open with Withering Command (Recharge 5-6) to hit a clustered party for 4d8 necrotic and to top up any undead allies with temp HP, then Multiattack the squishiest target.
- Kill-priority his greatsword cuts max HP, so it snowballs - focus him before he eats the party's healer, but remember Defiled Oath gives him crits on 19-20 against whoever hurt him.
- When bloodied lean on Undead Fortitude: he shrugs off lethal blows on a Con save unless you use radiant damage or land a crit. Bring radiant or a silvered weapon to end him for good.
- Three ways to run him (1) gate-guard champion in front of a lich; (2) duelist who uses Grave Resolve to body-block for a caster; (3) commander shouting Withering Command over a skeleton horde.
Arkhan the Defiled
Medium undead, lawful evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEUndead Fortitude. If damage reduces Arkhan to 0 hit points, he makes a Constitution saving throw (DC 5 + the damage taken) unless the damage is radiant or from a critical hit. On a success, he drops to 1 hit point instead.
Defiled Oath. Signature. Arkhan is bound to the broken vow that raised him. While he can see a creature that damaged him this turn, his weapon attacks against that creature score a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20, and he has advantage on saving throws against being charmed or turned by it.
Actions
Multiattack. Arkhan makes two Defiled Greatsword attacks.
Defiled Greatsword. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 12 (2d8+4) slashing damage plus 9 (2d8) necrotic damage, and the target's hit point maximum is reduced by an amount equal to the necrotic damage taken until it finishes a long rest.
Withering Command (Recharge 5-6). Arkhan raises his blade and barks a dead king's order. Each creature of his choice within 30 ft. that can hear him must make a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw, taking 18 (4d8) necrotic damage on a failed save, or half as much on a success. Undead within range instead gain 10 temporary hit points.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Grave Resolve. Reaction. When a creature Arkhan can see makes an attack against an ally within 5 ft. of him, he can interpose his blade, granting that ally a +3 bonus to AC against the triggering attack.
A towering revenant sheathed in gilded plate, blue battle-plume bristling from a horned skull, hoisting a chipped greatsword over a cairn of the men he failed. He moves with the stiff certainty of a commander who refuses to learn that he is dead.
Arkhan the Defiled, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEOathkeeper's Vigil (signature). While within 10 ft. of the creature she is sworn to protect, Arkhan the Defiled imposes disadvantage on the first attack made against that creature each turn.
Actions
Bound Halberd. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (1d10+4) slashing damage plus 4 (1d8) necrotic damage.
Reactions
Take the Blow. When the creature she guards is hit by an attack within 5 ft., Arkhan the Defiled swaps places and takes the damage instead.
A banner-bearer cut down at Arkhan's betrayal, raised beside him as a grim mirror of the loyalty he lacked. She can be turned: freed of the oath, she fights for the living.
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 Withering Command to scatter the party, then wade into the softest target with the greatsword. He is a brutal mini-boss at this tier; give him one or two skeleton spears so he is not focus-fired in a single round.
Open with Withering Command on a cluster, then Multiattack the lowest-AC striker to stack hit-point-max drain. Kill-priority for the party is the healer first, since Defiled Oath punishes whoever hurts him. Pair him with a necromancer or a wave of skeletons so Grave Resolve and the temp-HP from his shout matter.
Run him as the front-line champion of a larger threat, not alone: a four-PC party of this tier out-acts him. Front him for the lich or grave-lord, let Grave Resolve shield the caster behind him, and use Withering Command to refill his minions' temp HP. He is the wall the party must break to reach the real boss.
Put Arkhan the Defiled 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 Arkhan the Defiled?
His home statline is CR 6 (2,300 XP), tuned for a 5th-10th level party. Scaled versions are provided for Tier 1 (about CR 2) and Tier 3 (about CR 11); the traits and actions are identical across all three, only the numbers move.
Can Arkhan the Defiled be a companion or ally?
Arkhan himself is too proud and oath-bound to serve, but his raised banner-bearer Velda can. Freed of the betrayal that binds her, she fights for the living as a bodyguard who soaks blows and guards your weakest member - statted in the companion block at roughly 60 percent of his durability.
How do I keep Arkhan from getting back up?
Undead Fortitude lets him cheat death on a Constitution save unless the killing blow is radiant damage or a critical hit. Open with or finish with radiant damage, land a crit, or burn turn/destroy-undead effects to drop him for good - otherwise he keeps rising at 1 hit point.
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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