Cryptmancers
Cryptmancers — The Encounter
Gilded revenants raised at the tomb-fire, sworn to the grave-flame · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Cryptmancers
The Mortisbane rite does not raise mindless husks; it gilds them. Each cryptmancer was a sworn soldier in life, slain in service and recalled to it, their flesh cured to cold blue stone and their armor regilt at the tomb-fire so the grave-flame may travel where the corpse marches. Knowledge of necromancy was old long before the first crypt-kings learned to bind the fire of the dead into a brazier and carry it onto the field; where that flame burns, the slain do not stay slain, and the gilded ranks reknit their wounds from the breath of every fresh corpse. They feel no fear and break no line. To slay a cryptmancer outright one must first put out the pyre that feeds it, for so long as the brazier burns the dead simply rise again, regild their plate, and resume the march they were sworn to a hundred years before the living forgot their names.
Run Cryptmancers in Sixty Seconds
- Hold the brazier as the win condition. So long as the Grave-Brazier burns, cryptmancers at 0 hp rise next turn. Tell the party plainly: kill the fire or this never ends.
- Open with Ash Bolt on the healer. Reduced max hit points stick until a long rest, so spend the first round capping the party's healing before you close to melee.
- The grave-axe shuts off healing. A struck target can't regain hit points until the cryptmancer's next turn. Lead with the axe on anyone the party is trying to keep alive.
- When an ally drops, they get stronger. Stoke the Pyre heals the cryptmancer and primes a 19-20 crit, so they want their own minions to fall. Don't be shy about sacrificing skeletons.
- Three ways to run it: a lone gilded captain over skeletons (T1), a brazier-anchored battleline of three or four (T2), or a full tomb squad backing a crypt-king boss (T3).
Cryptmancers
Medium undead, lawful evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEGrave-Fire Soul. The cryptmancer is wreathed in cold blue tomb-flame. While it is within 30 feet of its raising-shrine (or another cryptmancer), it has advantage on saving throws against effects that would turn or destroy undead. When it is reduced to 0 hit points more than 30 feet from a shrine or ally, the flame gutters and it crumbles; within that range it instead drops to 1 hit point the first time per day.
Undying Discipline. The cryptmancer was drilled as a soldier in life. It does not break formation: it has advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and the first time each turn it takes damage that does not reduce it to 0 hit points, its speed is not reduced and it makes no sound.
Actions
Multiattack. The cryptmancer makes two attacks with its grave-axe.
Grave-Axe. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) slashing damage plus 7 (2d6) necrotic damage, and the target can't regain hit points until the start of the cryptmancer's next turn.
Ash Bolt. Ranged Spell Attack: +5 to hit, range 60 ft., one target. Hit: 18 (4d8) necrotic damage. On a hit, the target must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or have its hit point maximum reduced by an amount equal to the necrotic damage taken until it finishes a long rest.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Stoke the Pyre (Reaction). When a creature the cryptmancer can see within 30 feet is reduced to 0 hit points, the cryptmancer's grave-fire flares: it regains 9 (2d8) hit points and its next Grave-Axe attack this round scores a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20.
A blue-skinned warrior raised in gleaming gilt plate, its hair and eyes burning with cold tomb-fire, the cryptmancer marches in disciplined ranks beneath a golden grave-brazier that flares whenever a body falls.
Cryptmancers, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEPyre of Recall (signature). At the start of each of the brazier's turns, one allied undead within 30 feet that is at 0 hit points but not destroyed rises with 22 (hp) restored. While the brazier burns, allied undead within 30 feet have advantage on death-resistance and turn-undead saves.
Actions
Lash of Cold Fire. Ranged Spell Attack: +6 to hit, range 60 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (4d6) necrotic damage.
Reactions
Bank the Coals. When an allied cryptmancer within 30 feet is hit, the brazier dims its glow to grant that ally resistance to the triggering damage; the brazier cannot use this reaction again until the start of its next turn.
The golden flame-shrine the cryptmancers march beside, its brazier a knot of cold blue fire that drinks the dead and breathes them back into the line.
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.
Run one as an elite captain leading skeletons. Open with Ash Bolt to drop a max-hp anchor, then close and hew with the no-healing axe. Pair it with a bigger threat or a shrine you can target; without the brazier it crumbles at 0.
Field three or four around the Grave-Brazier as a battleline. Open Ash Bolt on the healer to cap their hit points, then chop the front line; Stoke the Pyre means every ally that drops heals the cryptmancers and primes a crit. Kill-priority is the brazier first or they simply keep rising.
Use a full gilded squad with the brazier in a tomb lair as the muscle for a crypt-king or lich-flavored boss. Open with massed Ash Bolts to gut party hit-point pools, swarm the softest target, and feed the pyre off fallen minions. They are add-ons; pair them with a bigger threat and make the party choose between the boss and putting out the fire.
Put Cryptmancers 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 Cryptmancers?
The native build is CR 6 (2,300 XP), a Tier 2 elite undead soldier. Scaled stat lines are provided for Tier 1 (around CR 2-3) and Tier 3 (around CR 11) so you can drop the same revenant into any party.
Can Cryptmancers be a companion or ally?
Not really as a player ally - they are disciplined, will-less servants of the grave-fire. The companion option here is the Grave-Brazier shrine that resurrects and shields them, meant to run alongside the squad as the encounter's true linchpin. A necromancer NPC could command a cryptmancer as a bodyguard if you want a friendly version.
How do I stop them from getting back up?
Destroy or extinguish the Grave-Brazier. Within 30 feet of a shrine or another cryptmancer they shrug off being dropped once per day and resist turning; remove the brazier and isolate them and they crumble at 0 hit points like normal undead.
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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