Sepulchral Highlord Xyros
Sepulchral Highlord Xyros — The Encounter
Antlered Grave-King who reigns from a barrow throne · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Sepulchral Highlord Xyros
When the old barrow-kings were laid beneath their mounds, one refused the silence. Xyros had been a war-chieftain crowned beneath the rutting stags, and in death the antlers grew again upon his fleshless brow as a sign that no grave could unmake his rule. They buried him in gold and turquoise to keep him quiet; instead the riches became his regalia, the funerary plate his harness of war. He rises when the harvest-moon hangs low, calling the lesser dead of his line from their own mounds to march at his heel, for a highlord is nothing without subjects to command. Those who break open his barrow describe a dread that settles over the chamber like frost, a pressure that bends the eyes away from every target but the crowned king himself. He does not hunt the living for hunger. He hunts because a kingdom of the dead must always be expanding its borders, mound by stolen mound.
Run Sepulchral Highlord Xyros in Sixty Seconds
- Aura first. On his initiative, the Crown of Antlers aura makes everyone in 30 ft. swing at Xyros instead of allies (DC 16 Wis) and frightens those who fail badly. Open with this every fight.
- Kill-priority: healers and casters. Grave's Refusal reaction zaps any spellcaster within 30 ft. and halves their speed; point his Grave-Cleaver at whoever is keeping the party alive.
- Withering Decree when they cluster. Hold the recharge cone until two or more PCs line up, then 8d8 necrotic and slash their hit-point maximums until a long rest.
- When bloodied, feed the crown. Barrow-Bound Vigor lets him eat a nearby undead to survive a killing blow, so always keep a thrall in 30 ft. Strip his minions before you try to drop him.
- Three ways to run him: a lone barrow-king holding a chokepoint with legendary Step of the Barrow; a war-marshal spending Marshal the Dead to swarm with thralls; or a roaming dread-aura that forces the party to focus-fire him while his cleaver carves the line.
Sepulchral Highlord Xyros
Large undead, neutral evil
CR 11 · 7,200 XP · GUIDELINECrown of Antlers. Xyros radiates a 30-foot aura of grave-dread. A hostile creature that starts its turn in the aura and can see the highlord must succeed on a DC 16 Wisdom save or have disadvantage on attack rolls against any target other than Xyros until the start of its next turn. A creature that fails by 5 or more is also frightened until the end of its turn.
Barrow-Bound Vigor. If damage reduces Xyros to 0 hit points, he instead drops to 1 hit point if there is at least one undead within 30 feet of him, consuming it (it is destroyed) to anchor his unlife. Once he has no undead within 30 feet, this trait stops functioning.
Actions
Multiattack. Xyros makes two attacks with his Grave-Cleaver.
Grave-Cleaver. Melee Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 17 (2d10+6) slashing damage plus 9 (2d8) necrotic damage.
Withering Decree (Recharge 5-6). Xyros raises his cleaver and speaks a word of the grave. Each creature in a 30-foot cone must make a DC 16 Constitution save, taking 36 (8d8) necrotic damage on a failed save, or half as much on a success. A creature that fails has its hit point maximum reduced by the damage taken until it finishes a long rest.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Grave's Refusal. Reaction. When a creature Xyros can see within 30 feet casts a spell or moves out of his reach, he points and a hostile creature takes 9 (2d8) necrotic damage and has its speed halved until the start of its next turn (DC 16 Wisdom save negates).
Legendary Actions (3/Round)
Antler Sweep. Xyros makes one Grave-Cleaver attack.
Marshal the Dead (Costs 2 Actions). Xyros lets out a hollow command. One undead ally he can see within 60 feet can immediately move up to its speed and make one weapon attack as a reaction.
Step of the Barrow. Xyros moves up to his speed without provoking opportunity attacks. If he ends within 5 feet of a creature, that creature must succeed on a DC 16 Wisdom save or be frightened until the end of its next turn.
A towering revenant warlord whose flesh has gone gaunt and grey, crowned with sweeping golden antlers and a turquoise diadem, draped in funerary gold and gripping an immense gilded grave-cleaver.
Sepulchral Highlord Xyros, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEGrave-Sworn (signature). While within 30 feet of its bound lord, the thrall has advantage on saving throws against being frightened and deals an extra 4 (1d8) necrotic damage on its attacks.
Actions
Rusted Glaive. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8+4) slashing damage.
Reactions
Interpose. When its bound lord within 5 feet is hit by an attack, the thrall can swap places and take the damage instead.
A lesser barrow-warrior raised from Xyros's own bloodline, antlers sprouting in crude mimicry of its king's crown, sworn to die a second time before its lord falls.
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 the dread aura so the party can only swing at Xyros, then close and cleave the nearest body. Save Withering Decree for the moment two or more PCs cluster within the cone. Kill-priority is anyone trying to heal; pair him with a pack of skeletons so Barrow-Bound Vigor keeps him standing.
Lead with the aura, then full Multiattack on the front-line tank to bleed off hit-point maximum. When bloodied, fall back behind your thralls and lean on Grave's Refusal to punish casters and chase fleeing prey. Drop Withering Decree the instant the line bunches up.
Run him as a solo king with two or three Antler-Thralls. Open with the aura to lock attacks onto him, Multiattack the heaviest hitter, and spend legendary actions on Marshal the Dead so a thrall always trades when the party acts. When bloodied, let a thrall feed Barrow-Bound Vigor, fire Withering Decree on the densest cluster, and use Step of the Barrow to keep your back to a wall and casters in reach.
Put Sepulchral Highlord Xyros 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 Sepulchral Highlord Xyros?
His home tier is CR 11 (Tier 3, levels 11-15) and he is built as a solo boss, so his action-economy kit lets him challenge a four-PC party that level. Scaled-down Tier 1 (~CR 2) and Tier 2 (~CR 6) stat lines are provided so you can drop the same king into a lower-level campaign without changing his traits.
Can Sepulchral Highlord Xyros be a companion or ally?
Xyros himself is a boss, but the record includes a bound ally: the Antler-Thrall, a barrow-warrior raised from his own bloodline that fights beside him and will throw itself in front of his blows. Use the thrall as the companion stat block; a benevolent necromancer or a freed grave-knight could field one as an NPC retainer.
Why is Xyros undead rather than a fiend, and is he safe to publish?
His identity is rooted entirely in public-domain folklore, the antlered barrow-king of burial-mound legend, so he is statted as a generic SRD undead with no proprietary cosmology, ranks, or named realms. That keeps the record IP-clean and ready to use at any table.
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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