Malkari Tower · area boss

The Umbral Cipher

A named threat of Malkari Tower, encountered rarely and never in numbers - real Dungeons & Dragons statistics, no auto-computed shortcuts.

CR 19 Human · Rogue 4 / Wizard 9 / Telflammar_Shadowlord 6 resref mt_cipher

Stat block

STR
12
+1
DEX
18
+4
CON
14
+2
INT
20
+5
WIS
10
+0
CHA
10
+0
Hit points
105
Natural AC
1
Skills
Concentration 14 · Hide 18 · Lore 6 · MoveSilently 18 · Spellcraft 14
Feats
Dodge, Mobility, SpringAttack, BlindFight, WeapFinesse, ImpInit, Toughness

Prepared spells

LevelKnown / Prepared
1Blindness and Deafness, Chill Touch, Darkness, Invisibility, Shadow Spray
2Displacement, Haste, Improved Invisibility, NONDETECTION, Vampiric Touch
3Confusion, DarkBolt, Invisibility Sphere, Mislead

Combat sequence

Layered on top of the module's own combat AI, which still picks targets and positioning. The fight below moves through real hit-point-gated phases; every save DC and attack bonus computes from the stat block above at runtime.

I

Opening Cast

Above 66% hp

Leans on the reliable half of a real Rogue 4 / Wizard 9 / Telflammar_Shadowlord 6 spellbook to test the room before committing anything further.

II

Escalation

66%-33% hp

Draws on the sharper end of the list - DarkBolt, Invisibility Sphere, Mislead - as the fight tightens.

III

Last Working

Once, below 33% hp

Spends what's left of the prepared list in one committed working rather than holding anything back.

Why these numbers

CR 19 is set against Malkari Tower's own real ambient ceiling, not auto-computed from level alone - a genuine Rogue 4 / Wizard 9 / Telflammar_Shadowlord 6 build at 19 total levels.

Hit points (105) follow this project's own average-hit-dice convention, and every save/attack bonus derives from the ability scores above at runtime - nothing here is hardcoded past the phase gates themselves.

How it's wired

Boss-flagged (bypasses the drop-rate roll, two loot-generation passes) and gated to a single spawn - only one The Umbral Cipher is ever up in Malkari Tower at a time.