| Mod | Save | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| STR | 14 | +2 | +2 |
| DEX | 20 | +5 | +10 |
| CON | 18 | +4 | +4 |
| Mod | Save | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| INT | 14 | +2 | +2 |
| WIS | 14 | +2 | +7 |
| CHA | 18 | +4 | +9 |
Legendary Resistance (3/Day, or 4/Day in Lair). If Jevil fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead.
I CAN DO ANYTHING!. Jevil can climb difficult surfaces, including along ceilings, without needing to make an ability check as if under the effects of the Spider Climb spell.
Freedom Engine. Jevil generates Freedom Points (FP) based on his voluntary movement, which fuel the Chaos Pool. Jevil gains 1 FP for each of the following:
- Every 30 feet of movement Jevil makes
- Once instance of Teleporting
Movement forced by other creatures does not generate Freedom Points. Each time Jevil is subjected to a hard control effect that significantly restricts his movement or actions, such as being grappled, restrained, stunned, or paralyzed, he loses 1 Freedom Point. At the start of initiative, Jevil draws cards into the Chaos Pool equal to his current Freedom Points.
Multiattack. Jevil makes two attacks: two Suit Shots or one Suit Shot and one Devilknife Swipe.
Suit Shot. Ranged Spell Attack: +9 to hit, range 120 ft., one target
Hit: 13 (3d6 + 3) force damage
If the target has not moved since its last turn, it takes an additional 7 (2d6) psychic damage.
Devilknife Swipe. Melee Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target
Hit: 17 (2d10 + 6) slashing damage
Spellcasting. Jevil casts one of the following spells, requiring no material components and using Charisma as the spellcasting ability (spell save DC 17, +9 to hit with spell attacks).
At will: thaumaturgy, minor illusion, mage hand, gust
4/day each: grease, earth tremor, jump (self only)
3/day each: catapult, levitate, blur, nathair's mischief
3/day each: pulse wave, fear, erupting earth
2/day each: gravity sinkhole, confusion
1/day: gravity fissure
Summon The DevilKnife. Jevil summons 1d4 Devilknives in unoccupied spaces he can see within 30 feet of him. A summoned Devilknife lasts until destroyed or until consumed by a Chaos effect. Jevil can have a maximum number of Devilknives equal to his proficiency bonus active at one time. If summoning Devilknives would exceed this limit, Jevil chooses which existing Devilknives are destroyed.
OH! (Recharge 3-6). Jevil teleports up to 40 feet to an unoccupied space he can see. Before or after teleporting, he can make one Suit Shot or Devil Kinfe Swipe attack.
THIS BODY CANNOT BE KILLED! (Recharge 3-6). Jevil teleports up to 40 feet to an unoccupied space he can see. Before or after teleporting, he can make one Suit Shot or Devil Kinfe Swipe attack.
Legendary Action Uses: 3 (4 in Lair). Immediately after another creature’s turn, Jevil can expend a use to take one of the following actions. The vampire regains all expended uses at the start of each of its turns.
Summon The DevilKnife (1). Jevil summons 1 Devilknife in an unoccupied space whithin 30 ft.
Skitter (1): Move up to 20 ft. without provoking opportunity attacks
Devilknife Recall (1): Jevil teleports to an unoccupied space adjacent to a Devilknife he can see.
Suit Shot (2): Make one Suit Shot attack
Devilknife Assault (2): Jevil teleports to an unoccupied space adjacent to a Devilknife he can see and makes one Devilknife Swipe against a creature within 5 feet of that Devilknife.
Description
Jevil, Jester of the Chaos Court
Jevil is a lair boss that treats the battlefield as a stage and the adventurers as pieces in a game that only he fully understands. Jevil fights through constant motion, spatial disruption, and escalating pressure rather than raw damage. His goal is not to overwhelm the party in a single turn, but to destabilize their positioning and force mistakes over time.
Combat
In combat, Jevil is almost always moving. He darts across walls and ceilings, teleports unpredictably, and uses forced movement effects to scatter the party or pull them into dangerous formations. Jevil prefers to remain difficult to pin down, retreating from direct confrontation whenever possible. Restricting his movement meaningfully slows the pace of the encounter, while allowing him to move freely causes the fight to spiral rapidly out of control.
Jevil makes extensive use of Devilknives to control space. These floating blades act as persistent hazards, discouraging safe positioning and punishing careless movement. Jevil frequently summons Devilknives early in the fight to establish zones of danger, then manipulates their placement through spells and Chaos effects. Devilknives are rarely used for immediate damage; instead, they function as delayed threats that become lethal when combined with Jevil’s gravity-based magic and catapult spells.
Spellcasting & Combos
Jevil’s spellcasting emphasizes battlefield disruption rather than direct damage. He uses spells such as pulse wave and gravity sinkhole to reposition both creatures and Devilknives, often pulling blades toward clustered characters or flinging them through the party. He may follow this by casting catapult to hurl a Devilknife at a vulnerable target. These combinations reward careful preparation and awareness of the stage.
DMs should think of Devilknives as ammunition as much as hazards. He may draw Devilknives inward with gravity effects, teleport between them to strike multiple targets, or collapse them all at once using the Spades ALL-IN effect to deal massive area damage.
Ending the Fight
As the Chaos Pool nears its conclusion, his actions grow more frantic but also more theatrical, culminating in a final surge of Chaos before exhaustion overtakes him. When the Big Joker is drawn, Jevil willingly surrenders, satisfied that the game has been played to its end.
Running Jevil effectively requires treating the encounter as a dynamic system rather than, ironically, a numbers game of exchanging attacks. A well-played Jevil pressures the party through movement, forces difficult positioning choices with devilknives & spells, and turns the environment itself into the primary threat.
Players have agency in deciding how to end the fight:
Do they try to control Jevil's freedom and lower his HP quickly, but suffer from a prolonged encounter?
Or by embracing Jevil's chaotic game and tiring him out?
Lair and Lair Actions
LAIR OF CHAOS
Jevil’s lair manifests through the Chaos Pool, replacing traditional lair actions. The Chaos Pool uses a custom Chaos Deck.
CHAOS DECK
The Chaos Pool is fueled by a custom Chaos Deck.
The Chaos Deck consists of eight numbered cards (2–10) per party member, divided evenly among the four suits.
In addition to the numbered cards, the deck contains one of each royal card: Ace, King, Queen, and Jack.
The deck also includes two Jokers: one Small Joker and one Big Joker.
Example: In a party of 4, there should be 24 numbered cards (8 from each suit), 1 King, 1 Queen, 1 Jack, 1 Ace, 1 Big Joker, 1 Small Joker.
Before play begins, the bottom of the Chaos Deck is arranged in a specific order:
- The Big Joker is placed at the very bottom of the deck.
- The Small Joker is placed second from the bottom, directly above the Big Joker.
- All remaining cards are shuffled normally.
THE CHAOS POOL
At the start of initiative, Jevil draws a number of cards from the Chaos Deck equal to his current Freedom Points (FP) and places them face-up into the Chaos Pool.
The Chaos Pool can hold up to five cards at a time.
When the Chaos Pool reaches its maximum size, it immediately resolves.
- If no face cards are present, the Chaos suit that appears most frequently triggers its associated Chaos effect.
- If a face card is present, suit resolution is ignored and the face card effect resolves immediately.
PIROUETTE ACTion
A creature may intentionally engage with Jevil’s game, accelerating the flow of chaos.
As a bonus action on its turn, a creature can draw one card from the Chaos Deck and place it face-up into the Chaos Pool, provided the Chaos Pool is not locked.
This action may be taken once per turn.
Drawing a card in this way may immediately trigger a Chaos effect if the Chaos Pool reaches its maximum size.
The creature taking this action has no control over which card is drawn.
CHAOS SUIT EFFECTS (4 TOTAL)
♠ SPADES — ALL-IN
Jevil recalls every Devilknife on the battlefield in a deadly convergence.
Each Devilknife draws a 5-foot wide straight line from its space to Jevil’s space.
Each creature whose space is intersected by one or more of these lines must make a DC 17 Dexterity saving throw.
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Failure: The creature takes 33 (6d10) slashing damage.
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Success: The creature takes half as much damage.
After resolving these lines, all Devilknives merge into a single massive scythe at Jevil’s location and immediately explode in a 20-foot-radius burst.
Each creature in that area must make a DC 17 Dexterity saving throw.
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Failure: The creature takes 27 (5d10) slashing damage and is knocked prone.
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Success: The creature takes half as much damage and isn’t knocked prone.
All Devilknives are destroyed at the end of this effect.
♥ HEARTS — GROUP HUG
Jevil's games bring people together.
Each creature of Jevil’s choice within 30 feet of him regains 14 (4d4 + 4) hit points.
Immediately after, each creature in that area must make a DC 17 Strength saving throw.
- On a failure, the creature is pulled to the center of the area and is knocked prone.
- On a success, the creature is not pulled and remains standing.
The area becomes difficult terrain until the start of the next initiative count.
♦ DIAMONDS — MUCK FEST
Reality folds its hand.
Starting with the two creatures that are furthest apart, those creatures instantly swap positions. This process then repeats with the next furthest pair of creatures, continuing until all creatures that can be paired have swapped positions.
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A creature can only be swapped once by this effect.
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This movement does not provoke opportunity attacks.
Creatures that cannot be paired remain in place.
♣ CLUBS — BONK
Jevil weaponizes momentum and positioning in a blur of motion.
Jevil instantly teleports to each Devilknife on the battlefield in any order he chooses. At each Devilknife’s location, Jevil may make one Devilknife Swipe against a creature within 5 feet of that Devilknife.
After resolving all attacks, Jevil appears in an unoccupied space of his choice adjacent to any remaining Devilknife.
ROYAL & JOKER EFFECTS
Jack — EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE
Distance ceases to offer safety.
Until the start of the next initiative count, all creatures are considered adjacent to one another for the purposes of opportunity attacks, threatened spaces, and abilities that require adjacency.
Movement, positioning, and distance still apply normally for the purposes of movement speed, spell ranges, and area-of-effect calculations.
Queen — IT’S JUST A SIMPLE CHAOS.
Jevil plays a numbers game.
All party members’ current hit points and maximum hit points are randomly redistributed among them. Each creature retains its original hit point total only in distribution, not identity.
- Any creature that was reduced to 0 hit points before this effect is instead restored to 1 hit point after redistribution.
This effect persists until the party uses the Pirouette ACTion a total number of times equal to the number of party members minus 1.
- When this condition is met, all hit point values immediately return to normal.
King — WHO KEEPS SPINNING THE WORLD AROUND?!
Jevil twists the battlefield, redefining which way is down.
Jevil chooses one cardinal direction. That direction becomes down for all creatures.
Each creature that is not flying or otherwise secured must make a DC 17 Strength saving throw.
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Failure: The creature falls 20 feet in the chosen direction and is knocked prone.
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Success: The creature remains in place.
This effect lasts until the start of the next initiative count, after which gravity returns to normal.
Ace — METAMORPHOSIS
Who's turn is it again?
Each player passes their character sheet to another player of the DM’s choice. Each player assumes full control of the new character sheet they receive.
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Players may not ask questions about the character they are controlling.
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This effect lasts until the start of the next initiative count.
At the end of the effect, all character sheets are returned to their original owners.
Small Joker — CHAOS BOMB
The game nears its inevitable conclusion.
When the Small Joker enters the Chaos Pool, the following effects occur immediately:
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The Pirouette ACTion can no longer be used by players.
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The Chaos Pool becomes locked; players cannot add or remove cards from it.
At the start of the next initiative count, Jevil unleashes a Chaos Bomb, resolving one Chaos suit effect of each type (Spades, Hearts, Diamonds, and Clubs) in an order of his choice.
Big Joker — Jevil is truly exhausted!
Jevil is tired out!
When the Big Joker is drawn, all ongoing Chaos effects immediately end. The battlefield stabilizes, and Jevil becomes exhausted and pacified.
The encounter immediately ends.
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Posted May 2, 2026Hey! So I didn't get too many chances to playtest this unfortunately. So if you do, leave some suggestions! I'm especially curious on the strength of this encounter. How difficult is this for 4 level 9 adventurers?
ALSO since apparently I can't edit published homebrew, here is the stat block for the Devilknife:
Devilknife
Small construct, unaligned
Armor Class 14
Hit Points 25
Speed 0 ft.
Damage Immunities poison, psychic
Condition Immunities blinded, charmed, deafened, frightened, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, prone
Senses blindsight 30 ft., passive Perception 10
Immobile Construct
The Devilknife cannot move on its own and does not take turns in initiative.
Unattended Weapon
For the purposes of Jevil’s spells and Chaos effects, a Devilknife counts as an unattended object.
A Devilknife can be moved by Jevil’s spells, lair effects, and Chaos effects.
Threatening Blade
When a creature enters a space within 5 feet of a Devilknife for the first time on a turn or starts its turn there, it must make a DC 16 Dexterity saving throw.
On a failed save, the creature takes 10 (3d6) slashing damage.
On a successful save, the creature takes no damage.
A creature can only take this damage from each individual Devilknife once per turn.
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Posted May 2, 2026Incredible statblock, gonna use it for my bbeg in my home campaign
I do have a couple notes though:
1. You can embed the snippet text for spells in the homebrew maker! Just wrap the spell name with [Tooltip Not Found]. It's really helpful
2. Just check your text for legendary actions, there's still some references to the vampire statblock you based this on
Other than that wonderful creation dude
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Posted May 3, 2026Thanks! I appreciate it!
1. Dope, I'll keep that in mind for another project I do!
2. I saw that as soon as I hit publish, I was so upset when I couldn't change it lol.
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Posted May 4, 2026Ah, DnDbeyond allows embeds in comments, didnt know that
Start the spell with "[Tooltip Not Found]"
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Posted May 5, 2026Now THAT'S an actual ass boss! Not just "strong statblock" but an actual system that forces the players to think about the fight's mechanics to their best ability.
btw you missed one mention of "Vampire" in the grey text in "Legendary Actions"
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Posted May 6, 2026Wow, now THIS is peak. can't wait to see what you do for Spamton! :)
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Posted May 6, 2026I'm confused I can't understand how many cards to add if I have 6-7 players there's only 4 suits which ones do I double up on do I add more face cards
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Posted May 7, 2026Alright so basically, for every player you get 8 regular number cards- two of each suit. so with 6 players that would be 48 numbers, and with each suit being doubled that's 24x2 (24 is what you get for all 4 suits per player, and then just double that), getting that 48. only the regular numbers- it's a simple numbers game after all (lol I'm so funny) so the Jack, Queen, King, Ace, and Jokers stay the same no matter what. Hope this helps!
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Posted May 8, 2026as much as I wanna give in to the urges due to the number range, this is what I'd suggest
8 cards per player x 6 players = 48 number cards; divide that by 4 suits, and you have 12 cards per suit. that's for six players
as for seven players, 8 cards per player x 7 players = 56 number cards; divide that by 4 suits, and you have 14 cards per suit
hopefully this helps!
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Posted May 8, 2026Is "Whatever You're Speaking" supposed to be the language the actual players are speaking?
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Posted May 9, 2026I just ran this as an encounter after 2 of our players weren't able to make it to the regular planned session. I'm here to provide feedback from all of us!
Of course, this does mean some of the balance was a bit off, since instead of the recommended 4 level 9's, we ran 2 level 16's (Made it the equivalent challenge in a CR calculator).
This showed itself especially in the Chaos Pool - with only 16 suit cards, we weren't able to procc a regular suit resolution even ONCE throughout the fight - only managing to get the Face cards resolutions. Again, mostly an issue due to the low amount of players, rather than the statblock itself.
Also I completely forgot about Legendary Resistances so his action economy kinda suffered from being stunned once (albeit I allowed him to perform Legendary Actions while stunned to help him out). He rolled well for most of his saves tho and barely failed any (other than the 1 stun) so it's whatever. But do keep it in mind when looking at the following info.
For additional context, the 2 PC's were a Cleric and a Monk/Fighter multiclass respectively. Idk the exact builds cuz I was the DM. The session lasted ~4 hours, with the first 20 minutes or so being spent filling out character sheets, making tokens, finding a map, etc. etc. The encounter ended through the Big Joker card being drawn, albeit by the time it was drawn, Jevil was very low (like 30'ish hitpoints remaining). The players did use Pirouette when they had a spare bonus action, but didn't outright focus on it. Often opting for Step of the Wind or Bonus Unarmed Strike instead.
The players went out of their way to kill Jevil in his 1000-year-long-sleep after already winning through Big Joker. (I will comment on this later)
By the end of the fight:
- The Cleric had 58 out of 163 HP remaining. They were mostly unaffected by Chaos Bomb with the exception of Group Hug, so might've been lower before that.
- The Monk/Fighter had 26 out of 174 HP remaining.
- The Cleric cast 4 levelled spells and a cantrip or two - 6th, 5th, 4th and 1st level. They did not touch their 8th or 7th level spell slots. They have also not used any healing spells.
- The Monk/Fighter wasted all of their Ki points, and half of their Superiority Die.
- Both of them had only the starting equipment of their respective classes and backgrounds. I did not give them any magic items or even regular ones.
- Jevil had cast 4 spells aswell - Gravity Sinkhole once, Blur once, Pulse Wave once and Confusion once. I admit I probably didn't use the spellcasting enough, since I hadn't read all the spells before the fight, and was hence making decisions on the spot.
- Do not that the Cleric hasn't used a single healing spell throughout the entire combat. The party wasn't ever close to being downed, with the sole exception of right after Chaos Bomb.
And finally, personal feedback from all of us:
DM (Me):
Running the statblock was pretty fun. Albeit I had 2 main issues. The first was some vague wording on some things. (Namely, Jevil was knocked prone at one point - and we weren't sure if that should detract from his Freedom Points. It would mean he'd have to waste half of his movement to get up, but the examples listed prevented moving outright, so we weren't sure if it was "hard" enough.) Secondly, after placing all 5 Devilknives (roughly in the same general area to create a "shredder") I didn't get to place many afterwards, since they didn't really get destroyed all that much, and it felt like a waste to break the existing ones to place more. I do understand this likely would've been better with more players (since "All-In" suit effect would've actually procced...) but it still felt a bit awkward. I do think there is also kind of some blame on me for maybe not utiling the spells to their best extent, albeit admittidely it IS a lot of spells to keep track of...
The rest of the encounter ran pretty well, with only the Queen (HP mixing) ending up being a bit awkward and irrelavant (it went away after just 1 pirrouette, and since none of the players ever were downed, it didn't end up doing anything).
ALMOST FORGOT! The way the fight instantly ends after Big Joker is drawn regardless if the players want it or not felt somewhat weird to the players. I think the best way to do it would be to give the party a scroll of "Sleep" and make it mimic Pacify from the original Deltarune in terms of functionality.
That way the players can still choose in which way to end the fight.
Also the players really abused Jevil's lacking CON Save stat. He rolled really well (mostly 17's lol for total of 21) but the Cleric (more experienced than me in DND) said that Con was a really common save. Unsure how true/important/an-actual-issue this is, but just mentioning it since it came up. (Also keep in mind I didn't use legendary resistance!! so might not be that much of a problem? but ALSO keep in mind with just 2 players, he was making half the amount of saves he would've been making against a full party.)
Monk / Fighter:
To summarise their thoughts, they didn't enjoy the length of the fight (more of a high-level dnd issue in all fairness) and also the fact that they had to constantly run after Jevil to catch him using up Ki on their Step of the Wind. We both agreed it likely would've been much less of an issue if we had more players to control more space. But we also proposed the idea of making his teleports restricted MORE to *just* teleporting to his Devilknives (alongside more effects to break them as I have stated before), so that he needs to set up the knives first if he wants to slip out, instead of just passively doing so even on flat ground. Unsure if this idea would actually work design-wise, but we did consider it.
Cleric:
They wrote down all their thoughts right after the fight, so i'll just copypaste them here.
"I enjoyed the fight. There are some fun ideas here, and having stage control can make for interesting combat. I do feel some of the features are vague. Like the Jack for example. It says abilities requiring adjacency, but from what I know, that's not really a term used in D&D. It's usually eaither "within 5 feet" "melee range" or "touch." And the reaction teleport doesn't actually say what the trigger for it is, and I feel it's a bit redundant since he's already got two other teleportation abilities. I also feel there should be more ways for the knives to be consumed so that they can be placed again, cause in our encounter they just appeared and mostly stayed in the same spot. Also, the whole kinda creature esque stats of the knives seems a bit odd. You can still give them hp and ac, but I would just call them objects so that you don't need to do the whole extra text about being able to use catapult and such on it. That's my two cents. Thanks for putting in the work to make a Jevil encounter. I know that ain't easy."
He also said that it was a huge missed opportunity to not give Jevil proficiency in Performance, given he is a court jester afterall. Said something about it making Jevil's statblock work better *outside* of combat more than inside.
To comment on this, yeah we actually had no idea when to trigger the reaction. We decided to just not use it at all rather than having to use it constantly. It's the same as his bonus action (down to the typo in "Knife" being the exact same) so we decided it wouldn't make that much of a difference either way. (Well, it might've made it even MORE impossible for the Monk / Fighter to catch him, if he were allowed to use it anytime he wishes, in all honesty).
And also, I did tell our Cleric that making them just objects would make them susceptible to player spells aswell, however he did make the fair point that this might've been actually even cooler, allowing for players to use their spells to turn Jevil's weapons on him with their spells, and added more ways to deal with them besides just avoiding or killing them. (They never attacked the Devilknives in our combat btw, the reasoning being that they didn't think they could reliably get rid of them in 1 turn, so it would be essentially wasted damage since Jevil could summon them back very quickly)
I think that's all the feedback I can give? Sorry if this is a bit messy. Not used to writing feedback, and even less used to high-level dnd, so I'm sure this could've been ran better. Even then, I really love the statblock you created, and hence hope this feedback can help in the future!
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Posted Jun 1, 2026My group just wanted to date him...