Skima
cloaked beast-headed cleaver-runner of the Death Reapers
Skima — The Encounter
cloaked beast-headed cleaver-runner of the Death Reapers · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Skima
Skima is one of the Death Reapers' coursers, the swift hunters tasked with running down whatever tries to flee the harvest. Where the line holds and the gleaners dive, Skima ranges wide and fast, leaping rubble and barrow-stone to cut off the escape of the marked. World-lore of the soul-harvest tells of the loping beast-headed reapers who chase a soul to the edge of the world rather than let it slip the warband. Within the Flock it is the runner-down, the one set loose when prey breaks and bolts, ensuring no name escapes the muster. Those who have run from the Reapers and heard padding feet gaining behind them know the courser does not tire and does not stop until the chase is finished.
Run Skima in Sixty Seconds
- It runs you down so don't try to outrun it: Speed 40 plus Bounding Step makes fleeing dangerous.
- Charging Cleave adds 2d4 on a 20-ft. straight charge, so its biggest hits come on the chase.
- It's lightly armored (AC 14): stand and burst it rather than retreating into a charge.
- Undead Fortitude can save it at 1 HP; radiant or a crit prevents the save.
Skima
Medium undead, lawful evil
CR 3 · 700 XP · GUIDELINECharging Cleave. If Skima moves at least 20 ft. straight toward a target and hits it with a cleaver attack on the same turn, the target takes an extra 5 (2d4) slashing damage and Skima can move 5 ft. without provoking opportunity attacks.
Undead Fortitude. If damage reduces Skima to 0 HP, it makes a Con save (DC 5 + the damage taken) unless the damage is radiant or from a critical hit; on a success it drops to 1 HP instead.
Actions
Multiattack. Skima makes two cleaver attacks.
Reaping Cleaver. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (1d10+3) slashing damage plus 2 (1d4) necrotic damage.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Bounding Step (Bonus Action). Skima moves up to 15 ft.; this movement doesn't provoke opportunity attacks.
A cloaked, beast-headed reaper that bounds across broken ground, curved cleaver swinging, to chase down the fleeing.
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 Skima as a chaser: it sprints at a fleeing or isolated PC and lands Charging Cleave on the run. Use Bounding Step to keep up with anyone trying to retreat. It runs down stragglers, not the front line.
Fight with the Flock as the courser: Skima ranges the flanks and runs down anyone who breaks from the party, opening with Charging Cleave and using Bounding Step to stay on them. It chases fleers while the warband holds; it does not anchor.
Use a pack of coursers to seal every escape route while the heavies and gleaners harvest. Each charges a different fleeing target. This is a pursuit pack, never a solo.
Put Skima 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 Skima?
Native CR 3 (Tier 1). Use the tiers table to scale up to about CR 6 or CR 11.
How does Skima fight alongside the rest of the Death Reapers?
It is one of the Flock's coursers, the runner-down. While the warband holds the kill-ground, Skima ranges the flanks and chases anyone who breaks and flees, ensuring no one escapes the harvest.
Should I run from it?
No. Fleeing triggers its Charging Cleave and plays to its speed. Stand, group up, and focus it down; it is far weaker when it can't charge.
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.
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