Drakothrax
gaunt winged horror with rending talons
Drakothrax — The Encounter
gaunt winged horror with rending talons · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Drakothrax
Drakothrax is the abductor of the Dreadblood Maulers, a gaunt winged reaver that plucks lone defenders from walls and rooftops and carries them off above the swarm. The Lesser Key tells of the dead given raptor's talons in undeath, snatchers that thin a settlement's spearmen one screaming body at a time. It avoids the press, preferring isolated prey it can lift and drop or strand among the reavers below. Where Drakothrax hunts, sentries vanish from their posts without a sound, and the warband finds the walls already half-empty before the killing even begins.
Run Drakothrax in Sixty Seconds
- Hit on the lone target then both talons set up Snatch and Lift.
- Kill-priority is the isolated then grab the caster or archer away from support.
- Carry and drop then strand the victim among the reavers or drop from height.
- It's a flight, not solo then let the swarm hold while it picks off stragglers.
Drakothrax
Large undead, chaotic evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINESnatch and Lift. When Drakothrax hits a Medium or smaller creature with both talons in one turn, it can grapple the target (escape DC 14) and fly off carrying it, dragging it through the air.
Undead Fortitude. If damage reduces Drakothrax to 0 hit points, it makes a Constitution save (DC 5 + the damage taken, radiant or a critical hit auto-fails). On a success, it drops to 1 hit point instead.
Actions
Multiattack. Drakothrax makes two talon attacks.
Talon. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 12 (2d8+4) slashing damage.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Wingbeat (Bonus Action). Drakothrax flies up to half its fly speed without provoking opportunity attacks; if carrying a grappled creature, it may instead drop the creature from a height.
A skeletal, wing-spread horror that hooks a victim in both talons and carries them screaming into the dark.
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.
Send Drakothrax after the lone caster or archer, both talons to set up Snatch and Lift, then carry them away from support. Keep it picking off stragglers while the swarm holds the front.
Open by diving on an isolated back-line PC; land both talons to grapple, then fly them off to drop or strand among the reavers. When bloodied, abandon the grapple and harass from the air. Hunts as part of the flight, never solo.
Three ways to run it: an abductor splitting the party, a sentry-killer thinning defenders before the assault, or a pair that relay-carry victims into the swarm. Fight as a flight, never the boss.
Put Drakothrax 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 Drakothrax?
Drakothrax is CR 6 at its native Tier 2 (AC 15, 110 HP). Tier 1 (~CR 2) and Tier 3 (~CR 11) blocks are included to scale it.
How does Drakothrax fight alongside the rest of the Dreadblood Maulers?
It is the swarm's abductor, not a leader. Drakothrax snatches isolated defenders and carries them off or drops them among the grounded reavers, thinning support while the warband holds the line. Run it as part of the flight.
How do players stop the grab?
Snatch and Lift needs both talons to hit one Medium-or-smaller target in a turn; staying clustered, fielding a Large frontline, or readying a grapple-break denies it. Escape DC is 14 once carried.
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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