Chadwick
beak-masked carrion-stalker and silent crossbow of the Grim Flock
Chadwick — The Encounter
beak-masked carrion-stalker and silent crossbow of the Grim Flock · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Chadwick
They say the Grim Flock takes its tally not in coin but in carrion, and Chadwick is the one who lays the table. He wears the plague-doctor's beak that the old grimoires assign to those who walk among the dying without fear, and beneath the feathered cloak he carries quiver, dagger, and a crossbow stained with grave-rot. He does not charge; he chooses. A single victim is marked, hunted through alley and field, and felled with a quarrel before the rest of the flock descends to strip what remains. Captains hire him to thin a line from the dark, then deny he was ever there. The Flock does not mourn its quarry, and Chadwick has never once looked back at one.
Run Chadwick in Sixty Seconds
- Open from the dark then mark the back-line target with Carrion Mark and loose a poisoned quarrel before anyone spots him.
- Shoot and vanish then use Vanish (bonus action) to Hide after every volley so he keeps advantage and stays untouched.
- Kill-priority is the marked foe then ignore everyone else; two shots plus the 2d6 mark bonus melt a single squishy fast.
- When the quarry drops then trigger Carrion's Reward to slip away free and re-mark the next softest target.
- If cornered then Cunning-Action Disengage, fall back to cover, and let the warband's front rank cover his retreat.
Chadwick
Medium humanoid (any race), lawful evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINECarrion Mark (signature). Chadwick chooses one creature he can see at the start of his turn as his quarry. He has advantage on attack rolls against the quarry, and the first time he hits the quarry each turn the attack deals an extra 7 (2d6) piercing damage. The mark lasts until the quarry drops to 0 hit points or Chadwick marks a new quarry.
Cunning Action. On each of his turns, Chadwick can use a bonus action to take the Dash, Disengage, or Hide action.
Carrion-Eater's Constitution. Chadwick has advantage on saving throws against poison and being poisoned, and ignores difficult terrain made of corpses, refuse, or bone.
Actions
Multiattack. Chadwick makes two attacks with his hand crossbow or two with his bone dagger, in any combination.
Hand Crossbow. Ranged Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, range 30/120 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (1d6+4) piercing damage plus 7 (2d6) poison damage.
Bone Dagger. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d4+4) piercing damage plus 7 (2d6) poison damage.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Vanish (bonus action). After making a ranged attack, Chadwick can take the Hide action as a bonus action even while only lightly obscured by his cloak or nearby cover.
Carrion's Reward (reaction). When his quarry drops to 0 hit points, Chadwick can move up to half his speed without provoking opportunity attacks and immediately Hide.
A hooded killer in a long-beaked corvid mask, he steps over the freshly slain like a heron walking shallows, reloading his crossbow without looking down. Where Chadwick passes, the flock gathers to feed.
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 from hiding: mark the softest target, loose a poisoned quarrel, then Cunning-Action Hide behind cover. Let the rest of the Flock pin the party in melee while Chadwick picks the marked foe apart from the edges. He never stands and trades blows; if cornered, Disengage and reposition to the nearest concealment.
Mark the party's healer or back-line caster and burn it down with two crossbow shots plus Carrion Mark each round, vanishing after every volley. Fight as part of the warband: the front-rank Flock locks the melee while Chadwick orbits to keep line of sight on his quarry. When the quarry falls, take Carrion's Reward to slip away and re-mark a new target.
Run him as the kill-finisher of a full flight, never alone. He marks and erases one priority target per round from total concealment while the rest of the Flock screens him and herds the party into the open. If the screen breaks, he Disengages, Hides, and rejoins from a new angle rather than standing his ground.
Put Chadwick 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 Chadwick?
Chadwick is a CR 6 elite skirmisher (2,300 XP) at his native Tier 2, built for parties of levels 5-10. Statlines for Tier 1 (levels 1-4) and Tier 3 (levels 11-15) are provided so you can drop him into any flight of the Grim Flock.
How does Chadwick fight alongside the rest of the Grim Flock?
He is a rank-and-file killer, not a boss. The front-rank Flock locks the party in melee while Chadwick orbits the edges, marking and dropping one priority target at a time from concealment, then vanishing. He is never run solo; his job is to erase the back line while the warband screens him.
Why does the poison on his attacks not require a saving throw?
His blade and quarrels carry grave-rot rendered as flat extra poison damage to keep him fast at the table, no save to track. If you prefer, replace the rider with a Constitution save against DC 14 (his Tier 2 save DC); on a failure the target also has disadvantage on its next attack until the end of its next turn.
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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