Oliver Twist
Oliver Twist — The Encounter
The orphan thief and his brass-limbed harness of grasping arms · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Oliver Twist
They say the workhouse boy asked for more and was thrown into the gutter for it. There the gutter gave him something better than gruel: a tinker's discarded back-harness, all hissing valves and four brass arms, which he strapped to his shoulders and never took off again. Now Oliver Twist runs the rookeries faster than any constable, his metal limbs lifting purses from three marks before the first has felt a thing. He is no killer by trade, only a survivor who learned that the city respects nothing but the quick hand and the quicker foot. The fences pay him well and fear him a little, for a boy who can pick a lock, a pocket, and a man's pride in a single breath is a boy who answers to no Fagin for long. Catch him if you can; the arms will be three streets away before the snatch is felt.
Run Oliver Twist in Sixty Seconds
- What he is a Tier 1 skirmisher-thief: brass-armed, fast, fragile. He steals and harasses, he does not stand and trade.
- Open with Grasping Snatch on the most valuable carrier (caster's focus, healer's symbol, the quest item), then Nimble Escape away as a bonus action.
- Kill-priority low for the party, but he is YOUR priority disruptor; aim his snatches at whatever the party most needs to keep.
- When bloodied he runs, Disengaging every turn and using climb speed and Whip-Away to break line of sight and vanish into terrain.
- Three ways to run him (1) cutpurse who lifts a key item then flees, (2) flanking harasser beside a brute, (3) chase-scene rival across rooftops and cobbles.
Oliver Twist
Medium humanoid (human), chaotic neutral
CR 2 · 450 XP · GUIDELINEBrass Limbs. Oliver wears a back-mounted steam harness driving four articulated metal arms tipped with claws and pincers. The arms give him reach 10 ft. on his attacks and a climb speed of 30 ft. While the harness is active he cannot be knocked prone.
Nimble Escape. Oliver can take the Disengage or Hide action as a bonus action on each of his turns.
Pickpocket. Oliver has advantage on Sleight of Hand checks made to lift an item from a creature within 5 ft. of him.
Actions
Multiattack. Oliver makes two attacks with his brass limbs.
Brass Limb. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d8+3) bludgeoning damage, or 7 (1d8+3) piercing damage from a pincer.
Grasping Snatch. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 10 ft., one Medium or smaller target. Hit: the target is grappled (escape DC 13). Oliver may then make one Sleight of Hand check (+5) to steal one unsecured item the grappled creature is carrying.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Whip-Away. When a creature ends its turn within 10 ft. of Oliver, he can use his reaction to have a brass limb shove it 5 ft. and move up to 10 ft. himself without provoking opportunity attacks.
A wiry street orphan in a Victorian newsboy cap and threadbare jacket, sprinting across the cobbles with a stolen steam-harness clamped to his back, four chrome arms snaking out behind him to grab, pinch, and pickpocket all at once.
Oliver Twist, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINELookout's Whistle (signature). Once per turn as a bonus action, the Dodger signals: one ally within 30 ft. gains advantage on its next Stealth check or attack roll made before the start of the Dodger's next turn.
Actions
Cutpurse Knife. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d4+3) piercing damage, and the Dodger may take the Disengage action as part of this attack.
Reactions
Slip the Crowd. When targeted by an attack, the Dodger can use its reaction to halve the damage if it ends the turn behind cover or an ally.
A grinning pickpocket in a too-large coat, always one step from the law and one purse richer, watching Oliver's back for a cut of the take.
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 by sprinting into the party's softest target and using Grasping Snatch to grapple and pickpocket, then Nimble Escape away before they swing. If foes cluster, dart along their flank and use Whip-Away to peel attackers off allies. Kill-priority is low; Oliver is a thief and harasser, so pair him with heavier muscle (a brute or caster) and let him steal the fight's key item.
Lead with Grasping Snatch on the enemy spellcaster to grapple and strip a focus or component pouch, then Nimble Escape out of melee. Use the brass limbs' reach to fight from 10 ft. and Whip-Away to keep clustered foes off your allies. Pair him with a flagship boss or a pack of minions; Oliver thrives as the slippery flanker, never the anvil.
Run him as a high-tier infiltrator beside a bigger threat: open by snatching the party's healer's holy symbol or a relic, then bounce around the battlefield with Nimble Escape and Whip-Away so nobody pins him. With a lair or minion screen he becomes a maddening thief who is never where you struck. Do not field him alone; he has no action-economy kit to out-tempo a full party.
Put Oliver Twist 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 Oliver Twist?
Natively CR 2 (Tier 1, ~450 XP) as a Medium humanoid skirmisher. The block scales cleanly to Tier 2 (~CR 6) and Tier 3 (~CR 11) by swapping in the listed AC, HP, to-hit, and save-DC numbers while keeping his traits and actions identical.
Can Oliver Twist be a companion or ally?
Yes. As a chaotic-neutral street thief he makes an excellent rogue ally, scout, or reluctant hireling. Use his brass-limb reach, Nimble Escape, and Pickpocket to lift keys, intel, or treasure for the party; the included companion, the Dodger, can ride along as his lookout.
Is Oliver Twist a solo boss?
No. He is an add-on harasser with no legendary actions or punishing reaction loop, so a full party will out-act him quickly. Field him alongside a flagship boss, a brute, or a screen of minions where his hit-and-run disruption shines.
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.
Technical Specifications
32mm, 75mm
STL, Pre-supported STL
Standard or ABS-like resin, 0.05mm layer height
Yes — ready to print, optimized supports included
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