Ranger
Ranger — The Encounter
Hooded hunter who looses death from the high rocks · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Ranger
They call her the Quiet of the Treeline, for the first warning of her presence is the feathered shaft already buried in your throat. Trained where the deep wood meets the open scarp, she learned to read wind and weight before she learned to speak, and she chooses her ground the way a lesser soldier chooses a sword. She does not give battle; she arranges it — herding her quarry across open killing-fields she has known since childhood, into the one stand of rock from which there is no clean retreat. The broken blade beneath her boots belonged to a knight who thought armour answer enough for distance. Folk of the border villages leave a portion of every hunt at the forest's edge, and in return the wolves at their gates go silent, and the bandits who ride the old road are simply never heard from again. She asks no payment, takes no banner, and remembers every face she has spared.
Run Ranger in Sixty Seconds
- Stage the high ground first. Put her on a rock, ledge, or rooftop before combat — Hunter's Footing gives +2d6 on her opening shot from elevation and she ignores natural difficult terrain.
- Open with a pre-emptive Snap Shot. If any PC advances within 30 ft. before her turn, she gets a free longbow attack via reaction — soften them before initiative even matters.
- Hold Volley for clusters. Don't waste the recharge on one target; wait for the party to bunch at a door or around their healer, then drop 6d6 in a 10-ft. radius.
- Kill-priority: enemy healers and casters. She ignores cover and long-range penalty, so range is no protection — point her two shots at whoever keeps the party standing.
- Three ways to run her: sniper, kiter, or skirmisher. Sniper = camp the high rock and rain Volleys; kiter = Skirmisher Disengage every turn and refuse melee; skirmisher = perch beside a melee boss and Snap Shot anyone who charges him.
Ranger
Medium humanoid (human), neutral good
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINESharpshooter's Eye. The ranger ignores half cover and three-quarters cover when making ranged weapon attacks, and its ranged attacks do not have disadvantage from long range.
Hunter's Footing. Difficult terrain made of natural rock, root, or rubble costs the ranger no extra movement, and it can climb at full speed. Whenever it begins its turn on higher ground than a target, its first ranged attack that turn deals an extra 7 (2d6) damage.
Actions
Multiattack. The ranger makes two attacks with its longbow.
Longbow. Ranged Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, range 150/600 ft., one target. Hit: 12 (2d6+5) piercing damage.
Hunting Knife. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (1d6+5) piercing damage.
Volley (Recharge 5-6). The ranger looses a fan of arrows at a point it can see within range. Each creature within 10 feet of that point must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw, taking 21 (6d6) piercing damage on a failed save, or half as much on a success.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Skirmisher (Bonus Action). The ranger takes the Disengage or Hide action.
Snap Shot (Reaction). When a creature the ranger can see moves within 30 feet of it, the ranger makes one longbow attack against that creature.
A cloaked archer caught mid-leap atop a spire of broken stone, recurve bow bent full, the rocks below her bristling with spent shafts and a snapped blade — every arrow already accounted for.
Ranger, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEKeen Nose (signature). Ranger has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on smell and cannot be surprised while it can smell.
Actions
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6+4) piercing damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 14 Strength save or be knocked prone.
Reactions
Pack Tactics. When the ranger hits a creature within 5 feet of Ranger with a longbow attack, Ranger may move up to half its speed toward that creature without provoking opportunity attacks.
A lean grey deerhound that runs the flanks while its mistress holds the high stone, flushing quarry straight into the path of her arrows.
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 the highest rock with Volley into the clustered party, then plink the squishiest caster. Kite with Skirmisher every turn — never let melee close. Pair her with a melee minion or two to soak the front line while she works.
Stage her on high ground for the +2d6 Hunter's Footing bonus, open with a Snap Shot before initiative if anyone advances. Hold Volley for when the party bunches at a chokepoint, otherwise two longbow shots on the lowest-AC target each round. Use Skirmisher to Disengage-and-Hide the instant melee touches her — she pairs perfectly behind a tank boss or alongside Hael.
Run her as the sniper of a larger ambush — never alone. Perch her in the lair's rafters or on a cliff, open with Volley on the densest cluster, and let her Snap Shot punish anyone closing on the real boss. Kill-priority is enemy healers; pair her with a heavy melee threat so she is never the one being charged.
Put Ranger 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 Ranger?
Her home stat block is Challenge 6 (2,300 XP), a Tier 2 (levels 5-10) ranged skirmisher. Drop-in blocks are provided for Tier 1 (CR ~2) and Tier 3 (CR ~11) using the same traits with scaled numbers.
Can Ranger be a companion or ally?
Absolutely. As an NPC ally she makes a superb back-line archer — give the party her Snap Shot reaction and high-ground bonus and she covers a flank by herself. She is not a solo boss, so when used as an adversary, pair her with a heavier melee threat or her hound Hael rather than fielding her alone.
Why is she so dangerous despite light armor?
She never wants to be hit. Sharpshooter's Eye strips away cover and long-range penalties, Skirmisher lets her Disengage-and-Hide every turn, and Hunter's Footing punishes anyone who lets her reach high ground. Close the distance fast and break line of sight, or she fights the whole encounter from a range you cannot answer.
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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