Rogue
Rogue — The Encounter
The hooded knife in the dark, who strikes where the wound runs deep · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Rogue
They call her the knife in the dark, and no one has yet caught a glimpse of the face beneath the hood. Born to the gutter-guilds where coin and cant pass hand to hand in alley-gloom, she learned that the surest kill is the one never seen coming. She studies a mark for days, mapping the gait, the routine, the single unguarded breath, then closes the distance in three silent strides. Her rapier finds the gap in armor, the artery beneath the jaw, the kidney below the ribs, and she is gone over the rooftops before the body folds. Patrons pay in gold and in fear, for a contract she accepts is a contract already fulfilled. She kneels on the lion-carved stone of some toppled noble house, a trophy and a warning both, and watches the street below with the patience of a thing that has already decided you are dead.
Run Rogue in Sixty Seconds
- Hold for the ambush The rogue is a first-strike assassin. If it can start hidden or in the surprise round, it lands a guaranteed critical via Assassinate plus Sneak Attack, often 40+ damage in one stab.
- Kill-priority is the backline It ignores the tank and goes straight for the healer, the wizard, or whoever just dropped low. Make the players feel they cannot leave a caster unguarded.
- Open with the crit, then disappear Strike, then Cunning Action to Hide or Disengage every single turn so it never eats a full round of return fire.
- When bloodied, it stops trading Lean on Uncanny Dodge and Evasion, Disengage, break line of sight, and reset for another ambush rather than standing toe to toe.
- Three ways to run it Lone duelist that hit-and-runs, a flanking pair with its bound apprentice for guaranteed Sneak Attack, or the silent killer in a bigger villain's lair who slips past the front line.
Rogue
Medium humanoid (human), neutral
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINESneak Attack (1/turn). The rogue deals an extra 14 (4d6) damage when it hits a target with a weapon attack and has advantage on the attack roll, or when the target is within 5 feet of an ally of the rogue that isn't incapacitated and the rogue doesn't have disadvantage on the attack roll.
Evasion. When the rogue is subjected to an effect that allows a Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, it instead takes no damage on a success, and only half on a failure.
Assassinate. Signature. During the first round of combat, the rogue has advantage on attack rolls against any creature that hasn't taken a turn. Any hit the rogue scores against a surprised creature is a critical hit.
Actions
Multiattack. The rogue makes two attacks with its rapier, or two with its hand crossbow.
Rapier. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (1d8+5) piercing damage.
Hand Crossbow. Ranged Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, range 30/120 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (1d6+5) piercing damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or take 7 (2d6) poison damage.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Cunning Action (Bonus Action). The rogue takes the Dash, Disengage, or Hide action as a bonus action on each of its turns.
Uncanny Dodge (Reaction). When an attacker the rogue can see hits it with an attack, the rogue halves the attack's damage against it.
A lithe figure swathed in a tattered hood and a face-wrapping mask crouches mid-lunge atop a plinth of carved lion heads, a slender blade extended and a deeper menace coiled in the shadow of the cloak.
Rogue, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEFlank (signature). While Rogue is within 5 feet of an enemy, the rogue counts that enemy as adjacent to an ally for the purpose of its Sneak Attack.
Actions
Garrote. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (2d4+3) bludgeoning damage, and a creature of Medium or smaller is grappled (escape DC 14).
Reactions
Cover the Escape. When the rogue uses Cunning Action to Disengage, Rogue may move up to 15 feet without provoking opportunity attacks.
A cowled apprentice cutpurse who keeps to the rooftops, ready to choke a sentry quiet so the master can do the wet work.
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 for the Assassinate crit, then Cunning Action to Hide or Disengage every turn so it only ever fights on its terms. Park it within 5 ft. of another attacker to keep Sneak Attack online. Pair it with a brute or caster who locks the party down while it picks off the squishiest target.
Open by ambushing the party's healer or caster for an Assassinate crit plus Sneak Attack, then vanish with Cunning Action. Kill-priority is whoever just dropped low; it darts in, finishes, and Uncanny Dodges the retaliation. Never run it alone, give it a front-line ally to flank with and a bigger threat to draw fire while it carves the backline.
Run it as the assassin in a lair or a boss's retinue, opening with an Assassinate crit on the party's most fragile member. Use Cunning Action and Evasion to slip every area attack and reposition for the next Sneak Attack. Pair it with a heavier flagship threat; alone it gets out-actioned, but as a striker beside a bigger menace it ends careers.
Put Rogue 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 Rogue?
Natively CR 6 (Tier 2, ~level 5-10) with AC 16 and 110 HP. The stat record also provides scaled CR 2 (Tier 1) and CR 11 (Tier 3) columns so you can drop the same assassin into any party without rebuilding it.
Can Rogue be a companion or ally?
Yes. Run her as a hired blade, a guild contact, or a reluctant party guide. She makes a deadly ally for stealth missions, opening encounters with an Assassinate crit, then vanishing to set up the next strike, though her loyalty lasts exactly as long as the contract does.
Is she a solo boss?
No. She is a striker, not a centerpiece, with no legendary actions and no way to defend against a full party's action economy. Pair her with a front-line ally to flank with or a heavier flagship threat to draw fire while she carves the backline.
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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