Scheherazade
Scheherazade — The Encounter
The thousand-and-first night, who buys dawn with a tale · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Scheherazade
It is written that a king, betrayed in love, swore to wed a maiden each night and behead her each dawn, until the vizier's daughter Scheherazade came willingly to his bed. She brought with her not a blade but a sister and a single trick: each night she began a tale so wondrous that, when grey light touched the lattice, the story hung half-told. The king, who could not bear an unfinished marvel, stayed her death one more day to hear the end — and so a thousand nights and one passed, until cruelty itself was charmed quiet. They name her the morning that does not come, the tongue that outlives the sword. To face her is to be drawn in mid-sentence, leaning close, weapon forgotten, desperate to learn what the genie said next — and to wake, hours later, having done nothing at all but listen.
Run Scheherazade in Sixty Seconds
- She fights with words, not steel. Treat her as a controller: every round she should be charming, dominating, or frightening someone, not trading blows. If she ever rolls a Veiled Dagger, she's already losing.
- Open with Beguiling Recitation. Hit the tightest cluster — a charmed, incapacitated PC does nothing while it 'listens for the ending.' That single action can erase two or three turns of party damage.
- Kill-priority is her, but she makes it hard. The Unfinished Tale stops charmed/frightened creatures from attacking her, and Spellbinding Word re-snares anyone who breaks free. Players must dispel, save up, or rush her with whoever isn't affected.
- When bloodied, she stalls for the dawn. Spend her turns re-charming and retreating toward an exit; she would rather buy one more round of safety than land a hit. A clever DM lets her offer a 'deal' — she truly may parley.
- Three ways to run her: court intrigue (she charms the party into a quest instead of a fight), ambush brain (she conducts charmed thralls from the back), or tragic foil (she's a captive buying her own survival — free her and gain an ally).
Scheherazade
Medium humanoid (human), neutral good
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINESpellcasting. Scheherazade is a 9th-level spellcaster. Her spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 15, +7 to hit with spell attacks). She knows the following spells: cantrips — friends, message, minor illusion, vicious mockery; 1st–5th — charm person, command, suggestion, hypnotic pattern, fear, confusion, dominate person.
The Unfinished Tale. (Signature.) Scheherazade always seems one sentence from a fatal revelation, and listeners cannot bear to silence her. A creature charmed or frightened by her cannot take the Attack action or cast a damaging spell that targets her until the start of its next turn. The first time each round a creature breaks free of one of her effects, she may use her reaction to begin a new tale (see Spellbinding Word).
Actions
Multiattack. Scheherazade casts one spell, then makes one Veiled Dagger attack.
Veiled Dagger. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 20/60 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (3d6+3) piercing damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned until the end of its next turn.
Beguiling Recitation (Recharge 5–6). Scheherazade weaves a story so vivid it ensnares the mind. Each creature of her choice within 30 ft. that can hear her must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or be charmed for 1 minute. While charmed this way, a creature is incapacitated as it strains to hear how the tale ends. A charmed creature repeats the save at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Spellbinding Word. (Reaction, when a creature within 30 ft. that can hear her breaks free of her charm or fright, or moves to attack her.) Scheherazade speaks a single binding phrase. The creature must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or be charmed by her until the end of its next turn.
Reclined upon her divan amid spilled treasure, one slender hand lifts an unrolled page while the other beckons — a queen who fights with nothing but the next word of an unending story, and the unbearable need to hear how it ends.
Scheherazade, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEPrompt the Tale (signature). Once per turn, when an ally within 30 ft. of Scheherazade casts an enchantment spell or forces a Wisdom saving throw, the target has disadvantage on that save.
Actions
Hairpin Stiletto. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6+4) piercing damage.
Reactions
Bid Her Continue. When a creature would break free of an ally's charm effect, Scheherazade calls out for the story to go on; that creature rolls its saving throw with disadvantage.
The little sister kneels at the divan's foot, asking at the perfect moment, 'And then, dear one — what happened?' Her cues turn a tale into a snare.
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 with Beguiling Recitation to lock down the loudest, hardest-hitting PC, then back away and let allies swarm the rest. She is a controller, not a fighter — keep her behind a melee line. Kill-priority for the party is her, but the charm makes that hard; pair her with a couple of guards who punish anyone who closes.
Lead with Beguiling Recitation on the cluster, then Multiattack: hypnotic pattern or fear into a Veiled Dagger on a freed target. Use Spellbinding Word every round to re-charm whoever shakes loose, so the party's action economy bleeds out. Frame her as a court power broker — pair her with guards or a captain so PCs must fight through bodies to silence her.
She is the brains of a lair, never the muscle — stage her amid charmed thralls and a brute bodyguard so the table must break her control before they can reach her. Open with Beguiling Recitation, dominate person the tank, and let the lair's minions finish what her words begin. Pair her with a bigger threat (a giant guardian or a fiend she has bound by story) and she becomes its untouchable conductor.
Put Scheherazade 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 Scheherazade?
Her home build is CR 6 (2,300 XP), tuned for a Tier 2 party of levels 5–10. The stat record also gives Tier 1 (levels 1–4) and Tier 3 (levels 11–15) columns — the traits stay identical, only AC, HP, to-hit, and the save DC shift between bands. She is an add-on controller, not a solo boss, so she carries native-tier numbers with no power-up discount.
Can Scheherazade be a companion or ally?
Yes — she is one of the easiest adversaries in the line to flip. Because she fights with persuasion rather than violence, a party that frees her, wins a debate, or simply listens can recruit her as a non-combat patron: a spy, a negotiator, or a quest-giver whose enchantments open doors no blade can. Her sister Dunyazad comes with her as a built-in support companion.
How do I stop her charms from wrecking my party?
Spread out so Beguiling Recitation can't catch the whole group, and keep at least one creature immune or with advantage on Wisdom saves (an aura of protection, a paladin's presence, or a well-timed lesser restoration / calm emotions) free to rush her. Once a non-charmed attacker reaches her she is fragile — the whole defense is her crowd control, so break that and she folds fast.
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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