Vexalia
Vexalia — The Encounter
Crimson-Crested Ravager of the Cities of the Plain · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Vexalia
When the Cities of the Plain burned for their sins, not all that crawled from the ash were mere flame. Vexalia was loosed in that judgment a spirit of appetite given a starved and beautiful shape, sent to harry the fleeing and devour the proud. The grimoires that name her warn she does not kill the weak first; she scents arrogance and old wounds, and she runs them down across rooftop and rubble alike. The fanged gauntlet she wears is no crafted weapon but a living maw grafted to her forearm, and it feeds when she feeds, knitting her hide whole from the flesh it tears. She takes no city, holds no throne, and serves whatever greater ruin will let her hunt. Where her crimson crest is glimpsed against the smoke, the destroying angels are not far behind, and the survivors are already being counted as prey.
Run Vexalia in Sixty Seconds
- What she is: a fast fiendish skirmisher-finisher, not a stand-up boss. Run her as an add-on to a bigger threat, never solo.
- Open with: a 20-ft charge to trigger Pounce knock the target prone, then take the bonus-action gauntlet bite on the same turn.
- Kill-priority: the wounded and the squishy. Sin-Scented Hunter gives advantage on anyone below full HP, and the gauntlet heals her off them feed her the back-line caster.
- When bloodied: stop trading. Use Skitter (Disengage) and Sidestep to bounce off the front line, climb, and re-pounce a softer target each round.
- Three ways to run her: (1) lone ambusher who hits, heals, and vanishes; (2) paired with a flagship brute so she snipes while it tanks; (3) leading Gnashmaw and a brood as a relentless hunting pack.
Vexalia
Medium fiend (demon), chaotic evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEPounce. If Vexalia moves at least 20 feet straight toward a creature and then hits it with a melee attack on the same turn, that target must succeed on a DC 15 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone. If the target is prone, Vexalia can make one bite attack with her bone gauntlet against it as a bonus action.
Sin-Scented Hunter. Signature. Vexalia knows the direction and distance to the creature that has dealt the most damage to her or her allies this combat, and she has advantage on attack rolls against any creature already below its hit point maximum. She singles out the strong and the wounded the way fire seeks the dry.
Magic Resistance. Vexalia has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Actions
Multiattack. Vexalia makes one Hand Axe attack and one Devouring Gauntlet attack.
Hand Axe. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 16 (3d8 + 3) slashing damage.
Devouring Gauntlet. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) piercing damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or take 7 (2d6) necrotic damage as the fanged maw tears away a piece of it; Vexalia regains hit points equal to the necrotic damage dealt.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Skitter (Bonus Action). Vexalia takes the Dash or Disengage action. She loves to strike, vanish behind cover, and pounce again.
Sidestep (Reaction). When a creature Vexalia can see makes a melee attack against her, she imposes disadvantage on that attack roll. If the attack still misses, she may move up to 10 feet without provoking opportunity attacks.
A lean, magenta-skinned fiend crouched mid-pounce, a crimson feathered crest bound atop her bald skull, a notched hand axe in one fist and a snapping bone gauntlet of fused jaws sheathing the other arm.
Vexalia, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEPack Pounce (signature). When Vexalia and an ally are both within 5 feet of the same creature, Vexalia has advantage on its attacks against that creature.
Actions
Rending Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (3d6 + 4) piercing damage, and the target's speed is reduced by 10 feet until the start of its next turn.
Reactions
Drag Down. When a creature within 5 feet of Vexalia stands up from prone, Vexalia makes a bite attack against it.
A loping hound-fiend of corded sinew and overlapping jaws, the runt of Vexalia's hunting brood, kept hungry on purpose.
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 pouncing on the squishiest caster to knock it prone, then Skitter behind cover. At low tiers her self-heal is brutal for the party's damage output, so make them spend resources to corner her. Pair her with a brute or a swarm so she can hit-and-run while something else holds the line.
Open with a 20-foot charge to trigger Pounce, knock the target prone, then bonus-action bite. Kill-priority is anything already bloodied she has advantage on it and her gauntlet heals her off it. Use Skitter and Sidestep to dodge the front line and keep slipping back to wounded targets; pair her with a tankier flagship so she is never the thing being focused.
Run her as the assassin in a larger hunting party never alone. Lead with a pounce on the wounded back-line, heal off the gauntlet, then Skitter out of reach. Pair her with a bigger threat that pins the party's front rank so Vexalia is free to pick off whoever drops below full; with minions and broken terrain she becomes a finisher the party cannot pin down.
Put Vexalia 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 Vexalia?
Her home build is CR 6 (2,300 XP) for a 5th-10th level party, but the record includes scaled CR 2-ish and CR 11-ish numbers so you can drop her into a tier-1 or tier-3 game without rebuilding her traits. Her abilities are identical at every tier only the numbers move.
Can Vexalia be a companion or ally?
She is built as an adversary, but a chaotic party that strikes a bargain could run her as a fickle ally-assassin she fights as a hit-and-run finisher, not a guardian. For a cleaner companion option, use the included Gnashmaw, Bound stat block, a loyal hunting hound-fiend with no self-interest of its own.
Is Vexalia meant to fight the party alone?
No. She has no legendary actions and only a single defensive reaction, so a four-person party will out-act her in a straight duel. She shines as an add-on threat pair her with a tankier flagship or a brood of minions and let her pick off the wounded while something else holds the line.
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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