Duskreaper
Duskreaper — The Encounter
The hush that falls before the city burns · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Duskreaper
When the cities of the plain were given to fire and salt, not every shadow fled the smoke. Some thing in the ruin learned the shape of the silence that comes after screaming, and wore it. The Duskreaper is named for the hour it loves best: the bruised half-light when watchers grow careless and torches have not yet been lit. It does not roar. It does not boast. It strips the voice from the air so prayers die in the throat, then opens the slow from neck to knee with talons that burn like banked coals. Survivors of the burned places speak of a hush that thickened until they could not warn one another, and of red light moving low along the rubble. Scholars who name the spirits of wrath count this one among the lesser reapers loosed upon the wicked, a fiend bred from ruin to harvest those the fire spared.
Run Duskreaper in Sixty Seconds
- Hold in darkness. Do not open in the light. Keep the Duskreaper hidden until a surprise round, then strike the soft target first.
- Lead with the Hush. Killing Hush kills verbal-component casting within 15 ft. — position so the enemy wizard or cleric is inside the bubble before anyone rolls initiative.
- Kill-priority: the caster. Halve their speed with Reaping Claw so they cannot retreat to a safe casting line, then focus them down.
- When bloodied (62 HP), play it like a wounded predator. It does not stand and trade — it Hides as a bonus action and re-engages from a new angle next turn.
- Three ways to run it: (1) lone ambush assassin against an unwary party; (2) a hunting pair that traps a target in overlapping silence; (3) the silent outrider for a flagship boss, screening its caster while the boss closes.
Duskreaper
Medium fiend (demon), chaotic evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEShroud of Dusk. While the Duskreaper is in dim light or darkness, it has advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks and attack rolls against any creature that cannot see it. It can take the Hide action as a bonus action.
Killing Hush. Signature. The Duskreaper drinks sound. Each creature that starts its turn within 15 feet of the Duskreaper cannot speak above a whisper and cannot cast spells with verbal components until the start of its next turn. The Duskreaper has advantage on attack rolls against any creature it has surprised or that has not yet acted in combat.
Actions
Multiattack. The Duskreaper makes two Reaping Claw attacks.
Reaping Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 18 (3d8+5) slashing damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or have its speed halved until the end of its next turn.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Cull the Slowed. Reaction. When a creature within 10 feet of the Duskreaper drops to half its hit points or fewer, the Duskreaper makes one Reaping Claw attack against it.
A lithe, blue-black horror cloaked in glistening chitin, the Duskreaper crouches on shattered stone, its long arms ending in glowing red talons that trail the last light of a dying day.
Duskreaper, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEVeil of Dusk (signature). While in dim light or darkness, the bound Duskreaper and any ally within 5 feet of it have advantage on Stealth checks. Once per short rest, it can render itself and one adjacent ally invisible until the start of its next turn or until either attacks.
Actions
Reaping Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8+4) slashing damage, and the target's speed is halved until the end of its next turn.
Reactions
Hush. When an enemy within 15 feet casts a spell with a verbal component, the bound Duskreaper imposes disadvantage on the caster's next attack roll or the next saving throw forced by that spell.
Collared by an oath of ash, it stalks ahead of its keeper, swallowing alarm-cries before they leave a sentry's lips.
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 darkness with a surprise round; Killing Hush alone will terrify a low-level party that relies on a single caster. Halve the front-liner's speed, then peel off to strike the squishiest target. Pair it with a flagship horror or a pack of lurkers in a ruined-city lair.
Open by ambushing the back-line caster while Killing Hush smothers their verbal spells, then full-attack to halve a key target's speed. Kill-priority: the party healer or controller. Use Cull the Slowed on anyone who drops to half so it punishes attrition; run it in dim light beside a bigger threat rather than alone.
Deploy two or three together, or as the silent vanguard of a larger boss, so Killing Hush stacks into a wide dead-air zone. Open on the controller, slow the tank, and let Cull the Slowed finish staggered PCs. This is a minion-and-lair threat at this tier, not a solo encounter.
Put Duskreaper 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 Duskreaper?
Its home build is CR 6 (Tier 2, 2,300 XP): AC 16, 123 HP, +8 to hit, save DC 14. Scaled stat lines are provided for Tier 1 (about CR 2) and Tier 3 (about CR 11) so you can drop it into any party level without rebuilding it.
Can Duskreaper be a companion or ally?
Yes. The 'Duskreaper, Bound' companion block (AC 15, 74 HP) makes it a scout and silencer for a player or NPC — its Veil of Dusk hides an adjacent ally and its Hush reaction sabotages enemy spellcasting, without the full adversary's claw output.
Is the Duskreaper a solo boss?
No. It is a fast striker and ambusher with no legendary actions, so a full party will out-act it in a one-on-one fight. Use it in pairs, with minions in a ruined lair, or as the vanguard for a bigger flagship monster.
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
Played Duskreaper at your table? Log in with your Obsidian Tavern account to leave a balance note, a war story, or a file issue — the sharpest reports get the block revised.
Log in to comment