Nasnas
Nasnas — The Encounter
The Half-Made Thing of the Desert Wastes · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Nasnas
The desert folk speak of the nasnas in hushed half-sentences, for it is a creature only half-finished and all the more dreadful for it. Sundered lengthwise as if by a great blade, it possesses but one arm, one leg, half a head, and half a heart, yet it bounds across the dunes faster than a fleeing camel. The wise say it is the cursed remnant of a man who broke a sacred oath, cleaved in two so that body might forever pursue the soul it lost. By night it hides among the rocks and waits for caravans to stray, then springs upon the hindmost traveler, lashing with the long whipping tail that grows where its other half should be. To look upon its single weeping eye is to understand grief made flesh. Salt, iron, and the speaking of holy names are said to drive it back, but only fire truly ends the chase, for the half-thing fears nothing else and feels neither pity nor fatigue in the hunt.
Run Nasnas in Sixty Seconds
- Half-Made Frame: it cannot be flanked and is immune to frightened, and once per turn a non-radiant hit that would drop it leaves it at 1 HP instead — tell melee they must keep swinging, one big crit will not end it.
- Open with the lunge: turn one it Hopping Lunges its full 40 ft. without provoking, landing adjacent to the squishiest body it can reach and attacking with advantage.
- Kill-priority is the straggler: this is a hunter of the isolated — every round it Tail Lashes (15 ft. reach) to yank a back-line caster or archer prone into the front, then claws them.
- When bloodied: lean on Coiling Snare — pin the first creature that tries to flee or reposition near it (speed 0), keeping its chosen prey trapped in melee.
- Three ways to run it: lone predator stalking a caravan at night; a leashed pair with its bound other half (Half-Heart); or part of a desert pack screening a bigger boss.
Nasnas
Medium monstrosity, chaotic evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEHalf-Made Frame. The nasnas is cleaved down its center, with a single arm and a single leg. It cannot be flanked, and it is immune to the frightened condition. Whenever it would be reduced to 0 hit points by an attack that is not radiant or that does not sever its remaining half, it instead drops to 1 hit point (once per turn).
Hopping Lunge. On the first turn of combat, the nasnas bounds up to its full speed without provoking opportunity attacks. If it ends this movement adjacent to a creature, it has advantage on its first attack against that creature this turn.
Actions
Multiattack. The nasnas makes one Rending Claw attack and one Tail Lash attack.
Rending Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 16 (3d6+4) slashing damage.
Tail Lash. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8+4) bludgeoning damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 15 Strength saving throw or be pulled up to 10 feet toward the nasnas and knocked prone.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Coiling Snare. Reaction: When a creature the nasnas can see ends its move within 15 feet of it, the nasnas lashes its serpentine tail at that creature. The target takes 9 (2d8) bludgeoning damage and must succeed on a DC 15 Strength saving throw or have its speed reduced to 0 until the start of its next turn.
A thing split clean down its middle: one yellow eye, one fanged half-jaw, a single sinewed arm ending in raking claws, balanced on one springing leg, its serpent-tail coiling like a whip drawn back to strike.
Nasnas, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEMirror Halves (signature). Nasnas is the nasnas's severed other side, dragged along on a tether. While within 30 feet of its allied creature, both gain advantage on saving throws against being charmed or knocked prone.
Actions
Raking Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 12 (2d6+4) slashing damage.
Reactions
Severed Defense. Reaction: When an ally within 5 feet is hit by an attack, Nasnas throws its half-body across them, taking half the damage instead.
The mirrored second half, lashed to its twin by a length of chain, lurching forward on a single dragging limb.
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 Hopping Lunge into the softest target, then Tail Lash to yank a back-rank caster prone into the front line. Kill-priority: anyone standing apart from the group, since this thing pursues stragglers. Pair it with a small pack of jackals or skeletons so the party cannot easily surround it.
Lunge in turn one, then each round Tail Lash to drag a caster or archer 10 ft. prone and Rending Claw the same target. Use Coiling Snare to pin anyone who tries to flee or reposition near it. Half-Made Frame means a single big hit will not drop it, so warn melee they must commit; pair it with a stronger boss or a couple of minions to threaten the whole party at once.
As a fast skirmisher it darts between targets, Tail Lashing one prone while Rending Claw finishes another, never staying put. Save Coiling Snare for the moment a high-priority target tries to disengage. It is a harrier, not a centerpiece — run it alongside a bigger threat or its bound other half so it picks off whoever the lair has isolated.
Put Nasnas 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 Nasnas?
Nasnas is built as a Challenge Rating 6 monstrosity (2,300 XP) at its native Tier 2, a fast and durable skirmisher. Scaled stat lines are provided for Tier 1 (levels 1-4) and Tier 3 (levels 11-15) so you can drop it into any campaign without rebuilding it.
Can Nasnas be a companion or ally?
Yes. Use the bound companion option, Half-Heart, its severed mirror-half, as a lighter ally (AC 14, 74 HP) that shields nearby allies and rakes with a claw. As a full ally a nasnas works best as a tracker or pursuer that runs down fleeing foes for its master.
Is Nasnas a solo boss?
No. It has no legendary actions and only one reaction trait, so a four-player party will out-act it. Run it as a terrifying add-on — alongside a true boss, a desert pack, or its bound other half — rather than as a standalone centerpiece.
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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