Noxscythe
Noxscythe — The Encounter
Bone-bladed revenant that reaps the living with six scythes · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Noxscythe
When a battlefield is left unburied long enough, the spite of the slain can knot together into a single hungering shape. Noxscythe is such a thing: a revenant grown monstrous, its broken ribs and shattered femurs fused and lengthened into six reaping blades that never cease their slow, grinding rotation. Folk of the dead-marches say it was once a reaper of grain who let plague-corpses rot in his fields rather than burn them, and that the harvest he refused now harvests him forever. It does not hunger for flesh so much as for stillness; every living thing within the swing of its scythes is an offense to the quiet of the grave. It shuffles forward without cunning, but the ring of whirling bone around it makes drawing close a butcher's gamble, and the dead it cuts down rise reluctant to follow in its wake.
Run Noxscythe in Sixty Seconds
- Stand in the blender. Noxscythe wants to be surrounded — Whirling Scythes hits anyone who ends their turn within 10 ft., so plant it in the cluster and let the party's own positioning hurt them.
- Reach is the threat. Its Scythe Limbs strike at 10 ft. and Reaping Sweep punishes anyone who walks away, so melee can't kite it and ranged can't ignore the front line.
- Kill-priority: whoever's closest and squishy. Point all three Multiattacks at the healer or caster trapped in reach; the Bite adds necrotic to finish a wounded target.
- When bloodied, cash in Unholy Vigor. The first hit that would drop it leaves it at 1 hp instead — bait that out, then it can't do it again until a long rest.
- Three ways to run it: a lone field-horror that taxes any approach, a butcher backing a necromancer who keeps it standing, or one of a pack of revenants closing off an escape route.
Noxscythe
Large undead, neutral evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEWhirling Scythes. Signature. Noxscythe is ringed by six bladed bone limbs. When a creature it can see ends its turn within 10 feet of Noxscythe, that creature must succeed on a DC 14 Dexterity saving throw or take 7 (2d6) slashing damage as a stray scythe sweeps past.
Unholy Vigor. If Noxscythe takes damage that would reduce it to 0 hit points while it has dealt damage this round, it instead drops to 1 hit point (it cannot use this trait again until it finishes a long rest).
Actions
Multiattack. Noxscythe makes three Scythe Limb attacks, or two Scythe Limb attacks and one Bite.
Scythe Limb. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6+4) slashing damage.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (1d10+4) piercing damage plus 7 (2d6) necrotic damage.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Reaping Sweep. Reaction. When a creature within 10 feet of Noxscythe moves out of its reach, Noxscythe makes one Scythe Limb attack against that creature.
A bloated, ash-pale corpse-thing wreathed in six curved bone scythes that grow straight from its hunched shoulders, its snarling fanged face split by two embers of red eye-light.
Noxscythe, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINETwin Sickles (signature). When Noxscythe hits the same target with both sickles in one turn, the target's speed is halved until the end of its next turn as the curved blades hook its limbs.
Actions
Sickle. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d6+3) slashing damage. Noxscythe attacks twice.
Reactions
Grave-Step. When a creature Noxscythe can see hits an ally within 5 feet, Noxscythe imposes disadvantage on that attack, lurching its bony bulk into the blow.
A smaller, hooded husk that scuttles in Noxscythe's shadow, dragging two rusted grave-sickles it will not relinquish.
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 shuffling into the densest cluster so Whirling Scythes pings everyone who lingers, then Multiattack the softest target. Make low-level parties respect the 10-foot reach instead of swarming it. Pair it with a couple of skeletons to plug gaps.
Wade into the middle of the party and stay there so Whirling Scythes and Reaping Sweep punish both standing still and walking away. Kill-priority is the healer or the caster within reach. This is an ADD-ON brute, not a solo boss: run it alongside a necromancer or a bigger horror so the party can't simply focus it down.
Use it as a lair anchor or front-line wall in a larger fight, never alone, since high-tier parties out-act a single brute. Open in a chokepoint where its reach and Reaping Sweep tax every movement, and let Unholy Vigor buy one extra round of carnage. Pair it with a flagship undead lord and a screen of lesser revenants.
Put Noxscythe 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 Noxscythe?
Its home build is CR 6 (2,300 XP) for level 5-10 parties: AC 15, 126 HP, +7 to hit, save DC 14. Scaled bands are provided for level 1-4 (around CR 2) and level 11-15 (around CR 11) — the traits stay the same, only the numbers move.
Can Noxscythe be a companion or ally?
Not the full beast — it's a mindless reaping horror. For a bound ally, use Sicklewight (AC 13, 76 HP), a lesser sickle-wight that fights at a player's side, hooks foes with Twin Sickles, and throws itself in front of incoming blows with Grave-Step.
Is Noxscythe a solo boss?
No. It's a native add-on brute with no legendary actions, so a four-person party will out-act it alone. Run it as the muscle beside a true flagship — a necromancer, a revenant lord, or a pack of lesser undead — rather than as a standalone encounter.
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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