Nuckelavee
Nuckelavee — The Encounter
The Skinless Rider of the Orcadian Tides · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Nuckelavee
On the salt-bitten shores of the northern isles they speak of the Nuckelavee in whispers, and only ever with the surf at their backs. It rises from the sea as a single horror: a man's torso bound to a horse's spine, both stripped of skin so that every black-coursing vein and bunched sinew shows raw in the moonlight. Its breath is a blight; where it passes, crops blacken, livestock sicken, and the springs turn foul. The folk of the isles learned one mercy from the old wives: the beast loathes fresh running water and will not ford a stream, so a leaping burn is the surest road to safety. It hunts in foul weather and recedes only when the islanders make their offerings to the sea-mother who keeps it chained through the kindlier months. To look upon it is to know that the cold deep has appetites, and a face.
Run Nuckelavee in Sixty Seconds
- Geography is the fight. The Nuckelavee cannot cross running fresh water and is crippled beside it. Note every stream on the map before round one; the party that herds it to a burn wins easily.
- Open with the charge. Move 20+ feet straight at the softest target, hit with the Long Spear for the bonus 2d8 and a prone save, then Trampling Hooves to keep them down.
- Kill-priority: the controller. It has no answer to forced movement toward water. The PC with Thunderwave, a shove, or a watery spell is your most dangerous enemy, so it should hunt them first.
- When bloodied, it presses harder. Stay in melee, lean on Lashing Recoil against every retaliating attack, and keep the 10-ft. Withering Breath aura over the tightest cluster of PCs.
- Three ways to run it: a lone shoreline ambush in foul weather (T1-T2); the mobile hammer of a tidal warband beside a sea-hag or drowned giant (T3); or a slow-burn blight that poisons a village's wells until the party tracks it to the sea.
Nuckelavee
Large fiend, chaotic evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEWithering Breath. The Nuckelavee exhales a stench of rot and brine. Its mere presence sickens the land: each creature that ends its turn within 10 feet of it must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or take 7 (2d6) necrotic damage and have disadvantage on its next attack roll. Plants within 30 feet wither, and standing freshwater turns brackish.
Fear of Fresh Water. Signature. The Nuckelavee cannot cross running fresh water. While it stands within 5 feet of running fresh water, or while drenched by it, it has disadvantage on attack rolls and saving throws and its speeds are halved.
Single-Bodied Charge. If the Nuckelavee moves at least 20 feet straight toward a target and hits it with the Long Spear on the same turn, the target takes an extra 9 (2d8) piercing damage and must succeed on a DC 14 Strength save or be knocked prone.
Actions
Multiattack. The Nuckelavee makes two attacks: one with its Long Spear and one with its Trampling Hooves. It can replace the Long Spear attack with Hurled Spear.
Long Spear. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (2d8 + 4) piercing damage plus 7 (2d6) necrotic damage.
Trampling Hooves. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) bludgeoning damage, and a Large or smaller target must succeed on a DC 14 Strength save or be knocked prone.
Hurled Spear. Ranged Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, range 30/120 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (2d8 + 4) piercing damage plus 7 (2d6) necrotic damage.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Lashing Recoil. Reaction. When a creature within 10 feet hits the Nuckelavee with a melee attack, the long-armed rider whips its spear in answer, dealing 9 (2d8) piercing damage to the attacker.
A flayed rider, all glistening muscle and a yellow-coursing vein, sits fused at the waist to an equally skinless steed; its overlong arm hoists a harpoon while the horse's single black eye burns like a coal. Rider and mount are one nightmare, dragged from the cold tide.
Nuckelavee, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEReek of Rot (signature). Once per turn, when Nuckelavee hits with an attack, the target must succeed on a DC 13 Constitution save or be poisoned until the end of its next turn.
Actions
Goring Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (2d6 + 3) piercing damage plus 4 (1d8) necrotic damage.
Reactions
Bolt to the Surf. When reduced to half its hit points or fewer, Nuckelavee may immediately move up to its speed without provoking opportunity attacks, fleeing toward the nearest water.
A half-grown skinless colt that trails the great beast, bound to a handler who can stomach its stench and its endless, weeping eye.
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 a Hurled Spear from outside the party's reach, then charge the lowest-AC striker for the prone-knockdown. Keep its 10-ft. Withering Breath aura over clustered PCs to chip and disadvantage them. At this tier run it as a roaming terror with a pair of skeletal hounds, not alone.
Open by charging the squishiest caster: Single-Bodied Charge knocks them prone, then Trampling Hooves keeps them down. Punish any melee that closes with Lashing Recoil, and let Withering Breath grind anyone who clusters around it. Kill-priority is whoever can drag it to fresh running water, since that crushes it.
Lead a tidal incursion: charge-and-prone the frontline, Lashing Recoil every retaliation, and herd the party away from any stream. Pair it with a bigger threat (a sea-hag coven or a drowned giant) and use it as the mobile hammer that breaks the line. It is a flanking terror, not a standalone boss, so keep it fighting beside minions or a flagship.
Put Nuckelavee 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 Nuckelavee?
Its home statline is CR 6 (2,300 XP), built for a party of levels 5-10. The record also gives scaled CR 2-ish and CR 11-ish columns so you can drop it into a tier-1 or tier-3 table without rebuilding it.
Can Nuckelavee be a companion or ally?
The Nuckelavee itself is a mindless, hostile sea-terror, not an ally. For a player-side option use its companion, Mortasheen the Brine Foal, a bound skinless colt whose reeking attacks poison foes and who bolts for water when wounded.
Why does it perform so badly near water in the stat block?
That is faithful to Orcadian folklore: the Nuckelavee dreads fresh running water and will not ford a stream, which is the islanders' one reliable escape. Mechanically it has disadvantage and halved speed near running fresh water, so smart parties weaponize the terrain.
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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