Bouda
Bouda — The Encounter
The Evil-Eyed Smith Who Wears a Hyena's Skin · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Bouda
Where the forge-fires burn after dusk, the village smith is not always a man. The bouda, say the old wives of the highlands, is a worker of iron by day and a hyena by night, slipping his human skin as easily as he sets down his hammer. He is marked by the evil eye, a sidelong glance that sours milk, withers crops, and steals the wits from a sleeping child. By moonlight he digs the dead from their graves and lopes among the herds, and a wound dealt by his claws never closes clean. Folk hang charms of iron and cowrie at the threshold against him, yet the bouda fears no door he himself has hung. To meet his gaze across the firelight is to feel the cold certainty that the smith who shod your ox has been counting your throat. He answers only to hunger, and hunger does not bargain.
Run Bouda in Sixty Seconds
- Evil Eye first. Before initiative even settles, hit the party's biggest threat with the gaze so its opening turn comes with disadvantage. It costs no action and sets the whole fight.
- Grapple, then drag. The Bite grapples on a hit. Bite a healer or caster, then Hyena's Lope as a bonus action to drag them out of support range.
- Kill-priority: the isolated one. The Bouda hunts the straggler. Whoever it has grappled or dragged is the target every round until they break free or drop.
- When bloodied, it runs. A wounded hyena does not stand and trade. Use Hyena's Lope to Disengage, circle in cover, and re-engage with advantage from Pack Frenzy.
- Three ways to run it. As a lone ambusher, open from stealth and pick off the rear; as a pack of 2-3, chain Evil Eye and gang the front; as a boss's lieutenant, let it flank and harry while the flagship pins the party.
Bouda
Medium fiend (shapechanger), neutral evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEPack Frenzy. The bouda makes weapon attacks with advantage against any creature within 5 feet of at least one of the bouda's allies that is not incapacitated.
Evil Eye (signature). The bouda is a smith cursed with the malevolent gaze of folk dread. When a creature the bouda can see starts its turn within 30 feet, the bouda may force it to make a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw (no action). On a failure the target has disadvantage on its next attack roll and ability check as cold sweat and dread grip it. A creature that succeeds is immune to this bouda's Evil Eye for 24 hours.
Keen Smell. The bouda has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on smell, and can track a wounded creature by the scent of blood for 1 mile.
Actions
Multiattack. The bouda makes two attacks: one with its Bite and one with its Rending Claws.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8+4) piercing damage. If the target is a creature it is grappled (escape DC 14); until this grapple ends the bouda cannot bite another target.
Rending Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6+4) slashing damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or take 7 (2d6) ongoing necrotic damage at the start of its next turn as the wound festers.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Hyena's Lope (bonus). The bouda takes the Dash or Disengage action as a bonus action, melting back into shadow or brush.
A green-skinned, hunched figure caught mid-change, hyena ears flat and tongue lolling over jagged fangs, shaggy fur bristling at its throat and clawed limbs. It wears a smith's hide wrap and moves with the rolling, predatory gait of a beast that only wore a man's shape.
Bouda, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINECarrion Sense (signature). The grave-hound has advantage on attack rolls against any creature that is bloodied or is suffering ongoing damage.
Actions
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (2d4+4) piercing damage, and the target is knocked prone if it is Large or smaller.
Reactions
Answer the Howl. When the bouda is hit by an attack within 20 feet, the grave-hound moves up to its speed toward the attacker without provoking opportunity attacks.
A lean, laughing hound that runs at the smith's heel, dug up from a grave it never truly left.
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 Evil Eye on the party's best striker, then close and bite to grapple a squishy back-liner. If the targets cluster, lean on Pack Frenzy by keeping it adjacent to an ally. Kill-priority is whoever it has grappled; pair it with a bigger threat so it can flank.
Open by Evil-Eyeing the heaviest hitter, then Multiattack a flanked target so Pack Frenzy grants advantage. Bite to grapple and drag a healer out of formation, Rending Claws to stack festering damage. Use Hyena's Lope to vanish before it can be focused; this is the harrying brute piece beside a flagship boss, not the boss.
Lead two or three boudas into a pack and chain Evil Eye across the front line each round. Grapple-and-drag the chosen prey into the pack, where Pack Frenzy makes every claw land with advantage. Kill-priority is the most isolated PC; pair the pack under a single legendary master who pins the party in place.
Put Bouda 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 Bouda?
Bouda is built at CR 6 (Tier 2, 2,300 XP) in its native band, a hardy were-hyena brute meant as an add-on to a flagship boss. Scaled stat lines are provided for Tier 1 (CR ~2) and Tier 3 (CR ~11) so it can harry parties of levels 1-15.
Can Bouda be a companion or ally?
Not as written. The Bouda is an evil predator and is not solo_capable, so it works best as a roaming threat or a boss's lieutenant rather than a player ally. Its bound Grave-Hound, however, makes a ready-to-drop minion or guardian if you need an allied beast.
Why is Bouda a fiend rather than a humanoid or beast?
The folkloric bouda is a cursed shapechanger, a smith who sheds his human skin to become a hyena and wields the evil eye. The fiend (shapechanger) typing reflects that unnatural, malevolent nature and the festering wounds its claws leave, while keeping the block fully SRD-safe.
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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