Morana
Morana — The Encounter
Slavic crone of winter, scythe of the dying year · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Morana
Where the last warmth of autumn dies, Morana walks. The old Slavs named her the bringer of winter and the keeper of the dead, the crone-face of the turning year who drowns the harvest beneath frost and sleep. Each spring her effigy is broken and cast into the river so that the land may wake, yet she is never truly destroyed; she only withdraws into the long dark, sharpening her crescent scythe against the cold of the moon. They say she carries a skull taken from the first soul to freeze, and through its hollow eyes she counts the breaths still owed to her. Travelers caught by an early snow speak of a tall woman crowned in iron rays, her train trailing ice, her voice the cracking of frozen rivers. To meet her is to feel the year end in your chest. Offerings of bread and fire are left at thresholds to beg her passage, for spring comes only when she is content to go.
Run Morana in Sixty Seconds
- She is a winter boss, not a brawler. Hold her back, keep the 15-foot Killing Frost aura on the cluster, and make the party come to you across ice.
- Open with crowd control. Lead with Creeping Rime (or Skull of the Dead if they're already bunched) before anyone spends their turn, then mop up.
- Kill-priority is the wounded. Her scythe and Toll of the Dying both reward hitting anyone below half HP, so always swing at the most hurt target.
- When bloodied, run. Use Winter's Step every turn to disengage, leaving ice behind, and let the aura plus necrotic ticks do the work.
- Three ways to run her: solo crescent-moon throne fight, ambush-in-a-blizzard with frozen-husk adds, or a slow dread-march where she freezes the map one Creeping Rime at a time.
Morana
Medium undead, neutral evil
CR 11 · 7,200 XP · GUIDELINEKilling Frost (Signature). The air around Morana freezes; her breath is the last breath of the year. At the start of each of her turns, each creature within 15 feet of her takes 7 (2d6) cold damage and the ground there becomes coated in rime (difficult terrain). Plants, water, and warmth wither in her presence; a creature reduced to 0 hit points by this aura freezes solid and cannot be revived except by magic of 6th level or higher.
Frigid Vestments. When a creature hits Morana with a melee attack while within 5 feet of her, that creature takes 5 (1d10) cold damage and must succeed on a DC 16 Constitution saving throw or have its speed halved until the end of its next turn.
Actions
Multiattack. Morana makes two attacks with her Reaping Scythe, or two attacks with Frostbite, and may use Skull of the Dead (recharge 5-6) if available.
Reaping Scythe. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 18 (3d8 + 5) cold damage. If the target is below half its hit point maximum, it takes an extra 9 (2d8) necrotic damage as the scythe reaps the dying.
Frostbite. Ranged Spell Attack: +9 to hit, range 60 ft., one target. Hit: 16 (3d8 + 3) cold damage, and the target cannot take reactions until the start of its next turn.
Skull of the Dead (Recharge 5-6). Morana raises the frozen skull she carries and the dead answer. Each creature in a 30-foot cone must make a DC 16 Wisdom saving throw, taking 35 (10d6) necrotic damage on a failed save, or half as much on a success. A humanoid reduced to 0 hit points by this effect rises as a frozen husk under Morana's control at the start of her next turn (as a zombie with cold immunity).
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Winter's Step. As a bonus action, Morana teleports up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space she can see, leaving a patch of difficult-terrain ice in the space she left.
Legendary Actions (3/Round)
Frost Lash. Morana makes one Frostbite attack.
Creeping Rime (Costs 2 Actions). Morana freezes a 20-foot-radius area within 60 feet. The area becomes difficult terrain and each creature in it must succeed on a DC 16 Dexterity saving throw or be restrained by ice until the end of its next turn.
Toll of the Dying (Costs 2 Actions). Each creature within 15 feet of Morana that is below half its hit point maximum must succeed on a DC 16 Constitution saving throw or take 13 (3d8) necrotic damage.
A gaunt queen crowned in a spiked sunburst halo glides above a frozen crescent moon hung with icicles, one hand bearing a long crescent scythe-staff, the other lifting a frost-rimed skull. Her endless robes pool into rime and her gaze stops the heart like the first hard freeze of the year.
Morana, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEEyes of the Counted Dead (signature). While carried by an ally, the skull grants that ally advantage on Wisdom (Insight) checks and lets it sense the current hit points of any creature within 30 feet that is below half its maximum.
Actions
Wail of Frost. Ranged Spell Attack: +7 to hit, range 60 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (3d6 + 4) cold damage, and the target's speed is reduced by 10 feet until the end of its next turn.
Reactions
Death's Inventory. When a creature within 30 feet drops to 0 hit points, the skull's bearer regains 7 (2d6) hit points as the count is paid.
The frost-rimed skull Morana lifts is no trophy but a tally-keeper, murmuring the names of the soon-to-die through teeth of blue ice.
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 Frostbite from range, then close to bring the Killing Frost aura over clustered foes. Kill-priority is whoever is already hurt, since the scythe reaps the dying for bonus damage. At this tier run her without Skull of the Dead and pair her with a pack of frozen husks rather than alone.
Hold her in the open so the 15-foot frost aura punishes anyone who closes, and lead with Skull of the Dead when three or more are bunched. Use Winter's Step to stay out of melee and force ranged characters to chase her across iced terrain. Focus the lowest-HP target to trigger her reaping rider.
Run her as a solo boss: open the round with Creeping Rime to restrain the front line, then Skull of the Dead into the cluster, then Reaping Scythe on whoever is bloodied. Spend legendary actions on Frost Lash to whittle casters and Toll of the Dying to finish the wounded. When bloodied, Winter's Step away each turn and let the aura plus toll grind them down.
Put Morana 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 Morana?
Her native build is CR 11 (T3, levels 11-15): AC 18, 195 HP, +9 to hit, save DC 16. She is solo-capable thanks to her legendary actions, so the sheet already plays up a band; drop to the T2 or T1 numbers in the tiers table to field her against lower-level parties.
Can Morana be a companion or ally?
As a death-goddess boss she is built to oppose the party, but her bound Frozen Skull works as an ally relic or NPC familiar: AC 15, 117 HP, a ranged Wail of Frost attack, and a reaction that heals its bearer whenever a foe drops. Hand the skull to a frost-themed patron NPC or use it as a cursed treasure the party can wield at a price.
Why is Morana undead rather than a celestial or fiend?
She is drawn straight from Slavic folklore as the crone of winter and the keeper of the dead, an effigy broken each spring and never truly slain. The undead type captures her death-aspect, her cold and necrotic powers, and her command of frozen husks while keeping her firmly in public-domain mythology rather than any proprietary cosmology.
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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