Nefarok, the Rot Bringer
Nefarok, the Rot Bringer — The Encounter
Antlered plague-giant of the bilebound northern wood · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Nefarok, the Rot Bringer
In the bile-soaked groves north of the world-ash, the rot must walk on legs, and so it shaped Nefarok. Once a guardian-giant of the deep forest, it drank too deeply of the poison-spring that wells beneath the dying trees, and the blight made a home of its flesh. Now antlers sprout from its skull like the dead branches of a strangled oak, and pale fungus crowns the wounds that will not close. It does not hunger for meat so much as for spread: every village it passes wakes to find its grain greyed, its cattle sloughing, its wells run thick and sweet with corruption. The plague-witches of the bileblight covens follow in its wake, harvesting the spores it sheds, and call it lord. To strike Nefarok with venom or curse is folly, for poison is the milk that nursed it, and every rot only feeds the deeper rot within.
Run Nefarok, the Rot Bringer in Sixty Seconds
- Hold its aura Anyone who ends a turn within 10 ft. of Nefarok eats 1d10 poison every round it acts, so it punishes melee dogpiles for free.
- Open with Spew Bile Drop the cone on the tightest cluster turn one; failed saves also seed Creeping Rot that chews hit-point maximums until cured.
- Never poison it Festering Vigor turns all poison and necrotic damage into healing, so warn poison/necro players to switch damage types or they fuel the boss.
- When bloodied Nothing changes mechanically, lean harder on Spew Bile and Spore Burst reactions; it is meant to grind, not panic.
- Three ways to run it Solo brute for low tiers, the rot-anchor of a plague warband at its home tier, or a near-unkillable wall beside a witch-boss up high.
Nefarok, the Rot Bringer
Large giant, neutral evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEBileblight Aura. At the start of each of Nefarok's turns, every creature within 10 feet of it that is not immune to poison takes 5 (1d10) poison damage as spores and seeping rot fill the air.
Festering Vigor. Whenever Nefarok takes damage from an effect that deals poison or necrotic damage, it instead regains hit points equal to half that damage. Rot feeds it.
Actions
Multiattack. Nefarok makes two Rending Claw attacks. If both hit the same target, the target must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or contract the Creeping Rot (see below).
Rending Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8+5) slashing damage plus 7 (2d6) necrotic damage.
Spew Bile (Recharge 5-6). Nefarok vomits a 30-foot cone of caustic rot. Each creature in that area must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw, taking 28 (8d6) poison damage on a failed save, or half as much on a success. A creature that fails is poisoned until the end of its next turn. Creeping Rot: a creature infected by Creeping Rot has its hit point maximum reduced by 5 (2d4) at the end of each of its turns until it succeeds on a DC 15 Constitution save (action) or is cured. It dies if reduced to 0 maximum hit points.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Spore Burst (Reaction). When a creature within 5 feet hits Nefarok with a melee attack, Nefarok releases a cloud of spores; the attacker must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or be blinded until the end of its next turn.
A bloated, antlered horror of mossy green hide split by glowing blue plague-veins and festering open sores, rooted to the rotting earth on claws like reaping hooks. Where Nefarok stands, the northern wood blackens and the very air turns to spores.
Nefarok, the Rot Bringer, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINESymbiotic Decay (signature). While within 30 feet of its bound master, the Nefarok, the Rot Bringer has resistance to poison and necrotic damage, and the first time each turn an enemy enters its reach, that enemy takes 3 (1d6) poison damage.
Actions
Fungal Lash. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (2d6+3) bludgeoning damage plus 4 (1d8) poison damage.
Reactions
Burst of Spores. When the Nefarok, the Rot Bringer drops to 0 hit points, it erupts; each creature within 10 feet must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or take 7 (2d6) poison damage and be poisoned until the end of its next turn.
A shambling tangle of root, fungus, and stolen bone, grown from a spore Nefarok pressed into a slain forester's chest.
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 Spew Bile into the tightest cluster, then wade in clawing. Park it on the casters so its Bileblight Aura grinds them each round. It is a wall of attrition, not a sprinter; pair it with a faster threat to herd the party into its breath.
Open with Spew Bile on a clump, then Multiattack the squishiest reachable target to seed Creeping Rot before they can cleanse it. Never let the party rely on poison/necrotic damage here, it heals Nefarok. This is the rot-anchor of a bileblight warband; pair it with a plague-witch flagship who buffs it from the back.
Lead with Spew Bile, then claw the same target twice to force Creeping Rot every round. With Festering Vigor it laughs at necromancers and green-dragon spawn alike. Kill-priority for the party is the cleansing healer; Nefarok's job is to outlast them while a bigger boss does the killing.
Put Nefarok, the Rot Bringer 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 Nefarok?
Nefarok's home tier is CR 6 (2,300 XP), built for parties of levels 5-10. The record also gives drop-in CR 2-ish and CR 11-ish stat lines so you can field the exact same creature at tier 1 or tier 3 without rebuilding it.
Can Nefarok be a companion or ally?
Not as a party member, it is a hostile plague-giant. But it travels with a bound Sporeling (AC 13, 82 HP) you can run as its minion or hand to an NPC plague-witch. For a player-side ally, reskin the Sporeling as a tamed fungal guardian.
How do I stop Creeping Rot from snowballing?
Creeping Rot drops a victim's hit-point maximum each turn until they spend an action on a DC 15 Constitution save or are cured by magic such as lesser restoration. Kill it fast: a single greater restoration or any disease-curing effect ends it, and a long rest is not enough on its own.
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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