Nephilims
Nephilims — The Encounter
Fallen giants born of heaven's watchers and the daughters of men · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Nephilims
Of the union forbidden by heaven came the Nephilim, the mighty men of old, men of renown, sired when the watchers descended and took wives among the daughters of men. They grew tall as towers and strong as ten, drinking the marrow of nations, and the earth groaned beneath their tread before the great waters rose to drown their pride. Yet the cost of such borrowed glory was written in their very blood: the genealogy ruined, each generation's span halved, their splendour curdling into brutishness. They did not climb toward the angels who fathered them; they fell, and kept falling, until renown soured into ruin. These survivors stalk the drowned old world, half-remembering the songs of heaven, swinging blades the size of doors and roaring at a sky that cast them out. To stand before a Nephilim is to face the wreckage of something that once was beautiful.
Run Nephilims in Sixty Seconds
- Reach first. Towering Reach gives it 15 ft. of greatsword threat, so it strikes the back rank over your front-liners. Position it where it can menace two PCs at once.
- Open with the boulder. Lob a rock at the clustered or fragile target before closing; the prone-on-fail sets up the follow-up melee.
- When bloodied, spike. Wrath of the Fallen fires once at half HP for a free bonus greatsword with +4 damage — hold that moment for the kill, not a chip.
- Three ways to run it: as a lone tier-1 boss that towers over the party; as a bloodied-spike add-on beside a tier-2 flagship; or as a 2-3 brute pack screening a tier-3 caster.
- Kill-priority is the caster. Its reach and double-hit prone are built to reach over the tank and bury whoever it lands on — send it at squishies.
Nephilims
Large giant, chaotic evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEAntediluvian Vigor. The nephilim is a heir to heaven's tainted blood. While it has more than half its hit points, it has advantage on saving throws against being frightened, charmed, or stunned, and it cannot be knocked prone except by a creature of its size or larger.
Towering Reach. The nephilim's melee weapon attacks reach an additional 5 feet beyond the listed range, letting it strike from the second rank or over allies.
Actions
Multiattack. The nephilim makes two greatsword attacks. If both hit the same target, the target must succeed on a DC 15 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.
Greatsword. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 17 (3d8+4) slashing damage.
Hurled Boulder. Ranged Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, range 60/240 ft., one target. Hit: 18 (3d10+2) bludgeoning damage, and a Large or smaller target must succeed on a DC 15 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Wrath of the Fallen. When the nephilim is reduced to half its hit points or fewer (bloodied) for the first time, it can make one greatsword attack as a bonus action and adds 4 to the damage of that strike.
A heavy-limbed giant of ash-grey flesh and a wild beard, gripping a notched greatsword over a battlefield strewn with the bones of lesser men.
Nephilims, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEHeaven's Faint Echo (signature). Once per short rest, when an ally within 20 feet is reduced to 0 hit points, the companion can roar; that ally instead drops to 1 hit point and stands.
Actions
Cleaving Blade. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (2d8+5) slashing damage.
Reactions
Bulwark of Bone. When an adjacent ally is hit by an attack, the companion can interpose its bulk, reducing the damage by 7.
A leaner kin who still carries a shard of the old radiance, fighting to shield those whose blood it shares.
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 hurling a boulder to scatter a cluster, then wade in with the greatsword and try to prone two clumped targets. At this tier it is a terrifying centerpiece for a low-level party; keep it as the lone big threat and let its reach punish front-liners. Kill-priority: the spellcaster, which it reaches over the tank.
Open with a boulder on the back line, then close and Multiattack the squishiest reachable target, proning on a double hit. When bloodied, Wrath of the Fallen lets it bonus-attack for a sudden spike. Pair it with a bigger boss; the Nephilim is the heavy-hitter add-on that keeps melee honest while the flagship dictates the fight.
Run a pack of two or three as the muscle behind a casting boss. Open with simultaneous boulders to prone the line, converge on isolated PCs, and use Towering Reach to fight two-deep so they never expose their backs. Kill-priority: healers; their double-hit prone strips reactions and rises.
Put Nephilims 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 Nephilims?
Native CR 6 (2,300 XP), a tier-2 Large giant brute. It scales cleanly down to a CR-2-feeling tier-1 menace and up to a CR-11-band tier-3 pack-hitter using the numbers in the tiers table.
Can Nephilims be a companion or ally?
Yes — a tamer Reborn of the Watchers (AC 14, 76 HP) serves as a bound ally, roaring an echo of heaven to drag a dropped ally back to its feet and interposing its bulk to soak hits for kin.
Is the Nephilim a solo boss?
No. It has no legendary actions and is built as an add-on heavy-hitter. Pair it with a bigger flagship threat, or field two or three as the muscle for a casting boss rather than running one alone at its native tier.
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
Played Nephilims at your table? Log in with your Obsidian Tavern account to leave a balance note, a war story, or a file issue — the sharpest reports get the block revised.
Log in to comment