Rokurobi
Rokurobi — The Encounter
The Long-Necked Phantom who strikes from impossible reach · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Rokurobi
The grimoires of the eastern courts name her Rokurobi, the Long-Necked Phantom, counted among the unpredictable generals that march beneath Ashura's banner. By daylight she passes as a courtesan or a quiet wife, demure behind a fan; only after the lamps are lowered does her neck unspool, the head gliding silent over the rafters to read sealed letters, count blades in a guardroom, or lower its grinning face an inch from a sleeper's lips to drink the breath from them. She is prized for reconnaissance above slaughter, for no wall is high enough and no door barred enough to keep her sight away, yet a cornered Rokurobi is no easy kill: her strangling coils crush a throat at fifteen feet, and her head snaps back beyond a sword's arc before the stroke lands. Travellers are warned to fear the woman who smiles too widely and stands a little too far from the candle.
Run Rokurobi in Sixty Seconds
- Hold for ambush Rokurobi belongs in cover, not the open field. Open by grappling the most isolated PC with a 15-foot Strangling Coil and dragging them out of support range.
- Kill-priority is the freer Target whoever can break her grapple or heal the victim. While she holds one creature she cannot coil another, so the table should rush to free the grappled ally.
- Drink the breath Once a target is grappled, follow every turn with Phantom Bite for the Constitution-save necrotic spike. That ramping breath-drain is the real threat clock.
- When bloodied, run She is a spy, not a martyr. Use Eerie Swiftness (bonus-action Dash/Disengage) and Snap Back to slip away and re-stalk rather than die in melee.
- Three ways to run her Pure recon (hit-and-fade scout that softens one PC), executioner (paired with a flagship boss, isolates the healer), or terror (her grinning head appears over walls before she ever strikes).
Rokurobi
Medium fiend (shapechanger), neutral evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINECoiling Neck. Rokurobi's neck stretches to monstrous length. Her melee attacks have reach 15 ft., and she can make Stealth checks while observing a target from cover up to 30 feet away as her head snakes around corners and over walls.
Eerie Swiftness. On her turn she can take the Dash, Disengage, or Hide action as a bonus action.
Actions
Multiattack. Rokurobi makes two Strangling Coil attacks, or one Strangling Coil and uses Phantom Bite.
Strangling Coil. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 17 (3d8+4) bludgeoning damage, and a Medium or smaller target is grappled (escape DC 14). While grappled this way it is restrained, and Rokurobi cannot coil another creature.
Phantom Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (2d8+4) piercing damage. If the target is a creature she has grappled, it must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or take an additional 9 (2d8) necrotic damage as she drinks its breath.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Snap Back (Reaction). When a creature she can see misses her with a melee attack, Rokurobi retracts her neck a flickering distance and moves up to 15 feet without provoking opportunity attacks.
A poised woman in a blood-pink kimono and wooden geta, her painted face fixed in a too-wide grin while her neck loops twice through the air like a pale serpent reaching past every guard.
Rokurobi, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEServant's Eyes (signature). While within 30 feet of Rokurobi, an ally has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks, as she whispers what her mistress's roaming head has already seen.
Actions
Hidden Tanto. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (2d4+4) piercing damage, plus 7 (2d6) if the target is within 5 ft. of one of Rokurobi's allies.
Reactions
Smoke Bead. When hit by an attack, Rokurobi crushes a smoke bead and vanishes into a billow of smoke, becoming heavily obscured to that attacker until the end of her next turn.
A loyal handmaid who carries the phantom's secrets and a slim blade beneath her sleeve, ever positioned where a knife will hurt most.
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 from hiding with a Strangling Coil from 15 feet to grapple the softest target, then drag it from the party. If the group clusters, pick off the back-rank healer or caster first. Pair her with a heavier brute so she works as the reach-grappler that isolates prey.
Open with a Coil-and-Bite combo on an isolated PC to grapple and start draining breath. Kill-priority is whoever can free the grappled ally (cast remove condition, deal big single hits). Use Snap Back every time melee swings at her so she never trades blows fairly; she is the assassin piece beside a flagship boss, not the boss herself.
Open by Hiding as a bonus action, then lashing a coil over the front line to seize a back-rank caster. When bloodied she retreats fully with Eerie Swiftness and Snap Back, picking off stragglers. Pair with a melee anchor that holds the line so her reach grapples never get answered.
Put Rokurobi 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 Rokurobi?
Her native build is CR 6 (2,300 XP), tuned for a party of levels 5-10. Scaled stat blocks are provided for tiers 1-4 and 11-15 so she can ride alongside parties of almost any level; only the numbers change, her traits and tactics stay identical.
Can Rokurobi be a companion or ally?
Yes. As a shapechanging spy she makes a chilling patron or reluctant ally for an infiltration arc, feeding the party intelligence her roaming head has gathered. The included companion, Sashiko, lets you field her with a loyal handmaid as a paired encounter.
Is Rokurobi a solo boss?
No. She is an add-on general, not a centerpiece. She has no legendary actions and is built to flank a bigger flagship threat, doing her best work as the assassin that isolates and strangles a single target while the boss commands the field.
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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