Ruohtta
Ruohtta — The Encounter
Sami lord of the dead, plague-bearer on a gaunt steed · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Ruohtta
In the old north it is whispered that Ruohtta keeps the realm beneath the snow, where the unburied wander and the sick are claimed before their time. He does not stalk; he rides, and the pestilence rides before him like a herald clearing the road. Where his gaunt steed sets its hoof, wells turn foul and cattle stiffen in the byre. The torch he bears is no comfort against the dark but a cold green flame that marks the doomed, and those who see it lifted toward them seldom see another spring. Folk leave bread and a saved portion at the threshold so the rider passes by, for to bargain with the lord of the dead is to be remembered by him. The crawling things about his steed's hooves are the souls he has gathered, unmade into worms and serpents, never to walk upright again.
Run Ruohtta in Sixty Seconds
- He rides, he does not stand — Ruohtta has no walking speed of his own; his 60 ft. only works while mounted. Keep him on the gaunt steed and treat the pair as one chess piece that charges in and wheels back out.
- Open with the torch — lead with the death-torch on a squishy target. Every hit reduces their hit point MAXIMUM, so damage done early never heals back. Plague-Herald then stops them healing at all.
- Kill-priority is the healer — his whole engine is irreversible damage; whoever can cure disease or restore max HP unravels it. Point him at the cleric and keep him there.
- When bloodied — lean on legendary actions: Trample to knock down and reposition, Breath of Rot to deny healing in melee, and Grave-Cold Retort to chill anyone trying to pin him.
- Three ways to run it — (1) hit-and-run cavalry with Reaping Charge each lap; (2) area-denial caster, holding Wail for clusters and Breath of Rot in the scrum; (3) duelist that targets one PC and grinds their maximum to nothing.
Ruohtta
Large undead, neutral evil
CR 10 · 5,900 XP · GUIDELINEPlague-Herald. Signature. Ruohtta rides ahead of every pestilence. A creature that ends its turn within 10 feet of Ruohtta must succeed on a DC 16 Constitution saving throw or contract a wasting sickness: until it finishes a long rest, it cannot regain hit points and its hit point maximum is reduced by 7 (3d6 minus body) each time it fails. The reduction lasts until the disease is cured.
Reaping Charge. If the gaunt steed moves at least 20 feet straight toward a target and Ruohtta hits it with the death-torch on the same turn, the target takes an extra 10 (3d6) necrotic damage and must succeed on a DC 16 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.
Turn Resistance. Ruohtta has advantage on saving throws against any effect that turns undead.
Actions
Multiattack. Ruohtta makes two attacks with its death-torch.
Death-Torch. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) bludgeoning damage plus 13 (3d8) necrotic damage, and the target's hit point maximum is reduced by an amount equal to the necrotic damage taken.
Wail of the Pestilence (Recharge 5-6). Ruohtta looses a withering wail in a 30-foot cone. Each creature in the area must make a DC 16 Constitution saving throw, taking 36 (8d8) necrotic damage on a failed save, or half as much on a success. A creature that fails is also poisoned until the end of its next turn.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Grave-Cold Retort (Reaction). When a creature Ruohtta can see hits it with a melee attack, Ruohtta can wreath the attacker in killing frost. The attacker must succeed on a DC 16 Constitution saving throw or take 9 (2d8) cold damage and have its speed halved until the end of its next turn.
Legendary Actions (3/Round)
Lashing Torch. Ruohtta makes one death-torch attack.
Trample (Costs 2 Actions). The gaunt steed moves up to half its speed without provoking opportunity attacks. One creature whose space it enters must succeed on a DC 16 Dexterity saving throw or take 11 (2d6 + 4) bludgeoning damage and be knocked prone.
Breath of Rot (Costs 2 Actions). Ruohtta exhales corruption. Each creature within 10 feet must succeed on a DC 16 Constitution saving throw or take 10 (3d6) necrotic damage and be unable to regain hit points until the start of Ruohtta's next turn.
A skeletal rider in scaled grave-mail and a horned helm rears atop a gaunt undead horse, brandishing a guttering death-torch above a base that boils with serpents, worms, and gnawing beasts of the underworld.
Ruohtta, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINECarrion Stride (signature). The steed ignores difficult terrain made of corpses, mud, ice, or carrion, and opportunity attacks against it from creatures it has trampled this turn are made with disadvantage.
Actions
Rotten Hooves. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) bludgeoning damage plus 7 (2d6) necrotic damage.
Reactions
Bear the Rider. When the creature mounted on the steed is targeted by an attack, the steed can interpose; it becomes the target instead and takes the attack's damage.
A flayed, fearless underworld horse that carries its master tirelessly and crushes the fallen beneath rotting hooves.
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 the death-torch on the frailest target to start shrinking its hit point maximum, then ride past to keep the party from ganging up. Save Wail for a clustered moment. At this scale he is a terrifying capstone fight, not a random wandering threat.
Charge in for Reaping Charge to drop someone prone, then Multiattack the healer or anyone keeping the party topped up so Plague-Herald can lock their healing. Wail when two or more are bunched. Kill-priority: whoever undoes his maximum-reduction damage.
Run him as a mobile solo: open with a charging Reaping Charge + Multiattack, spend legendary actions on Trample and Lashing Torch to never sit still, and Wail the cluster on recharge. Kill-priority is the party's healer/cleric so the stacked maximum-reductions stick. Use Grave-Cold Retort to punish whoever locks him down.
Put Ruohtta 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 Ruohtta?
His home build is CR 10 (5,900 XP) at native tier 3, run as a solo centerpiece with legendary actions. The tier table also gives CR-appropriate versions for levels 1-4 and 5-10 by swapping only the numbers.
Can Ruohtta be a companion or ally?
Ruohtta himself is a death-god boss, not a follower, but his mount can table-side as the bound companion: The Gaunt Steed (AC 14, 110 HP) with Rotten Hooves, Carrion Stride, and the Bear the Rider reaction. Drop the steed in as an undead ally or as a leftover threat once its master falls.
How do I keep the hit-point-maximum loss from feeling unfair?
Telegraph it: describe the cold green flame marking a target. Make clear that lesser restoration cures the wasting sickness and that a long rest or greater restoration restores lost maximum, so the party has counters and a reason to prioritize the cleric.
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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