Daggs
Daggs — The Encounter
Cloak-quick cutthroat of the gutter wards, blade before breath · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Daggs
They call him Daggs in the Baseo wards, where the lamp-oil runs thin and debts are settled in alley-mouths. Born of the under-runs beneath the merchant district, he learned early that a small thing survives by being faster than every large thing's patience. The scarf hides his face from the watch; the cloak, dyed the grey-blue of dusk fog, swallows him between strides. He does not duel. He arrives behind a quarrel, opens the throat of whoever has not yet drawn, and is three rooftops away before the body folds. Fences and fixers leave coin in a cracked urn by the cistern when they need a name unmade, and never ask how it is done. The honest folk swear he is more rumor than rat, but the gutter-children know better: they have seen the red eyes blink once in the dark, and heard the soft scrape of steel, and then nothing at all.
Run Daggs in Sixty Seconds
- Hold for surprise: do not reveal Daggs until the party has been ambushed or distracted — his whole kit pays out against creatures that haven't acted yet.
- Open with the auto-crit: strike a surprised target first; that hit is a critical and dumps the extra 2d6, often dropping a backliner in one blow.
- Kill-priority is the softest target: ignore the tank, go for the caster or archer, then bonus-action Hide or Disengage and slip away.
- When bloodied, stop trading — Cunning Action Dash to break line of sight and reposition for one more clean strike rather than standing in melee.
- Three ways to run it: a lone assassin stalking the party between rooms; one of a pack of cutthroats flanking a bigger boss; or a hired killer with a single named target it will die to reach.
Daggs
Small humanoid (ratfolk), neutral evil
CR 2 · 450 XP · GUIDELINECunning Action. On each of its turns, Daggs can use a bonus action to take the Dash, Disengage, or Hide action.
Gutter-Quick Assassin. Signature. Daggs has advantage on attack rolls against any creature that has not yet acted this combat, and any hit it scores against a surprised creature is a critical hit. The first time each turn it hits a creature it has advantage against, the target takes an extra 7 (2d6) damage.
Actions
Multiattack. Daggs makes two attacks with its curved blade, or two with its hurled daggers.
Curved Blade. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d6 + 3) slashing damage.
Hurled Dagger. Ranged Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, range 20/60 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d4 + 3) piercing damage.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Slip the Cloak. Reaction. When a creature Daggs can see misses it with a melee attack, Daggs lets its wind-caught cloak carry it 5 feet away without provoking opportunity attacks.
A slate-furred ratfolk poised mid-stride, scarf streaming, cloak snapping in the wind as a single curved blade flashes low. Everything about the pose says he was already gone before you felt the cut.
Daggs, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEPack Cutpurse (signature). Daggs has advantage on attack rolls against a creature if at least one of the bound rogue's allies is within 5 feet of that creature and isn't incapacitated.
Actions
Shortblade. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d6 + 3) slashing damage plus 3 (1d6) if Pack Cutpurse applies.
Reactions
Scurry. When an enemy ends its turn within 5 feet, Daggs uses its reaction to move up to half its speed without provoking opportunity attacks.
A wiry den-mate who fights at the rogue's flank, all teeth and quick hands, peeling targets off the line so the killing blow lands clean.
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 against whoever has not acted yet, score the auto-crit on a surprised PC, then Cunning Action to Hide or Disengage. Kill-priority is the party's softest backliner. Pair Daggs with one bigger threat that holds the front so he can keep flanking from the dark.
Lead with the surprise strike on an isolated caster, then Slip the Cloak when cornered to reset distance. If the party clusters, take the easy single target rather than fishing for two. Run him with minions or a lair so he always has an ally within reach to trigger advantage.
He is a finisher, not an anchor: pair him with a bigger threat and a few minions so he stays hidden until a target is bloodied or alone. Open against the unacted, take the crit, vanish. Kill-priority remains the squishiest PC he can reach unseen.
Put Daggs 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 Daggs?
Daggs is built as a Challenge Rating 2 add-on skirmisher (450 XP) at his native Tier 1. The record also provides Tier 2 and Tier 3 stat lines so you can drop the same assassin into a level 5-10 or 11-15 game by swapping in the higher AC, HP, to-hit, and DC.
Can Daggs be a companion or ally?
Yes. As a low-Charisma cutthroat he makes a believable rogue-for-hire NPC ally or a recurring rival who only fights when the odds favor him. He is not designed as a solo boss — give him a bigger threat and a few minions to flank around.
How do I keep Daggs from dying in one round?
Never let him stand and trade. Use Cunning Action every turn to Hide or Disengage, lean on Slip the Cloak when a melee attack misses, and fight from cover so he gets his ambush advantage. He hits hard once, then must vanish before the party focuses him.
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 Daggs 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.
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