Estong
Estong — The Encounter
Saw-Toothed Rat of the Crooked Alleys · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Estong
In the crooked tide-flooded alleys where the canal meets the market, the gutter-folk whisper of Estong, a rat grown to the shape of a man and twice as cruel. He was, they say, a beggar's familiar who supped too long on spilled blood and butcher's offal, until the hunger reshaped him into something that walks upright and reasons like a thief. He keeps the narrow ways as his own toll-road, the saw-blade slung over his shoulder filed from a broken mill-wheel, its teeth dark with old work. Those who pay are let by. Those who do not learn why the wounds he opens will not close. He fights as the rat fights: never head-on, always from the flooded ledge or the broken fence, darting in to rake and gone before the blade falls. Hunters who corner him in his warren find no single foe but a dozen lesser cousins boiling out of the dark at his shrill command.
Run Estong in Sixty Seconds
- Hold, don't charge. Estong opens from cover or a ledge with a thrown/lashing spear, then Scurries in for the saw-blade and back out. He never trades blows toe-to-toe.
- Bleed is the threat. Serrated Edge triggers on crits or on any already-wounded target. Once it lands, someone burns an action on a DC 14 Medicine check or eats 2d6 every turn until magical healing.
- Kill-priority: the healer. He hunts whoever can close his wounds, and he targets PCs who are already bloodied so the bleed sticks.
- Three ways to run him. (1) Lone toll-collector miniboss in an alley. (2) Lieutenant of a rat-warren with Pasaway and a giant-rat swarm. (3) A fast flanker peeling the back line while a bigger boss holds the front.
- When bloodied, he runs. Below half HP he Disengages onto rooftops or into the canal and harasses from range rather than dying in the open.
Estong
Medium monstrosity, chaotic neutral
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEGutter-Born Agility. Estong ignores difficult terrain made of rubble, refuse, fences, or ledges, and opportunity attacks against it are made with disadvantage when it moves out of a creature's reach.
Serrated Edge. Signature. When Estong scores a critical hit or hits a creature already below its hit point maximum, the wound bleeds: the target takes 7 (2d6) slashing damage at the start of its next turn unless it or an adjacent creature uses an action to staunch the wound (a successful DC 14 Wisdom (Medicine) check) or the target receives any magical healing.
Actions
Multiattack. Estong makes two attacks: one with its saw-blade and one with its spear, or two with its spear.
Saw-Blade. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (2d10 + 4) slashing damage.
Lashing Spear. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 20/60 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) piercing damage.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Scurry (Bonus Action). Estong takes the Dash or Disengage action. If it ends this movement within 5 feet of cover or another creature, it gains half cover until the start of its next turn.
Tail Trip (Reaction). When a creature within 5 feet of Estong misses it with a melee attack, Estong lashes its rope-thick tail; the attacker must succeed on a DC 14 Dexterity saving throw or fall prone.
A lean ratfolk skirmisher draped in blood-red wrappings and scrap plate, brandishing a jagged saw-toothed cleaver while a long spear rides across its back and its rope-thick tail coils ready to trip.
Estong, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEPack Cunning (signature). Estong has advantage on attack rolls against any creature that is within 5 feet of one of Estong's allies.
Actions
Rusted Hook. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (2d6 + 3) piercing damage, and the target's speed is reduced by 10 feet until the end of its next turn.
Reactions
Skitter Aside. When hit by an attack, Estong can use its reaction to move up to half its speed without provoking opportunity attacks.
A smaller, half-feral cousin who shadows Estong through the canal-warren, hooking the slow and the wounded so the saw-rat can finish them.
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 cover with the spear, then Scurry in for one saw-blade swing and dart back out of reach. Keep Estong skirmishing along ledges and fences so the party wastes turns chasing. At low levels he is a hard miniboss; pair him only with one or two minions so the bleed doesn't snowball a fragile party.
Open with the spear at range, then close to Multiattack and trigger Serrated Edge on anyone already hurt; the bleed forces a healer or a wasted action. Kill-priority is the party healer so wounds stay open. Run him as the lieutenant of a rat-warren: pair him with Pasaway plus a swarm of giant rats so Pack Cunning and his Scurry keep him untouchable, and have him flee if reduced below half rather than die in the open.
Use him as a fast harrier inside a larger threat's lair, never the centerpiece. Open from the rafters or flooded ledges, Multiattack the most wounded PC to stack Serrated Edge bleed, and Tail Trip melee attackers to drop them prone. Pair him with a bigger boss and a host of minions; alone at this tier a full party will out-act him, so he works best peeling off the back line while the real threat holds the front.
Put Estong 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 Estong?
His home tier is Tier 2 (party levels 5-10) at CR 6, 2,300 XP. The stat block also gives Tier 1 (levels 1-4) and Tier 3 (levels 11-15) versions with the same traits and rescaled numbers, so you can drop him into any of the three tiers.
Can Estong be a companion or ally?
Yes. As a chaotic-neutral gutter-rat he can be bribed, hired as an alley guide, or turned against a worse foe in his warren. He is a self-interested mercenary, not a loyal follower, and will bolt the moment a fight turns badly for him.
Is Estong a solo boss?
No. He is a hit-and-run skirmisher built to fight beside minions, not to soak a whole party's action economy. Run him as a lieutenant in a rat-warren or as a fast flanker alongside a larger threat rather than as a standalone centerpiece boss.
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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