Skar'ath
Skar'ath — The Encounter
Horned Reaver of the Skull-Sown Field · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Skar'ath
Where the war-host of the lower pits needs a blade and not a schemer, the lesser demons whisper of Skar'ath, the Horned Reaver. It was no prince of the abyssal depths but a thing forged of slaughter itself, congealed from the spilt rage of ten thousand battlefield dead and given horns, hunger, and a glaive. It does not bargain, does not boast, and keeps no court. It walks ahead of the marching legions and is loosed like a hound upon whatever line still stands, for it grows only stronger as it bleeds, and the sight of its own torn sinews drives it to deeper frenzy. Hermits who survived its passing tell that it sows the ground it crosses with skulls, planting them upright like a grim harvest so that the field will remember who reaped it. To name it aloud, the old grimoires warn, is to be marked as the next furrow.
Run Skar'ath in Sixty Seconds
- Hold nothing. Skar'ath is pure offense with no defensive plan: it Goring-Charges turn one, knocks the target prone, then Multiattacks. Run it as a battering ram, not a tactician.
- Open big. Lead with Goring Charge (Recharge 5-6) straight into the back line; the prone target eats the follow-up glaive swings at advantage.
- Kill-priority: it. Drop Skar'ath before it hits half HP. Blood Frenzy gives it +2d6 fire per hit and extra speed once bloodied, so chip damage only feeds it.
- When bloodied, it speeds up and burns: have it dive deeper into the party instead of retreating, since it gains advantage on anything already wounded.
- Three ways to run it: as a tier-1 mini-boss with a few minions; as a tier-2 enforcer beside a caster; or as a tier-3 lieutenant in a demon's lair. Never frame it as a fair solo duel.
Skar'ath
Large fiend (demon), chaotic evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEReckless. At the start of its turn, Skar'ath can gain advantage on all melee weapon attack rolls during that turn, but attack rolls against it have advantage until the start of its next turn.
Blood Frenzy. Signature. Skar'ath has advantage on melee attack rolls against any creature that doesn't have all its hit points. While bloodied (at or below half its hit points), the wounds opening across its torso boil with fury: it deals an extra 7 (2d6) fire damage on each melee hit and its speed increases by 10 ft.
Actions
Multiattack. Skar'ath makes two attacks with its reaver-glaive.
Reaver-Glaive. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 17 (2d10 + 5) slashing damage. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 15 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.
Goring Charge (Recharge 5-6). Skar'ath moves up to its speed in a straight line and slams a creature with its horns. The target must make a DC 15 Strength saving throw, taking 22 (4d8 + 5) bludgeoning damage and being pushed 15 feet and knocked prone on a failure, or half as much damage on a success.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Savage Riposte (Reaction). When a creature within 10 feet of Skar'ath hits it with a melee attack, Skar'ath makes one reaver-glaive attack against that creature.
A red-skinned reaver of corded, exposed muscle, crowned with curling black horns and dragging a barbed double-bladed glaive nearly as long as it is tall. It plants its boots in a field of cracked skulls, a torn war-cloak snapping in the embers behind it.
Skar'ath, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEPack Fury (signature). Skar'ath has advantage on attack rolls against a creature if at least one of Skar'ath's allies is within 5 feet of that creature and isn't incapacitated.
Actions
Cleaving Axe. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) slashing damage.
Reactions
Goad to Blood. When an ally within 30 feet of Skar'ath is reduced to half its hit points or fewer, Skar'ath roars; that ally may immediately move up to half its speed without provoking opportunity attacks.
A lesser horned brute that runs at the Reaver's flank, baying it onward and dragging the wounded down so its master 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 with Goring Charge into the squishiest body, knocking it prone, then close and chop with the glaive. It fights recklessly and gets meaner once bloodied, so warn melee PCs not to trade hits with it past the halfway mark. At this tier it's a brutal mini-boss; pair it with a couple of cultists or wolves to soak the party's first turn.
Open by Goring Charging the back-line caster, then Multiattack whoever it lands beside. Savage Riposte punishes the front-line, so kill-priority is to drop it FAST before Blood Frenzy kicks in at half HP. Run it as the muscle beside a controller or summoner; it is an add-on enforcer, not a lone boss.
Charge, knock prone, and let Savage Riposte tax every melee attacker who answers. Once bloodied it gains speed and extra fire damage, so the table should burst it through the halfway threshold rather than chip it. At this tier it is a frontline lieutenant for a bigger threat or its lair host of lesser demons, not a solo encounter.
Put Skar'ath 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 Skar'ath?
Skar'ath's home statistics are Challenge Rating 6 (2,300 XP), tuned for a party of levels 5-10. The block also provides scaled tier-1 (levels 1-4) and tier-3 (levels 11-15) numbers; traits and actions stay identical and only AC, HP, to-hit, and save DC shift.
Can Skar'ath be a companion or ally?
Yes, but warily. Skar'ath is a reckless demon that obeys only a stronger will or a binding pact, never loyalty. As an ally it is best run as an unleashed shock-trooper sent ahead of the party; the moment it smells weakness it turns on the nearest bleeding thing, friend or foe. The lesser brute Vorrth, Bound is the safer leash to hand a party.
Is Skar'ath a solo boss?
No. It carries no legendary actions and only a single punishing reaction, so a four-player party will out-act it in a one-on-one fight. Use it as the muscle alongside a controller, summoner, or larger flagship adversary, or salt an encounter with lesser demons and minions to back it up.
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 Skar'ath 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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