Vykara
Vykara — The Encounter
Astral reaver of the silver wastes, soul-blade unsheathed · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Vykara
They name her Vykara in the marginalia of the soul-charts, the reaver who walks where the sky turns to silver dust and the dead drift like motes. Folklore of the planar caravans holds that such marauders are exiles of a vanished astral people, sworn to a cold law of conquest, raiding the boundaries between worlds for spirits to feed the crystal they carry. Her sword is no smith's work but a sliver of frozen soul-stuff, sharpened by every life it has taken, and it is said a wound from it will not close until the blade has drunk its fill. The caravans burn salt and iron at the threshold and post watchers against her kind, for the reavers come without warning, take what breathes, and are gone before the alarm-horn cools. To meet her gaze, the charts warn, is to feel your own thoughts pulled taut like a bowstring.
Run Vykara in Sixty Seconds
- Hold for the cluster. Save Mind Lash (Recharge 5-6) for a moment two PCs sit within line of the same target so the stun lands where it hurts; open melee otherwise.
- Kill-priority: healers and casters. Soulcut Blade denies hit-point recovery and debuffs nearby allies, so leading with her on a support caster quietly breaks the party's whole turn.
- When bloodied, lean on Reaving Step + Turn the Edge: skirmish out of the scrum, force a missed melee, and counter-attack so she is never pinned.
- Three ways to run her: (1) lone duelist who picks off stragglers, (2) elite blade in a raiding party with a heavier bruiser up front, (3) astral-lair assassin who flanks a bigger boss the party is already busy with.
Vykara
Medium humanoid, lawful evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEReaver's Cadence. Vykara has advantage on attack rolls against any creature that has already taken damage this turn, and her speed cannot be reduced by difficult terrain or being grappled by a Medium or smaller creature.
Soulcut Blade. Signature. The first time on each of her turns that Vykara hits a creature with her crystalline sword, the strike sears the spirit: the target cannot regain hit points until the end of its next turn, and any creature within 5 feet of it that can see the wound has disadvantage on its next attack roll before the start of Vykara's next turn.
Actions
Multiattack. Vykara makes two attacks with her crystalline sword.
Crystalline Sword. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (1d8+4) slashing damage plus 9 (2d8) psychic damage.
Mind Lash (Recharge 5-6). Vykara unleashes a stab of focused will at one creature she can see within 30 feet. The target makes a DC 14 Intelligence saving throw, taking 22 (5d8) psychic damage on a failed save, or half as much on a success. On a failure the target is also stunned until the end of its next turn.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Reaving Step (Bonus Action). Vykara moves up to half her speed without provoking opportunity attacks. If she ends this movement adjacent to a creature she damaged this turn, her next sword hit before the end of the turn deals an extra 4 (1d8) psychic damage.
Turn the Edge (Reaction). When a creature she can see within 5 feet hits her with a melee attack, Vykara adds 3 to her AC against that attack. If this causes the attack to miss, she may immediately make one Crystalline Sword attack against the attacker.
A wiry, ochre-skinned wanderer in salvaged plate and a crimson sash, her topknot bound and her crystalline blade humming with captured screams. She fights with the cold economy of a duelist who has crossed the silver wastes a hundred times and buried everyone she arrived with.
Vykara, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINETethered Spirit (signature). The mote is a fragment of captured soul bound to Vykara's blade. While within 30 feet of its keeper, it has advantage on saving throws against being charmed or frightened, and when it would drop to 0 hit points it instead drops to 1 (once per long rest).
Actions
Lashing Tendril. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 12 (2d8+3) psychic damage, and the target's speed is halved until the end of its next turn.
Reactions
Soul Ward. When its keeper is hit by an attack, the mote may interpose, reducing the damage by 7 (2d6) and taking that much itself.
A guttering knot of stolen light that orbits the reaver's shoulder, whispering in a tongue no living throat could shape.
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 Mind Lash to stun the squishiest caster, then Reaving Step into melee on the same target. Kill-priority is healers, since Soulcut shuts their healing off. Run her as a flanking ambusher alongside a pair of lesser raiders rather than alone.
Open by softening a target with one attack, then exploit Reaver's Cadence advantage on the second; lead Mind Lash with whoever you most want stunned. Keep Turn the Edge in reserve to punish the front-liner who closes. She shines as the elite blade in a planar raiding party, so pair her with a heavier bruiser to hold the line while she picks off the back rank.
Use her as a relentless flanking assassin within a larger warband or astral lair, not the centerpiece. Open Mind Lash on the party's controller, Reaving Step past the tanks, and chew the back line with the no-healing lock. Pair her with a bigger threat that fixes the party's attention so her cadence advantage stays online.
Put Vykara 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 Vykara?
At her native Tier 2 she is CR 6 (2,300 XP): AC 16, 119 HP, +7 to hit, save DC 14. Scale her down for a Tier 1 party (~CR 2) or up for Tier 3 (~CR 9-10) using the tier table; her traits and actions stay identical, only the numbers move.
Can Vykara be a companion or ally?
Yes. As a lawful-evil reaver she makes a pragmatic mercenary, blood-pact bodyguard, or grudging guide across the silver wastes for a party that shares her quarry. Her bound soul-mote, 863, can also be split off as a lesser ally or familiar-style companion.
Is Vykara a solo boss?
No. She has a punchy skirmisher kit but no legendary actions, so a four-PC party will out-act her in a one-on-one fight. Run her as an elite add-on beside a bruiser or a bigger boss, or field two of her kind together for a deadly raid.
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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