KING VINE
KING VINE — The Encounter
Mounted king who topples towers and unmasks witches · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is KING VINE
Vine is named in the grimoires as both a King and an Earl, a great spirit who answers to no lesser conjuration than a circle drawn in full. He governs six and thirty legions and rides ever upon a black horse, for he is a warrior before he is a counselor. To those who bind him he discovers witches and the works of sorcerers, lays bare what enchanters would keep hidden, and tells of things present, past, and to come. But his truest delight is the engineering of ruin: at a word he builds great towers of stone, and at a word he casts them down, throwing walls into rubble and raising tempests of wind and water against his master's foes. Summoners court him for revelation and dread him for the storms he leaves behind, for Vine reveals nothing without first reminding the room who commands the thunder.
Run KING VINE in Sixty Seconds
- Keep him moving - King Vine is cavalry, not a wall. Never let him stand still in melee; charge in, hit, and ride out so Charge stays online every round.
- Open with the charge - move 20+ ft. straight at the squishiest target, Storm Spear for the prone, then a second spear with advantage. That is a frontloaded burst that drops a caster fast.
- Kill-priority is spellcasters and the hidden - his Revealer trait means invisible rogues and disguised foes get no cover; point him at whoever the party is hiding.
- When bloodied - hold Toppling Word for a 15-ft. cluster, riposte every melee miss, and use his speed to disengage rather than trade blows.
- Three ways to run him - (1) lone harasser darting at the backline, (2) one of a cavalry wing of Goetic kings, or (3) the boss's outrider who reveals the party's tricks before the real fight.
KING VINE
Medium fiend (devil), lawful evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINECharge. If King Vine moves at least 20 ft. straight toward a target and then hits it with his spear on the same turn, the target takes an extra 9 (2d8) piercing damage and must succeed on a DC 14 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.
Revealer of Hidden Things. Signature. King Vine sees through illusion and concealment: he automatically knows the location of any invisible, hidden, or disguised creature within 60 ft. and can perceive the original form of any shapechanged or magically transformed creature. When he hits such a creature with his spear, his next attack against it has advantage.
Actions
Multiattack. King Vine makes two spear attacks. He can replace one attack with Toppling Word (recharge 5-6).
Storm Spear. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (2d8+4) piercing damage plus 7 (2d6) lightning damage.
Toppling Word (Recharge 5-6). King Vine speaks a word of ruin at a point he can see within 30 ft. Each creature in a 15-foot cube there must make a DC 14 Dexterity saving throw, taking 21 (6d6) thunder damage on a failure, or half as much on a success. Unattended structures in the area take double damage and creatures that fail are knocked prone.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Unhorsing Riposte. When a creature within 10 ft. misses King Vine with a melee attack, he can make one spear attack against it as a reaction. On a hit, the target must succeed on a DC 14 Strength saving throw or be pushed 10 ft. and knocked prone.
An iron-faced king sits a barded black warhorse mid-rear, storm-spear leveled, trampling a churn of skulls and bloodied mud. His infernal plate is hammered with the sigils of the towers he has both raised and razed.
KING VINE, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINETrampling Rear (signature). If the destrier moves at least 20 ft. straight toward a creature and ends adjacent to it, that creature must succeed on a DC 13 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone, granting the rider advantage on its next attack.
Actions
Hooves. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6+4) bludgeoning damage plus 3 (1d6) fire damage.
Reactions
Wheel Away. When a creature ends its turn within 5 ft. of the destrier, it may move up to half its speed without provoking opportunity attacks, carrying its rider with it.
A barded warhorse with ember eyes and smoking nostrils, bound to bear its king through any storm he summons.
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 a charging Storm Spear to knock a frontliner prone, then ride past the squishiest target. If foes cluster, use Toppling Word on the pack. Pair him with a bigger threat - at this tier he is the cavalry harasser, not the centerpiece.
Open by charging the backline - Charge plus Storm Spear knocks a caster prone and softens them for the second hit. Use Toppling Word the moment three or more bunch up, then ride out and let Unhorsing Riposte punish anyone who chases. Kill-priority is enemy spellcasters; he is built to reach and break them. Pair with a flagship boss as the mounted skirmisher.
Same play, harder numbers: charge a caster, Toppling Word the cluster, riposte the chasers. At this tier run him as one of two or three mounted Goetic kings so the party cannot collapse on him. He still wants the backline - protect the boss by deleting their healer.
Put KING VINE 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 King Vine?
Natively CR 6 (Tier 2, levels 5-10): AC 17, HP 120, +7 to hit, save DC 14. Scale him down to ~CR 2 for Tier 1 parties or up toward CR 11 for Tier 3 using the tier table - traits stay the same, only the numbers move.
Can King Vine be a companion or ally?
Yes. As a bound spirit he can serve a warlock patron or a high-level conjurer, riding ahead to reveal hidden enemies and shatter fortifications. Run him as an NPC ally using his native-tier sheet, or hand the party his Nightmare Destrier as a mount.
Is King Vine a solo boss?
No - he has no legendary actions, so a full party will surround and unhorse him. He shines as an add-on to a flagship boss or as part of a mounted Goetic wing, using speed and his charge to strike and withdraw rather than standing toe-to-toe.
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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