Pafnir
Pafnir — The Encounter
The Coiling Hunger, serpent-spawn of the dragon's blood · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Pafnir
Where a dragon's blood soaks deep into the earth, the old tales say, the soil itself learns to hunger. Pafnir is such a thing made flesh: a coiling serpent grown from the spilled ichor of a slain wyrm, neither true dragon nor mere snake, but a famished echo of both. It keeps no hoard and speaks no bargains, for its only appetite is the living heat of warm-blooded things. Hunters who follow the trail of crushed undergrowth find it draped across stone or sunk in still water, patient as a coiled rope, until it surges to wrap a victim in muscle and drag them down hissing. Scholars of dragon-lore prize a scale of Pafnir as proof against poisons, since the beast carries the venom of its sire in every fang. Most who seek that scale are never seen again, swallowed whole into the dark length of its body.
Run Pafnir in Sixty Seconds
- Open from terrain. Pafnir hides in water, rubble, or canopy (Stealth +5) and surges out on round one to grapple before initiative pressure builds.
- Kill-priority is the grappled target. Whatever it Constricts takes 2d6 a round on top of bites and gets dragged away at full speed, Constricting Coils, so peel it off fast or lose your caster.
- When bloodied, it stops dragging. It plants and thrashes, spamming the Lashing Tail reaction to knock prone anyone who ends movement within 10 ft. Approach from outside that ring or pay for it.
- Three ways to run it: (1) lone ambush predator picking off stragglers, (2) the grab-and-drag muscle beside a flagship wyrm, (3) a den of these coiling out of the same waterhole as a swarm.
- Remember the venom. Every bite carries 2d6 poison; it is immune to poison itself, so do not bother trying to gas it out of its hole.
Pafnir
Large dragon, chaotic evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEConstricting Coils. While Pafnir has a creature grappled, it can move at full speed and that creature moves with it. A creature grappled by Pafnir takes 7 (2d6) bludgeoning damage at the start of each of Pafnir's turns as the coils tighten.
Serpentine Surge. Pafnir does not provoke opportunity attacks when it moves out of an enemy's reach immediately after striking with its bite.
Actions
Multiattack. Pafnir makes one Bite attack and one Constrict attack. If both hit the same creature, the target is grappled (escape DC 15).
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (2d8+4) piercing damage plus 7 (2d6) poison damage.
Constrict. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6+4) bludgeoning damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 15) if it is Large or smaller. Pafnir can grapple one creature at a time.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Lashing Tail. Reaction. When a creature Pafnir can see ends its movement within 10 ft. of it, Pafnir whips its tail at that creature. The target must succeed on a DC 14 Dexterity saving throw or take 9 (2d8) bludgeoning damage and be knocked prone.
A sinuous serpent-dragon born of spilled draconic blood, its green-gold body ribbed with jutting spines, ending in a hunched, clawed forequarter and a fang-crowded maw that drinks the warmth of its prey.
Pafnir, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEBlood Scent (signature). Pafnir has advantage on attack rolls against any creature that is currently bleeding or below half its hit points.
Actions
Rending Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (1d8+3) piercing damage plus 3 (1d6) poison damage.
Reactions
Coil and Guard. Reaction. When an ally within 5 ft. is hit by an attack, Pafnir coils protectively; the ally gains a +2 bonus to AC against that attack.
A juvenile of the same brood, small enough to ride a saddle yet already venom-fanged, Pafnir snaps at any quarry that bleeds.
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 or water, Constrict the squishiest caster to drag it away from the group, then chew on it in the corner. Use Lashing Tail to punish anyone who closes in to rescue. Pair it with a flagship wyrm or a den of lesser serpents so it never fights alone.
Open by surging from terrain to grapple the back-line caster, then move at full speed (Constricting Coils) to isolate it. Kill-priority is whatever it has wrapped, taking 2d6 each round on top of bites. When bloodied it stops dragging and just thrashes in place, leaning on Lashing Tail to knock down everyone within 10 ft.
Run it as the muscle in a dragon's lair or alongside a bigger boss, snatching and dragging targets while the flagship breathes. Grapple the party's mobility threat first so it cannot reposition. Pair it with a larger threat; on its own at this tier a full party will out-act it, so give it minions or terrain.
Put Pafnir 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 Pafnir?
Pafnir is built at CR 6 (2,300 XP) in its native Tier 2 form: AC 16, 127 HP, +7 to hit, escape DC 15. Scaled stat lines for Tiers 1 and 3 are in the table above so you can drop it into a level 1-4 or 11-15 game without rebuilding it.
Can Pafnir be a companion or ally?
The full-grown Pafnir is a hungry, unreasoning predator and works best as an adversary. If you want a draconic ally, use Siljn, the Bloodscale Whelp, a saddle-sized juvenile of the same brood that hunts bleeding prey and shields its handler with its coils.
Does Pafnir count as a true dragon for spells and abilities?
Yes, it is a dragon type, so effects keyed to dragons (a paladin's Divine Smite bonus, slaying arrows, dragon-bane weapons) apply. It is not a wyrm with breath or flight, however, so do not expect a breath weapon. Its threat is the grapple-and-drag and its inherited poison bite.
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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