Thalvoryx
Thalvoryx — The Encounter
Emberborn line-breaker who answers all things with the axe · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Thalvoryx
They name him for the sound, not the man: thal-vor-yx, the triple beat of iron meeting flesh, bone, and ground. Born of the Alpha Draconis broodlines that traded the gift of flame for the gift of force, Thalvoryx renounced the long wars of wing and breath for the close and certain work of the axe he calls Rendspire. He keeps no titles and remembers no grudges past the next charge, for grudges slow the cadence. Warbands hire him to break a shield-wall and he breaks it, walking the line end to end while formations come apart like brittle glass behind him. Survivors describe the same horror: not the strength, but the rhythm, the way each blow lands precisely where the last one left an opening, as though the killing were already written and he merely kept the time. He does not gloat over the fallen. He simply listens for the next impact.
Run Thalvoryx in Sixty Seconds
- Hold Sundering Charge for the opening turn when the party is still bunched at the door, then it can hit two or three of them at once.
- Open by charging the most isolated PC, proning them, and parking on top to start the Rhythm of Impacts clock.
- Kill-priority anyone who drops to 15 HP or fewer in his reach, because Finishing Pose is a free advantaged swing as a bonus action.
- When bloodied he keeps the cadence rather than fleeing, locking onto a single target to stack the full +2d10 Rhythm bonus.
- Three ways to run him hired line-breaker in front of a caster, lair brute that charges down a corridor, or the bound axe Rendspire handed to a worthy ally.
Thalvoryx
Medium humanoid (reptilian), chaotic neutral
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINERhythm of Impacts. Signature. Thalvoryx tracks the cadence of his own blows. Each time he hits the same target with a melee attack on consecutive turns, that attack deals an extra 5 (1d10) damage, to a maximum of 10 (2d10). The bonus resets if he attacks a different creature or fails to hit.
Unshakable Resolve. Thalvoryx has advantage on saving throws against being frightened or charmed, and he ignores the effects of being reduced to half speed by difficult terrain while charging in a straight line.
Actions
Multiattack. Thalvoryx makes two attacks with Rendspire.
Rendspire (Twin-Headed Bloodaxe). Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 15 (2d10 + 5) slashing damage. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 15 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.
Sundering Charge (Recharge 5-6). Thalvoryx moves up to his speed in a straight line and makes one Rendspire attack against each creature he passes within 5 feet of. He can attack each creature only once. On a hit, the target takes the weapon's damage and must succeed on a DC 15 Strength saving throw or be pushed 10 feet and knocked prone.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Finishing Pose. Bonus Action. When a creature within reach is reduced to 15 hit points or fewer, Thalvoryx makes one Rendspire attack against it with advantage.
An orange-scaled emberborn juggernaut, bare-chested and banded in iron, heaving a blood-slick twin-headed axe overhead in mid-execution. Every line of the model is built for the downward swing.
Thalvoryx, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEMomentum Keeper (signature). While you wield Thalvoryx, the first time on each of your turns you hit the same creature you hit last turn, the attack deals an extra 4 (1d8) slashing damage.
Actions
Heave. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) slashing damage, and a Medium or smaller target must succeed on a DC 14 Strength save or be knocked prone.
Reactions
Punish the Fleeing. When a creature you can see within 10 feet moves away from you without Disengaging, you make one Heave attack against it.
Wielded by a worthy ally, Thalvoryx hums with borrowed cadence and rewards a steady hand that strikes the same foe twice.
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 by charging the most exposed PC and trying to knock them prone, then stand over them. He locks onto one target and beats them on repeat to build Rhythm of Impacts, so the party should rotate who he can reach. Run him as the muscle beside a caster or pack leader, never alone.
Open with Sundering Charge straight through the clustered front line to scatter and prone them, then settle on one victim and let Rhythm of Impacts ramp. Kill-priority is whoever drops below 15 HP, since Finishing Pose hands him a free advantaged swing. Pair him with a ranged threat that punishes the party for spreading out to dodge his charge.
He hits hard but acts only once a turn, so deploy him with minions or in a tight lair where walls funnel the party into his Sundering Charge lane. Open by charging the squishiest line-anchor and proning them, then grind that one target with stacking Rhythm damage. Pair him with a bigger threat or a controller; a high-tier party out-acts a lone juggernaut quickly.
Put Thalvoryx 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 Thalvoryx?
His home build is CR 6 (2,300 XP) for a 5th-10th level party, a Tier 2 melee juggernaut. Scaled-down (CR 2-ish) and scaled-up (CR 11-ish) numbers are in the tier table; the traits and actions stay identical, only AC, HP, to-hit, save DC, and damage move.
Can Thalvoryx be a companion or ally?
Yes. His axe Rendspire works as a bound companion weapon (AC 15, ~76 HP) that grants the Momentum Keeper bonus for hitting the same foe twice and can punish fleeing enemies. As an NPC ally, run him as a loyal but blunt mercenary who fights beside the party rather than leading it.
Is Thalvoryx a dragon?
No. Despite the Alpha Draconis broodline framing, he is a Medium reptilian humanoid warrior, not a true dragon. Stat him as a fire-resistant melee brute; if you want a literal dragon, use a separate dragon block and treat Thalvoryx as its champion or enforcer.
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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