Riggor
thorn-knuckled forerunner of the walking grove
Riggor — The Encounter
thorn-knuckled forerunner of the walking grove · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Riggor
When the grove the elders call Afams uproots to march, Riggor walks point. He is no chieftain, only the swiftest of a slow people, and the others trust his knotted shoulders to break the brush and find the foe before the heavy ones arrive. Travelers who fell timber near sacred deadwood tell of a striding shape that crashes out of the treeline claws-first, then waits, motionless, until the rest of the walking grove closes in around it. Bind Riggor to its kin and it fights like a hunting limb of one great body; cut it off alone and it falls back to the soil to root and heal.
Run Riggor in Sixty Seconds
- Send him first then have Riggor charge and shove the enemy caster prone before the slow grove arrives.
- Keep him leashed then never let Riggor stray more than 10 ft. from a packmate—his shove advantage and survival depend on it.
- Watch for fire then remember any open flame is a real threat; pull him to soil when bloodied.
- Two claws a turn then expect ~16 damage on a full hit, focused on one softened target.
Riggor
Medium plant, neutral
CR 2 · 450 XP · GUIDELINERooted Vanguard. Riggor is the first of the grove to reach the foe. While within 10 feet of another Afams warband member, Riggor has advantage on Strength (Athletics) checks to shove or grapple.
Flammable. Riggor is vulnerable to fire damage while not in contact with living soil.
Actions
Multiattack. Riggor makes two Raking Claw attacks.
Raking Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (1d10+3) slashing damage.
A lean, thorn-knuckled tree-thing that loped ahead of its kin, all reaching branch-claws and silent stride.
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 nearest spellcaster and shoving them prone so the slower Afams can close. Riggor never fights alone—keep him within 10 ft. of a packmate for shove advantage. When bloodied, fall back toward soil and let Amelia or the brutes screen him.
Run him as a flight skirmisher: dart in, rake twice, retreat behind heavier kin. He pins a target for the warband to swarm rather than trading blows solo.
Use Riggor as the tip of a moving grove—he leads the line, never operates alone. Spread fire damage thin by keeping multiple Afams adjacent so no single torch ends him.
Put Riggor 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 Riggor?
Riggor is CR 2 (450 XP) at his native Tier 1. Scale his AC, HP, to-hit, and save DC to the Tier 2 or Tier 3 bands for higher-level parties; his claws and traits never change.
How does Riggor fight alongside the rest of the Afams?
He is the warband's forerunner—first into the brush, shoving and pinning a target so the slower tree-folk can swarm it. Run him glued to a packmate, never solo, and he becomes the leading limb of one walking grove.
Is Riggor a boss?
No. Riggor is rank-and-file and not solo_capable. He has no legendary actions and is built to fight as part of a flight or pack, falling back to root and heal when isolated.
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.
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