Veyn
branch-bow hunter of the walking grove
Veyn — The Encounter
branch-bow hunter of the walking grove · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Veyn
Every walking grove needs eyes that strike. Veyn is the Afams hunter, a thin warden who grows its own longbow from a forearm branch and looses thorn-tipped shafts before the foe even sees the treeline move. It is no warlord—it cannot hold a line and it dreads the open ground where fire finds it—but loosed from cover behind its rooted kin it whittles down whatever the heavy brutes will soon crush. Woodsmen who hear a single creak before an arrow buries itself in the bark of their cart learn quickly that the forest itself has notched a shaft. Alone, Veyn flees to the deep wood; among the grove, it is the reach the slow ones lack.
Run Veyn in Sixty Seconds
- Keep him back then have Veyn open from 80 ft. of cover on the enemy caster or healer.
- Ignore half cover then remember Living Bow lets his shafts slice past most battlefield obstacles.
- Never let him brawl then if anything reaches melee, retreat into the trees and keep loosing.
- Two shots a turn then expect ~16 piercing on a full hit, focused on one priority target.
Veyn
Medium plant, neutral
CR 2 · 450 XP · GUIDELINELiving Bow. Veyn's drawn bow is a grown limb of its own body; it can never be disarmed of the weapon and ignores half cover with its ranged attacks.
Flammable. Veyn is vulnerable to fire damage while not in contact with living soil.
Actions
Multiattack. Veyn makes two Limb Bow attacks.
Limb Bow. Ranged Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, range 80/320 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (1d10+3) piercing damage.
A grim, narrow tree-archer whose bowstave is a curved branch of its own arm, drawn taut and aimed from the canopy's edge.
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 at 80 ft. and shoot the enemy healer or caster twice; let the heavy Afams advance as a screen. When bloodied, retreat deeper into the trees and keep loosing. Never let Veyn be caught in melee alone.
Fight as the warband's archer flight—stay 60-80 ft. back behind rooted kin and focus-fire whatever target the brutes have pinned. Reposition each round; do not solo.
Use Veyn as standoff support for the whole grove, never alone. Keep packmates between Veyn and chargers so it can rain shafts; spread the line so a single fireball can't catch archer and brutes together.
Put Veyn 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 Veyn?
Veyn is CR 2 (450 XP) at its native Tier 1. Move its AC, HP, to-hit, and save DC into the Tier 2 or Tier 3 bands for tougher parties; its living bow and traits stay the same.
How does Veyn fight alongside the rest of the Afams?
Veyn is the grove's ranged hunter. It hangs 60-80 ft. behind the rooted brutes and whittles down whatever target they pin, repositioning each round. It never holds ground alone—it is the warband's reach.
Can Veyn be disarmed of its bow?
No. The bow is a grown limb of Veyn's own body, so it cannot be disarmed and its arrows ignore half cover. It still fears fire and flees rather than fight isolated in melee.
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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