Boar Defender
great-shield anchor and spiked-maul wall of the boar-host
Boar Defender — The Encounter
great-shield anchor and spiked-maul wall of the boar-host · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Boar Defender
If the Barbarians are the tusk of the Army of Caledonian Boar, the Defenders are its hide. Broad as a doorway and twice as stubborn, they lock shields into a moving wall the rest of the host fights from behind. A Defender's oath is simple and absolute: nothing gets past. It plants its hooves, and cavalry breaks on it; it lifts its shield, and the ranks behind it survive the volley. The great shields are handed down, each one scarred with the names of the fallen it once guarded, and a Defender would sooner die on its feet than yield the ground its warband stands on. Where the wall holds, the boar-host cannot lose its nerve, because the wall never has.
Run Boar Defender in Sixty Seconds
- Adjacent allies get +2 AC so it stands in front of the squishy warband members.
- Interpose eats hits for allies taking a nearby ally's damage and halving it with the shield.
- Shield Bash knocks prone and pushes keeping meleers off the line and off their feet.
- It cannot be moved above half HP; forced movement and grapples just fail.
- It holds, never chases make the party fight through the wall on the wall's terms.
Boar Defender
Large humanoid (boarfolk), lawful neutral
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEShield Wall. Allied boarfolk within 5 feet of the Defender gain +2 AC. While the Defender holds its great shield it also has three-quarters cover against attacks from creatures it can see.
Immovable. The Defender has advantage on saves and ability checks made to resist being pushed, pulled, knocked prone, or grappled, and cannot be moved against its will while it has more than half its hit points.
Actions
Multiattack. The Defender makes two Spiked Maul attacks, or one Spiked Maul attack and uses Shield Bash.
Spiked Maul. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 16 (2d10 + 4) bludgeoning damage.
Shield Bash. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) bludgeoning damage, and a Medium or smaller target must succeed on a DC 15 Strength save or be knocked prone and pushed 5 feet back.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Interpose (Reaction). When an allied boarfolk within 5 feet is hit by an attack, the Defender can take that attack's damage instead, halving it with its great shield.
An armored mountain of a boarfolk crouches behind an enormous rune-etched shield, a spiked maul cocked to smash whatever the wall stops.
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.
A scaled-down bulwark: plant it in a doorway or chokepoint, buff the ally beside it, and refuse to be moved. Bash to knock prone, then hold the line. Do not chase; make the party come to the shield.
The anchor of the boar wall. Stand it in front of the Musician or Cannoneer and give adjacent allies +2 AC. Use Interpose to eat hits meant for the vulnerable, Shield Bash to keep meleers prone. It never advances past the line; the warband forms up behind it.
Run two or three as a shield wall the whole host fights from behind, screening the Cannoneer and Paladin. They soak, protect, and hold ground while the Berserkers and Fighters kill. A Defender that abandons the wall to duel is being used wrong.
Put Boar Defender 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 Boar Defender?
At its native Tier 2 it is CR 6 (2,300 XP). Scale the AC, HP, to-hit, and save DC to the Tier 1 or Tier 3 line for other party levels.
How does Boar Defender fight alongside the rest of the Army of Caledonian Boar?
It is the wall the host fights from behind. It screens the Musician and Cannoneer, grants adjacent allies +2 AC, and uses Interpose to soak hits meant for weaker members, holding ground while the rest of the warband kills.
Can the party just walk around the Boar Defender?
They can try, but Shield Bash knocks them prone and the +2 AC bubble follows the Defender, so leaving the wall means abandoning cover. The boar-host uses multiple Defenders to close the flanks and funnel the fight.
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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