Goblin Miner
Goblin Miner — The Encounter
Tunnel-rat with pick, lamp, and a fuse to spare · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Goblin Miner
Goblin warrens grow downward, and the Miners dig them. They are the labour-caste turned weapon: scarred from cave-ins, half-deaf from blasting, and utterly without fear of the dark, for the dark is simply where they work. A Miner reads stone the way a hunter reads tracks, knowing by the taste of dust whether a wall hides ore, water, or open air on the far side. In war they are sappers, undermining gates and tunnelling beneath palisades to surface inside an enemy camp at dawn. Their charges are crude but plentiful, and a single Miner can drop a ceiling on a pursuing party without a second thought for the goblins still beneath it. They are loyal only to the dig, jealous of their claims, and quick to bury a rival's tunnel out of spite. Captured Miners make sullen but invaluable guides through any worked depth.
Run Goblin Miner in Sixty Seconds
- Shape the ground first Round one, plant or hurl a blasting charge to collapse a path, scatter the party, or drop a ceiling.
- Open from below Use Tunnel-Sense and burrow to surface inside the enemy line, striking a caster before they react.
- Kill-priority: the isolated The Miner wants a target cut off by rubble, then chops it down with the lodging Heavy Pickaxe.
- When bloodied It blows the nearest support and retreats into a fresh tunnel, happy to bury pursuers behind it.
- Three ways to run it Sapper (collapse terrain), ambusher (burrow and strike), or guide (a grudging captive who leads the party through the deep dark).
Goblin Miner
Small humanoid (goblinoid), neutral evil
CR 2 · 450 XP · GUIDELINENimble Escape. The miner can take the Disengage or Hide action as a bonus action on each of its turns.
Tunnel-Sense. The miner knows which way is up, the depth it stands at, and the distance to the nearest worked stone within 60 ft. It has advantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks made underground and cannot be surprised by a creature it shares a tunnel with. As a signature trick, once per turn it may plant a blasting charge at an adjacent wall or floor; the charge detonates at the start of its next turn, dealing 7 (2d6) bludgeoning damage in a 10-ft. radius (DC 12 Dexterity save for half) and collapsing difficult terrain.
Actions
Multiattack. The miner makes two pickaxe attacks.
Heavy Pickaxe. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d10+2) piercing damage. On a critical hit, the pick lodges and the target's speed is reduced by 10 ft. until the start of the miner's next turn.
Hurled Charge. Ranged Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, range 20/40 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (2d8) bludgeoning damage from a thrown blasting charge.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Dig In. As a bonus action, the miner hunkers against worked stone; until the start of its next turn it gains half cover (+2 AC) against ranged attacks.
A stocky goblin in a dented helm grips a notched pickaxe, a guttering lamp clipped to its belt and a coil of fuse looped across one shoulder.
Goblin Miner, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINESapper's Eye (signature). Once per short rest, Goblin Miner can read a wall, floor, or door and reveal the safest path or the weakest point, granting an ally advantage on the next check to break, climb, or tunnel through it.
Actions
Mattock Swing. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d8+2) piercing damage.
Reactions
Shore Up. When an ally within 10 ft. would take damage from a collapse, trap, or falling debris, Goblin Miner braces a timber; that ally takes half damage.
A soot-blackened dig-hand who never lets go of the lamp and always knows the way out.
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 planting a blasting charge to shape the battlefield, then trade pick blows while using Dig In against archers. Kill-priority is squishy casters caught in a collapse. Pair it with raiders and let it undermine the PCs' footing.
Lead with a hurled charge into a chokepoint, then dig in and chop. Use Tunnel-Sense to ambush from below. Run it as the sapper of a larger goblin host, never as the centerpiece.
Collapse the lair's tunnels to split the party, then surface and pick off isolated PCs. Field it with minions inside a goblin warren and pair it with a bigger threat; it is not built to fight a party alone.
Put Goblin Miner 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 Goblin Miner?
It is a CR 2 add-on at its native Tier 1 (AC 14, HP 44). Tier 2 (~CR 6) and Tier 3 (~CR 11) versions are included with identical traits and scaled numbers so it can join higher-level fights.
Can Goblin Miner be a companion or ally?
Yes. A Miner is one of the best underground guides a party can have, reading stone, spotting weak walls, and tunnelling shortcuts. Use the bound companion Grub for a friendlier version, or run a captured Miner as a sullen hireling loyal only to the next paying dig.
How dangerous are its charges?
Its blasting charges are area effects with a DC 12 Dexterity save, so a single Miner can punish a clustered party and reshape the map. Treat collapses as terrain hazards as much as damage; the real threat is being separated, buried, or dropped through a floor.
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
Played Goblin Miner at your table? Log in with your Obsidian Tavern account to leave a balance note, a war story, or a file issue — the sharpest reports get the block revised.
Log in to comment