Hobgoblin Berserker
Hobgoblin Berserker — The Encounter
Drill-hardened raider who answers the war-horn with rage · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Hobgoblin Berserker
The legions raise their berserkers the way a smith folds steel: heat, fold, hammer, repeat, until the metal holds an edge under any blow. These are not the howling madmen of the wild tribes. A hobgoblin berserker is drilled to rage on command, to throw itself at a shieldwall the instant the horn sounds and not to stop until the horn sounds again. They fight shoulder to shoulder, taking confidence from the spear at their flank, and the cruelest among them learn to read the moment a foe wavers and strike twice as hard. A captured berserker will say little of strategy, for it knows little; its officers keep the plans. But it knows its place in the line, and it will die holding it, which is exactly what the line requires.
Run Hobgoblin Berserker in Sixty Seconds
- Open with positioning. Get an ally within 5 ft. of your target first, then attack to land the 2d6 Martial Advantage bonus.
- Blood Frenzy is a knife that cuts both ways. Below half HP it gets advantage to hit, but so does the party against it.
- Kill-priority. It charges the lightly armored back line and tries to brawl the caster or healer.
- When bloodied. It stops playing safe, accepts the trade, and swings with advantage every turn.
- Three ways to run it: a paired frontline duo, a shock trooper in a legion line, or an elite escort guarding a hobgoblin captain.
Hobgoblin Berserker
Medium humanoid (goblinoid), lawful evil
CR 2 · 450 XP · GUIDELINEMartial Advantage. Once per turn, the berserker deals an extra 7 (2d6) damage to a creature it hits with a weapon attack if that creature is within 5 ft. of an ally of the berserker that isn't incapacitated.
Blood Frenzy. Signature. While the berserker is below half its hit points, it has advantage on melee weapon attack rolls, but attack rolls against it also have advantage.
Actions
Multiattack. The berserker makes two Spiked Mace attacks.
Spiked Mace. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (1d10+3) bludgeoning damage plus 2 (1d4) piercing damage from the spikes.
Javelin. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 30/120 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d6+3) piercing damage.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Reckless Step. When the berserker takes the Attack action, it may move up to 10 ft. as a bonus action without provoking opportunity attacks from the target it attacked.
A heavily muscled hobgoblin in patched plate, swinging a spiked mace from behind a battered buckler, jaw set in disciplined fury.
Hobgoblin Berserker, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEHold the Line (signature). While within 5 ft. of the berserker, the drillmate and the berserker each gain a +1 bonus to AC, so long as both are conscious.
Actions
Shortsword. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d6+2) piercing damage.
Reactions
Shield Brace. When the berserker is hit by an attack, the drillmate may impose disadvantage on the next attack against the berserker this round.
A shield-bearing legionary who has marched beside the berserker through a dozen sieges and times every parry to its swings.
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 closing on an isolated PC where an ally stands within 5 ft. to trigger Martial Advantage for a big opening hit. Once bloodied, lean into Blood Frenzy and trade freely. Pair two or three with a captain so the line keeps Martial Advantage online.
Run as a frontline shock trooper beside heavier officers. Keep an ally adjacent to the target for the bonus dice, then Reckless Step to a new mark. Focus the squishiest PC; pair it with archers who punish anyone who falls back.
As an elite add-on to a warlord, it dives the back line and brawls the casters. Blood Frenzy makes the endgame brutal for both sides. Never solo here; pair it with a flagship boss so the party cannot simply gang the berserker down.
Put Hobgoblin Berserker 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 Hobgoblin Berserker?
Its native build is CR 2 (Tier 1): AC 14, 52 HP, +5 to hit. Use the Tier 2 (CR ~6) and Tier 3 (CR ~11) lines to field it against higher-level parties.
Can Hobgoblin Berserker be a companion or ally?
Yes. A disciplined legionary can be recruited or coerced into a party's service; use the Drillmate, Bound profile, or run the full berserker as a hired frontliner.
Does it rage like a barbarian?
Not mechanically. Blood Frenzy is a battlefield discipline, not class rage; it simply fights recklessly once badly wounded.
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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