Ham
broad-axe vanguard of the shell-monastery
Ham — The Encounter
broad-axe vanguard of the shell-monastery · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Ham
Ham is the warband's vanguard, broad-axe in both hands and shell-plate scarred from a dozen sieges. He fights beside Japeth as the second anvil, but where Japeth holds, Ham hews, his cleaving swings carrying through a falling foe into the one behind. He cannot be shoved or tripped off his footing, and he uses that to wedge open a breach the flankers pour through. The younger monks call him the Wall That Walks; he speaks little and holds the formation Gunta sets, trusting the abbot's chime to tell him when the wall should at last advance.
Run Ham in Sixty Seconds
- Hold the breach with Japeth then refuse every shove and trip thanks to Bulwark.
- Drop a weak foe then Cleaving Swing into the next one for a free attack.
- Wedge the line open then let the flankers pour through the gap.
- Advance only on the chime then move the wall when Gunta signals, not before.
Ham
Medium humanoid (turtle-folk), lawful neutral
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINECleaving Swing. When Ham reduces a creature to 0 hit points with his axe, he may immediately make one more axe attack against a different creature within reach.
Bulwark. Ham's shell plate gives him AC 17, and he has advantage on saves against being knocked prone or moved against his will.
Actions
Multiattack. Ham makes two broad-axe attacks.
Broad Axe. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (2d8+5) slashing damage.
A grim, armored vanguard whose broad-axe carries through one foe into the next.
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.
At T1 Ham is a vanguard anvil: hold the breach with Japeth, cleave through weak foes, and refuse to be moved. Keep him in formation.
At T2 (native) he and Japeth wedge open the enemy line, Cleaving Swing chaining kills so the flankers pour through; nothing shoves him off the mark.
At T3 he is the immovable vanguard of a full flight, the wall the pack fights behind; he advances only on Gunta's signal, never alone.
Put Ham 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 Ham?
His native tier is 2, about CR 6 (2,300 XP); scale via the T1/T3 columns.
How does Ham fight alongside the rest of the Kukurikapu?
He is the vanguard anvil beside Japeth. He holds the breach unshakably, chains kills with Cleaving Swing, and wedges the enemy line open for the flankers, advancing only when Gunta's chime calls the wall forward.
Can Ham solo a fight?
No. With no legendary kit he is formation muscle; run him paired with Japeth inside the warband.
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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