Green Knight
Green Knight — The Encounter
The Beheading Game's Antlered Champion, Who Cannot Die · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Green Knight
Of the Green Knight the old lays sing this: he rides uninvited into the hall and offers a wager, a single blow for a single blow, his bared neck for the axe. Whoever takes up the challenge strikes, and the head rolls free, and the antlered stranger stoops, lifts it from the rushes, and reminds the company of the debt owed a year hence. He is no man but the year itself in armor of bark, the wild green that buries every cut wall and reclaims every fallen keep. Where his roots find soil he cannot be slain, only delayed, and so the test was never of the axe but of the heart: would the bold knight keep his word and bare his own neck in turn? Honor him and he yields the lesson laughing. Cheat the bargain, and the forest remembers, and the brambles come for the oathbreaker in his sleep.
Run Green Knight in Sixty Seconds
- The wager is the whole fight. Have him announce the beheading game at initiative; players who don't know he survives 0 HP will overcommit, and that's the point.
- Open with Quickening Roots to halve the party's speed, then Multiattack the squishiest striker you can reach with that 10-foot greataxe.
- Kill-priority: whoever burns him fastest. Stride to casters, Bough-Lash to drag a runner back, and Greataxe-Sweep clusters when you have 2 legendary actions banked.
- When bloodied, lean on Beheading Game and Verdant Vigor. Keep him on soil, regrow 30 HP if dropped, and remind players the brambles don't tire.
- Three ways to run him: a one-on-one honor duel (run him fair, let the wager land), a grove guardian with awakened trees and the Holly Hind, or a recurring rival who keeps coming back because he literally cannot stay dead.
Green Knight
Large fey, neutral
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEBeheading Game. When the Green Knight is reduced to 0 hit points but not destroyed by fire or by a critical hit, he does not fall. He drops to 1 hit point, takes up his severed head if struck from the body, and at the start of his next turn regrows whole, regaining 30 hit points. He may use this trait only once per day; if it triggers, he honors the bargain and grants his slayer one free strike unmolested before combat resumes.
Verdant Vigor. At the start of each of his turns, if the Green Knight is in contact with earth, soil, or living wood, he regains 5 hit points. This trait does not function while he is burning or on barren stone.
Magic Weapons. The Green Knight's weapon attacks are magical.
Actions
Multiattack. The Green Knight makes two greataxe attacks. He can replace one with Bough-Lash if it is available.
Greataxe. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 16 (2d12 + 4) slashing damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 14 Strength saving throw or be pushed 10 feet and knocked prone.
Bough-Lash. Ranged Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, range 30 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) bludgeoning damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 14) by a lashing bramble until the Green Knight grapples another creature.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Rooted Stance (Reaction). When a creature the Green Knight can see hits him with a melee attack, he digs his roots in: the triggering attack's damage is reduced by 7 (1d8 + 3), and the attacker must succeed on a DC 14 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.
Legendary Actions (3/Round)
Stride. The Green Knight moves up to his speed without provoking opportunity attacks.
Greataxe Sweep (Costs 2 Actions). The Green Knight makes one greataxe attack against each creature within 10 feet of him.
Quickening Roots. Brambles erupt in a 10-foot radius centered on the Green Knight. Each creature in that area must succeed on a DC 14 Dexterity saving throw or have its speed halved until the end of its next turn.
An antlered giant clad in living bark, his beard a tangle of leaves, hefting a greataxe over a slain beast amid a carpet of roots and blossoms. He is the wood made flesh, come to test the courage of mortal knights.
Green Knight, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINESeasons' Turn (signature). While within 30 feet of the Green Knight, the Green Knight and the Knight each have advantage on saving throws against being charmed or frightened.
Actions
Antler Charge. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 12 (2d8 + 3) piercing damage; if the Hind moved at least 20 feet straight toward the target, the target makes a DC 13 Strength save or is knocked prone.
Reactions
Interpose. When the Green Knight is hit by an attack, the Green Knight, if within 5 feet of him, can make itself the target instead, taking the damage in his stead.
A great white-dappled deer that pads at the Knight's heel, its antlers hung with holly. It is the green wager made gentle, and it will die for him a hundred times.
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 lurching out of the treeline and offering the beheading wager aloud to rattle the party before swinging. If foes clump, lead with Greataxe to knock the front-liner prone, then carve the one who fell. Keep him standing on earth so Verdant Vigor ticks; pair him with a few brambling vines or wolves so a small party can't simply dogpile.
Open with Quickening Roots to pin the party in his reach, then Multiattack the highest-damage striker. Hold Rooted Stance for the biggest incoming hit and use Beheading Game as your panic button so a lucky burst doesn't end him early. When bloodied, Greataxe Sweep the cluster; spend legendary Strides to chase casters into the brambles. Fight on living soil so Verdant Vigor offsets chip damage.
At this tier he anchors a grove lair, not a solo duel: surround him with awakened trees, dryads, or a Holly Hind so the party's action economy is split. Open with Quickening Roots, sweep clustered melee with Greataxe Sweep, and bank Beheading Game to bait the party into wasting a nova. Pair him with a bigger threat (a wood-wight lord or an ancient stag-king) and let him be the unkillable wall while the lair grinds the heroes down.
Put Green Knight 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 Green Knight?
He is built at CR 6 (2,300 XP) on his native Tier 2 sheet, tuned for a party of levels 5-10. Because his kit (the Beheading Game reaction-style survival, Rooted Stance, and a real legendary suite) lets him out-last a four-person party, he can headline a fight solo at that tier. Tier 1 and Tier 3 stat blocks are provided to scale him up or down.
Can Green Knight be a companion or ally?
Yes. As an honorable test-giver of the wild wood, he makes a natural patron or oath-bound ally once the party proves its courage by keeping his bargain. Use his Tier 1 numbers as an allied NPC, or bring his bound Holly Hind in as a smaller companion so he stays a looming background power rather than overshadowing the heroes.
Is the Green Knight evil?
No, he is neutral. He is the cycle of the seasons given armor and a greataxe: implacable, unkillable, but fundamentally fair. He punishes oathbreakers and cowards, rewards courage and honesty, and reclaims what mortals abandon to the forest. Run him as a force of nature with a code, not a villain.
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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