3rd Guardian: Swamp King
3rd Guardian: Swamp King — The Encounter
Rootbound warden of the drowned mire, the Green Man made flesh · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is 3rd Guardian: Swamp King
The marsh folk name it only in whispers, for to speak the Swamp King's true name is to call him. He is the third of the old wardens set to keep the drowned places, a thing grown rather than born, gathered across centuries from the roots of fallen trees, the bones of those the bog took, and the slow patient anger of standing water. Travelers who fell timber from the sacred groves or foul the black pools find their fires guttering and their paths circling back, and in the reeds they hear wood groan where no wind blows. He does not hate the living so much as he refuses to let them leave with what they have taken. Axes notch him and flame frightens him, but the swamp always mends what fire cannot finish. Hunters say the only mercy he offers is a quick drowning. The mire keeps its king, and the king keeps the mire.
Run 3rd Guardian: Swamp King in Sixty Seconds
- Open from the muck. Start submerged in bog or water with advantage on Stealth, then surface and Vine Slam twice to grapple a front-liner before anyone rolls initiative cleanly.
- Keep its feet wet. Rootbound Regeneration heals 10 HP each turn it touches swamp or water unless it took fire or necrotic. Fight on dry stone and you gut its staying power.
- Engulfing Bog is the win button. On a 5-6 recharge it restrains everyone in 15 feet. Use it the instant two or more PCs bunch up, then Multiattack the restrained.
- Kill-priority for the party: fire. It takes double fire damage and can't regenerate through it. Without flame or magic axes, melee bounces off its bark resistance.
- Three ways to run it: a slow inevitable warden circling lost travelers, a flash ambush erupting from a single still pool, or the hard hitter beside a marsh hag who does the thinking.
3rd Guardian: Swamp King
Large plant, neutral
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEMire Stride. The Swamp King ignores difficult terrain caused by mud, bog, or undergrowth, and it can move through any space occupied by water or muck without provoking opportunity attacks. While standing in marsh or shallow water, it has advantage on Stealth checks.
Rootbound Regeneration. Signature. While the Swamp King is touching wet earth, swamp, or standing water at the start of its turn, it regains 10 hit points unless it took fire or necrotic damage since its last turn. It dies only if it starts its turn with 0 hit points and is not touching such ground.
Vulnerable to Flame. The Swamp King takes double damage from fire.
Actions
Multiattack. The Swamp King makes two Vine Slam attacks. If both hit the same target, the target is grappled (escape DC 15).
Vine Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 16 (3d8 + 5) bludgeoning damage, and the target's speed is reduced by 10 ft. until the start of the Swamp King's next turn as clinging roots drag at it.
Engulfing Bog (Recharge 5-6). The Swamp King churns the ground into a 15-foot-radius sucking morass centered on itself. Each creature in that area must make a DC 15 Strength saving throw, taking 18 (4d8) bludgeoning damage and being restrained until the end of its next turn on a failure, or half damage and not restrained on a success.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Drag Under. Reaction. When a creature the Swamp King is grappling tries to move away, the Swamp King pulls it 5 feet toward itself and that creature must succeed on a DC 15 Strength save or fall prone in the muck.
A towering man-shape woven from drowned roots, hanging moss, and bog-black sinew, mid-stride from the mire with a beard of weeds and fists the size of stumps. Where it walks the water rises to meet it.
3rd Guardian: Swamp King, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINERooted Resolve (signature). While 3rd Guardian: Swamp King is touching wet earth or marsh, it has advantage on saving throws against being moved, knocked prone, or frightened.
Actions
Thorn Lash. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 12 (2d8 + 3) slashing damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 13 Constitution save or take 4 (1d8) poison damage from festering thorns.
Reactions
Tangling Snare. Reaction. When a creature within 10 feet moves, 3rd Guardian: Swamp King lashes out; the creature must succeed on a DC 13 Dexterity save or have its speed reduced to 0 until the end of its next turn.
A lesser thing of bramble and bog-iron that trails the Swamp King like a hound of thorns, snaring stragglers so the king never need give chase.
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 from the muck with a Vine Slam and grapple a single front-liner to pin the party in the bog. If foes cluster, ready Engulfing Bog to restrain two of them, then drag the grappled target under. Kill-priority is whoever carries a torch; pair it with reed-lurking minions so it never fights in the open.
Lead with Engulfing Bog the moment two or more PCs stand close, then Multiattack the restrained ones and grapple the squishiest caster. Fight with your feet in water so Rootbound Regeneration ticks every turn; bait the party into wasting turns on raw HP. Kill-priority is anyone holding fire or a magic axe. This is a bruiser, not a boss, so pair it with a marsh hag or a bigger threat directing it.
Run it as the muscle in a flooded lair, churning Engulfing Bog every recharge to restrain the cluster while it slams the front line and drags casters under. Lean on the lair's standing water so regeneration is relentless and force the party to bring fire or fall back. Pair it with a controller or a larger boss; alone, a high-tier party simply burns it down between heals.
Put 3rd Guardian: Swamp King 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 3rd Guardian: Swamp King?
Natively CR 6 (2,300 XP), a Tier 2 brute for parties of levels 5-10. The same traits scale down to a ~CR 2 version for Tier 1 and up to a ~CR 11 version for Tier 3; only the numbers move, the kit stays identical.
Can 3rd Guardian: Swamp King be a companion or ally?
Yes. As a neutral warden it can be befriended or bargained with by those who tend the marsh, and it makes a fearsome lair guardian or escort. Use the included Bramblekin, Bound stat block as a scaled-down allied version that snares foes and holds a chokepoint.
How do I counter its regeneration?
Fire and necrotic damage shut off Rootbound Regeneration for a round, and fire deals double. Better still, lure or shove it onto dry ground away from swamp and standing water, where it cannot heal at all and dies if it starts a turn at 0 HP.
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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