Bugbear 1
Bugbear 1 — The Encounter
The shaggy bogey of the woods, who strangles the strayed · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Bugbear 1
Country folk name it the bogey, the bugbear, the shaggy thing that waits past the last torch of the camp. Bigger and far older than the goblins it bullies, it does not charge the way a beast charges; it stalks, soft-footed despite its bulk, until a sentry strays or a child wanders, and then the long arms close. Mothers once hushed restless infants with its name. Hunters who tracked it found only dragged heels in the leaf-mould and a sentry gone from his post. It keeps to ambush because cruelty, to the bugbear, is best served slow and unseen: the throttling, the snapping of a guard's neck before any horn can sound. Where goblins squabble for scraps, the bugbear takes its due by terror, and a goblin warren that hosts one obeys it as a half-tamed hound obeys the wolf that could eat it. Fire and open ground are its only true foes.
Run Bugbear 1 in Sixty Seconds
- Hold the opener. The whole point of the bugbear is the ambush: keep it hidden and let it strike a creature that hasn't acted for advantage plus 2d6 bonus from Surprise Strangler.
- Kill-priority: back line. Its long arms and stealth exist to reach past the front rank. Aim it at the cleric or wizard, not the tank.
- Snatch as a leash. Long-Limbed Snatch fires when an enemy ends its turn within 10 ft., so players can't safely disengage and reposition near it.
- When bloodied, it gets reckless, hurling rocks if prey backs away and refusing to flee while a wounded victim is still in reach.
- Three ways to run it: lone strangler picking off a sentry, alpha leading a goblin warren, or expendable muscle dragging a PC to the real boss.
Bugbear 1
Medium humanoid (goblinoid), chaotic evil
CR 3 · 700 XP · GUIDELINEBrute. A melee weapon deals one extra die of its damage when the bugbear hits with it (included below).
Surprise Strangler. Signature. On the first round of combat, the bugbear has advantage on attack rolls against any creature that has not yet acted. If it hits a surprised creature with a melee attack that round, the target also takes an extra 7 (2d6) damage.
Actions
Multiattack. The bugbear makes two melee attacks, or one melee attack and one Hurled Rock.
Morningstar (Spiked Club). Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d8+3) piercing damage.
Hurled Rock. Ranged Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, range 30/120 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (2d6+3) bludgeoning damage.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Long-Limbed Snatch. When a creature the bugbear can see ends its turn within 10 ft. of it, the bugbear can use its reaction to make a single Morningstar attack against that creature, reaching with its overlong arms.
A hunched, hairy giant of a goblinoid, all matted fur mantle, pointed ears, and a fang-bared snarl, its overlong clawed arms hanging low as it creeps from the treeline.
Bugbear 1, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEAmbush Instinct (signature). On the first round of any combat, Bugbear 1 has advantage on attack rolls against creatures that have not yet acted, and moves silently (no Stealth check needed to stay hidden while it does not attack).
Actions
Clawed Grip. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (1d10+4) slashing damage, and a Medium or smaller target is grappled (escape DC 13).
Reactions
Drag Into the Dark. When an ally hits a creature Bugbear 1 is grappling, Bugbear 1 can move up to half its speed, dragging the grappled creature with it.
A lean, half-feral cousin chained to its master's hunts, Bugbear 1 exists to seize and haul prey out of the firelight where the bigger bogey can finish them.
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 hiding with Surprise Strangler on the squishiest back-line target, then Multiattack to drop it before it acts. Hold Long-Limbed Snatch to punish anyone who tries to dance away. Kill-priority is whoever the party most needs alive; pair it with goblin minions so the party splits attention while the bugbear isolates a victim.
Run it as a pack alpha: same ambush opener, but now it survives a focus-fire and trades blows. Use Snatch every round to lock down a melee striker. Pair it with a hobgoblin captain or shaman who buffs it, and let minions screen the casters so the bugbear reaches the back line.
At this tier it is muscle for a bigger threat, not the threat. Use it to body-block and grapple-drag a PC toward the real boss or into a hazard while minions and lair effects do the grinding. Open with the ambush bonus, snatch the most mobile PC, and never let it fight alone in the open.
Put Bugbear 1 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 Bugbear 1?
Natively CR 3 (700 XP), a strong Tier 1 add-on for a party of levels 1-4. The stat ladder rescales it to CR 6-ish for Tier 2 (levels 5-10) and CR 11-ish for Tier 3 (levels 11-15) so it stays a credible threat at any table.
Can Bugbear 1 be a companion or ally?
Yes. Throttle, Bound is the included ally version: a leaner CR 1-ish grappler that seizes and drags prey out of the light so a stronger fighter can finish them. Use it as a bound hunting-beast or a goblin warren's enforcer rather than a full party member.
Is the bugbear solo boss material?
No. It has no legendary actions and only one reaction trait, so a four-player party will out-act it. Run it as an ambusher and pack alpha alongside goblin minions or under a bigger boss, never alone in an open room.
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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