Elephant War Mount
Elephant War Mount — The Encounter
The Tusked Tower That Walks to War · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Elephant War Mount
Where two kingdoms grind against one another, the wisest captains buy not knights but elephants, and the cruelest of them buy this one. Taken young from the warm river-forests of the south and sold north to armies that had never seen its like, it was wrapped in studded leather and iron, its tusks capped with curved steel, and a spiked tower bolted to its spine. Drovers train it with hooks and horns until the clamor of battle calms rather than frightens it; a war-elephant that bolts is worse than no elephant at all. In the line it advances at a walk, then a charge, and the screams of crushed men do not slow it. Archers ride the howdah and rain shafts upon the broken. Folk who survive its passing speak of it the way they speak of a landslide: not as a beast with malice, but as a weight of the world set loose and pointed at them.
Run Elephant War Mount in Sixty Seconds
- It is a hammer, not a duelist open every fight with a 20-foot straight charge, gore to knock the target prone, then bonus-action Crushing Stomp the same turn.
- Kill-priority is the prone or pinned once a PC is down it stomps for 3d10+6; keep hitting the same creature until it stops moving, then turn on the next clustered target.
- When bloodied if a mahout rides it, expect Steady the Mount to shake off control effects and reposition for a fresh charge; without a rider it just keeps walking forward.
- Three ways to run it: front-rank hammer (charge the shield-wall, prone, stomp), archer platform (advance slow, howdah riders fire at advantage on anything it touched), or terrain-denial (block a corridor so the party must come to its tusks).
- It does not flee and cannot be feared it is immune to frightened, so control its movement or kill it; intimidation and fear effects are wasted.
Elephant War Mount
Huge beast, unaligned
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINETrampling Charge. If the elephant moves at least 20 feet straight toward a creature and then hits it with a tusk attack on the same turn, that target must succeed on a DC 15 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone. If the target is prone, the elephant can make one stomp attack against it as a bonus action.
War-Trained. (Signature.) The elephant is immune to the frightened condition and cannot be turned aside from a target a rider designates while the rider is mounted. The howdah atop its back is total cover for up to three Medium creatures riding within; those riders make ranged attacks at advantage against any creature the elephant has hit since the start of its last turn.
Actions
Multiattack. The elephant makes two attacks: one with its gore and one with its stomp.
Gore. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 19 (3d8 + 6) piercing damage from its bladed tusks.
Stomp. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one prone creature. Hit: 22 (3d10 + 6) bludgeoning damage.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Crushing Stomp. (Bonus action, see Trampling Charge.) When the elephant knocks a creature prone with a charge, it immediately makes one stomp attack against that creature.
A Huge battle-elephant clad in studded barding and a spiked headplate, bearing a four-poster spiked howdah on its back and curved blades lashed to its tusks. It is bred and broken for the front rank, where it shrugs off arrows and tramples shield-walls into the mud.
Elephant War Mount, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEDrover's Goad (signature). While the mahout rides the elephant, the elephant gains advantage on saving throws against being frightened or charmed, and can use the mahout's reaction to redirect its charge toward a new target within line of sight.
Actions
Hooked Lance. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 12 (2d8 + 3) piercing damage, and a Large or smaller target is pulled 5 feet toward the elephant.
Reactions
Steady the Mount. When the elephant is reduced to half its hit points or fewer, the mahout calls it back to discipline; the elephant ends one effect on it causing the frightened or charmed condition and may immediately move up to half its speed without provoking opportunity attacks.
A weathered driver perched at the elephant's neck with hook and goad, the one will keeping the living siege-engine pointed at the enemy.
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 with a straight-line charge to knock the front-rank PC prone, then bonus-action stomp. Kill-priority: whoever is already prone or pinned against terrain. Pair it with a unit of skirmishers; it is the hammer, they are the net.
Charge the cluster, prone the target with Trampling Charge, then Crushing Stomp it the same turn while howdah archers fire at advantage. If the party scatters, gore the closest and let the howdah riders punish the rest. Run it as the centerpiece of a warband, never alone.
Now a moving fortress in a larger battle: charge to break the strongest melee PC, stomp them prone, and shelter elite archers in the howdah. Kill-priority: the controller trying to lock its movement. Pair it with a flagship boss or massed infantry; it is a heavy add-on, not the whole fight.
Put Elephant War Mount 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 Elephant War Mount?
Its home statline is CR 6 (Tier 2, ~levels 5-10): AC 16, 136 HP, +7 to hit, save DC 15. The record also gives drop-in CR 2 (Tier 1) and CR 11 (Tier 3) numbers so you can scale it to your table; the traits and actions stay identical, only the numbers move.
Can Elephant War Mount be a companion or ally?
Yes. It is built to be ridden, and the included companion block, The Mahout, Bound, lets a driver keep it disciplined, redirect its charge, and rally it when bloodied. A martial PC or NPC commander can ride the howdah and field it as a mobile fortress and battering ram rather than fighting it.
Is the Elephant War Mount a solo boss?
No. It has no legendary actions or punishing reaction kit, so a four-player party will out-act it on its own. Run it as a heavy add-on alongside a flagship boss, massed infantry, or howdah archers, where its charge-and-stomp pattern shines as a threat the party must answer.
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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