Griffin
Griffin — The Encounter
Eagle-headed lion of the high crags, hoarder of gold · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Griffin
The griffin is the marriage of the two sovereigns of creation: the eagle that rules the open sky and the lion that rules the earth below. Sages of the old chronicles set its eyries upon the highest crags, where mated pairs raise their young above a hoard of gold and gemstone they prize and never spend, for the beast's eye for treasure is keener than any miser's. In the legends of the Pendragon court such a creature was counted among the wonders of the realm, hunted as proof of a knight's worth, for to ride one is to claim mastery of the air itself. It hates the hippogriff with an ancient enmity and preys on horses where no rider stands guard. Tireless on the wing, it stoops from cloud-height in a single screaming dive, talons spread, and bears a struggling rider or steed back to its nest before the fall is even understood. It cannot be reasoned with, only earned, broken, or slain.
Run Griffin in Sixty Seconds
- It fights from the air. Keep the griffin airborne with its 80 ft. fly speed; never let it sit in melee where four PCs can pin it. Stoop in, strike, climb back out of reach.
- Open with a stoop. Move 30+ ft. straight at a target so the beak triggers Stooping Hunter - extra 2d6 piercing plus a DC 14 prone, or grapple a Medium-or-smaller PC to carry off.
- Kill-priority: the ranged/caster. The thing that can ground it is the real threat. Snatch the wizard or archer first and fly them away from the party's reach and healing.
- When bloodied, go hit-and-run. Stop landing. Dive, claw, and climb back to altitude each round so melee PCs waste turns chasing a flier.
- Three ways to run it: lone aerial ambush over open ground; mated pair guarding a crag-top gold hoard; or a harasser screening a bigger boss while it picks off stragglers.
Griffin
Large monstrosity, unaligned
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEKeen Sight. The griffin has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight.
Stooping Hunter. Signature. If the griffin moves at least 30 ft. straight toward a target before hitting it with a beak attack, the target takes an extra 7 (2d6) piercing damage and must succeed on a DC 14 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone. If the target is a Medium or smaller creature, the griffin may instead grapple it (escape DC 14) and carry it aloft on its next turn.
Actions
Multiattack. The griffin makes two attacks: one with its beak and one with its claws.
Beak. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6+4) piercing damage.
Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d8+4) slashing damage.
Sculpted mid-rear with both wings flared wide and one taloned forefoot raised over a shattered crag, this griffin fuses an eagle's hooked beak and feathered crest to the muscled hindquarters and tufted tail of a lion.
Griffin, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINESkyborne (signature). Griffin has a flying speed of 60 ft. While it can see the sky, it has advantage on saving throws against being knocked prone or restrained.
Actions
Rend. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (2d4+4) slashing damage.
Reactions
Covering Stoop. When an ally within 30 ft. is hit by an attack, Griffin dives between them, granting that ally a +2 bonus to AC against that attack. If the bonus causes the attack to miss, the attacker is knocked prone.
A fledgling griffin, hand-raised and saddle-broken, that fights to shield the rider who fed it from the egg.
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 diving on the squishiest target with Stooping Hunter to knock it prone, then grapple and threaten to carry it off the map. Kill-priority is the lone caster or archer it can reach in one fly-by. Pair it with a hunter or warlord boss; at this tier it can readily snatch and isolate a single PC.
Open from cloud-height: dive 30+ ft. for the Stooping Hunter prone, then Multiattack the prone target with advantage. Snatch a Medium-or-smaller PC and carry them away from the healer to split the party. Kill-priority the ranged damage dealer; when bloodied it stays airborne and stoops in hit-and-run passes rather than landing.
Run it as a flight of two or three from a high lair, each stooping on a different PC to keep the party scattered and prone. Featurelings or rocs make natural lairmates. Kill-priority is whoever can ground it (counterspell, web, hold). Pair it with a bigger threat - it is a mobile harasser, not a centerpiece on its own at this tier.
Put Griffin 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 Griffin?
Its home tier is CR 6 (2,300 XP), built for level 5-10 parties: AC 15, 119 HP, +7 to hit, save DC 14. Scale it down to roughly CR 2 for level 1-4 tables or up toward CR 11 for level 11-15 by swapping to the Tier 1 or Tier 3 numbers in the table - the traits and actions never change, only the math.
Can Griffin be a companion or ally?
Yes. Use the bound companion Featherling, a saddle-broken fledgling griffin (AC 13, 71 HP) with the Skyborne trait, a Rend attack, and a Covering Stoop reaction that shields a rider. It works as a flying mount or a loyal beast-ally won by a knight who raised it from the egg.
How do I keep the griffin from getting swarmed in melee?
Use its 80 ft. fly speed every turn. Dive in with Stooping Hunter, hit with Multiattack, then spend the rest of its movement climbing back out of reach so melee PCs can't surround it. Over open terrain it can fight a whole party at arm's length; the only real counters are ranged attackers and effects that ground or restrain it - take those out first.
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
Played Griffin at your table? Log in with your Obsidian Tavern account to leave a balance note, a war story, or a file issue — the sharpest reports get the block revised.
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