Snugglethorn
Snugglethorn — The Encounter
Bile-bloated brute whose every wound breathes plague · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Snugglethorn
Where the marsh waters turn the color of old bruises, the thing the bog-folk name Snugglethorn comes wallowing, and the name is no jest but a warning: it kills by closeness. It was a giant once, or near enough, before some swallowed rot remade it into a walking sickness, swollen and weeping and forever grinning through a mouth of crooked fangs. It does not hate, exactly; it embraces. Those it folds against its bile-slick bulk are not crushed so much as infected, and the fever that follows finishes what the maul began. Plaguebearers and bog-cults trail in its wake, gathering the dead it leaves and adding their skulls to the midden it carries beneath its feet. Steel rusts in its presence and clean water sours. Burn the ground it stood on, the marsh-priests say, and burn the wind it breathed, for the brute is only the seed and the breath is the harvest.
Run Snugglethorn in Sixty Seconds
- Aura first. At the start of Snugglethorn's turn, everyone within 10 ft. rolls a DC 15 CON save or eats 2d6 poison. Track who is standing close before you do anything else.
- Open by hugging the crowd. Charge into the densest cluster so the aura hits the most targets, then Multiattack one creature to stack the poisoned condition.
- Stack then reap. The Spiked Maul applies poisoned; the Reaping Axe deals bonus poison to an already-poisoned target. Maul first, axe second, same victim.
- When bloodied it gets worse. At half HP the aura adds 1d8 and it resists nonmagical weapons, so warn melee fighters and push for magical or burst damage.
- Three ways to run it: a lone marsh terror cornering a party in a chokepoint; the anvil beside a caster boss; or the heavy of a plague-cult mob with spore-throwers behind it.
Snugglethorn
Large giant, chaotic evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEPestilent Aura. At the start of each of Snugglethorn's turns, every creature within 10 feet of it that is not immune to poison must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or take 7 (2d6) poison damage. The reek clings to wounds and lingers in the lungs.
Bloated Vitality. Signature. The fouler Snugglethorn's hurts, the more its corruption boils out. While it has half its hit points or fewer (bloodied), its Pestilent Aura deals an extra 4 (1d8) poison damage and it gains resistance to nonmagical bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage as listed.
Actions
Multiattack. Snugglethorn makes two attacks: one with its Spiked Maul and one with its Reaping Axe.
Spiked Maul. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 17 (3d8 + 4) bludgeoning damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned until the end of its next turn.
Reaping Axe. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 16 (2d10 + 5) slashing damage. On a hit against a creature that is already poisoned, the attack deals an extra 7 (2d6) poison damage.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Bursting Pustule. Reaction, when Snugglethorn takes damage from a creature within 10 feet. A boil ruptures; the triggering creature must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw or take 9 (2d8) poison damage from the spray of bile.
A grinning, fang-mouthed mountain of sickly green flesh in scavenged plate, Snugglethorn hefts a spiked maul and a broad reaping axe, wading through filth on a heap of cracked skulls.
Snugglethorn, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINESpore Cloud (signature). Once per short rest, Snugglethorn exhales a 15-foot cone of spores. Each creature in the area must succeed on a DC 13 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned for 1 minute (repeat at end of each turn).
Actions
Filthy Cleaver. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) slashing damage plus 3 (1d6) poison damage.
Reactions
Soak the Blow. When an ally within 5 feet is hit by an attack, Snugglethorn can interpose its bloated body, taking half the damage instead.
A squat, blistered hanger-on that scuttles at the brute's heel, coughing spores and dragging a notched cleaver.
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 wading into the tightest cluster so the Pestilent Aura tags as many as possible. Kill-priority: keep low-CON casters out of the 10-ft. aura. Pair it with a swarm of weaker minions so the party can't simply kite the slow brute.
Open by charging into the melee knot and Multiattacking the same target to stack poisoned, then let the Reaping Axe's bonus poison detonate. When bloodied it hardens and the aura bites harder, so push the party to burst it fast. Best run alongside a bog-cult caster or as the anvil beside a bigger flagship boss.
Field it as the front-line bruiser of a plague-lair, not alone, since a tier-3 party out-acts a single brute. Funnel it into chokepoints so the aura and Bursting Pustule punish anyone who closes. Pair it with ranged spore-throwers and a controller to hold the party inside the reek.
Put Snugglethorn 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 Snugglethorn?
Natively CR 6 (Tier 2, ~levels 5-10): AC 16, 138 HP, +8 to hit, save DC 15. Scaled Tier 1 and Tier 3 stat lines are provided so you can drop it into a level 1-4 or level 11-15 game without rebuilding it.
Can Snugglethorn be a companion or ally?
The brute itself is an adversary, but the bound spore-thrall Pusling (AC 13, 83 HP) is built as a companion or summoned ally, with a poison Spore Cloud, a Filthy Cleaver attack, and a Soak the Blow reaction to bodyguard a friend.
Is Snugglethorn a solo boss?
No. It is a centerpiece brute but not solo-capable; it has no legendary actions and a four-PC party will out-act it. Run it with minions, a caster, or as the muscle beside a larger flagship threat.
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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