Thak
Thak — The Encounter
The man-ape colossus of the old hill-temples · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Thak
In the oldest hill-temples, before kings kept records, the priests bred a guardian from a captured highland ape and fed it on offerings and dread. The thing they made outlived its makers. Thak remembers the chanting only as a hunger; he wears the amulet they hung on him and the belt some forgotten warlord buckled to claim him, and he has torn both owners apart since. He does not climb walls so much as decide they are no longer there, pulling beams from their sockets and hurling the pillars at whatever ran. Hunters who track him by the wreckage say he sleeps in roofless ruins he himself unroofed, and that he keeps the small bright things that catch his eye in a heap he guards like grief. He cannot speak, but he understands the dead tongue of the temple, and the right old word will give a brave fool one heartbeat of pause before the fists come down.
Run Thak in Sixty Seconds
- It's a charging brute, not a thinker - if there is a straight 15-ft lane to a target, take it: Wrecking Charge adds 2d8 and a DC 15 prone, so it opens every fight on the offensive.
- Open on the back line - aim the charge at the caster or archer, knock them prone, then Multiattack to grapple them in place.
- Kill-priority is the grappled target - once it has someone grappled (escape DC 17), spend the bonus action on Crushing Throw every round: 2d8+6 plus a DC 15 stun chains the victim helpless.
- When bloodied - it fights to the death and gets reckless; play it as raging (resistant to nonmagical bludgeoning/piercing/slashing) and let it eat opportunity attacks to reach a fleeing target.
- Three ways to run it - (1) lone rampaging guardian wrecking a structure round by round; (2) the enforcer beast of a slaver or cult boss who directs its charges; (3) an apex predator in ruins, hurling rubble at anyone who tries to kite it.
Thak
Large monstrosity, chaotic evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEWrecking Charge. If Thak moves at least 15 feet straight toward a creature or structure and then hits it with a Fist attack on the same turn, the target takes an extra 9 (2d8) bludgeoning damage. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 15 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.
Brute. A melee weapon deals one extra die of its damage when Thak hits with it (included below).
Keen Smell. Thak has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on smell, and cannot be surprised by a creature it can smell.
Actions
Multiattack. Thak makes two Fist attacks. If both hit the same creature, the target is grappled (escape DC 17).
Fist. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 20 (3d8 + 6) bludgeoning damage.
Hurl Rubble. Ranged Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, range 30/60 ft., one target. Hit: 17 (2d10 + 6) bludgeoning damage. On a hit, a Medium or smaller target must succeed on a DC 15 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Crushing Throw. If Thak has a creature grappled, it can use a bonus action to slam that creature into the ground or a wall, dealing 13 (2d8 + 6) bludgeoning damage. The target must then succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or be stunned until the end of its next turn.
A mountain of grey-furred muscle, Thak rises on two trunk-thick legs with fists raised to bring a temple roof down, his fanged maw bellowing through shattered beams. A crude leather belt and a single bronze amulet are the only marks that something once bound or worshipped him.
Thak, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEPack Fury (signature). While within 30 feet of an allied creature it can see, Thak has advantage on melee attack rolls.
Actions
Maul. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (2d8 + 4) bludgeoning damage.
Reactions
Shield the Big One. When an ally within 5 feet is hit by an attack, Thak can swap places with it and take the damage instead.
A smaller man-ape that trails Thak's rampages, scavenging the bodies he leaves and screaming a warning when hunters close in.
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 Wrecking Charge into the nearest squishy to bowl it prone, then pound it on the floor. Send it at the lowest-AC target and keep it swinging - at this tier even a single Fist nearly drops a level 2 PC. Pair it with goblin or cultist minions to mob the prone victim.
Open by charging the back-line caster or archer (Wrecking Charge = knockdown), then Multiattack to grapple and Crushing Throw to stun. Kill-priority is whoever it has grappled - hammer that target with the bonus-action slam until it stops moving. Best fielded with a smarter boss who points it at the right victim; on its own it just smashes the closest thing.
Use it as the muscle in a lair or warband, not the brain - charge, grapple, slam, repeat on whatever the real threat marks. Throw rubble at flyers and kiters who deny it a charge lane. Pair it with a caster or a bigger monster that can lock the party in place so Thak's grapple-and-slam loop lands.
Put Thak 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 Thak?
Thak is built as a Challenge Rating 6 brute (2,300 XP) at his native tier, a strong solo-feeling threat for a party of levels 5-10. The stat record also gives drop-in numbers for tiers 1-4 (about CR 2) and 11-15 (about CR 11) so you can scale the same creature to your table without rebuilding it.
Can Thak be a companion or ally?
Not as a willing companion - he understands an old temple tongue but cannot be reasoned with and turns on handlers. If you want an ape ally on the players' side, use the included companion Grom, the Lesser Beast, or reflavor Thak as a bound guardian a druid or warlord has temporarily collared. As a foe he shines as muscle pointed at the party by a smarter villain.
Is Thak a good solo boss?
He's a great centerpiece bruiser but not a true solo boss - he has no legendary actions, so a full party can out-act him over a round. Field him with minions, a lair, or a controlling spellcaster who keeps the party pinned in his charge-and-grapple range, and he becomes a genuinely terrifying fight.
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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