Vorg Thornspawn
Vorg Thornspawn — The Encounter
Winged fiend sown from the thorn-pits of the damned · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Vorg Thornspawn
Where a slain demon's ichor soaks unhallowed ground, the soil answers. The grimoires call the growths thorn-pits: lightless hollows that fill with black brambles and the screaming of the damned pressed into root and barb. From these pits the Thornspawn claws its way upward, sown rather than born, a thing of borrowed flesh and grafted armor. It does not parley and keeps no covenant; summoned, it serves only the binding circle and the moment the chalk is smudged it turns on the conjuror. In flight it scatters its own brittle spines like seed, and any patch of earth it has fought upon is said to sprout fresh brambles within a season, spreading the pit that made it. Hunters mark such ground with iron stakes and salt, for a single Thornspawn rarely walks alone for long.
Run Vorg Thornspawn in Sixty Seconds
- Open from the sky. Vorg starts airborne; first turn is a Gore dive on the heaviest melee to knock them prone, then claw the downed target.
- Punish the huddle. Thornbound Hide deals 1d10 piercing to anyone who melees it, so reward the party for spreading out and punish them for clustering.
- Don't let them stroll off. Thorn Lash is a free Claw on anyone who moves out of reach without Disengaging the casters will learn fast.
- Kill-priority is the healer/caster. Use fly 60 ft. to skip the front line and Rampage chains it onto a second body the moment one drops.
- Three ways to run it: lone aerial harrier diving a low-tier party; brute paired with a flagship fiend; or pack leader trailing a brambleling brood in a thorn-pit lair.
Vorg Thornspawn
Large fiend (demon), chaotic evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEThornbound Hide. Signature. Barbed spines bristle from the Thornspawn's carapace. A creature that hits it with a melee attack while within 5 feet takes 5 (1d10) piercing damage. While it is in dim light or darkness, its spines retract and it has advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks.
Rampage. When the Thornspawn reduces a creature to 0 hit points with a melee attack on its turn, it can use a bonus action to move up to half its speed and make a claw attack.
Actions
Multiattack. The Thornspawn makes two Claw attacks and one Gore attack.
Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6+4) slashing damage.
Gore. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8+4) piercing damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 14 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Thorn Lash (Reaction). When a creature the Thornspawn can see moves out of its reach without using the Disengage action, it can make one Claw attack against that creature.
A sinew-corded fiend of dusky crimson, its shoulders and spine armored in a fused organic carapace, vast leathern wings folding behind a horn-fanged maw. It crouches amid a litter of bone-pale thorns it leaves wherever it lands.
Vorg Thornspawn, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINESpite Spores (signature). When the Vorg Thornspawn takes damage, each creature within 5 feet of it must succeed on a DC 13 Constitution saving throw or take 4 (1d8) poison damage.
Actions
Rending Talons. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (2d4+4) slashing damage.
Reactions
Thorn Wall. When an ally within 10 feet is targeted by an attack, the Vorg Thornspawn raises a brief lattice of thorns, imposing disadvantage on the attack roll.
A lesser growth from the same pit, kept loyal only by an iron collar of binding sigils. It shadows its larger kin and bleeds caustic spores when struck.
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 the air with a Gore dive to knock the front-line prone, then claw the downed target. If the party clusters, let Thornbound Hide punish their melee while you pick the lightest-armored caster. Pair it with a brambleling pack so it always has a body to Rampage off of.
Open by flying in and Goring the heaviest melee to prone them, then full Multiattack. Thorn Lash punishes anyone who walks away, so the DM never has to track it manually. Kill-priority is the healer; use the 60 ft. fly speed to leapfrog the front line, and pair it with a bigger flagship fiend or a brambleling brood as the lair's roaming brute.
Use it as a wing-elite alongside a stronger boss, not on its own. Dive-Gore to prone, Multiattack, and let Rampage carry it from a downed PC straight into the next. With minions and lair terrain it pins the party in place while the flagship lands the kill.
Put Vorg Thornspawn 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 Vorg Thornspawn?
Its home build is CR 6 (Tier 2, levels 5-10): AC 16, 119 HP, +7 to hit, save DC 14. Scaled stat lines for Tier 1 (~CR 2) and Tier 3 (~CR 11) are in the tier table use whichever matches your party.
Can Vorg Thornspawn be a companion or ally?
As written it is a hostile summoned fiend that turns on its conjuror. If you want an allied version, use the bound Brambleling companion (AC 14, 71 HP) it is a leashed lesser growth that fights at a controller's side without the danger of a full Thornspawn.
Is Vorg Thornspawn a solo boss?
No. It has a punishing reaction and Rampage but no legendary-action kit, so a 4-PC party will out-act it alone. Run it as an add-on brute or wing-elite alongside a larger flagship threat, or as the leader of a brambleling pack.
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 Vorg Thornspawn 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.
Log in to comment