Wood Golem 1
Wood Golem 1 — The Encounter
Bark-Bound Guardian Quickened from the Heart of the Old Wood · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Wood Golem 1
Hewn by hedge-witches and grove-wardens from a single felled elder tree, the wood golem is no mere carved idol. Sap is mingled with the maker's blood and a charm is whispered into the heartwood, so that the trunk stands, turns, and obeys. It does not tire, does not bleed, and does not reason; it knows only the last command laid upon it, guarding a sacred clearing or a buried grave for a hundred winters without complaint. Woodcutters who stray too near the warded groves tell of a thing that was a tree and now is a fist, of branches that close like a snare and limbs that strike like falling oaks. The wardens prize it for its patience and its strength, yet fear the one flaw they could not charm away: fire still loves dry wood, and a single torch can undo a season's binding in moments.
Run Wood Golem 1 in Sixty Seconds
- It guards, it doesn't hunt. The golem holds its post and pounds whoever comes closest; it will not pursue past the thing it was set to protect.
- Open with Grasping Boughs on the caster. Big save-or-take damage plus a grapple shuts down the back line for a round; otherwise just slam-and-prone the nearest body.
- Fire is the cheat code. Vulnerability means +5 on every fire hit AND it loses its reaction the next round; reward the player who brings a torch or flame spell.
- When it drops, it bursts. At 0 HP the heartwood explodes into grasping roots, restraining everyone within 10 feet on a failed DC 14 Con save, so don't crowd the kill.
- Three ways to run it: lone clearing-guardian puzzle, a pair flanking a sacred door, or a wall of three locking down frontliners for a grove-hag boss.
Wood Golem 1
Large construct, unaligned
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEVulnerability to Fire. The wood golem's dry timber catches readily. It takes an additional 5 fire damage whenever it is dealt fire damage, and while it has taken fire damage during the current or previous round it can take no reactions.
Living Heartwood. Signature. A green burl crowns the golem's shoulders. When the golem is reduced to 0 hit points, the heartwood bursts: each creature within 10 feet must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or be restrained by grasping roots and shoots until the end of its next turn.
Actions
Multiattack. The wood golem makes two slam attacks.
Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 16 (3d8 + 5) bludgeoning damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 14 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.
Grasping Boughs (Recharge 5-6). The golem lashes out with splintered limbs at one creature within 10 feet. The target makes a DC 14 Dexterity saving throw, taking 22 (4d8 + 4) slashing damage on a failure, or half as much on a success. On a failure the target is also grappled (escape DC 14).
A lumbering humanoid hewn from gnarled trunk and root, plated in overlapping bark and crowned by a swelling green burl. Its timber arms end in clusters of broken, grasping branches that creak with every silent step.
Wood Golem 1, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINERooted Bulwark (signature). While Wood Golem 1 remains within 5 feet of an ally, that ally has half cover against ranged attacks as the golem interposes its bulk.
Actions
Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (3d6 + 4) bludgeoning damage.
Reactions
Splintering Guard. When an ally within 5 feet is hit by a melee attack, Wood Golem 1 steps in; the attacker takes 7 (2d6) slashing damage from grinding bark.
A grove-warden's gift, bound to a single protector. It plants itself before those it shields and lets the blows fall on bark instead of flesh.
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 slam to knock the loudest melee attacker prone, then wade into the cluster. Keep it between the party and whatever it guards; it never pursues past its post. Anyone with a torch or fire spell is the answer here, so let players feel clever for finding the weakness.
Open by saving Grasping Boughs for the squishiest caster, grapple them, and slam everyone else prone. Kill-priority: it has none, it just guards, so it pounds whoever is closest to its charge. Pair it with a fey druid or hag who can buff its hide and punish the fire-bringers, and remember it loses reactions the round after it burns.
Run two or three together as the immovable wall of a warded lair, each grappling and pinning a frontliner while a controller picks apart the back line. They do not chase; they hold ground and grind. Pair them with a bigger threat (a grove-hag or treant-styled boss) that exploits the bodies the golems lock down.
Put Wood Golem 1 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 Wood Golem 1?
Its home tier is CR 6 (2,300 XP), built for level 5-10 parties: AC 16, 126 HP, +7 to hit, save DC 14. Scale it down to CR 2 for tier 1 or up to roughly CR 11 for tier 3 using the numbers in the tier table.
Can Wood Golem 1 be a companion or ally?
Yes. As Heartwood, Bound (AC 15, 76 HP) it is a grove-warden's protector: it grants nearby allies half cover, slams for solid damage, and punishes attackers with its Splintering Guard reaction. It works as a bodyguard construct for a druid, witch, or any character with a binding patron.
Is the wood golem solo boss material?
No. It is a durable add-on, not a centerpiece. It has no legendary actions and no extra reactions, so a four-player party will out-act it. Use it as a wall or guardian paired with a controller-style boss that exploits the bodies it pins down.
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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