Bonghwang
Bonghwang — The Encounter
Korean phoenix of flame, harbinger of righteous rule · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Bonghwang
The grimoires of the eastern courts name the Bonghwang the phoenix-king of the five virtues, woven from the colors of righteousness, and say it descends only when a worthy ruler ascends or a great wrong is about to be set right. It does not nest in trees of common wood but only in the paulownia, and feeds upon nothing but the seed of bamboo and the water of sweet springs. Where its shadow passes, tyranny withers and the frightened take heart. Sages warn that to see the Bonghwang is a blessing and a burden alike, for its coming heralds an age of trial before peace. It will not strike the innocent, yet against the cruel and the unclean dead it pours a cleansing fire that purifies as it consumes. Slain, it does not stay slain while any spark of its purpose remains; it gathers itself from its own ash and rises once more, that the omen it carries may not so easily be silenced.
Run Bonghwang in Sixty Seconds
- Stay airborne. Fly 80 means it should almost never be in reach on the enemy turn. Move, fly-through a cluster for free fire, and only land if it must.
- Open with Cleansing Flame. The 30-foot cone is the round-one play against any clump, and undead/fiends save at disadvantage. Allies in the cone take nothing, so fire straight through your own line.
- Kill-priority is the thing killing your team. Auspicious Omen keeps allies up; spend attacks on whoever threatens that buff or the cleric, not on whoever is closest.
- When bloodied (61 HP), keep flying and bait the death. Renewing Ash turns its first drop to 0 into a free reset at 30 HP plus a fire burst, so dying once is part of the plan, not the end.
- Three ways to run it: omen, escort, or judge. Drop it as a beacon that buffs the party, fly it as a mobile fire-strafer beside a melee ally, or aim it as a celestial executioner sent against an undead or fiend boss it has come to purify.
Bonghwang
Large celestial, lawful good
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEAura of the Phoenix. Signature. The Bonghwang sheds bright light in a 20-foot radius and dim light for another 20 feet. A creature that ends its turn within 5 feet of the Bonghwang takes 5 (1d10) fire damage. When the Bonghwang flies through a hostile creature's space for the first time on a turn, that creature takes 5 (1d10) fire damage.
Auspicious Omen. The Bonghwang appears only where virtue rises. While it lives, allies within 30 feet have advantage on saving throws against being frightened, and the first time each ally is reduced to 0 hit points within 30 feet of it, that ally instead drops to 1 hit point (each ally once per day).
Magic Resistance. The Bonghwang has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Actions
Multiattack. The Bonghwang makes two attacks: one with its Searing Talons and one with its Ember Beak. It can replace one attack with a use of Cleansing Flame (recharge 5-6) if available.
Searing Talons. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8+4) slashing damage plus 7 (2d6) fire damage.
Ember Beak. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6+4) piercing damage plus 4 (1d8) fire damage.
Cleansing Flame (Recharge 5-6). The Bonghwang exhales radiant fire in a 30-foot cone. Each creature in that area makes a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw, taking 28 (8d6) fire damage on a failed save, or half as much on a success. Undead and fiends have disadvantage on this save. The Bonghwang's allies in the area take no damage.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Renewing Ash. Reaction (1/day). When the Bonghwang is reduced to 0 hit points, instead of dying it dissolves into embers and is reborn at the start of its next turn in an unoccupied space within 30 feet with 30 hit points. Each creature within 10 feet of where it fell makes a DC 15 Dexterity save, taking 10 (3d6) fire damage on a failure.
Rising from cracked stone before a ring of living fire, the Bonghwang spreads pinions of layered flame, its hooked beak lifted in a silent cry that promises the dawn of a just age.
Bonghwang, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEUpdraft Escort (signature). While within 30 feet of the Bonghwang, the bonded creature gains a flying speed of 30 feet and ignores difficult terrain made of flame, smoke, or ash.
Actions
Burning Bill. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (1d10+4) piercing damage plus 4 (1d8) fire damage.
Reactions
Warding Wing. When an ally within 5 feet is hit by an attack, the Bonghwang interposes a wing, granting that ally +2 AC against the triggering attack.
A lesser sun-bird that trails the great phoenix as a herald trails a king, its feathers smoldering with borrowed light.
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, drop a half-strength Cleansing Flame on a clustered pack, then strafe with talons. If clustered, lead with the cone; otherwise harry the strongest melee threat. As a downscaled omen-bird it pairs with a folkloric warlord or a pack of undead to be purified.
Open by flying over the front line so Aura of the Phoenix and a fly-through both bite, then Cleansing Flame the densest enemy cluster (undead and fiends save at disadvantage). Kill-priority is whoever is dropping your allies, since Auspicious Omen keeps your side standing. Pair it as the radiant centerpiece beside a corrupted king or necromancer it has come to judge; hold Renewing Ash so its first death just resets the fight.
Open with Cleansing Flame into the worst cluster, then full Multiattack the kill-priority target each round, staying airborne so melee can't pin it. Pour fire on the undead and fiends who save at disadvantage. As an upscaled celestial it pairs with a far larger fiend boss as the lawful-good answer to it; bank Renewing Ash for the boss's burst turn.
Put Bonghwang 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 Bonghwang?
Natively CR 6 (Tier 2, levels 5-10): AC 16, 123 HP, +7 to hit, save DC 15, about 30-40 fire-heavy damage a round. Scale it to CR 2 for Tier 1 or roughly CR 11 for Tier 3 using the tier table; traits stay identical and only the numbers move.
Can Bonghwang be a companion or ally?
Yes, naturally. The Bonghwang is lawful-good celestial that appears to aid the worthy, so it makes an excellent allied summon, omen, or NPC backup. Its Auspicious Omen and Aura of the Phoenix buff a party directly, and the lighter Cinder-Crane, Bound is provided as a sidekick-scale companion for a player who wants a personal sun-bird.
Is Bonghwang a solo boss?
No. It has no legendary actions, so a single action-economy makes it fragile against a full party. Run it as the radiant add-on or counterweight beside a flagship threat, such as a tyrant warlord, a necromancer, or a fiend it has descended to judge, and let Renewing Ash buy it a second life.
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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