Coblynau Miners
Coblynau Miners — The Encounter
Knocking goblins of the Welsh deep mines · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Coblynau Miners
In the deep workings beneath the Welsh hills dwell the coblynau, the knockers of the old mines. No taller than a half-yard, they go about in the leather and tin caps of honest miners, picking ceaselessly at veins of ore, though the rock they break never seems to move. Their knocking is double-edged: where they rap loudest, there the richest seam lies, and many a collier has grown wealthy by following the sound. But a coblyn slighted, mocked, or robbed turns spiteful, and then the knocking comes from above, where the roof is weakest. They are not malicious by nature, only proud and easily wronged, and they guard their diggings as a household guards its hearth. Wise miners leave a portion of their meal at the seam's mouth, doff their caps to the dark, and never, ever curse the stone where a coblyn might be listening.
Run Coblynau Miners in Sixty Seconds
- Tremorsense + burrow means they fight on their terms underground — they will surface beside your back-line, swing, then burrow away before you can answer.
- Open with Mine-Knock on the most clustered square; the marked spot deals bonus falling-rock damage next turn, so it telegraphs where to NOT stand.
- Kill the charge-thrower first. The Blasting Charge is the only ranged AoE; silence it and the band drops to single-target pick swings.
- When bloodied, a coblyn stops trading blows and uses Burrow Away every chance it gets, popping up to lob its last charge from cover.
- Three ways to run them: as a harassing skirmish swarm in tunnels, as wronged guardians defending a seam (parley possible — they are proud, not evil), or as miner-minions backing a bigger underground boss.
Coblynau Miners
Small fey, neutral
CR 2 · 450 XP · GUIDELINEStone Camouflage. The coblyn has advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks made to hide in rocky or subterranean terrain.
Mine-Knock (signature). As long as the coblyn can touch worked stone, it senses the location of ore, hollows, and unstable rock within 60 feet. Once per turn, it may rap its pick against a wall as part of an attack to mark a 5-ft. square of ceiling or floor; if a creature is standing in that square at the start of the coblyn's next turn, falling rock deals an extra 4 (1d8) bludgeoning damage to the first attack that hits it there.
Actions
Multiattack. The coblyn makes two attacks: one with its war pick and one with a hurled charge if it has one prepared.
War Pick. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (1d10+1) piercing damage, or 11 (2d8+1) piercing against a target standing on stone or earth.
Blasting Charge. Ranged Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, range 20/40 ft., one target. Hit: the clay charge bursts; each creature in a 5-ft. radius must make a DC 13 Dexterity saving throw, taking 9 (2d8) fire damage on a failure, or half as much on a success. A coblyn carries 1d3 charges.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Burrow Away. When a creature ends its turn adjacent to the coblyn, the coblyn can use its reaction to burrow up to 10 feet through earth or loose stone without provoking opportunity attacks.
A stout, bearded mine-spirit no taller than a child's hip, hooded and lantern-capped, gripping a war pick worn bright from a thousand seams of rock.
Coblynau Miners, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEOre-Sense (signature). Coblynau Miners knows the direction and rough distance of the nearest worked metal or precious mineral within 120 feet, and can tell whether a length of tunnel is structurally sound.
Actions
Mattock. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d8+3) bludgeoning damage.
Reactions
Shore the Roof. When an ally within 10 feet would take bludgeoning damage from a collapse, trap, or falling debris, Coblynau Miners braces a beam and reduces that damage by 1d8.
A grizzled coblyn who took a shine to the party, trading his knocking for a fair share of the spoils and a warm fire to sit by.
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 knocking the ceiling above the cluster, then hurl charges into the marked square before closing with picks. If the party clumps in a tunnel, the blasting charges and Mine-Knock punish them hardest. Kill the charge-thrower first; otherwise let them dig in and pair them with a bigger threat — these are the harassing miner piece, not the boss.
Scaled up as a foreman-coblyn or a packed work-gang acting as one. Open with the ceiling-knock to soften clustered melee, then alternate picks and charges. Pair it with a centerpiece monster so the coblyn handles area control while the boss deals the killing blows.
An ancient knocker-king of the deep seams, but still an add-on, not a solo. It burrows, marks the field, and collapses passages to split the party. Kill-priority stays on whoever it marks; keep it beside a flagship adversary that can capitalize on the broken ground.
Put Coblynau Miners 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 Coblynau Miners?
The native build is CR 2 (450 XP), a Tier 1 add-on for parties of levels 1–4. Use the Tier 2 (CR 6-ish) or Tier 3 (CR 11-ish) columns to rescale the identical traits for higher tables.
Can Coblynau Miners be a companion or ally?
Yes. Coblynau are proud but not evil, and a slighted-then-appeased one will gladly join. Use the Pickwright, Bound companion block — a loyal coblyn offering ore-sense and roof-shoring in exchange for a fair share.
Why is their knocking dangerous?
Coblynau knock to mark rich seams, but a wronged coblyn knocks above your head instead — that is the Mine-Knock trait, marking a square where the ceiling is about to give way.
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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