Fomorians
Fomorians — The Encounter
Misshapen sea-giants of the drowned Irish dark · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Fomorians
Of the Fomóraigh, those that came before the green hills were made, the grimoires of the drowned coast speak with dread. They rose from beneath the cold sea, a brood without symmetry, each one warped in a different fashion: an arm grown thick as a roof-beam, a leg shrunk and bent, a single weeping eye where two should sit. They are the elder enemy, gods of blight and barren tide, who choked the harvest and demanded tribute of milk, corn, and firstborn from every settled folk. No two fomorians share a shape, for malformation is their birthright and their pride. They war in lurching bands, hurling stones torn from the cliffs and swinging mauls studded with the teeth of beasts. Strike one down and watch it heave upright once more, jaw working, refusing the killing blow. Drive them back to the waves they crawled from, for while a single fomorian draws breath, the crops will rot in the field.
Run Fomorians in Sixty Seconds
- What it is A Large giant brute, native Tier 2, CR 6. NOT a solo boss: deploy two or three as the muscle behind a real flagship.
- Open with Hurled Stone (+8, 2d10+5) at the back-rank caster, then close and Multiattack the nearest melee threat to knock it prone.
- Kill-priority Mauls whoever is healing or reviving; Crushing Grip punishes the melee attacker who hits it, locking down a frontliner.
- When it 'dies' Malformed Vigor drops it to 1 HP once per encounter AND it swings again on the way down — warn players it takes two killing blows.
- Three ways to run it Lone terror for low-level parties; a brute pair flanking a chieftain; a three-strong frontline grappling for a spellcasting boss.
Fomorians
Large giant, chaotic evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEMalformed Vigor. The fomorian's twisted, half-bestial body refuses to fall. The first time it would drop to 0 hit points each encounter, it instead drops to 1 hit point and immediately makes one melee attack as part of the same reaction.
Brute. A melee weapon deals one extra die of its damage when the fomorian hits with it (included below).
Actions
Multiattack. The fomorian makes two melee attacks.
Spiked Maul. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 19 (3d8 + 5) bludgeoning damage, and if the target is Large or smaller it must succeed on a DC 15 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.
Hurled Stone. Ranged Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, range 30/120 ft., one target. Hit: 17 (2d10 + 5) bludgeoning damage.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Crushing Grip (Reaction). When a creature within 5 ft. that the fomorian can see hits it with a melee attack, the fomorian grabs the attacker. The target must succeed on a DC 15 Strength saving throw or be grappled (escape DC 15) and take 7 (2d6) bludgeoning damage.
A stooped, lopsided brute of corded muscle and scaled hide, one eye set wrong in a snarling jaw, dragging a spiked maul as it lurches from the surf. Its kin loom at its shoulders, every limb mismatched and every face a different ruin.
Fomorians, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEMisshapen Endurance (signature). While above half its hit points, Fomorians has advantage on saving throws against being frightened, charmed, or knocked prone.
Actions
Jagged Cleaver. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) slashing damage.
Reactions
Shield of Flesh. When an ally within 5 ft. is hit by an attack, Fomorians steps in and takes the damage instead, reducing it by 5 (1d10).
A lesser fomorian shackled into service, half-tamed and wholly resentful, it fights at your side only so long as the chains and the meat hold out.
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 hurling a stone at the squishiest caster, then close to maul. If a single fomorian, it is a terrifying minor-boss for a level-3 party; two will overwhelm. Pair it with goblin-tier minions as the heavy hitter they rally around.
Open with Hurled Stone on a back-rank caster, then wade in and Multiattack the closest melee threat, using the prone rider to keep targets down. Kill-priority is whoever is reviving or healing. This is an add-on brute, not a solo boss: pair two or three as the muscle behind a sea-witch or chieftain so its Malformed Vigor and Crushing Grip stall the party while the real threat works.
At high tier, run a pack of three as a frontline that soaks damage and grapples. Open with stones to scatter the casters, then anchor the worst grapplers on the party's defender and ignore the tank to reach healers. Pair them with a flying or spellcasting flagship; alone they are a speed bump to T3 heroes.
Put Fomorians 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 Fomorians?
The native build is CR 6 (XP 2,300), a Large giant tuned for Tier 2 parties (levels 5-10). Scaled stat lines are provided for Tier 1 (levels 1-4) and Tier 3 (levels 11-15) so you can drop a fomorian into any table.
Can Fomorians be a companion or ally?
Yes. Balgrim, Bound is a shackled lesser fomorian statted as an ally (AC 14, HP 75) with a Jagged Cleaver, a Shield of Flesh reaction to soak hits for the party, and Misshapen Endurance against fear and prone. He serves only while the chains hold.
Is it solo-capable as a boss?
No. A fomorian has no legendary actions and is built as an add-on brute, so it will be ganged up on by a full party in a few rounds. Run them in pairs or trios behind a genuine flagship — a sea-witch, a fomorian chieftain, or a monstrous warlord — where their staying power and grapples shine.
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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