Forest Centaur
Forest Centaur — The Encounter
Antlered warden of the deep wood, spear of the green silence · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Forest Centaur
Marked is the traveller who hears antlers part the leaves before any hoof falls. The forest centaurs are the older breed, born where root and bone tangle deepest, and they crown their brows with the horns of stags so the wood may not mistake one of its own. They keep no walls and raise no banner; the bramble is their wall and the green silence their banner. A centaur of this kind runs down the snare-setter and the kindler of careless fires, and its spear is loosed only after the third warning has gone unheeded. Folk of the border villages leave offerings of salt and cut oats at the treeline, for a centaur owed a debt will herd lost children home through the dark, and a centaur owed a wrong will harry a caravan from glade to gully until the wheels are splintered. They speak the Sylvan tongue and the speech of elves, and they remember every name that ever felled a sacred grove.
Run Forest Centaur in Sixty Seconds
- Hold for the line. Don't start the centaur in melee. Begin 30+ feet out behind brush so its very first move triggers Charge for the prone knock.
- Open with the charge. Move 30 feet straight in, hit, deal the extra 3d6, and force the DC 14 Strength save or the target is prone and easy to gang.
- Kill-priority is the back line. It is a skirmisher, not a wall, send it past the tank straight at the healer or controller.
- When bloodied, stop trading blows: use Bounding Retreat every round to break away, circle through trees for half cover, and re-charge fresh.
- Three ways to run it: wolfpack of three flanking a boss; lone scout that harries a caravan and flees; honor-bound warden that warns once, then strikes.
Forest Centaur
Large fey, neutral
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINECharge. If the centaur moves at least 30 feet straight toward a target and then hits it with a pike attack on the same turn, the target takes an extra 10 (3d6) piercing damage. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 14 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.
Woodland Strider. Signature. The centaur ignores difficult terrain made of nonmagical plants, undergrowth, and root. While standing within 5 feet of a tree, bramble, or thicket, it has half cover against attacks and can take the Hide action even while only lightly obscured.
Actions
Multiattack. The centaur makes two pike attacks, or two hoof attacks.
Pike. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8+4) piercing damage.
Hooves. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6+4) bludgeoning damage.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Bounding Retreat. When a creature ends its turn within 10 feet of the centaur, the centaur can use its reaction to move up to half its speed without provoking opportunity attacks.
A stag-horned warrior reared over a shaggy stallion's body, fur-mantled and gripping a head-high spear, this centaur patrols the rocky verges where the wildwood ends.
Forest Centaur, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEPack Flanker (signature). Forest Centaur has advantage on an attack roll against a creature if at least one of the centaur's allies is within 5 feet of that creature and isn't incapacitated.
Actions
Gore. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 12 (2d8+3) piercing damage, and a Large or smaller target must succeed on a DC 13 Strength saving throw or be pushed 10 feet.
Reactions
Bristle Guard. When an ally the centaur can see within 10 feet is hit by an attack, Forest Centaur can impose disadvantage on that attack roll as its thorny hide flares.
A great antlered elk that runs at the warden's flank, its hide knotted with living briar.
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 range of a tree line so Charge lands on the first turn, then knock a clustered front-liner prone and trample past. Kill-priority is the party's healer or controller; the centaur is a mobile skirmisher, not an anchor. Pair it with a tougher beast or a fey caster, since alone it folds once it can't reposition.
Lead with a 30-foot charge into the most clustered target, knock it prone, then Bounding Retreat away on its bonus reaction before swords answer. Hunt the back line; ignore the tank and use Woodland Strider terrain for half cover between strikes. This is the harassment piece in a wildwood ambush, so run two or three alongside a flagship boss rather than solo.
Charge, prone, retreat, repeat: keep the party turning to face a threat that is never standing still. Focus the squishiest caster and let Bounding Retreat make every opportunity attack miss. Even scaled up it is an add-on, so deploy it as the outrider screen for a larger fey or giant centerpiece.
Put Forest Centaur 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 Forest Centaur?
Its home build is CR 6 (2,300 XP) for a tier-2 party of levels 5-10. Scaled stat lines are provided for tier 1 (levels 1-4) and tier 3 (levels 11-15) so you can drop it into almost any table.
Can Forest Centaur be a companion or ally?
Yes. As a fey warden it makes a natural guide or guardian for a druid or ranger party, and the included companion, Briarmane the briar-bound elk, can ride at its flank or be granted to a player as a loyal mount and bodyguard.
Is the Forest Centaur a fey or a beast?
Stat it as a Large fey: it is an intelligent, Sylvan-speaking woodland warrior, not a wild animal. That means it resists effects that target only beasts and can parley, bargain, and hold grudges.
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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