The Jottün Moder
The Jottün Moder — The Encounter
Antlered Famine-Mother of the Frost-Giant Wilds · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is The Jottün Moder
In the frost-bitten wilds beyond the giants' steadings, the wise speak of the Moder in whispers, for to name her aloud is to call her appetite. She is no honest beast but the get of a jötunn that ate its own kin through a winter that would not end, until hunger remade it into something antlered and forever starving. She walks where the snow lies deepest, her cloven tracks circling a homestead for nights before the larder empties and the cattle fall silent. Hunters who follow find no kill, only cracked bone and a smell of cold rot on the wind. Folk hang iron and rowan at the threshold and burn the first bread of midwinter as offering, hoping her crown of antlers turns toward some other valley. She does not hate; she only eats, and the more she eats the swifter and the greater she grows, until a single homestead can no longer fill the hollow that walks inside her.
Run The Jottün Moder in Sixty Seconds
- What it is A 50-ft.-fast antlered famine-beast that grapples in its jaws and snowballs whenever something nearby dies. Not a solo boss — run it as the apex predator of a frost lair.
- Open with Famished Charge from the dark: it moves up, gores, and knocks the target prone with disadvantage on the save. Then bite the prone victim to grapple and drag.
- Kill-priority Bite the lowest-HP creature it can reach. Hunger Made Flesh heals it 10 and speeds it up every time anyone within 30 ft. hits 0, so it murders the dying first.
- When bloodied It does not retreat — it gets hungrier. Lean on Famished Charge to chase and prone fleeing PCs; fire makes its calves flinch and bawl, which is your tell it is wounded.
- Three ways to run it (1) Lone winter terror stalking one homestead; (2) mother-and-calves pack hunt; (3) chaser-add beside a frost giant, herding PCs into its jaws.
The Jottün Moder
Large monstrosity, chaotic evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEKeen Smell. The Moder has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on smell, tracking warm-blooded prey across miles of snow.
Hunger Made Flesh. Signature. The Moder is driven by an endless famine. When it reduces a creature to 0 hit points with a bite, or when a creature within 30 feet of it drops to 0 hit points, the Moder regains 10 hit points and its speed increases by 10 feet until the end of its next turn as it gorges and lunges for the next meal.
Actions
Multiattack. The Moder makes three attacks: one with its Bite and two with its Antlers, or two with its Claws and one with its Bite.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8+4) piercing damage. If the target is a Medium or smaller creature, it is grappled (escape DC 14) and the Moder cannot bite another target while it grapples this way.
Antlers. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6+4) piercing damage, and a Large or smaller target must succeed on a DC 14 Strength saving throw or be pushed 10 feet away and knocked prone.
Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6+4) slashing damage.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Famished Charge (Recharge 5-6). The Moder moves up to its speed in a straight line toward a creature it can see and makes one Antlers attack. If it moves at least 20 feet first, the attack deals an extra 9 (2d8) piercing damage and the target has disadvantage on the save to avoid being knocked prone.
A towering, emaciated giant-spawn on splayed cloven legs, its drooping face curtained in mossy tendrils beneath a vast crown of branching antlers. Pale carrion flesh hangs from a bark-knotted hump, and an endless, grinding hunger lives behind its eyes.
The Jottün Moder, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEPack the Snow (signature). The calf does not eat its kill alone. While it is within 30 feet of the Moder or another ally that hit the same target this turn, its Gore deals an extra 4 (1d8) piercing damage.
Actions
Gore. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (2d6+3) piercing damage.
Reactions
Flinch From Fire. When the calf takes fire damage, it moves up to 15 feet away from the source without provoking opportunity attacks, bawling a cry that the Moder can hear from a mile off.
A half-grown horror still learning the hunt, all knees and budding antlers, that shadows its mother and feeds on whatever she leaves behind.
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 Famished Charge from outside the light to knock the front-liner prone, then bite the prone target to start a grapple. Drag grappled prey away from healers and finish them so Hunger Made Flesh fuels the next lunge. Pair it with a frost-giant or a winter hag who herds the party toward its waiting jaws.
Lead with Famished Charge into the most clustered melee to scatter and prone them, then Multiattack the squishiest body it can reach to trigger Hunger Made Flesh. Kill-priority is anyone already bloodied so it heals and speeds up; chase fleeing prey on its 50-ft. legs. Run it as the apex hunter of a frost-touched lair with calves and dire wolves, not a lone duel.
At this size it is a famine-engine for a bigger threat: Famished Charge each round to keep someone prone, then full Multiattack the prone target. Stack Hunger Made Flesh by sending minions to drop low NPCs near it so it heals and accelerates uncontrollably. Pair it with a giant matriarch or a winter-cursed warband; it is the relentless chaser, not the lone boss.
Put The Jottün Moder 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 The Jottün Moder?
Natively CR 6 (2,300 XP) — a Tier 2 threat for levels 5-10. The record also gives drop-in CR-2 (levels 1-4) and CR-11 (levels 11-15) versions; the traits and actions stay identical and only AC, HP, to-hit, save DC, and damage move between bands.
Can The Jottün Moder be a companion or ally?
Not as a bound mount — she is a mindless famine driven only to eat. But her half-grown offspring Hrímbjörn travels with the encounter as a companion stat block (AC 13, 76 HP) that hits harder when it ganks a shared target and bolts from fire. Use the calf for a tameable-monster subplot or a rival hunter's beast.
Is The Jottün Moder solo-boss material?
No. She has fast, punishing offense but no legendary actions or party-wide reaction kit, so a four-PC party will out-act her in a one-on-one fight. Field her as the centerpiece of a frost-wild lair with calves, dire wolves, or a giant matriarch, or as the relentless chaser beside a bigger boss.
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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