Borga
Borga — The Encounter
Spiked cleaver-rat of the gutter wards, twin blades whirling · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Borga
In the drowned wards beneath the river-city, the gutter-folk speak of Borga the Cleaver-rat with the careful quiet they save for plague and tax-men. Born in the offal-runs of the Bascou District, it rose not by cunning but by sheer relentless butchery, carving a name where literacy was scarce and grudges were not. Its plate is scavenged from a dozen fallen toll-guards, hammered to spikes so that even an embrace draws blood; its blades it sharpens nightly on the cathedral steps, a sound that empties the alleys above. Borga runs with a pack, and a pack of its kind is how the wise reckon it: never one rat in the dark but ten, and Borga the loudest of them. It takes coin, but kills for the running and the spray, and folk who cross the lamplit canals after curfew leave their boots by the door so the splashing will not give them away.
Run Borga in Sixty Seconds
- Hold its turn for the dive. Borga wants the backline, not the front. Open by Scuttling (Disengage) past the wall of armor and Multiattacking the lowest-AC PC.
- Kill-priority: healers and controllers. Whirling Cleavers lets it slide 10 ft. free whenever it drops a foe or crits, so it can hop from a downed target straight onto the next caster.
- Use Blade Parry every round. +3 AC as a reaction turns many hits into misses; remember it before you roll its saves, not after.
- When bloodied (59 HP), lean on Scuttle. Bonus-action Dash/Disengage keeps it slippery; hit-and-fade rather than trading blows once it's hurt.
- Three ways to run it: as the loud blade of a sewer rat-pack (Pack Frenzy online), as a paired duo with Skitter for flanking, or as a front-line lieutenant guarding a bigger boss.
Borga
Medium monstrosity, neutral evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEGutter Footing. Borga ignores difficult terrain and has advantage on saving throws against being knocked prone. It can move along walls and across narrow ledges without spending extra movement.
Pack Frenzy. Borga has advantage on attack rolls against a creature if at least one of Borga's allies is within 5 feet of the creature and that ally isn't incapacitated.
Whirling Cleavers. Signature. The first time on each of its turns that Borga drops a creature to 0 hit points or scores a critical hit with a blade, it may immediately move up to 10 feet without provoking opportunity attacks.
Actions
Multiattack. Borga makes three attacks: two with its Cleaver and one with its spiked armor (Gore).
Cleaver. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 12 (2d8 + 3) slashing damage. On a critical hit the target also takes 4 (1d8) slashing damage from the serrated edge.
Gore. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d6 + 4) piercing damage, and a Large or smaller target must succeed on a DC 14 Strength saving throw or be pushed 5 feet.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Scuttle (Bonus Action). Borga takes the Dash or Disengage action.
Blade Parry (Reaction). When a creature Borga can see hits it with a melee attack, Borga adds 3 to its AC against that attack, potentially causing the attack to miss.
A lean, hard-eyed ratfolk reaver buckled into spiked orange war-plate, twin serrated cleavers held low as it balances on the rim of a sewer stair, tail lashing for the spring.
Borga, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEFlanker's Instinct (signature). While Borga is within 5 feet of an enemy that is also within 5 feet of an ally, Borga's attacks deal an extra 3 (1d6) damage.
Actions
Shortblade. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (2d4 + 4) piercing damage.
Reactions
Slip Away. When an enemy ends its turn within 5 feet of Borga, Borga can move up to half its speed without provoking opportunity attacks.
A wiry den-mate that fights at Borga's heel, darting between enemies to set up the killing blow.
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 Dashing into melee and making both Cleaver attacks against the softest target it can reach. If allies are adjacent, Pack Frenzy gives advantage, so steer it onto whoever the rest of the warband is already pressing. Use Scuttle to peel off a wounded caster, and pair it with a knot of rat skirmishers so the flanking bonuses come online.
Open with a Scuttle into the backline and Multiattack the lowest-AC PC, banking on Blade Parry to shrug the retaliation. Whirling Cleavers lets it leapfrog off a kill, so reward aggression by aiming at near-dead targets first. Kill-priority: enemy healers and controllers. Run it as the loud blade of a sewer pack alongside Skitter and minion rats, never alone.
Here Borga is a lieutenant, not the boss: deploy it as the front-line enforcer for a bigger threat and let it dive the squishiest PC while the flagship controls the field. Open with Scuttle + full Multiattack, use Blade Parry every round, and chain Whirling Cleavers off kills to stay on the casters. Pair it with a lair or a larger monstrosity so the party's heavy hitters are committed elsewhere.
Put Borga 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 Borga?
Borga's home stat block is CR 6 (2,300 XP), tuned for a party of levels 5-10. The record also gives scaled-down (CR 2-ish, levels 1-4) and scaled-up (CR 11-ish, levels 11-15) versions so you can drop the same fighter into any tier by swapping AC, HP, to-hit, and save DC.
Can Borga be a companion or ally?
Yes. Borga is a mercenary by nature and will run with anyone who pays or shares its enemies. The companion block 'Skitter, Bound' models a loyal den-mate that fights at its heel, and Borga itself can be reskinned as a hired sword for a party that earns its respect in the gutter wards.
Is Borga a solo boss?
No. Borga is an add-on skirmisher, not a centerpiece. It has no legendary actions and a four-PC party will out-act it, so it shines as part of a rat pack or as the front-line enforcer for a larger flagship threat. Field it with minions or alongside a bigger monster.
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
Played Borga at your table? Log in with your Obsidian Tavern account to leave a balance note, a war story, or a file issue — the sharpest reports get the block revised.
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