Naalgorath
Naalgorath — The Encounter
Bull-Browed Butcher Who Wades Through the Slain · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Naalgorath
The grimoires name him Naalgorath the Bull-Browed, a butcher-spirit of the wastes whose appetite is sated only by the steaming work of the abattoir. Where lesser demons tempt and whisper, Naalgorath does not bargain; he is summoned by warlords who want a battle ended and a field left silent, and he is paid in the slaughter itself. Witnesses describe a horned brute who lowers his skull-browed head and charges through shield-walls like a maddened ox, twin cleavers rising and falling without pause, the smell of the slaughterhouse clinging to his crimson hide. He gathers the skulls of those he fells beneath his iron boots and stands upon them as a throne, the bleeding never slowing while a single foe still draws breath. Those who would unleash him are warned by every careful scribe: the bull does not learn the difference between an enemy and the hand that called him.
Run Naalgorath in Sixty Seconds
- What he is A frontline berserker demon and pure melee add-on, not a lone boss. Drop him next to a flagship villain or a pack of Gorelings and point him at your party's squishiest line.
- Open with Charge of the Goring Brute: move 20+ feet straight in, hit, deal bonus damage, and force a DC 15 Strength save or the target is prone, then Multiattack the downed foe.
- Kill-priority Anyone not at full HP. Blood Frenzy gives him advantage against wounded creatures, so he should always swing at the most chewed-up target in reach.
- When bloodied (63 HP) His weapon attacks gain +2d6. Telegraph it with a roar, then commit hard; this is his most dangerous phase, so save Bellowing Sunder for the cluster.
- Three ways to run him Headlong ox (always charging, ignores tactics), patient butcher (uses Butcher's Pursuit to punish movement), or pack alpha (stays near a Goreling that body-blocks hits for him).
Naalgorath
Large fiend (demon), chaotic evil
CR 6 · 2,300 XP · GUIDELINEBlood Frenzy. Naalgorath has advantage on melee attack rolls against any creature that does not have all its hit points. While he has 63 hit points or fewer (bloodied), his weapon attacks deal an extra 7 (2d6) slashing damage.
Charge of the Goring Brute. If Naalgorath moves at least 20 feet straight toward a target and then hits it with a cleaver attack on the same turn, the target takes an extra 9 (2d8) slashing damage and must succeed on a DC 15 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.
Magic Resistance. Naalgorath has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Actions
Multiattack. Naalgorath makes two Cleaver attacks.
Cleaver. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 17 (2d10 + 5) slashing damage. On a critical hit against a creature, the target also begins bleeding and takes 5 (1d10) slashing damage at the start of each of its turns until it or an ally uses an action to staunch the wound.
Bellowing Sunder (Recharge 5-6). Naalgorath roars and sweeps both cleavers in a wide arc. Each creature within 10 feet of him must make a DC 15 Strength saving throw, taking 22 (4d8 + 4) slashing damage and being pushed 10 feet away and knocked prone on a failure, or half as much damage with no other effect on a success.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Butcher's Pursuit. Reaction. When a creature within 5 feet of Naalgorath drops to 0 hit points or moves out of his reach, he can make one Cleaver attack against any creature within reach.
A Large red-skinned demon armored in spiked black-and-crimson infernal plate, his bull-browed skull crowned with jutting horns and skull-faced pauldrons, wading through a heap of the slain with a heavy curved cleaver in each fist.
Naalgorath, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEPack Fury (signature). While within 30 feet of Naalgorath, the Naalgorath has advantage on melee attack rolls against any creature that is within 5 feet of one of the Naalgorath's allies.
Actions
Gore. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) piercing damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 14 Strength saving throw or be pushed 5 feet.
Reactions
Shield the Butcher. When Naalgorath is hit by an attack while the Naalgorath is within 5 feet of him, the Naalgorath can take half the damage instead.
A lesser horned brute that runs at the master's heel, throwing itself between Naalgorath and any blade meant for him.
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 charging the softest-looking target to knock it prone, then hack at it on the ground. If two or more foes cluster, save Bellowing Sunder to scatter and prone them. He's too much for a low party alone, so run him as a duel boss with the Goreling at his side.
Open with Charge of the Goring Brute on the front-line tank or the closest squishy caster to prone them, then Multiattack. Kill-priority is anyone already bleeding or below full HP (Blood Frenzy gives him advantage there). Once bloodied he hits even harder, so let players feel the turn it flips, and lean on Butcher's Pursuit to punish anyone trying to disengage.
He's a bruiser, not a solo boss, so pair him with a bigger threat or a lair full of Gorelings and let him bull straight into the back line. Open by charging the healer to prone them, recharge Bellowing Sunder for the cluster, and focus whoever is bloodied. With minions around him his reaction attacks turn every retreat into a graveyard.
Put Naalgorath 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 Naalgorath?
Naalgorath is built at CR 6 (2,300 XP) in his native Tier 2 band, sized for a party of levels 5-10. The record also includes scaled Tier 1 (levels 1-4) and Tier 3 (levels 11-15) numbers so you can drop him into any table by swapping AC, HP, to-hit, and save DC.
Can Naalgorath be a companion or ally?
As written he's a chaotic evil butcher-spirit who doesn't distinguish friend from summoner, so he's an adversary first. If you want him on the party's side, reskin him as a bound or oath-shackled war-fiend a warlock or cultist controls, and use the Goreling companion block as a more reliable lesser ally that can body-block hits.
Is Naalgorath meant to fight the party solo?
No. He has no legendary actions and only one reaction, so a four-person party will out-act him alone. Run him as an add-on bruiser beside a bigger threat, or back him with Gorelings or other minions so his reaction attacks and charges actually land.
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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