Bonegrinder 5E Tactics

 Ah, bone grinders... another iconic if somewhat gruesome staple of the wilds of Immoren. Sometimes referred to as "meat wizards", they are more accurately tribal alchemist style support casters. 

The classic and most common bone grinder is a farrow, although they can seemingly be of any of the wilder "Hordes" races of Immoren including bog trogs, bogrin, gatormen, tharn, trollkin, and even humans. I haven't come across a reference to a Nyss bone grinder, although that would be an interesting concept to explore. Unless otherwise noted, the base creature is presumed to be human although there's an odd quirk in the stat block that suggests they are meant to be farrow (see below) - I'll provide notes for adjusting them to suit farrow and other races towards the end of this post in any case.

With an ability contour that favours CON and INT, a bone grinder fills the support caster role although it has above average STR, DEX, and WIS also. Is Hit Dice, lowish AC, and base movement are all pretty standard for a first-tier Medium-sized humanoid opponent and there are no special senses or proficiencies to consider.

Bone Grinder Talismans (speaker's tongue) and Disease Resistant aren't relevant tactically, although the former perhaps encourages negotiation and parlay even for evil alignment individuals.

The bone saw is average at best, with unimpressive damage. Thematically great, effectively rubbish.

Butchery is a decent passive trait but is conditional on scoring a critical hit, which makes it rarely invoked - I use average damage for criticals to improve flow in my games, so 7 additional damage from a bone saw is reasonable, but pales into the every attack bonus damage granted by hex which it does stack with at least. Note technically this also affects spell attacks such as poison spray. 

Gut Bomb (1/day) is a great short ranged support style attack and fits the gross theme well, but although the are of effect is decent, it's CON saving throw may limit its effectiveness on front rank enemy fighters  and care needs to be taken to not injure any allies engaged in melee - its most effective against a long-range spellcaster but lacks the effective range to utilise this unless the bone grinder can flank around into range with the support of allies.

Bone grinder spellcasting is interesting thematically (curses, first aid, poison), although limited as they are only low-level casters (3rd level) with very few spell slots:

• Blood poisoning (B+B, page 139) is a new IK:R5E specific spell that acts as a standard ranged spell attack inflicting poison damage. It's decent but works best when cast *after* the obvious go-to spell hex, as the latter while concentration buffs for the predicted duration of combat. Hex adds 1d6 necrotic damage but can also cause disadvantage on an ability check - unfortunately, this is explicitly *not* a save, so doesn't synergies with this or a Gut Bomb. Hex can however be moved from creature to creature as one opponent is slain so has ongoing utility. 
• False life is a somewhat mediocre healing option perhaps best used on a case by case basis but in most cases will go unused in either combat or any negotiations.
• Of the cantrips, poison spray is essentially a lower-powered close-range version of blood poisoning that requires a CON save and the same average damage, but slightly lower damage if rolled as it uses 1d12, not 2d6. I only use average damage for opponents to speed play in any case. Spare the dying is thematically appropriate has limited utility use for allies as common NPCs don't use the death save mechanic.

Battle Wizard is a great trait but limited in utility due to the low number of spell slots and casting options available. Assuming hex has already been cast and in play, once a bone grinder drops an opponent to 0 hit points, it makes sense for them to shift their hex to a new creature and then use the bonus spell action to hit it with blood poisoning if it still has spell slots available or poison spray if it doesn't. 

So from a tactical perspective as a support caster, leading with hex followed by Gut Bomb or blood poisoning at a distance in the first two to three rounds makes the most sense, with the bone grinder trying to keep close enough to opponents to support any allies. They stay out of melee range behind an ally if possible to use poison spray on a hexed opponent (with the albeit rare chance of a Butchery boost) rather than their backup bone saw unless pressed into physical contact. As it doesn't have any particular mobility traits, it can only achieve this using its superior INT and WIS by commanding allies through force of personality and fear.

Non-human Bone Grinder Variants

Farrow

So starting off as promised, with the farrow version. This is quite straightforward given there is an existing base creature stat block already and in fact, there's a clue that the base creature stats might be a farrow as their languages are Grun (the farrow's debased derivative of Molgur), plus any one language. Given the lack of other features, this could also imply that a lot of bone grinder terms may be based on Grun so it's handy for characters of other races - I prefer this interpretation.

I'd make the following changes for a farrow variant:

• Add Keen Smell
• Add proficiency in Perception
• Consider proficiency in Survival

Otherwise, the ability contour is the same or better (higher STR and mental characteristics) than a base farrow, so there's really not a lot more than cosmetic changes and the innate ability to track by smell. Sure the farrow meat caster can carry a pig iron or other pistol, but their talismans and spellcasting make this primarily for show, and it's likely more of a trophy than a viable weapon option. You could rule that their bone saw allows them to participate in a Hog Wild ruckus instigated by a farrow leader (see prior post) if you consider my more generous interpretation of that trait, but only if they have inadvertently strayed into melee or run out of spell slots.

Bog Trog

Although mist speakers are the more common spellcastiing role, there are uncommon bog trog bone grinders or hybrid career individuals, such as the iconic Lurk. They differ from the base creature as follows:

• Amphibious
• Swim 50 ft.
• Chameleon Camouflage
• Stealth proficiency
• Darkvision 60 ft.
• A natural bite attack (+3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: (1d4+1) piercing damage) 

No other adjustments are necessary other than speaking Qor-Og, although a fishing gaff (MN:5E, pages 16 or 18) may be a more suitable substitute than the default bone saw. They are sneakier and prefer combat at night, preferably ambushing from nearby water.

Bogrin

It seems bogrin make decent bone grinders as well, needing little adjustment:

• Size Small, movement decreases to 25 ft.
• Superior Darkvision 120 ft.
• Beneath Notice. Bogrin are often overlooked due to their diminutive size, allowing them to sneak by unnoticed. Add proficiency in Stealth. Additionally, when a bogrin finishes moving after taking the Disengage action, it can take the Hide action in an attempt to remain hidden from any creature the bogrin has concealment from. 

Keep the all the other base statistics the same, replacing the additional language with Bogrinese. Their smaller size, Stealth and darkvision shift them to act more as ambushers, complementing their fellows by moving around the battlefield to neutralise ranged spellcasters in particular.

Gatorman

A gatorman bone grinder is a bit more complicated as base gatormen have more hit dice than the example support caster. Their interaction with soul slaves is also worth considering separately, so I'll come back to them later in another future post. 

Tharn

Despite being a core "Unleashed" (Hordes) race, the tharn don't have either a dedicated 5E stat block, nor a player character race write up as yet - notable absence from Borderlands and Beyond I thought. I will also leave these for a later date, although there is some homebrewed material available that I have utilised to help convert a tabaxi character concept in my current 5E game.

Trollkin

Finally wilder trollkin do occasionally become bonbe grinders. Looking at the published IK:R5E stat blocks such as kriel warrior (B+B, pages 206-207), I'd suggest adding the following:

• Combined Attack (if within 5 feet of at least two other creatures with this trait, it makes weapon attack rolls with advantage) - this is a variant of Pack Tactics, but a bit weaker as requires two allies
• Unyielding (+2 AC against melee attacks)

Increasing the STR and CON to 16 adds +2 to attacks and damage with its bone saw (now +5 to hit and 6 (1d6+3) damage) and an extra 5 hit points (total 37) and the additional language is Molgur-Trul, but otherwise no major changes. These modifications make the trollkin variant much more likely to hold up if pressed into melee but overall tactics don't change sufficiently.

Note: I guess (swamp) gobber and pygmy troll bone grinders are possible, but seem unlikely. I mean there is a gobber chef in the HORDES minion lists that could be a clue...