10. Animal Lord

Challenge Rating: 20

Creature Type: Celestial (Medium)

What Are They: Immortal spirits that serve as divine protectors of wild beasts, Animal Lords often appear as humanoid-animal hybrids. They primarily reside in the Beastlands but occasionally travel to other realms, often intervening in the Material Plane during environmental crises that threaten the creatures they rule over. While they can resemble almost any beast, they come in three key types: Forager, Hunter or Sage, each of which has unique powers. In combat, Animal Lords also possess a number of legendary resistances and can shapchange into different forms. When challenged, they can rend enemies apart with their claws, unleash powerful radiant energy blasts and channel emanations that can frighten, charm and stun enemies with psychic damage. It’s a monster that offers a true walk on the wild side for anyone foolish enough to take them on.

9. Gnoll Demonaic

Challenge Rating: 8

Creature Type: Fiend (Medium)

What Are They: An Abyss-tainted berserker version of the traditional Gnoll, the Demoniac is the result of feasting on corrupted demonic flesh during a dark ritual the the god Yeenoghu. In battle, they strike with poisoned claws and can conjure a magical darkness that drains hit points from their enemies. They can also tap into a new Rampages feature that lets them double their movement and make another attack if they’d Bloodied an opponent. It’s a truly terrifying new monster and a solid new take on a classic DnD creature.

8. Colossus

Challenge Rating: 25

Creature Type: Construct (Gargantuan)

What Are They: Forged by devoted acolytes over decades or even centuries and infused with the divine energy of a god, these gargantuan animated statues stand as guardians of the faithful or harbingers of their deity’s wrath. In battle, a colossus is nearly indestructible, boasting immense strength and powerful resistance to both magic and physical harm. When provoked, a Colossus can strikes with crushing slam attacks, hurl searing radiant rays or unleash a devastating Divine Beam. Back them into a corner (if that’s even possible) and they also have a number of Legendary actions that allow them to smite and stomp their opponents into jelly. In short, they’re a construct of nearly unstoppable power.

7. Psychic Gray Ooze

Challenge Rating: 1

Creature Type: Ooze (Medium)

What Are They: The result of a failed magical experiments, the Psychic Gray Ooze is a dangerous new dungeon predator. Unlike typical oozes, this new variant can unleash psychic attacks that bombards a victim’s mind with uncontrollable pain, making it easy for them to latch on with their flesh-dissolving pseudopod. When attacked, the ooze also has a few tricks up its gooey sleeves, including launching psychic feedback against anyone trying to to harm it with magic. Slow-moving but insidious, this hideous new variant is as much of a mental threat as a physical one.

6. Cockatrice Regent

Challenge Rating: 8

Creature Type: Monstrosity (Large)

What Are They: A bigger and badder version of the traditional Cockatrice, these hideous creatures are infused with magical energy that allows them to restrain and petrify foes from a distance. Capable of striking with razor-sharp talons that deal a hefty amount of damage, they can also utilize a petrifying bite that turns their victims to stone. Even more unsettling, the Cockatrice Regent is also capable of flight and when harmed can unleash a magical backlash that delivers a massive dose of Kentucky Fried Force damage.

5. Vampire Umbral Lord

Challenge Rating: 15

Creature Type: Undead (Small or Medium)

What Are They: A master of shadow and forbidden magic, the Umbral Lord is a higher CR variant of the typical DnD Vampire. Embracing dark forces in exchange for immense power, they’re essentially the kind of vampire you’d expect from a Count Strahd. In battle, they move move with supernatural speed with strikes that can drain the life from their victims, while also launching ranged blasts of necrotic energy to weaken foes from afar. They can also summon a dark void to consume their enemies and escape into the shadows if they drop to 0 hit points. Throw in some new legendary actions and the end result is one of the most terrifying vampire variants ever to exist.

4. Elemental Cataclysm

Challenge Rating: 22

Creature Type: Elemental (Gargantuan)

What Are They: A living embodiment of pure chaos, an Elemental Cataclysm is a world-destroying being of near unlimited power shaped by the intersection of the elemental planes. When summoned to the Material Plane—either by dark rituals or through a catastrophic planar rift—it rampages across the land, obliterating everything it comes into contact with. In combat, Elemental Cataclysms can hurl searing flames, freezing waves and devastating storms, with their very movement causing shockwaves around them. They can also burrow through the earth, glide through storms and reshape the battlefield with continent-shattering elemental bursts. If on the off chance players are able to destroy these titanic creatures, their victory is often short lived as the land around a displaced Elemental Cataclysm is often forever altered by never-ending storms, raging rivers and vast fungal forests.

3. Haunting Revenant

Challenge Rating: 10

Creature Type: Undead (Gargantuan)

What Are They: A larger and more powerful version of the traditional Revenant, these undead entities inhabit and animate the physical structures where they met their demise. This can include everything from abandoned buildings and old shipwrecks to ancient ruins and forgotten temples. A massive undead predator, a Haunting Revenant blends into its surroundings, waiting patiently for intruders to enter its confines. Once inside, victims are battered by animated objects and tormented by supernatural manifestations of the revenant’s hatred. In battle, the Revenant uses devastating Object Slam attacks while also warping its environment to bludgeon foes. It can also magically swallow victims keeping them forever trapped within its bowels. Nearly impossible to permanently destroy, a Haunting Revenant can take a new form after its defeated, ensuring its terror never truly ends.

2. Arch-hag

Challenge Rating: 21

Creature Type: Fey (Large)

What Are They: A more powerful version of the traditional Green Hag (which has a CR of just 3), Arch-hags are immortal, unpredictable beings who hoard secrets, strike magical bargains and manipulate fate to serve their whims. In combat, they can tap into a range of spells while also wielding spectral claws, a devastating lighting wave attack and a curse known as a “Witch Strike.” They also have a range of legendary actions and a Counterspell reaction that removes a character’s ability to speak the Verbal components of a spell. Each arch-hag, however, also harbors a hidden weakness, known as an “Anathema,” which must be present for them to be truly destroyed. This can include items such as a devil’s tear, a flower that blooms only when time stops or a thread from the robes of Sigl’s Lady of Pain.

1. Blob of Annihilation

Challenge Rating: 23

Creature Type: Ooze (Gargantuan)

What Are They: The Blob of Annihilation is a colossal mass of cosmic entropy fused with the remains of dead gods. Drifting through the endless depths of Wildspace and devouring everything in its path, the blob is rarely encountered naturally but can be summoned by cosmic disasters or powerful spellcasters. Anything engulfed by the blob is pulled into an airless, gravity-free void where entropic forces disintegrate and all but the strongest magical objects and divine beings can escape. In battle, it attacks with massive pseudopods, engulfs creatures (and even towns) whole, and launches restraining globs of acidic slime. If a Blob of Annihilation is somehow destroyed, it immediately implodes ejecting any beings and items inside it into a random corner of the Astral Sea. Even then, it will reconstitute itself years later at a random location in the multiverse, proving that you can’t keep a good blob down.

Cameron Nichols is a Senior Editor who lives in Boston, Massachusetts, and has been playing D&D since the early 90s, when he was introduced by his older brother and cut his teeth on AD&D 2nd Edition. Since then he’s played virtually every RPG he could get his nerdy little mitts on (including a weird Goth phase in the early 2000s when he rocked Vampire: The Masquerade pretty hard). His favorite D&D campaign setting is the Forgotten Realms and his favorite character to play was a Half-Orc Barbarian named Grug (who was unfortunately devoured by a gelatinous cube).