10 Eidolon
Eidolons are created from the souls of humanoids who demonstrated an unwavering devotion to their chosen god. As a reward for their fervent service, gods can turn these souls into eidolons: ghostly spirits with an oath to protect a place of sacred importance to their god. With a multitude of resistances and immunities, even with a low AC, they are still powerful enemies against most players. Some of the eidolon’s notable attributes are as follows:
Eidolons work alongside the sacred statues in such places, inhabiting them and then using the animated statues to crush unwanted trespassers. This ability recharges on a d6 die roll of 5-6, so a single eidolon is capable of providing a handful of opponents.
9 Vampire
While most fantasy interpretations of vampires see the curse spread any time a vampire feeds on a victim and the victim lives, Dungeons & Dragons vampires are a little bit more complicated. A vampire that doesn’t kill a humanoid from which it feeds, sees that humanoid turned into a vampire spawn under the control of the vampire who turned it. The spawn can only become a true vampire if it feeds on its master’s blood or if its master perishes. Some of the vampire’s notable attributes are as follows:
While incredibly dangerous in combat, vampires have a number of weaknesses: running water, sunlight, and the inability to enter a house unless invited. The most important thing to know is a vampire is never truly dead until killed while inside its resting place.
8 Death Tyrant
A death tyrant is the result of a beholder who dreams of a reality where it lives beyond death. A beholder’s dreams are so powerful that when one indulges in this idea for too long, its skin falls from its body and it becomes an undead death tyrant. The skull is illuminated by a large floating eye in the center of its mass alongside ten other lights that circle its body, each light taking the place of an eyestalk. Some of the vampire’s notable attributes are as follows:
The biggest difference between a death tyrant and a beholder is its eye cone. Whereas a normal beholder emits an antimagic ray, a death tyrant’s central eye emits a negative energy cone. Any creature in its view cannot regain hit points and immediately becomes a zombie if it dies while in the tyrant’s view.
7 Mummy Lord
Unlike regular mummies, mummy lords remember their past lives and maintain the same personality as when they were living. The ritual that creates a mummy lord requires the humanoid’s heart to be removed from the body and stored in a jar. The heart works like a lich’s phylactery, preventing the mummy lord from truly being destroyed until the heart is destroyed as well. Some of mummy lord’s notable attributes are as follows:
The mummy lord has too many legendary and normal actions to list here, but know that it has a frightening glare that can paralyze, a melee attack capable of turning targets into finely ground dust, the ability to turn into a whirlwind of sand immune to all damage, and a 10-foot area of effect stun.
6 Adult Blue Dracolich
The thought of dying doesn’t exactly sit well with beings who live for millennia. That being said, when a dragon becomes a dracolich it leaves behind any connection it once had to its kin: including the dragon gods. Some notable Dracolich attributes are as follows:
Dracoliches maintain all of the abilities they had in life, even their breath weapon. How a dragon without lungs has a breath weapon is a bit of a mystery, but let’s just chalk it up to magic.
5 Death Knight
Death knights are paladins who fell from grace and never sought out their redemption. However, paladins like this don’t always become death knights. Instead, their deeds must be so wretched that dark powers seek their corpses out and transform them into evil warriors. Some of the death knight’s notable attributes are as follows:
Paladins who become death knights lose the ability to cast healing spells but gain an affinity for necrotic magic. Death knights can cast several powerful spells, but will usually default to swinging their longsword three times for an outstanding amount of single target damage.
4 Demilich
A Lich becomes a demilich if they fail to feed their phylactery with the proper amount of souls. When they transform, their entire body disintegrates leaving behind only their skull. Some of the demilich’s notable attributes are as follows:
The skull is only imbued with a partial amount of the lich’s life force and subsequently falls to the ground. However, if any creature approaches the skull, it will animate and seek to destroy whatever disturbed its eternal rest.
3 Nightwalker
Nightwalkers cross over from the negative plane, a place unfit for the living. Creatures can reach the negative plane from the shadowfell, but almost all who enter its borders are instantly annihilated by the plane’s malevolent energies. Those who aren’t immediately destroyed are either incredibly lucky or very gifted spellcasters. When a creature passes over to the negative plane and survives, a nightwalker emerges from the plane to take its place. Some of the nightwalker’s notable attributes are as follows:
A nightwalker’s offensive kit consists of an aura around itself that deals damage each turn, a melee attack that drains total hit points, and a ranged attack that paralyzes on a failed DC 21 Wisdom save.
2 Lich
Liches were once living spellcasters who unlocked secrets of undeath and performed a horrid ritual to unnaturally extend their lifetimes. To become a lich, a spellcaster rends their soul from their body and stores it in a small container called a phylactery. This device can then be fed the souls of other beings in order to increase the lich’s life span. Some of the lich’s notable attributes are as follows:
Due to their long lives, liches have mastered the most dangerous spells both known and unknown to arcane societies. Additionally, they can paralyze a living creature with a touch and usually carry one or more items of great magical power.
1 Mind Flayer Lich
A mind flayer who has been cast out or otherwise deprived of its social bonds might devote itself to becoming a spell caster, and eventually a lich, to carry out its revenge against those responsible. Some of the mind flayer lich’s notable attributes are as follows.
With all the powerful abilities of a humanoid lich and even the psychic powers of a mind flayer, this is the most dangerous undead any adventuring party can face.
NEXT: Dungeons And Dragons: Most Powerful Constructs, Ranked
