In Dungeons & Dragons, CR is an acronym that stands for Challenge Rating. This number is used to classify the relative strength of monsters so that dungeon masters can more easily provide level-appropriate challenges to their players. While CR is generally a useful tool for gauging a monster’s strength, there are some 5e monsters whose stat blocks feature abilities that make them much more dangerous than their CR rating suggests.
As a rule of thumb, any monster with an ability that can disable players is probably stronger than its CR suggests. Additionally, monsters with abilities capable of outright killing adventurers fall in the same category. CR is usually a reliable tool, but these creatures can often tip the scales towards a TPK. Be wary adventurers of little experience. These terrors are 5e monsters listed by CR best left to the dark.
Updated July 2, 2022 by Chris Stomberg: There are tons of monsters DMs can throw at their players, so we’ve added a few more nightmares with Challenge Ratings that belie their true strength. Even though their CR might lead you to believe otherwise, these creatures can be deadly to an unsuspecting party. Adventurers beware!
15 Shadow
The Shadow is a CR 1/2 medium undead that hates the living and kills them by draining the strength from their bodies. While Shadows have a very low number of hit points, they also have resistance or immunity to just about every damage type under the sun, effectively doubling their hit points against most enemies.
They are similarly immune to every status condition. Couple this with their Strength Drain attack that reduces the strength score of a target hit by 1d4, and Shadows aren’t looking so friendly. The cherry on top? A character whose strength score is reduced to 0 is immediately killed. Those pesky spellcasters really should have hit the gym.
14 Giant Toad
The Giant Toad is a CR 1 large beast whose bite is much worse than its croak. First, any attack this creature lands immediately grapples the target with no saving throw. While grappled in this manner, the target is restrained. Then, the toad can use its Swallow action on any creature it has grappled.
It makes a second bite attack on the target and, on a hit, immediately swallows it. A creature swallowed in this manner is blinded and restrained and takes 3d6 acid damage at the start of each of the toad’s turns. Bon appetit!
13 Intellect Devourer
The Intellect Devourer is a CR 1 medium aberration that looks like a brain attached to the legs of a dog with swollen paws. But if this creature’s grisly appearance isn’t enough to scare players, its Consume Mind ability will be. This ability forces one creature within 30 feet to make a DC 13 INT saving throw. If the save fails by 5 or more, the target’s intelligence is immediately reduced to 0 and they are incapacitated until at least one point of intelligence is restored.
Then, the Intellect Devourer can use its Body Snatcher ability to make a contested intelligence check against an incapacitated target. If it wins, it immediately teleports itself into the target’s brain cavity, consumes its brain, and takes control of the creature’s body. Worse yet, only the power of a Wish spell can revive a creature killed in this way.
12 Ghoul
The Ghoul is a CR 1 medium undead that haunts places where it can feed on decomposing flesh. While not an especially dangerous foe on its own, the issue comes when facing multiple of these monsters.
Each Claw attack a Ghoul lands forces the target to make a DC 10 CON saving throw or else be paralyzed for one minute. For those unaware, the paralyzed condition is possibly the most brutal condition to be afflicted with during combat. Not only does it take away one’s turn, but it also gives advantage to all attack rolls made against you and turns landed attacks into automatic critical hits. Heals, please.
11 Will-O-Wisp
Wisps float through gloomy swamps and corpse-ridden battlefields, searching for stragglers to lead to their doom. The will-o-wisp is a CR 2 tiny undead with resistances similar to those of the Shadow, but a much higher armor class of 19. However, their resilient nature isn’t the reason they’re so deadly.
Instead, it’s the Consume Life ability that makes these monsters better off avoided. As a bonus action, the Wisp can force a creature with 0 hit points to make a DC 10 CON saving throw or die. If the creature dies, the Wisp then heals for 3d6. Save or die really isn’t a joke when it comes to these not-so-harmless balls of light.
10 Flail Snail
While it may only be a CR 3 monster, the flail snail packs more of a wallop than any other creature in its category. This snail has five clubbed tentacles that extend from the front of its shell which it uses to make five attacks. However, the real kicker here is the snail’s shell. Worth no small sum of 500gp, the flail snail’s shell is a highly desired item for its magical properties.
These properties include the ability to send out a dazzling light that incurs disadvantage on attacks and has a chance to stun attackers as well as the ability to avoid spells and, sometimes, redirect them at the caster. Taking into account the added AC the shell provides, it might seem at first glance that the snail has no weaknesses. However, its move speed of 10 feet is highly exploitable. Stay at range and make ranged weapon attacks, and you’ll be just fine.
9 Banshee
Banshees are a very specific undead enemy created only when a beautiful elf fails to use her beauty to bring joy to the world. They are a CR 4 medium undead, so quite a step up from the previous creatures we’ve examined. Accordingly, their deadliness is also deadlier.
The Banshee has access to two different abilities that force saving throws in wide areas of effect, but today we’ll just look into the Wail action. Once per day, the Banshee can emit a gut-wrenching wail that forces all creatures within 30 feet to make a DC 13 CON saving throw. Creatures who fail this save are immediately reduced to 0 hit points and fall unconscious. Talk about fun and interactive mechanics, right?
8 Roper
Waiting in forlorn caves for its next meal to near its grasp, the Roper is truly an amalgamation of flesh and eyeballs. This CR 5 large monstrosity has natural camouflage that will prevent players from ever seeing it coming. On top of that, it has six grasping tendrils with a reach of fifty feet that instantly restrain any creature they touch.
Creatures who try to escape using brawn will find their attempts worthless, as the tendrils impose disadvantage on all strength saving throws and ability checks. With enough tendrils to pacify even a large adventuring group, this monster is to be avoided at all costs.
7 Fire Elemental
Fire elementals are CR 5 elementals that occasionally leak out of the Elemental Plane of Fire into the Material Plane through randomly occurring portals in extremely hot environments. They then set out to burn everything around them, including you. The fire elemental has a slew of damage resistances, damage immunities, and condition immunities that make it very hard to pin down. Furthermore, it can squeeze through spaces as narrow as an inch wide.
Suffice to say, running isn’t really an option when you also take into account its 50-foot movement speed. It can use this movement speed to great effect by running through enemy spaces and setting them ablaze as a free action. Yeah, that’s gonna burn. The best way to defeat a fire elemental is by climbing to high ground it can’t reach or making use of items or magic that grant fire resistance.
6 Shambling Mound
The Shambling Mound is a CR 5 large plant that usually forms from errant bolts of lightning, suddenly bestowing life to mounds of detritus. The state of decay from which these masses of plant are born seems to influence their actions, as Shambling Mounds seek to turn every living thing they come across into mulch. Mounds have resistance to fire and cold as well as immunity to lightning damage alongside a feature that actually turns lightning damage taken into healing.
If that didn’t sound dangerous enough, whenever the Mound lands both of its Slam attacks on a single target, the creature is engulfed into the mound becoming restrained, blinded, and unable to breathe. This is a spellcaster’s ultimate nightmare, as the inability to breathe means they can no longer cast spells with verbal components. At the beginning of the Mound’s turns, the engulfed creature must succeed on a DC 14 CON save or take 2d8+4 bludgeoning damage. Better get your friends out fast.
5 Mezzoloth
The Mezzoloth is a criminally underused CR 5 fiend that adheres to a philosophy of violence and reward. These insect-like creatures have many damage resistances and immunities coupled with access to the spells Dispel Magic, Darkness, and Cloudkill. Cloudkill is a very powerful 5th level concentration spell that fills a 20-foot cube with a poisonous cloud, dealing 5d8 poison damage to each creature inside of it at the beginning of their turn.
Thanks to the Mezzoloth’s blindsight and immunity to poison, it can drop this spell on itself and then proceed to slaughter any blinded foes inside — a simple tactic, but deadly nonetheless. Did we mention they also have three attacks, magic resistance, and can teleport up to 60 feet? Don’t mess with the Mezzoloth.
4 Umber Hulk
Umber Hulks burrow through the rock of the Underdark, using their Tremorsense to scour the darkness for their next meal. This CR 5 monstrosity is one of the most terrifying enemies players can face at the beginning of the second tier of play.
This primarily comes from its Confusing Gaze ability, which requires any character who looks at the Umber Hulk to make a DC 15 charisma saving throw. On a failure, the character rolls a d8 to decide what it does with its turn. Spoiler alert: every option on the d8 is bad and amounts to wasting one’s turn or worse. Using its Tunneler ability, the Umber Hulk can appear to harass the party at any time. In other words, it will wait to ambush them at the most opportune moment, making this nightmare of the dark all the more dangerous.
3 Corpse Flower
The corpse flower is a formidable CR 8 enemy due to its ability to produce an army of zombies, among other things. As a bonus action on each turn, the corpse flower adds one zombie to the fray. Furthermore, it can also use corpses stuffed inside of it to heal itself. Approaching the corpse flower in melee isn’t advised as it has a terrible stench about it that can cause those who come close to become incapacitated.
The corpse flower attacks with tentacles that are covered in deathly poison. While it has only got a speed of 20 feet, it should be noted that it can also climb. Zombies also have a low speed, so keeping your distance when encountering a corpse flower is the best advice we can offer. If you do want to get close, it’s advised you bring some kind of protection against poison.
2 Eidolon
Despite being a CR 12, the eidolon isn’t such a terrifying foe on its own. This undead spirit acts as a guardian for godly shrines. It is resistant to all kinds of damage types, immune to a handful of damage types, and immune to most conditions. It also has the ability to frighten creatures within 60 feet of it, but it has got no other attacks of which to speak. However, when put inside of a room filled with sacred statues, the eidolon becomes very hard to handle.
This is due to its ability to animate said statues with its sacred animation ability. While inside, the eidolon cannot be damaged and gains access to some very powerful attacks that can deal upwards of 100 damage in a single turn. Even if you destroy the statue, the eidolon has a high chance of recharging its sacred animation allowing it to then inhabit yet another guardian. Thankfully, a cleric’s turn undead feature or the dispel evil and good spell can force an eidolon out of its statue early. Be sure to exploit this weakness should you face one.
1 Marut
Also known as an inevitable, the marut is a horrible construct to behold and a CR 25 monster. This giant armored war machine has no head, a single large eye embedded in its chest, and a golden contract chiseled into its stomach. Its only purpose is to ensure that the contract inscribed on it is followed to its exact letter by those who signed it.
Should you not follow the letter of such a contract, you will soon understand why the marut are called inevitables. The marut can make attacks that automatically hit and deal 60 force damage, release arcane energy that deals 45 radiant damage and has a chance to stun everyone nearby it, and teleport creatures directly to the Hall of Concordance in Sigil: the place of ultimate law. With the ability to cast plane shift an infinite number of times, the marut is also nigh inescapable. If you’re considering fighting a marut, there’s only one thing to say: don’t.
NEXT: Dungeons & Dragons: Most Powerful Devils, Ranked
