Monsters that punch above their CR

[Older Beholder]

Not to get into a whole thing about Challenge Ratings, but I was wondering if you’d come across any monsters that in play were far more dangerous than the monsters manual would have you believe. (I think generally there’s a feeling monsters can be a bit weak)

I bring this up because in my last campaign I used a Revenant to track down a party member,
Early on in the campaign the party was going through a cemetery and came across a number of tombs. In one they found a coffin that was completely surrounded by an unbroken circle of gold coins, which of course one of the PC’s was happy to fill his pockets with before leaving.

Now I didn’t have much planned for this, but l thought a revenant was a good fit for the purposes, but it was too powerful at that stage (I think the PC’s were only level 4, and there’s only 3 players) but that was OK because they soon got themselves teleported to the other side of the map and had to begin making their way back. By the time they got back to where the undead waited they were level 8. With a few ghouls that had joined the revenant, the hunted character was killed pretty easily in the encounter.

Now, I know it gets a lot easier to kill someone if the monster just focuses on one character, but I did wonder if the revenant is designed to be used in a way where the PC’s are trying to save an NPC that’s being hunted, because at CR 5, it didn’t really crack a sweat taking down a level 8 character.

 

[Voi_D_ragon]

Revenants in particular are made to just kill one specific character, so that makes sense.
Off the top of my head, I honestly think the most dangerous monster for individual PCs (especially if you account for the low CR) is the Intellect Devourer. Frikkin instakill on the least common save based off the most common dump stat? That's pretty good in my book.

 

[Shiroiken]

Shadows are particularly nasty for their CR. They can mess up characters of much higher level if they get in a lucky hit. Using a mob of them against higher level characters is worse, because it can create a death spiral. I haven't used them, but Intellect Devourers might do the same.

I've found Dragons and Giants to be on the high end of their CR as well, and I strongly suspect that's intentional. They are iconic monsters, and fighting them should feel epic.

 

[Voort]

Gelatinous Cubes. They hit hard for a CR 2 glorified trap.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Ghouls will always be what comes to mind - a few unlucky saves, and the party will be seriously hurting, if not ghoulfood.

The various dragon cultists (Dragonwing, Dragonsoul, etc.) from Tyranny of Dragons would be another example. The extra damage once per round when they have advantage plus Pack Tactics means they can hit pretty darn hard.

 

[Older Beholder]

Shadows were high on my deadly list too, the first time I used them there were 2 of 4 players in the party that had dumped STR. It got dangerous pretty quick.


Intellect devourer I've never used, but have always wanted to. It's one of those monsters that takes some set up, beyond just having it pop out of a slain bandit during a battle.


With Dragons it comes down to breath weapon, a couple of recharges in a row can turn up a battle. Which is fair enough, they're Dragons.


Gelatinous cubes can become deadly just by how they're placed in a serious of passages in a dungeon, for sure. You know what they say, location, location, location. A Gelatinous cube wandering through the woods at 15ft a round is not living its best life.


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The other Character that died during my last campaign was hunted by an invisible stalker. The night the stalker caught up to him in an Inn, he announced that he was taking off his full plate armour before going to sleep. So things were in the stalkers favour, but with a level 6 party (of 3), the Invisible Stalker was probably at half HPs by the time it had killed the character and escaped.

 

[MonkeezOnFire]

I once had an encounter composed entirely of quicklings from Volo's. They are labelled CR1 but they've got more bang than some CR 2 creatures I've used. They have 3 attacks, each with +8 to hit. AC 16 is already fairly respectable but on top of that attacks have disadvantage unless they are incapacitated or restrained which not all groups will have ready access to at low levels. You might then be tempted to use area of effects to take them down, but they have evasion meaning its hard to damage them with Dex saves based effects, which I find to be one of the most common for lower level spells. To top it all off with 120 feet of movement they can pretty much get anywhere they want on the battlefield if there's enough room for them to maneuver.

So yea, half of the party went down that fight and one of my players will probably never let me hear the end of it

 

[Older Beholder]

Wow, that's savage, I've never had a good look at quicklings
I'm always looking for new evil fey creatures to use.

 

[Azzy]

I almost killed a party with a group of flaming skulls.

 

[Swarmkeeper]

Some specific abilities make these nasties... nastier!

Catoblepas (VGtM, CR 5) - Death Ray - recharges on a 5-6; 8d8 on a failed save and auto-max if failed by 5 or more; auto-death if the Death Ray reduces the PC to 0 HP.

Banshee (MM, CR 4) - Wail - once/day; one bad Saving Throw and the PC is dropped to 0 HP.

Boloti (ToB, CR 1) - Wall of Ice - once/day; 10d6 cold on a failed save to any creature lined up for 100 ft or if they are bunched up in a circle.