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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Theo R Cwithin" data-source="post: 5109131" data-attributes="member: 75712">That would be tough if you restrict to just "animals", I think.  But it's an intersting thing to think about!With a quick glance, it seems the only SRD animal that can advance even close to CR20 is giant squid, which technically tops out at CR17-ish, I think (and, caveat, I might be grossly overestimating that, since I'm not actually looking at advancement rules!).  Maybe it could be toughened into a "dire" squid with lots of extra HD and natural armor, and maybe extra arms to put it up to CR20?  But it's still an animal, without all the magic and feats/abilities of other CR20 creatures--and therefore prolly not really CR20!  At that point, may as well just use a kraken <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />More straightforward might be a EL20 encounter of several lesser animals.  An advanced dire tiger I think tops out around CR15-ish? I guess a handful of those would be nasty, especially if they have some sort of template making them smarter and giving immunities/DR/SR/etc.Or, a herd of advanced elephants or rhinos maybe?  If you want to throw on the fiendish template, it might be doable... and possibly still dangerous to high-level PCs.  If an advanced elephant tops out at CR9-10ish, somehow make it "dire" or fiendish, to CR11.  Then a herd of 12 or 16 would be pushing EL20.  Give them all some sort of rage ability to put them over the top?Of course, the encounter locale can account for a lot, as well.  Put the squid is fight near an underwater volcano, with lots of random plumes of steam and explosions that can throw/stun/deafen PCs.  The tigers might be encountered in a jungle ruin, with falling masonry/columns and vines of near-unbreakable, damage-dealing "adamanthorn flowers".  Make the herd of elephants mastadons, and the environment is slushy, semi-melted tundra with lots of quicksand/quickslush, in a driving sleet storm. If nothing else, I understand head-mounted lasers is a good way to make animals a respectable threat!  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></blockquote>

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