D&D 5E Favourite Low Level Monsters

[MonkeezOnFire]

I was looking through the monster by CR list in the DMG looking for low level monsters to populate a dungeon meant for level 1 PCs. And I quickly realized that there are a lot of them. Which is great, since in 5e AC doesn't scale very much over time, the low CR stuff can still actually scratch a few points of HP off high level PCs.

So what's your favourite low level monster and what makes them interesting?

As much as I love me some orcs, I feel like they've been done to death. Same goes for cultists and kobolds after running Horde of the Dragon Queen. I was thinking about throwing in some drow since I've never actually used them in a game before and I've read a couple of the Drizzt origin novels where the drow society was the most interesting part of the book (though that's not hard when the protagonist is Drizzt).

 

[iserith]

So what's your favourite low level monster and what makes them interesting?

Rust monsters, for obvious reasons.

There are a lot of monsters that fit a general "spider" theme so your drow dungeon should be pretty easily to populate.

 

[doctorhook]

I said this in another thread recently, but back in 4E it was kruthiks. (IIRC, they originally appeared in the 3E Miniatures Handbook hardcover, but in 4E they were in the first Monster Manual.) They're little insectoid/reptilian things that dug underground hives. I love them because, like ants, they come in several different castes, so you could have diverse enemies without using different creatures. Also, since players didn't know what they hell they are, you can surprise and confuse them, which is occasionally nice to do.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Probably drow. Range, poison, and advantage in the dark most of the time. Also they are sneaky and often get surprise, again due in part to superior darkvision.

 

[steeldragons]

Drow are not "low level" monsters. They are "high level" monsters that should strike fear into the hearts of adventurers of any level.

I like Harpies.

Fae in general that need not necessarily be "foes" but can charm or otherwise hinder a party's progresses...or assist them if RPed properly.

Stirges also good...always panic-inducing.

Ghouls....<shudder>...ghouls are a great "low level but can easily become more than we can chew"...or numbers of zombies or skeletons...esp. if the party is sans cleric.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Yeah, thinking of drow as low level monsters just seems off to me. Then again, most of my experience with drow is with 1e after you had taken on giants, so everyone was pretty high level.

For low level, I second stirges and ghouls. And carrion crawlers, gelatinous cubes, and rot grubs.

 

[MonkeezOnFire]

Drow are not "low level" monsters. They are "high level" monsters that should strike fear into the hearts of adventurers of any level.

I agree. I was actually a bit surprised when I saw "drow" listed under CR 1/4 in the DMG list. When I went to go look them up that I saw the next stat block was an elite warrior of CR 5, followed by CR 7 mage and CR 8 priestess. One of the reasons I was drawn to them was after the party beats up the group of initial group of lackies, they will have ticked off some seriously powerful enemies. Heck, even the CR 1/4 drow is much more interesting than similar difficulty creatures with its innate spellcasting and poison.

 

[steeldragons]

I would totally ignore the CR 1/4 "soldier guys" [I guess?]. Your "basic/low level drow shmo" should be the CR 5 guys. The Mage and Priestess are usable as "lieutenants/captains/leaders" for groups of the CR5 guys. Then need to come up with, like, CR10-15 to be actual "House leaders" and such.

My players never see a drow before middling-to-higher (7-10) levels...and even then, they know "Oh crap! The drow are in on this?! We'd better take this slow/extra carefully/back off and discern the extent/intention of their involvement."

I know, it's old school...but I just love keeping them [mostly] unknown, [supremely] evil, and very powerful.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

I used to really like Skeletons, but with the way that 5E does vulnerabilities, they're way too fragile. Now I prefer zombies.

 

[Imaro]

My favorite low-level monster in the campaign I'm running so far has been Shadows... why you ask?

The Amorphous and Shadow Stealth really cranked up the paranoia with these creatures as they hunted the PC's through a long abandoned hall filled with rubble, pillars, and shadowy corners. The resistances to their weapon attacks helped them appear more durable than they were... and the strength drain was just icing on the cake, mostly scaring the casters the most (ironically the ones who could best hurt them) since their strength scores weren't high to begin with... though even the PC's who had higher than average strength freaked out a little as their to hit bonuses and damage dropped at the same time they were loosing hit points.