What is the toughest printed creature?

[Ashardalon]

Well, if with creatures, you mean monsters and only monsters, my bet would be on the Sphinx from the mentioned Dragon mag. Depending on the revised changes that have to be made on it (esp. DR), it might well lose that rank to some abominations or dragons from the ELH. The hecatoncheires and xixecal (that walking glacier) are quite powerful.

If your question includes non-player characters - most greater gods. People tend to underestimate the might of those salient divine abilities.

 

[Duck]

Some friends of mine knocked together some 30th level characters and threw them against almost every monster in the MM. (multiplying the number to make up for the CR, so they took down 60 out of the book orcs and over 180 kobolds!) Beleive it or not, the Terrasque slaughtered them outright, after they defeated a pit fiend in one round!

 

[Zappo]

CR doesn't scale linearly; 60 orcs or 180 kobolds are less than a speedbump for an epic party. How on Earth could a mere tarrasque kill them, btw?

Anyway, I'd look at a hecatoncheires with the epic feat that allows you to make a full attack with each of your hands in one round. That would be, what, five hundred attacks?

 

[Talmun]

Anyway, I'd look at a hecatoncheires with the epic feat that allows you to make a full attack with each of your hands in one round. That would be, what, five hundred attacks?

The Hec treats it's attacks as natural weapons, all at the same bonus, so the epic dual-weilding feat would be worthless to it...in addition, any creature smaller than Huge it can't attack with all of it's limbs. It also has only a 70 AC and +71 to hit...not really that much when you look at the greater gods.

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

The strongest 3E/3.5E printed WotC creature is, undoubtedly, the Sphinx, from Dragon #297, page 50.

This (3E, not 3.5E) bad boy is CR 100, and he's earned it, with immunity to all spells, spell-like abilities, and supernatural effects, as well as DR 300/+30. He has AC 120, and he attacks with two slam attacks, at +326 to hit, each doing 24d10+140 damage (probably so high due to his Strength score of 290). He has several other abilities and immunities as well, which I haven't mentioned here.

Think that'd make your party scared?

What is the point of that thing??? Was it somekind of joke?

 

[CRGreathouse]

An atropal has a CR of 30, you can see it in the srd's epic monsters section.

Iblis a fallen solar in Green Ronin's Book of Fiends has a CR of 40.

I think the Cthulhu pantheon from d20 Call of Cthulhu has some of the toughest critters from what I have heard but I don't have it.

Does DDG list their CRs?

Iblis is CR 40 in BoF? In GR's Legions of Hell he's only CR 24!

D&Dg doesn't have CRs for their deities, no.

Call of Cthulhu d20 gods aren't powerful at all compared to D&D gods. They're mostly low-divine rank beings, anyway.

 

[Caliber]

I believe the article in mention was a DnD-ization of "real world mystical artifacts"

I believe stats were also given for the Jewish Golem, and a few other real world items.

In the article the Sphinx was actually some kind of massive creature that slumbered for several centuries, or some such, and that could animate when commanded by the Pharohs (I think!)

 

[Alzrius]

What is the point of that thing??? Was it somekind of joke?

It was part of the issue that was Epic themed, and, as Caliber said, part of an article about epic magic items that were based on real-world ancient artifacts.

As it stands though, it's still the strongest creature ever (from WotC), and could probably kill even greater gods with little effort. It can be commanded, but only by a pharaoh with the Legendary Commander feat (from the ELH).

Likewise, because this creature is a Construct, you can make one of your own, so long as you can meet the construction requirements:

Construction
The Sphinx is sculpted from living basalt, and it cannot be moved during construction. It costs 500,000,000 gold pieces to create. Assembling the body requires a successful Knowledge (architecture and engineering) check (DC 100).
The creator must be 100th level, have the Craft Epic Wondrous Items feat, and be able to cast divine spells. Completing the ritual drains 10,000,000 XP from the creator and requires the epic spell animate the Sphinx, inscribed on a stone tablet in hieroglyphics. This spell has a DC of 1,178, takes 12 years to cast, deals 999d6 backlash damage upon completion, and requires the assistance of 100 spellcaster all contributing miracle.

The Sphinx! Make your own today!

 

[Kalanyr]

You know I never looked at it before but a 100th level caster can't cast that spell, you can't take more than twice your caster level in Backlash so that requires at least a 500th level caster.

 

[Crothian]

with such easy requirements the world will soon be over run with Sphinx :\