D&D: Five of the Scariest Monsters in Any Manual

Sure, D&D is full of terrifying monsters—but these five are some of the scariest monsters in D&D. Roll initiative, if you dare.

D&D is a game of heroic adventurers battling terrifying monsters in thrilling settings. There’s no end to how many demigods and dragons a dedicated party can slay. But every now and then, there’s a monster that really heebies the ol’ jeebies.

These are some of D&D’s scariest monsters. Not necessarily because they are the strongest, but, because of who they are. Or what they can do. There’s just something deeply unsettling about each of these monsters.

Sibriex

The Sibriex is a monster as old as the Abyss itself. Infused with the corrupting essence of the Abyss, a Sibriex warps reality like a contagion.

But they do more than just warp reality. These aberrant fiends also collect knowledge. Many hoard secrets more ancient than many of the gods.

Most terrifying of all, they can Warp a Creature, transforming it body and soul into the lowest form of demon, no matter how big or powerful. Or it can reshape flesh a little more subtly, granting an extra head, or causing a target’s arms and legs to switch places, or any number of other realtiy redefining, permanent alterations – for better and worse. Most often, worse.

Star Spawn Emissary

Nothing like a little cosmic horror to strike dread until the heart of any adventurer. And the Star Spawn Emissary is actually two cosmic horrors. Only one is actually “little”, though. The other is a writhing pillar of flesh.

Star Spawn Emissaries are “the fingers of alien realms, digits that tip the scales of reality toward terror.” They come in two flavors. First is a Lesser Form, which can look like any unassuming creature; animal, NPC, or otherwise.

Then there’s the greater form, pictured above. This form is all about world shattering revelations and cascading apocalypses of devoured flesh and ravenous, thirsting maws.

Spawn of Kyuss

A Spawn of Kyuss is a terrifying creature, despite being lower level. These look, from a distance, like any normal zombie or ghoul. But when you draw near, they suddenly swarm with a writhing mass of roiling worms.

These worms leap from their undead host and begin burrowing into living flesh. After one round, they disappear, dealing damage each turn until they devour you from the inside out, transforming you into another Spawn of Kyuss. And the Worm that Walks claims another.

Boneless

Boneless are awful to look at and worse to think about. These are undead made entirely of skins, as the name implies. They are bad enough in there own right.

A Boneless attacks by wrapping itself around living victims, bludgeoning, blinding, and suffocating them. And that would be awful alone. But Boneless often appear with other undead, wrapped around Skeletons, for instance.

This leads to a terrifying sight as the flesh peels from a skeleton and flies towards you, while the skeleton moves in to flank you. That may well be the last thing you see before a Boneless engulfs you into its drowning darkness.

The Bagman

The Bagman is something like an urban legend that exists inside D&D’s various worlds. It sounds like something one player might tell another, but it’s just as real in-game. But the Bagman doesn’t just attack you, he makes your own gear a threat:

“The Bagman is an urban legend about an adventurer who sought to escape doom by abandoning his party and hiding inside a bag of holding. When he tried to leave, though, he became lost amid a constantly increasing number of extradimensional storage spaces. Over time, the strange forces of this magical in-between place transformed the adventurer into a monstrous creature.

Now, every night, the Bagman slips out from a random bag of holding. If he doesn’t find his home, he drags someone back into the bag with him and leaves behind some trinket from his hidden kingdom of lost junk. Some say that if you speak too loudly over an open bag of holding or whisper “follow my voice” into a magical storage space three times, the Bagman will come for you.

What’s your pick for scariest monster in D&D?

Bell of Lost Souls Staff Writer and DM, J.R. covers RPGs of all stripes and on occasion eats sandwiches. You can ask him about either at [email protected]

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