Party cohesion isn’t just for player characters. DM’s, mix it up with these monster pairings that make any encounter feel dangerous.
Why leave the fun of teamwork up to the player characters? Especially when so many monsters have a sort of synergy built to ’em, and they’re all right there in all their glory, just waiting for their stat blocks to be put to use. These monster combos can let monsters punch well above their weight, so use them with care.
Clay Golem And Acidic Ooze
Clay Golems are on the lower end of the Golem totem pole. But they have a few things going for them – for one, they’re resistant to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing (and immune to acid, poison, and psychic damage), making them pretty tanky. In fact, if they take Acid Damage, they heal from it.
So pairing a clay golem with an acidic ooze like a Black Pudding or a Gelatinous Cube can give you the opportunity to have the clay golem get topped back up during combat. If the gelatinous cube surges forward, say, it can heal the clay golem, leaving it well out of being berserk and simply attacking whoever is closest.
Shambling Mounds And Will-O-Wisps
This one’s mean, though it’s meaner in 5th Edition than in 5.5E. In 5.5E, shambling mounds only heal when subjected to lightning damage instead of getting extra benefits on the side. However, it doesn’t matter because the Will-o’-Wisps are where a lot of the meanness comes in.
Will-o’-Wisps inherently deal lightning damage with their normal attacks, meaning a swarm of the CR 2 creatures can heal the shambling mound. But they also make it even more deadly, because if the Shambling Mound knocks a party member down, a will-o-wisp can Consume Life, which causes creatures at 0 hit points to save or die as a Bonus Action as the wisp feeds upon the creatures’ life essence.
Star Spawn Hulk and Psychic Damage Aberration
A classic combo that’s still viable, whatever the edition. Star Spawn Hulks are aberrant creatures from beyond the stars that have an unusual reaction to psychic damage. Instead of taking the damage, they emanate a psychic explosion to each creature within 10 feet of it.
Meaning a creature capable of dealing psychic damage in an AoE, like say, a Star Spawn Seer or a Mind Flayer, can amplify the bursts of their psionic explosions by having one or more star spawn hulks nearby. A deadly game of dodge the psionic blasts ensues.
Mind Flayer and Intellect Devourers
Speaking of Mind Flayers, here’s another mean combo. Mind Flayers can incapacitate foes with their psionic blasts. Intellect Devourers can psionically devour the brains of incapacitated targets with 10 hp or less, potentially killing and possessing the bodies of their victims.
It’s peanut butter and chocolate, but deadlier.
Iron Golem and Fire-Breathing Dragon
Here’s the thing about Iron Golems and fire, like clay golems and acid. Only Iron Golems are even hardier, dealing much more damage. And they can stand in the middle of a party while a Red Dragon, say, flies by and breathes fire on everyone, healing the golem and setting the party on fire.
Happy adventuring!
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