Basically what the title says. Lets say that the BBEG has access to the Greater Invisibility spell AND a whole swarm of scary minion monsters. Which monster would be a party's worst nightmare if it was also invisible?
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Nothing comes to mind immediately for official monsters, but the first thing that came to mind was the Tonberry from Final Fantasy. They're almost comical due to their appearance and slowness, but if you get complacent and let them land a single hit, it's usually a guaranteed instant kill.
Not a problem, as long as you know where they are.
Maybe some variant of a Rust Monster would be good. The players are busy fighting minions, and all of the sudden their gear starts to rust and rot, falling away from their bodies. The fight starts going from challenging to dangerous very quickly and they need to figure out why before it's too late.
So basically, anything that starts a clock ticking.
Nothing comes to mind immediately for official monsters, but the first thing that came to mind was the Tonberry from Final Fantasy. They're almost comical due to their appearance and slowness, but if you get complacent and let them land a single hit, it's usually a guaranteed instant kill.
Not a problem, as long as you know where they are.
Maybe some variant of a Rust Monster would be good. The players are busy fighting minions, and all of the sudden their gear starts to rust and rot, falling away from their bodies. The fight starts going from challenging to dangerous very quickly and they need to figure out why before it's too late.
So basically, anything that starts a clock ticking.
I agree. Monsters that have attacks that could result in a reduction to a character's ability score would also be rather potent when invisible.
The Dulluhan from Van Richten's Guide could be powerful too. Being invisible would give it advantage on its axe attacks, and whenever it scores a critical hit theres a chance it will lob the character's head clean off.
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Three-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews!Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
Anything that does extra damage when it has advantage.
Specifically I would go for the Star Spawn Mangler, having advantage theoretically increases the attack modifier by 4, therefore you have a creature that can make 6 attacks, each with (theoretically) + 11 to hit that does 15 damage a hit. Then on the next turn it has a 50% chance of recharging the use of this attack and allowing it to do it again. It can also hide as a bonus action, making it even harder to discover.
My other suggestion would be a Black Pudding or another ooze, when it's visible, it's slow speed means its easy to avoid, however turn it invisible, you have the added panic of trying to remember where the weapon/armour destroying, large, acidic monster is while it slowly crawls towards you.
Maybe some variant of a Rust Monster would be good. The players are busy fighting minions, and all of the sudden their gear starts to rust and rot, falling away from their bodies. The fight starts going from challenging to dangerous very quickly and they need to figure out why before it's too late.
Thank you! I’m stealing this to use in my high level campaign! An invisible Rust Monster!
Basically what the title says. Lets say that the BBEG has access to the Greater Invisibility spell AND a whole swarm of scary minion monsters. Which monster would be a party's worst nightmare if it was also invisible?
A weird choice I realise, but the Shrieker. An ear-splitting howl fills the atmosphere, and the one to stumble upon it can't know which way to go to avoid it because they'll be too disoriented to figure out its source. If they've never come across such a noise, not knowing what its source is will be even more disturbing to them. It's not a powerful entity to come across, but shriekers already freak me out (fungus in general I find creepy), and them being invisible creating this uninterpretable wail gives it an eldritch vibe, imo.
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Zero is the most important number in D&D: Session Zero sets the boundaries and the tone; Rule Zero dictates the Dungeon Master (DM) is the final arbiter; and Zero D&D is better than Bad D&D.
"Let us speak plainly now, and in earnest, for words mean little without the weight of conviction."
party walk into a pitch black chamber, the chamber is home to a few Gelatinous Cubes. The cubes are (edit: almost) invisible when they stay still and if the party use dark vision to see they likely would not be able to see the cubes in the dark even if they move. If you combine it with some basic traps to restrain or impose disadvantage on Dex saving throws the party would have a very bad day. That would free the BBEG to use invisibility on itself.
What's the CR limit for a minion? A dybbuk would be pretty terrifying while invisible. So would a demilich. Those are some pretty different CRs, though. It's always hard to go wrong with an intellect devourer.
Anything that does extra damage when it has advantage.
Specifically I would go for the Star Spawn Mangler, having advantage theoretically increases the attack modifier by 4, therefore you have a creature that can make 6 attacks, each with (theoretically) + 11 to hit that does 15 damage a hit. Then on the next turn it has a 50% chance of recharging the use of this attack and allowing it to do it again. It can also hide as a bonus action, making it even harder to discover.
My other suggestion would be a Black Pudding or another ooze, when it's visible, it's slow speed means its easy to avoid, however turn it invisible, you have the added panic of trying to remember where the weapon/armour destroying, large, acidic monster is while it slowly crawls towards you.
To toss on another bonus of the Black Pudding, if the party tries to shoot in the dark with lightning or slashing damage, then the Pudding splits and multiplies. Give a monster the ability to split and remain invisible, and you can go from a single bad guy to making things a whole lot worse and they won't know what's happening.
Homebrew a custom creature that absorbs and splits upon taking elemental damage, so that the trigger happy wizard throws a Fireball and escalates the combat.
This gives me a horrible idea. I won't use it. Just too mean.
But! I'd use slaads. An invisible slaad group that can infect the players with their eggs over time. Which hatch in an explosion from their abdomen is certain death.
Think alien with the face hugger. That's the slaad sewing the seeds. Later on the players make con saves. She fall and hatch more little slaads into the world that immediately burrow. Later on in the story they begin to take over. Other towns, cities, villages and then best local taverns.
Something with a huge reach attack like a Roper. Alternatively, something with an aura effect that debuffs or harms everything in it. Both are really hard to evade if you don't know where they are.
Which leads to the side note that just because a creature is invisible doesn't mean you don't know its location. It has to be hidden on top of being invisible for that.
Either something with a dangerous aura, or something that hurts when you touch it (perhaps by walking into it). Or something that bounces back area-of-effect damage, but I don't know of anything like that. Also, something like a shield guardian would be irritating, for being able to intercept damage.
Top pick: The horrible plague demons with the goat heads. Whatever those are called.
Let's remember that invisible doesn't mean undetectable, which is a very intentional design choice because fighting something completely undetectable is not fun at all to anyone but the DM. An invisible Rust Monster doesn't mean your gear just crumbles without you knowing why, and at a minimum you'd feel the attack that implanted slaad eggs in you.
If you want to scare the players, the important thing is that they know those things are out there. An invisible dulluhan that suddenly chops off a PCs head isn't a fun scary monster - it's the DM killing a PC without the PC ever having a chance to change the outcome. They can't be scared if they never saw it coming, they will just go from oblivious straight to upset.
What might be more interesting is if you had all kinds of minions that were invisible and the PCs couldn't tell the truly dangerous ones from the others. You wouldn't even have to use the real threats very often. Just letting them loom in the players' minds will go a long way.
I rule that Invisible does mean undetectable unless a player spends an action looking for it, and that includes for players as well.
Poltergeists for instance are undetectable until one either attacks the player, or does something else like move a book etc. Wilo Wisps are the same.
Now as soon as an attack happens the players know where the attack has come from, and have a chance to determine where the creature has moved to (if it moves) but an invisible enemy should be a surprise to the characters, it shouldn't be able to one shot them but it should provide a different type of challenge.
Roper. Invisible creature plus massive reach plus grappling.
"Cut the tentacles!" "I can't see them! I can see Fighty McFightface held in midair, but are the tentacles above him, below him, arrgghhh!" "That's OK, wait till it bites the leg off, then you'll know where the body is." Cue anguished scream from Fighty's player. :-)
I rule that Invisible does mean undetectable unless a player spends an action looking for it, and that includes for players as well.
Poltergeists for instance are undetectable until one either attacks the player, or does something else like move a book etc. Wilo Wisps are the same.
Now as soon as an attack happens the players know where the attack has come from, and have a chance to determine where the creature has moved to (if it moves) but an invisible enemy should be a surprise to the characters, it shouldn't be able to one shot them but it should provide a different type of challenge.
That is a massive power boost for Invisibility that is not factored in to basic game structures like CR and spell levels, and it guts any features that facilitate Hiding like Cunning Action. You can easily run these creatures as undetectable RAW by just having them use the Hide action when they want to be hidden.
I've never seen a "you don't know what is attacking you or where it is" encounter that didn't immediately frustrate the players. It's certainly a different type of challenge, but different isn't always good. It tends to spawn ideas like the ol' bag of flour that distances you even further from the rules and sets precedents which you may regret later.
Just to reiterate, I think you can have all the benefits of scaring the party without things feeling unfair or deviating from the RAW by just focusing on "you know something's there, but you don't know what it is."
Basically what the title says. Lets say that the BBEG has access to the Greater Invisibility spell AND a whole swarm of scary minion monsters. Which monster would be a party's worst nightmare if it was also invisible?
Three-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews! Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
Nothing comes to mind immediately for official monsters, but the first thing that came to mind was the Tonberry from Final Fantasy. They're almost comical due to their appearance and slowness, but if you get complacent and let them land a single hit, it's usually a guaranteed instant kill.
Not a problem, as long as you know where they are.
Maybe some variant of a Rust Monster would be good. The players are busy fighting minions, and all of the sudden their gear starts to rust and rot, falling away from their bodies. The fight starts going from challenging to dangerous very quickly and they need to figure out why before it's too late.
So basically, anything that starts a clock ticking.
I agree. Monsters that have attacks that could result in a reduction to a character's ability score would also be rather potent when invisible.
The Dulluhan from Van Richten's Guide could be powerful too. Being invisible would give it advantage on its axe attacks, and whenever it scores a critical hit theres a chance it will lob the character's head clean off.
Three-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews! Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
Anything that does extra damage when it has advantage.
Specifically I would go for the Star Spawn Mangler, having advantage theoretically increases the attack modifier by 4, therefore you have a creature that can make 6 attacks, each with (theoretically) + 11 to hit that does 15 damage a hit. Then on the next turn it has a 50% chance of recharging the use of this attack and allowing it to do it again. It can also hide as a bonus action, making it even harder to discover.
My other suggestion would be a Black Pudding or another ooze, when it's visible, it's slow speed means its easy to avoid, however turn it invisible, you have the added panic of trying to remember where the weapon/armour destroying, large, acidic monster is while it slowly crawls towards you.
Thank you! I’m stealing this to use in my high level campaign! An invisible Rust Monster!
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For the Mighty Nein it was a Green Dragon
A weird choice I realise, but the Shrieker. An ear-splitting howl fills the atmosphere, and the one to stumble upon it can't know which way to go to avoid it because they'll be too disoriented to figure out its source. If they've never come across such a noise, not knowing what its source is will be even more disturbing to them. It's not a powerful entity to come across, but shriekers already freak me out (fungus in general I find creepy), and them being invisible creating this uninterpretable wail gives it an eldritch vibe, imo.
Zero is the most important number in D&D: Session Zero sets the boundaries and the tone; Rule Zero dictates the Dungeon Master (DM) is the final arbiter; and Zero D&D is better than Bad D&D.
"Let us speak plainly now, and in earnest, for words mean little without the weight of conviction."
- The Assemblage of Houses, World of Warcraft
My vote would be for...
party walk into a pitch black chamber, the chamber is home to a few Gelatinous Cubes. The cubes are (edit: almost) invisible when they stay still and if the party use dark vision to see they likely would not be able to see the cubes in the dark even if they move. If you combine it with some basic traps to restrain or impose disadvantage on Dex saving throws the party would have a very bad day. That would free the BBEG to use invisibility on itself.
What's the CR limit for a minion? A dybbuk would be pretty terrifying while invisible. So would a demilich. Those are some pretty different CRs, though. It's always hard to go wrong with an intellect devourer.
To toss on another bonus of the Black Pudding, if the party tries to shoot in the dark with lightning or slashing damage, then the Pudding splits and multiplies. Give a monster the ability to split and remain invisible, and you can go from a single bad guy to making things a whole lot worse and they won't know what's happening.
Homebrew a custom creature that absorbs and splits upon taking elemental damage, so that the trigger happy wizard throws a Fireball and escalates the combat.
This gives me a horrible idea. I won't use it. Just too mean.
But! I'd use slaads. An invisible slaad group that can infect the players with their eggs over time. Which hatch in an explosion from their abdomen is certain death.
Think alien with the face hugger. That's the slaad sewing the seeds. Later on the players make con saves. She fall and hatch more little slaads into the world that immediately burrow. Later on in the story they begin to take over. Other towns, cities, villages and then best local taverns.
Slaad are a plague that's really underestimated.
Something with a huge reach attack like a Roper. Alternatively, something with an aura effect that debuffs or harms everything in it. Both are really hard to evade if you don't know where they are.
Which leads to the side note that just because a creature is invisible doesn't mean you don't know its location. It has to be hidden on top of being invisible for that.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Either something with a dangerous aura, or something that hurts when you touch it (perhaps by walking into it). Or something that bounces back area-of-effect damage, but I don't know of anything like that. Also, something like a shield guardian would be irritating, for being able to intercept damage.
Top pick: The horrible plague demons with the goat heads. Whatever those are called.
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D&D Beyond Founders+1 for Intellect Devourer. Those things are brutally dangerous for their CR. Just imagine an invisible pack of the things....
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An Oblex, Eat Memories can be so so damaging to players, and being invisible means its slowness as an ooze is negated.
Nobody has mentioned Tarrasque yet. Would that not count as a minion monster?
Maybe ghouls, but the paralysis DC is only 10 (at what level can PCs have saving throws at +9 to auto-save?)
Let's remember that invisible doesn't mean undetectable, which is a very intentional design choice because fighting something completely undetectable is not fun at all to anyone but the DM. An invisible Rust Monster doesn't mean your gear just crumbles without you knowing why, and at a minimum you'd feel the attack that implanted slaad eggs in you.
If you want to scare the players, the important thing is that they know those things are out there. An invisible dulluhan that suddenly chops off a PCs head isn't a fun scary monster - it's the DM killing a PC without the PC ever having a chance to change the outcome. They can't be scared if they never saw it coming, they will just go from oblivious straight to upset.
What might be more interesting is if you had all kinds of minions that were invisible and the PCs couldn't tell the truly dangerous ones from the others. You wouldn't even have to use the real threats very often. Just letting them loom in the players' minds will go a long way.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
I rule that Invisible does mean undetectable unless a player spends an action looking for it, and that includes for players as well.
Poltergeists for instance are undetectable until one either attacks the player, or does something else like move a book etc. Wilo Wisps are the same.
Now as soon as an attack happens the players know where the attack has come from, and have a chance to determine where the creature has moved to (if it moves) but an invisible enemy should be a surprise to the characters, it shouldn't be able to one shot them but it should provide a different type of challenge.
Roper. Invisible creature plus massive reach plus grappling.
"Cut the tentacles!"
"I can't see them! I can see Fighty McFightface held in midair, but are the tentacles above him, below him, arrgghhh!"
"That's OK, wait till it bites the leg off, then you'll know where the body is."
Cue anguished scream from Fighty's player. :-)
That is a massive power boost for Invisibility that is not factored in to basic game structures like CR and spell levels, and it guts any features that facilitate Hiding like Cunning Action. You can easily run these creatures as undetectable RAW by just having them use the Hide action when they want to be hidden.
I've never seen a "you don't know what is attacking you or where it is" encounter that didn't immediately frustrate the players. It's certainly a different type of challenge, but different isn't always good. It tends to spawn ideas like the ol' bag of flour that distances you even further from the rules and sets precedents which you may regret later.
Just to reiterate, I think you can have all the benefits of scaring the party without things feeling unfair or deviating from the RAW by just focusing on "you know something's there, but you don't know what it is."
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm