Helmed Horror -- It flys and is nearly impervious to magic attacks, and its +6 to hit averaging 26 HP damage
Flameskull -- It flys, and is nearly impervious to magic attacks, and its +5 to hit and can cast a Fireball for 8d6 damage. Yikees!
Black Dragon Wyrmling -- It flys, its amphibious and it has Blindsight. How many PCs are ready to confront a wrymling that just decided to hide under water? Zero! Perfect getaway.
Bugbear Stalker -- Very respectible AC, HP and damage at distance.
Gnoll Pack Lord -- A CR2 with multi-attack and great damage at distance. Very challenging.
For both the Helmed Horror and the Flameskull they can be hit by magical attacks just fine, you can absolutely burn down a Helmed Horror with Scorching Ray, or pop a Flameskull with Eldritch Blast as easily as any other creature of their respective AC, as long as you're not using spell attacks that lean into their damage immunities or resistances, or lean heavily into add-on effects with Saving Throws.
They've both got advantage on Magical Effect Saving Throws, which is most effective on spells that do nothing when you save against them. Spells that do half damage when the save is made are still viable (if they're not spells that the Helmed Horror is deliberately made invulnerable to).
And then of course, there are the Spells with neither attack rolls, nor Saving Throws, like Hex, Cloud of Daggers, or Spike Growth
For my (borrowed from a Youtube video) contribution, I'll throw shade at the Shadow CR2, and that Draining Swipe will kill you if it reduces your Strength to 0, and a Shadow can do that in as little as two rounds on a Character who's dumped Strength.
I'll go with the Haunting Revenant. It's almost guaranteed to hit creatures inside it for very good damage, and you can only leave it by using planar travel, which requires making a DC 17 con save.
Typically it's creatures with unusually potent status effects that don't seem accounted for in CR math, with the occasional 'death at zero' effect, such as
cloud giant -- multiattack with incapacitate on hit?
dracolich -- its 'no healing allowed' aura does not seem counted into its CR.
ghost -- while I can't actually quite figure out how its possess is supposed to work in 2024, it's still basically a save or die.
medusa -- it seems to have CR-appropriate combat stats with petrifying gaze just tacked on.
mummy -- it's a CR 3 monster that applies a curse that will kill without remove curse, and if it reduces a target to 0 hp they die instantly and turn to dust (so no revivify).
shadow is problematic against higher level characters, because people's strength doesn't change much with level, so you can kill a 20th level in four hits from a CR 1/2 monster.
shadow dragon is situationally problematic, mostly because of a death at zero mechanic that also spawns shadows.
I'll go with the Haunting Revenant. It's almost guaranteed to hit creatures inside it for very good damage, and you can only leave it by using planar travel, which requires making a DC 17 con save.
Oh good choice! The Invitation action is a great way to divide the party and yeh -- Insane defense too; AC20, HP203, 2 Resistances, 11 Immunities. And great offense too; +9 to hit and 54hp damage inside of 90ft.
But with an XP point value of 5900 I'm thinking the Young Red Dragon (also worth 5900XP) is a superior challenge. Agreed?
Honorable mention goes to the Cambion. AC19, HP105, Fly 60ft, Multi-attack, +7 to hit, and significant damage at distance. Weighted at 1800XP? Wow. Must be a mis-print. Should be like 2500XP in my assessment. In general it seems that the ability to fly or breathe under water got no additional XP weighting. Major oversight? I think so.
Gelatinous Cube, especially if the players are new and don’t know to pull people out if they’re engulfed can be really nasty on a low level party.
Cumulative damage on multiple targets -- oh yeh. That was overlooked by the MM editors. Why not pair the Gelatinous Cube with a Clay Golem. The Golem gets Total Cover and the acid damage actually heals the Golem. Then the golem exits the Cube and at close quarters the Golem hits like a frigging truck! Then GC mops up the dead and dying. Ha!
Gelatinous Cube, especially if the players are new and don’t know to pull people out if they’re engulfed can be really nasty on a low level party.
Gelatinous cube is a situationally nasty creature. It's very slow, has no ranged attacks, and has very poor initiative, so much of the time it's going to just die without ever doing any damage, but there's a specific situation that makes it unusually nasty.
I would say that knowing you can pull out engulfed targets doesn't really matter; the best way to free an engulfed target is to kill the cube.
Typically it's creatures with unusually potent status effects that don't seem accounted for in CR math, with the occasional 'death at zero' effect, such as
cloud giant -- multiattack with incapacitate on hit?
dracolich -- its 'no healing allowed' aura does not seem counted into its CR.
ghost -- while I can't actually quite figure out how its possess is supposed to work in 2024, it's still basically a save or die.
medusa -- it seems to have CR-appropriate combat stats with petrifying gaze just tacked on.
mummy -- it's a CR 3 monster that applies a curse that will kill without remove curse, and if it reduces a target to 0 hp they die instantly and turn to dust (so no revivify).
shadow is problematic against higher level characters, because people's strength doesn't change much with level, so you can kill a 20th level in four hits from a CR 1/2 monster.
shadow dragon is situationally problematic, mostly because of a death at zero mechanic that also spawns shadows.
Freedom of movement only works for magical effects, which a dragon's breath is, per RAW, not, although it being biological doesn't entirely make sense. Shadow Dragons' instakilll is tempered by their pitifully low breath weapon damage. Still scary, though.
The Hekatonkheires. It was an old monster and, had the move "Endless Flurry": The stat block could state that the Hekatonkheires makes up to 100 slam attacks on its turn, which can be split among any creatures it can reach.
No monster, not even a God, should have that many attacks.
Basilisks are a good entry too, because they're a low CR but can permanently petrify you. Solars are absolutely terrifying. Beat an almost impossible Con save or be blind for an entire minute. Plus Slaying Longbow.
For my (borrowed from a Youtube video) contribution, I'll throw shade at the Shadow CR2, and that Draining Swipe will kill you if it reduces your Strength to 0, and a Shadow can do that in as little as two rounds on a Character who's dumped Strength.
The Shadow is definitely under-rated. Amorphous movement and Draining Swipe are solid pluses. Then toss on Shadow Stealth as a Bonus Action. MM says that's a 100XP challenge. What?!? That's way too low -- more like 500XP I'm thinking.
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I'm giving these guys a second look:
Helmed Horror -- It flys and is nearly impervious to magic attacks, and its +6 to hit averaging 26 HP damage
Flameskull -- It flys, and is nearly impervious to magic attacks, and its +5 to hit and can cast a Fireball for 8d6 damage. Yikees!
Black Dragon Wyrmling -- It flys, its amphibious and it has Blindsight. How many PCs are ready to confront a wrymling that just decided to hide under water? Zero! Perfect getaway.
Bugbear Stalker -- Very respectible AC, HP and damage at distance.
Gnoll Pack Lord -- A CR2 with multi-attack and great damage at distance. Very challenging.
For both the Helmed Horror and the Flameskull they can be hit by magical attacks just fine, you can absolutely burn down a Helmed Horror with Scorching Ray, or pop a Flameskull with Eldritch Blast as easily as any other creature of their respective AC, as long as you're not using spell attacks that lean into their damage immunities or resistances, or lean heavily into add-on effects with Saving Throws.
They've both got advantage on Magical Effect Saving Throws, which is most effective on spells that do nothing when you save against them. Spells that do half damage when the save is made are still viable (if they're not spells that the Helmed Horror is deliberately made invulnerable to).
And then of course, there are the Spells with neither attack rolls, nor Saving Throws, like Hex, Cloud of Daggers, or Spike Growth
For my (borrowed from a Youtube video) contribution, I'll throw shade at the Shadow CR2, and that Draining Swipe will kill you if it reduces your Strength to 0, and a Shadow can do that in as little as two rounds on a Character who's dumped Strength.
🎵I'm on top of the world, looking down on creation, wreaking death and devastation with my mind.
As the power that I've found erupts freely from the ground, I will cackle from the top of the world.🎵
Charisma Saving Throw: DC 18, Failure: 20d6 Psychic Damage, Success: Half damage
I'll go with the Haunting Revenant. It's almost guaranteed to hit creatures inside it for very good damage, and you can only leave it by using planar travel, which requires making a DC 17 con save.
Typically it's creatures with unusually potent status effects that don't seem accounted for in CR math, with the occasional 'death at zero' effect, such as
Intellect Devowerers.
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.
Gelatinous Cube, especially if the players are new and don’t know to pull people out if they’re engulfed can be really nasty on a low level party.
Oh good choice! The Invitation action is a great way to divide the party and yeh -- Insane defense too; AC20, HP203, 2 Resistances, 11 Immunities. And great offense too; +9 to hit and 54hp damage inside of 90ft.
But with an XP point value of 5900 I'm thinking the Young Red Dragon (also worth 5900XP) is a superior challenge. Agreed?
Honorable mention goes to the Cambion. AC19, HP105, Fly 60ft, Multi-attack, +7 to hit, and significant damage at distance. Weighted at 1800XP? Wow. Must be a mis-print. Should be like 2500XP in my assessment. In general it seems that the ability to fly or breathe under water got no additional XP weighting. Major oversight? I think so.
Cumulative damage on multiple targets -- oh yeh. That was overlooked by the MM editors. Why not pair the Gelatinous Cube with a Clay Golem. The Golem gets Total Cover and the acid damage actually heals the Golem. Then the golem exits the Cube and at close quarters the Golem hits like a frigging truck! Then GC mops up the dead and dying. Ha!
Gelatinous cube is a situationally nasty creature. It's very slow, has no ranged attacks, and has very poor initiative, so much of the time it's going to just die without ever doing any damage, but there's a specific situation that makes it unusually nasty.
I would say that knowing you can pull out engulfed targets doesn't really matter; the best way to free an engulfed target is to kill the cube.
Freedom of movement only works for magical effects, which a dragon's breath is, per RAW, not, although it being biological doesn't entirely make sense. Shadow Dragons' instakilll is tempered by their pitifully low breath weapon damage. Still scary, though.
The Hekatonkheires. It was an old monster and, had the move "Endless Flurry": The stat block could state that the Hekatonkheires makes up to 100 slam attacks on its turn, which can be split among any creatures it can reach.
No monster, not even a God, should have that many attacks.
Basilisks are a good entry too, because they're a low CR but can permanently petrify you. Solars are absolutely terrifying. Beat an almost impossible Con save or be blind for an entire minute. Plus Slaying Longbow.
The Shadow is definitely under-rated. Amorphous movement and Draining Swipe are solid pluses. Then toss on Shadow Stealth as a Bonus Action. MM says that's a 100XP challenge. What?!? That's way too low -- more like 500XP I'm thinking.