We all love it when the Fighter bisects a monster with their sword, or the Sorcerer blasts an ogre apart with a spell, but some situations call for more offbeat methods of monster slaying.

In this article, we'll take a look at a few unusual ways to kill monsters using cunning, physics, and a little lateral thinking.

• Gravity: Your Friend, Their Foe
• Spelltacular Combos
• Lure Them to Bigger Fish
• Bag of Shenanigans

Gravity: Your Friend, Their Foe

Artist: BRIAN VALEZA

A creature that falls takes 1d6 Bludgeoning damage at the end of the fall for every 10 feet it fell, to a maximum of 20d6. The Dungeon Master's Guide also provides some guidance on improvising damage, for example, the damage from something heavy falling onto a creature. Keep these in mind for the next section.

Drop An Enemy

Flight. When you grapple an enemy, you can drag or carry it when you move, but every foot of movement costs you 1 extra foot (unless your target is Tiny or two or more sizes smaller than you). This also applies to creatures with a Fly Speed, so you can grapple an enemy, fly up high, then drop them for some mega splat damage (bonus points if you drop them on another enemy). If you have the Grappler feat, you don't have to spend extra movement to grapple a creature that is your size or smaller, so you can fly higher faster.

Poison. One of the ways to ensure your grappled target doesn't try to slip away is with the Lolth's Sting and Essence of Ether poisons, which render a target Unconscious for 1 hour and 8 hours, respectively. From there, it's up to you to drop your monster from on high, into your nearest volcano, off a cliff, or into the ocean.

Illusion. This is your opportunity to go full Looney Tunes. You can use spells like Phantasmal Force or Major Image to convince your enemies that a bridge exists across a chasm, or to project the image of solid ground where you know there is a pit trap.

Push It. If you're fighting an enemy on a rooftop or near a cliffside, you can use any number of tools to push them off! The Push mastery property allows you to send a target flying 10 feet when you hit them with an applicable weapon, or you could rely on your Unarmed Strike's Shove option, forcing the target to make a Strength or Dexterity saving throw (its choice) or be pushed 5 feet away. Then there are the myriad spells that can launch targets from a ledge, like Thunderwave, Bigby's Hand, Telekinesis, or a Warlock's Repelling Blast-infused cantrip. Before employing this relatively risky maneuver, ensure you double-check the size restrictions of the method you are using!

Drop An Item

Pick up a Small rock. Fly high above your enemy. Cast Enlarge/Reduce. Drop a Medium rock on your enemy's head.

Drop An Ally

Seeing as Barbarians with Rage active have Resistance to Bludgeoning damage, they are excellent candidates to be dropped onto an enemy from a great height! Characters with access to Enlarge/Reduce and the ability to fly, or characters who can shape-shift into a Large flying creature, can lift their raging Barbarian and drop them onto the enemy.

To dial up the drama even further, the Barbarian-turned-meteor could use the Ready action to prepare an attack for when they land.

When it comes to applying damage from dropped objects, the Dungeon Master may want to refer to the Dungeon Master’s Guide section on improvised damage, or choose to apply the falling damage to both the character and the target, or something else that seems more appropriate.

Drop a Polymorphed Creature

The Polymorph spell can be combined with options on this list to great effect. Transform an opponent into a Frog and then toss it off a cliff. Conversely, fly your Small ally up high, shape-shift them into a Mammoth, and drop them on an enemy!

Damage from Dropping Objects

When dealing with dropping objects, Dungeon Masters may want to refer to the Dungeon Master’s Guide section on improvised damage, or choose to apply the falling damage to both the character and the target, or something else that seems more appropriate. Ulitmately, the DM has the final say on how dropped objects damage creatures.

Spelltacular Combos

Artist: Robson Michel

You are probably familiar with plenty of spells that can blow your enemies up, freeze them into a statue, wrack them with lightning, or infest them with poison. But, as Aabria Iyengar once said, “Anyone can cast Fireball.”

Working with your party, you can find synergy among your spell lists. Here are some potential options:

Tie ‘Em Up, Knock ‘Em Down

Hit enemies with a spell that inhibits a saving throw, then follow up with a spell that targets that saving throw.

For example, creatures with the Restrained condition have Disadvantage on Dexterity saving throws, and the Stunned and Paralyzed condition makes creatures automatically fail Strength and Dexterity saving throws.

This can be applied as such:

• Entangle + Lightning Bolt
• Web + Fireball (bonus points for the extra 2d4 Fire damage caused by the burning webs).
• Maximilian's Earthen Grasp + Immolation
• Hold Monster + Disintegrate

Boxed In

Wall of Force is a highly useful control spell that has the ability to contain large groups of enemies in a nigh-impossible-to-escape transparent box of doom. All you need to do is combine this spell with a continuous, harmful area of effect to destroy many enemies at once!

A particularly sinister option for this is Sickening Radiance, as it will impose a level of Exhaustion on creatures that fail their Constitution saving throws on top of the damage. Not only will this make it harder to succeed in subsequent saving throws, but a creature dies if it reaches six levels of Exhaustion, regardless of its Hit Points.

Enemies can counteract this by trying to teleport out of the Wall of Force, destroying it with the Disintegrate spell, or by targeting you with a spell or harmful effect that doesn't physically pass through the wall, such as the Blight spell. To help mitigate these attempts to escape, ensure you stock Counterspell or try to limit the trapped enemies' line-of-sight.

Turn Up the Heat

Heat Metal is an excellent, consistent damage dealer. But what can you do if your target isn't wearing or carrying metal? Stick some metal on to them, of course! There's no shortage of ways this can be accomplished; stab a sword into their back, or you can try some Manacles.

Lure Them to Bigger Fish

Artist: Clint Cearley

There is always a bigger fish, and with your party's magic and cunning, you may be able to lure your enemies towards it. This approach will always be situational, but here are a few examples of scenarios where this tactic might be appropriate:

• Illusory Antics. If your party is trying to evade hostile monsters, use spells like Major Image or Mislead to conjure images of your party entering a dangerous area. Lure the Giant Spider chasing you through the forest into the den of an Owlbear!
• Money. Hey, it works for Bruce Wayne. When you have Goblin Warriors after you, or you've upset the wrong Thieves Guild, you might be able to hire some mercenaries or pay a powerful NPC to resolve the problem for you. You may not be ultra-rich, but perhaps you could trade in treasure. Many adventuring parties come across a magic item here or there that they aren't interested in, or are still holding onto items that they've outgrown.

Bag of Shenanigans

Artist: Conceptopolis

Although these tricks have gained some fame in the Dungeons & Dragons community, they remain distinctly unorthodox.

Placing a Bag of Holding inside an extradimensional space created by a Heward's Handy Haversack, Portable Hole, or other similar item instantly destroys the items and opens a gate to the Astral Plane, which pulls in any creature within 10 feet and then closes.

Though many parties have tried to arrange this from afar, such as with Mage Hand, you may also have luck using Suggestion if the target does not know about this particular phenomenon, as the instruction would not seem obviously harmful to it.

It's worth noting that sending a creature to the Astral Plane is not quite the same as killing it. The Astral Plane can be a very dangerous place, so there's a reasonable chance that whoever (or whatever) you send there gets eaten by a monster like an Astral Dreadnought, ambushed by githyanki, or telepathically obliterated by the plane's psychic winds. But since one does not actually age or experience hunger/thirst in the Astral Plane, your villain may very well return with a vengeance!

Alternately, you could reach for one of the above-mentioned poisons, like Lolth's Sting or Essence of Ether, and place the Unconscious target in a Bag of Holding, which has enough air for 10 minutes of breathing. Try not to spend too much time dwelling on whether that's a particularly rough or unusually peaceful way to go in a setting full of magic and monsters.

Variety is the Spice of Monster-Slaying

Once you've slain one zombie, it may feel like you've slain them all. But don't let that lull you into the comfort of mere hacking and slashing—not when you can attempt methods of violence so reckless and strange that your table will tell of it for years to come!

Try your wild ideas. Polymorph your enemy into a Frog and toss them into a volcano, chuck a dagger with Heat Metal cast on it down that Kraken's gullet, or give the recurring villain a one-way ticket to the Astral Plane. D&D has room for the epic and the goofy, the cinematic and the ridiculous.

Damen Cook (@damen_joseph) is a lifelong fantasy reader, writer, and gamer. If he woke up tomorrow in Faerûn, he would bolt through the nearest fey crossing and drink from every stream and eat fruit from every tree in the Feywild until he found that sweet, sweet wild magic.