11 Huge Threats Posed by Huge Monsters of 5E D&D

I’ve been following up a post about the chonkiest bois in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons with a look at standout monsters from each size category. Huge creatures follow in the footsteps of the smaller 8 Large and in Charge Monsters of 5E D&D. The top of the size category food chain looms but before reaching those heights there’s a lot of amazing Huge size monsters to consider. Let’s get into it.

5E D&D’s second more enormous monsters

Crunching numbers to theorize the most effective monsters in combat isn’t the focus of these posts. Instead I’m looking through all the official Large sized 5E D&D creatures with an eye towards the standouts who make a major impact. These might punch above their weight, possess unusually impressive features, hold significance to me or demonstrate another definitely subjective perspective.

At the moment there’s 208 Large creatures among official 5E D&D sources. The largest creature type represented among them are beasts with 65 individual entries. Oddly enough there’s five humanoids in the mix, which are definitely outliers. Humanoids almost 100% across the board fit into the Medium and Small categories with the exception of the Tiny jermlaine from the wonderful collection of monsters in Mordenkainen’s Fiendish Folio Volume 1 and the five Large ones. Of the latter I feel like there’s a case to be made for most of them as monstrosities and one giant. (Why a half-ogre NPC is humanoid but a generic Monster Manual half-ogre is a giant is beyond me.)

Picking standout Large creatures needs some structure. This time around I’m choosing one Large monster from each of the 11 pages.

Abominable Yeti

This creature possesses a trait I’ve mentioned many, many times in videos and posts — relatability. Everyone’s heard of an Abominable Snowman and while a cryptid rather than a bona fide creature it’s nevertheless something most folks can more easily wrap their minds around than, say, a goristro. It’s also the only creature on the first page of Huge monsters that’s not an adult dragon of some type, so it was a shoe in for making this list. But the abominable yeti deserves mention on its own merit though. A collection of terrific traits and features plus wonderful flavor and fluff makes this monstrosity practically run itself and chill adventurers to the bone. Worth mentioning there’s a yeti tyke included with Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden but if you wanna play a yeti yourself we’ve got you covered.

Ancient Deep Crow

I was all set to go with Arasta, one of the first Mythic monsters of 5E D&D from one of my favorite sourcebooks, Mythic Odysseys of Theros. After hemming and hawing though I’ve got to give props to this monstrosity from Acquisitions Incorporated (another favorite of mine). This creature’s origins lie way back in a 2007 Penny Arcade comic. What I appreciate about this one is simply creativity. Taking a very mundane creature like a crow and making it monstrous is fun to begin with and making it Legendary wins me over. But the coolest thing about this one is the inclusion of regional effects, which in my experience are woefully under used by 5E D&D players.

Cyclops

The first two creatures definitely started a trend with their relatability with things everyday folks recognize on some level and here’s another one with this quality. In 5E D&D the cyclops doesn’t have any cool traits or actions and in fact the only unusual one they’ve got is detrimental to them. You can trace a line of my appreciation for the cyclops from Homer’s Odyssey featuring Polyphemus, probably the most famous cyclops of all time, straight to our Hag’s Apprentice encounter. I’ve adopted this one, which is one of my favorite things we’ve created at Nerdarchy (and that’s saying something!), into my traditional Halloween one shot because our monthly fan games always fall to me in October.

Fomorian

So many to choose from! Elder Oblex, Fog Giant, Froghemoth and Frost Salamander all appeal to me for various reasons but the most hideous and wicked of all giantkind win out in the end. These deformed and cursed giants overcome their more traditional cousins in 5E D&D thanks to their Evil Eye and Curse of the Evil Eye traits, awesome folklore connections and memorable moments from my own experiences. For starters a fomorian and its roper BFF became the foundation for our Roper Wrangler encounter, which I’ve run a couple of times and had tons of fun with. Fomorians also featured prominently in a campaign I ran for a friend and his kids years ago where all the adults in the entire world vanished overnight (including all the monsters). Fomorians also lurked about the fringes of my long running Spelljammer campaign where they were drawn to places where eezo (a magical metal) could be found.

Gorthok the Thunder Boar

The Greater Star Spawn Emissary really tempts me but I’ve praised this family of fantastic monsters plenty of times so I’m giving the nod to this monstrosity from Dragon of Icespire Peak. Giant beasts are incredibly compelling to begin with and slapping on some fantastical traits excites me more than bizarre creatures created from scratch (sorry beholders). Many of the myths and folklore legends from our own world involve mundane beasts assigned supernatural qualities and in my own setting I’ve adapted one such creature, which has intrigued many an adventurer. I love monsters like Gorthok for the sheer simplicity.

Hundred-Handed One

Another giant! Like formorians this one’s unusual traits propel it past traditional giants (although I’ll argue thoughtful Dungeon Masters can do a lot with those too). I can only assume these giants from Mythic Odysseys of Theros are inspired by Hecatoncheires from Greek mythology and I appreciate how their multiarmed nature is reflected in the stat block. Very elegant.

Ki-rin

These supremely majestic celestials got a lot going on in their stat block to boast about. This includes two kinds of spellcasting, resistances, Legendary status, a lair and regional effects. Wow! The fluff included in the description is very evocative too. It practically writes adventures for you. It can be a tricky proposition to incorporate good aligned monsters into a campaign because it’s a little more work to create conflict and tension for a party of heroic adventurers. But therein lies the fun creative challenge, which we’ve explored extensively ourselves!

Remorhaz

I’ve been a huge fan of these Huge arctic monstrosities since I was a little kid. Their appearance always captivates me and despite being basically a giant insect generating intense heat they’re just plain cool. In 5E D&D there’s a bit of variety with the reduced-threat remorhaz from Dead in Thay and the young remorhaz in the Monster Manual. The latter of these features prominently in our Fane of the Frost Wyrm encounter wherein adventurers can discover new magic items, a new Primal Path for barbarians and even a Remorhaz Spine Sword with a new weapon property. Arctic adventures are a favorite of mine and remorhazes are part of the reason why.

Stone Giant Dreamwalker

Lotta giants showing up here, huh? I don’t remember when or in what edition of D&D giants began getting more expansive lore attached but thank goodness for it because excellent flavor helps propel creatures forward. For my 2 gp stone giants get the best lore of all the traditional giant varieties. Anything to do with dreams, nightmares and other metaphysical qualities wins high marks in my book. In fact we’re working on something related to dreams right now. This particular giant entry adds to the traditional giant repertoire of throwing rocks and hitting things with a club or fists with a powerful charm effect and an interesting twist on petrification. Giants overall got a big bump thanks to Volo’s Guide to Monsters and don’t worry — none of the lore in those pages was included in the recent errata.

Tomb Tapper

There’s nothing particularly amazing about these constructs I’ll admit. They don’t really do anything exciting or really impactful. What I like about these creatures in their passive traits, which create easy opportunities to incorporate into a scenario. (Petrified Death and Sense Magic also look temptingly easy to slap onto literally any creature.) For my own setting I fancy the idea of these monsters as a more natural part of the world. I’d reduce their Intelligence and make them more of a rare wandering threat. Curious characters who desire to learn more about them would lead to a plethora of engaging situations.

Yuan-ti Anathema

At this point if a Huge reptilian monster with six cobra heads, a trait called Ophidiophobia Aura and a thirst for godhood doesn’t fuel your fantasy engines I don’t know what to tell you. Snake cults feel like a quintessential part of a dark fantasy setting and I believe every world of adventure benefits from having one slithering about somewhere. Want to incorporate such a thing into your own games? Start with a little snake magic and see where this leads the party.

*Featured image — There’s nothing middle of the road about the perils presented by Medium sized 5E D&D monsters. These 14 creatures stand out among others of their type for a variety of reasons. Some punch well above their challenge rating, some feature powerful and unusual traits, some offer terrific storytelling inspiration and some represent impactful moments from my own experiences. [Composite images courtesy Wizards of the Coast]

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