Educate me on overlooked monsters

[Pinjata]

Recently I have opened 5e MM and lo-and-behold read stats and fluff of krakens. Now, before this, somewhere in my mind, krakens were on-par with tornadoes and typhoons - forces of nature with INT 1, WIS 2, CHA 30 stats - but after reading 5e MM entry, well ... now these are some badass mfs with real potential to ruin an Empires' day. Intelligent, with their own plans, competitors to already strong-as-hell aboleths can also work in a role of minor gods!, creatures that cultists pray to. Amazing! An entire campaign can be fleshed out around a single krakens' plans. Basically these guys are on-par with a cunning old dragon.

Anyway - what other monsters with immense potential are in 5e MM and are often overlooked?

[KorvinStarmast]

Recently I have opened 5e MM and lo-and-behold read stats and fluff of krakens. Now, before this, somewhere in my mind, krakens were on-par with tornadoes and typhoons - forces of nature with INT 1, WIS 2, CHA 30 stats - but after reading 5e MM entry, well ... now these are some badass mfs with real potential to ruin an Empires' day. Intelligent, with their own plans, competitors to already strong-as-hell aboleths can also work in a role of minor gods!, creatures that cultists pray to. Amazing! An entire campaign can be fleshed out around a single krakens' plans. Basically these guys are on-par with a cunning old dragon.

Anyway - what other monsters with immense potential are in 5e MM and are often overlooked?
Kobolds. (http://www.tuckerskobolds.com)
With attitude.

[strangebloke]

The Kua-Toa are small-scale, but their fluff synergizes beautifully with a Lovecraftian-type setting. (or a kraken, for that matter)

I'm also a huge fan of Blights. They're humanoids born from a wicked, infected tree called a Gulthias tree. Its basically a self-contained quest arc in a single MM entry: find the source of corruption and end it. It also has a built-in plot hook to the next quest. Who planted the tree and why?

[Ralanr]

I love looking at the Kraken's section in the MM. It's so delightfully terrifying, I look at it and think, "I do not want to run into this thing. I can run in a feeble attempt to get away from a flying dragon, but I can run at full speed! A kraken? I'll probably not even have turned around before it's too late.

Behir's are very terrifying and I've never heard of them before 5e (only played pathfinder before and I'm not sure if that was in it). Giant crocodilian headed, reptilian caterpillar serpents? That shoot lightning? Hell yes. Wrote a short story featuring my group fight one, not sure I gave it enough justice.

Bullete's, otherwise known as land sharks. Land. Sharks. End point.

[kaoskonfety]

Rakshasa were always a favourite for "villain the party will likely never know is there". Almost never used the actual 'main plot villain' but a nasty surprise tucked into the folds of the game as an annoying noble, the head of the local thieves guild and the sage old man helping them over throw the main villain ("Xykon is cramping my style with all the NOT subtle evil").

Past that anything that can spawn minions with a decent Int score can be a serious threat - a single Slaadi is a threat to the world if left unchecked, and most towns under 100 people will be ill equipped to deal with even one. Make it one of the heavy hitters (grey, black, death) with a couple "spawner" types and give it a plan like "shatter all sibilance order in this world and drag it into limbo" and you have an issue you can scale to nearly any party level (providing first aid and holding off opportunist goblinoid attacks, up to night of the living dead class waves of lesser slaad and moral dilemmas in the "murder all the villagers before they turn, especially the children - they turn fastest - or TRY to cure all 80 of the infected in time (you will fail)"

[Ralanr]

Rakshasa were always a favourite for "villain the party will likely never know is there". Almost never used the actual 'main plot villain' but a nasty surprise tucked into the folds of the game as an annoying noble, the head of the local thieves guild and the sage old man helping them over throw the main villain ("Xykon is cramping my style with all the NOT subtle evil").

Past that anything that can spawn minions with a decent Int score can be a serious threat - a single Slaadi is a threat to the world if left unchecked, and most towns under 100 people will be ill equipped to deal with even one. Make it one of the heavy hitters (grey, black, death) with a couple "spawner" types and give it a plan like "shatter all sibilance order in this world and drag it into limbo" and you have an issue you can scale to nearly any party level (providing first aid and holding off opportunist goblinoid attacks, up to night of the living dead class waves of lesser slaad and moral dilemmas in the "murder all the villagers before they turn, especially the children - they turn fastest - or TRY to cure all 80 of the infected in time (you will fail)"

Oh god the slaadi. I completely forgot about them.

I would never want to fight against the spawner types. Nothing in the book says the players know they're infected ever!

[kaoskonfety]

Oh god the slaadi. I completely forgot about them.

I would never want to fight against the spawner types. Nothing in the book says the players know they're infected ever!


Everyone forgets the Slaadi - that is why Chaos will win.

I think I prefer the new Slaadi plan I just devised: ride the plane into Mechanus like a surf board - the best part is the DM can change the plan on a whim for no reason in game with full justification "they are slaad, good luck with the 'them making sence' thing"

Also:
For a fun twist - Celestials make horrific and deeply cunning, organized foes - but why is the party fighting them?

- the gods high on their mountain have decided the world must end for reasons mortals cannot fathom, all will be put to fire before the foreseen doom approaches (as a bonus if the party holds off the armies of heaven something the gods fear turns up *AS WAS FORESEEN!* and you get to have a most brutal end game - dukes of hell, great old ones, arch fae, Aboeth overthrow the gods plan coming to fruition, or whatever floats the boat)
- they are not technically celestials - they are infact the oldest brand of demons/devils back before the hells corrupted them and the start of the eternal war, but you know, they claim to be from the heaven, and truth detecting magic says its right. They are racking up worshippers (cultists) left and right but its all... cult-y- For a more subtle intrigue game option.

[Ninja_Prawn]

Bullete's, otherwise known as land sharks. Land. Sharks. End point.

The mighty bulette, coming at you like a shark with knees!

My pick would be the aboleth. Those things terrify me. And all their water-based abilities kind of demand that you build the setting around them, if they're going to play a major role.

[Brendanicus]

Onis are fun. Their combination of bloodthirst, brawn, and stealth means that they can be used in all sorts of situations.

They could be bosses, the haunting terror, barbaric monsters, cunning infiltrators, ghastly serial killers, and fierce chieftains.

Their toolkit includes a flight speed, the ability to shapeshift into any humanoid or Large giant, a thirst for the blood of babies, unlimited Invisibility and Darkness, Cone of Cold, and being beefy.

[EvanescentHero]

I'm going to second aboleths and slaadi. Additionally, basically any monster with the aberration type (and some that have the beast type but have all the tentacles necessary to be an aberration) will fit great into a Lovecraftian campaign--and your kraken may also have a place in such a campaign.

[Ralanr]

Purple worms!!!!

[mephnick]

No one ever uses Behirs, but they're cool sorta-dragons.

Work great as a "hunt this/escape from this thing down in a dark cavern" quest if you're tired of using dragons and beholders.

[KorvinStarmast]

No one ever uses Behirs, but they're cool sorta-dragons. I remember when The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth came out. Didn't like it all that much.

This beast looked like a blue dragon mated with a giant centipede

I always suspected that E.G.Gygax experimented with recreational chemicals. This beast is one data point among many.