Hardest monster to kill?

[D&DecentPeople]

What is your opinion on the hardest monster to kill?

[CursedRhubarb]

Friggin zombies. Had a group of 4 lvl 3 characters wailing on a single Zombie for ten rounds. The darn thing was even on fire and collapsed every turn but kept making the save to come back and the cleric didn't have anything to deal radiant damage (not even sacred flame)

[MaxWilson]

What is your opinion on the hardest monster to kill?

Orphaned kittens. Looking into their adoring little eyes and hearing their affectionate purrs, I knew they loved me and just wanted me to be happy, and that I would never forgive myself if they came to harm...

But, I did what I had to do to claim my 10 XP.

[90sMusic]

Troll.
They are impossible to kill without fire or acid. Acid is pretty rare outside of a cantrip and fire isn't always readily available. They heal so much every round that lower level characters have a hard time just beating the regeneration, but then they just keep getting right back up at the start of their turn.

They also have THREE attacks and a great sense of smell.

I had a campaign encounter one time where we were being hunted through a jungle by a troll. With it's keen sense of smell, it never seemed to lost track of us. If it ever caught up to us, all we could do is flee because it was an unstoppable death machine. It pursued us relentlessly for 5 days and killed one of our partymembers.

We all learned to fear trolls on that day.

[EvilAnagram]

Troll.
They are impossible to kill without fire or acid. Acid is pretty rare outside of a cantrip and fire isn't always readily available. They heal so much every round that lower level characters have a hard time just beating the regeneration, but then they just keep getting right back up at the start of their turn.

They also have THREE attacks and a great sense of smell.

I had a campaign encounter one time where we were being hunted through a jungle by a troll. With it's keen sense of smell, it never seemed to lost track of us. If it ever caught up to us, all we could do is flee because it was an unstoppable death machine. It pursued us relentlessly for 5 days and killed one of our partymembers.

We all learned to fear trolls on that day.

I had my players fight a troll in a tannery filled with vats of acidic fluids. The acid never touched the troll and nearly killed two of the PCs. Trolls are nasty. Players are terrible planners.

[Sir cryosin]

The most hardest to kill monster is the player character.🤣

[mephnick]

Anything with reliable get-away abilities if the DM plays them with intelligence. Vampire lords, mages and some planar creatures. Not always hardest to fight, but almost impossible to kill unless you have a plan to trap them.

[Cl0001]

Aside from the legendary stuff like tarrasques, dragons and krakens, as well as enemies with a lot of spell casting abilities, I'd have to agree with the earlier consensus of trolls. However I've also found that slimes and golems can also pose a lot of difficulty to parties as well though.

[Waterdeep Merch]

A smartly played Intellect Devourer at it's book-written CR. To make it match a party's encounter level, you'd need multiple. And that's a dead party right there.

[ThurlRavenscrof]

I think vampires and mummy lords are hard to kill specifically because there's so much specific lore in pop culture, players go in with incorrect expectations about them and don't prepare like they should

[Basement Cat]

Clerics. Especially clerics (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0077.html) loaded with healing spells! :smallbiggrin:

[JellyPooga]

Flameskulls deserve an honourable mention. Not only do they put out a whole heap of hurt for their CR, but they're just so damned tenacious. I mean, unless you know that holy water will keep them down, one hour later...guess who's back? Further, because their "regeneration" is so slow, it's also not obvious. Unlike a troll, who you might see constantly regenerating, so might run away and find a way to keep that sucka down, a Flameskull is not obviously in need of "specialist equipment", which means he just keeps on coming back, perhaps being mistaken for just another example of its kind..."Where are all these flying skulls coming from!?!"

[imanidiot]

High level liches. Contingency spells, Wishes, Simulacrums (Simulacra?), and extensive planar travel combined with immortal genius-level intellect and hundreds of years of planning. Same with spellcasting dragons.

[JNAProductions]

Homebrew allowed? Because if so... Check my sig.

[DragonSorcererX]

Any Dragon with the Spellcasting Variant and access to 6th Level Spells, because they can simply use Contingency + Raise Dead...

[Xrposiedon]

A door.

Oh wait you said monster....

For the CR.....Troglodyte ....3 attacks per round for a cr 1/4 is stupid

Otherwise either Kraken or Dragon Turtle. Water fights are just not something that people generally ever have time to prep for...and even if they do, water is a bitch.

[Arcangel4774]

...and even if they do, water is a bitch.

Says posiedon...

[CrackedChair]

In my opinion it'd probably be a Revenant. Lord wise, it's a undead monster who possesses their own body when they died to take revenge on the one who wronged them after suffering an unfair death. It's essentially Terminator except undead, pissed off and will never stop even after it's body is destroyed, due to it simply possessing another corpse it can use to hunt you.

Like most monsters here, it can regenerate and cannot do so if it takes radiant damage, but you need holy water or a cleric for that. It also has whatever proficiency it has with weapons it had when it was alive, and it retains the ability to cast any spells it knew. Imagine a spellcaster stalking you, then either fireballing you once it finds you or simply snapping your neck if you dare try to counterspell it. Thankfully, it probably only has it out for one person,so unless you are in the way of said person, or worse, ARE said person, you will probably not fight it... probably. And hey, if this quarry is the BBEG, you are obligated to help him. A new ally!

There is also the fact that this thing has until a year to hunt it's quarry. And it will not rest until a year has passed when it came to be or it's prey dies. Imagine having to deal with some murderous soul for a whole YEAR. On top of that, it always knows where it's quarry is. And no magic can stop it from taking it's chance.

[lunaticfringe]

Troll Freaks are really fun. Troll with the traits of whatever I feel like. I terrorized a party with a Troll with Rust Monster abilities once, it was so much fun. Never killed it either, just threw him down a mineshaft and ran like hell. I like to think Ol' Rusty is still out there somewhere

I agree with water beasties, Flameskulls, and Zombies who can be hilariously impervious to death sometimes.

[Cl0001]

Demi lichs are also deceptively difficult to kill for most parties. It's literally a floating skull with gems in the eyes. But, It's roar can easily KO half a party, and even if you succeed on the save you are frightened, and it has insane healing abilities. Unfortunately, if it doesn't go early in Initiative it can easily be taken out in the course of a round.

[RSP]

Any Dragon with the Spellcasting Variant and access to 6th Level Spells, because they can simply use Contingency + Raise Dead...

Raise Dead can't be a Contingency spell d/t casting time and possibly targeting issues (d/t you not being a dead creature when casting Contingency).

If DM doesn't have an issue with the targeting rules of Contingency, you could try Revivify.

[DragonSorcererX]

Raise Dead can't be a Contingency spell d/t casting time and possibly targeting issues (d/t you not being a dead creature when casting Contingency).

If DM doesn't have an issue with the targeting rules of Contingency, you could try Revivify.

Oh, it was this one that I was thinking about, but I didn't remembered it's name, so I went with the high level one.

Also, I'm talking as a DM, I don't think I would give immortal dragons to players...

[RSP]

Oh, it was this one that I was thinking about, but I didn't remembered it's name, so I went with the high level one.

Also, I'm talking as a DM, I don't think I would give immortal dragons to players...

Wouldn't be immortal, just essentially a free Death Ward: Revivify would mean they get revived with 1 HP, so you'd still have a prone dragon on the brink of death with possibly other attacks/PC actions going before it does.

[DragonSorcererX]

Wouldn't be immortal, just essentially a free Death Ward: Revivify would mean they get revived with 1 HP, so you'd still have a prone dragon on the brink of death with possibly other attacks/PC actions going before it does.

The dragon can also have Death Ward up too... but yeah, groups (like the PCs) are the most dangerous thing for a dragon because of action economy...

[MrStabby]

Water wierds can be hard to kill. Invisible, very probably more mobile than the PCs - for their level they can make challenging fights.

[sightlessrealit]

Mariliths are pretty crazy.

CR 16

4 saves
True Sight
Magic Resistance
Decent Damage Resists
Decent Health Pool
At will teleport
Hits 7x in a turn that ends with a grapple
Can make a reaction EVERY turn with parry.