Monsters for an arctic campaign

[dededo11]

I love the idea of a campaign set mostly in the arctic, but I feel that there are not enough arctic monsters for a full 1-20 arctic campaign. How would you deal with this lack of arctic monsters?

[Trustypeaches]

A good deal of monsters and enemies are environment-agnostic: most undead, demons, aberrations, etc. can fit into any setting with a bit of retheming. Any setting can have bandits!

Undead in particular can be sprinkled into any setting: snow fields haunted by the ghosts of townsfolk who froze to death, frozen lakes populated by wights who fell through the ice and drowned, Will o wisps that lead travelers into deadly blizzards or over thin ice. Maybe intelligent undead have formed an army in the arctic wastes, Lich King or White Walker style. Or perhaps while exploring long-lost ruins the ancient dead rise to protect their burial sites, like Skyrim's Draugr.

Given that the arctic is such a hostile and isolated place to live, it can make and an amazing setting for some good ol’ fashioned eldritch horror. Perhaps a isolated monastery or research station has fallen under the influence of some outer realm old god who is buried deep beneath the ice. Or a small ice fishing community that is being terrorized by a hungry Oblex.

The arctic is also an effective setting for a "no man's land" where various tribal communities vie for power, territory, and control over scarce resources. Some examples of such communities that would serve as good enemies include Goliaths, Gnolls, Orcs, Ogres, White Dragonborn / Kobolds, Giants, and Trolls.

As for Arctic specific threats, a couple ideas are:

Frost Giants
Ice Trolls
Ice Devils
Goliaths
Bheur Hags
Remorrhazs
White Dragons / White Dragonborn
Winter Eladrin
Wildlife: Mammoths, Sabretooth Tigers, Polar Bears
Ice Golems and Mephits (maybe an Ice Genie)
Yetis
Frost Salamanders
Werebears
Arctic Druids
Pine Tree Treants

[stoutstien]

Use real life as inspiration it's strange enough. Gaint frogs that freeze and thaw. Gaint heard of hooved grazing animals, pack predators, stirge can be gaint pests and deadly in a swarm, northern barbarian tribes and ice giants, maybe even some mammoths

[rlc]

I've honestly been thinking about this lately, too, and I've pretty much decided to go with anything with fur and/or acclimation or better.
Tritons and goliaths would have communities, as well as arctic dwarves and snow elves (get some possible stats with a quick Google, but you can homebrew them however you want). Monsters would obviously be yeti and all that other stuff mentioned a couple posts up.
Depending on the level you want it to go up to, the boss fight can be a frost giant, an ice devil, an ice devil and a bunch of frost giants, or even an ice devil tiefling.

[Foxhound438]

one of my friends has a deep personal hatred for Remorrhaz, so I'm personally fond of those

[Grog Logs]

All of the above. Also, remember that anything vaguely bear shaped can be refluffed into a Polar Bear (e.g., Polar Owlbear). Similar for Arctic Wolves (e.g., Arctic Worgs). And with many Monstrosities (e.g., Arctic Purple Worm). Refluff water and air elementals (MM, MTF). Shadowland stuff (MTF) would also for well in an Arctic setting. Eladrin, Elves, and Dwarves (e.g., Derro) could all be Arctic. Underdark creatures could sometimes work.

Honestly, MTF is a great source for CR 9-16

[Jophiel]

I love the idea of a campaign set mostly in the arctic, but I feel that there are not enough arctic monsters for a full 1-20 arctic campaign. How would you deal with this lack of arctic monsters?
Go outside the Monster Manual. Flipping through my 3rd party books...

Tome of Beasts: Rime Worm, Fraughashar, Boreas, Frostveil, Ice Maiden, Beli, Bearfolk, Vaettir, Mahoru, Lindwurm
Creature Codex: Snow Cat, Roggenwolf, Yakirian, Ursa Polaris, Quiet Soul, Oliphaunt, Ijiraq, Snow Hag
Fifth Edition Foes: Taer, Hoar Fox, Various Pleistocene Megafauna, Glacial Ooze, Ice Drake

...are all obvious choices for snow/arctic themes. There might be more that weren't as obvious from the name or artwork.

[OmSwaOperations]

Create your own!

Heat Vampire: lost souls killed by the cold and reanimated by their soul's desire for warmth, these damned creatures roam the ice, searching for warm bodies. Their icy touch sucks the warmth from a mans body in moments, leaving him a cold corpse.

Wyrmmen: ferret like creatures who carve vast colonies into the tundra. In summer, they emerge and conduct frenzied agricultural activities over the course of the few warm months. In winter, the majority of the hive hibernates underground. If the harvest has been poor, the warrior caste remains active, forming raiding parties that strike esquimaux settlements for supplies.

[Unoriginal]

Humanoids can live in most regions adventurers can travel in. Same for most Giants.

[Imbalance]

Glacial jelly. Enormous slime that occupies a valley floor and allows ice to build on it for decades. Its only movement is to flex in reaction to a creature attempting to traverse its frozen shell, causing a deep fissure to open beneath the victim. Fail a save and fall dozens of feet to the source of the threat, taking acid damage each turn. The jelly can open multiple cracks, each as its action, or use a 1/day action to close a gap upon a victim, dealing bludgeoning damage and possible incap. High athletics check to escape without assistance. Incapacitated victim can only be rescued after X rounds of fire damage to the shell.

[OverLordOcelot]

Don't forget that you're in a magic world. IRL reptiles have a hard time in the cold because they are cold blooded, but there's nothing to stop you from having arctic constrictor snakes (as an example) - maybe they burn with internal heat like a Remorhaz and do fire damage when they grapple you, or maybe they're like a Winter Wolf and exude cold, or maybe they just have cold resistance. There's a lot of creatures that can become suitable with some really minor tweaking.

[Vogie]

Don't forget monsters that people will expect due to pop culture.

Sea Hags could be refluffed as Ice Witches, and any shapeshifter could give "the Thing" vibes. Martial Arts Adepts with the water-themed abilities from FourElements Monks could be Waterbenders.

Not to mention the Water Elemental already has a Freeze Ability.

[ShikomeKidoMi]

Remember that many undead are resistant to cold, especially incorporeal ones (Banshees, Shadows, Spectres, Wraiths, etc). You can plop them in the most hostile blizzard and they won't care.

In fact, Will-O-Wisps leading people out into dangerous winter conditions, like onto thin ice, would be a nice twist on the monster.

Also: Demons, Devils, and Yugoloth commonly resist cold. You can add any of them that seem thematic (like white Barlgura being mistaken by locals for Yeti), without making any changes.

Ochre Jellies are cold resistant and Black Puddings are cold immune. Some kind of oily, human eating black goop that oozes out from under the ice seems quite setting appropriate.


Don't forget monsters that people will expect due to pop culture. Sea Hags could be refluffed as Ice Witches, and any shapeshifter could give "the Thing" vibes.
Sea Hags are already resistant to cold, so they do work in the environment quite well. Plus, Bheur Hags from Volo's are ice themed.

[Foxhound438]

Glacial jelly. Enormous slime that occupies a valley floor and allows ice to build on it for decades. Its only movement is to flex in reaction to a creature attempting to traverse its frozen shell, causing a deep fissure to open beneath the victim. Fail a save and fall dozens of feet to the source of the threat, taking acid damage each turn. The jelly can open multiple cracks, each as its action, or use a 1/day action to close a gap upon a victim, dealing bludgeoning damage and possible incap. High athletics check to escape without assistance. Incapacitated victim can only be rescued after X rounds of fire damage to the shell.

as a huge fan of all things Ooze, this sounds like an amazing encounter