The strongest creature you've faced...

[Sindal]

Hi yall.

This is just a tally and a bit of inspection to see the kind of things people deal with

Whats the biggest, baddest, CR highest Creature you've been pitted against, and what was the circumstance for fighting it.

-(Note, this is not "What has your most difficult battle' been, as sometimes really tough enemies can be easy, and an army of easy enemies can become difficult.
It's 'what is the strongest creature or being you've been against")

So far:
A wyvern, for me.My group hasn't gone past lvl 5 yet.
(Fighting a giant sorta dragon on a rickety chain bridge in howling cold wind certainly FELT scary. Our fighter almost got knocked over!)

Lets see what our fellow adventurers have triumphed

[Sage Tellah]

Oh, I had my biggest thus far just last week. An Empyrean, summoned by a head cleric of some head church to fight our evil level 17 party when we decided to level the place with an earthquake. Bit of a feud, there.

It ended up being a bit anticlimactic when my duergar eldritch knight enlarged himself and then grappled and proned him. Huge size class stopped being an issue, and it turns out athletics expertise and advantage trump a natural strength of 30. Between the grapple keeping him in place, the prone imposing disadvantage, and my fighter's immense AC occasionally helped by Shield, we just sorta thumped him down. His relatively tiny allies didn't accomplish much either when they tried hitting and shoving me off him.

[JNAProductions]

Acerak. Climax of a campaign. Got the Druid with Power Word Kill, turned my character into a boneless jelly (I got better, mid-fight) then killed me with Finger of Death, and I damn-near killed the Barbarian as a zombie.

We got him in the end though! He fled, but we had an artifact that cut of his phylactery connection.

[GlenSmash!]

Well my group just hit 6, but back at five we faced an adult black dragon in its lair.

We would have slain it too if it hadn't fled.

[Ironheart]

It was over the course of two battles, but fighting two Alhoons (mindflayer liches) and an Elder Brain takes the cake. I’m happy to report that getting to the Elder Brain (who was maintaining concentration on an Invulnerability effect on the Alhoon) was possible with a well placed disintegrate by my wizard.

Other highlights: Our monk who could make almost any saving throw got put into a Maze- he only managed to come back out for the tail end of the fight.

A salt golem dragged the other Alhoon through a prismatic Wall (that was my ninth level slot spent- I felt pretty mortal after that.) for massive damage.

[BloodSnake'sCha]

In 5e a young black dragon(we use diplomacy to make her do all the job).

Or a drow priest.
Not sure.


I think the highest CR was an Uni but he was alone VS my level 7 Sorcelock after 4 sort rests.
He didn't had a chance to live.

[Randomthom]

The end of the Out of the Abyss campaign I ran pitted the players against the 500hp worth of undead from the Wand of Orcus (4 Shadows, 4 Bodaks, 1 Alhoon) then they mucked in with the fight going on between Orcus, Baphomet and Demogorgon...

Also, I'm about to run a one-shot where a bunch of lvl 6 characters will be "encountering" (i.e. running the hell away from) a Kraken.

[loki_ragnarock]

Probably Baba Lysaga and her damned hut.

But I'd have to actually check her entry. It felt pretty brutal, though.

[Particle_Man]

We are level 12 - 14 and have to deal with a Kraken. So far our plan is to kite it to get it to kill other enemies we have run away from.

[nickl_2000]

Probably characters from a pathfinder campaign changed to 5e. They had 30 strength (41 in PF) base ;)


As for highest CR, likely the BBEG from that same campaign. A level 20 wizard with at will (non dispelable) flight and several brutal magic items. He laid down some major pain before I got lucky and landed a hold person that lasted 3 rounds.

[Misterwhisper]

My own dice... over 20 years and still gets me killed.

[Zuras]

A Kraken Archmage. Was a bit shocking when we thought we had escaped in an airship and it flew out of a cloud bank at us..

[Kane0]

Deathknight Arthas.

We chipped his armor and he's like 'Woah hold up this timeline is all wrong' and planeshifts away.

Edit:
But from an official adventure? The party took on the Roper in HotDQ while I was DMing. As the final encounter of the dungeon and adventuring day.

[Foff]

As of today out fiercest Battle has been against the ancient Blue dragon Iymrith from a well known campaign. Luckily for us we battled It inside its lair where he did not have much space to maneuver or we would not have had a shred of a chance. It still got through 300 effecttive hp from my abjurer wizard shields and polymorphs and managed to knock me out right before the rest of the party killed It.
Sono the party on the new campaign i'm running Will face heads on Baron Strahd von Zarovich himself, in his Castle. While his CR might be lower the dragon's i really fear the worst for my party, what he May lack in raw strenght he definately makes up for with deception, cunning tactics and mondo tricks. Strahd Is super scary

[Tawmis]

My own dice... over 20 years and still gets me killed.

This wins best answer. Ever.

[Ogre Mage]

The Tarrasque.

In 5e, it was an ancient red dragon backed by a platoon (about 30) of elite orc warriors.

[Solusek]

In 5e the strongest creature I've faced would have to be Tiamat. It was the final battle of a campaign. Six 20th level PC's. Half the party was killed in the first 2 rounds to breath weapons, got temporarily resurrected from a Wish spell, and died again over the next 2 rounds. I think only 2 PC's were alive at the end of the combat, but we got her!

[ProsecutorGodot]

For groups that I've run, a modified Dragonborn Lich.

For games that I've played I'm pretty sure the Death Tyrant has been the highest CR yet. We're fighting a Shadow Dragon this weekend, hopefully that will go well.

[Contrast]

I mean...technically an adult dragon (with accompanying young dragon).

I say technically because it killed our barbarian in a single round and then we surrendered.

[JakOfAllTirades]

Back in 3.5e, an Atropol. Party of eight 23rd level characters had to make a fighting withdrawal after three rounds. Everyone barely got out alive.

In 5E, I think it's an Adult White Dragon, in a couple of different campaigns.

Although Baba Lysaga and her animated hut were extremely nasty as well.

[BaconChest]

Technically we faced up to a Pit Fiend a while back, but that was actually the set-up for the big reveal that one party member's pseudodragon familiar (that she'd found in a dungeon in like the 2nd session) was in fact an Adult Brass Dragon.

Strongest one I've fought to the death as a player is a Beholder.

Strongest thing I've thrown at my players CR-wise is a Balor in our most recent session, but the Storm Giant Seer which I let manipulate time (players had to specify their actions and attacks for the first round of combat, then the Giant got to act knowing exactly where their attacks would land) was arguably more powerful, I just didn't stat it up with a book.

[KorvinStarmast]

We were level five in a cavern under the mountains, not quite yet headed to the underdark, and we ran into a roper and small clutch of piercers. Five of us. Holy crap, that was a hard fight. All them tentacles and being restrained / grappled, and the piercers dropping from about 100' up, so crap tons of damage on hits ...

[Foxydono]

A three-headed undead wizard Tarrasque with beholder eyes and with dragon wings (CR 50), homebrew epic level campaign.

[GlenSmash!]

As of today out fiercest Battle has been against the ancient Blue dragon Iymrith from a well known campaign. Luckily for us we battled It inside its lair where he did not have much space to maneuver or we would not have had a shred of a chance. It still got through 300 effecttive hp from my abjurer wizard shields and polymorphs and managed to knock me out right before the rest of the party killed It.
Sono the party on the new campaign i'm running Will face heads on Baron Strahd von Zarovich himself, in his Castle. While his CR might be lower the dragon's i really fear the worst for my party, what he May lack in raw strenght he definately makes up for with deception, cunning tactics and mondo tricks. Strahd Is super scary

Strahd has so many options at his disposal, I'm surprised how often I see people complain about how easy he is.

I really wonder how those DMs are running him.

[Karnitis]

There were 6 of us, all around level 10 I think. We were on a ship headed to an island to request help from the Merfolk or some such when a bloody Kraken comes out at us.

What we did not realize was this was slight DM revenge. We had been complaining (offering light criticism) that the fights weren't challenging enough - even the BBEG we had faced at the end of the last arc never got any of us to half health. Well, apparently this was his way of "giving us what we wanted." the ship was supposed to help balance with cannons, but we were quickly outmatched. He pulled back once we started to hurt, but our group loved it.

[JakOfAllTirades]

A three-headed undead wizard Tarrasque with beholder eyes and with dragon wings (CR 50), homebrew epic level campaign.

When the DM has officially had enough of your BS!

[Reevh]

The big bad in my last campaign was a level 20 Wizard AND a level 20 Warlock, with access to two level 9 spells, among other things. She also had a 24 spell DC and legendary actions that would either let her fire off Eldritch Blasts at us (4 beams) or move up to 30 feet without provoking opportunity attacks. This made her extremely hard to pin down. At one point, our paladin caught up to her and grappled her and covered her mouth to silence her. She wasn't especially strong, so she cast the one big spell she had that didn't require a verbal component, Psychic Scream. That was very nearly a TPK.

She also had a number of minions that always hung around with her, including a level 20 Hexblade warlock who was the most fun NPC in the campaign, and I suspect may make another appearance in the new campaign.

I think we were level 18 when we finally defeated her. Lore Bard, Dreams Druid, Swashbuckler Rogue, Vengeance Paladin, and me, Forge Cleric. Good times.

[DracoKnight]

For me? Easily Tiamat from Tyranny of Dragons. We hadn't managed to do everything we could to depower her, we were 17th level, and it was the end of the campaign. It was brutal; a near TPK. Everyone was dead except for the Cleric, and she was next. In fact, the only reason we won was because the Cleric cast revivify on the Wizard (who was going right after her) right before Tiamat used a Legendary action to snack on the Cleric. So the Wizard, with 1 hp, took a gamble. Knowing that if this didn't pay off, Tiamat would eat him and reign over the Material Plane, the Wizard spoke magic into the world. Short, simple (but powerful) magic. One word: "Die."

It turns out that she was at 95 hit points when the Wizard cast power word kill. But if that hadn't been the case, we were toast.

[Bjarkmundur]

*cries in DM*


asdfasdf

[Particle_Man]

My own dice... over 20 years and still gets me killed.

Truth. I have a set of dice I call cyanide blue. I once rolled three natural 1s to fail to disarm a trap (and indeed set it off), fail two saving throws (the explosion and then the explosions that explosion set off). I think the party found a thumb.

[paladinn]

The strongest creature you've faced...

My ex-mother-in-law.. hands down..

[DracoKnight]

The strongest creature you've faced...

My ex-mother-in-law.. hands down..

High-level miserable old hag?

[paladinn]

High-level miserable old hag?

Legendary.. make a terrasque look like a cuddly bunny

[Kane0]

We were level five in a cavern under the mountains, not quite yet headed to the underdark, and we ran into a roper and small clutch of piercers. Five of us. Holy crap, that was a hard fight. All them tentacles and being restrained / grappled, and the piercers dropping from about 100' up, so crap tons of damage on hits ...

So simple, yet so deadly

[Misterwhisper]

Truth. I have a set of dice I call cyanide blue. I once rolled three natural 1s to fail to disarm a trap (and indeed set it off), fail two saving throws (the explosion and then the explosions that explosion set off). I think the party found a thumb.

In a 3.0 which became 3.5, I played a barbarian 8, forsaker 10.
I had power critical which made one swing an auto crit, and a ring that I had custom made that let me max damage once a day.

We all started at level 1, played for over 2 years in a party of seven.

The group had just finished a massive boss fight to kill a demigod to take his blood to enchant a weapon to kill one of the old ones, so resources were low, as we went out the back entrance of the underground cult base in the tundra.

In the cave was a frost giant Jarl and about 12 of his lieutenants.

First swing I activate power critical and my ring to max a crit if I hit, would have been about 650 damage.

Naturally, I rolled a 1.
We had a rule, roll to see how bad.
1 again.
The dm felt pity on me and asked me to roll again to see how horrible it would end up.
Rolled a 2.

I pulled a bugs bunny and hit the floor instead of the giant, the vibration rumbled and reverberated the whole place and I caused the whole place to collapse.

7 players.
3 unconscious
2 outright dead
The last 2 still conscious, myself and the cleric, were buried under tons of ice and beaten to death by the confused but intrigued ice giants.

Thank gods we had a bad of toes, resurrection scrolls and diamonds that was kept in a safe deposit box.

[paladinn]

In a 3.0 which became 3.5, I played a barbarian 8, forsaker 10.
I had power critical which made one swing an auto crit, and a ring that I had custom made that let me max damage once a day.

We all started at level 1, played for over 2 years in a party of seven.

The group had just finished a massive boss fight to kill a demigod to take his blood to enchant a weapon to kill one of the old ones, so resources were low, as we went out the back entrance of the underground cult base in the tundra.

In the cave was a frost giant Jarl and about 12 of his lieutenants.

First swing I activate power critical and my ring to max a crit if I hit, would have been about 650 damage.

Naturally, I rolled a 1.
We had a rule, roll to see how bad.
1 again.
The dm felt pity on me and asked me to roll again to see how horrible it would end up.
Rolled a 2.

I pulled a bugs bunny and hit the floor instead of the giant, the vibration rumbled and reverberated the whole place and I caused the whole place to collapse.

7 players.
3 unconscious
2 outright dead
The last 2 still conscious, myself and the cleric, were buried under tons of ice and beaten to death by the confused but intrigued ice giants.

Thank gods we had a bad of toes, resurrection scrolls and diamonds that was kept in a safe deposit box.

I just had to look up what a "forsaker" is.

Wow, 3.x had a crap-ton of classes, prestige and base..

[Misterwhisper]

I just had to look up what a "forsaker" is.

Wow, 3.x had a crap-ton of classes, prestige and base..

Forsakers were amazing but would sometimes make your party very angry.

My ring was a one time exception because it was given to him personally by Moradin, not like I could tell the god of my people no.

[Scarlet Knight]

Wow, so many years ago... I believe it was an ettin. With simple spell buffs.

We never knew what hit us as the ettin (with a wizard's help) was giant, invisible, flying, & hastened.

[Foff]

Strahd has so many options at his disposal, I'm surprised how often I see people complain about how easy he is.

I really wonder how those DMs are running him.

I found it's often because people usually end up in Barovia knowing what they'll play, i've yet to see a table Who goes in with at least a cleric Who picks dawn or a paladin of some sort. A whole party tailoerd to fight vampires can and Will make short work of big Strahd without much danger of wiping. Also, by the time they get to the final showdown they're usually equipped with two certain items Who definately make their Life easier