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Dungeons & Dragons is arguably the greatest fantasy tabletop roleplaying game ever created. With brave crews of adventurers delving through dungeons and fighting against dragons and other monsters, D&D perfectly captures the magical thrills and heroic deeds of an epic quest. That said, the game is also suited to horror adventures.
Some of the most popular pre-written adventure modules like Tomb of Annihilation and Curse of Strahd are firmly rooted in horror. But for a D&D campaign to truly terrify players, it is important to choose appropriately terrifying monsters. While the game has no shortage of terrifying creatures, these bone-chilling monstrosities will create a nightmarish campaign that players are unlikely to forget.
10 Mind Flayers Devour The Brains Of Their Victims
Whether one is discussing games, books, or movies, the entire genre of modern horror was founded by writer H. P. Lovecraft. Mind flayers are inspired by Lovecraft’s work, and are genuinely terrifying creatures.
Also known as Illithids, these alien entities have four tentacles around their mouths, which they use to suck a person’s brain right out of their skull. They devour not just the meat, but also the memories of a victim, and frequently subject people to truly horrific scientific experiments. Mind flayers also create other horrific aberrations, such as intellect devourers, which are humanoid brains ripped from a skull and given legs and psychic powers.
9 Hags Use Twisted Witchcraft & Make Dark Pacts
Magic is commonplace in D&D, so the idea of a woman using magic spells is hardly cause for concern. But hags are not mere witches— they are hideous crones who conjure twisted magic, making dark pacts that come at a terrible price.
Hags are not naturally born. Rather, when a hag steals a baby and eats it, it will then give birth to another hag a week later. The Monster Manuel lists three types of hags, which can be challenging for low level adventurers.
8 Zombie Clots Embody A Zombie Apocalypse
Zombies are classic monsters. These undead rot-covered corpses are raised from the grave with necromantic magic. Almost anything that lived, from the smallest halfling to the tallest cloud giant, can be resurrected as a zombie. But players have all seen zombies before, so it can be difficult to make them scary.
Introduced in Van Righten’s Guide to Ravenloft, the zombie clot is a massive towering titan composed of numerous zombies that have fused together, their rotted bodies combining to form a single mass. This is inspired by zombie apocalypse films like 2013’s World War Z and (to a lesser extent) Netflix’s Army of the Dead. Zombies may be scary, but a zombie clot is a lumbering apocalyptic colossus of undead corpses. There is just no comparing the two.
7 Carrionettes Are Scary Murder Puppets
Also from the book Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft, Carrionettes are sentient dolls or puppets, brought to life by the wish of an innocent child. But the toys are not content to live a life in service to a child’s sense of wonder, and they are willing to bloody their tiny hands in truly horrific ways. Alternatively, people might have been turned into toys by a dark lord or else the souls of the damned might have been placed inside artificial bodies.
Porcelain dolls, straw poppets, and an abandoned theater filled with marionettes all make for haunting encounters. Whatever the case, there are so many ways to incorporate creepy murder Muppets into a game.
6 Lycanthropes Are Bestial Shapechangers Who Lost Their Humanity
Werewolves. Werebears. Wererats. The line separating between humanoids from hungry beasts is a thin one, easily ripped to bloody shreds by the violent affliction of lycanthropy.
Often, tales of werewolves and their kin can take on a Beauty and the Beast approach, where a noble has been cursed and reduced to a monstrous nature. Maybe the beast has lost control and murdered their loved one under the influence of a full moon. The important thing is to remember that lycanthropes are not calculating cunning characters, but wild beasts driven to a frothing madness.
5 Treants Are Deadly Trees That Can Terrorize Any Haunted Forest
A haunted forest is an iconic horror setting. In the dark wood, all sorts of monsters and other horrors might lurk within the shadow of ancient oaks, or lurking in the twisted boughs of elder groves. But sometimes, the trees themselves are the deadliest force of all.
Treants are awakened trees. Such plantlike creatures need not be associated with horror campaigns, but they are a great way to remind players not to trust their surroundings.
4 A Nothic Is A Fallen Wizard Who Lost Their Humanity
The nothic is a terrifyingly weird creature, a twisted gnarled horror with one swollen eye bulging in its skull, its teeth and nails elongated into savage barbs.
A wizard who delved into arcane knowledge without being prepared might be twisted into the form of a nothic. Any wizard in an adventuring party could see a dark reflection of themselves in a nothic, a cautionary tale of what they might become if they aren’t careful.
3 Star Spawn Are Warped Horrors Corrupted By The Elder Evils
Elder Evils are the Lovecraftian godlike monstrosities that existed before creation. Some mortals have been foolish enough to worship or contact the Elder Evils, and have since been metaphysically altered, their minds broken, their bodies warped into grotesque nightmares of despoiled flesh. These are the Star Spawn.
Found in the book Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes, there are at least five different types of Star Spawn. The most powerful, the Star Spawn Larva Mage, was once a powerful spellcaster of some kind. Their entire body and mind have been replaced by a mass of writhing worms, held together in a humanoid mass beneath a mask and robes. Even if it is killed, its body breaks down into a swarm of insects that will reform, bringing it back to life if the swarm is not destroyed.
2 A Brain In A Jar Is A Nightmarish Fate
The brain in a jar is exactly what it sounds like: a living brain removed from its body and kept alive in a glass tank or jar of some kind. It is kept alive through both alchemy and necromancy, a perversion of life left to endure without any body or sensory organs.
As a being of pure mind, the brain in a jar has psionic powers that it uses to communicate and understand languages, as well as to fight against anyone who threatens it.
1 Vampires Are The Classic Bloodsucking Villains Of Gothic Horror
The classic image of a vampire lord ruling over peasants from within a castle is truly iconic, a bloodsucking fallen noble who sleeps in a coffin by day and takes flight across the countryside at night.
Vampires are not merely undead. They perpetuate their existence by feeding upon the very life force in people’s veins. These gothic bloodsuckers epitomize medieval feudalism, preying on weak peasants…and anyone foolish enough to stand against them. Including a vampire in a horror-themed adventure will really raise the stakes of the campaign.
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