Six Scary Monsters You Could Encounter in D&D (#139)

If you’re planning on running a horror-themed Dungeons & Dragons 5E one-shot or campaign for your adventuring party and you’re not sure where to start, then why not begin with the potential monster they could encounter? There are some absolutely iconic monsters across D&D history, but which ones will give your players the absolute creeps? 

Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft is expanding the many kinds of horror already found within Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition. The book dives deep into the lands of Ravenloft, exploring its many realms of tortured souls and giving players new subclasses, game rules and magic items to use in horror-themed campaigns and one-shots.

So, to round off the Spooky season, we’ve curated a list of the scariest monsters to include in your Dungeons & Dragons games that are guaranteed to give your players the heebie-jeebies:

The Bagman

The Bag of Holding has become an essential piece of adventuring party kit. Knowing that you’re going to come up against some enemies with a sizable amount of booty that you’ve got to take on the road with you somehow, makes the Bag of Holding almost invaluable. 

However, you do increase your chances of coming into contact with The Bagman - D&D’s version of the Slender Man– who is said to be a creature with the ability to hoist itself out of any Bag of Holding and potentially drag an adventurer back into the vast inner world of the Bag with him, leaving only trinkets in their place. 

According to Van Richten’s Guide, the Bagman is an urban legend within the fiction of Ravenloft. The story goes that an adventurer on the run abandoned his party and crawled inside a bag of holding, a portable pocket of extradimensional space that parties commonly tote around to hold their loot. Once inside, this hapless hero was unable to find his way out again. 

 “Over time,” reads a passage from Van Richten’s Guide, “the strange forces of this magical in-between place transformed the adventurer into a monstrous creature. Now, every night, the Bagman slips out from a random bag of holding. If he doesn’t find his home, he drags someone back into the bag with him.”

The only clue that the Bagman has been there? A missing person, and a strange trinket “from his hidden kingdom of lost junk.”

Apart from the chilling character art you can find in the D&D 5E sourcebook Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft, there are many reasons why this creature has us leaning toward purchasing the Handy Haversack over The Bag of Holding.

In a very ‘Bloody Mary’ twist, it is said that talking too close to an open Bag of Holding may prompt the Bagman to appear. Or, if you are looking for faster results, whispering the phrase “follow my voice” three times into the opening of the bag might just lure him your way. Though this skeletal, troll-like monster has quickly become a hit within the D&D community, you might be surprised to hear that it doesn’t actually have an official stat block. That hasn’t stopped homebrew stat blocks from emerging with some truly fear inducing results. 

Sibriex

Originally introduced in Fiendish Codex I: From the Abyss for D&D 3.5e, this demon roams The Abyss in search of as much forbidden lore as it can get its grubby little tubes on, leaving nothing but blood and bile and contamination in its wake. The best way to describe it is if the abyss is like your refrigerator and you pull out the drawer at the bottom and it's just full of junk, well if you pull the drug all the way out and then underneath the drawer, growing in that corner, that's what a Sibriex is in the abyss. 

This guy is made of several heads mashed together, pustules covering every inch of its skin stretched taut and sloping at the same time. This mass of teeth, chains and stringy bits is unfathomably intelligent – having been amassed over countless eons, of course it's super intelligent. And, for whatever reason, it is also extremely charismatic.

One of the worst things about this creature is that, due to its frankly baffling level of charisma, you’re going to struggle to have your party’s cleric bamf it away with a banishment spell. When you go near it, it is so possessed of the abyss that it actually can affect your body. It can actually mutate you, so you could be trapped by a Sibriex and it's presence is warping your body. And some of the transformations, they're all horrible, but some of them can actually make you more powerful, and some of them can make you really just a mess, so the Sibriex's are kind of, in a way, they're flesh warpers.

Last, but not least, the Sibriex leaves not only bile in its wake but its own babies as well. Okay, not babies but mini-Sibriexes known as ‘Rutterkins’. They are basically set loose into the Abyss by the Sibriex to find and devour intruders. 

Boneless

Boneless appeared in previous editions of D&D as skinless and boneless humanoids, though they've received a total redesign for 5e. 

The Boneless is pretty much what it sounds like, an undead sack of humanoid skin flopping and smacking its way along the ground, searching for vengeance or just adhering to the sinister whims of their master. This creature’s restless afterlife is usually brought about by some horrific death such as skinning someone alive or crushing them with brute strength. The fact that they move with inconsistent and jerking motions just adds to how unnerving they are.

Now, we all know that necromancers want a little more bang for their buck, and that’s why you will sometimes find one kind of zombie that looks more off than it usually might. That’s because the Boneless’ skin has just slopped off, but its bones are still moving. Two separate undead entities made from just one deceased soul. If that’s not enough to scare your socks off, maybe check to see if all the gaps in your home (or campsite) have been plugged up, because these troubled beings can compress themselves to fit through any gap that’s at least an inch wide. Waking up to a hug from these guys isn’t as wholesome as we’d like it to be, as it’s crushing embrace ability will leave you unable to breathe and taking damage each round it remains attached to you.

Swarm of Maggots

The maggot has a universal connotation of disease and despair, despite doctors having tried to use ‘maggot therapy’ to clear up wounds back in the day. You should probably keep this swarm away from your various adventuring lacerations though as these tiny beasts swarm upon any creature’s occupied space and commence their attack.

The swarm can occupy another creature's space and vice versa, and the swarm can move through any opening large enough for a Tiny maggot. Whilst these little nibbles aren’t the biggest threat, their constitution saving throw you have to make against them is. When failed, the constitution check will have characters contract a terrible disease that could potentially blind them, reduce their hit points or give them disadvantages on their future rolls. None of these are ideal. So, if you walk into a haunted manor and see maggots feasting on a corpse, maybe just leave them to it.

Oni

There are few creatures in Dungeons & Dragons as criminally underappreciated as the oni. It is one of D&D’s oldest monsters, first appearing as the “ogre mage” in Supplement 1: Greyhawk (1975) alongside the beholder and the mind flayer.

An oni is a creature from Japanese folklore, but like all mythological creatures that D&D borrows, the oni in the Monster Manual bears only a passing resemblance to its Japanese counterpart.

The Oni is the literal Bogeyman of the D&D universe, as it features in unsettling nursery rhymes that bother children and adults alike. One of the main driving forces behind the Oni’s motives is its seemingly unending hunger - and a particular taste for human children. Whispered voices and legends passed down for generations warn children against going out at night for fear of these hulking creatures. We have to mention that if you incorporate that into your campaign, then please do so with caution and open communication with your players. 

Something that is very off putting about the Oni is that, in stalking their prey, the Oni uses its shapeshifting magic to blend in with the people it is terrorizing, taking on the appearance of a humanoid or giant. When the time is right, the Oni reveals its true form and strikes with either its claws or massive glaive - a party could suddenly discover that their fighter or artificer is an Oni, but by that time it’s likely to be too late to do anything about it. This polymorphing tactic allows the Oni to blend in as a regular member of society, seeking to appear as harmless newcomers while all surveying to identify particularly tempting victims. When such a potential victim is identified, the Oni begins devising plans to lead them away and devour them. It’s basically a supreme manipulator with no conscience.

As distant relatives of Ogres, their real forms have large, hulking bodies and stand over most humanoids. Their skin is a deep blue or sickly green that add to the Oni’s demonic appearance. Long, black claws extend like daggers from each of the Oni’s fingers. Dark and matted hair hangs low from their head and only draws more attention to the ivory horns on the Oni’s forehead.

But if only one thing could be chosen as what is the most terrifying part of the Oni’s appearance, it might have to be their face. Their large eyes are dark as night with pupils that are strikingly white in contrast. With their signature smile, the Oni’s large mouth reveals dark and jagged teeth and the stench of death.

The Oni’s magic primarily focuses on its ability to stalk and ensnare victims. Oh, and did I mention that they can fly?

Chain Devil

A lot of the fearsome creatures on this list commit heinous acts because they’re under someone else’s control, they’re a shadow of their former selves or because they’re just hungry. But this literal fiend does bad things out of pure malice, with a desire to inflict pain and suffering on those they guard. 

The Chain Devil has been an exciting part of the infernal hierarchy for many editions, first appearing all the way back in 2e! Luckily, you would probably only come across this particular baddie is you were to venture down to the Nine Hells and take a vacation at Jangling Hiter, the City of Chain located on the third layer of Hell. Here is where you’ll find the Chain Devil, also known as the Kyton. These creatures discovered their passion for torture and pain, inflicting both with a zeal that rivals their skill.

The introduction of the Kyton is as frightening as it is disturbing, a horrific being that may have once been human but is now something from your worst nightmare. Their entire humanoid body is covered in chains, making it difficult to discern their anatomy, though they typically keep their throat and mouth free of chains, and sometimes a single eye to glare at you with. What parts of their body you do see often take the guise of a loved one, but no one is quite sure if this is merely an illusion, the Kyton is capable of shapechanging, or some other horrific effect meant to unnerve their victims. This particularly monster does bring up the point that sadness can be extremely scary when running an RPG. It might be difficult to pull off, but it will be something that sticks with your players for a long time.

You'll always know a Kyton is nearby when you hear the light jangling noise the chains they wear make as they approach. When you hear this sound, fighting the Kyton is inevitable, not a choice. Kytons fight by swinging both their arms, using up to four chains within sight (remembering that they are covered in the damn things) as weapons that they can animate to be under their control. These chains are covered in nasty barbs and spikes, so they will hurt if they hit you. They then wrap you up in the chains and slowly crush and pierce your body with barbs and spikes they can cause to suddenly grow along the chains.