Challenge Rating 5 to 10 (hard encounters)
_With skin stretched like vellum over wizened limbs, a desiccated humanoid form clad in splendid regalia emerges from a funerary tower. Suddenly, the air becomes so dry as to make the eyes sting and lips crack. The imposing figure has yellow point...
_Within a blinding wave of heat and glare strides a long-limbed, misshapen form. The creature scorches everything in its path as it strides forward._ What most people recall most vividly from an encounter with a malakbel is the blinding light an...
_Covered with dark green bark and twining tendrils, this longlimbed humanoid exudes a palpable aura of horror._ **Melding of Flesh and Vine.** Vine lords are formed from the union of full-grown Open Game License
_These beautiful, slim women ride on large deer, their hair the color of spring grass, skin like polished wood, and eyes as gray as a coming storm._ **Dryad Cousins.** The vila are kin to the dryads. Like their cousins, they serve as protectors ...
_Often called elephant centaurs by humans and gnolls, loxodas are massive creatures that combine the torso of an ogre and the body of an elephant. Hating and fearing all strangers, they live in open plains and scrubland._ **Nomadic Families.** L...
_While a huginn’s face resembles that of a great raven or crow, it lacks wings and has a much more solid frame. Most are pitch black, although a smattering have white feathers and red flecks._ The ravenfolk are an avian race of scoundrels, schem...
_Lounging on large river rocks or within swirling eddies untouched by the rush of the current, these breathtakingly fey call plaintively to travelers and knights errant. They seek nothing less than the last breath of a drowning man._ **Death to ...
_Ravenalas guard tropical forests and watch after local flora and fauna. Their heads are crowned by long-stemmed, green-paddled fronds and spiked seed pods, and their dangling arms end in hooked wooden talons._ **Leafy Advisors.** Tribal humanoi...
_These great cats pad noiselessly, while tendrils of smoke drift off their sleek gray coats, leaving misty whorls in their wake. Their eyes shift from dull, pallid orbs to pitch black slits. Their lips curl up into a fang-revealing smile as their ...
_The curtain of rippling colors assumes a humanoid form. Its kaleidoscope body shifts and glitters with mesmeric patterns._ Sometimes known as “light elves” because they assume a vaguely elfish shape, these enigmatic shapeshifters make their hom...
_Malformed like a goblin, this creature bears one large, strange eye in the middle of its face. It wears dark and dirty rags, and its spindly claws and arms match its hunched torso._ **Ferocious Attitude.** Likho are scrappy fighters; they weake...
Medium Humanoid, CR 5. From Tome of Beasts.
_A great knot of scabrous rats scrabbles together as a mass, with skulls, bones, and flesh entangled in the whole. Teeth, eyes, and fur all flow as a single disturbing rat swarm walking on two legs._ **Fused at the Tail.** A rat king forms when ...
Medium Humanoid, CR 7. From Tome of Beasts.
_The eye sockets in a large, ornate death mask suddenly ignite with a golden radiance. With the creak of long-unused limbs, this towering figure in ancient armor raises a khopesh and scepter once more._ **Tomb Servants.** Ushabtis were placed in...
Medium Humanoid, CR 6. From Tome of Beasts.
_These hideous, reeking creatures resemble toothless, cadaverous hags, their large eyes glowing with unearthly green light, and their fingers tipped with ragged claws._ **Twisted Nymphs.** Qwyllion (the name means “polluter” in Old Elvish) are n...
_A mass of shadows and cloudstuff, never touching the ground, a shadow beast may at first look harmless—except for its clawed hands and the glint of its jagged teeth._ **Called from the Void.** Shadow beasts are thought to be the result of shado...
Large Fiend, CR 7. From Tome of Beasts.
Large Giant, CR 7. From Tome of Beasts.
_This ancient animal-headed pillar is engraved with weathered symbols from ancient empires._ **Animal Headed.** Possessed pillars are carved from enormous blocks of stone to look like animal-headed gods of ancient pantheons, or sometimes demonic...
_This twisted, unnatural beast looks like the unholy union of squid and spider. Its shell-covered core has six small rubbery legs, peculiar antennae, and six tentacles around a squid’s enormous beak. Unlike krakens and giant squid, krake spawn can...
_This winged woman’s face is wreathed in a headdress of feathers; her luminous eyes and aquiline nose lend beauty to her feral demeanor. Her sharp, taloned feet seem even more inhuman by comparison._ **Harpy Queens.** An owl harpy is a queen amo...
_The oasis appears as an idyllic desert respite, offering water, shade, and even perhaps edible fruit and nuts in the trees above._ **Mockmire.** The oozasis, or oasis ooze, is also known as a mockmire in other climates. It mimics a peaceful, pr...