Caves are a much more prominent setting in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dungeons & Dragons than you miಞght expect, especially as you and your party🎐 dive in to explore or to clear it out for local towns. Surprisingly, a lot of monsters like to make caves their home, and part of that reason is because it's much easier to corner prey in a cave.

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Being cornered in a cave forces parties to get creative and think of ways out, whether it's taking down the monster that's cornered them or befriending it is anybody's guess. T♏here's a lot you can do with caves and even more monsters that you can use in them.

Updated on March 26 2025, by Tallis Spalding: With the release of the updated 2025 Monster Manual, some information has changed, while other monsters received slightly more expanded lore or stat blocks. With all three core rulebooks out, players and dungeon masters can easily get to work crafting adventures and, in some cases, exploring caves for any mysterious loot, challenging enemies, or missing people the party has been charted to find. As such, it’s worth taking a look at what monsters might fit best in as cave monsters with this updated setting and rules.

14 🌟 Stone Giant ♈

Challenge Rating 7

Dungeons & Dragons two stone giants, one kneeling and the other weilding a club, by Robson Michel
Stone Giants by Robson Michel

Given that Stone Giants live in mountains and caves, it only makes sense that you’d find them hiding out or setting up their homes while exploring. The chances of a Stone Giant being immediately antagonistic are low, so long as you remain respectful and don’t interfe🐠re in their affairs.

Should your party choose to be a pest, there’s little doubt that a Stone Giant could easily crush everything and every☂one in their path with their 23 Strength Sco▨re, so playing nice is probably for the best, should your party value their li𒁃ves.

13 Roper

Challenge Rating 5

Dungeons & Dragons, A roper holding a kobold by Brian Valeza.
Roper by Brian Valeza

Ropers are going to be more common the closer that you come🐻 to the Underdark. Easily mistaken for rock formations and stalagmites or stalactites, you can stumble across a Roper and not even realize you’re in dange൲r until it’s too late.

These are creatures that wait for their prey to come to them, and t﷽hey’ll definitely keep your party on guard as they venture into the unexplored depths of a cave. Perhaps you could൲ even offer your party a few warnings with bones strewn about or the cave feeling uncannily full of life despite its empty appearance.

12 Peryton

Challenge Rating 2

Dungeons & Dragons, A peryton attacking an adventurer in front of a relief of a peryton.
Peryton by Alejandro Pacheco

Every predator bird has its chosen prey, and for the Peryton, that chosen prey are humans and elves. This stag-headed avian is, frankly, terrifying to look at and can easily catch your🌌 party off guard, given that its shadow looks like a humanoid – tricking them into possibly preparing for a fight with a human-like creature rather than its monstrous self.

In o♋rder to show off this feature of the Peryton, they work excellently in caves since it’s more than likely that your party will be using a light source to look around.

11 Kobolds

Challenge Rating 1/8 to 1/4

Dungeons & Dragons image shwoing a group of kobolds.
Kobolds by Brian Valeza

Kobolds are tricksters and little scamps who ♉work in pacts to stay safe as they venture through just about any terrain. Setting up camp in a cave works perfectly for these groups because it not only provides the safety that they may crave but also gives them a space to set up their workshops and put their ingenuity to work so they can protect themselves and their group.

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Plus, a cave works as a great place for them to set up traps so they can lure in their prey or potential predators. If you want to populate your campaign or one shot 🦩q𝓰uickly and easily, Kobolds are a great monster to use.

10 Behirs

Challenge Rating 11

Dungeons & Dragons, a behir ready to spew lightning by Andrea Piparo.
Behir by Andrea Piparo

Although the name is similar to Bears, the only thing that Behirs and B✨ears have in common is ꦓthat they dwell in caves. Behirs are much more dangerous, using their bodies to constrict prey and swallow them whole.

They can even deal a dangerously high amount ꦿof damage at 12d10, with a challenge rating of 11; This definitely isn't a creature that you would want your party to run across while cave diving. They have a +7 to stealth, which means there's a good chance they'll catch your party off guard regardless of their huge size category.

9 🐎 Giant Spiders And Driders

Challenge Rating 1 to 6

Drider by Jodie Muir, Dungeons & Dragons, A drider holding a sword, ready to be attacked.
Drider by Jodie Muir

Drow and spiders are a cla🐽ssic combination and this is even more true when you throw a Drider and Giant Spiders into the mix. In traditional Dungeons &✃; Dragons lore, Driders are Drow who have managed to displease Lolth in some way and, as such, have been mutated into a horrifying half-spider half-drow form.

They're often found on the outskirts of Drow society, which means that if you find one of these monsters in a cave there's a good chance that your party is on the brink of entering the Underdark. Go ahead and throw in some Giant Spiders for a bit 🐬more creep factor, too - all of you Arachnophobic players are certainꦉ to love that.

8 Basilisk

Challenge Rating 3

Dungeons & Dragons, a basilisk against a stone wall by Brian Valeza
Basilisk by Brian Valeza

Basilisks are perfect cave monsters and can provide an even better atmosphere thanks to their Petrifying Gaze ability. They only have a challenge rating of three, but that's perfe𒅌ctly reasonable, given that they're ra🦹rely found alone.

The main threatening point of Basilisks is their abi♉lity to Petrify their tarജgets, but given that you only need to make a DC 12 Constitution save you'll probably be all right. The real terror of these creatures comes from walking into a cave and seeing never-ending statues.

It's worth noting, though, that you'll probably see the Basilisk befor💞e it sees you.

7 Cloakers

Challenge Rating 8

Dungeons & Dragons, a cloaker in the air by Alex Stone.
Cloaker by Alex Stone

Cloakers are exceptionally stealthy creatures lingering in the areas of caves that you may rarely think to look at - the roof. Even if you're familiar with Cloake𓄧rs, they're almost indistinguishable from lumps of leather when they're motionless, and in the dark, it's going to be very hard to see that dark leather.

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Considering that bright light tends to nulli💜fy some of its abilities, it's unlikely that you'll find these creatures close to the entrances of caves, so you'll need to have your party head pretty fa♏r in before they'll become a genuine threat.

6 Fomorians

Challenge Rating 8

Dungeons & Dragons, Fomorians attacking an underdark settlement by Daarken
Fomorians by Daarken

Fomorians are probably going to 🐬be the closest thing you'll get to an official Cave Giant or Cave Troll in Dungeons & Dragons 5e. They're giant adjacent creatures who have been deformed by a curse, which has led t🃏hem to live apart from other giants.

Fomorians can only see with Darkvision and are generally found underground and in mountains. Like many other cave-dwelling creatures, they're more than likely to ☂end up around the Underdark. With a CR of 8, these aren't the most dangerous giants to find, but they're certainly not a walk in the park.

5 Troglodytes ﷽ 🌺

Challenge Rating 1/4

Dungeons & Dragons, A troglodyte hanging from the walls looking at two adventurers by Brian Valeza
Troglodyte by Brian Valeza

Make sure that you don't reek when you enter a cave, lest you run into a Tr𒈔oglodyte. These creatures function mainly off of scent and their Darkvision💦, living further away from established societies.

They will hunt down weaker parties and drag them back into their lair to feast, so if you see one, there's probably more waiting. If you can befriend them, however, jump at the opportunity because Troglodytes are incredibly lo🅘yal to their friends, treating them like their own family members. It's rare to befriend them, but it's not an impossible feat.