What's even more terrifying than your typical 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dungeons & Dragons monster? How about two of them?! Jokes aside, there are some creatures pairings that work together so well they're worth being used in tandem more often. These creature pairings have features or abilities that combo well with one another, allowing the monster duo to become a sum greater than its parts.
Hopefully, the monster pairings provided here spark some ideas of your own for how to make the most out of certain monsters. For example, placing a group of grapple-loving fire giants inside a boiling pit of lava that the players must cross. If that's not deadly enough for you, maybe one of these pairings will be.
10 ♑ Druids And Goblins
Let's start off with an encounter suitable for very low-level characters, your players will learn to respect goblins if you put a druid among them. The key here is to combine the druid's Entangle spell with the ranged attacks and Nimble Escape feature of goblins. Entangle turns a 20-foot square within 90 feet of the caster into difficult terrain.
On top of that, creatures inside of the area of the spell have to succeed on a Strength saving throw or become restrained by the spell's grasping vines. Once the player characters are 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:locked down, your goblin a🎃rchers can shoot them full of holes from the safety of trees or other obstructions. The Nimble Escape feature also allows your goblins to hide as a bonu🌱s action on their turns, potentially providing their next attack with advantage.
9 🦹 Dire Wolves And H𒅌obgoblins
Speaking of attacking with advantage, this creature pairing can result in all of your monsters benefitting from it. The Pack Tactics of dire wolves provides them with advantage on attacks as long as one of the wolves' allies is within five feet of the target. For instance, a dire wolf with a hobgoblin rider would always benefit from this feature.
In addition, the bite attack of dire wolves has a chance to knock their target prone. Then, your hobgoblin rider can 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:swing with its sword, potentially at advantage if the target was knocked prone, and also benefit from its Martial Advantage feature which adds 2d6 damage to a weapon attack made against a creature who is within five feet of a hobgoblin's ally. Whose a good dire wolf? You are. You are!
8 Perytons And Bugbears With Reꦓach 𝕴
Here's a pair that might be a little less common, but it's definitely deadly nonetheless. Perytons are flying stag-birds with a penchant for humanoid flesh. They also have the amazing Flyby feature which makes them immune to opportunity attacks from creatures they fly past.
Combine that with a bugbear rider equipped with a reach weapon such as a halberd, pike, or glaive, and you've got an aerial attack force that's immune to opportunity attacks. Additionally, the bugbear's Brute feature and the peryton's Dive Attack feature provide both creatures with even more damage on their attacks. Yeah, that's going to leave a mark.
7 ℱ Mages And Sahuagin 🌠
Sahuagin would likely be found in the company of priests more often than mages, but you could easily reskin the mage stat block as a sahuagin warlock to make this work perfectly flavor-wise. The idea here is to use the mage's Magic Missile or Fireball spell in order to give all of your sahuagin advantage on their attacks against every PC (player character).
The sahuagin's Blood Frenzy features gives them advantage against any target that doesn't have all of its hit points. Seeing as Magic Missile cannot miss and Fireball deals half damage even on a successful saving throw, either of these spells will activate Blood Frenzy against every player character. Adventurers are back on the menu, boys!
6 Boneclaws And Mezzoloth꧋s
Both of these strange monsters might be conscripted into service by a powerful spellcaster, especially one of the lich variety. The key combo between these two creatures is the use of the mezzoloth's Darkness spell alongside the boneclaw's Shadow Jump and Shadow Stealth. Darkness creates a 15-foot sphere of darkness within 60 feet of the mezzoloth.
Meanwhile, the boneclaw's Shadow Jump lets it teleport from one are of dim light or darkness to another, and it can even bring a creature it's currently grappling along with it. In addition, the teleport has a chance of dealing a high amount of necrotic damage to anyone within five feet of the boneclaw. To make matters worse, the mezzoloth also has a built-in teleport. That's one way to split a party.
5 ൲ Bodaks And Venom Trolls
The bodak is a te🍃rrible undead foe that deals damage to creatures for simply being within 30 feet of it using its Aura of Annihilation feature. Venom trolls, on the other hand, are trolls that have become suffused with venom thanks to a mishap with their innate regenerative abilities. This venom suffusion provides the troll with the Venom Splash feature, which causes each creature within five feet of it to take poison damage any 🐲time the venom troll takes non-psychic damage.
The combo here is pretty self-explanatory as the bodak's Aura damages the venom troll and nearby characters, triggering the troll's Venom Splash feature, which then damages nearby characters even further. It's worth mentioning that you'll probably need your troll to grapple opposing characters to take full advantage of this combo, so don't be afraid to give your venom troll proficiency in athletics.
4 ✨ Blue Dragons And Shambling Mounds 💮
This is likely a pairing that would never occur naturally, but it's easy enough to reflavor the shambling mound as a shambling tumbleweed that would exist in the deserts of a blue dragon's domain. The plan here is quite simple. Shambling mounds have a Lightning Absorption feature that causes them to regain hit points equal to the amount of lightning damage they take.
As it just so happens,𓆉 blue dragons have a devastating breath weapon attack that deals an absurd amount of lightning damage. This is doubly deadly due to the fact that shambling mounds can engulf creatures they attack, consuming their targets entirely and forcing them to spend their actions attacking the mound or trying to escape it. Good luck to any players faced with this one.
3 ꦛ Beholders And Gelatinous Cubes 𒊎
This one might be a tad confusing at first, but it all comes down to the beholder's telekinetic ray. Typically, the telekinetic ray doesn't have too much of a purpose as it only restrains the target until the beholder's next turn and allows the beholder to move an enemy hit with it up to 30 feet.
However, if there are a bunch of gelatinous cubes lying around, the beholder can use its telekinetic ray to drag a target into one of the gelatinous cubes. This will subject the PC to the cube's Engulf feature, which will likely end up with the character inside of the cube.
A creature inside of the cube is restrained until they can get out with a successful Strength check and takes 6d6 acid damage at the beginning of each of the cube's turns with no save. Did anyone bring aloe vera?
2 Liches🍎 And Undead ꦑ
This is a 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:classic combination but one that still bears mentioning. The combo here is the lich's damage over time cloudkill spell used in tandem with all undead's innate immunity to poison damage. Once the lich has dropped cloudkill on a couple of party members, its minions are then instructed to grapple the players and hold them inside of it.
Of course, undead with high strength scores are the best for this purpose. In case you weren't aware, the area of a Cloudkill is heavily obscured. This means that creatures inside of it are almost incapable of making attacks against creatures outside of it since they are unable to see them. It's a classic for a reason.
1 🦂 Red Dragons And Iron Golems
Essentially the supercharged version of blue dragons and shambling mounds, red dragons and iron golems works exactly the same way. Iron golems have a Fire Absorption featuᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚre that works just like Lightning Absorption except it heals the golem from fire damage.
Whether you're running a low level game for newer players or a high level adventure for veterans, there's pairings on this list for all levels of D&D. Enjoy!