We talked briefly about some of our favorite monster combos in giving our “wisest” answers to the 7 Questions Dungeon Masters Ask. But we came away feeling like those barely scratched the surface. So I reached back to my InQuest Magazine days and went digging for monster combos like they were Magic cards.
While I didn’t find any Channel-Fireballs, here are 9 monster combos for D&D 5E that will give your players a lot to think about.
WARNING: Use these combos carefully! There are a lot of dirty tricks aouruealing loopholes in here that could well exceed the book CR value of your encounter. If they accidentally turn into a TPK, don’t say we didn’t warn you.
1. Hobgoblins and Dire Wolves
This works with any of the Pack Tactics monsters from wolves to hell hounds, but Dire Wolves are a good place to start.
Pack tactics gives the wolf advantage whenever an ally is within 5 ft of its target. Then, the wolf’s bite attempts to knock the target prone, which gives the Hobgoblin advantage on a melee weapon attack in return, and Martial Advantage lets the Hobgoblin hit for 3d6 bonus damage whenever they’re within 5 ft of an ally.
It’s a doggy dance of death for first-tier parties.
2. Harpies and Slime
Harpies are nasty for several reasons, but the luring song can draw adventurers into any number of perils. There are a lot of traps and monsters you could put between the Harpy and her victim, but a pool of Black Pudding is effectively both! Not only will the Pudding attack when the adventurers stumble into it, it’ll start melting their gear as well and softening them up for the Harpy to finish off later.
3. Umber Hulks and Water Weirds
The Umber Hulk’s confusion can have a lot of great effects, but one of the most common is to send its victim running in a random direction – often directly into an obstacle or trap.
If that obstacle is a pool with a Water Weird, the victim now has to contend with another monster, in the water, while shaking off the Umber Hulk’s confusion.
This works great with a lot of traps, too. Or even just the holes the Umber Hulk jumped out of.
4. Undead and Gas Spores
Gas Spores look superficially like beholders, but when they take a single point of damage, they explode and everything in a 20 ft radius takes 3d6 poison damage. You know who doesn’t care? Undead, because they’re immune to poison.
What I love about this combo is its scalability. With a few Zombies and one or two gas spores, it’s a low-level encounter. With a Vampire chasing the PCs through a maze of gas spores, it’s a party!
5. Carrion Crawlers and Intellect Devourers
The Intellect Devourer is a nightmare with its Body Thief ability, which literally lets it eat a PC’s brain and take over the body. But that only works if the target is incapacitated. The Devourer does have a way to incapacitate on its own with Devour Intellect, but that takes a failed save and rolling over the victim’s intelligence on a 3d6 (which is hard to do when players stats are generally 4d6, drop the lowest, plus ASIs).
Adding a Carrion Crawler, Chuul or other paralyzer to the encounter makes it a lot scarier. The Carrion Crawler’s tentacles paralyze (which also incapacitates) on a hit unless the victim rolls a DC 13 saving throw. Miss that and the PC is a brain buffet for the Intellect Devourer.
6. Darkmantles and a Boneclaw
The Boneclaw is a terrifying monster from Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes with enormous claws and 15 ft reach, but it’s deadliest ability is the Shadow Jump: Each creature it chooses within 5 ft takes 5d12 necrotic damage and the Boneclaw teleports 60 ft – it can even bring a creature it’s grappling with it.
The only thing limiting this ability is that it must be done in dim light or darkness, and that’s where the Darkmantles come in. These simple 1/2 CR monsters can cast a Darkness Aura once per day and hold it for up to 10 minutes. That’s more than enough time for the Boneclaw to eviscerate a party. (And, of course, Cloakers, Drow, many other more dangerous creatures and simple night time could provide that Darkness, too.)
7. Bronze Dragon and Shambling Mounds
What self-respecting Bronze Dragon doesn’t guard its lair with a garden of Shambling Topiaries? With the Mound’s ability to absorb lighting, every time the Dragon breath weapons, it also heals this beefy, CR5, 136-HP monster.
The Shambling Mound combos with Blue Dragons and Behir as well, but as Darwin Smith pointed out on our Facebook page, the Bronze Dragon is most likely to be in a Shambling Mound environment.
8. Red Dragon and Iron Golems
Taking our last combo to the epic tier, no Ancient Red Dragon’s lair would be complete without a series of CR 16 Iron Golems that can absorb its fire. Set up a nice entry hall lined with Iron Golems and burn the party while healing your guard in 26d6 increments! The Golems also add another damage type (poison) to the encounter for PCs who came ready for the heat.
9. Clay Golem and Gelatinous Cube
Three of the four golems in the Monster Manual have a type of element absorption, and the Flesh Golem works just as well with a Bronze Dragon, Blue Dragon or Behir as the Shambling Mound. So, let’s look at how we can use the final absorbing golem a little differently.
Clay Golems absorb acid, which also happens to be the damage type of a Gelatinous Cube. G-Cubes pick up everything in a dungeon, much like a big vacuum cleaner, and slowly dissolve them inside it crystalline murk.
But for a Clay Golem, that would be like a mud bath. So you can have a Clay Golem riding around the dungeon engulfed inside a Gelatinous Cube, constantly healing, only to escape when it’s time to smash somebody … or maybe shove them inside its buddy, the Cube.
Have a Combo, Leave a Combo
Those are nine of our best monster combos so far, but there are a lot more to find in the game. Try out the ones we’ve listed here, and, if you have any combos we haven’t thought of, tell us about them in the comments below.
Yeth hounds plus harpies. https://www.themonstersknow.com/yeth-hound-tactics/