D&D: Five Monsters that’ll make things Eldritch
Sometimes you just want to make things eldritch and creepy. When that happens? Reach for one of these five monsters.
Look, I get it. Sometimes you want to make things eldritch. You need that lingering sense of unease that pervades the mind like an itch you can’t scratch. That feeling you get at 4am when you know you should be sleeping, but instead you need to keep doomscrolling until you’ve been satisfied enoough to pass into a stupor.
Or maybe you actually go to sleep at night. I don’t know. But either way, when you want to reach for creepy ancient horrors, D&D has got you covered. And these five monsters will make any encounter feel otherworldly.
Aboleth
Aboleths are one of the first monsters in the manual. They’re also among the first monsters in D&D, at least, according to the lore. These ancient psychic fish monsters predate the gods themselves, if you believe their “did you know” entry.
And they capture that ancient evil feeling pretty well. They slowly corrupt a society, turning people into weird aquatic creatures, using mind control, and enacting schemes that might take centuries to come to pass. Plus they live in the water, where everything is 25% creepier by default.
Star Spawn
Star Spawn take the feeling in another direction entirely. These are beings from the darkness between the stars, influenced by the elder evils who call the void their home. When you want people to have discovered some foul truth that twists their flesh as it twists their desires, Star Spawn are a great way to do exactly that.
Plus they work together pretty well in a team.
Eldritch Lich
Eldritch Liches, in addition to having eldritch right in the name, are liches who became liches not through the traditional means, but rather by allowing a Great Old One to implant a starborn parasite into their body. This alien parasite bestows undeath upon them, and the Eldritch Lich feeds its parasite in the form of all sorts of living things, gaining terrible powers and a deathless existence in the process.
Daelkyr
The Daelkyr are beings from Xoriat, the plane of madness, in Eberron. These are eldritch beings on par with demigods if not worse. There are a few who are named, like Belashyrra, from whom all Beholders are descended, whose many eyes permeate Eberron’s realities, and whose aberrant form is hidden beneath a strange, eldritch beauty. If you want a creepy foe who may or may not be your campaign’s main villain, the Daelkyr are a perfect well to draw from.
Kraken
Of course, sometimes, you just want a big evil monster. And the Kraken is as eldritch as they come. First of all, the Kraken is ancient and evil. It fought with gods and titans. And it has the power of storms, which it can bestow upon its disciples like some kind of malevolent cult-heading entity. which is exactly what makes the Kraken a perfect eldritch enemy.
