In the Dungeons & Dragons

Dungeons & Dragons

Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...

fantasy

Fantasy

Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...

 role-playing game

Role-playing game

A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...

, magical beast is a type of creature, or "creature type

Creature Type (Dungeons & Dragons)

In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, creature types are rough categories of creatures which determine the way game mechanics affect the creature. In the 3rd edition and related games, there are between thirteen and seventeen creature types. Creature type is determined by the...

". Magical beasts are similar to animals in many ways, but usually have a higher intelligence, and possess supernatural or extraordinary abilities.

In 3rd and 3.5 editions, all magical beasts have darkvision out to 60 feet as well as low-light vision. As a group, they have no other special abilities or immunities.

In 4th edition, magical beasts are non-humanoid creatures with humanlike intelligence.

Magical beasts in the Monster Manual

• Ankheg
  Ankheg
  An ankheg , also spelled anhkheg, is a type of fictional monster in the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game. An ankheg is described as a monstrous arthropod magical beast. The ahnkheg was created by artist Erol Otus and first appeared in Dragon magazine in 1977...
  
  
• The aranea is a spider-like magical beast that lives in temperate forests. Its natural form is a spider of monstrous size, with two small humanlike arms below its mandibles. An aranea is usually neutral in alignment. It has the ability to change its shape into that of a humanoid, or a spider-humanoid hybrid. It has the poison and webspinning ability of a spider, as well as the ability to cast spells like a sorcerer
  Sorcerer (Dungeons & Dragons)
  The sorcerer is a playable character class in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. A sorcerer is weak in melee combat, but a master of arcane magic, the most generally powerful form of D&D magic. Sorcerers' magical ability is innate rather than studied...
  
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• Basilisk
  Basilisk (Dungeons & Dragons)
  In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game, the basilisk is a reptilian magical beast that turns creatures to stone by meeting their gaze.-Publication history:...
  
  
• Behir
  Behir
  In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, the behir is a huge serpentine magical beast.-Publication history:The behir first appeared in the first edition adventure module, The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth , and was reprinted in the Monster Manual II .The behir appeared for the second...
  
  
• Bulette
  Bulette
  A bulette or landshark is a fictional heavily-scaled carnivorous monster from the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, a huge ravenous creature that burrows through the earth and attacks unsuspecting victims from below...
  
  
• Blink dog
  Blink dog
  The blink dog is a fictional magical beast from the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, an intelligent dog that has a limited teleportation ability known as Blinking. The blink dog was created for D&D, and appeared in every edition from the first supplement to version 4.0...
  
  
• Chimera
  Chimera (Dungeons & Dragons)
  In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game, the chimera is a large magical beast that appears to be an amalgam of several different creatures...
  
  
• Cockatrice
  Cockatrice (Dungeons & Dragons)
  In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game, the cockatrice is a small avian magical beast. Any creature that a cockatrice bites can be permanently turned to stone.A cockatrice is not particularly intelligent, and is always neutral in alignment....
  
  
• Darkmantle
  Darkmantle
  In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game, a darkmantle is a strange magical beast which lives in caves.-Publication history:The darkmantle first appeared in the third edition Monster Manual , and in the 3.5 revised Monster Manual...
  
  
• The digester is a velociraptor
  Velociraptor
  Velociraptor is a genus of dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur that existed approximately 75 to 71 million years ago during the later part of the Cretaceous Period. Two species are currently recognized, although others have been assigned in the past. The type species is V. mongoliensis; fossils...
  
  -like magical beast (though it only has two limbs), with a bony head sporting short tendrils. It has a serrated spine and skinny lower legs. As can be guessed from its name, the Digester is an eating machine that attacks with acid. When it is hungry, it looks for a likely target in its forest or scrubland home, and then rushes forward, squirting a gout of acid from a tube in the top of its skull. The prey is effectively reduced to soup, and the Digester drinks. If the victim is not dead but the digester has used all its acid, it attacks with its legs until it can squirt acid again. When it does not wish to eat, which is rarely, it lays down in the grass and avoids other creatures. Though sometimes solitary, they also sometimes group in packs of three to six.
• Displacer beast
  Displacer beast
  A displacer beast is a fictional creature from the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.-Publication history:The displacer beast was inspired by the coeurl, a feline-like creature from the 1939 science fiction story "Black Destroyer" by A. E...
  
  
• Dragonne
• Ethereal marauder
  Ethereal marauder
  In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, an ethereal marauder is a magical beast with abilities similar to ethereal filchers and phase spiders.-Publication history:...
  
  
• Frost Worm
  Frost worm
  In the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game the frost worm is a fictional magical beast that lives in cold and ice filled places.-Publication history:...
  
  
• Giant eagle
  Giant eagle (Dungeons & Dragons)
  In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, the giant eagle is a magical beast. As its name fairly obviously implies, it is a giant version of a regular eagle. It is also a lot more intelligent...
  
  
• Giant owl
• Girallon
  Girallon
  In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, a girallon is a magical beast.-Publication history:The girallon appeared in the third edition Monster Manual , and in the 3.5 revised Monster Manual ....
  
  
• Gorgon
  Gorgon (Dungeons & Dragons)
  In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game, the gorgon is a magical beast that resembles a bull, covered in dusky metallic scales.-Publication history:...
  
  
• Gray Render
  Gray render
  In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, the gray render is a magical beast born from various terran substances present in swamps and marshes.-Publication history:...
  
  
• Griffon
  Griffon (Dungeons & Dragons)
  In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game, the griffon is a powerful, majestic and highly intelligent magical beast.-Publication history:The griffon was based upon the griffons of various mythologies.-Dungeons & Dragons :...
  
  
• Hellwasp swarm
• Hippogriff
  Hippogriff (Dungeons & Dragons)
  In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, a hippogriff is a magical beast based upon the hippogriff of various mythologies. It is part eagle and part horse, and sometimes regarded as part griffon and part horse...
  
  
• Hydras
  Hydra (Dungeons & Dragons)
  In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game, the hydra is a reptilian magical beast that has anywhere from five to twelve heads.-Dungeons & Dragons :...
  
  
• Kraken
  Kraken (Dungeons & Dragons)
  In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, the kraken is a large, ocean-dwelling magical beast. It is akin to a squid the size of a house. It is almost 80 feet long and 60 feet tall and wide. Its body is similar to that of a squid, with a ring of tentacles surrounding a mouth connected to...
  
  
• Krenshar
  Krenshar
  -Publication history:The krenshar appeared in the third edition Monster Manual , and in the 3.5 revised Monster Manual .The krenshar appears in the game's fourth edition in Monster Manual 2 .-Description:...
  
  
• Lamia
  Lamia (Dungeons & Dragons)
  In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, the lamia is a magical beast. The lamia was introduced in the first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game's original Monster Manual sourcebook...
  
  
• Lammasu
  Lammasu (Dungeons & Dragons)
  In the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, the lammasu are a race of good magical beasts.-Publication history:They are based on lammasu of Mesopotamian mythology, being winged, leonine champions of good....
  
  
• Manticore
  Manticore (Dungeons & Dragons)
  In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, the manticore is a large magical beast with the body of a lion, dragon wings, and a somewhat humanoid head...
  
  
• Owlbear
  Owlbear
  The owlbear is a type of fictional monster for player characters to encounter in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game.An owlbear is depicted as a cross between a bear and an owl, which "hugs" like a bear and attacks with its beak, and was considered a magical beast in the game's third...
  
  
• Pegasus
  Pegasus (Dungeons & Dragons)
  In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game, a pegasus is a magical beast based upon the creature of Greek mythology and Roman mythology.-Publication history:The pegasus first appeared in the Dungeons & Dragons "white box" set ....
  
  
• Phase Spider
  Phase spider
  In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, a phase spider is a magical beast akin to a predatorial version of the ethereal filcher.-Publication history:The phase spider first appeared in the original Greyhawk supplement ....
  
  
• Purple Worm
  Purple worm
  In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, the purple worm is a magical beast and a classic D&D monster.-Publication history:The purple worm was one of the earliest creatures introduced in the D&D game.-Dungeons & Dragons :...
  
  
• Remorhaz
  Remorhaz
  The remorhaz is an iconic magical beast in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. It is vaguely similar to the frost worm.-Publication history:The remorhaz first appeared in Dragon #2 ....
  
  
• Roper
  Roper (Dungeons & Dragons)
  In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, the roper is a magical beast, resembling a conical structure similar in appearance to rock, wrapped in rope-like tentacles which conceal a mouth...
  
  
• Shocker Lizard
  Shocker lizard
  The shocker lizard is a magical beast in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game.-Publication history:Jason Carl designed the shocker lizard, which first appeared in the adventure "Into the Darkness"....
  
  
• Sea Cat
  Sea Cat (Dungeons & Dragons)
  In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, the sea cat is an aquatic magical beast.-Publication history:...
  
  
• Sphinxes
  Sphinx (Dungeons & Dragons)
  In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game Sphinxes are a type of magical beast related to manticores. The four most common subraces of sphinx are the androsphinx, criosphinx, gynosphinx, and hieracosphinx.-Dungeons & Dragons :...
  
  
• Spider Eater
  Spider Eater
  In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, the spider eater is an ugly, insect-like magical beast.-Publication history:The spider eater appeared in the third edition Monster Manual , and in the 3.5 revised Monster Manual ....
  
  
• Stirge
  Stirge (Dungeons & Dragons)
  In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, the stirge is a mosquito-like magical beast and a classic D&D monster.-Publication history:...
  
  
• Tarrasque
  Tarrasque (Dungeons & Dragons)
  The tarrasque is a magical beast in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game.Tarrasques are gigantic lizard-like creatures which exist only to eat, kill and destroy. In most campaign settings, only one tarrasque is said to exist on each world. Tarrasques have low intelligence and cannot speak...
  
  
• Unicorn
  Unicorn (Dungeons & Dragons)
  In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, a unicorn is a mysterious, majestic magical beast. It resembles an imposing and beautiful white horse, with glowing eyes, a silky mane and tail, and the stereotypical spiraling, shell-shaped horn coming from its forehead...
  
  
• Winter wolf
  Winter wolf
  In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game, the winter wolf is a magical beast which lives in cold forests and plains.-Creative origins:The winter wolf is likely to be based upon the arctic wolf, and elements of norse mythology....
  
  
• Worg
  Worg (Dungeons & Dragons)
  In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game, the worg is a wolf-like magical beast.-Publication history:The worg was introduced to the D&D game in the first edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons....
  
  
• Yrthak
  Yrthak
  The yrthak is a fictional magical beast in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, that can be described as somewhat akin to a reptilian bat.-Publication history:...
  
  

Magical beasts from the Monster Manual II

• Ash Rat
• Asperi
• Blood Ape
• Chaos Roc
• Chimeric Creature (template)
• Cloaked Ape
• Cloud Ray
• Corollax
• The fiendwurm is a magical beast. They are monstrous worm
  Worm
  The term worm refers to an obsolete taxon used by Carolus Linnaeus and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck for all non-arthropod invertebrate animals, and stems from the Old English word wyrm. Currently it is used to describe many different distantly-related animals that typically have a long cylindrical...
  
  s which have portals to the Abyss
  Abyss (Dungeons & Dragons)
  In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, the Abyss or more fully, the Infinite Layers of the Abyss, is a chaotic evil-aligned plane of existence. It is one of a number of alignment-based Outer Planes that form part of the standard Dungeons & Dragons cosmology, used in the Planescape...
  
   in their bellies.

Fiendwurms are the result of an ordinary earthworm

Earthworm

Earthworm is the common name for the largest members of Oligochaeta in the phylum Annelida. In classical systems they were placed in the order Opisthopora, on the basis of the male pores opening posterior to the female pores, even though the internal male segments are anterior to the female...

 having demonic

Demon (Dungeons & Dragons)

In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, demons are the most widespread race of fiends. The demons are chaotic evil by nature, and are native to the Abyss...

 magic cast upon it. In addition to greatly altering and mutating their physical form, this also creates the portal to the Abyss mentioned above in their stomach

Stomach

The stomach is a muscular, hollow, dilated part of the alimentary canal which functions as an important organ of the digestive tract in some animals, including vertebrates, echinoderms, insects , and molluscs. It is involved in the second phase of digestion, following mastication .The stomach is...

. This portal causes them enormous pain, and the only way to relieve this is by eating. Because of this the fiendwurm has a violent nature and attempts to swallow any creature it encounters, and unfortunately, as one might expect, anything swallowed by it goes straight through the portal to the Abyss.

Fiendwurms can be found in deserts, plains, and underground.

Fiendwurms have legless, worm's bodies. They are fairly huge, about the size of a frost worm

Frost worm

In the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game the frost worm is a fictional magical beast that lives in cold and ice filled places.-Publication history:...

 or purple worm

Purple worm

In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, the purple worm is a magical beast and a classic D&D monster.-Publication history:The purple worm was one of the earliest creatures introduced in the D&D game.-Dungeons & Dragons :...

. On their underside, they are colored a peach, blood-like pink. On the topside, they are a sickly purple. Though they were supposedly once earthworms, the head of the fiendwurm is completely unlike an earthworm's eyeless, tubular, all-mouth, head, and instead is almost draconic. They have a pair of horns which point back and up, as well as a few spikes around the lower mouth. Their tongues are long and purple.

Wizards of the Coast

Wizards of the Coast

Wizards of the Coast is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games...

 designer and developer Ed Bonny, who was working on thinking of creatures for the Monster Manual II, humorously claims to have imagined the fiendwurm while eating dinner in Manhattan

Manhattan

Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...

 with friends. Supposedly the idea it just struck him while eating, and he scrawled the concept on paper tablecloth, and it eventually blossomed into the fiendwurm.

Fiendwurms appeared in the 3rd edition Monster Manual II.

• Frost Salamander
• Gambol
• Gravorg
• Leviathan (Dungeons & Dragons)
• Mooncalf (Dungeons & Dragons)
• Moonrat (Dungeons & Dragons)
• Mudmaw
• Nethersight Mastiff
• Nightmare Beast
• Phase Wasp
• Phoenix (Dungeons & Dragons)
• Shadow Spider
• Spellgaunt
• Swamplight Lynx

Magical Beasts from the Monster Manual III

• The avalancher is a magical beast that lives in mountains. It is portrayed as having a large, round central body made entirely out of rock, with six insect-like, stony appendages for legs and a single eye stalk with a large, orange, glowing eye protruding from the top of the front. At the front of the central body is a toothed mouth. An avalancher attacks by using its legs to dislodge boulders and cause earthquakes and avalanches.
• Bearhound
• Brood Keeper
• Feral Yowler
• Ironclad Mauler
• Milvorn
• Phoera
• Zezir

Magical beasts from the Fiend Folio

• Abrian
• Blood Hawk
• Chronotyryn
• Cranium Rat
• Death Dog
• Disenchanter
• Flame Snake
• Gathra
• Jackalwere
  Jackalwere
  In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game, the jackalwere is a type of fictional monster for player characters to encounter.-Publication history:The jackalwere first appeared in the first edition in the original Monster Manual ....
  
  
• Kuldurath
• Lucent Worm
• Senmurv (Dungeons & Dragons)
• Shadow Asp
• Shedu (Dungeons & Dragons)
  Shedu (Dungeons & Dragons)
  In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, the shedu is a magical beast based upon the Shedu of myth. They resemble imposing, tan colored horses with noble, dwarf-like heads. Large, feathered wings, similar to that of the pegasus come from their backs. They always have curly brown hair...
  
  
• Spirit of the Air
• Terlen
• Thunder Worm
• Ti-Khana (template)
• Varrangoin

Magical beasts from Monsters of Faerûn

• Banelar
• Black Unicron
• Darkenbeast
• Giant Strider
• Leucrotta
• Peryton
  Peryton (Dungeons & Dragons)
  The peryton is a magical beast from the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game based upon the perytons of myth.-Publication history:The peryton first appeared in first edition in the original Monster Manual...
  
  
• Spectral Panther

Magical beasts from other sources

• Bhaergala
• Banderlog
• Cooshee
• Debbi
• Debbil
• The Displacer serpent is akin to an ophidian
  Snake
  Snakes are elongate, legless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears. Like all squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales...
  
   version of the Displacer beast
  Displacer beast
  A displacer beast is a fictional creature from the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.-Publication history:The displacer beast was inspired by the coeurl, a feline-like creature from the 1939 science fiction story "Black Destroyer" by A. E...
  
  . It resembles a flat, purplish-black snake, 8 feet long and weighing about 200 pounds, with glowing green eyes and violet stripes down its sides. They possess powers similar to the ordinary Displacer Beast, E.G... The ability to make themselves appear in a different location to where they actually are. Displacer serpents are found alone, or in pairs, or sometimes in broods of 2 to 7 with a leader or 2. They live in warm forests. They are usually chaotic evil in alignment. Displacer serpents appeared in the Miniatures Handbook.
• Giant bat
• Jackalwere
  Jackalwere
  In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game, the jackalwere is a type of fictional monster for player characters to encounter.-Publication history:The jackalwere first appeared in the first edition in the original Monster Manual ....
  
  
• Leucrotta
• Kirre
  Kirre
  In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, the kirre is a magical beast, a vicious predator inhabiting the jungles of Athas in the Dark Sun campaign setting.-Publication history:...
  
  
• Tyrg
• Wolfwere
  Wolfwere (Dungeons & Dragons)
  In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, a wolfwere is a wolf who polymorphs into a quadrupedal human shape and a humanoid-wolf hybrid, often retaining the bipedal stance.-Publication history:...