A D&D campaign is only as good as its villain, but those high quality villains can be hard to find. Sorting through the Monster Manual is a fun task, but until you've actually put a creature up against your party it's difficult to know what it will play like, and whether it's Challenge Rating is accurate. For villains, BBEGs, and nemeses, that question is even harder to answer. Today, we're going to go through some of the best creatures to use as bosses in your next D&D campaign.

What Makes a Boss?

Before we get into the list we should quickly go over what a boss is and when you should use one. Bosses are not ordinary creatures, they're not monsters that a party will happen across during travels or exploration, bosses are catalysts for your story. They are the antagonists to the party's protagonist story element. That means the boss or bosses should show up at key story moments. If you have one powerful boss that is orchestrating the whole campaign, the party should be running into these other, lower level bosses more as sub-bosses (though the sub-bosses should still show up as a challenge and move the plot along). All that to say, bosses are more than just tough fights.

Some Features to Keep in Mind

There's a very good chance you won't find the boss of your dreams on this list (there are just too many creatures for us to have gotten them all perfect), but there are ways you can be more sure of the DnD boss you've chosen for yourself. 

• Intelligence: Your boss should be able to speak, or at least communicate, with your party. They don't need to be brilliant or scheming necessarily, but they need a little forethought and the ability to use strategy.
• Health: If you're not careful with the amount of hit points you give your boss they'll get surprise one-shot by your party. If you're party planned their way to a brilliant smackdown, great, but in general the best fights are full of tension. Err on the side of too much health for your boss.
  
• Spellcasting: Not strictly necessary, but the ability to cast spells can really increase the versatility of your boss. It can help counteract player spells and shenanigans, as well as get your boss out of tight spots. Even just a few of the right spells can go a long way.
• Legendary Resistances and Actions: Not every boss on this list will have access to these two elements, and once again it's not a necessity. But to increase your villain's action economy, and make sure your party can't strike them down with a single turn, legendary resistances and actions are incredibly helpful.

Boss Suggestions

Here are some creatures that work great as bosses or boss fights. We've included a brief description, where you can find them, and their CR level, to make choosing your DnD boss a little bit easier.

1. Beholders

CR: 13

One of, if not the most, iconic DnD monsters, Beholders make excellent bosses mostly because of the inherent danger they possess, as well as their role as lair-based villains. The presence of the disintegration ray means there is the potential for instant death at any time during the encounter, and you can set up the beholder as a mysterious intelligence manipulating minions from behind the scenes. Finally, because of its anti-magic cone, the normally considerable power of the party's spellcasters will force them to behave more tactically than normal.

2. Ghosts

CR: 4

A perfect low-level boss or sub-boss, ghosts possess (pardon the pun) abilities that make them far more deadly than your average CR 4 creature. They're able to communicate, so long as they spoke common in life, and are difficult to kill or catch because of their many resistances and etherealness. Finally, ghosts make for an excellent payoff for a low-level party trying to unravel a local mystery and rid some townsfolk of troubles.

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3. Vampires

CR: 13

If there's one thing we've all learned from Curse of Strahd (as well as a great deal of fantasy media from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries) it's that vampires make for some fantastic villains. Charismatic and inherently evil, vampires have the ability to create their own minions, as well as woo their would-be slayers with their dreadfully good looks. Just be wary when using Vamps as a main boss that they do have many weaknesses to go along with their strengths, so be sure to use their Spawn to make up for the power imbalances.

4. Legendary Racers

CR: Varied

Hailing from Guillman's Guide to Speed, legendary racers are designed specifically to be bosses at each tier of play. They are focused around tactics and even have their combat strategies laid out for you. Legendary racers have a tendency to be spellcasting focused, with maneuverability and speed-based mechanics, as well as a decent amount of technological insight. Keep those elements in mind when choosing a legendary racer as your next boss.

5. Mummy Lord

CR: 15

The resurrection of a terrifying ruler of the past combined with the dry depths of a haunted pyramid make for a wonderfully terrifying combo. Mummy lords can work well as a mysterious center to a cult, the payoff for a dungeon crawl, or as a terrible package arriving in the middle of a city to wreck havoc. Possessing everything from spellcasting to legendary actions, the only thing to note is that the Mummy Lord does not have a significant hit point pool, and moves very slowly. Other than that, these are terrifying foes.

6. Dragons

CR: Varied

I stand corrected, these of course are the most iconic DnD monsters, I mean they're in the name after all. The beauty of dragons is that there are such a variety of them you can generally find a dragon that suits your needs, from the terrain to the challenge rating, dragons are frequently the right choice. Their natural love for maintaining a hoard often puts them into conflict with surrounding folk, and their flight means they can threaten wide swathes of a land in a way many other villains struggle to.

7. Liches

CR: 21

Another classic Dungeons and Dragons villain, the lich is terrifying because of its wicked intelligence, ability to paralyze PCs with relative ease, and its myriad spells to draw from. Combined with its use of the phylactery, a lich can make for an everlasting enemy that creates pain for your party from the beginning of your campaign all the way until level 20.

Hopefully somewhere in this post you've been able to find some inspiration, or perhaps an exact stat block, for your next D&D boss. If you have questions, from how to run a specific monster to where to get custom dice, don't hesitate to reach out on socials or via email!