Dungeons And Dragons Creatures L / Characters

Monsters from the myriad worlds of Dungeons & Dragons.

Notes on the Entries

A creature's Origin denotes the specific campaign setting it debuted in, if any. This is not to say that setting is the only place that creature can be found — D&D has a long history of repackaging creatures from sub-settings for general use, and ultimately the DM decides what appears in a game.
A creature's listed Challenge Rating may be for "baseline" examples of the monster, rather than listing every advanced variant presented in Monster Manuals. Also remember that 3rd and 5th Edition use a 1-20 scale for "standard" Challenge Ratings, while 4th Edition uses 1-30.
Not all Playable creatures are created equal, especially in 3rd Edition, in which Monster Adventurers can have significant Level Adjustments for the sake of party balance.
A creature's listed Alignment is typical for the race as a whole, not an absolute for every individual in it — even supposed embodiments of Good and Evil can change their alignment. Also, if there are two alignments listed, and one is for 4th Edition (in which Good encompasses Neutral Good and Chaotic Good, Unaligned encompasses the morally neutral alignments, and Evil encompasses Neutral Evil and Lawful Evil from other game editions), assume that the other alignment holds true for all other editions. Finally, the "Always Neutral" alignment listed in the first three editions for nonsapient creatures has been equated with the "Unaligned" alignment of 5th Edition.

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Lamia

^{Lamia, 3e}

^{Lamia noble, 3e}

^2e

Classification: Magical Beast (3E), Monstrosity (5E)
Challenge Rating: 6 (3E), 4 (5E)
Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Half-bestial hedonists who use their powers of illusion and seduction to enslave and corrupt humanoids.

Art Evolution: The earliest lamias could have the lower bodies of goats, antelopes or deer in addition to leonine forms, and were a One-Gender Race of seductresses, but eventually they settled on being only either lion-taurs or snake-people, and male lamias were introduced.
Bizarre Alien Reproduction: In 2nd edition, the article "Ecology of the Lamia" in Dragon #192 introduced the idea that lamia nobles were the "base" form of their race, being divided into males and females, and could only successfully procreate by mating with humans of the appropriate gender; if a lamia noble breeds with another lamia (noble or base), then they will produce only a base lamia. Base lamias are hermaphrodites, with the upper torso of a human woman and a lower body of a lion, goat, antelope or deer with fully functional male and female genitalia. Base lamias can only produce base lamia children by mating with humans or lamia nobles; if they mate with each other, then the pregnant lamia will give birth to a new monster called a "sa'ir", which is genderless (and thus sterile), looks like a lion with the horns and hind-quarters of a goat, and is little smarter than a beast. Lamias and lamia nobles have a week-long breeding season in summer, during which they go wild with lust, but the sight of a particularly attractive human may induce an out-of-season fertile period (with accompanying heat/rut). All of this lore was subsequently ignored in 3rd and 5th edition.
The Corruptor: Lamias love seducing pure-hearted heroes into evil, and try to lure such potential victims to their lairs.
Gladiator Games: They might amuse themselves by using geas spells to have their thralls fight to the death in front of them.
Interspecies Romance: Lamias have a well-established proclivity for mating with humans. Whilst sometimes this does turn into their being a Literal Man Eater, a lot of the time, lamias mate with humans because they genuinely enjoy the act. 2nd edition even introduced the idea that lamias depend on human partners to procreate, because their cursed heritage makes it impossible for them to breed with their own species.
Master of Illusion: They're potent illusionists, able to hide their bestial form with disguise self, or make a desert ruin appear as a luxurious pleasure palace with major image.
Our Centaurs Are Different: Lamias have the upper bodies of humans mounted on the torsos and legs of lions.
Religion of Evil: Lamias have an affinity for the demon lord Graz'zt, who in some tellings actually creates lamias from mortal worshipers, and frequently lead cults dedicated to him on the Material Plane.
Snake People: Lamia nobles have the lower bodies of serpents, rather than lions.
Stupidity-Inducing Attack: A lamia's touch intoxicates other creatures, giving them disadvantage on Wisdom checks (or inflicting Wisdom drain, in previous editions) and thus making them more susceptible to a lamia's charms, magical and non-magical.

Lamia (Fey)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/d&d_lamia_4e.png

Classification: Fey (4E)
Challenge Rating: 12 (4E)
Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Shapeshifting fey who lure victims in close before devouring them as a swarm of insects.

One-Steve Limit: 4th Edition, as was its wont, uses the name lamia for fey that could shift between humanoid form and a swarm of beetles—a completely different creature from the lamia in previous editions (which resembles monstrous lion-taurs). 5th Edition has since reverted to the previous model.
The Worm That Walks: They're a swarm of intelligent, magical insects occupying a hollowed-out humanoid corpse. Each time they kill a humanoid, another beetle appears in the swarm, until it grows large enough to split into two lamias.

Lammasu

Classification: Magical Beast (3E)
Challenge Rating: 8 (3E)
Alignment: Lawful Good

These noble creatures appear as human-headed, winged lions, and are concerned with the well-being of all good people, but attack evil on sight.

Arch-Enemy: Lammasu despise other human-lion hybrid creatures such as lamias and especially manticores, the latter of which are sometimes confused with lammasu by the ignorant.
Breath Weapon: Lammasus can breathe a cone of fire.
Deadly Lunge: Like a lion, a lammasu can pounce on foes during a charge to rake them with their claws.
Hermit Guru: They often live in ruins and abandoned temples in the desert, where they spend much of their time contemplating how to promote goodness and combat evil. They are often sought out for their wisdom, magic and power; they receive good-hearted people gladly, but tolerate no evil visitors.
Shedu and Lammasu: They fit the classical myth pretty closely, being noble, compassionate, Always Lawful Good beings with human heads and winged leonine bodies. They're potent forces of good who can cast spells as if they were clerics, breathe fire, and are surrounded by a constant magic circle against evil.

Landwyrm

Mountain, jungle and plains landwyrms (3e)

Classification: Dragon (3E)
Challenge Rating: Ranges from 6 (plains landwyrm) to 22 (mountain landwyrm) (3E)
Alignment: Lawful Neutral (forest), True Neutral (tundra), Chaotic Neutral (plains), Lawful Evil (mountain, Underdark), Neutral Evil (desert), Chaotic Evil (hill, jungle, swamp) (3E)

Intelligent dragons that lack wings or breath weapons, thought by some to be the ancestral form of true dragons. They are divided into a large number of environmentally adapted subspecies that vary greatly in size and power, from the scrawny, Medium-sized plains landwyrm to the Colossal mountain landwyrm.

Not to be confused with the lindworms and linnorms below.

A Handful for an Eye: Desert landwyrms can kick up a storm of sand and dust to potentially blind all within a large radius for several rounds.
Damage Over Time: Underdark landwyrms' claw attacks deal bleeding damage as per wounding weapons, as well as Constitution damage.
Eat Dirt, Cheap: Mountain landwyrms subsist on diets of mountain rock, spiced with the occasional giant or dire bear.
Food Chain of Evil: Mountain landwyrms mostly feed on rock, but when they wish to vary their diet they mostly scratch the itch for meat by preying on a few giants or dire bears. Tundra landwyrms in turn prey upon polar bears and occasionally fight frost worms, or even white dragons.
Glowing Eyes of Doom: When a swamp landwyrm is angry, its eyes glow like yellow lanterns.
I Lied: It's noted that in the rare instances a jungle landwyrm opts to negotiate with opponents, it always betrays and attacks them a short time later. Similarly, some lizardfolk attempt to offer tribute to swamp landwyrms in exchange for protection, which always ends badly for them.
In Harmony with Nature: Forest landwyrms are considered the noblest of their kind, acting as protectors of their woodland homes, eating only what they need to survive, and are able to cast commune with nature once each day.
It Can Think: Jungle landwyrms are sometimes mistaken for particularly large dinosaurs, while in fact the dragons are highly intelligent and worse, the most sinister and evil of the landwyrms.
Horse of a Different Color: Like true dragons, landwyrms make excellent mounts, assuming a would-be rider can convince their sapient, strong-willed steed to cooperate.
Hypnotic Eyes: Swamp landwyrms can hypnotize anyone who looks into their glowing yellow eyes.
Lazy Dragon:
- Mountain landwyrms spend most of their time sleeping within their lairs or curled up on some mountain peak.
- Tundra landwyrms pass the majority of their hibernating beneath the permafrost.
Poisonous Person: Jungle landwyrms' claws carry the disease known as red ache, which deals Strength damage, while plains landwyrms' bites inject a similar Strength-damaging poison.
Raptor Attack: Plains landwyrms often stand upright, allowing them to be confused for a large dromaeosaur.
Smoke Out: Underdark landwyrms can use obscuring mist three times per day.
Supernatural Fear Inducer: They have a frightful presence similar to that of a true dragon.
Super-Persistent Predator: An angered mountain landwyrm doesn't rest until its foes have been destroyed, and will pursue fleeing targets for days.
Super-Scream: Once per day, a mountain landwyrm can let out a thundering roar that recreates a shout spell.
That's No Moon: Mountain landwyrms have craggy, rock-like scales that blend in very well with their mountainous homes, and it's entirely possible for someone to walk past a sleeping or otherwise still specimen and never realize that the barn-sized dragons is anything other than a rocky outcrop.
Thin-Skinned Bully: Hill landwyrms, though dangerous, only attack creatures clearly weaker than themselves, and can be cowed by a sufficiently intimidating display, without a single blow being struck.
Underground Monkey: There's a tremendous variety of landwyrms, each physically and thematically adapted to a specific environment such as plains, hills, mountains, forests, jungles, the Underdark, the tundra, or deserts.
Vampiric Draining: Tundra landwyrms feed exclusively on blood, which they can drain from their prey in mid-combat.

Glacierdrak

Challenge Rating: 28 (3E)
Alignment: Neutral Evil

Thought to be a variation of the tundra landwyrm, glacierdraks are even more primeval than the rest of their kin, little more than bestial forces of destruction.

An Ice Person: A glacierdrak's Deadly Gaze can freeze opponents solid, first by dealing a large amount of Dexterity damage, then Constitution damage once the victim is paralyzed. Those frozen like this cannot be brought back to life with a simple raise dead spell.
Status Infliction Attack: Critical hits with their bite or claw attacks can stun victims for up to a dozen rounds.
Stealthy Colossus: Glacierdraks are surprisingly stealthy for their size, and can easily be mistaken for glaciers when motionless. They're also dangerously mobile when it comes to ambushing prey, able to burrow or climb as quickly as they move across open ground, and they can even pass through solid sheets of ice like a fish moving through water, without leaving a tunnel behind them.

Laraken

Origin: Forgotten Realms
Classification: Outsider (3E)
Challenge Rating: 14 (3E)
Alignment: Neutral Evil

Hateful extraplanar creatures resembling large tentacled spheres, also known as "magic-drainers." They're thought to be distant relatives of nishruu.

Bizarre Alien Reproduction: According to their 2nd Edition entry, laraken reproduce by absorbing a regenerate spell, which allows them to create a new laraken from a severed tentacle. "It is thought that they had other means of reproducing on their own plane, but those conditions do not exist here."
Chase Stops at Water: Inverted; according to their 2E lore, laraken won't follow prey onto dry land.
Dimensional Traveler: Laraken were brought to Toril by the conjurer Akhlaur, who summoned them from an alternate Material Plane — evidently a very wet world, as the creatures are uncomfortable in anything less than 95% humidity. The laraken are not pleased with the situation, and attack anything humanoid out of their hatred for those who summoned them.
Magic Eater: They feed on magic, and need to absorb the equivalent of three spell levels per day to survive.
Mana Drain: Spellcasters struck by a laraken's Combat Tentacles lose their highest-level spell slot or prepared spell, while magical items that come into contact with them permanently lose a charge, enchantment bonus or special power.
Power Copying: Should a spellcaster fail to overcome a laraken's impressive Spell Resistance, the creature can cast the blocked spell on its next turn. Similarly, a laraken can temporarily apply the enchantment bonus and special effects of the magic items it drains to its tentacle attacks.
Supernatural Sensitivity: Laraken can see the magical auras of spellcasters and enchanted items, and sense their presence within 60 feet even without line of sight.
Teleportation: They can use dimension door at will.

Lava Child

Classification: Humanoid (5E)
Challenge Rating: 3 (5E)
Alignment: True Neutral

Smiling, child-like humanoids with an affinity for magma and a strange immunity to metal.

Ditto Aliens: All lava children look identical to one another.
Magma Man: Downplayed; 1st Edition describes them as "the unnatural offspring of a union between spirits of earth and fire," but while lava children love swimming in magma, they don't have any innate control over it without spellcasting classes.
No-Sell: Beyond ignoring fire damage, lava children's signature ability is their "immunity" to metal. Weapons made of metal simply pass through them without harming them, and likewise, a lava child's melee attacks pass through a foe's metal armor. They can even move through metal obstacles as if they didn't exist.
Perpetual Smiler: They have a permanent smile on their faces, which has led to the deaths of intruders who thought they were welcome in the lava children's caves.
Playing with Fire: In 1st Edition, lava children magic-users unsurprisingly learn spells like burning hands, fireball and pyrotechnics.
Uncanny Valley: They have the muscular stature of adult men but also curiously childish builds and faces, as well as sunken eyes and frozen grins that remain in place even when tearing apart intruders.

LeShay

Classification: Fey (3E)
Challenge Rating: 28 (3E)
Alignment: Any

Ageless and powerful beings resembling albino elves with utterly black eyes, who are trapped in a foreign timeline.

The Ageless: LeShay are immortal unless killed by violence.
Charm Person: Any creature within 30 feet who meets a leShay's gaze has to make an epic-level saving throw or become charmed by them.
Ideal Illness Immunity: LeShay are immune to poison or disease.
Living Relic: The leShay are the remnants of a once-great people who supposedly predate the current multiverse, but fell victim to some catastrophe that not only drove them to near-extinction, but changed history so that their era never existed. Trying to undo this disaster would only result in something worse happening, so the surviving leShay simply try to stave off ennui as best they can.
Mage Species: They have a host of powerful, at-will spell-like abilities — greater invisibility, spell turning, teleport without error, heal, greater dispelling, and more.
Omniglot: A leShay can master a language within seconds of hearing it spoken for the first time, "right down to the most courtly or impressive accent thereof."
Our Elves Are Different: LeShay are described as being to normal elves what normal elves are to humans. Beyond their physical appearance, leShay share elf traits such as an immunity to magical sleep effects, low-light vision, weapon proficiencies, and the ability to notice hidden doors. It should be noted that their Pointy Ears resemble half-elves' more than full-blooded elves'.
Ret-Gone: Once, the leShay ruled an age and civilization of their own. Then... something... happened which destroyed it so thoroughly that, from the point of view of modern people, the leShay's age never existed at all, not even in the remotest past. The few leShay to survive this catastrophe endure as living paradoxes, fragments of an age that never was whose histories begin in a past that never happened.
Serious Business: Whatever their alignment, leShay take etiquette very seriously, and failing to meet their standards of politeness or show them due respect can be a fatal mistake.
Spontaneous Weapon Creation: LeShay can "draw" weapons created from their own life essence as a free action, typically a pair of bastard swords they can Dual Wield without any attack or damage penalties.

Leprechaun

Classification: Fey Humanoid (4E)
Challenge Rating: 2 (4E)
Alignment: True Neutral

Small fey pranksters known for their love of mischief, wine and gold.

Invisibility: Leprechauns can turn invisible at will.
Leprechaun: They follow the myth for the most part, being small fey tricksters dressed in green who keep hoards of gold, though there's no mention of rainbows in their creature entries. Where this puts them in relation to other D&D races depends on edition — 2nd Edition speculates that leprechauns are a cross between halflings and pixies, while 4E classifies them as a type of gnome.
Liminal Time: Leprechauns are rarely seen except around "borderlines" between one state and another, such as shorelines, dawn and dusk, or equinoxes and solstices.
Make a Wish: In AD&D, a leprechaun whose treasure has been taken by an intruder will offer three limited wishes in exchange for it. After the third wish, the leprechaun will flatter the intruder and declare that those wishes were so well-phrased that the intruder is obligated a fourth wish. If the intruder takes him up on this offer, the leprechaun will cackle with glee, reverse the effects of the previous three wishes, and teleport the intruder away to a random location within 40 miles.
Master of Illusion: AD&D Leprechauns can create illusions with full auditory and olfactory effects and use ventriloquism at will. In 4th Edition, they can create an illusory double while invisible, and if a foe attacks it, they'll take immediate psychic damage if the attack hits, and ongoing psychic damage if the attack misses.

Leskylor

Classification: Magical Beast (3E)
Challenge Rating: 7 (standard), 10 (three-headed) (3E)
Alignment: Neutral Good

Intelligent beasts usually found prowling Eronia, the rugged second layer of the Blessed Fields of Elysium, but they sometimes ally themselves with crusaders for good, serving as companions or mounts. Some leskylors have multiple heads, and are correspondingly more dangerous.

Breath Weapon: They can blast foes with a cone-shapd burst of frost. This is made worse in the case of three-headed leskylors, as they all breathe frost simulatenously, either hitting multiple targets at once or focusing on a single foe.
Deadly Lunge: Like less-fantastic lions, leskylors can pounce during a charge to rake a target with their claws.
Great White Feline: The leskylor is an intelligent snow-white, winged tiger, 10 feet long with a 30-foot wingspan, that protects mountainous regions and forests from evil.
Sapient Steed: Leskylors sometimes agree to serve as mounts for crusaders for good.

Leucrotta

Classification: Magical Beast (3E), Monstrosity (5E)
Challenge Rating: 4 (3E), 3 (5E)
Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Loathsome predators that are as cruelly intelligent as they are foul.

Crafted from Animals: According to their 2nd Edition write-up, a standard leucrotta's hide can be made into boots of striding and springing, while a shapeshifting greater leucrotta's hide can duplicate a cloak of elvenkind, or their hooves used for boots of varied tracks. "There are rumors that leucrotta saliva is an effective antidote to love philters, but so far there have been no volunteers to test this theory."
The Creon: 5th Edition leucrottas feel a strong bond with Yeenoghu, and are a welcome addition to a gnoll pack. They're also tougher, smarter and faster than a typical gnoll, but almost never try to usurp gnoll chieftains or lead the pack directly — instead, they are content to serve the chieftain as a pet and steed, and to offer them tactical advice during battle.
Elite Mook: The rare greater leucrottas are also known as changesteeds for being able to shapeshift into any quadrupedal creature they have seen, potentially taking even the fantastic forms of griffons, owlbears and pegasi. The catch is that their teeth remain the same no matter what form they take. Changesteeds are feared for using this power to Kill and Replace a humanoid's mount, only to turn on their rider once they're alone. Unlike lesser leucrottas, changesteeds don't have a tell-tale stench that gives them away, but cats can instinctively sense their presence and won't come near them.
Evil Smells Bad: A leucrotta emits a stench so foul that only gnolls can tolerate their presence. The only smell worse is the thing's breath.
Fooled by the Sound: A leucrotta can imitate noises such as the voices of human beings or the sound of domestic animals which are in pain. It does this from concealment in order to lure other creatures close enough to be attacked.
Mix-and-Match Critters: A leucrotta has the head of a giant badger, the legs (and tracks) of a deer, the body of a stag or hyena, and the tufted tail of a lion. In theory this combination of parts could be, if not handsome, then at least not hideous, but no such luck for the leucrotta.
Mooks Ate My Equipment: In past editions, leucrottas could apply their bone-breaking bites to heroes' armor or shields, potentially destroying them on a Critical Hit.
Person as Verb: In parts of the Realms, "leucrotta!" has become a swear word indicating a situation where bad luck has turned a good plan into a bad idea.
Pragmatic Villainy: Leucrottas are happy to eat humanoids, but too smart to make a habit of it, preferring to go after prey that won't send vengeful relatives after them.
Retcon: While in past editions leucrottas were simply nasty magical creatures, 5th Edition closely linked them with the gnolls and the demon lord Yeenoghu, even tweaking their bodies to give them hyena characteristics.
Sadist: Whenever possible, a leucrotta will meticulously plan its kills in order to draw as much suffering from the victim as possible before their death. They also hunt for the joy of killing even when their bellies are full, depopulating the wildlife in a region and leaving behind carrion that only the foulest of scavengers will touch. As a result, even the evilest of druids and rangers despise leucrottas as blights upon nature.
Voice Changeling: In addition to speaking normally, leucrottas can mimic the sounds of other animals or even humanoids, in order to lure victims into ambushes. They can also "replay" the sounds of their victims, particularly the ones they managed to keep alive for a long time.

Leviathan

Classification: Magical Beast (3E)
Challenge Rating: 25 (3E)
Alignment: True Neutral

Truly immense whales that dominate stretches of ocean, and are capable of sinking entire fleets by themselves.

For their 5th Edition incarnation, see the "Elder Elementals" entry in the "Elementals" folder.

Heavy Sleeper: Leviathans are known for hibernating for years at a time upon the ocean floor.
Kraken and Leviathan: They are apocalyptically huge sea creatures that can smash or capsize ships with ease — it is said that "Some have seen its head, others have seen its tail, but those who have seen enough of the monster to determine its actual size and appearance are dead." Leviathans are generally inoffensive in 2nd Edition, though in 3rd Edition they're known for attacking passing ships more or less at random.
Monster Lord: Their AD&D entry paints leviathans as "the lord of all whales and the intermediary between cetaceans and the gods." There is usually one leviathan for each of a world's oceans, but once every century, they and their retinues of lesser whales convene in the arctic to confer and reproduce. And anyone who actually kills a leviathan will immediately become the enemy of every whale in that ocean, who will converge on its killers and try to avenge it.
Sapient Cetaceans: AD&D leviathans have an "Exceptional" Intelligence score of 15-16.
Swallowed Whole: Leviathans can easily swallow even giants, and anything gulped by one has to make a Swim check every round or start drowning.
Took a Level in Dumbass: Leviathans' 3rd Edition incarnation is simply an unnaturally large whale that terrorizes shipping lanes, with an Intelligence of only 4.
Use Your Head: As a special attack, leviathans can ram an opponent for heavy damage, or to attempt and breach a ship's hull.

Lhosk

Classification: Monstrous Humanoid (3E)
Challenge Rating: 4 (3E)
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral

Seven-foot-tall hybrids of gorilla and arachnid, who wander through their home jungles in nomadic groups.

Challenging the Chief: Their troops are led by a dominant male who secured his position through ritual combat.
Gentle Gorilla: For the most part, lhosks "are wary of other civilized races but not particularly vicious." They'd rather capture and interrogate intruders than kill them, but should those intruders ignore the lhosks' warnings or threaten their females and young, the lhosk won't hesitate to fight. They also have a bad enough relationship with neighboring elves for lhosk rangers to commonly choose them as their favored enemy.
Our Spirits Are Different: The lhosk are animists who believe everything in the world, from intelligent creatures to trees to rocks, is represented by spirits, and the lhosk were created to protect said spirits and carry out their will. Most of their leaders are thus druids.
Projectile Webbing: Lhosks can throw webs to immobilize even Huge opponents.
Spider People: They're one of the odder examples in D&D, being a hulking gorilla upper torso atop a Large spider body.
Wandering Culture: Lhosks will build shelters for themselves, but abandon them after just a few days as the group moves on to new hunting and foraging grounds.

Lich

Classification: Undead (3E-5E)
Challenge Rating: Base creature's +2 (3E), 21 (5E)
Alignment: Any Evil (5E, 3E, 2E), Neutral Evil (1E)

A wizard who wished to become immortal, and so performed a magic ritual to preserve their soul in a specially-prepared object that animates their undead body.

Immortal Genius: Usually. Most liches are powerful wizards and powerful wizards tend to have high intelligences. However, in third edition at least, there was nothing stopping sorcerers or clerics from also becoming liches either (or really, any spellcasting class with a sufficiently high caster level), most of whom who can get by with normal levels of intelligence.
Mistaken Death Confirmation: Victims of a lich's paralyzing touch can only be distinguished from ordinary corpses with a successful skill test. The truly unfortunate might survive the lich but not their own funeral.
Necromancer: In 5th edition, a lich can use a lair action to sic the spirits of its victims on one creature of its choice. The spirits last long enough to make a single, highly-damaging attack before disappearing.
One-Steve Limit: Phylacteries in the traditional Jewish sense are represented in the form of magic items such as the Phylactery of Faithfulness and Phylactery of Undead Turning. The lich's Soul Jar, despite not being otherwise related to these items, has also been consistently labeled a "phylactery".
Our Liches Are Different: Trope Codifier, liches are depicted as undead necromancers who achieved immortality through undeath.
The Paralyzer: A 5th edition lich's basic attack is a magical touch which paralyzes its target.
Regenerating Mana: In 5th edition, a lich can regain one expended spell slot of 8th level or lower every other round while fighting in its lair.
Soul Eating: Liches do this by proxy to sustain their undeath. Every so often, a lich must imprison the soul of another intelligent being within its phylactery, where over the next twenty-four hours it's consumed to sustain the artifact's magic and utterly destroyed.
Soul Jar: Liches are formed when spellcasters bind their own soul to an object, allowing them to automatically resurrect themselves in a number of days after their bodies are destroyed. Destroying the soul container with the soul inside the lich's current body allows the lich to be permanently killed, while destroying the container while the body is destroyed (and the soul is in the container) destroys the lich's soul forever.
Synchronization: In 5th edition, a lich can use a lair action to magically tether itself to a nearby creature for one round. While this tether exists, the lich can split any damage that it takes between itself and the tethered creature, though the tethered creature can prevent this from happening with a Constitution save.

Demilich

Challenge Rating: 29 (3E), 18 (5E)
Alignment: Neutral Evil

Degenerate liches reduced to little more than flying skull.

Brown Note: The howl of a 5E demilich brings people to the brink of death, not unlike a banshee's wail.
Cursed with Awesome: Normally, a lich is reduced to a demilich when they fail to get the souls needed to sustain their physical forms. However, some like Acererak see the opportunity in this, consider their new forms more powerful than their old ones.
Flying Face: Their traditional depiction is a flying skull studded with soul gems, though the fluff for them implies that some demiliches can have some other parts of their skeleton as well, if they've embedded soul gems into those bones. For example, the demilich who founded the cross-planar Order of the Book appears as nothing but a jewel-studded skeletal hand that is constantly scribing new spells in her catalogue.
Forgets to Eat: Some demiliches form because liches get so absorbed in their studies that they forget to feed souls to their phylactery.
Our Liches Are Different: Demiliches are former liches that have been reduced to a small portion of their skeleton (usually just the skull). Their lore varies between editions, going from the next, more powerful step of lichdom to a weakened form caused when a lich fails to eat enough souls. Fifth edition goes both ways, stating that most liches eventually become demiliches after failing to devour enough souls for their phylacteries, but that some like the infamous Acererak prepare for this by fitting their skulls with gems that devour souls while their spirits cruise through different planes of existence in search of greater knowledge.

Arch-Shadow / Demi-Shade

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/d&d_arch_shadow_2e.jpg

Alignment: Any evil

These failed liches botched the delicate process of crafting their phylactery, but were unfortunate enough to survive the experience, in a manner. Initially incorporeal, arch-shadows who drain enough energy from the living may regain a solid existence as a demi-shade, but still have a precarious grip on undeath.

Fireball Eyeballs: Blue-white pinpricks of burning light are about the only features an arch-shadow has. The transition to demi-shade makes their fiery eyes turn crimson.
Intangibility: Arch-shadows are incorporeal, but becoming a demi-shade gives them a solid body again, a physical version of their ghostly form.
Mortality Phobia: These creatures had one to begin with, hence their attempt to become a lich, and after becoming arch-shadows, they grow obsessed with attaining a more secure existence by regaining a solid form. But even demi-shades are tortured by their dependency on their bound magic item and desperate to find some way to be free of it.
Omnicidal Maniac: Whatever their plans for their unlives when they were trying to become liches, demi-shades develop "a fierce determination to see the world burn around them."
Our Liches Are Different: Arch-shadows suffered a Critical Failure while attempting to become a proper lich, dying in a magical explosion. Now they're lich-like creatures that initially aren't even solid and have a more fragile grip on undeath.
Soul Eating: Rather than scarfing down souls all at once, arch-shadows drain levels from those who handle the magic items they're bound to, until they've consumed enough life energy to become demi-shades.
Soul Jar: Instead of a proper phylactery, arch-shadows' spirits are bound to a random magic item near where they died. Their undead bodies will regenerate if defeated so long as the item is intact, but if it's destroyed they'll gradually dissipate for good. They can try to modify that item by adding new effects to make it more powerful, or defensive magic like contingency, but each attempt to do so runs the risk of destroying the item and thus the arch-shadow. Even if an arch-shadow becomes a demi-shade, the magic item remains their weak point, and they usually obsessively carry it with them rather than hide it somewhere.

Dry Lich

Challenge Rating: As base creature +5 (3E)
Alignment: Any nongood

These walkers in the waste are members of the Dusty Conclave, a group that values the preservative nature of the desert. High-ranking members undergo the Sere Rite, becoming dessicated, salt-encrusted undead.

Healing Factor: Dry liches constantly regenerate so long as they're in an arid environment, though water-based magic such as fog cloud can stop it.
Kill It with Water: Any water deals damage to a dry lich as though it were holy water.
Soul Jar: Rather than a traditional phylactery, dry liches have as set of five canopic jars that preserve their internal organs, and must be destroyed to destroy the lich.
Supernatural Fear Inducer: Much like mummies, dry liches are surrounded by an aura of despair that can cause other creatures to become shaken.

Eldritch Lich

Origin: Spelljammer
Challenge Rating: 15 (5E)
Alignment: Neutral Evil

Rather than crafting a phylactery to cheat death, these former wizards and warlocks listened to the whisperings of a Great Old One, and implanted themselves with a Far Realm parasite.

Body Horror: These liches are not only undead, but have cosmic horrors living in their ribcages and tentacles sticking out of their bodies.
Hearing Voices: They constantly nod and mutter along to the whispers from the Far Realm that fill their minds. They can share these psychic whispers with other creatures, dealing pychic damage and stunning them.
The Symbiote: An eldritch lich is sustained by a wormlike, aberrant parasite that resides in its chest cavity. Said parasite can lash at enemies with flesh-rotting tentacles, and should its host ever be destroyed, its remains implode into the parasite, which vanishes — about a week later, the parasite and its host return a few miles from where they "died." But if an eldritch lich is destroyed within a magic circle meant to contain undead, it instead will return as a much less dangerous otyugh with all the lich's memories.
Teleportation: They can make a "Far Realm Step" in reaction to damage, teleporting up to 60 feet away.

Lichen Lich

Origin: Forgotten Realms
Challenge Rating: 18 (5E)

While most liches were mages in life, these undead were druids who managed to create phylacteries and become undead.

Druid: Lichen liches are liches with a background in druidism rather than wizardry.
Green Thumb: They can cause rotten roots and vines to erupt from the ground to hinder other creatures.
Mushroom Man: Downplayed; lichen liches' skeletal bodies are overgrown by a Festering Fungus, with vines writhing within their chest cavity and fungal growths covering their bodies like tree bark, but they're classified as undead rather than plant creatures.
Poisonous Person: They can poison other creatures with a touch and fill an area with toxic spores.

Lichling

Origin: Forgotten Realms
Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Bizarre, animalistic horrors spawned from the body of a demilich.

Creepy Cockroach: They look something like a spindly-legged roach with a Skull for a Head. Most lichlings are just six inches tall, but if they manage to fully mature after anywhere between a century and a millennium, they grow to be 80 feet long.
Emotion Eater: They don't actually need to consume organic material, instead lichlings are sustained by the fear and trauma of other creatures. Some will haunt battlefields for an easy source of nourishment.
Flechette Storm: Fully-grown lichlings can fire a stream of damaging bone shards every other round.
No-Sell: They're immune to non-magical weapons, cold or electricity damage, as well as charm, death, enfeeblement, fear, insanity, polymorph, or sleep effects.
Our Monsters Are Weird: Everything about lichlings is weird, from their appearance to how they're created. Some demiliches, through "arcane and complex magical procedures," are able to convert their own corpses into gigantic monster factories large enough to serve as dungeons — their heart extracts magic from spellcasters, the kidneys produce a foul black liquid, the stomach extracts fear from living creatures, while the demilich's own dead brain cells are converted into young lichlings that are nourished by the rest of the organs for 10 to 40 years, until they end their dormacy. Said monsters are unwaveringly loyal to the demilich who spawned them, though if said lich is destroyed, they might join some other evil spellcaster, or roam about in hordes up to a hundred strong. Oh, and for all their bizarre origins and habits, lichling corpses make for good fertilizer.
Personal Space Invader: In combat, a lichling goes for the throat, latching on with jaws strong enough to chew through a tree trunk. This deals ongoing damage until the lichling lets go or is killed, though even in the latter case, the victim will continue to take minor damage due to the jaws stuck in their flesh and the anticoagulant around them until the lichling corpse is pried off.
The Voiceless: The only sounds they make are to hiss and clack their teeth when attacking.

Light Devourer

Origin: Critical Role
Classification: Aberration (5E)
Challenge Rating: 6 (5E)
Alignment: Unaligned

Man-sized, aberrant fish that lurk in the dark depths of the ocean, using what light reaches them as a weapon.

Fiendish Fish: Light devourers look like even nastier anglerfish, and are dangerous and unnatural predators.
Light 'em Up: Their signature ability is to absorb bright light (or radiant damage), which they can use to convert the piercing damage of their bites to radiant damage, or unleash that light in a spherical burst of damaging energy.
More Teeth than the Osmond Family: A light devourer's mouth is filled with numerous needle-like teeth, which is reflected in the damage dealt by their bites.

Lillend

Origin: Planescape
Classification: Outsider (3E)
Challenge Rating: 7 (3E)
Playable: 3E
Alignment: Chaotic Good

Winged, serpentine celestials from the Heroic Domains of Ysgard, the patrons of art and defenders of the unspoiled wilderness.

Big Eater: When a lillend indulges its desires for physical sustenance, it tends to gorge itself into a bloated torpor and then lounge around savoring the feeling of digesting in ecstasy.
Extreme Omnivore: Lillendi can live off of the magical energies of nature itself, off of beauty and moonbeams, but they enjoy eating physical food, and they will eat almost literally anything — from fruits, vegetables, grains, herbage, fish, fowl and meat to hay and spell components. Meat is a particularly
The Gadfly: Lillendi are notorious pranksters and love to make mischief. Those who anger a lillend in particular are likely to be tormented with all the creative havoc that the lillend can come up with.
It's Personal: Lillendi are infamous for holding grudges and violently punishing those who go after their favorite arts or landscapes.
Magic Music: They have the bardic music and spellcasting abilities of a 6th-level bard.
Mystery Cult: Lillendi culture is divided into a number of secret socities centered around a piece of wisdom passed down through the generations, each associated with certain music, instruments and weapons. The more societies a lillend moves through, the greater their status. They also pick up Cool Masks that are tangentially related to each society, bearing designs associated with particular lillend families.
No-Sell: They're immune to poison and, in their older rules, positive and negative energy, as well as any music-based magic like a harpy's singing or a satyr's pipes.
One-Gender Race: Played with; lillendi are all biologically female and reproduce via parthenogenesis, but some are born with male torsos, and follow male dress patterns and customs. So one sex, multiple genders.
Personal Space Invader: They can use their snake halves to wrap around and constrict enemies, holding them in place while the lillend's upper body is free to fight. In their older rules this let lillendi dispose of troublesome foes by flying up into the sky and dropping them, though 3rd Edition forbids them from moving while constricting someone.
Snake People: A lillend manages to combined Winged Humanoid and Feathered Serpent into one whole, having the body of an angel-winged elf from the waist up and the body of a giant snake (which may have either scales, feathers, or both) from the waist down.
Tamer and Chaster: Their 2nd Edition entry notes that lillendi eschew clothing and only wear jewelry, and depicts one with Godiva Hair to preserve her modesty. Their 3rd Edition art instead gives the sample lillend a gold bra.
Who Wants to Live Forever?: Lillendi who tire of their service can choose to die, which they refer to as the Silent Hour — it is unclear whether this ability is a gift from the gods they serve or punishment from the powers of Law for a past betrayal. This allows a lillend to wrap up their business and make farewells before passing on, but it also means lillendi who die through accident or violence do so in despair, as according to legend only lillendi who pass through the Silent Hour join their gods.

Limbo Stalker

Classification: Magical Beast (3E)
Challenge Rating: 8 (3E)
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral

Apelike creatures that primarily hunt the slaadi of the Ever-Changing Chaos of Limbo.

Deadly Lunge: Limbo stalkers are ambush predators that lunge on foes from concealment, trying to pin them against a solid bit of Limbo (often the very ground a traveler shaped to stand on).
Food Chain of Evil: Limbo stalkers' favored prey are slaadi, the larger the better — besides eating them, the creatures plant their eggs in the corpses of slaadi, so their young hatch with a meal around them. They'll go after githzerai for want of better prey, but the gangly humanoids just aren't much of a meal.
Invisibility: A variant; rather than simply casting the invisibility spell, limbo stalkers can exert their will over the roiling chaos of their home plane, wrapping themselves in a thin layer of controlled Limbo to camouflage themselves.
Killer Gorilla: They have the body shape of a great ape, just with serpentine scales and features.

Lindworm

Alignment: As parent dragon

The result of chromatic dragons' breeding failures, lindworms are less dangerous than true dragons, but remain vicious and rapacious predators. Not to be confused with the linnorms below.

Abandon the Disabled: Lindworms are kicked out of their nests by their parents shortly after hatching, while any other dragon will kill them out of hand and leave their body to rot. This has made them bitter, selfish creatures lashing out at the world.
Angsty Surviving Twin: Rarely, lindworms hatch as twins, who become steadfast companions after their exile. If one lindworm twin is injured or killed, the other will keep fighting without any thought of self-preservation.
Armless Biped: They're born without forelegs or wings due to some birth defect — "This may be due to a curse of the gods or simply nature's way of insuring that the population of true dragons doesn't grow too large." This leaves lindworms with much fewer physical attack options than proper dragons, as they can only bite, claw with one of their legs, or lash with their tail.
Breath Weapon: Lindworms have the same breath attack as their dragon parents (and are immune to the associated energy type), but said breath can only be used three times per day, its dimensions are halved, and it does moderate damage rather than scaling with the creature's age.
Eye of Newt: Averted; wizards have yet to find any use for a lindworm's body parts.

Linnorm

Classification: Dragon (3E)

Primeval offshoots of true dragons, linnorms are defined by their lack of wings and rear legs, leaving them to move with a combination of walking on their forelegs and slithering their serpentine bodies. Though there are several varieties of linnorm, all are thoroughly evil creatures, treacherous, spiteful and cruel.

Breath Weapon: In 3rd Edition, linnorms stand out from "true" dragons for being able to choose whether their breath attack emerges as a cone or line.
Damned by Faint Praise: As their 3rd Edition entry explains, "About the best that can be said of linnorms is that not all of them are avaricious."
Dying Race: No young linnorms have been sighted for centuries, leading to the possibility that the species is dying out. Unfortunately, that just means that all the extant linnorms are ancient, and since dragons grow Stronger with Age...
Non-Mammalian Hair: Many linnorms have shaggy manes, another way of differentiating them from their cousins.

Corpse Tearer

Challenge Rating: 28 (3E)
Alignment: Neutral Evil

The most powerful and worst of the linnorms, corpse tearers are also the most loathsome, with scaled bodies covered in slime, moss, fungus and cilia, so that at rest they resemble a fallen, rotting tree. They make their homes beneath ancient burial grounds, which they loot for both treasure and corpses to reanimate.

Evil Smells Bad: A corpse tearer exudes a revolting stench of death that is almost impossible to ignore.
Faux Affably Evil: Those lucky enough to encounter a corpse tearer in one of its rare agreeable moods discover that it is knowledgeable about many ancient, magical mysteries. However, no meeting with a corpse tearer is likely to end without bloodshed unless the intruders pay a staggering duty.
A Kind of One: 2nd Edition describes Corpse Tearer as an individual, while 3rd Edition treats corpse tearers as a type of linnorm.
Level Drain: Their claws inflict negative levels, healing the corpse tearer in the process.
Necromancer: Corpse tearer lairs are usually guarded by their undead servants, everything from skeletons to banshees. When not on guard duty, these servitors scour the graves above their master's lair in search of treasure, but when intruders are detected, the linnorm will send these minions in first to delay the interlopers while the dragon studies them for weaknesses.
The Paralyzer: One of their breath weapons is a line or cone that paralyzes victims, at which point the corpse tearer likes to crush or claw its victims while they're helpless.
Poisonous Person: Their other breath weapon carries a disease called linnorm fever, which damages victims' Strength and Constitution.

Dread Linnorm

Challenge Rating: 25 (3E)
Alignment: Chaotic Evil

The largest linnorms are also characterized by their two heads, and their surly and uncommunicative nature. They dwell within labyrinthine cave networks that can run for miles once the linnorm is done expanding them, making it entirely possible for intruders to wander for weeks without encountering the dragon, but woe to those who take anything from a dread linnorm's lair.

Disproportionate Retribution: Dread linnorms collect treasure like other dragons, but leave their plunder carelessly strewn about after a cursory examination. But should anyone actually steal from a dread linnorm — even if the stolen item is something as mundane as a bucket of rocks — the dragon flies into rage and tries to severely punish the thief. If it fails to recover the lost item, a dread linnorm vents its rage on the surrounding countryside, leveling villages, burning crops, and devouring livestock.
Level Drain: Their bite attacks inflict negative levels upon victims.
Multiple Head Case: A dread linnorm has two long, serpentine necks, each ending in a shaggy, draconic head. One head breathes fire, and the other ice, in either a line or a cone, and it can use both heads' breath attacks in the same turn.
No-Sell: In addition to 3E dragons' immunities to sleep and paralysis effects, dread linnorms are immune to any enchantments.

Flame Linnorm

Alignment: Neutral Evil

The rarest and most beautiful of their kind, flame linnorms are still evil creatures who seek to enslave other beings.

Greed: These linnorms are obsessed with treasure, to the extent that they live in isolation to reduce the risk of theft, keep a mental tally of their hoard's worth, and prefer to attack with spells that don't run the risk of damaging their target's goods. They particularly prize magic items, especially those that let flame linnorms bend other creatures to their will, and will use their new slaves to amass more treasure.
Playing with Fire: They can breathe a stream of flame or a cloud of superheated ash, and as they age they learn magic like fireball, flamestrike and firestorm.
Trademark Favorite Food: While flame linnorms can survive off anything from animals to trees to dirt, their favorite food is something that's on fire, to the extent that they'll start forest fires just to have a meal.

Forest Linnorm

Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Serpentine linnorms who lurk in overgrown woodlands, and have a particular enmity for "beautiful" creatures.

Acid Attack: Their breath weapon is a line of acid that can also wither a random limb of creatures hit by it.
Attractiveness Discrimination: They hate every creature with more than an animal's intelligence, but particularly despise (and feast upon) majestic or beautiful creatures such as stags, eagles, swans, and similarly target humanoids considered attractive by others of their kind. The same logic leads forest linnorms to prize jewelry and gemstones, only so they can destroy such items.
Snakes Are Sinister: Forest linnorms are born with four limbs, which atrophy away by young adulthood. They're also noted as possessing "a great ego, a natural cunning, and unending cruelty," and tend to fight to the death.
Speaks Fluent Animal: Forest linnorms can speak the "languages" of any animals in their territory, but can't converse with the likes of humans.
That's No Moon: When in their lairs, they wrap their bodies around tree trunks and roots, becoming almost indistinguishable from them.

Frost Linnorm

Alignment: Neutral Evil

Among the most territorial of their kind, frost linnorms attack any intelligent creatures near their lairs. During winter months, they launch well-planned raids on settlements for treasure.

An Ice Person: Unsurprisingly, their breath weapon is a cloud of chilling ice particles, and they learn magic like meld into ice and ice shape as they age, which they use to reshape their surroundings into "elaborate, reflective lairs."
Runic Magic: They supplement their natural spellcasting with magical runes, and are always successful when attempting to cast such spells.
Trademark Favorite Food: Since frost linnorms never eat what they kill, sages speculate they derive sustenance from "inhaling frigid winds."

Gray Linnorm

Challenge Rating: 20 (3E)
Alignment: Chaotic Evil

The smallest of linnorms, grey linnorms are still huge beasts, as well as the most aggressive of their kind. They lay claim to everything they see, and attack anything that intrudes upon their territory.

Acid Attack: A gray linnorm can breathe caustic slime, dealing damage and potentially destroying victims' nonmagical equipment.
Attack! Attack! Attack!: They don't bother with traps or try to study their foes before a battle, gray linnorms simply attack other creatures on sight.
Beware My Stinger Tail: The tip of a gray linnorm's tail carries a venomous stinger.

Land Linnorm

Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Four-legged linnorms driven by greed, so that they prefer to lair on hills near humanoid settlements to keep watch for passing treasure. They're cautious and crafty, and jealous of wealthy humanoids.

Can't Kill You, Still Need You: As much as they despise humanoids as "lesser beings," land linnorms are willing to take prisoners who have knowledge of magic or the location of treasure. Sometimes this can develop into a long-term relationship with the prisoner bartering magical training for continued life.
Chameleon Camouflage: Downplayed; hatchling land linnorms' scales are small and green, but grow larger and duller as the creature ages, and are able to change color to shades of green, brown and gray.
Playing with Fire: Downplayed; their breath weapon is a line of searing heat that instantly fatigues those who survive it.
Runic Magic: They know a random assortment of runes, which they always cast successfully.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: Mature adults learn to polymorph, and commonly trail potential targets in humanoid or animal form for days to study their strengths and weaknesses.

Midgard Linnorm

Alignment: Lawful Evil

The Midgard linnorm — hopefully there is only one — is the largest and greatest of its kind, though fortunately it considers combat beneath it. It normally lurks in its deep ocean lair, but every four or five decades will surface to feast upon sea foam, and anything floating in it.

Breath Weapon: It has three: a long spray of boiling water that can drown weak creatures, a cloud of damaging dust that can also incapacitate victims with choking and sneezing, or a cone of wind that can send targets flying backwards 200 feet.
Divine Parentage: It's possibly the only offspring of the Midgard Serpent, which is in turn the child of Loki. The Midgard linnorm may in fact be immortal.
Kraken and Leviathan: It's fully 500 feet long and spends most of its time in a vast cavern beneath the ocean floor, filled with magical treasure, prows of ships, and other trinkets.
Monster Lord: "All other linnorms bow to the Midgard," and it's always attended by four venerable sea linnorms.

Rain Linnorm

Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Impossibly avaricious, rain linnorms are also egomaniacs who demand full credit for the atrocities they commit. They lair beneath hills, and emerge to enjoy the wind and rain.

Making a Splash: Their breath weapon is a line of boiling water.
No-Sell: They're immune to electricity, and in fact feed upon lightning bolts.
Weather Manipulation: They learn magic like call lightning and control winds as they grow, and if there's no inclement weather for them to revel in, older rain linnorms use control weather to make some.

Sea Linnorm

Challenge Rating: 21 (3E)
Alignment: Lawful Evil

Cold and vicious sea-adapted dragons that view land-dwelling humanoids as a threat to all ocean life, attacking them whenever they can.

Acid Attack: The sea linnorm's breath weapon is made up of caustic acid droplets.
Evil Vegetarian: Oddly enough, sea linnorms are strict vegetarians, and will even dry seaweed in the sun to improve its flavor.
Sea Serpents: Sea linnorms are large marine dragons with no limbs, are the basis of maritime tales about sea serpents big enough to capsize ships, and will even attack coastal settlements.
Weather Manipulation: Sea linnorms have a limited degree of innate control over the weather, mostly focusing on creating and manipulating fog.

Swamp Linnorm

Challenge Rating: 24 (3E)
Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Looking something like oversized crocodiles with bulging orange eyes, shaggy hair, and too many teeth, swamp linnorms rapidly deplete their territory of any creatures larger then turtles or birds. Anything that isn't consumed by a swamp linnorm is likely to be infected by its bite and turned into a swamp mummy under its control.

Acid Attack: A swamp linnorm's breath weapon is a cone or line of boiling acid, which deals half acid, half fire damage.
Driven to Madness: Any creature that meets a swamp linnorm's smoking orange eyes must save or go permanently insane.
Mook Maker: Anything bitten by a swamp linnorm must save or contract the disease known as dread decay, dealing Constiution and Charisma damage until healed with dispell evil and other magic to cure disease. Those who succumb turn into mummies, which the swamp linnorm can command as a high-level evil cleric.
Tail Slap: Swamp linnorms can make a tail sweep attack against anything in a 20-foot semicircle behind it.

Liondrake

^3e

Classification: Magical Beast (3E), Natural Magical Beast (4E), Monstrosity (5E)
Challenge Rating: 7 (3E, 5E), 12 (4E)
Alignment: True Neutral

Liondrakes, also known as dragonnes, are wild predators with the features of both lions and brass dragons.

Art Evolution: Their design tends to fluctuate significantly from edition to edition. 1st Edition's dragonnes are essentially dragons with leonine heads. 2nd Edition goes in the other direction, and depicts them as lions with scaly cheeks and dragon wings. 3rd goes for a more even blend, with fully scaly bodies that nonetheless have feline proportions; 4th uses a stockier version of this design. 5th Edition returns to a primarily feline appearance with a very long neck and tail, with the only truly draconic part being the wings — which, instead of the previous versions' batlike wings, are the finlike limbs of brass dragons.
Catlike Dragons: Liondrakes are chimeric creatures with features of lions and brass dragons. Depending on the edition, their appearance can vary between that of a dragon with a leonine head to that of a scaly lion with dragon wings.
Underground Monkey: Uncommonly, dragonnes may have the features of other dragons besides brasses — Mystaran ones are part-gold dragon, while Krynnian dragonnes may have the traits of any type of metallic dragon. Krynnian dragonnes may additionally be part-tiger or -puma instead of leonine.
Supernatural Fear Inducer: A liondrake's roar induces fear intense enough to paralyze those who hear it.

Lirr

Origin: Dark Sun
Classification: Magical Beast (3E)
Challenge Rating: 4 (3E)
Alignment: Unaligned

Lion-like reptiles known for the colorful frills on their necks and tails, which they use to silently signal their packmates.

Deadly Lunge: Lirr are excellent jumpers, and make "pounce" and "rake" attacks in combat.
Super-Scream: Lirr can loose a Mighty Roar capable of stunning other creatures, and are cunning enough to cooperate with their packmates to combine their efforts (while also taking care not to hit each other with the effect). 2nd Edition notes that putting wax in one's ears confers a bonus on the saving throw against a lirr roar, though a silence effect works even better.
Underground Monkey: "Mountain lirr" prefer rocky terrain to tablelands, and are distinguished from their kin by the muted coloring of their frills, allowing them to better blend in with their surroundings.

Lith

Origin: Forgotten Realms
Classification: Magical Beast (3E)
Challenge Rating: 6 (3E)
Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Misshapen creatures of stone with psionic powers, sometimes employed by more powerful Underdark beings as agents or guards.

Dishing Out Dirt: Liths' Psychic Powers run along these lines — they can meld into stone at will, and use passwall, wall of stone, flesh to stone and stone sphere as well. They prefer to use their powers to entomb their victims in solid rock, dead or alive.
Gonk: Their bodies are described as "lumpy and sometimes twisted," while their faces are "indescribably ugly."
Nobody Here but Us Statues: Between their rocky hides and ability to hold themselves completely still for extended periods, liths can easily pass themselves off as (ugly) stone statues.
Rock Monster: Downplayed; they're "psionically awakened creature[s] of stone" that resemble horned, malformed statues, but while they don't need food, water or air, liths are classified as Magical Beasts rather than true Elementals.

Living Doll

Classification: Construct (5E)
Challenge Rating: 2 (5E)
Alignment: Neutral Evil

Dolls or stuffed animals inhabited by a malevolent spirit that delights in spreading misery.

The Corruptor: The mean spirit inside a living doll encourages others to behave badly, and takes pleasure in tormenting the guilt-ridden and despondent. Living dolls prefer this sort of corruption to more direct evildoing because they fear discovery and destruction.
Creepy Doll: They're creepy in deed and ability, but not outwardly spooky-looking — that way they can pass themselves off as ordinary toys by lying perfectly still.
Evil Laugh: In battle, a living doll torments foes with a maniacal cackle that can deal psychic damage and incapacitate creatures with a fit of laughter.
Healing Factor: They'll recover health each turn, unless they take fire or psychic damage.

Living Holocaust

Classification: Elemental (3E)
Challenge Rating: 13 (3E)
Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Malevolent fiery cyclones native to the Abyss, though they'll eagerly feed upon Material Plane creatures as well.

Blow You Away: Living holocausts are as much air elemental as fire elemental, so they can control winds at will or attack with "fiery windspikes" that deal fire damage and undefined buffeting damage.
Evil Living Flames: They're "Equal parts air, fire and evil," demonic elementals that ordinary air and fire elementals fear and despise. Anything that comes within 30 feet of a living holocaust has to save or take fire damage, while anything struck by one is at risk of igniting. Their nature also lets them fly and pass through narrow gaps with ease, though they are vulnerable to cold attacks.
Human Sacrifice: They use their terrible powers to dominate other creatures, forcing them to offer living sacrifices the elemental can consume.
Tornado Move: Perhaps their most dangerous attack is assuming a "whirlflame" form, in which a living holocaust temporarily becomes a burning whirlwind up to 20 feet tall. Anything it moves over is in danger of being swept off the ground and suspended in the winds, taking ongoing damage from both the flames and powerful winds.

Living Portent

Classification: Celestial or Aberration (5E)
Challenge Rating: 3 (5E)
Alignment: Lawful Neutral or Chaotic Evil

Otherworldly beings sent to the Material Plane to ensure a prophecy comes to fruition.

Because Destiny Says So: These "embodiments of prophecy" are sent by gods or other cosmic powers to seek out figures of destiny, whom they can bless so they may better fulfil those prophecies. They also tend to share bits of their prophecy with other people they meet.
Came from the Sky: Living portents usually arrive in the world of mortals like falling stars, blasting out great impact craters but miraculously leaving everyone around the site unharmed.
Evil Counterpart: Some living portents are in the service of sinister living stars like Acamar, Caiphon and Hadar.
Human Shifting: They can freely assume the form of any humanoid.
Light 'em Up: They attack with beams of radiant energy, and can Counter-Attack with an even heavier attack when damaged.
Phosphor-Essence: Their natural form is that of a being of light, which illuminates the area around them.

Living Spell

Living burning hands (5e)

Origin: Eberron
Classification: Ooze (3E), Construct (5E)
Challenge Rating: Varies (3E), 1 (living burning hands) to 7 (living cloudkill) (5E)
Alignment: Varies by spell (3E), Unaligned (5E)

These magical anomalies are spells that, rather than resolving normally, linger and continue to affect their surroundings, indiscriminately attacking other creatures.

Blob Monster: Their 3rd Edition stats lean into this, giving living spells an "engulf" attack and treating them like oozes.
Fusion Dance: Some of the more dangerous living spells combine multiple spells, for example "glitterfire," a combination of glitterdust and fireball, a spell combo often used on the battlefields of the Last War.
Pure Magic Being: Living spells are spell effects that become living beings and subsist on ambient magical energy.

Apocalypse Spell

A prison of Mual-Tar and herald of colorless fire (4e)

Classification: Various types of animate (4E)
Challenge Rating: 26 (prison of Mual-Tar) to 30 (light of Amoth) (4E)
Alignment: Unaligned

Epic-level magic can also produce living spells, of correspondingly greater potency. These apocalyptic spells can be controlled with the right artifacts or rituals, though some are also intelligent enough to be convinced to join a cause.

Asteroids Monster: Many apocalypse spells have the "Unfettered Apocalypse" triggered action, letting them spawn a duplicate of themselves under certain conditions that persists until the end of their next turn.
Born of Heaven and Hell: A light of Amoth is the remnant of magic that resulted in the death of both a god and demon prince, mixing their essences together. They've thus been seen fighting alongside both demons and angels in their wars against each other.
Chain Pain: A prison of Mual-Tar, as shards of the magic Moradin crafted to bind a primordial, appear as rocky figures that lash foes with their chain-arms.
Creating Life Is Unforeseen: Apocalypse spells aren't created on purpose, but are fragments of mighty magic that have gone on to become free-roving and self-perpetuating.
Death Seeker: Shards of Uralinda are remnants of icy magic an archfey used to destroy an eladrin city in order to spite a failed paramour. The spirits of the slain eladrin combined with the icy shards, and have just enough control over their frozen prisons to direct them against foes who might destroy them.
Kill the God: Godslayer infernos, as might be guessed, were created by the primordials to slay deities in the Dawn War. They continue to target divine agents, and may band together to assault a deity's astral domain.
Person of Mass Destruction: A single apocalypse spell is capable of destroying entire empires — one escaping an attempt to control it is thought to have been responsible for the fall of Bael Turath, and rampaged through Arkhosia for good measure.
Taking You with Me: The lights of Amoth were born from the god's self-sacrificing attempt to destroy the demon princes Orcus, Demogorgon and Rimmon when they assaulted Amoth's domain. Instead, Orcus and Demogorgon used Rimmon as a demonic shield, allowing them to survive at his expense.
Technicolor Fire: A herald of colorless fire looks like a vaguely-humanoid mass of white flame.

Living Wall

Origin: Ravenloft
Classification: Undead (3E)
Challenge Rating: As base creature +1 (3E)
Alignment: Any evil

Horrors that appear as a normal stretch of stone wall from a distance, but actually contain the remains and tortured spirits of multiple creatures.

The Assimilator: Anyone pulled into a living wall, or who dies nearby to one, becomes another creature trapped within it. In combat, they can use spells, natural atacks, magical weapons, etc. just as they did in life, save for being unable to move; in effect, each "singular" living wall is actually a group of creatures sharing the same area.
Buried Alive: While some evil mages create living walls deliberately, other living walls may arise "naturally" in places like the Demiplane of Dread, after someone is entombed alive behind a wall. As the victim slowly expires in utter darkness and solitude, they may curse their captor loud enough for their voice to be heard beyond their prison — "Only then does the land hear their agony." The victim's soul, tainted by their curses and mad screams, becomes trapped within the wall, and the corpses of nearby creatures will rise up, shamble over and fuse with it, creating an undead horror.
Ghostly Goals: Their only desire is to slay the being who cursed them with their existence. Should a living wall manage to slay its creator, or if said creature dies 300 feet of it, all the imprisoned creatures' remains are ejected from the structure as their souls are freed, while their creator's corpse is absorbed into the structure, which then becomes an ordinary stone wall.
Lie to the Beholder: From a distance, a living wall appears as a normal stretch of stonework, but those who draw close can hear moans of horror and plaintive cries for help that persist even through a silence effect, while true seeing reveals its true form, a mass of gray and sinewy flesh studded with bones, faces, and limbs jutting from its surface.
A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Read: In 2nd Edition, anyone attempting mental contact with a living wall's tortured Mind Hive learns nothing and has to make a Horror check.
Non-Indicative Name: They are in fact undead walls.
Non-Malicious Monster: The only thing a living wall will initiate combat against is its hated creator. If other creatures draw close to it, the spirits trapped within the living wall will cry out for aid, and reflexively grab at any adjacent creatures, potentially dragging them in to be absorbed. If attacked, a living wall will defend itself to the best of its ability, even if said attackers are trying to free the souls trapped within it.
Stationary Enemy: They're undead walls, incapable of movement. At most, a living wall might expand as it absorbs corpses, but it can't grow beyond the space allowed by its surroundings.
Weaponized Stench: Hacking or blasting at a living wall releases a sickening stench, which can nauseate nearby creatures.
Your Soul Is Mine!: Once a creature has been absorbed by a living wall, only its destruction or a wish spell can free their soul.

Lizardfolk

Classification: Humanoid (3E, 5E), Natural Humanoid (4E)
Challenge Rating: 1 (3E), 4 (4E), 1/2 (5E)
Playable: 2E-3E, 5E
Alignment: True Neutral

Primitive, swamp-dwelling, reptillian humanoids with a cold-bloodedly pragmatic approach to survival. See the Playable Races subpage for more information about them.

Blackscale Lizardfolk

Challenge Rating: 3 (3E), 6 (4E)

A breed of lizardfolk that stands up to nine-and-a-half feet tall, and is also distinguished by their dark coloration.

Dumb Muscle: Subverted; even though they look like the lizardfolk equivalent to orgres, the blackscales aren't noticably dumber than average Medium-sized lizardfolk.
Large and in Charge: On the world of Eberron, the blackscale lizardfolk of Q'barra have used their size to dominate their smaller kin, living off the tribute they extract in the name of the dragon Rhashaak. They'll still follow the orders of the dragon priests of Haka'torvhak, but the blackscales see no shame in this.
Proud Warrior Race Guy: Unlike most lizardfolk, who are concerned chiefly with survival, blackscales are more interested with "heroic action and personal glory," and consider traps and other trickery the methods of "lesser" lizardfolk.
Skull for a Head: Their flat nasal openings and deepset eyes give blackscales this impression; on Eberron, this and their coloration leads those Q'barra blackscales to claim descent from the black dragon Rhashaak.

Lizard King/Queen

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/d&d_lizard_king_3e.jpg

Classification: Outsider (3E), Humanoid (5E)
Challenge Rating: 2 (3E), 4 (5E)
Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Lizardfolk touched by the demon prince Sess'innek, who use their fiendish power to rule over their tribes and lead them into evil.

Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Since lizardfolk in general are comfortable with "follow the strongest," it's easy for a lizard king to take over their tribes, since even the weakest of them is stronger than an ordinary lizardfolk.
The Caligula: Due to their demonic ancestry, they're sadistic, ruthless, and arbitrarily cruel. That said, lizard kings do feel responsible for their tribes, and use their fiendish intellects to lift their kin up from barbarism (if not savagery) and forge (relatively) stable civilizations.
Casting a Shadow: 3rd Edition lizard kings can cast darkness three times per day.
Devil's Pitchfork: Their traditional weapon, dating back to 1st Edition, is a trident that can deal extra damage by skewering opponents.
Non-Human Humanoid Hybrid: They're lizardfolk with the 3E "half-fiend" template applied to them, giving them boosted stats, wings and a host of resistances. They're now a self-sustaining race, as a lizard king/queen who mates with a standard lizardfolk produces offspring that have a 50-50 chance of being another lizard king.
Pragmatic Villainy: Despite their voracious hunger for sapient flesh, the lizard kings are smart enough to direct their tribes to target caravans and travelers well away from civilization, to avoid attracting retaliation.
Religion of Evil: Unsurprisingly, these demon-blooded lizardfolk enforce the worship of their forebear Sess'innek in the tribes they rule. Since this just amounts to regular sacrifices that are little different from the worship of traditional lizardfolk deities, it's easy for standard lizardfolk to convert to demon worship.
Rule of Two: Beyond "Might Makes Right," the only rule governing the lizard kings is that there can only ever be one ruler of a tribe, and one designated heir. Young lizard kings compete with one another for battlefield glory, with the survivors growing stronger and more skilled. When they reach maturity, the one deemed strongest and worthiest is named the heir, while the rest are sacrificed to Sess'innek and consumed by the tribe. A young lizard king can Opt Out of all this by becoming a priest of Sess'innek, but few take this path due to their natural ambition and arrogance.
To Serve Man: While all lizardfolk will eat sapient beings without any qualms, lizard kings have a fiendish compulsion to do so — if they don't eat an intelligent humanoid once per week, they'll start taking Constitution damage as a sign of Sess'innek's disfavor, which can't be healed without magic on the level of limited wish. These meals take the form of a Human Sacrifice that culminates with the victim's still-beating heart being torn out and devoured by the lizard king, after which the rest of the corpse is carved up for dinner, with the largest portion going to the tribe's ruler.

Poison Dusk Lizardfolk

Challenge Rating: 1 (3E)
Playable: 3E

Small, stealthy lizardfolk who use cunning to compensate for their lack of physical power.

Chameleon Camouflage: Their scales can change color to blend in with their surroundings, giving them a racial bonus to Hide checks.
Combat Pragmatist: Poison dusk lizardfolk prefer to avoid direct combat, and would rather poison a human village's water supply or food stores than fight a field battle. If they have to fight, these lizardfolk will use ambushes, traps and weapons like bolas and nets to hamper foes while the lizardfolks' poisoned arrows do their work.
Poisoned Weapons: They're quite comfortable with such, giving poison dusk lizardfolk the racial ability to apply poison to weapons without fear of poisoning themselves.
Shorter Means Smarter: They're described as such compared to other lizardfolk, and the poison dusk variety are notable for making use of swords and bows instead of the clubs and javelins favored by other lizardfolk. That said, their Monster Manual III entry gives poison dusk lizardfolk the same 8 Intelligence as the blackscales, which is still inferior to the baseline lizardfolk's 9 Intelligence.

Locathah

^3e

Classification: Humanoid (3E, 5E)
Challenge Rating: 1/2 (3E, 5E)
Playable: 5E
Alignment: True Neutral

Nomadic fish folk who favor warm waters where they hunt crustaceans. Though not deranged like the kuo-toa nor vicious like the sahuagin, locathahs are wary of surface-dwellers due to the number of their kin who end up caught in fishing nets. See the Playable Races subpage for more information about them.

Lock Lurker

Alignment: Neutral

Odd creatures that resemble metal discs up to a foot wide, until they sting and feed upon someone who handles them.

Chest Monster: Lock lurkers look something like bronze or copper (or more rarely silver or gold) coins or decorative discs, though their undersides feature retractable legs and "a razor-sharp iris of teeth." They get their name from their use as living traps placed on treasure chests or doors to ambush thieves through keyholes, though assassins have also been known to hide them under inkwells or pillows to render targets helpless.
Eye of Newt: Their bodies can be used as an ingredient in an oil of etherealness, while their venom can be used to brew potions or write scrolls related to slow effects.
Intangibility: These odd creatures exist simultaneously on the Material and Ethereal Planes — their foot-long stinger tails normally hide on the latter until they manifest and attack prey on the former. "Venom and any food ingested by a lurker are both held in expandable body sacks on the Ethereal Plane, transferred to and from the Prime Material in a way not fully understood." A lock lurker can manifest fully on the Material Plane, but cannot wholly shift onto the Ethereal Plane.
The Paralyzer: The venom from their stingers initially stuns and slows victims for a few rounds, even if they make their saving throws, but can potentially leave a victim paralyzed for one to six hours. This venom, "a clear, gummy fluid that smells like seaweed," can be worth up to 10 gp per flask if harvested.

Lodestone Marauder

Classification: Aberration (3E)
Challenge Rating: 9 (3E)
Alignment: Unaligned

Monsters whose metallic hides are studded with rusty spikes, and possess the power of magnetism.

Bioweapon Beast: Lodestone marauders are not natural creatures and were originally bred as guardians, although most have since escaped into the wild.
Magnetism Manipulation: Their powers over magnetism grant lodestone marauders a passive Armor Class bonus against attacks with metal weapons, and they can also unleash a thirty-foot-radius pulse of magnetic force. If used to attract, this can yank metal objects out of other creatures' hands and make them stick to the lodestone marauder's body, or if used to repel, the pulse can disarm enemies and knock down those wearing metal armor.
Metal Muncher: While lodestone marauders are carnivores, they also need to eat metal to fortify their hides and grow spikes. They can live on both ore and pure metal, but find the former less nutritious. Consequently, they are strongly attracted to concentrations of worked metal and are a dangerous pest for civilized races whose armories they like to raid.

Lost

Classification: As base creature (3E)
Challenge Rating: As base creature +1 (3E)
Alignment: Any Evil

Miserable beings who, in a moment of anger or sorrow, were struck by a passing strand of incarnum that permanently bound that emotion to their souls, amplifying that negativity until it overwhelmed them.

Not to be confused with a variety of sorrowsworn from the Shadowfell.

Acid Attack: Lost ruled by hatred can spew a cone of acidic bile from their mouths every few rounds.
The Berserker: Lost embodying wrath automatically fly into a rage when they enter combat.
The Heartless: The lost were ordinary intelligent beings who were unlucky enough to attract a stray wisp of incarnum that matched their emotional state at their worst moment — someone furious with a merchant for fleecing them, a teamster who watched his fiancee get beaten to death by thugs the day before their wedding, a nymph mourning a dryad who was a dear friend — which transformed the creatures into embodiments of that dark emotion. Some lost are reduced to drooling savages by the experience, while smarter lost become "deviously insane" and work out how to masquerade as ordinary humanoids even as they are obsessed with their negative emotion. No lost has been successfully restored to normal, though their entry suggests a DM could come up with a quest to do so.
Insanity Immunity: Their "Twisted Mind" rule lets the lost make another saving throw against a mind-affecting spell or effect if they fail the first try.
Power Born of Madness: The lost template confers a hefty penalty to Intelligence, which can potentially reduce the creature to an animalistic state, but also grants bonuses to Strength and Constitution, the creature's Armor Class and land speed, and lets it make slam attacks.
Red Right Hand: Even those lost who try to hide their condition can be given away by their heartbeats, which are so loud that those within five feet of them can hear the sound by succeeding at a high Listen check.
Siren Song: Lost fused with misery can sing a droning "Song of Misery" that fascinates those who succumb to it.
Supernatural Fear Inducer: Lost filled with despair have such unsettling gazes that those who meet them have to save or become shaken for several rounds.

Loxo

Origin: Forgotten Realms
Classification: Monstrous Humanoid (3E)
Challenge Rating: 2 (3E)
Playable: 3E
Alignment: True Neutral

Hulking humanoids resembling two-trunked elephants, who dwell in seminomadic herds on the warm plains. Not be confused with the similarly elephantine Loxodons of Ravnica.

Beast Man: They're bipedal elephants, just with an additional trunk.
Cruel Elephant/Honorable Elephant: As Neutral beings, they share traits of both tropes. Loxos are peaceful and generally insular, engaging their neighbors in trade and staying out of conflicts that don't involve them. But when provoked, they can be extremely dangerous.
Lost Colony: One account of the loxos' origins in their home setting has them arriving on Toril in spelljamming ships, only to end up stranded and reverting to barbarism.
Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Loxos have a pair of humanoid hands that are strong and clumsy, though still capable of wielding weapons, while their trunks serve as weaker secondary limbs for fine manipulation work. This means that loxo metalwork is either very crude or very fine, with nothing in between.
Trampled Underfoot: 3rd Edition loxos can make a trample attack.
Unstoppable Rage: Loxos can fly into a rage in certain circumstances. In 3rd Edition, this triggers when they see a clanmate get downed or slain, and translates into a bonus on attacks and damage with a penalty on defense. In 2nd Edition, loxoth might gain an additional attack if their family comes under threat, while if a male loxo sees a family member get killed, they'll go completely berserk, attacking any non-loxo they see and threatening any fellow loxoth, a state that persists until the male dies of exhaustion.

Lucent Worm

Classification: Magical Beast (3E)
Challenge Rating: 17 (3E)
Alignment: Unaligned

Hundred-foot-long worms with completely translucent flesh and insatiable appetites.

The Paralyzer: Anything bitten or crushed by the worm has to save or be paralyzed for four rounds.
Sand Worm: An amphibious example, as lucent worms can swim as fast as they can burrow.
Stealthy Colossus: Despite being Gargantuan creatures, lucent worms get a hefty racial bonus to Hide checks to offset their size penalty, which combined with their transparent flesh means "those who encounter a lucent worm often do so before they know the creature is near."
Swallowed Whole: They can swallow anything ogre-sized or smaller, though since lucent worms can only digest living matter, their gizzards tend to accumulate small objects, and larger items are excreted as waste.
Trampled Underfoot: Rather than swallowing opponents, lucent worms can crush Medium-sized or smaller creatures, dealing damage and pinning them.

Lukhorn Worm

Alignment: Neutral

Relatives of the purple worm, these burrowing monsters mimic tunnel openings so that prey walks right into their mouths.

Mooks Ate My Equipment: Anything swallowed by a lukhorn worm takes acid damage, including equipment, which is at risk of being ruined in a mere four rounds.
Organ Drops: Lukhorn worms secrete a viscous liquid that keeps their skin supple and masks their body heat from infravision, which is in high demand by alchemists and wizards (to the effect of 100 gold per vial) since it extends the duration of potions of invisibility and polymorph. Unfortunately, this liquid dries up rapidly upon the death of the monster, making it difficult to harvest more than one or two vials from a given lukhorn worm.
Sand Worm: They're Huge, burrowing monsters that swallow victims whole, and a hungry lukhorn worm might not bother using camouflage to get a meal.
Super-Scream: If attacked while digesting prey, a lukhorn worm emits a sonic screech that can leave all within 60 feet on the ground, writhing in agony for several rounds. Worse, the noise echoes for miles through the Underdark's tunnels, potentially attracting the attention of other creatures.
Swallowed Whole: Entire drow patrols have walked right into a lukhorn worm's maw to be swallowed and digested alive. A victim can try and cut their way free, but the worm's malleable bodies ignore bludgeoning damage and take reduced damage from other weapons.
That's No Moon: They have malleable bodies and can alter their skin coloration, allowing the worms to mold themselves to the shape of a tunnel. Only natives of the Underdark are entitled to a Wisdom check to notice the creature without the benefit of magic or illumination as bright as daylight.

Lumi

Classification: Outsider (3E)
Challenge Rating: 2 (3E)
Playable: 3E
Alignment: Lawful Neutral

Humanoids from the Positive Energy Plane, distinguished by their floating heads and hatred of falsehood.

Floating Limbs: Their heads hover a few inches above their shoulders, able to rotate freely, but not move any further from their bodies — an invisible force resists even others' attempts to shift the head around. This means lumi can easily spot enemies trying to sneak up on or flank them, cannot be strangled or suffocated, and have nothing to fear from a vorpal weapon.
Honor Before Reason: The lumi's hatred of deception extends to warfare, so they'll never use ambush tactics, preferring open combat on a clear battlefield.
No-Sell: As they're from the Positive Energy Plane, lumi aren't in danger of gaining temporary hit points from positive-dominant planes and exploding from absorbing too much energy (but they still benefit from the fast healing offered by positive energy areas). They also cannot be blinded or dazzled, and are immune to light-based magic like color spray and sunbeam.
Phosphor-Essence: Lumi's bodies constantly radiate light in a five-foot radius, an ability that cannot be suppressed without the benefit of spells like darkness.
Scary Dogmatic Aliens: The lumi worship Light as a symbol of purity and truth, revering how it uncovers that which is hidden. More to the point, lumi despise falsehood, from spoken lies to illusion magic — even a basic illusion cantrip is a capital crime in a lumi settlement. Evidence suggests that they're mustering an army for a crusade to destroy liars and deceivers, and within the next twenty years will have assembled a force capable of invading the Material Plane.
The Theocracy: Lumi society is ordered according to their theology, and their cities are run by High Ecclesiastics who sometimes hold conclaves in a hidden cathedral on the Positive Energy Plane.
Turn Undead: They can use disrupt undead at will.
Will Not Tell a Lie: Lumi are honest to a fault, sometimes unpleasantly so.

Lunar Ravager

Classification: Fey (3E)
Challenge Rating: 7 (3E)
Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Pale, nine-foot-tall fey who reside in cloudtop hunting lodges, but descend to the surface on beams of moonlight to raid, plunder and hunt intelligent prey.

Barbarian Tribe: Lunar ravagers are only interested in hunting, and at most will forge their own wargear and craft macabre jewelry from their victims. Everything else they steal, and they regularly sack farms and villages for food and drink. Their interactions with other ravager clans are little better, and they may decide to attack, trade, steal from their rivals, exchange clan members, or host a debauched revel — and sometimes all of the above, in no particular order.
Expy: They're more or less a fey take on the Predator, a bunch of tall, muscular, often-invisible hunters who descend to earth and make trophies of men.
Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: Lunar ravager society revolves around battle prowess, bluster, strength and wealth, and the best way to increase their standing is to bring back trophies from dangerous foes.
Invisibility: They can cast the spell on themselves three times per day.
Know When to Fold 'Em: While lunar ravager society frowns upon cowardice, they're not stupid, and know to retreat when they face unexpectedly fierce opposition, as well as not to tangle with superior threats. "A lunar ravager's belt is much more likely to carry the skulls of dire animals, magical beasts and common folk than those of dragons, fiends or heroes."
Not Quite Flight: They can air walk at will, hovering in mid-air or climbing skyward as though ascending a steep hill.
Solid Clouds: Their lodges are built in the clouds, and usually the ravagers let the wind carry them where it will while they pillage the lands they pass over.
Teleportation: Lunar ravagers can use their "moon rider" ability to teleport either from their lodge to any point within 10 miles of it, or back to their lodge, but only in moonlight. This process requires a full minute of concentration, over which time the lunar ravager becomes misty and insubstantial. Sometimes a lunar ravager ends up marooned (either by accident or as the result of a rival's scheming) after straying too far from their lodge, or staying out too late, only to find that their lodge has moved on the next night. These ravagers are among the most dangerous of their kind, as they'll seek out and take command of like-minded creatures such as orcs and ogres.
The Wild Hunt: They have shades of this, being a bunch of fey hunters who pursue humanoids by moonlight. When hunting as a group, lunar ravagers form a loose line with up to half a mile between each hunter, driving other creatures before them, and sounding their bronze horns to summon the rest of the hunting party when they spot worthy prey.
Ostler the Barkeep: I've heard the horns that come with the full moon. I've helped bury the headless bodies of those who've ventured into the forest on such nights. Unless you wish to end up as a ravager's trophy, I suggest you spend the night here.

Lupin

Origin: Mystara
Classification: Monstrous Humanoid (3E)
Challenge Rating: 1/2 (3E)
Playable: 2E, 3E
Alignment: Lawful Good or Lawful Neutral

Canine humanoids known for their pack mentality, keen sense of smell, and hatred of lycanthropes.

Arch-Enemy: Lupins despise werewolves, and as soon as they're old enough to eat solid foods, they begin instruction on how to combat lycanthropes. Each tribe has dedicated werewolf hunters, who band together during full moons to seek out lycanthropes. In 3rd Edition this translates into a racial bonus on attacks against lycanthropes.
Born in the Saddle: 2nd Edition casts the lupins of Mystara as a now-settled, feudal society, though the "beast riders" of the upper class are still expert riders, preferring a dire wolf or lupasus (winged wolf) over horses. In 3rd Edition, lupins are a semi-nomadic culture and have the Experter Rider racial trait, which means that they get a +2 bonus to their Ride skill checks and Ride is always a class skill for them, so they can place points in it relatively cheaply.
Humans Are Smelly: Lupins seem to think so, as the "musky scent" of humans (and gnomes) agitates their noses, though not enough to make the lupins avoid them — and at least humans don't smell as bad as dwarves and half-orcs.
Multiple-Choice Past: There's in-universe debate over the lupins' origins. One group holds that they're a crossbreed between humans and gnolls, and took up werewolf hunting to win over wary human neighbors, while others think lupins are offshoots of full werewolves who rejected their kin's murderous, chaotic nature.
The Nose Knows: They have exceptional senses of smell, enough to let lupins easily recognize lycanthropes in humanoid form, penetrate disguises, track prey, and even detect invisible enemies. The downside is that lupins suffer a penalty on saving throws against smell-related effects such as a stinking cloud spell or a ghast's unholy stench.
Wolf Man: They have canine heads, though with silkier, human-like hair on the top, and their original 2nd Edition write-up notes that lupins eyes are like humans rather than wolves or dogs. Their hands and feet are humanoid, if hairy, with leathery palms/soles. Their 2E entry also notes that lupins are particularly vulnerable to wolfsbane.

Lycanthrope

Werewolf (5e)

Classification: Humanoid (3E, 5E), Natural Humanoid (4E)
Challenge Rating: Varies by type
Playable: 3E
Alignment: Varies by type and edition

Accursed humanoids who transform into monstrous animals by the light of the full moon. Some lycanthropes try to resist the evil impulses of their animal forms, while others embrace them instead.

The Beastmaster: Lycanthropes can communicate with regular and dire variants of their base animals and, while they cannot truly command them, the regular beasts tend to be fairly well-disposed towards their lycanthropic counterparts.
Glowing Eyes of Doom: When in animal form, the main thing setting lycanthropes apart from regular animals is the fact that their eyes glow red.
Good Animals, Evil Animals: You can generally tell whether a lycanthrope is good or evil by what kind of animal it turns into. If it turns into something imposing, majestic or with generally positive cultural associations, like a bear or a tiger, it's good or at least neutral. If it turns into something despised like a wolf or rat, it's evil.
Non-Indicative Name: "Lycanthrope" is strictly synonymous with "werewolf," being a construct of the Greek lykos ("wolf") and anthropos ("human"). Despite this, a lycanthrope in D&D terms can belong to any humanoid or giant species and transform into any sort of animal.
No-Sell: Lycanthropes are highly resistant (and in some editions, outright immune) to the damage inflicted by any nonmagical weapon that is not made of silver.
Our Werebeasts Are Different: Werebeasts are collectively (and inaccurately) dubbed lycanthropes. They can take three shapes, a human with a few tell-tale animalistic traits such as thick hair or claw-like nails, an animal with glowing eyes, and a humanoid animal. Lycanthropy can be spread by a lycanthrope biting a non-lycanthrope humanoid, or it can be inherited from a parent. As of 5th Edition, the "core" werecreatures appearing in the basic Monster Manual are the werebear, -boar, -rat, -tiger and -wolf, but there have been many, many more over D&D's history — the wereape, -badger, -bat, -bison, -cat, -cougar, -crocodile, -dog, -dolphin, -fox, -hyena, -jackal, -jaguar, -leopard, -lion, -mole, -owl, -panther, -raven, -seal, -serpent, -shark, -spider, -weasel, -wolverine, and more. There are even variants exclusive to giantkin, the hill giant "dire wereboar" and the voadkyn "shadkyn," or giant werebat. The 3.5 edition Monster Manual has rules for the use of any type of animal as template for a werebeast.
Partial Transformation: A lycanthrope's "hybrid" form is that of a Beast Man with the features of the shapeshifter's fully animal form, appearing as a Cat Man, Pig Man, Rat Man, Wolf Man, etc.
Rodents of Unusual Size: A wererat's animal form is a giant rat rather than a normal-sized one.
Savage Wolves:
- Werewolves are Chaotic Evil, making them the only main-list lycanthropes to be evil by default.
- Ravenloft has a variant of werewolf known as loup-garou, which is much stronger (CR 13 compared to CR 3 in 5th Edition), even more savage, and shapeshifts into a dire wolf. Worse, loup-garous spread a more virulent form of lycanthropy that's harder to resist, and any victims so cursed cannot be cured while the loup-garou lives.
Super-Senses: Many lycanthropes have sharper senses than those of ordinary humanoids.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: Lycanthropes who choose to embrace their curse gain a measure of control over it, allowing them to assume hybrid or animal form at will.
You Dirty Rat!: Wererats are almost always evil, and clans of them operate like thieves' guilds.

Characters / Dungeons And Dragons Creatures L

L

Glacierdrak

Lich

Demilich

Arch-Shadow / Demi-Shade

Dry Lich

Eldritch Lich

Lichen Lich

Corpse Tearer

Dread Linnorm

Flame Linnorm

Forest Linnorm

Frost Linnorm

Gray Linnorm

Land Linnorm

Midgard Linnorm

Rain Linnorm

Sea Linnorm

Swamp Linnorm

Apocalypse Spell

Blackscale Lizardfolk

Lizard King/Queen

Poison Dusk Lizardfolk

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Characters / Dungeons And Dragons Creatures L

Edit Locked

L

Glacierdrak

Lich

Demilich

Arch-Shadow / Demi-Shade

Dry Lich

Eldritch Lich

Lichen Lich

Corpse Tearer

Dread Linnorm

Flame Linnorm

Forest Linnorm

Frost Linnorm

Gray Linnorm

Land Linnorm

Midgard Linnorm

Rain Linnorm

Sea Linnorm

Swamp Linnorm

Apocalypse Spell

Blackscale Lizardfolk

Lizard King/Queen

Poison Dusk Lizardfolk

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