Looking to have your adventurers get lost in the forest while looking for that temple, elven village, or whatever? Let us do the work for you. Here is a list of Monsters for a D&D 5e Forest Encounter from core rules Monster Manual and other sources.
While the 2014 Dungeon Master Guide provided lists of Monsters by Environment in Appendix B, the lists are basic and don’t provide much direction for gamemasters. In this article, you’ll find monsters that are a great fit for a forest biome encounter and ideas on how to create encounters with each.
Banshee
Challenge Rating: 4
When adventurers settle in for the night, the faint cries of a banshee may disturb their rest. Once a female elf, this ghostly figure now terrifies and harms with her wail and ghastly appearance. In my current campaign, I had my players discover an abandoned ship haunted by ghouls, with a banshee lurking in the lower hold, ready to unleash her terror.
Blights
Challenge Rating: 1/4 to 1/2
Needle, twig, and vine blights are not powerful individually but can become menacing in numbers. Controlled by a Gulthias Tree, they fill and corrupt the forest, or they might be the vanguard of a vine invasion overtaking a settlement. In my campaign, my players journeyed through a withering forest, filled with giant spiders and blights, heightening the eerie atmosphere.
Dinosaurs
Challenge Rating: 2 to 8
As your adventurers trek through dense forest, a sudden crash heralds the arrival of a massive T-Rex, its teeth bared in primal fury. The Monster Manual includes five dinosaurs ideal for such encounters, but consider their origins—are they remnants of a lost world, creations of an unhinged mage, or simply creatures that escaped extinction? In my steampunk-pirate world, dinosaurs roam certain islands, adding to the untamed wildness of the landscape. One encounter had players proving their mettle by defeating a T-Rex in a lush greenhouse, drawing inspiration from an Eberron module
Green Dragon
Challenge Rating: 2 to 22
Green dragons are notorious for their cunning and treachery, finding home in misty forest caves and hoarding both treasures and living captives. With several dragon options, even lower-level adventurers can face a green dragon in its element. Use regional effects to suggest the dragon’s presence, with forest mazes, scarcity of large game, and smaller animals serving as its spies. In its lair, the forest itself fights for the dragon, with walls of thorns and grasping roots creating a treacherous environment.
Giant Spiders & Ettercaps
Challenge Rating: 1 and 2
These arachnid monsters inhabit the darkest parts of the forest. Ettercaps nurture giant spiders and create web-filled mazes, choking the forest’s life. Add in giant spiders with their web-walking ability, and the result is a webbed, nightmarish maze. Pairing them with blights intensifies the forest’s transformation into a desolate, twisted landscape.
Green Hag
Challenge Rating: 3
Deep in a decaying forest, a green hag lurks, using illusions and mimicry to lure unsuspecting victims. Acting as a classic witch, she might guard a cauldron the adventurers need to destroy or be a dangerous figure they seek for guidance. Her lair is likely filled with grotesque charms and traps to further ensnare her prey.
Werebears, Werewolves, and Other Lycanthropes
Challenge Rating: 3 to 5
Werebears, with their massive size and loner tendencies, may hide in the forest, protecting people or evading past actions. Perhaps players stumble upon an empty cottage, only to face three werebears returning home, igniting a chaotic encounter. Werewolves fit classic forest hunts well, with tales of isolated villages terrorized by these beasts. My players joined a werewolf hunter named Lucy Recap, seeking a regenerative werewolf. Other lycanthropes, like wereboars or weretigers, make intriguing foes—an unexpected gore attack or a bow-wielding weretiger can turn the tables on your players.
Owlbear
Challenge Rating: 3
An owlbear’s screech pierces the night, signaling its hunt. These nocturnal hunters stalk through dense forests, offering clues to wary adventurers with their haunting hoots. Players might detect signs of the owlbear’s presence through nature or survival checks, giving them a chance to prepare before facing this fierce predator.
Treant
Challenge Rating: 9
Found in ancient, enchanted forests, treants are wise guardians who can summon the forest to their aid. With diplomacy, druids or rangers might gain treants as allies in a fight against an evil force destroying the forest. In my campaign’s Nentir Vale, treants are embroiled in a civil war, divided between northern conifers and southern deciduous factions, drawing players into a treant conflict with its unique perils and alliances.
Will-O’-Wisp
Challenge Rating: 2
Adventurers who follow a will-o’-wisp’s ghostly light risk being lured into dangerous traps or monster lairs. These malicious lights can lead adventurers astray or draw them into dangerous territory. Alternatively, the light could act as a beacon, leading them to an ally needing rescue or an unexpected encounter.
