If you want to throw some chaos into yourDungeons & Dragons,then look no further than the Slaad - or Slaadi for its plural form. Slaadi are toad-like creatures that come from Limbo, and they’re famous for being relatively tough enemies thanks to their Magic Resistance and Regeneration, which makes them a bit of a damage sponge.
Thus, to make your players' livesworsemore challenging, we’re here to take a look at the updated Slaadi stats from the 2024 Monster Manual and rank them based on overall design and mechanics - and not necessarily easier to hardest because that’d be just a CR rank.
1/8
Distinct Feature
It turns into other Slaadi after a while.
Due to being a very weakAberration,Slaad Tadpoles are mainly effective enemies for low-level parties. Their base health is a mere seven, so you may see they’re easy to deal with. However, they still have a few things going for them. Despite their low CR, they already have Magic Resistance, and they have a surprising (and random) number of resistances, as they’re resistant to acid, cold, fire, lightning, and thunder.
If you have a party that relies a lot on magic, a group of tadpoles could be a terrifying fight for them. From a narrative perspective, you also have the bonus that they turn into Blue Slaadi 2d12 hours before they hatch, or even green ones, depending on the tadpole’s host. This means you may put time as a big factor during a game that has all these tadpoles because, if the players are too slow, these CR 1/8 creatures can evolve into CR seven or eight monsters.
8
Access to Fireball and three attacks per turn.
Green Slaadi are the main groundwork that all other higher-CR Slaadi will follow. The Green Slaadi (as well as the Gray and Death ones) all have the same damage resistances as the tadpole, Magic Resistance, Regeneration, chaos weapons, blindsight, the ability to shapeshift, and access to spells. Regeneration lets them recover hit points at the start of their turn, and their chaos weapon will trigger a random condition (decided by a d4) whenever you hit an enemy. The options are charmed, frightened, poisoned, or incapacitated.
The main differences between this Slaad and the stronger ones are base ability scores, weapon attack and damage (plus the fact they attack three times per turn), and spells. Thus, the green variant stays here because it does not have the most exciting spell list, with Detect Magic, Detect Thoughts, and Mage Hand at will, plus Fireball, and Invisibility that can only be cast on themselves. The last two are the key here, as you’re able to surprise attack with your invisibility, and Fireball is always handy.
9
Distinct Features
Weapon with two damage types, and a better spell list compared to Green Slaadi.
Gray Slaadi are a stronger version of the green ones despite having only two attacks per turn compared to them. They’re also medium-sized, which doesn’t change anything, but it is curious. They have better stats, which is expected from a higher CR monster, and though they make fewer attacks, their weapon has two damage types along with the random condition effect, so each strike will hurt more.
Their spell list is also different, with Detect Magic, Detect Thoughts, Mage Hand, Major Image, and Invisibility at will, plus Cloudkill, Fly, Tongues, and Plane Shift, with both Invisibility and Plane Shift only working on themselves. You can rely on your invisibility more, since it’s not just a single use per day. Along with that, being able to fly is very useful, andCloudkill is just a strong spell overall.
10
Upcast versions of Blight and Cloudkill.
Death Slaadi are a tougher version of the Gray Slaadi, so they’re basically a much stronger Green Slaadi. They have the same damage resistances and traits; their weapon also causes two types of damage along with the conditions, and they also have access to spells. The main reason Death Slaadi are in a higher ranking is the fact that they have the deadlier spell list among the Slaadi.
Their at-will spells are the same as the gray ones (Detect Magic, Detect Thoughts, Mage Hand, Major Image, and Invisibility), as well as the spells you’re able to use once a day (Cloudkill, Fly, Tongues, and Plane Shift), but there are two key differences.
First, their Cloudkill is at level six, meaning that it has a higher average damage. Second, they can also use the spell Blight once per day, and they cast it at level eight (the spell’s original level is four). This means they can cause significant damage through their use of Blight. Considering that they’re also the Slaadi with the highest CR, this is the one you want for higher-level campaigns.
5
They can inject tadpoles in their victims.
Going back quite a bit on challenge rating, we’ve got the Red Slaadi. They’re not nearly as powerful as the previous mentions, but their abilities make for interesting encounters that, depending on the party’s level, can even turn into a side-quest of its own. During combat, it’s just a creature with the same resistances and traits we’ve mentioned before, but instead of a weapon, it causes two claw attacks per turn.
Whoever is hit by the claws must do a constitution saving throw, and the target will be cursed on failure, andcurses on the playersare always fun - for you, at least. If cursed, the target (or victim, by this point) will have a Slaad egg inside of them, which will take a lot of days to hatch. During the final 24 hours of this period, the victim will feel unwell, and the newborn tadpole will kill the victim from the inside after it’s born.
Though a simple Remove Curse can fix this issue, you can use this feature as an opportunity to have a fun side-quest where the party needs to find a solution if they still haven’t hit a level high enough to have access to Remove Curse themselves. The biggest issue is that they’ll only realize they’re cursed when they’re nearly out of time, so we recommend making the curse clear right away so they can get started on a cure.
7
A powerful curse that turns victims into Slaadi.
If the previous idea proved interesting to you, Blue Slaadi will actually make it easier, as they’re essentially a stronger version of the red variants, and they can do three attacks per turn and curse people. That said, their curse is a bit different. Instead of injecting an egg in their victim, the Blue Slaad’s curse prevents the victim from recovering hit points, and their maximum hit points decrease every 24 hours.
If the curse makes the victim’s health reach zero, they’ll turn into a Red Slaad instead of dying - or a Green Slaad if the victim is powerful enough to cast third-level spells.
Using this as a plot hook has the same problem as before; Remove Curse fixes this. Thus, if you want to put a ticking clock where they need to save themselves, make sure they don’t have access to it. Keep in mind, though, that their health bar will decrease every day until it’s fixed, which is good for the extra challenge, but it might be impossible for them to fight if their health gets too low, thus complicating the whole side-quest idea.
