The Best D&D Arena Monster

Perhaps my favorite D&D arena monster to field in the Dungeonsports Coliseum is the Red Abishai. You can find the lore and stat blocks for all Abishai starting on page 160 of Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes. According to the tome, Abishai are former mortals whose souls are tranformed into these fiendish beings as a reward by Tiamat.

Red Abishai are by far the toughest of the Abishai. They have an armor class of 22 and 255 average hit points of. Consequently, they are hard to hit and can take a beating. They get three attacks, and if all three hit you can expect and average of 86 damage per turn. That’s enough even to give a beefy bear totem barbarian pause.

Red Abishai have a +12 to hit, making it very likely they are going to connect with those attacks. They also have a nasty little trick in their fiendish pockets, namely Incite Fanaticism. This action allows the Red Abishai to grant advantage on attacks to up to four of their allies. Especially in an encounter with multiple Red Abishai, where they can give each other advantage, you can count on this ability radically increasing the amount of damage your monsters can dish out.

Being the Best D&D Arena Monster You Can Be

These monsters have never failed to provide the contestants of the Coliseum with a challenge. This is true even for level 20 PCs with epic boons. Secondly, Incite Fanaticism also significantly increases the power of other monsters. Lastly, the players are afraid of them. The Red Abishai’s speed and powerful close combat forces players to pay attention to them, giving other monsters a chance to do their worst. Although I create counter at (sorta) random, it’s great to have these creatures paired with other monsters that can dish out significant ranged damage.

For as good as red abishai are, they won’t swallow anybody whole. For that, you should look at these monsters.

Now, you can come out and see Red Abishai flex their muscle in the Dungeonsports Coliseum on Twitch! Later on, I’ll be posting more articles in this series on the best D&D arena monsters. You’ll find them under the category of “Voivode’s Hotlist”.