You’ve seen a bestiary, now discover the Boss-tiary.
Open the Big Book of Big Bads to discover the biggest, baddest boss monsters for 5e.
Build a campaign or run a one-shot around these thrilling villains. Each Big Bad has an exciting backstory, a roleplay and tactics guide, and everything you need to make them the Big Bad of your session—or even your game!
History of Big Bads
The Big Bads line of zines was conceived in 2019 as a monster-of-the-month booklet for Dungeons & Dragons 5e, where every month we would develop and print a physical 6×9 zine featuring a new boss monster by a new author and supporting artists. To date, 50 issues of the zine have been released to the public, with the Big Book of Big Bads collecting the first 25 issues and six new bosses.
The very first Big Bad was Daniel, written by Andrea Bruce. Daniel is a flesh golem who was abandoned by its creator. Its first sensation was pain, which it now equates with positive feelings. Daniel believes that other creatures haven’t felt pure joy like it has. It believes it can spread this joy if only these creatures would trust it. Daniel doesn’t intend to harm anyone; it thinks maiming is a kindness.
A few years and several big bads later, a father wrote to us to say that he read the tragic tale of Daniel as a bedtime story to his son. Inspired by this, we created a children’s book based on Daniel. Daniel Wants A Hug is designed to teach children about the importance of consent.
Following Daniel is a rogues’ gallery of 49 other big bads, plus several new baddies created for the Big Book of Big Bads hardcover collection.
Big Bad Mascot: King Blrrk
The unofficial mascot of Big Bads is King Blrrk, the gelatinous cube mob boss. The iconic art of them on their throne was drawn by artist Justin Chan and has come to represent the Big Bads line as a whole. They were written by game designer and journalist Rob Wieland, who pitched the concept in 2020.
A formidable crime lord, King Blrrk was formed from the remains of another gelatinous cube and encountered a magic item that granted them sentience, intellect, and awareness. Blrrk uses the chefs’ guild as a front for their criminal empire and they control their vast network from behind the scenes.
A Big Bad World
With the creation of the Big Book of Big Bads, we had the opportunity to expand the world of Big Bads. While each was originally designed independently of the others, we began to create connections between them. Two of the new Big Bads created for the book, The Horned Giant and Rel’Um, are mentioned in the stories of Big Bads from the original zine line (Akkadia and Magda respectively) and expanded into their own entries. Akkadia’s goal is to assemble the pieces of The Horned Giant, and Rel’Um is a powerful magic user who is controlling Magda.
Also new to the world is the Big Bad Bureau, an organization that characters can join in order to tackle threats. The Big Bad Bureau is a multiverse-spanning organization tasked with keeping
Big Bads under control. In the world of Big Bads, these oversized archvillains are a regular threat and there is a whole organization dedicated to dealing with them. Within the bureau is a hierarchy of roles that characters can aspire to, and departmental structures divided based on the type of Big Bad in question. Some can travel between planes and universes, some are especially capable magic users, and some theme their actions around popular holidays—each type is handled by a different department.
In addition to enriching the story and setting of Big Bads, the Big Bad Bureau enabled us to introduce new player options. With the addition of the Big Bad Bureau Field Agent background and special feats Archivist Training, Big Bad Battler, and Leadership Training, players can take their big bad campaigns to the next level. Players can also access new magic items from the field equipment they receive as agents.
The Big Book of Big Bads includes guidelines for running a campaign centered on Big Bads. The campaign is presented as a four-arc framework that connects the stories of all Big Bads in the book together. There are even ways for Big Bads to be pulling the strings behind the Big Bad Bureau itself!
Inspiration and Collaboration
The Big Bads collection was inspired by Dungeons & Dragons adventures such as Curse of Strahd. That adventure contains a chapter focusing on the titular Count Strahd von Zarovich, detailing his ambitions and goals, and how a GM should use him in their games. Strahd isn’t just a stat block, he is a living character. We wanted to give our bosses stories, depth, and attention to rival that of Strahd.
Our Big Bads come with full backstories, relationships, tragedies, and motivations, as well as detailed roleplaying advice and a full tactics breakdown. These tactical details help GMs to use the Big Bads to their best advantage in combat. Each Big Bad also has a trait, a bond, and a flaw, to mirror the characters’ own, and several quest hooks designed to start the characters on their adventures. Several Big Bads also have their own lairs—dens of evil that make them even stronger in battle.
Big Bads span the entire range of Challenge Ratings, with minions at much lower CRs to mighty godlike Big Bads at CR 30. This diversity in difficulty ensures that characters of all levels and players of all experiences can encounter Big Bads and have the chance to overcome them. Big Bads also drop unique loot in the form of new magic items when they are defeated.
In addition to creating new, compelling adversaries, our other goal was to collaborate with writers, artists, and other creators in the TTRPG space whom we wanted to work with. Each Big Bad has a different author, cover artist, and interior artist, totaling over 100 talented folks who contributed to this project! Creating the shorter-form Big Bads zines allowed us the flexibility to collaborate with some amazing people, and we are grateful for the chance to work with folks from around the world.
Accolades and Awards
The Big Bads zines and box set have won three awards to date, two ENNIE Awards and one IPPY Award.
Established in 2001, the ENNIE Awards (or, the ENNIES) are the biggest awards in the tabletop roleplaying game community. Books are nominated by judges, then voted on by fans.
Established in 1996, the Independent Publisher Awards (or, the IPPY Awards) are a celebration of the best books by independent publishers around the world. Winners are selected by a panel of judges.
2020 ENNIE Awards
SILVER: Best Monster/Adversary, Big Bad Booklet 1–6. The first six zine issues of the Big Bads zine were submitted to the ENNIEs as a collection and recognized with a silver award for their quality as adversaries that players can fight.
2025 ENNIE Awards
SILVER: Best Monster/Adversary, Big Bads Box Set. The Big Bads Box Set packages the Big Book of Big Bads with Creatures & Curios, a book of 100 new monsters and magic items. It likewise received a silver award for its outstanding quality.
2025 IPPY Awards
GOLD: Most Outstanding Design, Big Bads Box Set. The Big Bads Holo-Foil Deluxe Box Set got its moment to shine, recognized with a gold award for its beautiful graphic design, layout, and foil finish.
Crowdfunding
The Big Bads project would not have happened if it wasn’t for our many supporters on Patreon and Kickstarter.
The Big Bads zine ran for four years on Patreon. After that, we took the project to Kickstarter to fund a collected volume of the first 25 issues. The Kickstarter campaign raised over $350,000 in April 2023. We are ever grateful for the continued support and guidance from our community in developing this series.
Our next step is to crowdfund a full sequel, Big Bads 2. The book won’t actually be called “Big Bads 2”; in fact, we are searching for a name for the project that befits its villainy! If you’ve got a great name idea, please suggest it here.
You can sign up to be notified when the Kickstarter campaign for a sequel to the Big Book of Big Bads goes live here.
Who are the Big Bads?
Each Big Bad is unique, and there are a variety of monster types represented across the collection. The complete list of Big Bads is:
- 001 - Daniel, flesh golem
- 002 - Carsus, ancient tree
- 003 - Verreaux, owlbear warlord
- 004 - Tussentenner, giant werewolf
- 005 - Gollythank, gnome toymaker
- 006 - Akkadia, human thief trio
- 007 - The Maker, construct
- 008 - Speckleback, giant frog
- 009 - Pork & Bean, bugbear and goblin duo
- 010 - Magda, elf sorcerer
- 011 - The Prince-in-Ivory, faerie noble
- 012 - Tendon & Bone, drow abomination and basilisk
- 013 - King Blrrk, gelatinous cube mob boss
- 015 - Scula, faerie hunter
- 014 - Zelepestrina, succubus
- 016 - Gyx, giant bird
- 017 - Harathos, old god
- 018 - The Hydrail, gargantuan snail
- 019 - Vellai-axal, eldritch horror
- 020 - Thulyrix, occultist
- 021 - Shen, dragon
- 022 - Fulmini, vampire pirate
- 023 - Exaxia, plant necromancer
- 024 - Wranrebur, demon
- 025 - Imryss, celestial
- 026 - Conqueror Worm, monstrosity
- 027 - Grandmother Mercy, fey hag
- 028 - Never-King, noble aberration
- 029 - Baudelaire, cat familiar
- 030 - Kerath, celestial horse
- 031 - Duskbane, fey nightmare
- 032 - Emmeline, vampiric plant
- 033 - Ontranto, fiend shapechanger
- 034 - Anrhea, half-elf hunter
- 035 - Vitus, human gravedigger
- 036 - Xera’yyn, tiefling world-ender
- 037 - Gutraxr, ravenous troll
- 038 - Mirabelle, living doll
- 039 - Alkinimic Rex, mimic dragon
- 040 - Perigon, human weathermaker
- 041 - Lord Charrox, fire elemental
- 042 - Teodora, godkilling cultist
- 043 - You, imaginary bear
- 044 - Jamilah, emotion-eating fiend
- 045 - Agaar, gelatinous bear
- 046 - Dounstragh, corrupted oracle
- 047 - Putrescere, void druid
- 048 - Red Reaper, fiendish construct
- 049 - Tarathial, false god
- 050 - Zifferblatt, grandfather clock
Big Bads Come to Life
Along with the Big Book of Big Bads and the Big Bads Box Set, there are many ways to bring Big Bads to your 5e game!
Big Bads: Miniatures
Each Big Bad has a sculpted STL file associated with it, available for purchase separately. With a Big Bads STL file, you can use a 3D printer to print your very own miniature! You can then paint the mini to your taste. STL files are sold individually (per Big Bad) or in a bundle with others.
Big Bads: Music to Beat Bosses to
We teamed up with our friends at Creative Command Studios (Shantae, OK K.O.) to bring you 10 tracks perfect for Big Bad boss fights. The album is available for digital download and on vinyl. Or you can listen now on Youtube and Spotify.
