The Best Monsters To Use In An Arctic Setting In DnD

Summary

• Arctic D&D environments bring unique challenges for players, from environmental hazards to chilling monsters waiting to ambush.
• Goliaths, wolves, ghosts, ice mephits, yetis, mammoths, zombies, and more can create memorable encounters in frosty settings.
• Consider adding white dragons, trolls, banshees, bandits, and ice devils for epic battles and dangerous foes in your icy campaigns.

Exploring frozen lands in Dungeons & Dragons can bring many challenges for your players. Environmental challenges can make the trek a harrowing experience, and arctic monsters that hide in the snow can be the end of unaware adventurers.

Your party can encounter various creatures on their journey through frozen lands, and D&D has a lot of options for such monsters. Knowing some of the best choices for these settings can help you design fun and memorable encounters for your players.

Updated February 9, 2025, by Alfredo Robelo: Cold environments are meant to be harsh places, where only the most veteran adventurers can survive. Such a place should have equally veteran monsters, and the 2025 Monster Manual is filled with them. We’ve updated this article to include even more creatures for your artic setting.

22

Polar Bear

An Expected Encounter

If your artic environment is set in the Material Plane, then you should have some of the more recognizable creatures roaming around it. Depending on the level of your party, a polar bear might not be too much of a threat, but it can still offer plenty of interactions for some classes.

For starters, a lot of classes have access to the spell Speak with Animals, making these bears an unusual source of information as well as unlikely allies. You will also find that most players don’t want to hurt animals, so if you roleplay the bear right, the party will want to find alternative solutions beyond killing the creature.

21

Roc

One Big Bird

Most artic settings have both mountain regions and plains of nothing but ice, making the roc a great creature to include for parties that can handle one. This gargantuan creature can have its nest in one of the mountains, roaming the wastes in search of prey, like wagons filled with adventurers.

The 2025 Monster Manual has given the roc a deadly bonus action: Swoop. All this does is let the roc fly up to half its speed and drop anything that it has grappled, which can often mean death when the party faces the roc on its nest: it can grab a player character and immediately drop it off the mountain.

20

Manticore

A Deadly Negotiation

Some areas are so hostile that you don’t need a monster for the party to be in danger, but it certainly makes things more interesting. A manticore can add that level of spice, not really due to its abilities (which are fairly standard), but because of its knowledge of the common language and the lore surrounding the creature.

A manticore that appears before a battered down party of adventurers might use the upper hand to strike a deal with them, and as a lawful evil monstrosity, the manticore will often keep its end of the deal. You can do all sorts of things narratively with this, like having the party decide if they should let the manticore take their NPC escort or fight to protect it.

19

Goliaths

Strong-Built

While Goliaths are one of the most popular playable races in D&D, their affinity for cold and their tribal nature can make them into intriguing NPCs in an arctic setting. These tall humanoids can create exciting and intimidating encounters, from a friendly tribe to groups of raiders or bandits.

With their natural resistance to cold and their shared ancestry with giants, they can also be used as minions in more challenging encounters.

What makes Goliaths so intimidating is just their sheer endurance. They wield incredibly strong weapons like it’s nothing and are acclimated to high altitudes where other species would find it hard just to breathe. If you do send your players up against a Goliath, just ensure they’re prepared.

18

Wolves

A Snowy Predator

The arctic is often inhospitable to those who don’t know how to survive in the harsh cold. Some normal animals may call it home though, such as the everyday Wolf. This is a great choice for low-level encounters, or they can be added to larger encounters to beef up the challenge rating.

They are easy to run, with simple melee attacks in the form of bites; just make sure to understand pack tactics when running a group of Wolves. You can even add the optional flanking rule to make them a bit more damaging to your party, too.

Buffing up the challenge further by making them Dire Wolves is a great way to make the fight seem more extreme.

17

Ghosts

Give ‘Em Chills

In many arctic environments, the climate is harsh and unforgiving. For some reason or another, it’s not out of the realm of possibility for the Ghosts of long-dead travelers to be dotting the landscape. Perhaps they were in search of riches in the mountains.

Perhaps they were merely trying to establish a colony in the forests? Perhaps they were local to the area but were simply caught in a bad storm? The thing that makes a Ghost a Ghost is its unfinished business: all Ghosts are yearning to resolve something from their life, to get closure. There’s a lot of range you can play with here as the DM!

Does the Ghost know it’s a Ghost? How long has it been dead? Can the players complete their unfinished business, or do they just have to deal with the nuisance? Might it have critical information? The list goes on.

16

Ice Mephits

Small, But Fearsome

While traversing frozen landscapes and freezing storms, nothing can be more horrific than the ice itself coming to life and attacking you. These small elementals can be easily hidden in a frozen environment and surprise your players while they are struggling with the harsh weather.

Ice Mephits only have a challenge rating of 1/2, but with their frost breath and ability to cast fog clouds, they can pose a real threat to low-level parties. Even if your players can easily destroy them, with their Death Burst feature, they can further damage nearby players, making them especially dangerous in higher numbers.

15

Yetis

Abominable?

The big foot of snowy mountains, Yetis, are popular monsters in folklore and pop culture media. One of the greatest joys of playing D&D is bringing these iconic monsters to life using your imagination, and Yetis are a great option for your players to encounter in arctic biomes.

Yetis can make challenging encounters for low to mid-level players. With a challenge rating of three, they are relatively tanky. With a special ability called The Chilling Gaze, they can deal high amounts of cold damage and paralyze their target, making them capable of knocking characters down very quickly if they fail their saving throws.

14

Icelings

A Little Touch Of The Fey

The Winter Court of the Feywild deals with the cold and everything wintry in nature. It may make sense, depending on the setting, to let the Feywild bleed into the mortal realm your characters inhabit a bit.

Icelings are a solid approach to a less intense encounter that brings the Winter Court to your party. With claws, wings, and darkvision, they are a great ambush predator for the nighttime. The best part is that you can adjust the CR easily, depending on how many you add to the encounter.

13

Banshee

A Creepy Foe

The Monster Manual tells us that Banshees are the ghosts of elves who were stunningly beautiful but, instead of using their beauty for good, used it to “corrupt and control others.” These creatures are bound to wherever they died, so perhaps the banshee in your campaign braved the arctic environment in search of some fabled beauty secret and wasn’t strong enough to endure?

Banshees are a great choice for the snowy, wintry mountains because they’re sheer; amongst the wind and snow whipping around the players’ heads, would they really notice a banshee as it flitted around them, moving through the trees? Probably not. The presence of the living is deeply upsetting to Banshees, so they’re bound to become hostile.

12

Frost Salamanders

Far Larger Than You’d Think

These huge creatures, native to the elemental plane of ice, sometimes find their way into the cold climates of the material plane in their hunt for warm-blooded creatures. Frost Salamanders are dangerous creatures, and when one finds their way into populated areas, they can wreak havoc on the world.

With a challenge rating of 9, Frost Salamanders are one of the strongest elementals your players can face. Even though they are vulnerable to fire, dealing fire damage to them might not be the best idea. Whenever a Frost Salamander takes fire damage, they immediately recharge their devastating freezing breath, which deals 8d10 cold damage in a large cone.

11

Mammoths

Wooly Or Otherwise

While there are many beasts that roam the frozen lands of D&D worlds, none can be as iconic and as dangerous as Mammoths. These wooly elephants are not predators and probably won’t attack your players unprovoked, but if a fight ensues, it can be a deadly one. Ice giants are even known to tame and ride them.

For a challenge rating of six, Mammoths have an impressively large hit point pool, and with the combination of their trampling charge and stomp attack, they can easily deal upwards of 50 damage in a single turn. While not an evil monster, a Mammoth can be a challenging hunt for mid-level parties.

10

Zombies

For When It’s Dead Cold

Arctic settings are often lonely, silent, and foreboding places. Why not dive into the creepy side of your arctic setting and throw a few Zombies into the mix? A few Zombies roaming the snowy expanse outside a village can really turn up the tension.

Tie this in with some discussion with some NPCs about them trying to survive, and you have a full-blown subplot. Plus, there’s always the addition of who made these Zombies, too, if you want to “flesh out” the encounter into a full plot.

There are plenty of homebrewed additions to the classic 5e Zombie to make it more deadly and make their abilities more infection-based.

9

Bheur Hags

Hopefully Not A Coven

Hags are iconic evil fey who inhabit a variety of different biomes, and the ones who are most likely to be found in arctic environments are the pale blue Bheur Hags. These hags have a very creepy appearance as their skin looks like the frozen skin of humans, and like most hags, they love to make the lives of those around them as miserable as possible.

They can cast the spell control weather each day to make the climate of their surroundings even more extreme. In combat, they have access to powerful spells and abilities such as Cone of Cold, Ice Storm, and 50 feet of flying speed. Even among other types of hags, Bheur Hags are one of the strongest opponents for your players.

8

Frost Giants

A Big Challenge

There are many types of giants in D&D, and they have a considerable range of difficulty based on the biomes that they live in. Frost Giants are not the strongest of the giant kin, but combined with the extreme weather and dangerous creatures that they can ally with, they can play a major role in an arctic setting.

With a challenge rating of eight, even a single frost giant can be a threat to mid-level parties. But a small group of them, perhaps with mammoth mounts or other arctic creatures as their allies, can make for an epic battle for high-level players.

7

Remorhaz

Hard To Say, Hard To Fight

It doesn’t have to all be frost-based damage in an arctic setting. The Remorhaz is a creature that calls these frozen areas home, but it lives there comfortably by super-heating its body to deal with the sub-zero temperatures.

They’re a CR 11, so they won’t go down too easily. Combine that with their Heated Body ability that will do fire damage to anything that touches it, and you have an encounter that will need some intelligence as well as brute force.

6

Boneclaws

Chill You To The Bone

Undead are horrifying monsters to face in any environment, but when they roam the caves of a snowy mountain, you know that they’re particularly dangerous. Boneclaws are not necessarily an arctic monster, but with their cold resistance and their appearance, they fit really well into the biome.

Boneclaws are liches that were not strong enough to achieve lichdom, so they have to serve another evil master in their form. As long as the master lives, the Boneclaw will be reanimated within hours if it’s killed, making it a strong and challenging recurring enemy for high-level players.

5

Ice Devil

It Isn’t All Fire And Brimstone

A variety of different creature types are included in this list, but if you want to add some fiendish flavor to your icy world, Ice Devils are the perfect choice. In the hells, themselves, these large devils would be some of the most dangerous creatures that your players might face, and if you bring them into your arctic setting, they can be the main villain of the story.

With high Intelligence, challenge rating of 14, a variety of damage and condition immunities, and decent damage output, ice devils can be a memorable boss fight for your characters. Considering their hellish origin, the reason for them being in the material realm can be an epic adventure on its own.

4

Bandits

Looking For Some Quick Gold

If there’s one enemy that can be in any setting, it’s the classic Bandit. Ruthless, cunning, and eager to take your party’s hard-earned loot, they make any fight a little more interesting. Don’t underestimate how much a Bandit encounter can do for your setting.

You can easily modify a Bandit fight by adding more of them, giving them various specialty or magic items, or even throwing a mage or two into the fray. A random group of cutthroats or an organized gang coming for your players? The choice is yours.

3

Werebears

Bears, Where?

We’re all familiar with werewolves, but have you considered all the other kinds of lycanthropes you could include in your fantasy settings? For arctic environments, we’re in favor of the Werebear.

These are shapechanging beings who, much like werewolves, have been cursed with an animal form.

However, Werebears can temper their monstrous, bestial nature, even when in their fully animal form. They are notably selective about who they pass the curse on to; they tend to choose friends or apprentices and gain consent before passing it on.

Whether you decide to use Werebears as allies or enemies for your players (or, perhaps, a little bit of both), they would make interesting and three-dimensional characters. They tend to be protective over their territory and the natural environment, so it would be easy for your players to stumble into danger unawares.

If you want to take it a step further, the Rime of the Frostmaiden sourcebook includes a Goliath Werebear.