THE most powerful monster?

[Ominous]

Nothing can have a CR of 1000. CR becomes meaningless much, much, much, much, MUCH earlier.

Incidentally, note that the Great Wyrm Prismatic is still just as vulnerable to dex drain as any other dragon.
(Well, not really, it can defend against it much, much better. Like with Epic Spellcasting.)

I was mistaken. I finally found my Slayer's Guide for Giants and the Land Giant has a CR of 90. I was only off by 910.

[bosssmiley]

You lot wanna look at volume 1 of the Bestiary for Upper Krust's "Immortals Handbook". There are things in there with CRs from 25 to around 9,200 (the Neutronium Golem). All with internally consistent D&D stats.

[Mr._Blinky]

And you can disable it with one second-level spell!

And its saves only rank in the millions!

And even if you manage to find a second level killer spell that allows spell resistance instead of saves (I checked and didn't see one, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist), it's the same as saying a first level commoner armed with a dagger can kill a great wyrm dragon...if the dragon asked him to do it and stuck its neck out, lifted the scale itself, and provided him with the dagger. The second level spell will only really work if you put them in a situation they will never be in with any shred of logic.

[Bears With Lasers]

Ray of Stupidity. 1d4+1 INT damage. SR's an issue... but there are ways of bypassing that completely, such as Beguiler 20.

Unless I've somehow missed an immunity to ability damage in the entry.

[Assassinfox]

The Lady of Pain.

* ducks behind a tower shield before people start screaming "BLASPHEMY!" *

[Ted_Stryker]

You lot wanna look at volume 1 of the Bestiary for Upper Krust's "Immortals Handbook". There are things in there with CRs from 25 to around 9,200 (the Neutronium Golem). All with internally consistent D&D stats.

Of course, if you have a derelict starship to fly into its maw, you can take down a Neutronium Golem pretty easily. You might need to have a Krazy Kommodore fly a smaller vessel into it first, though.

[Mr._Blinky]

Ray of Stupidity. 1d4+1 INT damage. SR's an issue... but there are ways of bypassing that completely, such as Beguiler 20.

Unless I've somehow missed an immunity to ability damage in the entry.

It has no ability damage immunity, or spell resistance, so neither would be a problem. The problem would be getting in a situation where you could actually do this without getting killed. And assuming you find one, since I'm sure one exists, what then? It still isn't dead, and I can't think of any way to kill it.

[Seatbelt]

Wish? I wish this turtle no longer exists.

[Everyman]

As a DM, that wish would not only fail, but result in an immediate "fish slap" from an angry deity.

[CharPixie]

Humans. Nothing worse than humanity; hordes of wizards, clerics, and paladins all wanting to loot your corpse.

[Jack Mann]

It has no ability damage immunity, or spell resistance, so neither would be a problem. The problem would be getting in a situation where you could actually do this without getting killed. And assuming you find one, since I'm sure one exists, what then? It still isn't dead, and I can't think of any way to kill it.

Star Turtles are peaceful creatures who carry worlds on their backs. A star turtle will avoid danger when possible, and fight only when unavoidable. It will snake out its neck to snatch at passing meteors or comets that might threaten the world on its back.

See, first, the turtle would have to recognize you as dangerous before you cast the spell. I don't see that happening. If, for some reason, there's a reason it would, you can turn yourself invisible first. With its spot +1, there's not much chance it'd see you.

Granted, figuring out a way to kill it after that is going to be difficult, but you can pretty much keep unconscious by recasting the spell each time it wakes up (when it heals one point of intelligence after resting). Again, invisibility is your friend here.

Now, A'Tuin might be protected by the people living on the Discworld, but that's a separate issue. By itself, it's quite vulnerable to this tactic.

[Bears With Lasers]

Okay, yeah. Humanity as a whole is probably CR 1,000.

[JaronK]

More templates!
Celestial Fiendish Half-Celestial Half-Fiend Half-Giant Half-Troll Half-Illithid Ti-Khana Chimeric Tauric Voidmind Titanic Lich Vampiric Were-Everything [What JaronK said] of Legend.

Am I the only one who finds the idea of applying the "Titanic" and "Of Legend" templates to the Terrasque? I mean, seriously, Terrasque of Legend? Is there another one that's his idiot younger brother "Terrasque of a few stories here and there"?

Of course, I see nothing at all wrong with stacking 20 or more "Half X" templates. That's just pure joy.

JaronK

[Bears With Lasers]

I mean, seriously, Terrasque of Legend? Is there another one that's his idiot younger brother "Terrasque of a few stories here and there"?

Oh, god. Somebody HAS to make an "Of A Few Stories Here And There" template now.

[Jack Mann]

On it, chief.

[marjan]

The problem would be getting in a situation where you could actually do this without getting killed.

Take 20 on finger of death?

[Avicenex]

Tarrasque + Monster of Legend Template = Near Unkillable Creature.

Monster of Legend can grant perma-spell turning, which means

Spells and spell-like effects targeted on you are turned back upon the original caster

(emphasis mine)

The Wish and Miracle spells are either target, effect, or area. However:

The tarrasque can be slain only by raising its nonlethal damage total to its full normal hit points +10 (or 868 hit points) and using a wish or miracle spell to keep it dead.

(emphasis mine)

This means any Wish or Miracle wishing it dead (and targeting it) turn back on the caster. The only way to get the spell to go through is to have your own Spell Turning activated, and hope that when the wish starts bouncing around, you roll 71-80 on the %, making the spell affect you both.

This doesn't mean the Tarrasque of Legend can kill you--in fact, pretty much anything that can fly can still incapacitate it. But it does make it pretty hard to kill.

Also, at this time I would like to point out that the Hecatoncheires is a truely pathetic monster for it's CR. Looking at the Star Turtle, so is it.

Edit: I would also like to point out you can't just add templates willy-nilly by RAW. Many templates have requirements like creature type, and some templates preclude you from having others.

[Jack Mann]

Behold! The Monster of a Few Stories Here and There!

[Bears With Lasers]

Behold! The Monster of a Few Stories Here and There, by JackMann and yours truly.

Edit: snerk.

[Charity]

Nice one Jack'o'bear... Man with lasers.

So given that the most powerful monster is the last one we made up out of templates, whats the most overpowered for its CR?

[Overlard]

Nice one Jack'o'bear... Man with lasers.

So given that the most powerful monster is the last one we made up out of templates, whats the most overpowered for its CR?

Not sure, but I know shadows have my players running for the hills whenever they see one, and they're level 10.

[Iron_Mouse]

Most overpowered for it's CR? Dunno, but adamantium clockwork horrors (MM2) are a good guess. They have disintegrate, implosion and disjunction at will.

And are CR 9.

[Telonius]

The most powerful monster in the bestiary: the Aleax. The only limit to this thing's power is the players' level of cheesiness.

[Bears With Lasers]

Most overpowered for it's CR? Dunno, but adamantium clockwork horrors (MM2) are a good guess. They have disintegrate, implosion and disjunction at will.

And are CR 9.

What... the... HELL?

[Charity]

well we met an Aboleth CR 7 recently, they are really unpleasant if you have a naff will save, which I certainly had. dominate person (DC17) 3 times a day as a 16th level sorcerer, turn you into a fishman (DC19) fort save,
At will hypnotic pattern(DC 15), illusory wall (DC 17), mirage arcana(DC 18), persistent image(DC 18), programmed image(DC 19), project image(DC 20), veil(DC 19). Effective caster level 16th.
nasty.

[JaronK]

The templates I listed are actually fully legal, as they don't change type.

Most overpowered for the CR is actually quite easy. It's a Zombie Psuedonatural Half-Celestial [All Half-Dragons] Draconic Half-Fey Half-Troll Half-Iron Golem Anarchic Shadow Dark 5 Headed Cryohydra of Legend. Why? Because adding the Zombie template resets the CR to 1.

Admittedly, it's vulnerable to turning, but other than that the thing is damn near unstoppable. It's even a fast moving flier, so it can use a partial charge action from a very long way away and then attack with all five heads (since Hydras use all their heads to attack as a standard action).

JaronK

[NEO|Phyte]

Most overpowered for the CR is actually quite easy. It's a Zombie Psuedonatural Half-Celestial [All Half-Dragons] Draconic Half-Fey Half-Troll Half-Iron Golem Anarchic Shadow Dark 5 Headed Cryohydra of Legend. Why? Because adding the Zombie template resets the CR to 1.

Admittedly, it's vulnerable to turning, but other than that the thing is damn near unstoppable. It's even a fast moving flier, so it can use a partial charge action from a very long way away and then attack with all five heads (since Hydras use all their heads to attack as a standard action).

Its a shame that the Zombie template at the end removes all Special Attacks and most Special Qualities of the thing, although I guess the STR and DEX boosts can make for a bit of a nasty beastie.
:edit: Oh, and the CR would be 3, because the zombie doubles the HD of the base monster.

[JaronK]

Ah right. And yeah, you lose a lot of the advantages, but it's still a CR 3 critter with a strength somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 and an AC in the low tripple digits. It's also got a move speed of I believe 45 and a fly of 90, with 5 attacks. Very very nasty.

[SeeKay]

The most powerful monster?

A Kobold.... with 20 levels of Cleric, 20 of Wizard, 20 of Rogue and 10 of Blackguard (and levels of whatever else to make the party REALLY fear short, yippy, lizard-things)

[JaronK]

That Kobold has a CR of 70, and honestly isn't very good for an epic caster.

JaronK