Top 10 Strongest "Legendary" Monsters in D&D
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- čas přidán 9. 07. 2024
- Legendary monsters are literally the strongest, most powerful creatures in D&D, and they have special abilities to indicate that; most legendary monsters are either gods, or beings that are very close to becoming gods, so they’re always incredibly strong. A Legendary monster always has two traits: Legendary Resistances, and Legendary Actions.
Video edited by BV
Written by: Zephyr
├ The List
Intro: (0:00)
10-Ancient (Gold) Dragon: (0:48)
9-Niv-Mizzet: (2:40)
8-Orcus: (4:28)
7-Zariel: (5:36)
6-Tromokratis: (7:07)
5-Rak Tulkesh: (9:45)
4-Greatwyrms (metallic): (12:21)
3-Sul Khatesh: (14:29)
2-Tarrasque: (17:10)
1-Aspect of Tiamat/Aspect of Bahamut: (19:41)
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Niv-Mizzet is TERRIFYING, that dual-concentration thing is just absolutely ridiculously overpowered when you look at his spell list.
Like, use labyrinth on the barbarian and let him enjoy his intelligence Saving throws
And it makes sense if you play MTG. In lore, he's like 10,000 years old, is the smartest being on the planet (maybe smartest in the multiverse) and has been experimenting with magic the whole time. He should be nigh invincible for mortals.
Tarrasque absolutely did NOT deserve to be #2. I would've given it like #7 being generous.
My party fougth Zariel at the end of Avernus, although she was already a little beaten up, having fought in the blood war with a distraction they created to save the city.
She appeared in front of them furious... the fight was intense, they were hyped but scared at the same time, one of them died and another fell, the only ones left alive were the last 2 members of the group who had less than 10 hp . Surprising end to the campaign. Totally recommended AND amazing video!
When we did it, we fought her at full power. Lets just say casing Telekenesis on her weapon and removing it from the fight helped a lot.
Just here to point out that Zariel isn't a demon lord, she's an archdevil, it even says devil right next to her creature type, even has a statblock that calls her an Archduke.
It's also worth mentioning she's one of the bosses MotM heavily nerfed, reducing her hit points & her Ranged DPR significantly. Her original stat block deserves this spot, but he's using the new one, which isn't that impressive tbh. Rather have Demogorgon, since he can Spam Feeblemind
Another shortcoming of the Tarrasque is its lack of ranged attacks. If you sit on a flying mount and shoot it with arrows, there is literally nothing it can to to stop you.
Another way to easily defeat the Tarrasque is to be at least LV 9 wizard cast polymorf and turn into the Clay Golem, then be swallowed by Tarrasque and deal damage inside of it. Clay Golem is immune to acid damage and deals MAGICAL Bludgeoning so Tarrasque is pretty much done.
@@-tesla-1959You have the right idea but Polymorph is limited to Beasts, so you’d need to be lvl 17 and use True Polymorph for that strategy
In 2e they had an aura of grounding. You couldn’t fly around them
The 5e Tarrasque doesn't belong on this list & I wish he'd stop adding it purely for the name recognition. People who know anything about d&d recognize the Tarrasque, but anyone with a decent grasp of mechanics knows its a joke. He likely understands that a smart party as low as level 10 could kill the tarrasque with minimal difficulty, but puts it on the list because new players expect it to be there
@@quasarsword7479they also used to have hp regeneration & earthglide
In my last Campaign my party fought both Orcus and Niv-mizzit. I will say we were Lvl 14 when we fought Niv-mizzit and Lvl 20 when we fought Orcus. As a result Niv-mizzit was easily the hardest boss fight our group encountered in our 1.5 year campaign and im pretty sure our DM even nerfed some parts of him. His insane spell casting ability along with the movement of a dragon was almost too much for our party we had at least 5 ko's during the fight and one death. Orcus was fairly tough especially since our DM gave him a legendary action that just refilled his hitpoints to full. But aside from that and the Conjure undead, we had a lot more tools to deal with him. And he was far more vulnerable to our bloodhunter/barbarian and rouge/fighter to just bash away on him
I was surprised the Tarrasque even was on the list
5e Tarrasque is a mockery of what it should be
@@thechosenbeastdoesgames956 EXACTLY, YES!! Older editions made the thing absolutely terrifying. Now it's just...a sack of hit points
If your dm respects the lore of the tarrasque then it absolutely belongs on this list. The tarrasque is more than just it’s stat block.
My D&D group fought a Displacer Beast in our last session! The DM had to do some serious fudging of dice and repeatedly ask about our current HP in order for us to not get TPK'd by it.
We.. Uh... We're a long way off ever seeing any of the creatures in this video.
You'll fight em eventually, my group took round 7 months before encountering a tarrasque, a custom tarrasque aswel... It had spell casting...
Today I just discovered DnDlogs after being a Duellogs watcher, literally both of my favorite games
Great video, thanks. I have a suggestion for a future video: tell us a story of a party that actually defeated one of those bosses!!! Watching this video felt like impossible to manage that... thanks in advance !!!
Ayy I love your yugioh content and just stumbled on your DnD content. Awesome dude keep it up 😂
you kinda forgot that Bahamut spawns a whole bunch of gold Dragons, pushing him way above Tiamat.
He doesn't spawn them. It says that he is often accompanied by 7 Ancient Gold Dragons. So, if they do, yes, he is way above Tiamat. If they don't, he has no ability to spawn them himself, outside of homebrew.
@@brianvanhal4974yeah, I remember in one edition tiamat could be accompanied by her reverse-harem of ancient chromatic dragons.
Ah yes, the Gold Canary squad
@brianvanhal4974 one of the aspects mythic actions 7 spectral gold dragons that function identically to ancient golds except with 77 hp each
@@jadenpatterson3065 In what book. Fizban's does not have that
Edit: That is not what Celestial Shield does. It only grants him 77 temp hp. And only for one turn
The original Tiamat from The Tyranny of Dragons is way more powerful than the aspect of Tiamat
I love creature videos. More of these please 🙏🙏
Yeah, Sul-Katesh is more difficult to beat then either Bahamut or Tiamut, unless you manage to get a suprise round, & Deal 475 damage to her before she uses Arcane Catastrophe. As soon as that ability goes off, unless you have DM-Fiat dependent help (Artifacts, or the direct blessing of a God, which is up to the DM to give you) the fight is borderline unwinnable. Sure, a reasonable DM will recognize that, and probably won't put you in a fight that you mechanically can't win, but she's the only monster that requires things you can't get through Class Features to beat her. Doesn't matter how " Optimized" you are, you can rock up with 20 Simulacrums, & a crazy speed archer build with 500 ft. of movement, it doesn't matter. She will wreck your min-maxed party, unless you have specific narrative things, or a multi-step master plan to get around her abilities, and at least at that point you were forced to think during combat.
I'm not even gonna compare her to the Tarrasque, because there is no comparison.
I have a character build that could oneshot Sul-Katesh, but it's pretty gimicky, and very reliant on magic. If that character got a surprise round, she should die in one hit.
And a lvl 20 Cleric using Divine Intervention COULD get some help that isn't exclusively DM Fiat. If the request is something like "Bolster our magic so it works against her", or just "Pull her into the open and paralyze her", it's a possible fight. It's not one you would win if you fight on her terms, but there are a few ways of defeating that monstrosity of a character.
Finding out you do dnd and not just yugioh is the greatest thing I've discovered this year.
he also does mtg
Zariel is a devil not a demon
An archdevil at that
🤓
You caught that, too, huh? 😂
@@triceratops2653 he's got a history of straight up misinformation in his videos
I've always assumed he throws in a few obvious mistakes for the sake of engagement. That Zariel is a devil would be mentioned at the top of every source so it'd be hard to miss, except when done intentionally.
I'd have named the video strongest of 5E. In previous editions there were things much scarier than the actual Bahamut and Tiamat, not just their aspects. I know folks that still play old editions. That being said still a good video.
Interesting list, I kind of figured the dragon god aspects would take the top spot but I learned about monsters I never heard of. Mythic actions, now those are awesome.
Meanwhile I homebrewed basically a CR 35 boss monster that is stronger than all these creatures that I will one day unleash on my lv20 players. They of course will have the tools for victory, but it will not be easy muwahahahaha.
Fun video!
Sul Khatesh should have been #2 or #1. There’s quite literally very little any party can do to hurt her.
A Barbarian or a Fighter with (or both, preferably) with an Artifact Weapon are about the only things that could challenge her. Artefacts are the only magical items not affected by Anti-Magic Field.
Sul Khatesh might be powerful, but a Battlemaster Fighter with a Sword of Kas, or Axe of the Dwarvish Lords, who goes all out with Action Surge and all of the Battle Maneuvers they can, WILL be a serious threat. A lvl 9 fighter at that lvl can do nearly 100 damage with some good rolls. A lvl 20? That's a lot scarier.
And since Magic created by Gods also isn't affected by Anti Magic Zone, a Cleric using Divine Intervention (assuming lvl 20 for auto success) could paralyze Sul Khatesh, which would let the fighter or Barbarian wreck house that much harder.
@@1Kapuchu100
Sul Khatesh is immune to the paralyzed condition.
@@1Kapuchu100she can fly out of melee range or just teleport out of combat if she feels threatened
I am surprised that the Scion Giants in that Giant book didn't make it in this video xd
I think its worth mentioning, when talking about which damage types are best. The ranks are from the perspective of the players. Plenty of monsters resist poison, acid, and fire. But that doesnt mean plenty of player characters do
What about the spell casting rules for dragons? Does that improve them?
"fighting a Tarrasque on its own terms, is basically impossible"
yeah tell that to my dad's friend, whos Minotaur Barbarian jumped into its mouth and ripped his way out of its chest with its god damn heart between his horns.
the DM literally left to get more snacks he was so flabbergasted XD
5e nurfed the Terrasque so hard. It used to regen all of its hit points at the beginning of its turn. So you basically had to one shot it.
The spell cards look so clear and pedagogic, does anyone know where can I buy them :)?
Edit:nvm just saw in description.
nice
Gold dragons ain't cowardly. They are lawful good creatures that hate violence.
Correct me if I am wrong regarding the Tarrasque:
We use a Fireball Spell: It is not a Magic Missle or a line spell ( I don't know about the current definition) and does not require a ranged attack roll.
So the Tarrasque only has its MR + Legendary resistance against it, it is not immune against it.
It's effectively immune to Fireball through its immunity to fire damage. Even if it fails the save it takes no damage
@@agentchaos9332 Ty, I do not have a MM here. Let's take a chain lightning instead. I think a lightning bolt could be reflected as it is a line spell.
True but as a reminder, even at 20th level you'll only have 6 spell slots that could be used for something like chain lightning. But mind you, that still doesn't make it as powerful as Sul Khatesh and the Aspects of Tiamat/Bahamut@@petrameyer1121
You could change the damage type of fireball and then make that work. Any sorcerer or a Scribes wizard would work for that.
The Tarrasque has a lot of immunities, which means that a lot of the most useful spells a caster has, are of limited use against a Tarrasque.
Im surprised Vecna didn't make the list, his statblock is pretty crazy.
Eh he’s nearsighted and missing a hand, how bad can he be?
18:55 I am reminded of the Clay Golem, and it's ability to resist acid
Resist? Brother, it has a straight up Immunity to Acid (or rather ALL of the Tarrasque's attacks since none of its attacks are magical) and actually REGENERATES HEALTH when taking Acid Damage instead. Straight up, a party with the means to do so could all True Polymorph into Clay Golems, have the Tarrasque eat them by annoying it enough, and basically just give it death by indigestion since they'd never take damage and could kill it from within, presuming the DM doesn't pull every DM shenanigan they can like saying the Tarrasaque ignores you because you no longer look appetizing no matter how much you hurt it, or saying that it simply runs away.
The Tarrasque really shouldn't be on this list. It's a freakin' joke compared to prior editions.
Sounds like Silly Putty to the Tarrasque. You're saying the Tarrasque can't hit it, slash it, pick it up and throw it 25,000 feet into the air like a tennis ball? 😢
@redfaux74 I'm saying even if it did, rules as written that STILL wouldn't deal any damage to the players who have polymorphed into Clay Golems because fall damage is also non-magical. The DM basically has to homebrew change everything about the Tarrasque to make it an actual threat to anyone. Even a Level 1 race with flying and a bow can whittle it death over time.
@@invertedghostgames9899 - The more I hear about 5E the more I think it sucks. But technically, as per written rules, you're likely correct. 2E made the Tarrasque a series of apocalyptic adventures, not a large bear.
Sul Katesh might be, imo, the single most strongest sheet in 5e, even if it's lower in CR than the titan Tarrasque and the Aspects. She rulled over Eberron at her highest power and all of her abilities make her a scary and almost stupid monster. Counterspell at will, a massive AOE that CREATES a near GLOBE of antimagic and she has immunity to non-magical damage, and of course, she can literally Change shape into a giant in the middle of the fight and fucking stomp or your ass and when you kill the giant she will be back again at her full HP where you left her... This thing is almost unbeatable.
Ancient Gold Dragons have literally the same physical damage as Ancient Red Dragons and their Breath weapon deals more damage than a Red Dragons so they are objectively better than Reds, it’s not a trade off they’re just straight up better
Why is there a magic the gethering card in the thumbnail?
Because of the fly spell completely countering the tarrasque and not having regeneration anymore makes her pretty shitty. I mean an aarakokra cleric with maxed wisdom and sacred flame could 1o1 a tarrasque at LVL 4 without that thing doing anything against it. Y it would take hours but the second most strongest creature shouldn't be able to be beaten by a single lvl4 (actually even lvl1) character
My party Redeemed zariel when I DMd Avernous so they didn't have to fight her. I have plans to use the avatar of bahamut in a future session, though
If you Change the voltage fast in a coil the resistance goes Up and so will the amps
Anyone ever wanna know the difference between a devil and a demon in d&d I recommend runesmith. He has a whole basically series like basically demons or basically devils as an example.
Dnd has a metric ton of monster entities and creatures that are insanely strong
It all depends on which level of power you are considering
For most players peak monster are what the manual of monster show
Like the tarraque or elder dragons
Notable mention to top angels like the solar or top fiend like balor and pit fiend
Then there are the spicy monsters
Monster than are way above even elder dragons with challange rating over 23/24
They come in many different form from special class of Uber fiend like the balor on steroid with 4 arms and a mouth in his abdomen
Or named special monster usually inspired to a particular mythology
These bad boys are so overpowered that are considered fair game only for epic level parties and campign(meaning progressing over level 20 that is the top limit of normal dnd)
From there is pure madness
You have special planar dragons that can arrive to challange rating of over 40
You have aspect of demon princes or arch devils
You can even have literal demigods (real gods are considered outside from Normal progression because being gods they are supposedly beyond what a mortal can do)
There videos of top 50 challange rating over 20 monster out there that consider a wide spectrum of sources as material from basic dnd manuals to obscure lore supplements of forgotten edition
Just to make an example there is a red dragon in fearun(setting of forgotten realms the “main” dnd setting) that is called inferno and has a challange rating of 50 or something like that
Or how not to mention the neutronium golem
Go check the stat block and abilities of that bad boy
He bench press planets
He melt you by just being in the general astronomical area of the thing and when it dies it explode like a supernova
The book of elder evils is full of funny over challange rating 20 big bad evil guys
Sul Katesh is so far above the Tarrasque that they don’t deserve to be on the same list.
How were the giant scions not in this list? The stronger of them are INSANE, and they're basically the giants' rebuttal to greatwyrms.
meanwhile me, looking for potential meatshield... i mean allies to throw at vecna in my War of Ruin Campaign (eve of ruin edited) i already hijacked Locus of the Firemind for pcs to attain. and have planned a big ass war in the background that involves now 2 dragon gods
So, I am just curious, how come Tiamat from ToD:RoT doesn't feature on the list?
Id'd say it is quite a ways more powerful than say, the Tarrasque, but I am not sure how it holds up to it's own aspect (hilariously) or that of Bahamut, considering that it's an older statblock.
Just thought I'd mention it since it's what I've considered to be an apex monster in 5E since I saw it way back when.
Not that it does have some real feel-bad mechanics, again, due to older design, and probably isn't as fun to fight as the Aspect. But it certainly is powerful!
What about the CR 30 Asmodeus from the newest book?
I have yet to hear about this what book may I ask?
@@KingsNerdCave The book is chains of asmodeus. It is a WOTC book but it was released without barely any talk from them like two month ago. I havent read it but according some reviews its the best WOTC adventure module in years, some claiming its the best official 5e product. The stat block of asmodeus looks gnarly af. Its 30CR but in my opinion the real CR is way higher, like maybe 36.
@@LordOfFlies Holy moly, sounds awesome. I haven't heard of it yet. Appreciate the info.
@@KingsNerdCave No problem man ;)
If only their were prismatic dragons to put them all to shame...
What about boss monsters you can only reseal or fend of till thr thrown back to where they came from, but once free you actually just cant fight it, like Nidhoger from when ragnorok comes to its end in the dnd’s take on the Norse gods and mythose
I kind of miss the really ridiculous Epic Level monsters and characters from 3.5e, like Force/Prismatic Dragons, Daurgothoth, Imvaernarhro, Ioulaum, etc.
You can find 5e stats for all of them. I have a bunch of them ready for my Legendary Dragons campaign coming up.
Tarrasque is killed by basically everything else on this list easily.
The aspects of Tiamat and Bahamut are certainly stronger, but Tiamat from RoT is the strongest CR30.
But Sul Khatesh is the strongest monster- hands down. When the argument against it is "Well you could run away", that's showing that there's a major concern. Sure, she's a little less flexible, but likely you can't escape for other reasons.
Since you can use any armor for artificer armorer any flying race could beat a tarasque with the sneak armor having infinite lightning ammo for its ranged weapon & eventually ping the tarasque to death by themselves. It isn't that threatening its reflective ability only effects ranged magic attacks. This is a ranged mellee attack that does lightning damage also not resisted by it. Eventually a level 10 or so artificer can replicate boots of flying. If a level 3-10 character can solo it it isn't that scary. The tarasque should be tackled by a 4-5 member party of level 12-13 players it's not a threat to a high level party at all.
So having to use a wish spell to kill the terasque isn't a thing anymore?
Lady of pain 👀
so you're telling me sul khatesh's bane is a grappler rogue with frenzy dip?
Did this guy never read the epic level handbook of 3.5?
Your description of Gold dragons was off. Cunning and cowardly is likely in reference to white dragons.
I knew I recognised your voice. You’re the yugioh guy
No love for dourgathoth (or however its spelt)
The Tarrasque was alot stronger in 2nd and 3rd, if i recall in 2nd u had to get it to neg. hp and then wish spell it away to another plain or it would of regenarate from just a small pieace of it
btw suprised demigorgon didn't make the list or Marut
two of these are from "magic the gathering" and are only crossovers, not actual dungeons&dragons creatures
Niv-mizzet and Tromokratis.
I'm sure DnD has more creatures that could fill their spots
Beholders, Kraken, Astral dreadnought, Zaratan, Elder brain, simple Pitfiend, etc.
Tromokratis gave me Tromoaids right up the recked tokkushz, sufferin' marysue suckmyaersse
You sound really similar to the master duels guy
i wonder if AI can think of new monsters for dnd. you could make a book to sell like that.
what about rakdos? put him in his home he is near impossible to kill unless u just have an insane lvl of damage
I still think daurgothoth is pretty much at top 3 on this list.
Does HirumaRedx know that someone stole his voice?
Terrasques can throw rocks...
bro really placed Orcus at 8th place💀
Love the content and have been subscribed to the channel for a long time now. By the way strongest Greatwym would be the Ancient Time Dragon in Greatwyrm form.
It boggled my mind that Vecna wasn't more powerful than Sul Khatesh...
That was a lame statblock...
Don't a level 1 Ranger Aarakocra kill a tarrasque ?
If your DM is completely braindead? Yes. If not the Tarrasque will get pissed and steamroll everything that tries to fuck around and find out before just running of.
zariel isn't a demon lord, she's a fallen solar and an archdevil, she HATES demons with passion
We beat Tromokratis. True polymorph the barbarian into a “walking statue of water deep” so it’s only one size lower.
Then cleric buff statue with spells.
Then just grapple to hold it there. The giant statue went down eventually but not before it was too late for it.
It could not get back to the water in time and we got all of its hearts.
Problem with Tromokratis is it isn’t smart and has few escape options.
The Tarrasque has a tunnel speed in our game. We really don’t wanna fight it.
I would argue that the terrasque should not even be in this top 10.
When a level One character can solo you, you're not that strong
In no wat a tarrasque is stronger than Sul Katesh. Aspect of Tiamat is arguably stronger. A lot of builds at that lvl have power coming from items, which sul katesh nullifies.
Why are you not showing good pictures of the monsters?
The fact that the Tarrasque is even on this list made me realize I wasted my time here…
UwO
Tarrasque doesn’t even belong on this list. And if it does tbh it should have been a 10. An ancient gold dragon is a much more deadly foe to facez
I ran a campaign that put the players up against, Ancient Dragons, Niv-Mizzet, Zariel, and Rak Tulkesh with appearances from a Chromatic Greatwyrm, Sul Khatesh, The Aspect of Bahumat, and the Aspect of Tiamat. All with tokens and their full stat blocks in case the party decided to throw hands.
So 5E turned Gold Dragons into cowardly creatures? Oh FFS.
Ngl, I think the hecatonchires could’ve made this list. Tho idk if it has an official monster page dedicated to it or not. But is definitely the highest known challenge rated monster in DND
The Tarrasque in 5th E sucks. If you can fly (a flying carpet is best so you have room for other people or items), stay out of grappling range and have a magic bow with unlimited arrows a level 1 character could take it down. If you have a legitimate party with everybody flying use cone of cold, shatter, call lightning, etc. Without the regeneration that is had in previous editions it really isn't that powerful of a monster.
I'm so blown away how dumb 5E has become. So sissy-fied and watered down.
Niv Meset is how large/long? His "cool" attack of 3rd level Slow spell has a range of 120 feet? Basically touch? Not even a range at all. That's like arm distance to a large dragon. And this is #9 of the coolest of the cool?
If he were cool his Fireball would have a range of 5,000 feet, area of effect 100 foot radius that does 20d20 plus 20. And that would not be his bragging spell.
No Daurgothoth or Inferno on the list? A suprise for sure.
Its because they don’t have stats in 5e to my knowledge.
@@megaairsoft15 fair enough
if they did Daurgothoth would easily take the top spot tbh.@@DR4C44N
What about degmadu its stupidly over powered and basically impossible to beat
Gold dragons are the mostly cowardly dragons? Way to cause anyone to question the accuracy of the video with the first monster listed.
I didn't fight any of them, but I killed a butterfly once. And another time, when i was out, the party got tpk'd by some angry badgers. So, yeah. Epic.
Tarrasque is a joke: you can kite it with a magic carpet and an archer with a magic bow. Tarrasque is only strong if you try and brute force it, same goes for the two aspects. Sul Khatesh requires either a DM who's generous with artifacts/plot stuff, or the party organizing an army tossing barrels or alchemists fire or some other enormous and contrived plan to get around her broken antimagic-for-you-but-not-me power. Big dumb sacks of hp like the aspect of tiamat aren't much of a threat for a decent party, even compared to the tyranny of dragons tiamat who's immune to low level magic.
a level 1 character with a bow and any way of flying can kill a tarrasque with litterally NO issue
Tarrasque shouldn't be used as encounters but as plot points
their main feature is the double damage to structures
Drop a Tarrasque in the city that the players must protect and let it wreck havok
now it becomes a scramble to either try and deal 700 damage as fast as possible or help people escape
Tbf thats lvl 1 thing is neat to think about sure, but would never happen in play. First because its immune to non magic damage piercing damage, and because the likelihood a lvl 1 flying player isn’t gonna beat the 25 AC.
Sure you give out the right items it becomes possible, but we should consider when you would feasibly fight something. Cause then an argument could be made for any monster on this list to be lower if you give players specific items etc
you can have a simple magic bow as low as uncommon rarity so perfectly doable without giving away broken or expecially strong items
secondly, who cares if it has 25AC? you just keep shooting and even if one every 20 arrows hits (critical) in the end the tarrasque could NEVER damage you since you are flying so you can keep going like that
If ammo is an issue, istead of an enchanted bow get an enchanted slingshot: pebbles and rocks are everywhere so infinite ammo too@@megaairsoft15
I don't think 5e tarrasque even deserves to be on this list. It's so crippled by its intelligence and lack of any special abilities essentially makes it a punching back for any smart party. It's the equivalent of a rampaging beast in intelligence, which allows you to always fight it on your terms - Be that flying high above it and chipping away at it, or any other strategy. And if the tarrasque is in danger, it can't do much of anything to stop that. A lot of stronger monsters have a way to escape, such as teleport or flight, and can make finishing them off near impossible unless you have heavy countermeasures, and if not they becomes multi-encounter fights. The tarrasque has none of that. If you have a single strategy to kill a tarrasque, it's pretty much guaranteed to succeed. Just these factors alone makes the tarrasque less of a threat than a single ancient dragon in my opinion. Sure, a tarrasque can level a city, but an intelligent and malicious dragon can ruin an entire empire or kingdom if not nipped in the bud.
If I were to encounter a tarrasque just randomly, sure I'd be scared, but our party can just leave and come back when we have a plan to kill it.
If we encounter an ancient dragon, I would fear for my life, because that thing can hold a grudge and ruin my entire life if it wants.
Also, I don't think the Aspect of Tiamat is more of a threat than the Aspect of Bahamut. Bahamut can summon seven (Yes, a whole 7) ancient gold dragons in its second phase. Depending on how you interpret that, it could just be flavour of seven dragons guarding him for a turn as temp hp and nothing more. But the wording ''The aspect manifests seven spectral ancient gold dragons around himself that protect him'' is too specific, and I wouldn't question if they acted as full fledged dragons for the combat. Obviously, this would be stupidly powerful, and would make it stronger than the Aspect of Tiamat. But only if you interpret that as summoning, rather than flavour.
Last thing: Sul Khatesh is too low. If the DM uses her intelligently, she is strictly impossible to kill. No matter how much damage you dish out to her, she can always teleport away. She may be slow, but there's no fighting her on terms where she can die. You are almost required to have a plot device to truly defeat her. Also, you forgot to mention she can turn into any giant with a CR equal or lower than her own. She has a CR of 28... She can turn into a Scion of Stonmaus (CR 27) if she wants... In that case, she can tear rifts in space that summon elementals within a 1 mile radius, as well as cause extreme weather. If she becomes a Scion of Memnor, she can use a bonus action to create a 30 foot radius sphere that charms anything for a turn (DC 24). Or she can become a Scion of Surtur and be a walking volcano. It's not a stretch to say Sul Khatesh has one of the greatest potentials for mass destruction out of any monster on this list.
I'd put Sul Khatesh in 1st place, personally.
Tarrasque simply doesn't belong on this list. Too many ways to cheese it, especially since it keeps losing abilities with every edition. There are way better choices like H' Calos/Star Worm or Borys/Dragon of Athas
so you think the Aspect of Bahamut is less scary than Aspect of Tiamat ? AoB can consistently make a 77 HP shield every fucking round without limit. That's even greater amount than the average damage AoT can deal in a normal turn. Between a monster with a lot of damage an some control, and a monster with just a little less damage, little less control but just refuses to die and keep dishing out DPR forever, which one do you think is scarier ?
That is why this game is not named dungeons and devil or dungeons and tarrasques
Gold dragons are cowards? Lol wut?
I'm pretty sure he meant to say cautious
dragons are pretty weak in 5e honestly.
even by level 10 players tend to have the damage output to kill ancient dragons in just 2 or 3 rounds. while the dragon will deal good damage to them at the ancient level it still just doesnt mean much. the stat block for 5e dragons is also super limited. they more or less just got their 2 breath weapons and basic attacks. nothing special. nothing really unique.
The only true Tarascque is the 2E version.
The others are watered down pansies.
Yeah no, ancient time dragons and their FIVE legendary resistances and literal tine powers and a breath weapon that does damage and a super debuff, will eat an ancient gold dragon's lunch. Not without some difficulty, but it's considered one of the strongest monsters for a reason.
Bahamut is way stronger than Tiamat. The extra damage she gets is NOTHING compared to the ability to heal any ally in a giant area and the fact that his mythic action includes a giant Temporary HP shield, which makes the fight WAY longer, and he's immune to radiant damage, so forget smiting the thing.