Big Bads: The Big Book of Big Bads – Boss Monsters for 5E

Because big heroes need Big Bads.

Welcome to the BOSSTIARY.

Big Bads: The Big Book of Big Bads is a collection of fully developed boss monsters for 5th Edition fantasy roleplaying, built to give Game Masters more than another page of stat blocks.

Inside are 31 Big Bads ranging from CR 5–30, each designed as a villain you can build a story around—with backstories, motivations, roleplaying guidance, combat tactics, lairs, minions, and thematic magic to help bring them from the book into your campaign.

Need the villain behind your next adventure?

There are 31 applicants for the position.

Meet the Big Bads

These aren't intended to be creatures your party encounters in room six and forgets by room seven.

Each Big Bad comes with material to help you understand who they are, what they want, and what happens when the adventurers finally meet them.

Villain material includes:

Backstories & motivations for working them into your world

Roleplaying guides for bringing their personalities to the table

Combat tactics for understanding how they behave when initiative begins

Lairs & power themes to build encounters around the villain

Minions who can help carry out their plans—and make reaching the boss considerably more complicated

Use one as the centerpiece of a one-shot, build an adventure around them, or let a particularly troublesome Big Bad become somebody your players spend an entire campaign trying to reach.

31 Bosses, CR 5–30

The collection includes 31 Big Bads, with challenge ratings ranging from CR 5 all the way to CR 30.

That gives GMs villains for different stages of an adventuring party's career, from an emerging threat capable of becoming the focus of an early story arc to the sort of endgame enemy that suggests everyone should have updated their character sheets before arriving.

Alongside the bosses are 30 minions, giving their schemes additional creatures, allies, and obstacles to put between your heroes and the person causing all the trouble.

Magic with a Motive

The book also contains 33 thematic magic items connected to its villains, factions, and stories.

Rather than existing separately from the creatures in the book, these items can become part of the larger narrative surrounding a Big Bad—something to discover, pursue, protect, steal, or eventually turn against its owner.

Because defeating the villain is satisfying.

Taking their stuff is a time-honored tradition.

Build a Bigger Story

Want more than a single villain?

Campaign frames provide ways to connect multiple Big Bads into larger, escalating adventures, giving GMs a framework for turning individual threats into something much bigger.

You can use the material as written, borrow pieces for a campaign already underway, or simply open the book when your players have defeated the villain you expected to occupy them for the next six sessions.

Enter the Big Bad Bureau

And then things get particularly interesting.

The book introduces the Big Bad Bureau, an organization built around heroes navigating the balance between good and evil.

The Bureau includes:

Feats

Ranks

NPCs

Mission structures

It provides another framework for using the book's ideas as part of an ongoing game rather than treating the Big Bads solely as isolated boss encounters.

What’s Inside

31 Big Bads

Challenge Ratings 5–30

30 minions

33 thematic magic items

Villain backstories & motivations

Roleplaying guides

Combat tactics

Lairs & power themes

Campaign frames for connecting multiple Big Bads

The Big Bad Bureau, including feats, ranks, NPCs & mission structures

Why We Love It

The villains get to be characters. Backstories, motivations, roleplaying guidance, and tactics give GMs tools for making a Big Bad memorable before—and during—the inevitable showdown.

It covers a huge range of play. CR 5–30 gives you potential centerpiece villains for very different stages of a campaign.

The supporting material matters. Minions, magic items, lairs, and campaign frames mean you're not handed a boss monster and left to build everything around it yourself.

You don't have to use the whole book. Pick one spectacular villain for next weekend's game, borrow a magic item, use a minion, or start connecting Big Bads into something much more ambitious.

There's an entire Big Bad Bureau. Frankly, we were already sold at BOSSTIARY.

Book Details

Title: Big Bads: The Big Book of Big Bads
Format: Hardcover
Dimensions: 9.25" × 6.25" × 1"
System: 5th Edition fantasy roleplaying
Designed for: 5e 2014; compatible with 5e 2024
Type: Boss monster & Game Master resource
Big Bads: 31
Challenge ratings: CR 5–30
Minions: 30+
Magic items: 33
Includes: Villain lore, roleplaying guides, combat tactics, lairs, campaign frames & the Big Bad Bureau
Publisher: Hit Point Press

Please note: The Big Book of Big Bads is a Game Master resource for 5th Edition fantasy roleplaying, designed to provide villains and supporting material for your own adventures and campaigns. It is not a standalone tabletop RPG or campaign.

About Hit Point Press

Hit Point Press creates tabletop games, settings, adventures, and accessories built around imaginative worlds and collaborative storytelling. Their books and game aids give players and Game Masters new creatures, characters, settings, mechanics, and wonderfully strange things to bring to the table.

Every great adventuring party needs someone to blame.