Monsters with innate spellcasting

[Suzerain]

Hey there, one day I thought a list of monsters with associated spellcasting might be handy; for DMs, or for players in weird gestalt games.

Another use that is slightly more broken is to use polymorph, manipulate form or acquire special quality/attack to gain one of these. Although I didn't know why at the time, this preliminary list is sorted according to type (which is useful info for polymorph).

Sources covered so far:

• MMI, MMII, MIII, MMIV, MMV
• Epic Level Handbook / Epic SRD section
• Fiend Folio
• Fiendish Codex I (thanks Emy)
• Book of Exalted Deeds (thanks salt_crow)
• Forgotten Realms - Underdark (thanks ksbsnowowl)
• Lords of Madness & XPH (thanks Agita)
• Bestiary of Krynn (thanks Ivory Knight)

I'd be happy to have your additions.

Name	Spellcasting/Manifesting	Type	HD	LA	CR	Source
Drider	6th lvl Cleric or Sorc or Wiz	Abberation	6	+4	7	SRD
Elder Brain	20th lvl Sorcerer	Abberation	26	—	25	LoM
Elder Brain, Psionic	20th lvl Telepath	Abberation	26	—	25	LoM
Ethergaunt, Black	17th lvl Wizard	Abberation	16	+4	17	FF
Ethergaunt, Red	9th lvl Wizard	Abberation	5	+7	9	FF
Ethergaunt, White	13th lvl Wizard	Abberation	11	+5	13	FF
Mind Flayer, Psionic	9th lvl Telepath	Abberation	8	+7	8	MMI/XPH
Mind Flayer, Ulitharid Psionic	13th lvl Telepath	Abberation	12	+9	12	LoM
Naga, Dark	7th lvl Sorcerer	Abberation	9	—	8	SRD
Naga, Guardian	9th lvl Sorcerer1	Abberation	11	—	10	SRD
Naga, Spirit	7th lvl Sorcerer1	Abberation	9	—	9	SRD
Naga, Water	7th lvl Sorcerer	Abberation	7	—	7	SRD
Draconian, Vapor	4th lvl Mystic	Dragon	4	+3	5	Bestiary of Krynn
Draconian, Lightning	6th lvl Paladin	Dragon	6	+5	7	Bestiary of Krynn
Linnorm, Corpse Tearer	17th lvl Cleric	Dragon	28	—	28	MMII
Linnorm, Dread	18th lvl Sorcerer	Dragon	20	—	25	MMII
Linnorm, Gray	17th lvl Cleric	Dragon	13	—	20	MMII
Tylor	5th lvl Sorcerer	Dragon	7	+21	6	Bestiary of Krynn
Elemental Weird	18th lvl Sorcerer	Elemental	15	—	12	MMII
Immoth	12th lvl Sorcerer	Elemental	10	+6	9	MMII
Cheshire Cat	3rd lvl Sorcerer	Fey	3	+3	3	Web
Gloura	7th lvl Bard	Fey	7	+2	7	Und
Huldrefolk	8th lvl Sorcerer	Fey	6	+8	8	Bestiary of Krynn
Nymph	7th lvl Druid	Fey	6	+7	7	SRD
Fensir	5th lvl Wizard	Giant	4	+5	5	FF
Androsphinx	6th lvl Cleric	Magical Beast	12	+5 2	9	SRD
Aranea	3rd lvl Sorcerer	Magical Beast	3	+4	4	SRD
Arcanist Varrangoin	9th lvl Wizard	Magical Beast	8	? 7	11	FF
Chronotyryn	12th lvl Sorcerer	Magical Beast	17	? 6	19	FF
Lammasu	7th lvl Cleric	Magical Beast	7	+5	8	SRD
Spirit of the Air	7th lvl Cleric	Magical Beast	11	? 6	11	FF
Threskisphinx	6th lvl Druid	Magical Beast	10	+5 2	8	Sand
Abeil Queen	16th lvl Druid	Monstrous Humanoid	13	—	12	MMII
Arkamoi	4th lvl Sorcerer	Monstrous Humanoid	4	+4	4	MMV
Hobgoblin Warcaster	4th lvl Wizard	Monstrous Humanoid	4	+3	4	MMV
Hobgoblin Warsoul	9th lvl Wizard	Monstrous Humanoid	10	+4	8	MMV
Jackal Lord	8th lvl Cleric	Monstrous Humanoid	8	+4	8	FF
Kyrie	3rd lvl Mystic	Monstrous Humanoid	4	+3	2	Beastiary of Krynn
Marrutact	5th lvl Wizard	Monstrous Humanoid	7	+3	5	Sand
Protean Scourge	8th lvl Sorcerer	Monstrous Humanoid	13	—	12	MMIII
Redspawn Arcaniss	6th lvl Sorcerer	Monstrous Humanoid	8	+4	6	MMIV
Spell Weaver	12th lvl Sorcerer3	Monstrous Humanoid	10	+7	10	MMII
Unbodied	4th lvl Telepath	Monstrous Humanoid	4	+4	4	XPH
Arcanaloth	9th lvl Sorcerer	Outsider	12	+7	17	MMII
Couatl	9th lvl Sorcerer1	Outsider	9	+7	10	SRD
Firre (Eladrin)	12th lvl Cleric	Outsider	8	+10	10	BoED
Formian Queen	17th lvl Sorcerer	Outsider	20	—	17	SRD
Ghaele (Eladrin)	12th lvl Cleric	Outsider	10	+10	13	SRD/SS
Klurichir (Tanar'ri)	10th lvl Sorcerer	Outsider	20	? 6	25	FF
Lilitu (Tanar'ri)	9th lvl Cleric4	Outsider	14	—	12	FCI
Lillend	6th lvl Bard	Outsider	7	+6	7	SRD
Planetar	17th lvl Cleric	Outsider	14	—	16	SRD
Rakshasa	7th lvl Sorcerer	Outsider	7	+7	10	SRD
Rakshasa, Ak'chazar	12th lvl Sorcerer	Outsider	17	+5	15	MMIII
Shator	8th lvl Sorcerer	Outsider	15	? 6	16	FF
Solar	20th lvl Cleric	Outsider	22	—	23	SRD
Sylph	7th lvl Sorcerer5	Outsider	3	+5	5	MMII
Trumpet Archon	14th lvl Cleric	Outsider	12	+8	14	SRD
Ursinal (Guardinal)	12th lvl Wizard	Outsider	10	+8	10	BoED
Bone Naga	14th lvl Sorcerer	Undead	15	—	11	MMII

¹ can also choose from the cleric list
² (cohort)
³ actually it's HD+2, with a maximum of 30 racial HD
⁴ uses Cha as casting stat, no spontaneous cure/inflict
⁵ actually it's HD+4, with a maximum of 9 racial HD
⁶ LA was not mentioned in 3.5 booklets updating FF (not even LA —)
⁷ same as ⁶, but can advance by character class (should have had an LA listed)

Special mention:
True Dragons (various), various casting abilities. See dragon PC races.
Phaerimm (LEoF), sorcerer casting equal to "character level" as SLAs
Sharn (Anauroch: The Empire of Shade), 6th/6th sorcerer/favored soul casting; 4HD, +5LA, CR8; cast spells as SLAs; can't be polymorphed into
Swarms (various); hive-minds gain sorcerer casting according to the number of individuals in a swarm; Cranium Rat Swarms (FF) gain psion casting of choice

Epic stuff:

Name	Spellcasting	Type	HD	LA	CR	Source
Ha-Naga	21st lvl Sorcerer	Abberation	20	—	22	ELH/SRD
Neh-Thalggu (Brain Collector)	13th lvl Sorcerer	Abberation	32	—	26	ELH/SRD
Titan, Elder	29th lvl Wizard or Cleric	Outsider	70	—	30	ELH/SRD

[Suzerain]

Reserved, just in case.

[The_Mad_Linguist]

You should probably include the HD/LA of sharn as well, along with the fact that they cast all their racial spells as SLAs, so can ignore silly things like "XP components" or the like.

[Suzerain]

You should probably include the HD/LA of sharn as well, along with the fact that they cast all their racial spells as SLAs, so can ignore silly things like "XP components" or the like.

Fixed. Thanks, never noticed that. They get extra actions though and have a wicked attack routine that lets them make 9 attacks a round with 9 large greatswords (which they can wield because they're considered huge for the purpose of wielding weapons) and they have hex portals to make attacks through, at range. Summarily, I think Sharn are insane.

[Salt_Crow]

Thank you so much just what I was looking for

[Vinom]

You might want the add the races that can naturally manifest Psionics too.

[Emy]

Aside from the post that Bowen quoted here, I also went through these:

Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss

Outsider: Lilitu (cleric 9, cha based, demonic/trickery domains, no spont cure/inflict)

Fiendish Codex II: Tyrants of the Nine Hells

None? Unless I missed something by only going through the "monsters" section, there are no monsters with innate spellcasting in FCII.

Arcanist Varrangoin is actually Magical Beast type.

For your table:

Code: [Select]

[tr][td]Lilitu (Tanar'ri)[/td][td]9th lvl Cleric[/td][td]Outsider[/td][td]14[/td][td]—[/td][td]12[/td][td]FCI[/td][/tr]

[Suzerain]

Thank you so much just what I was looking for

You're very welcome.

You might want the add the races that can naturally manifest Psionics too.

Sure, but I don't know any

Arcanist Varrangoin is actually Magical Beast type.

D'oh!

For your table:

Code: [Select]

[tr][td]Lilitu (Tanar'ri)[/td][td]9th lvl Cleric[/td][td]Outsider[/td][td]14[/td][td]—[/td][td]12[/td][td]FCI[/td][/tr]

Thanks  Updated.

[Agita]

(which they can wield because they're considered huge for the purpose of wielding weapons)

What? No.

Weapons (Ex) A sharn can wield up to nine weapons. Sharns
are proficient in all simple and martial weapons. A sharn
is considered one size category smaller for the purpose of
what size weapons it can wield. Weapon attacks replace
claw attacks as primary attacks. A typical weapon attack
employs a longsword (+6 melee, 1d8+4 damage).

Emphasis mine. They count as Medium, not Huge.

Naturally, they're still insane. But they can't wield nine Large greatswords. They might be able to see why kids love Cinnamon Toast Crunch, though.

[Suzerain]

(which they can wield because they're considered huge for the purpose of wielding weapons)

What? No.

Weapons (Ex) A sharn can wield up to nine weapons. Sharns
are proficient in all simple and martial weapons. A sharn
is considered one size category smaller for the purpose of
what size weapons it can wield. Weapon attacks replace
claw attacks as primary attacks. A typical weapon attack
employs a longsword (+6 melee, 1d8+4 damage).

Emphasis mine. They count as Medium, not Huge.

Naturally, they're still insane. But they can't wield nine Large greatswords.

Demons and fire, you're right 

edit: The OP has received a slight update. Sorcerer casting now specifies if access to cleric spells is provided. Locally, I even have domain information down for the current list of creatures. Yay! At the moment I'm trying to find information clarifying "domain access" of monsters with cleric casting...

[Endarire]

An elder titan is an outsider, sayeth this.

[Suzerain]

Yeah, thanks. I just copied from the row above and forgot to change the type.

[KellKheraptis]

Sweet compilation.  As a result of this...Draconic Polymorph may well become the most used and then most banned buff spell ever (use to blow the spell slots of assumed form for buffs, as you can select all the known/prepped spells at time of assumption of form, then dismiss the form while using all of 1 of your slots).

[Salt_Crow]

Book of Exalted Deeds

Firre eladrin (outsider)
 -12th level cleric
 -8HD/+10 LA
Ursinal Guardinal (outsider)
 -12th level wizard
 -10HD/+8LA

Also, most of the Celetial Paragons have some form of spellcasting abilities although they have rather high HDs.

[Aliment]

It would be nice to have a column of difference between spellcasting and ECL.  I realize this is more of a polymorph thing but knowing which monsters might be worth playing thanks to spellcasting would be nice.  I think the Ethergaunts and some of the celestials seem worth it with only a few lost CL.

[Suzerain]

@salt_crow: Thanks, I keep forgetting there is such a thing as BoED. I guess I'll be combing through that next.

@aliment: Can do, but it'll have to wait until I've slept one night through, I'm afraid. I'm too prone to mistakes I'd make otherwise. Unless you guys don't mind correcting me. I'd love to play a planetar, but unfortunately, they don't have LA...

Also, in the meantime, you guys could start throwing out suggestions for templates. I can only think of Monster of Legend OTOH, but I'm half-sure there was some other template I skipped when I compiled this list.

[Suzerain]

@salt_crow: Celestial Paragons are unique. I don't think I'll add them to the list. I'll put in your additions, though (they're both under-CRed though. BoED sucks).

[ksbsnowowl]

Underdark has the Gloura.

Gloura (Fey)
-7th level Bard
-7 HD/+2 LA
-CR 7

[Suzerain]

Underdark has the Gloura.

Gloura (Fey)
-7th level Bard
-7 HD/+2 LA
-CR 7

And the Elder Brain. Added.

[Agita]

A more recent version of the Elder Brain appears in Lords of Madness. LoM also contains a variant 'psionic' Elder Brain, which gets manifesting as a psion rather than spellcasting. Not sure if you also want to add creatures with innate manifesting, though. That's a whole new bunch of monsters.