The Underdark is one of those settings that rewards a GM who plans ahead — it's dark, it's claustrophobic, and the encounters need to feel genuinely threatening without all being the same flavour of monster. We've pulled together five picks from our Underdark Miniatures range that cover a solid spread: frantic melee skirmishers, control-focused support enemies, a heavy-hitting demon, a iconic aberration boss, and a towering fallen celestial that works brilliantly as a campaign centrepiece.
Goblin Berserkers
Goblins in the Underdark aren't the same rabble you'd find on the surface — they're desperate, territorial, and genuinely dangerous in numbers. These goblin berserker models from Duncan Shadow are chunky, characterful sculpts clutching blunt weapons overhead in aggressive, mid-charge poses, which makes them read perfectly as a frenzied ambush wave. Drop them into a narrow tunnel encounter and let them swarm the front rank while something nastier hangs back — your players will feel the pressure immediately.
Goblin Netters
A good mixed goblin encounter needs a support element, and that's exactly where these goblin netter miniatures by Duncan Shadow come in. The sculpts show squat, hooded figures hunched behind large woven nets — brilliant as a visual signal to players that restraint and area control are on the table this fight. Use them to pin down your party's heaviest hitter while the berserkers pile in from the flanks, and suddenly what looked like a trash encounter becomes a genuinely memorable one.
Chain Demon
When you need to escalate the tension in the deeper Underdark, a chain demon is a brilliant choice — bound in chains with a spiked halo-like headpiece and robes in tatters, this Epic Miniatures chain demon has the kind of dynamic, mid-motion presence that makes players sit up straight at the table. It works brilliantly as a summoned enforcer for a drow warlock, or as a bound guardian protecting a forgotten vault — either way it signals that the party has wandered somewhere they probably shouldn't have.
Beholder Tyrant
No Underdark encounter collection is complete without a beholder, and this Beholder Tyrant from Epic Miniatures is a genuinely impressive large miniature — a textured, bulbous central body ringed with writhing eyestalks and a wide jaw full of irregular teeth, mounted on a sculpted base. It's a boss encounter in a box, and it arrives in grey resin ready to prime and paint however menacingly you like. Put it at the end of a multi-session dungeon arc and watch your players actually worry.
Lord of Sorrow
For a campaign-level villain or the reveal at the end of a long descent, the Lord of Sorrow from Epic Miniatures is hard to beat — a tall, armoured figure with sweeping bat-like wings and a massive curved scythe, captured mid-motion in a genuinely dramatic pose. It reads as a fallen celestial or a death-aspected demigod depending on how your lore goes, which gives you brilliant flexibility as a GM. This is the kind of model that earns its own custom stat block.
Whether you're building a one-shot ambush or a full Underdark campaign arc, we hope one of these gives you a spark for your next session. If you end up running any of these encounters, we'd genuinely love to hear how it went — drop us a message or share a photo of your painted models, it always makes our day.