Grey eight-legged reptilian basilisk miniature with open toothed jaws, numerous dorsal spikes and long tail, on an oval base against black.
mz4250’s Basilisk Updated tabletop model shown as a tabletop miniature. Fan-made illustration, not official franchise artwork or ancient mythological evidence.
Overview
The legacy basilisk connects petrification with feeding: victims become porous stone that returns to organic matter inside its gullet. Strong jaws therefore belong to an unusual predatory cycle rather than a creature that merely collects statues. Its reptilian, multilegged body is a selected D&D form, distinct from several traditional creatures bearing the name. Both fifth-edition records also give its bite a poisonous component, darkvision and no listed language, so avoiding the gaze does not remove every danger.
In the 2014 rules, gaze danger depends on the monster and victim seeing each other at the beginning of the victim’s turn. A prepared creature can avert its eyes, but looking again can trigger the danger. Failed resistance restrains the target, and another failure completes petrification. A brightly lit reflection can make the monster mistake itself for a rival. The revised 2025 block instead makes Petrifying Gaze a recharging bonus action affecting a cone, with an explicit self-reflection saving throw. It preserves staged restraint and petrification but does not repeat the legacy eye-aversion procedure. This changes how an encounter operates without requiring a separate species entry for each edition.
First appearances & development
This entry compares the legacy Monster Manual (2014) and revised Monster Manual (2025), part of the 2024 core-rules generation. Earlier D&D appearances are not newly collated here. The many-legged game creature and its stone-feeding physiology are kept separate from traditional basilisks and franchise-specific monsters with the same name.
Canon & continuity
The two individual publisher monster records were inspected. The legacy page supplies the feeding description, mutual-visibility rule and bright-reflection exception; the revised page supplies the cone and bonus-action treatment. Forum explanations, homebrew changes and the assumption that all editions share one eye-aversion rule are excluded.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Monster Manual (2014)
Legacy basilisk feeding account, gaze triggers and staged petrification.
- 02
Monster Manual (2025)
Revised cone-based bonus-action gaze, including the monster’s reflection save.
Family & connections
A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- OfficialBasilisk — legacy recordResearch access: 2026-10-05
- OfficialBasilisk — revised recordResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
Creator-made Basilisk Updated miniature renderGrey eight-legged reptilian basilisk miniature with open toothed jaws, numerous dorsal spikes and long tail, on an oval base against black.
mz4250’s Basilisk Updated tabletop model shown as a tabletop miniature. Fan-made illustration, not official franchise artwork or ancient mythological evidence.
