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ghost_warlock
2009-02-07, 06:20 AM
Quick and easy; what creatures/encounters do you dread running up against? Which things make hope dwindle (and/or die) when you realize just what it is that the GM has put you up against? What monsters make you genuinely fear for your character's life (or soul)?

For me, it's golems. I typically play characters that rely on mind-affecting effects or a good, old-fashioned beat down (preferrably against something I can score a critically hit against) so constructs in general are usually bad enough. But, golems (especially the bigger ones) are even worse, since they have so many immunities that usually come along with weird status effects when exposed to certain attacks; I can never remember all those special modifiers and effects (and my characters are usually clueless, too).

I mean, with undead you can just let the cleric (or whoever) nuke them with positive energy (and they tend to be sort of frail hp-wise), but when I'm up against a golem, I know the GM means business.

Scintillatus
2009-02-07, 07:14 AM
The classic, Rust Monsters.

jcsw
2009-02-07, 09:31 AM
Anything where the DM insists has "technically appropriate CR"

JackMage666
2009-02-07, 09:37 AM
DM's pet monster, who he merely guessed the CR and did no math.

Nevermind it has a x6 criticals, that only hits 5% of the time, right? A level 5 party should have no problem with it! Better boost the AC to 30 just to make it a challenge.

Eldariel
2009-02-07, 09:43 AM
Any of the more obscure tentacle monsters. They aren't called Aberrations for nothing.

Oslecamo
2009-02-07, 09:43 AM
Anything with good/super stealth capacities that the party doesn't spot and proceeds to snipe us down from a distance, then runs away as soon as we get a glimpse of it.

We know it will return as soon as we turn our backs again. Better start spamming some Aoes...

Grail
2009-02-07, 09:45 AM
The classic, Rust Monsters.

Funny thing happened the other week when running my epic FR apocalyptic game. The characters came across a room in a tower where there were 5 large Rust Monsters. The Fighter and the Half-Ogre Favoured Soul (Tempus) stripped off all their arms and armour, and went in, swining their fists.

"We do this for low-level fighters everywhere!" they cried, and then proceeded to take out 2 of them with their non-lethal fists until they grew bored.

As to what I fear.... well, I don't get to play often, but when I do, it's Dragon's run by smart DM's.

JeminiZero
2009-02-07, 10:22 AM
I suppose it depends partly on what character/build I am playing. Say if I'm a warlock, I live in dread of monsters with both high SR and acid immunity (like Black Dragons). If I'm using something that has to get up close (and which isn't an Unarmed Swordsage), Rust Monsters would rank pretty high.

And of course there's the Emerald Legion (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=101587).

afroakuma
2009-02-07, 10:35 AM
Some people now wince when they hear "Polytrotos." I like that fact. It makes me grin.

Aron Times
2009-02-07, 04:13 PM
Have your players fight an atropal or two. Then show them its 3E illustration (it's an epic-level floating undead fetus).

Guaranteed nightmare fuel! :smallcool:

Llama231
2009-02-07, 04:21 PM
For 4e, a razorfang swarm can do wonders.

sonofzeal
2009-02-07, 04:35 PM
Kobolds. Just..... kobolds.

Starscream
2009-02-07, 05:31 PM
I tend to play characters who either rely on mind effecting spells, or on precision damage, so either way constructs tend to make me pretty useless in a fight.

But as for monsters that I truly HATE facing, there is nothing worse in my book than Aboleths. If I see one I know I'm going to be dealing with underwater combat (argh), mind controlling psionics (arghargh) and that awful slime and mucous (argharghargh).

To me, mind flayers are the right way to do creepy, Lovecraftian, mind controlling aberrations. Aboleths are the wrong way.

Fax Celestis
2009-02-07, 05:34 PM
Advanced kythons (not kytons, but kythons). That Damn Crab. Seemingly-weak humanoids who suddenly display amazing power. Advanced rukanyr. Anything with the Apocalyptic, Paragon, or Pseudonatural templates. Mixtures of the above (Apocalyptic Paragon Advanced Kythons and Pseudonatural Voidmind Advanced Rukanyr are scary things indeed).

Oracle_Hunter
2009-02-07, 05:50 PM
I've found that you can train your PCs to be terrified of anything.

For instance, in 2E my players would run in terror when faced with a Vampiric Mist - a type of blood-drinking cloud that did little damage, died easily, but was hard to hit.

In 4E, my Heroic players are terrified of Goblin Hexers. Between Vexing Cloud and Blinding Hex, they can amp up the lethality of even Goblin Cutters into TPK territory. And Lead From the Rear just makes the party's Warlock swear constantly. :smallbiggrin:

Aron Times
2009-02-07, 06:32 PM
Goblin skullcleavers supported by goblin hexers are pretty lethal. We almost got TPK'd in an LFR adventure when we encountered such a force. The hexer's massive debuff cloud (-4 to the party's attacks) makes it really hard to take out the skullcleavers before they cleave a party member or two.

Oh, and needlefang swarms are way too powerful for level 2 creatures. They can easily take out an unprepared party.

And I just remembered... We encountered an orc bombardier in one LFR module. He had three grenades with him which hurt really bad (about half the party almost died). We also had a close call when he lobbed a grenade at the party members tending to the damsel in distress. Fortunately, his attack roll against the damsel missed, so she lived.

sebsmith
2009-02-07, 06:49 PM
Insane sword lady, just insane sword lady.

LoneStarNorth
2009-02-07, 07:01 PM
Well, I've been the DM a lot more often than the player, so I haven't had time to get scared of anything. I guess if I were playing and the DM said that a certain encounter was 'revenge' for something I'd done in the past, I'd get kinda scared...

As for my players, I've made them terrified of toads. All toads. Forever. Ants and teddy bears are next on the list.

Zenos
2009-02-07, 07:09 PM
Non-D&D here, in a Dark Heresy campaign I'm DMing, I am hoping to make the players suitably scared by some 'nid gribblies I've cooked up. Just enough that when they see snake-like, multi-armed creatures darting towards them at high speed they will be scared.

Prometheus
2009-02-07, 08:26 PM
My players are irrationally afraid of bison. Early on, I was describing a monster and they interrupted me to ask how big it was. I replied "Larger than a bison, if it stood up on it back legs" apparently they took that to mean "It is a large bison, except that it is standing on its back legs" and proceeded to get mopped down with it. They had been sufficiently warned of the danger, and were supposed to complete their objective without getting near it. Now however, bison are the archenemy.

Mushroom Ninja
2009-02-07, 09:03 PM
That Damn Crab.

*shiver*

Every time I get killed by one of those, it haunts my dreams for weeks...

Shpadoinkle
2009-02-07, 09:14 PM
Anything that destroys equipment. Like Rust Monsters. Or Shadow Giants.

Graymayre
2009-02-07, 10:03 PM
The creepiest encounter I had ever faced was a lack of one

My group was playing a modern campaign (zombie apocolypse). Our truck of survivors stopped outside of a texas town to resupply and find more survivors (we were awarded xp each day for our survivors... surviving).
You know what we found there? NOTHING! No zombies, no survivors. Newspapers littered the streets, noting maybe a day after the outbreak and no later. Every door in town was boarded shut. We broke into a few and found that they were completely devoid of supplies and people.

We held up in a cathedral for the night, at 9:00pm the Church bells went off.

Moments later, secret doors from an underground complex unleashed zombies into the town.

I can still hear the bowel movements of our group setting off like some well orchestrated carpet bombing.

FinalJustice
2009-02-07, 10:20 PM
AMF. Seriously. Every. Single. Damn. One-Shot. An. Annoying. AMF.

It's either a beholder with some brute friend, or a giant with lots of spellcasting or some dude with a bulwark of antimagic. Anyway, it's really annoying. Even if I'm meleeing, because I don't have my magic goodies.

Anything that destroys equipment. [2]

Recaiden
2009-02-07, 10:36 PM
Constructs in general, golems especially, and cadaver collectors in particular. I sent some against the party once, just a level appropriate encounter. It ended badly.

They're immune to a lot.
Our blaster mage's strongest spells? Immune. Did the fighter have an adamantium sword? Too bad, no damage for you. Arrows? Hah! Mind affecting spells from the telepath? Mindless.

And the fact that they are covered in corpses and body parts, and impale people on their spikes to use as human shield? Creepy.


Shadows and other incorporeal creatures. Coming out of the floor and walls and ceiling, draining away your strength/life force.


Any of those monsters that destroy your bones.

MCerberus
2009-02-07, 10:42 PM
One of my DMs had the nasty habit of giving class levels to a whole lot of stuff.

Yah. Kobold Clericzilla...

backed up by a kobold druid.

Archpaladin Zousha
2009-02-07, 10:51 PM
For me, it's elephants. Our halfling treehugger led my human paladin and our kobold werewolf sorcerer to a herd of about 17 elephants, and tried to make friends with the matriarch. She didn't understand him, so she put him in her mouth for some reason. After he wriggled out, he jumped on her back and got her angry. He jumped off, but was hit with an AoO on the way down, and then the matriarch charged and trampled him, killing him instantly. The other elephants did the same and almost killed the kobold (activating his lycanthropy) and me. We decided to drop on the ground and surrender.

If our other druid hadn't showed up and convinced the elephants to leave we'd have probably been killed as well.

AslanCross
2009-02-07, 11:03 PM
I've never really seen my players terrified by anything that I've thrown at them, probably with the exception of the first and only Huge monster they ever fought (A Bluespawn Godslayer; I didn't have a mini so I made one out of my brother's Zoids. It was the right size and towered over the players' minis.).

On the other hand, there's the metagamer (Asphenfox I'm looking at you >:E) who is terrified by EVERYTHING. One time a cleric bad guy cast summon undead IV. The party was Level 6.

<Me> A large, winged, skeletal figure bursts out of the ground.
<Players> !!! *knowledge checks*
<Asphefox> WHAT??!?! WE CAN'T POSSIBLY FIGHT A DRACOLICH NOW!!! *verge of tears*
<Other PCs> Uh...it's a wyvern zombie.

FoE
2009-02-08, 12:57 AM
The creepiest encounter I had ever faced was a lack of one

My group was playing a modern campaign (zombie apocolypse). Our truck of survivors stopped outside of a texas town to resupply and find more survivors (we were awarded xp each day for our survivors... surviving).
You know what we found there? NOTHING! No zombies, no survivors. Newspapers littered the streets, noting maybe a day after the outbreak and no later. Every door in town was boarded shut. We broke into a few and found that they were completely devoid of supplies and people.

Nothing is scarier. (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NothingIsScarier) :smallwink:

Samakain
2009-02-08, 03:53 AM
Death

Giants


That is all.
Thank you.

Kaihaku
2009-02-08, 04:17 AM
DM's pet monster, who he merely guessed the CR and did no math.

Yeah. I'm more terrified of what happens when that poorly designed creature shows up and then the rules lawyer in the group gets up in arms. It's nasty when an in-game mistake starts an out of character flame war. I'd rather just have the whole party taken out.

Belial_the_Leveler
2009-02-08, 04:22 AM
I've taught my players to fear anything unusual/visually creepy that comes up against them but especially vampires.

Believe me, you don't want a shadow savage advanced vampire lord to creep up on you, never mind you playing a gestalt cleric/favored soul.

GoC
2009-02-08, 08:43 AM
I made a Great Wyrm Blue Dragon as a BBEG. It and some younger dragons and half dragons were to attack a city that my level 20 party of 5 was helping defend. They would have have the assistance of several high level NPCs from the city, the standing army and some militia forces.
I then noticed the a blue great wyrm qualifies for epic spellcasting and other epic feats. The dragon more or less singlehandedly destroyed the city before it got insanely unlucky (failed spot checks, wizard rolled a 20 to beat spell resistance, dragon rolled a 1 on two saves). Four of the five survived. A fairly cool ending for a campaign.:smallcool:

AngelSword
2009-02-08, 08:44 AM
As of late, I've grown to fear fighting clerics. Particularly, clerics of my god. As our hit points dwindle, it becomes a mind game, wondering which one of us will lose his powers.

My party, on the other hand, lives in fear of anything that forces a Will save. They can shrug off a Fortitude save, toss their hit points at a Reflex save…but mess with their minds, and the expletives start to fly.

They also fear it whenever I roll the dice and smile (as well they should).:smallamused:

Urthdigger
2009-02-08, 08:57 AM
Incorporeal creatures. We faced a whole bunch of them early in the campaign, banging on the "Tiny Hut" door to the cave we were sleeping in, and they wanted blood. The barbarian rages, charges out, gets riddled with paralyzing arrows and falls to the ground. The ranger rushes out to save him, gets riddled with paralyzing arrows, and joins his buddy for a nap. The cleric goes "OMG! I must save my friends!" rushes out, gets shot, yada yada yada. As apparently my wizard is the only one with an intelligence score over 10, I declare "**** this" and stay inside, pelting the things with my spells, most of them just passing right through the damn things. I finally managed to kill one of them and make them flee as I was running out of magic missiles to throw at them. To this day, I always memorize magic missile, on the offchance that we'll encounter more of those damn things.

AdamSmasher
2009-02-08, 06:47 PM
Incorporeal creatures. We faced a whole bunch of them early in the campaign, banging on the "Tiny Hut" door to the cave we were sleeping in, and they wanted blood. The barbarian rages, charges out, gets riddled with paralyzing arrows and falls to the ground. The ranger rushes out to save him, gets riddled with paralyzing arrows, and joins his buddy for a nap. The cleric goes "OMG! I must save my friends!" rushes out, gets shot, yada yada yada. As apparently my wizard is the only one with an intelligence score over 10, I declare "**** this" and stay inside, pelting the things with my spells, most of them just passing right through the damn things. I finally managed to kill one of them and make them flee as I was running out of magic missiles to throw at them. To this day, I always memorize magic missile, on the offchance that we'll encounter more of those damn things.
This reminds me.

I was in a campaign with a new player (Our cleric). This DM LOVED to trap every door we opened. My monk suggests that instead of walking through the front door to the LBEG's lair, we go around and use a window. Immediately, the ranger falls under a compulsion and starts shambling toward the door.

Everyone knows what that means... except the new girl.

My monk manages to knock the ranger unconcious AT the door after a hasty unspoken agreement from the group. Guess what Ms. Cleric does? "Oh noes! I must heal his wounds!" She heals him. Not even with Cure Light, with the biggest one she had prepared that day. At the door.

The campaign was postponed when she stormed out after a stunning fist AoO.

RebelRogue
2009-02-08, 07:48 PM
Goblin skullcleavers supported by goblin hexers are pretty lethal.
Even without that support they are lethal. For level 3 monsters they sure do a lot of damage!

Kol Korran
2009-02-09, 04:38 AM
this might be a bit odd, but...
a long way back, in first edition, there was an adventure in the DM manual to kick off. basically the characters venture into a ruined fort looking for some evil wizard. as they approach the plac they see one of the gate doors laying on the floor, over a hole. as they approach it, a carrion crawler jumps out and attacks!

now. for kids who just started to play this is a weird looking monster- long, lots of legs, tentacles, and it paralyzes! my best friend (who played a rogue then) got paralyzed, while the rest of the group stepped back, unsure what to do for the first round or two of combat. the CC in the mean time nibbled on the leg of the unlucky adventurer (so neither me or my players were very intellignet then).

since then, my firend have faced ogres, withces, undead, dragons, mind flayers and more. he ventured into nightmare realms, faced lords of madness and so on. but still, when i realy want to get to him, all i need to mention is the patter of many many feet... (he even has a twitch in his eye when he meets carrion crawlers)

ahhhh, good times! just thought to share.

Magnor Criol
2009-02-09, 11:00 AM
Swarms.

In the Eberron campaign setting book, there's a standard first-level adventure at the back of the book to try out the new setting, yadda yadda yadda.

Well, we're going through this little adventure and get jumped by a swarm of beetles, if I remember correctly...whatever it was, they were Fine creatures, and thus the swarm was immune to all weapon damage.

So first off, we don't know about that particular property of swarms. We wade in to the fight, and after several rounds of not doing any damage and having quite a bit done to us in return, we flee the scene. Thankfully we run fas enough and the DM rules that the beetles don't follow.

We return later, rested up and ready to try again, with pretty much the same results. After our party sorcerer, the only one who'd been able to do anything, falls unconscious, the DM takes pity on us, gets an Int check from one of us and our characters realize that the only way to damage a swarm like this is through spells (note the sorc had just gone down) and or through torches, lanterns, the like. We had two torches to our name; we threw those things for all we were worth, grabbed the sorc, and ran like bats out of hell for the exit, and never looked back.

Swarms versus a party of first-level characters? Not zesty. We still shudder about them.

Callos_DeTerran
2009-02-09, 01:00 PM
The closest thing to a nightmare encounter for me would be...one of the DM's custom monsters he made. It was part of a group of old and powerful creatures called Ancients with this one being a monstrously huge yeti (colossal creature or close to it) that was able to take in the excess of...49? 55, maybe, d6 of fire damage (and if it was vulnerable to fire or not, I don't know)...in 1st Edition.

Granted, the other Ancient we fought were just as powerful (in their own way) but the Yeti was the 'tough' ancient and the fact it came out of that blazing fire, took two more fireballs and pummeled me into the wall with one punch, still made that a nightmare encounter.

Only fought two of the seven other ancients though..OLD AS HELL (tm) Red dragon (my character fled when he realized our party was vastly over-matched, yet they still one on a mis-reading of the rules by the DM) and some giant two headed skeleton that made a very deadly windstorm.

Piedmon_Sama
2009-02-09, 01:16 PM
-Any Kobold stronghold/labyrinth with even moderately intelligent defenders.
-Flying monsters when in open ground. Especially if the monster's big and got a high grapple check.... snatched and splatted, that's not a worthy end for any of my characters. :C
-Puzzle/trap challenges. I just suck at these, usually what ends up happening is the party will do everything to get past it BUT try to solve the puzzle, set off the trap and all die in some humiliatingly ridiculous fashion. I let the crossword nerds handle these and keep a good 120' back until it's cleared. Sometimes that's not far enough.
-Gooey/oozey/absorbing monsters: Oh man, just screw these things. I don't know if my weapons are even hurting it and it doesn't stop coming at us, WHY WON'T IT STOP COMING AT US AGH.

horseboy
2009-02-09, 05:32 PM
The creepiest encounter I had ever faced was a lack of one
Oh, Stalking The Killer Cistern. We were exploring Moria. It had us in full Gygaxian mode: poking everything with a 10' pole, making sure everything is dead, making sure we had a good scout behind us, etc. Then we came to a room with just an open body of water. We waited, nothing came out. We threw rocks in, nothing came out. We skipped coins across the top to try and go farther. Poked the water, tossed a bit of jerky in the water, Shock bolted the water (blind cave fish floated up, we just KNEW when we turned our back SOME THING was going to come out). We sat there for a good 30 minutes in RT or so trying to provoke that cistern into attacking us. It was...tense.

Other thing would be o'possums. There was this evil animist that had an army of swarms of o'possums. Just hundreds of nasty, evil, prehistoric looking, hissing devil's rats delivering tiny creature crits. *shudder*