Most horrifying enemies

[atemu1234]

What, in the history of your campaigns, has been the enemy or enemies that scared you, or creeped you out, or made you sick to your stomach?

Bonus points for originality.

[jaydubs]

I had a DM who homebrewed Mr. Fingers.

http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110325230815/goblinscomic/images/b/b6/MrFingers.jpg

[atemu1234]

I had a DM who homebrewed Mr. Fingers.

http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110325230815/goblinscomic/images/b/b6/MrFingers.jpg

Dear God, all three. Already. Constitution drain?

[jaydubs]

Dear God, all three. Already. Constitution drain?

Constitution drain on touch, plus grappling, plus reach. To demonstrate what we were dealing with without instantly killing someone, it interrupted a fight we were in, dragging three hostile NPCs screaming to their doom. :smalleek:

[Sith_Happens]

My party found a Deck of Many Things a few sessions ago.

[Aegis013]

A party I was in once fought something like 8 HD Advanced Drowned.

They didn't really creep me out or anything, but they did cause some anxiety when everybody started drowning in round 1.

My uber-mount style character's mount grabbed everybody and fled from the fight, narrowly avoiding TPK.

[Phelix-Mu]

A friend/DM in a multi-DM setting once homebrewed up creatures known as Primordials (major Exalted echoes, I now realize, but I don't think he was cognizant of such), basically Elder Gods that predated the gods and whom the gods had fought against and imprisoned (classic Greek mythology is classic). One of them was a being of fear and assimilation, a giant ooze-like thing (at least its outer-manifestations were like black puddings). It radiated a contagious, psychic scream/corruption that basically twisted the weak-minded (read almost everything) into its mindless, incredibly hard to damage minions, whose veins were filled with black ooze. Called Terrors, these minions could spread the condition by touch or by their screams (it wasn't a disease, either, but a mental condition or corruption of sorts...affected everything that is subject to Taint, which is nigh everything).

All of the Terrors were extensions of the thing's singular consciousness, as it's impulse, out of fear, was to draw everything into itself, making everything as it was. In significant numbers, Terrors could morph into Horrors, homebrewed monsters with custom mechanics designed to make them challenging for high-level characters to kill (shared hp-pools, spell reflection that wasn't SR-based, assimilation abilities to heal each other, scalable abilities based on HD, AoE attacks, sonic attacks, reach attacks, spell-eating, etc).

In really big numbers (post-epidemic cities, the Underdark, etc), the Terrors would morph into sentient black ooze beings that had thousands of HD and had Gundam-scale attacks capable of dealing close to 100d6 in damage if they landed a hit. Eventually the entirety of the Lower Underdark of our custom setting was flooded with the stuff, and it could penetrate up to the Upperdark with its attacks.

All of these creatures dealt some degree of Taint, usually depravity (though I later added akuma from the Rokugan stuff to spread some corruption as well). We used a pretty harsh homebrew of taint, and ran into taint well-before any of us had Purity of Soul (though late in the game pretty much everyone we knew and ourselves had retrained it or died).

Anyone slain by the Captive (that was the only name it was known by) was irrevocably absorbed into its being. The sole exception was one of the pcs, who turned out to be a kind of reject/antigen to the contagious effect of the Captive, and was spit back up after an attempted absorption (turned out to be one of the cooler characters in a campaign full of cool characters). Moreover, the only way to actually neutralize it was to sacrifice a deity to imprison it once again, as had been done back in the original war with the Primordials, sealing it back in its chamber in Carceri.

On the good side, this Captive and its absorption of most of the souls on the Prime led to the evolution of the Incarnation, another Primordial based on self-propagation, and the basis for me introducing Incarnum into my setting (as I totally dislike the default fluff for Incarnum). The Incarnation sprang into being in the vacuum formed by the disappearance of all of those beings, seeking to fill a gap in the probabilistic nature of reality on the planes, and was all that remained in the cell where the Captive had dwelt since before time was even a thing when the party finally got around to visiting Carceri, seeking a method to halt the spread of the Captive.

Great campaign. Possibly the best I was ever involved in. The Captive crept inside your mind and turned you into it. Psychological, but horrifying nonetheless.

[Monarch Dodora]

The Rukarazyll, from MM-II.

http://www.revleft.com/vb/picture.php?albumid=334&pictureid=2776

Jesus Christ, what is that thing.

[Vogonjeltz]

The Rukarazyll, from MM-II.

http://www.revleft.com/vb/picture.php?albumid=334&pictureid=2776

Jesus Christ, what is that thing.

At first I thought it was a plant because of the green color and the tendrils...undead?

[Val666]

I never fought against this crap but my epic level friend did. I was watching that fight...epic ****..Hecatoncheires.
That thing have like..100 attacks...neraly a 1000 hp and CR 57 -_-


http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb320/prodigyduck/Hecatoncheires.jpg

[Threadnaught]

As a Lawful Neutral Drow Commoner trying to support a family as a farmhand on a farm owned by Gnome clergy of Garl Glittergold. I am utterly terrified that some day a CG Cleric of Correlon Larethian will descend on my home to make my wife and children suffer before killing them and inevitably coming for me.
There was enough wholesale brutality toward Drow back home, it's the whole reason I abandoned Lolth and threw myself at the first non-Drow I encountered.

My players encountered the remnants of a civilisation built around using the Tarrasque for resources. Everything about this ancient empire terryfied them, but it was the Super Soldiers that pushed them over the edge.
The empire created many abominations from the Tarrasque, which was an Eldritch Abomination itself. It's amazing what can happen when you refluff something. Also current Campaign, thank you Keith Baker, Warforged who can procreate. Just ask MetaMyconid, no he's not t*D.

[hymer]

Beholders are probably the most gut-wrenching. All those SoDs and a nifty anti-magic effect on an intelligent, flying creature.

[CrazyYanmega]

I never fought against this crap but my epic level friend did. I was watching that fight...epic ****..Hecatoncheires.
That thing have like..100 attacks...neraly a 1000 hp and CR 57 -_-


http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb320/prodigyduck/Hecatoncheires.jpg

No offense, but at level 57 you should be wielding about a dozen epic spells each. Your party's druid can LITERALLY wildshape into a Tarrasque. I fail to see how such a creature could pose a challenge.

[Val666]

No offense, but at level 57 you should be wielding about a dozen epic spells each. Your party's druid can LITERALLY wildshape into a Tarrasque. I fail to see how such a creature could pose a challenge.

The fun part is..the only spellcaster in that game was a -100 level optimizer. Also, they where level...26? It was fun..

[paperarmor]

The worst things I've thrown at my players have been a dragon built to swoop down grab the players fly off and drop them again. And a Drowned with either 5 or ten swordsage levels focused on setting sun throws and shadow Hand teleports as well as a concerted attack of Mind Flayers and thier pet Balhannoths. Oh and a Dal Quor Planar Sheperd and his family of a TOB More Dakka Archer, and a summoning sorcerer.

[afroakuma]

Well, it's not me personally, but I once sent these things after my players in multiple parties. Reactions were quite satisfactory. :smallbiggrin:


Standing in the space beyond the breach is a roughly humanoid figure. Skinless, you can see its musculature flexing under a thin coating of what looks to be angry red scabbing. Black bone spurs jut from its back, legs and arms at regular intervals. Where the head would be is a perfectly smooth, glassy black caul without any feature, not even eyes or a mouth. And yet, the most disconcerting feature of the thing is its hands, which appear completely limp at the wrist but otherwise entirely stiff, like some horrid mantis. These appendages have long, thin claws.

The thing stands on its talons, moving its "head" as though surveying a new world, not twitching even an inch otherwise. It reminds you of a living scab, and it distresses you.


Fro what the HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?

I called it "Mr. Happy"

[Somensjev]

Well, it's not me personally, but I once sent these things after my players in multiple parties. Reactions were quite satisfactory. :smallbiggrin:





I called it "Mr. Happy"

do you mind if i borrow "Mr. Happy" next time i DM? :smallamused:

[afroakuma]

Feel free. :smallcool:

[Story]

Beholders are probably the most gut-wrenching. All those SoDs and a nifty anti-magic effect on an intelligent, flying creature.

The only thing worse than a Beholder with an anti-magic cone is a Beholder without the anti-magic cone. :smallbiggrin:

[atomicwaffle]

A homebrew enemy my character dubbed reapers. Our dm said these things come from another plane and as they decay and age, they replace their bodies with technology, becoming undead construct magic using fighters will all the strengths and none of the weaknesses (IE, spells that affect undead don't effect them) in order to become perfection.

One of them was a monster called Duon, that looked basically like duriel from diablo 2, except mechanical. He was 2 bodies, one a caster, one a fighter, so fighting him was like fighting a level 14 caster and a level 14 fighter. He switched forms with a move action. That was the most horrifying monster i ever faced.

The most horrifying encounter i ever had (same campaign) was a Vampire Blackguard on a Beholder Mount (i'm not even freaking kidding about this). We won that fight, but died right after it (it was only the warmup, and we were already low on spells. We then proceeded to fight a group of vampires, 2 equivalents of Soul Edge (one of which could wield itself as a blue glowing figure). I was the highest level, a cleric3/wizard3/mystic theurge 9. And 3/4 of my spells were exhausted. Campaign ended after that.

What i PERSONALLY think is the most horrifying enemy is either a Chaos Beast or a Blue Slaad.

[CrazyYanmega]

Fihrs freak me out. Never have encountered one though.

[jaydubs]

Here's a second one that's not original at all. It's weird, because it feels like half the players I talk to just find them ridiculous or silly. But I've been creeped out by the various oozes ever since I saw The Blob at far too young an age.

Compare:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_ef_NDwX8G8/UHdeP0bfdfI/AAAAAAAATvw/I07rA9FmfRk/s400/the+blob.jpg

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/eo_cube_mj.jpg

[Coidzor]

Meenlocks can be pretty creepy when played up in the right way. And at the levels one encounters them as appropriate enemies, well... unless you luck out or know exactly where to look, the DM may accidentally TPK before you even run into them if they don't hold back.

[Thurbane]

My group always has a bad reaction to aberrations, particularly Grick for some reason.

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/MM35_gallery/MM35_PG139.jpg

For myself, the Plaguewalker probably wins the "ewwww" award...

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/mm4_gallery/98707.jpg

[atemu1234]

I'll upload one of my own. I took the Tauric template, stuck it onto a lizardfolk and a max-advanced legendary snake. The result was supposed to be CR 14. I ran it through vorpal tribble's calculator, I got CR 23. I wanted a bad guy, I got something yuan-ti abominations pray to.

[Telonius]

That Mephit. That bloody, stupid Mephit.

It was about the second time our group had played D&D at all, so none of us had acquired an encyclopedic knowledge of the rules, and we all blew our Knowledge checks. Nobody knew that the Mephit had fast healing. We kept knocking the thing into negatives. It would wait awhile - even played dead a couple of times - then came back to stab us in the back at opportune moments. Such as trying to climb the shear cliff face ...

DM: "You see a familiar face at the top of the cliff. He looks wickedly at the grappling hook."
Us: "Oh gods, no, NOT HIM AGAIN!"

[Segev]

Nobody knew that the Mephit had fast healing. We kept knocking the thing into negatives. It would wait awhile - even played dead a couple of times - then came back to stab us in the back at opportune moments.

This is why adventureres coup-de-grace their fallen foes.

[Telonius]

Yeah, we finally graduated to real adventurers when we killed it for good. "If at first it doesn't die, add more fire."

[Dr. Cliché]

Yeah, we finally graduated to real adventurers when we killed it for good. "If at first it doesn't die, add more fire."

And remember: if fire isn't working, you're obviously not using enough fire.

[illyahr]

A friend/DM in a multi-DM setting once homebrewed up creatures known as Primordials (major Exalted echoes, I now realize, but I don't think he was cognizant of such), basically Elder Gods that predated the gods and whom the gods had fought against and imprisoned (classic Greek mythology is classic). One of them was a being of fear and assimilation, a giant ooze-like thing (at least its outer-manifestations were like black puddings). It radiated a contagious, psychic scream/corruption that basically twisted the weak-minded (read almost everything) into its mindless, incredibly hard to damage minions, whose veins were filled with black ooze. Called Terrors, these minions could spread the condition by touch or by their screams (it wasn't a disease, either, but a mental condition or corruption of sorts...affected everything that is subject to Taint, which is nigh everything).

All of the Terrors were extensions of the thing's singular consciousness, as it's impulse, out of fear, was to draw everything into itself, making everything as it was. In significant numbers, Terrors could morph into Horrors, homebrewed monsters with custom mechanics designed to make them challenging for high-level characters to kill (shared hp-pools, spell reflection that wasn't SR-based, assimilation abilities to heal each other, scalable abilities based on HD, AoE attacks, sonic attacks, reach attacks, spell-eating, etc).

In really big numbers (post-epidemic cities, the Underdark, etc), the Terrors would morph into sentient black ooze beings that had thousands of HD and had Gundam-scale attacks capable of dealing close to 100d6 in damage if they landed a hit. Eventually the entirety of the Lower Underdark of our custom setting was flooded with the stuff, and it could penetrate up to the Upperdark with its attacks.

All of these creatures dealt some degree of Taint, usually depravity (though I later added akuma from the Rokugan stuff to spread some corruption as well). We used a pretty harsh homebrew of taint, and ran into taint well-before any of us had Purity of Soul (though late in the game pretty much everyone we knew and ourselves had retrained it or died).

Anyone slain by the Captive (that was the only name it was known by) was irrevocably absorbed into its being. The sole exception was one of the pcs, who turned out to be a kind of reject/antigen to the contagious effect of the Captive, and was spit back up after an attempted absorption (turned out to be one of the cooler characters in a campaign full of cool characters). Moreover, the only way to actually neutralize it was to sacrifice a deity to imprison it once again, as had been done back in the original war with the Primordials, sealing it back in its chamber in Carceri.

On the good side, this Captive and its absorption of most of the souls on the Prime led to the evolution of the Incarnation, another Primordial based on self-propagation, and the basis for me introducing Incarnum into my setting (as I totally dislike the default fluff for Incarnum). The Incarnation sprang into being in the vacuum formed by the disappearance of all of those beings, seeking to fill a gap in the probabilistic nature of reality on the planes, and was all that remained in the cell where the Captive had dwelt since before time was even a thing when the party finally got around to visiting Carceri, seeking a method to halt the spread of the Captive.

Great campaign. Possibly the best I was ever involved in. The Captive crept inside your mind and turned you into it. Psychological, but horrifying nonetheless.

You mean slivers that turn other people into slivers? :smalleek:

[Chester]

Used the pre-gen Half-Farspawn Gray Render from LoM. That ransacked the party and sent them scurrying.

[Socksy]

The only thing worse than a Beholder with an anti-magic cone is a Beholder without the anti-magic cone. :smallbiggrin:

Can I sig this? :D

[kellbyb]

I'm not afraid of all the weird abberations, but That Damn Crab (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fw/20040221a) terrifies me.

[Yael]

My party found a Deck of Many Things a few sessions ago.

Just this.

[Irk]

I've got two.
Necrosis Carnex
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/mm4_gallery/98703.jpg
and the Mockery Drone
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/MM5_Gallery/106319.jpg

I mean, what the actual ****.

[atemu1234]

I've got two.
Necrosis Carnex
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/mm4_gallery/98703.jpg
and the Mockery Drone
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/MM5_Gallery/106319.jpg

I mean, what the actual ****.

Once I had a DM who wanted a "transformation-horror" series of adventures. There were two strains of this disease; the first has a fortitude save DC of 15 (difficult, but not unbeatable) and the second was 30. The disease gave you the pseudonatural template, the lower being the non-epic version and the other the epic version. What's worse is that once the transformation is complete (incubation five minutes, the transformation occurring regardless of life/death after 1d4 rounds following incubation), you go to intelligence 2 and turn chaotic evil. And all hit dice become d8s unless they're already higher. One of the PCs (me, actually) got infected to act as the BBEG at the end of the campaign. Honestly the most chilling roleplaying pieces I had to do.

[holywhippet]

I haven't seen it in action, but one former DM said he'd like to send an army of crawling claws at the party or just at a town in general. Not a few, an army. Being undead (depending on edition, in 3.0 they are constructs) and weak you could wipe out quite a few using turn undead and AoE spells. But if you are facing an entire army of them you'll wipe out a whole lot of them and there will be still more of them coming.

[Story]

Can I sig this?

Go ahead

Necrosis Carnex

Those things make great minions, especially if you are or use undead. Just find a way to control it and stick it in your bag of holding for free healing and buffs.

[Diachronos]

The DM of the first campaign I played in (4e) had the Tarrasque get awakened by a ritual that merged it with the Terror King, the same Primordial Lord that killed the dragon god Io. Long story short, the follow-up campaign had all of the players as dragons with the end boss being the Tarrasque, and killing the thing caused us to ascend to godhood.

There were also a couple sessions where we were trapped in a nightmare world (we stopped to camp in an area affected by the elemental diffusion of a purple dragon without realizing it) where we basically had to hide from Phyrexia. Speaking of which...

Our party's monk ended up getting infected and went on to accidentally infect the world with a blue-black zombie plague. Humans became regular zombies, but other races were affected differently. Dragonborn became feral monsters that were ridiculously fast and strong, and they had a "rot breath" that decayed whatever it hit.
The most disturbing ones were the elves, though. They basically became elf-sized trees, except their bodies were covered by "vines" and "branches" that were actually the elf's blood vessels. Oh, and if you touched one its veins would shoot into your skin and start taking root. The halfling in the party took one of those to the eye, and our warlock got one all the way from his fingers up to his elbow.

[CrazyYanmega]

I've got two.
Necrosis Carnex
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/mm4_gallery/98703.jpg
and the Mockery Drone
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/MM5_Gallery/106319.jpg

I mean, what the actual ****.

Aw man, mockery drones! I remember when I threw a town full of those things at my party. There was one normal person left, but they didn't know who it was. The Raptoran shaman resorted to screaming in everyone's face, attacking if they didn't respond in the way a normal person would react to a +6' bird screaming at them.

And then the Mockery Monarch! It attacked from below and swallowed the ranger and the bard. It took over 10 rounds and nearly TPK'd the party AFTER they killed it!

[Alex12]

Illithids always have a special place in my heart.
I ran one campaign where they were all Germans, with the good Illithids (because that was a thing) being wacky German mad inventors, and the evil Illithids being Nazis (turns out it's easier to justify your claims of racial superiority when you actually are mechanically better)
They're a race of telepathic geniuses ruled by telepathic supergeniuses, and they've got an unhealthy penchant for psionic, magical, technological, and biological experimentation coupled with a total lack of ethics, and they're more than willing to work together to further their aims. As far as I'm concerned, they're one of the biggest threats in the world.

[Slipperychicken]

They're a race of telepathic geniuses ruled by telepathic supergeniuses, and they've got an unhealthy penchant for psionic, magical, technological, and biological experimentation coupled with a total lack of ethics, and they're more than willing to work together to further their aims. As far as I'm concerned, they're one of the biggest threats in the world.

Well, they're working together to advance Illithid goals. That indicates some level of ethical conduct (i.e. serve the master-brain, use science to benefit the Illithid race), even if their ideals don't result in them treating humans very well.

[...]

Illithids always have a special place in my heart.
I ran one campaign where they were all Germans, with the good Illithids (because that was a thing) being wacky German mad inventors, and the evil Illithids being Nazis (turns out it's easier to justify your claims of racial superiority when you actually are mechanically better)
They're a race of telepathic geniuses ruled by telepathic supergeniuses, and they've got an unhealthy penchant for psionic, magical, technological, and biological experimentation coupled with a total lack of ethics, and they're more than willing to work together to further their aims. As far as I'm concerned, they're one of the biggest threats in the world.

Not to mention that they are destined to rule the world.

[ryu]

Kyuubey. Just Kyuubey.

An enemy against which all physical force is meaningless. It's completely undetectable unless it actively desires to be detected. It's the purest sociopath I've ever seen. ''It'' is actually a legion of creatures operating under a hivemind. It can strike at any moment and always targets the most emotionally vulnerable of little girls for a fate worse than death. I had to get damned creative to find a solution to that thing.

[Story]

In order to secretly rule the world, the Illithids will have to defeat the secret Aboleth conspiracy first.

[CrazyYanmega]

Kyuubey. Just Kyuubey.

An enemy against which all physical force is meaningless. It's completely undetectable unless it actively desires to be detected. It's the purest sociopath I've ever seen. ''It'' is actually a legion of creatures operating under a hivemind. It can strike at any moment and always targets the most emotionally vulnerable of little girls for a fate worse than death. I had to get damned creative to find a solution to that thing.
Out of simple curiosity, how DID you beat him?

I'm not afraid of all the weird abberations, but That Damn Crab (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fw/20040221a) terrifies me.
How can that crab terrify you unless you already have a fear of crabs? Now, that Razor Eel Swarm right under it? THAT is terrifying. 4d6 damage and 1d6 Con damage each round? And that +27 Hide check? You wouldn't even see it coming! All you would hear is a slimy rustling sound before your shredded and eaten alive.

[ryu]

Out of simple curiosity, how DID you beat him?

How can that crab terrify you unless you already have a fear of crabs? Now, that Razor Eel Swarm right under it? THAT is terrifying. 4d6 damage and 1d6 Con damage each round? And that +27 Hide check? You wouldn't even see it coming! All you would hear is a slimy rustling sound before your shredded and eaten alive.

Abuse travel through time and ice assassins that wouldn't attempt to kill each other on sight to repeatedly ''attempt'' to save one girl to increase her magical potential as much as possible. In final loop get her to wish that magical girls simply don't have a limit on magic and thus never become witches. I pretty much had to completely screw thermodynamics and entropy to an extent beyond even what the show did. Then the damn witches get replaced with an endlessly spawning plague of wraiths. Damnable incubators.

[Irk]

Out of simple curiosity, how DID you beat him?
I am wondering as well.


How can that crab terrify you unless you already have a fear of crabs?
Don' we all?

Now, that Razor Eel Swarm right under it? THAT is terrifying. 4d6 damage and 1d6 Con damage each round? And that +27 Hide check? You wouldn't even see it coming! All you would hear is a slimy rustling sound before your shredded and eaten alive.
It's actually fairly challenging, with a touch AC of 24, which is pretty insane, and pretty high HP. However, a well-created team of PCs should not have too much trouble, as even one hit rolling max damage is not likely to kill anyone at that level. Though I do see your point, and I;m surprised more people have not brought it up.
The crab, however, is CR 3, and is essentially a guaranteed kill. It will deal at least 20 damage on every hit, which is enough to kill most characters, and no one can escape that movement speed, to-hit, and grapple mod. Its AC is relatively high, it has lots of HP, and has Vermin traits, so no mind-affecting effects. It is quite a strong enemy, if played to its full potential.

[Vogonjeltz]

While most monsters would be pretty horrifying if you were to actually see one, here are a couple that creep me out:

Caller From The Deeps (storm wrack) - creepy darkness that consumes you in the water.

Kythons (BoVD, natch)

Puppeteer (xph) - anything mind controlling is fairly creepy.

All oozes (you'll immediately understand if you've seen the blob)

Brood keeper and cadaver collector (mm3)

[Coidzor]

Abuse travel through time and ice assassins that wouldn't attempt to kill each other on sight to repeatedly ''attempt'' to save one girl to increase her magical potential as much as possible. In final loop get her to wish that magical girls simply don't have a limit on magic and thus never become witches. I pretty much had to completely screw thermodynamics and entropy to an extent beyond even what the show did. Then the damn witches get replaced with an endlessly spawning plague of wraiths. Damnable incubators.

I'm surprised you didn't just turn the populace into ethergaunts and thereby eliminate (the female) sex and limitations on magic completely. No girls = no magical girls = no witches, and everyone being ethergaunts means that they're by default part of the Glorious Wizard Casting Master Race.

[Amidus Drexel]

The enemies my players have found the most horrifying were a succubus, two bebeliths, and a few spider swarms. They unknowingly took the succubus to a temple of good where they had an NPC friend, and then she escaped - right under their noses (in fact, the players ran into the succubus as she was leaving, disguised as the preistess they befriended). They were seriously convinced that she had killed and replaced the priestess until they confirmed that she was alive the next morning (after they figured it out, of course).

As for the spiders... (from a different campaign) the PCs were under the effects of powerful hallucinogenics (largely their own fault, but it was entertaining) in the middle of a dungeon. The cleric was convinced that the spiders were praising him as their king, and he was (unbeknownst to him) nearly ripped apart by the demon spider when he couldn't see. He escaped at exactly 0 hp when he finally came to his senses.

The second bebilith captured a psion at the bottom of a mineshaft, and held him still while the spiders swarmed over him. He managed to kill the bebilith, but the swarm kept him nauseated for several rounds, almost enough to do him in (he too escaped with only a handful of hit points when he finally made his save). Easily the most horrific moments of that campaign.

[ryu]

I'm surprised you didn't just turn the populace into ethergaunts and thereby eliminate (the female) sex and limitations on magic completely. No girls = no magical girls = no witches, and everyone being ethergaunts means that they're by default part of the Glorious Wizard Casting Master Race.

And thus turn everyone into potential rivals with full wizard casting regardless of actual outlook and likelihood to go villain? I don't think so. No. They can all be more or less evokers if they like but full wizards? Nawp.

[Alex12]

Kyuubey. Just Kyuubey.

An enemy against which all physical force is meaningless. It's completely undetectable unless it actively desires to be detected. It's the purest sociopath I've ever seen. ''It'' is actually a legion of creatures operating under a hivemind. It can strike at any moment and always targets the most emotionally vulnerable of little girls for a fate worse than death. I had to get damned creative to find a solution to that thing.

I think the easiest way is to put the thing in touch with the Anti-Spiral. Since Kyuubey's problem fundamentally boils down to "not enough energy" and the Anti-Spiral's problem fundamentally boils down to "too much energy" I think an arrangement can be reached pretty easily.

[ryu]

I think the easiest way is to put the thing in touch with the Anti-Spiral. Since Kyuubey's problem fundamentally boils down to "not enough energy" and the Anti-Spiral's problem fundamentally boils down to "too much energy" I think an arrangement can be reached pretty easily.

I'm honestly afraid of what the little bugger would do after having achieved an infinite supply of energy. Do you really feel safe removing the one predictability in the form of a goal from the incubators?

[Alex12]

I'm honestly afraid of what the little bugger would do after having achieved an infinite supply of energy. Do you really feel safe removing the one predictability in the form of a goal from the incubators?

Honestly, I'm willing to bet that the Anti-Spirals (and later, the Spiral races) can still out-escalate and take them (or just produce twice as much energy and destroy two universes instead of just one). Spiral Power is good at escalation and power generation.

[ryu]

Honestly, I'm willing to bet that the Anti-Spirals (and later, the Spiral races) can still out-escalate and take them (or just produce twice as much energy and destroy two universes instead of just one). Spiral Power is good at escalation and power generation.

And how is killing off an entire universe unnecessarily, let alone two, a more desirable outcome to a practical wizard than the previous alternative? I like the universe. It's where I keep all my stuff.

[Story]

I'm honestly afraid of what the little bugger would do after having achieved an infinite supply of energy. Do you really feel safe removing the one predictability in the form of a goal from the incubators?

They'd make good *friends* with the Orz.

[...]

Okay, obvious question time. What scourcebook is xph and what scourcebook/anything else is "Kyuubey" from?

[ryu]

Kyuubey is from Madoka Magicka. One of the most subversive, gut-wrenchingly grimdark magical girl animes of all time.

[...]

Kyuubey is from Madoka Magicka. One of the most subversive, gut-wrenchingly grimdark magical girl animes of all time.

Yet another way I have suffered by not having a reliable anime source.

[CIDE]

Where the hell is the mockery drone from? That thing just looks so promising.

[Irk]

Where the hell is the mockery drone from? That thing just looks so promising.
It's ****ing horrifying. From MMV and descended from ankhegs. and they are 5 FEET LONG.
Here is the descriptive text:

The shopkeeper turns toward you, a silly grin on his face. “Here’s
your change. Here’s your change!” he says, his voice rising to a
shout. Then, in a spout of blood, his face detaches from his skull and
leaps toward you, propelled by a centipedelike body with foot-long
spines. “Here’s . . . your . . . change!” shouts the centipede with the
shopkeeper’s face as it scuttles your way.
Pls no.

[...]

It's ****ing horrifying. From MMV and descended from ankhegs. and they are 5 FEET LONG.
Here is the descriptive text:

Pls no.

At the risk of repeating myself, MMV? I am not familiar with that scourcebook.

[Alex12]

At the risk of repeating myself, MMV? I am not familiar with that scourcebook.

XPH is eXpanded Psionics Handbook.
MMV is Monster Manual V (or 5)

[...]

XPH is eXpanded Psionics Handbook.
MMV is Monster Manual V (or 5)

Those are some of the strangest abbreviations I've ever seen. I would just use EPH and MM5, if I were in charge of the sourcebook abbreviations.

[Vogonjeltz]

I'm honestly afraid of what the little bugger would do after having achieved an infinite supply of energy. Do you really feel safe removing the one predictability in the form of a goal from the incubators?

They'd make good *friends* with the Orz.

They aren't solid enough to catch the *Nnngn*

[Coidzor]

I'm honestly afraid of what the little bugger would do after having achieved an infinite supply of energy. Do you really feel safe removing the one predictability in the form of a goal from the incubators?

They'd make good *friends* with the Orz.

Depends on if Kyuubey is/are from *outside* or just an unpleasant part of *inside.* Orz prefers *happy campers,* though, but maybe they are *cousins.*


They aren't solid enough to catch the *Nnngn*

Well, humans aren't. Who knows about Orz or Kyuubey, though. Orz are from *below* and Arilou are from *above,* so whether Orz would enjoy catching *Nnngn* only to re

Also, y'all made me find this (http://asktheorz.tumblr.com/).


And how is killing off an entire universe unnecessarily, let alone two, a more desirable outcome to a practical wizard than the previous alternative? I like the universe. It's where I keep all my stuff.

Eh, you can always just make another one. :smallamused:


And thus turn everyone into potential rivals with full wizard casting regardless of actual outlook and likelihood to go villain? I don't think so. No. They can all be more or less evokers if they like but full wizards? Nawp.

That's why you mindrape them first and then have a huge planet-wide circle magic fun fest to be able to tear open the metaphysical nature of reality enough to smack the DM in the face with a rolled up newspaper I mean, punch evil in the schnoz.

I mean, this is a monstrous plan where one destroys all individuality by making everyone into ethergaunts with or without their consent. :smallbiggrin:

[VariSami]

Could we please let Kyubei rest in peace because it is not an actual D&D monster, and I have yet to see stats provided for a homebrewed version? Personally, I feel like it is derailing this thread a bit too much.

As for horrifying encounters, I believe my use of a Wendigo Worg (FF and MM, respectively) was quite successful when the characters were traversing across the frozen lands of wintery Karrnath after their train was sabotaged. There were a hundred or so other survivors alongside them, no settlements in sight, and they did not have sufficient supplies. The arrival of a cannibalism- and insanity-inducing monstrous wolf was more or less the last nail in the coffin. Particularly when the group's paladin deemed that anyone even potentially affected by its madness or sickness would have to be put out for the common good. My, he even butchered those people personally simply because he knew that while this would result in his fall, it would save too many lives to be avoidable.

I also ran an expedition to Xen'Drik and had the story revolve around the awakening of an insect-themed Daelkyr in the depths of the Dragon Below. While the group never got anywhere near the Daelkyr itself, they did encounter its insectile minions, some of which make me quite proud. I will not provide links to the stats I have for these in Obsidianportal because I am not sure whether it would break forum rules or not but those things include:
1. a Half-Illithid Kython Adult and a brood of Half-Illithid Kython Broodlings (the Half-Illithid template had been refluffed)
2. an Insectile Zern (MM4) with a pincer staff and a pair of Zern Blade Thralls
3. Arachnid Awakened Wolverines ("Gluttonids") with the Battle Jump feat (UE) which would drop from the ceiling
4. a Lolth-touched Insectile (non-psionic) Thri-Kreen with 4 greatswords, pounce and Leap Attack; horrifying mostly because of the imminent danger

[Threadnaught]

DM had all characters start at level 3 and with a Sin to be role played. I decided to go Ozodrin with Lust, with any form of physical contact considered intercourse by my character who was known as "Rapey Terry", creepy right?

Creature that killed him was a twisted demonic looking copy. It was like looking into a mirror. Except, no creepy personality was given. At one point, it wass suggested that a twisted version of the character would be something cute, like a bunny.


This creature failed to have any impact, purely because of the character being designed to be the creepiest thing ever.

[Jakodee]

Rats. Just rats. Hundreds of enemies all with diseases. Dragon? We can run if we get hurt. Rats? We can run. But can we outrun an infection?

[ThreeDSix]

I'm not afraid of all the weird abberations, but That Damn Crab (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fw/20040221a) terrifies me.

Once faced off a Damn Crab with a Bodack template tacked on, followed around by a flock of undead seagulls that ate your strength.

Didn't really help that the ruined village we fought it in was covered in a thick fog. We couldn't see it, but we could hear the screeching of those gulls coming closer.

[Story]

But can we outrun an infection?

Nonmagical diseases aren't very threatening in D&D.

You know something is bad when even Monks are immune to it.

[Vogonjeltz]

But can we outrun an infection?

Nonmagical diseases aren't very threatening in D&D.

You know something is bad when even Monks are immune to it.

Filth Fever is spread by rats (and probably fleas). The characters who aren't immune will eventually fail their saving throws.

[Sith_Happens]

Kyuubey. Just Kyuubey.

An enemy against which all physical force is meaningless. It's completely undetectable unless it actively desires to be detected. It's the purest sociopath I've ever seen. ''It'' is actually a legion of creatures operating under a hivemind. It can strike at any moment and always targets the most emotionally vulnerable of little girls for a fate worse than death. I had to get damned creative to find a solution to that thing.


Abuse travel through time and ice assassins that wouldn't attempt to kill each other on sight to repeatedly ''attempt'' to save one girl to increase her magical potential as much as possible. In final loop get her to wish that magical girls simply don't have a limit on magic and thus never become witches. I pretty much had to completely screw thermodynamics and entropy to an extent beyond even what the show did. Then the damn witches get replaced with an endlessly spawning plague of wraiths. Damnable incubators.

...Did this really happen in a campaign? If so, there's no quantity of clapping GIFs I could possibly find and post that would adequately express my awe and admiration.


Could we please let Kyubei rest in peace because it is not an actual D&D monster, and I have yet to see stats provided for a homebrewed version?

Now you have. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?308322-Mahou-Shoujo-Madoka-Magica):smallwink:

(Your guess is as good as mine why everything's renamed.)


As for horrifying encounters, I believe my use of a Wendigo Worg (FF and MM, respectively) was quite successful when the characters were traversing across the frozen lands of wintery Karrnath after their train was sabotaged. There were a hundred or so other survivors alongside them, no settlements in sight, and they did not have sufficient supplies. The arrival of a cannibalism- and insanity-inducing monstrous wolf was more or less the last nail in the coffin. Particularly when the group's paladin deemed that anyone even potentially affected by its madness or sickness would have to be put out for the common good. My, he even butchered those people personally simply because he knew that while this would result in his fall, it would save too many lives to be avoidable.

Bravo. That is all.