Annoying Monsters to Fight

[Draco_Lord]

Hey, I am looking for something to really bug my players with. Something to make them go "God I hate you DM. You are so evil! Never put -blank- in the game again!" Because that is what it is meant to do, make them hate it, and never want to go near it again.

The two examples of battles that they fought that drove them mad are
1. Werewolves. They don't like them, especially in packs. Though, that was because I messed up on my NPC creating and made some tanking beasts, ones that took forever for them to kill. But basically, they don't want to fight lots of enemies that don't die.

2. A wizard and fighter combo. The party was split into two rooms, one with a wizard and one with a fighter. The wizard and fight would chance places every 2 rounds. The wizard had four spells he used constantly, casting a pair of runes on the ground, creating mirror images of himself, and AQUEOUS ORB which he used to push people into the runes. What the party didn't know is that one rune healed, the other hurt. The fighter was built to Sunder, and boy did he sunder, got two critical right away. Anyways the wizard would set up the runes, the Fighter would charge through the healing ones, while avoiding the other ones. The party hated him, for breaking all there stuff.

So are there any other abilities I can use to annoy them? Make them want to strangle me? Or so on?

[Urpriest]

Huh, which spell did you use for the runes?

Anyway, Alkiliths (Fiend Folio) are really annoying from the item destruction perspective. Teleporting enemies in general annoy people...maybe have them fight a group of evil Blink Dogs?

[sideswipe]

adamantine clockwork horror

[Silva Stormrage]

This list might help: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?315230-The-most-unbalanced-monsters-for-each-CR-up-to-20-%28or-so%29

Though I will suggest that trying to piss off your players is not always the best idea.

[squiggit]

IMO most of these monsters fit into categories

-Wrecking Balls. Monsters that can cause permanent damage to the party. Item destruction, stuff that applies debuffs you can't cure at the level it's inflicted. Seriously sometimes having a rust monster go to town on the fighter's equipment will piss the player off more than killing the character would have

-Harriers. Stuff that can whittle down a party while being very difficult to harm. Stuff that's ethereal or incorporeal at levels you can't deal with that well, stuff that's really hard to hit, stuff that can go through walls or fly at levels that that's hard to deal with. Again, taking 60 damage in one turn from a giant overpowered piece of **** and having your 45 HP character drop instantly is less frustrating at times than taking 5 damage per round against an enemy you can't seem to kill or escape.

-Walls. Like harriers but instead of constantly evading attack these things just don't take damage. fighting a monster that's magic immune, doesn't get hurt by any weapon you have and can deal with indirect magic is the most annoying ****.

probably a few more categories I'm not thinking of.

[TheEmperor]

I've never played against one, but as far as I've heard and seen, That Damned Crab is not CR'ed well

[Madhava]

I always thought the black pudding was a royal headache for CR 7; immunities, a ton of HP... plus, difficult to fight with weapons (because it eats them). Many PC's still tend to be poor at this level... many are not yet flight-capable yet, either.

Martial characters are largely useless against these, except for maybe a charge/pounce-build, who happens to have an expendable blunt weapon on-hand.

[Baroknik]

A Rust Monster

A Living Spell of Disjunction

[WeaselGuy]

Depending on the level and the group composition, Hydras and Ghosts can be particularly annoying.

Hydras have plenty of attacks (and get more of them if you don't fight them properly) and Ghosts have this annoying thing where they can move through stuff. Like walls. In a tunnel. And your wizard specializes in AoE spells. That was an annoying night :smallannoyed:

[Deox]

Though I will suggest that trying to piss off your players is not always the best idea.

This.

OP - What level are the players?

[Riculf]

I'm seconding Rust Monster

[Marlowe]

IF you don't know you're going to be facing one, a Will o' the Wisp is damned annoying. Touch AC 29. Immune to most magic. Excellent Reflex Save. Flyer. Has Blind-Fight. Greater Invisibility at will from a mundane source.

Your mundanes at the level you encounter them (CR 5) will need to roll well indeed to hit one; when they get a chance to swing. Your magical characters will have a hard time finding spells in a standard spell selection to do anything to them.

[sideswipe]

This list might help: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?315230-The-most-unbalanced-monsters-for-each-CR-up-to-20-%28or-so%29

Though I will suggest that trying to piss off your players is not always the best idea.

i was looking for that for 20 mins!!

[Silva Stormrage]

i was looking for that for 20 mins!!

Heh :smalltongue: I bookmarked it for reference a while back when I was still trying to contribute to it.

[sideswipe]

Heh :smalltongue: I bookmarked it for reference a while back when I was still trying to contribute to it.

i have now.

[Necroticplague]

Phase spiders are annoying if their ethereal jaunt ability is used to its fullest extent. This goes double if its feats have been changed to give it Spring Attack. Port in as a free move, attack, then port back out to the Ethereal all in one turn. Also a good way to learn who remembers about readied actions.

[Urpriest]

I always thought the black pudding was a royal headache for CR 7; immunities, a ton of HP... plus, difficult to fight with weapons (because it eats them). Many PC's still tend to be poor at this level... many are not yet flight-capable yet, either.

Martial characters are largely useless against these, except for maybe a charge/pounce-build, who happens to have an expendable blunt weapon on-hand.

Seconding this, I remember having a really hard time with them back in the day. Gibbering Mouthers too.

Ghosts are fun because they force your players to RP in order to kill them.

[PraxisVetli]

IF you don't know you're going to be facing one, a Will o' the Wisp is damned annoying. Touch AC 29. Immune to most magic. Excellent Reflex Save. Flyer. Has Blind-Fight. Greater Invisibility at will from a mundane source.

Your mundanes at the level you encounter them (CR 5) will need to roll well indeed to hit one; when they get a chance to swing. Your magical characters will have a hard time finding spells in a standard spell selection to do anything to them.

This.
Almost TPK'd a group with will o' wisps once.

[Zaq]

IF you don't know you're going to be facing one, a Will o' the Wisp is damned annoying. Touch AC 29. Immune to most magic. Excellent Reflex Save. Flyer. Has Blind-Fight. Greater Invisibility at will from a mundane source.

Your mundanes at the level you encounter them (CR 5) will need to roll well indeed to hit one; when they get a chance to swing. Your magical characters will have a hard time finding spells in a standard spell selection to do anything to them.

God, this. Will o' Wisps are horrible.

Cranium Rat Swarms are also very bad news. They can trivially stunlock most of the party, and they're immune to weapon damage. Plus, they have spells.

A Teratomorph once derailed our campaign for a good six months of real time. Frigging aura of Plane Shift is total BS.

[Seclora]

God, this. Will o' Wisps are horrible.

Cranium Rat Swarms are also very bad news. They can trivially stunlock most of the party, and they're immune to weapon damage. Plus, they have spells.

A Teratomorph once derailed our campaign for a good six months of real time. Frigging aura of Plane Shift is total BS.

Seconding Cranium Rats. Only time we lost a party member and it wasn't because of another party member. That stun is dangerous and the swarm basically just straight up negates mundanes. Didn't help that our DM gave it custom power selection(energy immunity!) and even wound up building an Epic advanced version when we hit those levels. Turned all our fights into dispel and counterspell duels. it gets worse once you account for the hive nest template.

[icefractal]

Ghost knights on Ghost-Brute horses using Ride-by Attack to fly out of the wall, stab people, and fly back into the opposite wall.

Ghosts in general have a lot of annoyance ability:
* Draining Touch - Everyone hates ability drain.
* Telekinesis - Throw annoying weapons like Harpoons and Nets - 12 of them at once.
* Malevolence - Possession is always a problem. To be really mean, make the ghost a Hellfire Warlock or something else that takes ability damage for power. Possess a PC and then drain their stats while doing it.


One that was so annoying (to everyone) that I vowed to never do it again as a GM - several Psions with Burrowing Power in a maze. The enemies can see through the walls (with Burrowing Touchsight) and manifest powers through them, the PCs have no idea where the attacks are coming from and even when they figure it out they have to smash through walls or run around blindly in the hope of finding their foes.

It was particularly annoying in that it was a really slow "death of a thousand cuts" - because the Psions were a couple levels lower, and using Burrowing Power reduced it even more, their attacks weren't doing much damage at once. But it just kept coming - the battle was 10+ rounds, IIRC.

[Darrin]

Dread Blossom Swarm (MM3). If swarm damage that causes nausea wasn't enough... they exude a cloud of poison that paralyzes and then suck out your blood with Con damage. And if being immune to weapon damage wasn't annoying enough, slap Regeneration 5 on top of that. Another cruel trick: put these in a "garden" with a Living Spell (same book) such as a Glitterfire or Sickening Sleep. Add the Sentry Ooze template (Dungeonscape) and the Thick-Skinned feat (Savage Species) so it's immune to the swarm damage.

Sporebat (Fiend Folio). It's a plant that looks like a spawn of Cthulhu... that flies around and spams enervation death beam lasers every other round. Oh, and it has 15 HD for some reason.

Fang Golem (MM4). They explode when they die, so put something breakable around them, like Porcupine Cacti (Sandstorm) or Fetid Fungi (MM5). Gas Spore (Lords of Madness), Bladerager Troll (MM5), Phoelarch (MM3), or Chraal (MM3) also have "Death Throes" explosions.

Hoard Scarab Swarm (Draconomicon). Not only is it treasure that attacks you, they burrow into your skin (like in that Mummy movie) and deal Con damage until you're dead. If you don't have a remove disease or heal spell handy, you could be looking at a permanent dirt nap.

[daremetoidareyo]

I'm thirding rust monsters. I love these things. I like putting feral halfling master throwers with but load of stone hand axes on their back as elite cavalry to really syncronize abilities. Negate attacks here and there with a ride check, heck yeah. The neat thing about tamed rust monsters is that there are thatch stables and rust monster experts in those communities. This military novelty can really ripple through the culture, giving it a crazy fluff flavor, which the pcs will appreciate when they get over bumhurt of their equipment melting away.

[Blackhawk748]

No one mentioned Shadows? Seriously those things suck, Str Drain, incorporeal, not incredibly stupid (pretty stupid though) and tend to be encountered in the dark, or attack people out of a wall. So ya, really annoying, unless you have an Aasimar Paladin, daylight is nice.

[Judge_Worm]

One more vote for rust monster.

Even better, rust monster in an amf or dead magic zone.