Poll: Least frightening monster?

[Reltzik]

Certain low-CR monsters, vermin, and animals seem to be a bit lacking in intimidation value to most players. Sure, they may be deadly when encountered in large groups, or if they have a bunch of class levels, but alone or just a small handful of them are... lacking. Furthermore, once no longer as fearsome, they tend to become less evil. (Goblins with slave pits? How could they keep slaves when they're only CR 1/3?)

I'd like to hear which MM1 entries you no longer consider to be particular threatening or, if evil, villainous. For that matter, I'd like to hear about any creatures which, due either to simple power or general personality, are seen more as mere irritants or even comic relief. I'm going to hope to reverse that some with my next batch of victims game.

[Azerian Kelimon]

Not low level, but certainly not fearsome: Purple worms. Seem REALLY intimidating, but at that level, a suboptimal party will hand it it's ass.

[Chosen_of_Vecna]

Pretty much all Vermin after level 7 are useless. Goblins/Orcs/Kobolds/ect are pretty much expected to have class levels in my games. Why would only humans have that possibility? Anything with Int is fair game.

If you play an evil campaign and they decide to slaughter a town is everyone going to be a Commoner? Of course not, it's the same principle.

CR 1/3 Goblins are exactly as Common as level 1 Commoners. And Goblin Wizard 7s are just as common as NPC Wizard 7s.

[DementedFellow]

I am reminded of this.

[EagleWiz]

The Tarrsque. No joke.

[sonofzeal]

Underpowered - Owlbears, and most SRD animals (with the notable exception of the Polar Bear).

Lacking in scariness - certainly not goblins, I've made a lvl7 party flee in terror from unadjusted goblins simply by using sufficient numbers and good flavourtext. "Bards" are hard to make scary though (unless they go for the Disciple of Metal PrC), and a lot of the smaller fey have the same problem. Even if they're dangerous, you can't take them seriously as lethal threats.

[Eldariel]

Housecats may be impressive warriors, but they hardly make you tremble in fear. so Housecats lack in the fear factor. They make up by kicking ass though.

[howandwhy99]

No one has mentioned the Flumph yet? No love

[Zincorium]

The Digester.

C'mon, how do you ruin an acid spitting dinosaur?!

[Eldariel]

I entirely forgot, Black Pudding. I mean, DAMN, that thing is friggin' edible...

[Farmer42]

Owlbears. I mean, we're supposed to be afraid of that?

[Dode]

The Digester.

C'mon, how do you ruin an acid spitting dinosaur?!

Beaten to posting the Digester.

That was actually a joke monster of mine in a campaign. Got the party freaked at the tale of a monster loose in the mountains that was dissolving lone sheep into hideous fusions of melted flesh and bone, then when they fight the thing, it turned out to be a gizzard with legs that ejaculated digestive fluid on them.

[Roderick_BR]

I entirely forgot, Black Pudding. I mean, DAMN, that thing is friggin' edible...

Take a potion of acid resistance, and you have a nice dessert.

I had a player that did it once..... Seriously. Kinda my fault for suggesting it, but still.

[Saph]

The Ravid. It's a one-armed flying snake that hits you with its tail and . . . administers a surge of positive energy that gives you a tingling feeling. Not exactly terrifying.

- Saph

[Reltzik]

Thanks for the help, and those are all really interesting (the Tarrasque? Really?), but I was thinking more in terms of things which even level 1 characters wouldn't fear. Any suggestions on that front?

[Thoughtbot360]

I entirely forgot, Black Pudding. I mean, DAMN, that thing is friggin' edible...

My Halfling wizard would disagree. He still has the acid burns all over his body despite the fact that he was 4th level back then and he's halfway through 7th level now.

The fact that it was represented by a Fire elemental miniature seems oddly appropriate in hindsight...

[Illiterate Scribe]

It's not monster manual one, but I was pretty scared when I saw the Senmurv:

Spoiler

Show

Screams furry gay pride to me.

[AslanCross]

Gah, the Senmurv! D:

In my case, if we include older editions, it's the Duckbunny.

[rockdeworld]

A Shrieker (see "Fungus"). It can't actually do anything in a fight. I think maybe it can grapple if someone steps on it, but that's about it.

Other than that would probably be silly-dressed regular races (humans, goblins, halflings, etc).

[tyckspoon]

Thanks for the help, and those are all really interesting (the Tarrasque? Really?), but I was thinking more in terms of things which even level 1 characters wouldn't fear. Any suggestions on that front?

The tarrasque is infamous for suffering this problem, actually.. thing is, it's a CR 20 creature that doesn't fly and has no ranged attack. It goes kinda like..

"The ground shakes underneath your feet as a 50-foot monstrosity approaches. It's the legendary tarrasque, and he looks hungry!"
"We fly up 100 feet and throw rocks at it until we get bored."

[Hadrian_Emrys]

The Ravid. It's a one-armed flying snake that hits you with its tail and . . . administers a surge of positive energy that gives you a tingling feeling. Not exactly terrifying.

- Saph

One word: TROGDOR!!! -_- I'm still trying to find a way to make it a threatening encounter.

[Eldariel]

My Halfling wizard would disagree. He still has the acid burns all over his body despite the fact that he was 4th level back then and he's halfway through 7th level now.

The fact that it was represented by a Fire elemental miniature seems oddly appropriate in hindsight...

You know, Spoon counts as a piercing weapon, so once you start eating a living Black Pudding, it'll automatically split itself to smaller Puddings. In other words, you have a replicating dinner. You just have to stick your spoon to it often enough to make it split into 10 hp pieces and those you can eat. They should be about the right size too.

And no, I don't think a melee foe with movement speed 20, negative armor class and the ability to self destruct when touched by a spoon is going to frighten even level 1 mooks. Hell, I wonder how those things even survive in caves; you'd think anything they try to grab would sink its nails or teeth into the thing making it split and thusly making the consumption incredibly ineffective. A rat could bite one into death.

Oh yeah, and they're as dumb as bricks. Literally. In other words, you won't even need to fear it trying to just move over you to grapple you, it first needs to hit you with its 'mi tentacles touch you'-attacks before it can try a Grapple-check.

If a Level 1-party can't kill a CR 12 Elder Black Pudding outside extremely constrainted space (as in, "you just ran through one of those doors that always closes immediately once the protagonists pass and stuck your head into a Pudding on your way through"-constrained - btw, sticking your head to a pudding deals bludgeoning damage so it doesn't split :( You need a punk hairdo to headbutt them to death), it's pretty sad.

[Jack_Simth]

The tarrasque is infamous for suffering this problem, actually.. thing is, it's a CR 20 creature that doesn't fly and has no ranged attack. It goes kinda like..

"The ground shakes underneath your feet as a 50-foot monstrosity approaches. It's the legendary tarrasque, and he looks hungry!"
"We fly up 100 feet and throw rocks at it until we get bored."

A couple of tricks for working with Big T:
1) Limited Movement Environment. If you can't get up past the thing's vertical reach, the safe tactic isn't available.
2) Big T is hungry. If there's something he can't do anything about, he goes and eats something. Big T encountered outside is encountered near a soft target he can eat - a town of 5,000 people, maybe.
3) Int-3 means minimally intelligent. He knows how to throw things, even if they are only boulders he ripped out of the ground with his bare claws.

As for the original topic, try the Bat. No attacks at all.

[Collin152]

Don't toads also lack an attack?

[jcsw]

One word: TROGDOR!!! -_- I'm still trying to find a way to make it a threatening encounter.

Abuse the animate objects power, and have them encounter the ravid after it's had several rounds animating objects.

And then have them have to protect an undead... diplomat.

[Hectonkhyres]

The tarrasque is infamous for suffering this problem, actually.. thing is, it's a CR 20 creature that doesn't fly and has no ranged attack. It goes kinda like..

"The ground shakes underneath your feet as a 50-foot monstrosity approaches. It's the legendary tarrasque, and he looks hungry!"
"We fly up 100 feet and throw rocks at it until we get bored."

My group threatened to do that. The DM houseruled the thing growing a massive set of wings and taking to the skies and being able to teleport (short range once every 1d6 rounds, long ranged 3/day). He didn't tell us about these *ahem* changes.

We survived. Barely.

[Rift_Wolf]

The Black Pudding can be scary, if only for the fact it dissolves weapons and armour. Our party faced one in a tight spot, and none of us had particularly powerful ranged weapons.
If RAW the black pudding splits into two large oozes. You can split it down to 10hp chunks, but by this time anyone without enough AC is a skeleton. Your warrior can slash and cleave, but has to make reflex saves or loses his weapon.

[Arcane_Secrets]

The rust monster. One attack besides rusting-not really dangerous, but potentially hilarious once in a while.

A really nasty trick would be to have annihilators (from FR Underdark) that looked like rust monsters instead.

[Collin152]

The rust monster. One attack besides rusting-not really dangerous, but potentially hilarious once in a while.

A really nasty trick would be to have annihilators (from FR Underdark) that looked like rust monsters instead.

That accursed fiend is the bane of all adventures!
Stand back! I shall dispose of it magically to avoid loss of wealth!

[DraPrime]

The phantom fungus. First of all, it looks like a pile of tentacled crap on legs, and it's called the phantom fungus. Serious. A phantom fungus? That's a name that induces giggles, not fear. I bet that people being killed by it are too busy laughing at it's name when they should be screaming from the pain. Come on, of all the things that could go into the "phantom" category, a fungus is the last thing I would have thought of. I mean, who the hell wants to fight an invisible mushroom