Scariest monster in Pathfinder?


Pathfinder First Edition General Discussion

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Who do you think is the scariest?

I have found the Iathavos to be the scariest. First, everyone in the party has to make a DC 30 will save every round in order to not be feebleminded and permanently blinded. Then, if it grapples someone they have to make a fort save to not be engulfed by the creature and turned into a qlippoth. To make things worse, it either nausiates you(if you fail your save) or sickens you if you make your save, which makes it more likely you get feebleminds or qlippothed.

I encountered one of these once. A few bad rolls later and our monk was now a mass of floating intestines and the wizard was feebleminded and blind. Scary monster.

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/qlippoth/qlippo th-lathavos


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Kobalds with class levels.


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I don't know about in Pathfinder.

Back in the good old days, it used to be hands-down the rust monster. Never did you see more armor-wearing titans of death piss their iron shorts, scream like little girls, break into a cold sweat, run for their lives and hide behind the (figurative) skirts of the party wizard and thief than when one of those innocuous little beasties approached.


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I hate fighting mid- to high-level spellcasters, especially Wizards who've used Divination spells to prepare for our assault. While not a monster per se I've had more characters destroyed by spellcasters than any other creature/class.


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Richard Pett :P


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

Well, my players have placed an injunction upon me never to use Chokers ever again, so there might be something there. ;)


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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

The wendigo flat out terrifies me, both because of its art/description and its mechanical abilities.


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Player characters. I have nightmares sometimes.

Greg

Sczarni

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Feral goblin children.


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I find very few monsters scary now that nothing has level drain.


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The attic whisperer always creeped the heck outta me.


Not stated but Rovagug is technically a monster... Outside of that probably something from Carrion Crown.


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In 3.5 I would have said mind flayer. Now, I'm not sure.


Gelatinous Cubes give me the willy's.


johnlocke90 wrote:

Who do you think is the scariest?

I have found the Iathavos to be the scariest. First, everyone in the party has to make a DC 30 will save every round in order to not be feebleminded and permanently blinded. Then, if it grapples someone they have to make a fort save to not be engulfed by the creature and turned into a qlippoth. To make things worse, it either nausiates you(if you fail your save) or sickens you if you make your save, which makes it more likely you get feebleminds or qlippothed.

I encountered one of these once. A few bad rolls later and our monk was now a mass of floating intestines and the wizard was feebleminded and blind. Scary monster.

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/qlippoth/qlippo th-lathavos

Actually the dc30 will save is a standard action for this creature.. so if its doing that you're not getting attacked.


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for it's CR, a Totenmaske is particularly nasty


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Pugwampis. F*%~ing pugwampis.

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

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Beholders used to scare me--11 attacks per round!

Mind Flayers were just annoying--stunned for 3d4 rounds? How boring is that?

Currently? I don't know. We fought this one Gargantuan monstrosity that would stun you everytime you hit it. But I forget what it's called.


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If you mean most powerful... Dragons. But if you mean scary on the broader scope; hands down the scariest monster in any game, humans. No other creature is more adaptable, more capeable of selfishness and evil, and you can build human villians with anything they need to put the hurt on anybody or anything. Its their unpredictableness that is most frightening. Little, pink, squishy, and downright scary!


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Pugwumpies.

Lantern Lodge

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Pathfinder Adventure, Rulebook Subscriber

@Odraude: I have been told by one of my players that he will mutiny if pugwampis ever make a return.


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Brun Wolfholm wrote:
If you mean most powerful... Dragons. But if you mean scary on the broader scope; hands down the scariest monster in any game, humans. No other creature is more adaptable, more capeable of selfishness and evil, and you can build human villians with anything they need to put the hurt on anybody or anything. Its their unpredictableness that is most frightening. Little, pink, squishy, and downright scary!

Yup, the party never knows where the random, cowboy hat wearing guy in a poncho is about to unleash scorching rays from those finger gun's he's pointing at the party. :P

Seriously though, anything built with PC levels the right way can be incredibly scary.


The monsters that scare me often resemble animals. Considering I live in an area away from huge urban centers where I hear coyotes howl and there are rumors of bears, the idea of any predator that could stalk, attack, and eat me seems to bring out some sort of primal fear - especially if I can't see it. I dread the long, dark, cold walk between my car and where I'm staying at every time I have to make it.

Creatures on the top of my creep factor list include werewolves, wendigo, and leucrotta.

Werewolves I've always had a fear of. I developed my fear of wendigo since watching the movies The Last Winter (2006) and Dreamcatcher (2003).

Reading Queen of Thorns by Dave Gross has renewed by fear of leucrotta. The artwork first caused me to uncomfortably avoid thinking about them, but reading about them in the novel gave me a nightmare or two.

As for something that scares me power-wise, that would probably be the nascent demon lord Treerazer. His Aura of Corruption will likely turn anyone within 120 ft into a gross-looking plant creature, and he can then follow up with Defoliation (inflicting 20d10 damage plus 1d8 strength drain - half with a save) every 1d4 rounds.

Silver Crusade

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Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Shining Children. The horror, oh the horror.


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Swarms. Doesn't matter what kind, the low-level groups I play with always seem to have a hard time dealing with them.

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

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IRL, I don't like creepy crawlies: centipedes, millipedes, rats, fishers, fruitflies, etc.

Oddly enough, I'm OK with bees and spiders, but they also make things and/or eat other bugs.

EDIT:

In the game, I don't like monsters that "corrupt" my PC, by either altering his shape, his items (disarm and sunder!), his personality (charm and dominate and fear and alignment changes), or his competency (negative levels, ability damage and drain, etc.).


Grollub wrote:
johnlocke90 wrote:

Who do you think is the scariest?

I have found the Iathavos to be the scariest. First, everyone in the party has to make a DC 30 will save every round in order to not be feebleminded and permanently blinded. Then, if it grapples someone they have to make a fort save to not be engulfed by the creature and turned into a qlippoth. To make things worse, it either nausiates you(if you fail your save) or sickens you if you make your save, which makes it more likely you get feebleminds or qlippothed.

I encountered one of these once. A few bad rolls later and our monk was now a mass of floating intestines and the wizard was feebleminded and blind. Scary monster.

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/qlippoth/qlippo th-lathavos

Actually the dc30 will save is a standard action for this creature.. so if its doing that you're not getting attacked.

Its a gaze attack. If you go to the rules for gaze attacks, you have to save against it each round AND the monster can spend a standard action to force you to make another save.


Ravingdork wrote:
The wendigo flat out terrifies me, both because of its art/description and its mechanical abilities.

I agree. It would be scary to play a wizard and be nightmared every night such that you can never reprepare spells.

If the creature is smart, you will have no way to counterattack.


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Vulnudaemon...no thanks.

The Exchange

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Jabberwock


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
johnlocke90 wrote:
Ravingdork wrote:
The wendigo flat out terrifies me, both because of its art/description and its mechanical abilities.

I agree. It would be scary to play a wizard and be nightmared every night such that you can never reprepare spells.

If the creature is smart, you will have no way to counterattack.

*shudders*


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do Wives count as Monsters?


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There is the worried wife

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/haunts/cr-4-6/worried-wife-cr-4


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Varisian Wanderer wrote:

The monsters that scare me often resemble animals. Considering I live in an area away from huge urban centers where I hear coyotes howl and there are rumors of bears, the idea of any predator that could stalk, attack, and eat me seems to bring out some sort of primal fear - especially if I can't see it. I dread the long, dark, cold walk between my car and where I'm staying at every time I have to make it.

You would hate where I live. We have wolves, black bears, grizzly bears, coyotes, mountain lions, bobcats, lynx, wolverines.... I live 8 miles outside of Glacier National Park in NW Montana. I also live in the Flathead National Forest, and have no city lights anywhere nearby.

The only animal I dread running into is moose. Unfortunately, I live on the Flathead River....

I do miss the alligators back in Florida, but I love it here.

-------------------------------------------

On topic

Fungi

Scarab Sages Contributor

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Done correctly, I think the aboleth deserves mention as a horrifying creature. No encounter should ever be had that they don't come off as cold, evil and alien.

Plus aquatic combat. Shiver.


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Steven T. Helt wrote:

Done correctly, I think the aboleth deserves mention as a horrifying creature. No encounter should ever be had that they don't come off as cold, evil and alien.

Plus aquatic combat. Shiver.

I think aberrations generally make for fantastic, scary foes. I've got an aberration heavy campaign right now that is sure to frighten.


For me, any monster that can turn your allies against you. Whether they be lycanthropes, certain undead (vampires, wraiths, shadows, etc) or Spellcasters with "Dominate X" spells. Whats worse than death is becoming an enemy.

Shadow Lodge

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ObligatoryHuman wrote:
For me, any monster that can turn your allies against you. Whether they be lycanthropes, certain undead (vampires, wraiths, shadows, etc) or Spellcasters with "Dominate X" spells. Whats worse than death is becoming an enemy.

Agreed. Contracting lycanthropy is scary, and having a slain friend rise as a shadow or wraith in the middle of combat and start attacking you is even worse. Dominate's pretty bad too, but it's generally more temporary than being turned into an undead spawn.

And to build on that, anything that consumes you somehow or messes with souls. So the Devourer gets double scary points.


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2nd for shining children. Those things are nasty for sure. DC25 blind aura as a free action? Ranged touch at +19, thats nasty, 10d6 points of damage? Oh, you got blinded, so you take -2 to AC and can't use your dex bonus... 120 foot range and they fly?! They get what as spell like abilities? Yeah, pretty nasty for CR12 IMHO. Biggest weakness is no SR or DR. Good luck getting to hit them considering the full usage of their spell like abilities.

Part of the reason why I'm scared of these things is the blind effect. Which goes back a long time but mostly in 3.0 the entire party got blinded during a overly long combat against a random spellcaster. Cleric was like "I got this covered, just let me get my scrolls of cure blindness out". Everybody out of character just stared at him for a few seconds before the player facepalmed in shame. Needless to say it was rather difficult to get out of that situation.

Silver Crusade

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Man.


Most anything that Mikaze might dream up :)

The Exchange

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I ran two seemingly innocuous little critters in some online campaigns and they were scary as hell.

There was an attic whisperer that lived in an asylum that was scary as hell for my players. Took the, ages to find it and cost them two NPC allies.

The other was a doll. The characters came across it on the road covered in blood and wielding a knife. It was protecting the boy it belonged to.turned out it was an animated doll created as a playmate for the boy, but it occasionally went crazy. The characters were terrified of that thing, as they never knew what it was going to do. I can't even remember the name of the monster I got it from now. I believe it was in one of the rune lords bestiaries though.

What made both of them creepy was the writing though,so maybe these really only work well in a PbP. Neither was overly powerful, but at low levels they were very hard to deal with and scary for the unknown factor.

Cheers


Anything with a CR that is 5+ greater than APL.

A Goblin with 7 levels of Warrior will scare the crap out of any 1st level party right before it TPKs them.


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notabot wrote:
Cleric was like "I got this covered, just let me get my scrolls of cure blindness out". Everybody out of character just stared at him for a few seconds before the player facepalmed in shame. Needless to say it was rather difficult to get out of that situation.

Note to Self: Potions of cure blindness.


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Yeah...I gotta say...scariest thing in the game is this sucker right here...

Big Daddy Evil

Nothing in the world is more scary than a colossal-sized shark with red eyes THAT CAN FRIGGIN FLY!!!

Just imagine swimming in the ocean and then suddenly spotting this sucker coming right at you.

It would be time to panic I think.


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3.5, The all terrifying Prismasaurus!!

The hell with it's Prismatic Emanation and half damage from all weapons!

Of course any dragon used in the hands of a smart sadistic DM is a second runner-up with their circle strife tactics.

Liberty's Edge RPG Superstar 2015 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2013 Top 16

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Pathfinder ogres and ogrekin. High octane nightmare fuel.

Liberty's Edge

Gibbering Mouther. At least in low to mid level games. So many abilities that make it absolutely terrifying.

Shadow Lodge

Wrath wrote:

There was an attic whisperer that lived in an asylum that was scary as hell for my players. Took the, ages to find it and cost them two NPC allies.

The other was a doll. The characters came across it on the road covered in blood and wielding a knife. It was protecting the boy it belonged to.turned out it was an animated doll created as a playmate for the boy, but it occasionally went crazy. The characters were terrified of that thing, as they never knew what it was going to do. I can't even remember the name of the monster I got it from now. I believe it was in one of the rune lords bestiaries though.

What made both of them creepy was the writing though,so maybe these really only work well in a PbP. Neither was overly powerful, but at low levels they were very hard to deal with and scary for the unknown factor.

This sounds suspiciously like the haunted woods my party encountered in a recent campaign. We entered the woods to find that these tiny voodoo dolls were following us everywhere. When we found a bunch of huts surrounding a cauldron with human remains inside, we booked it.

When the party went back they found a cottage in the middle of the woods. There was an attic whisperer inside. 10th-12th level party freaked out. Of course, this was after a close brush with a creature that was essentially a permanent, motile Phantasmal Killer, so I think the overreaction was justified.


johnlocke90 wrote:
Grollub wrote:
johnlocke90 wrote:

Who do you think is the scariest?

I have found the Iathavos to be the scariest. First, everyone in the party has to make a DC 30 will save every round in order to not be feebleminded and permanently blinded. Then, if it grapples someone they have to make a fort save to not be engulfed by the creature and turned into a qlippoth. To make things worse, it either nausiates you(if you fail your save) or sickens you if you make your save, which makes it more likely you get feebleminds or qlippothed.

I encountered one of these once. A few bad rolls later and our monk was now a mass of floating intestines and the wizard was feebleminded and blind. Scary monster.

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/qlippoth/qlippo th-lathavos

Actually the dc30 will save is a standard action for this creature.. so if its doing that you're not getting attacked.
Its a gaze attack. If you go to the rules for gaze attacks, you have to save against it each round AND the monster can spend a standard action to force you to make another save.

Okay, looking at the rules for the gaze attacks, and the ability the creature has... this still is a standard action for it to "present itself" which then triggers the gaze rules.. so again.. it still isn't attacking when this ability goes off =p

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