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These can be monsters you made scary, monsters that you created, or monsters that were already terrifying as s%~@.
For me, araneas, ettercaps and meenlocks top the list. Sure, meenlocks aren't Pathfinder, but come on, they still make the cut.
The two paranoid freaks among them decided to go outside and check it out. They went and saw a bunch of spiders chasing a giant jackrabbit through the forest. Before their eyes, a webby noose shot up, grabbing the jackrabbit's leg and yanking it up into the air. A spider dropped down and bit it, gradually weakening it until it could not move. Then they all started eating their paralyzed prey. Some of them took hybrid or halfling forms while doing so. The PCs recognized one they had befriended, who actually waved to them, covered in blood.
The PCs went back and slept for the night, but left in a hurry the next morning.
Ettercaps: Spiders that control other spiders and also use tons of mean, sneaky traps? Yeeegh. Way creepier than driders.
Meenlocks: What you are, we once were. What we are now...
So, what are your top picks?
I'll have to think about this some, although at the moment the first thing that comes to mind are humans. Because seriously, human villains can be horrifying in the sense that they can carry out monstrous acts, without having the excuse of actually being "monsters" in the species sense.
Not from Pathfinder, but it would have to be the Spiga from Arduin Grimoire. Hyper-intelligent, armored, spell-casting spiders, ranging in size from a Volkswagen to a Greyhound bus. This is terrifying enough, but Dave played them like a serial killer Dr. Moriarty. The Ssu from Empire of the Petal Throne/Tekumel are a close second. One of the scariest returning horrors I created for my old campaigns unconsciously on my part shared their sensory cues, the smell of cinnamon and the sound of silver bell,
Pathfinder, especially PFS play discourages the air of mystery you need to really do horror well. You know that you will be facing a CR appropriate encounter, that you will be able to defeat it, because there is no victory condition for just thwarting the foe or just getting out of it alive, there will be treasure, in appropriately measured quantities, because proper character advancement requires it. We aren't even going to get into requiring all play to be in canned encounters. The biggest killer is the characters themselves, mostly finely tuned professionals, whose modus operandi is identify, overcome then secure assets.
^Haven't yet run into this myself, but I've heard Kobolds can be pretty scary, when they are trained professionals, whose modus operandi is locate, surround from hiding, and never fight fair . . . And they know that YOU have treasure, in appropriately measured quantities, because proper character advancement requires it . . . .
UAE,
Yes, that could be scary, we are being hunted by effective foes, using our own tactics against us. No really, this becomes an interesting, often fun, tactical exercise. More Jason Bourne than From Beyond. Exhilarating, but not Horror.
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You know that you will be facing a CR appropriate encounter, that you will be able to defeat...
In something like PFS, sure, definitely true.
With a GM who actually has some measure of control over their game though, this attitude is just begging to get you killed. After getting to double-digit numbers I've stopped counting the number of players I've seen try stupid things like grabbing the king by the neck and choking him in an attempt to intimidate him into giving more of a reward, or stabbing an ancient dragon who'd been content to talk until that moment. Those PCs die horribly and almost all of them walked away in shock, furious that there could have possibly been an encounter too tough for them to murder their way through.
I tend to find most creatures underwhelming when it comes to horror in Pathfinder. That being said, this is one particular thing I come back to time and again in order to make a horror based encounters. However, they don't truly qualify due to the nature of what they are.
Namely, Haunts. Haunts are perfect for setting up real horror, mostly due to the fact that any party not explicitly prepared for them is going to have a rather difficult time doing anything but hoping for the best or running. Even better, they're damn-near perfect for spilling bits of the backstory of a place piece by piece.
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They're straight out of the scariest Native American myths and badass. Just one is CR 17 and they have powerful variants. What makes them scary is that they have the intelligence and tools to haunt a party, not just destroy them.
They harass and harry a party, seeking to change one of them into a Wendigo themselves. The process of becoming one involves eating a close friend or loved one.
Dolls. For some reason my players are terrified of dolls.
Hrmmm, I'd definately add the NightCrawler up on this list
Check out related thread...
Greater Vital Strike + NightCrawler = ouch
I used a Wendigo once... the first time they managed to drive it away, and it almost spirited a party member away with it in Wind Walk... almost. The second time they managed to defeat it, still, scary things. Oh, and they knew the NPC prior to engaging it as a Wendigo... they saw it 'turn into one' as it had committed canabalism and had nearly frozen to death when they came upon the NPC camp that got raided by a Wendigo before their arrival.
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Has anyone tried the phase spider? It seems like a cool monster for an encounter. The part I like the most is that you can heckle the PCs with hit and runs all through the night. Your players will probably hate you though.
I want to try out a Gray Render too. I can see this happening in one of three ways.
1. A shepherd asks the party to free his herd from a Gray Render, but doesn't have a reward. If the party declines, they'll find a herd find a herd of sheep and a Gray Render blocking the way on their next quest. After they find the remains of the shepherds dog, ofcourse. Or maybe the shepherd tried to get his sheep back himself and well, you know.
2. There's a new serial killer in town going after crimelords. All the victims have one thing in common, they've been shred to pieces. After some time, one only one crimelord is left, and he's got a new fluffy pet...
3. The players are being followed by a Gray Render. He brings them a daily offering of meat. If the players attack him he runs away. Some days later he brings the rended body of a teenager to the players.
I know, it's kinda dark. Then again, you asked for scary monsters.
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Goblins.
No, really.
And then you see what might be a kid running, running faster than they really ought to be able to, just on the periphery of your vision.It seems to be wearing a child's clothes, but it's not quite right.
By the time you've figured out that the little freaks who killed everyone are wearing the clothes- and sometimes more- of their smaller victims and they're all around you, you shouldn't be thinking, "man, goblins are funny/stupid/cute." You should be hoping you can fight your way clear of this mess, because they look pretty hungry.
Also-
Doppelgangers. While not all that impressive to look at in the bestiary, any GM who can't make these suckers the stuff of absolute nightmare simply isn't trying.
Bugbears- provisionally. The PCs need to have people they actually care about who are truly vulnerable to these goblinoid sickos to give'em any particular oomph, but handled right...
The Wendigo has been given its due in this thread.
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Sahuagin
Athey have it all and can and would be able to conquer the surfaxce if it was not for that pesky Light Blindness. For some odd reason always preferred them to the Skum.
Seugathi
I missed a game session in which five out of six PCs failed five saves against the Aura of Madness and went insane. How the hell does one group get twenty five failed Will Saves. Want to teach too overconfident players a lesson. Throw one of these at the group
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While I feel that the thawn fails to back up its premise mechanically, I love the ideas.
Thawns aren't just hideous--they are deformed to the point that some don't look like they should be able to live. They are grotesque and they know it, and it drives them mad.
Thawns are natural builders of traps and decoys. A single thawn with a few beasts and enough time could take up the entire stretch of a dungeon, with false walls, fake thawns, and hideous traps. In addition, thawn are, as described, stealthy and strong, making them terrifying ambushers, much like bugbears.
Take it a step further, and a thawn becomes something out of a creepypasta. They aren't deliberately malicious or aggressive, but something is inherently wrong with their minds and souls, in addition to their bodies, and even their best intentions turn into terrible sins and violence.
--A thawn tries to make friends by kidnapping people and mutilating their bodies until they are as ugly as he is--but they are so beautiful, even if he whittles them down to bones!
--A thawn sneaks into bedrooms at night to watch "the pretty ones" sleep; if they wake up, he strangles them to death for ruining their friendship.
--A thawn takes a liking to a particular family or band--they wake up one morning to find their home has become a cage full of death traps, in order to "protect them."
--In the dark of night, thawns are aggressively building their giant mud "scarecrows" closer and closer to an outpost--the field is dotted with a fake army, and nobody knows what will happen when these scarecrows reach the gates.
--A band of goblins recruit a thawn to build them a new lair, with winding paths, dead ends, and nonsensical entrances and traps. The thrawn is a master architect, and takes payment in "friends"--weaker goblins that he cages and pampers until he's ready for them to "become one in his belly."
Like I said, my only real problem is that the standard thawn lacks the skills to back up the concept. Otherwise, thawns can be a lot like the ogrekin of Rise of the Runelords, but more tragic. mad, and grotesque.
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So many to choose from.
Mnemor Devils are fun, especially if you have Dr. Who fans at the table. I have been building a maze run by these guys and the next creature on the list. Being forgotten, they are good for recurring villains at lower levels because the party can't hunt them if they fail the will save. It also works well in a dungeon with lots of tight corners thematically, because creatures that normally would despise devils can be incorporated into a dungeon well since the devils are forgotten when they go around the corner.
Hounds of Tindalos are another favorite of mine going into the above maze dungeon, because a combination of at-will greater teleport (in a maze, it basically amounts to this), invisibility, and fog cloud means they can hunt with near-impunity. Of course, a group of PCs will probably get counters to this (see invis, wind wall, dim. anchor, etc) pretty quick, but the idea of otherworldly wolves luring adventurers in with the thought of treasure, and killing them off with their unnatural hatred of all life is great to me.
Then there is the entire fey creature type. All of them. They specialize in illusions, trickery, and luring in unsuspecting prey to kill them off one by one. Even the good fey are scary when you combine their innocent playful demeanor with the ability to warp reality.
Migo are pretty creepy as well. Flying crablike surgeons from space trying to perform combat surgery, abduct you, and experiment on you. The best part is, even if you can manage to make an unwinable encounter with these (lots of them with class levels and templates), they still might realistically set free the party with horrible scars once they learned what they set out to learn. Throw in modify memory and it could be a great pre-adventure set-up for letting players know how the characters lost their memories but still giving them a quest to reclaim them.
Finally, for undead thriller adventures Hungry Fog seems like a nice creature to add to a group of stronger undead. It can fly, and heal the villains 9d6/round, and if its attacked it can lay down a nice debuff and reliably harm a PC used to an invincible AC.
My favorite scary monster?
The one that the players never see. The one that the players only see sinister hints of their presence. The one that breathes down their neck, whispering, before disappearing. The one that isolates a player in its own mad little world before feasting upon it.
Yeah. That one.
The ones that always freak me out as a player are the ones that, no matter what you throw at it, hit it with, or magic at it, the GM keeps saying the same thing over and over, "That didn't do nearly as much damage as you thought it would..." or "It stands there, seemingly undamaged, and you're not sure, but you think that its smiling..."
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This thread has lots of good stuff.
For me it's all about the attic whisperers.
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Migo are pretty creepy as well. Flying crablike surgeons from space trying to perform combat surgery, abduct you, and experiment on you. The best part is, even if you can manage to make an unwinable encounter with these (lots of them with class levels and templates), they still might realistically set free the party with horrible scars once they learned what they set out to learn. Throw in modify memory and it could be a great pre-adventure set-up for letting players know how the characters lost their memories but still giving them a quest to reclaim them.
{. . .}
Whoa . . . Did you manage to get a sneak preview of Strange Aeons or something?