Anything that makes a point of killing you slowly, like Ropers. They freak me right out
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Sentients. Anything smart enough to be worried about my defenses, to plan around them. I'm a PC badass, with a crew of badass, so anything dumb or cocky, we've got it well in hand. But if the enemy waits for our guard to drop, or wedges at the splits in the party...
Or . . . wedgies at the splits in the party . . . .
Wendigos freak me out, they drive you crazy with nightmares then kidnap you into the woods and force you to either eat someone of your race or starve.
They look horrifying, a biped monster with a fanged deer head and stumps for feet. That whole creature and all its north west native American lore are nightmare fuel.
This one gets my vote.
One I keep forgetting to add: The patchwork insect swarm from the first Strange Aeons book. For those who don't know it's basically a swarm of insects which have tiny humanoid body parts in some places (usually just arms and legs, but sometimes whole faces), and each time you damage them it makes a crunching noise that makes you sickened if you fail a save. While perhaps not the scariest as they are only CR 1 I'd say they are the monster that makes me shudder the most.
I recall there being such a thing as a Shadow dragon in Forgotten Realms. This thing had a breath weapon that did LEVELS OF EXPERIENCE drain. Thought it seemed pretty scary, considering that it was always underground in caverns.
Of course, some of this is edition-dependent. For instance, in AD&D 1.x, Dragons were considered to be moderately dangerous Tomes of Experience (with elite treasure hoards) to high level characters(*), but Vampires made them run. In later editions (even 2nd Edition D&D to some extent), elder Dragons became truly scary.
(*)At least, this was the case before Shadow Dragons showed up.
Also remember that in AD&D 1st Edition, Energy Drain was much nastier, not only because it had no Save, but also because it removed actual levels instead of just putting on Negative Levels, and Restoration for getting back the drained levels had much worse side effects (aged the caster by 2 years) than removing the Negative Levels or getting back the drained levels in D&D 3.x (cost expensive material components or XP) or in Pathfinder (cost expensive material components and never XP, and never needs to deal with actual drained levels, and no longer has a time limit for getting it cast).
Most anything with energy drain, just because there is so little you can do to defend against it, plus it starts a death spiral where you get less and less able to fight back.
AREA EFFECT ENERGY DRAIN in a limited space. That means nowhere to run.
Which falls into the set of “anything with energy drain”.
Sort of. This is worse. That dragon can breathe as many times as it wants, it's an area effect in a inherently limited space.
Creatures with energy drain creep you, the player, out in real life?
Well, having permanent negative levels in real life would be pretty scary since it would be akin to severe brain damage and memory loss.
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anything that inflicts mind control/control of your body. Nothing is more horrifying to me than the idea of someone body jacking you and making you do horrible things with you helpless to object
^Yeah, and altering your thoughts and memories against your will.
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The Lurkers in Light. Utterly malicious, and completely invisible in light. They turn my greatest security blanket - turning all the lights around me all the way on- completely against me.
Thankfully I've never had a DM actually use them.
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Humans.
Not all are evil, but certainly enough are, and they are so darned good at hiding it, and they can self-justify anything as long as they can pretend an enemy exists, or an opportunity, or an excuse no matter how implausible.
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Humans are the most monstrous of all.
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^Or at least, if they aren't, it isn't for lack of trying . . . .
The Wendigo is just so mean.
There were these really nasty jerks in Baldur's Gate 2 called Gaths, or was it Goaths? Anyway, they were like baby beholders except they shot this weird lightning projectile (that wasn't electric damage so it couldn't be defended against with a simple spell) and each shot had a chance at paralyzing the target.
They are called Gauths.
There was an item called the Cloak of Mirrors, that would reflect their rays back at them.Summoning Skeletons also worked really well, since they were immung to most rays.
Honestly Orcs seem pretty nasty too. They're numerous enough that many people likely have lost family to them, so stories must run rampant. Makes me think of the Reavers from Firefly.
And while they're small fry in the grand scheme of things, I'm probably just a level 1 expert (at best) and strong sentient creatures renowned for brutality? Yikes.
I've always found NPCs with class levels more fun conceptually, and I've always wanted to make a group of PCs go up against a whole tribe of Orcs to let the horror sink in.
A thought about rot grubs: does it say anywhere what they mature into? That might be even scarier. On the other hand, it could just be fire beetles or something else relatively harmless.
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A thought about rot grubs: does it say anywhere what they mature into? That might be even scarier. On the other hand, it could just be fire beetles or something else relatively harmless.I believe there's something somewhere to the effect that they mature into harmless orange beetles (and iirc don't do so if they have become giant rot grubs) but I'm not finding it now; it isn't in their Bestiary 3 entry anyway.
The Pathfinder Wiki references The Bastards of Erebus in stating that they mature into arachnids that die soon after maturing :
An adult rot grub is a skittering, yellow arachnid that lives for only a few hours, which is long enough to lay dozens of eggs on a host corpse. The rot grub young can spend weeks growing when they only have a dead corpse to devour, but can grow to adulthood when there is living tissue to feast upon.
They can become worse though - see Rot Grub Swarms and Giant Rot Grubs. Lovely. Please excuse me whilst I bleach my brain ...
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For all of the people saying humans are the most terrifying monsters, here's evidence that supports your claim.
Ogres! not so much in the game, but in real life they would be scary.
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For all of the people saying humans are the most terrifying monsters, here's evidence that supports your claim.Some of it makes us just sound . . . stupid and crazy:
{. . .}
* We expose ourselves to potentially lethal solar radiation in the pursuit of darkening our skin.
* We risk hearing loss for the opportunity to see our favorite musicians live.
* We have a game where two people get into an enclosed area and hit each other until time runs out or one of them passes out.
* We willingly jump out of planes with only a flimsy piece of cloth to prevent us from splattering against the ground.
* Our response to natural disasters is to just rebuild our buildings in the exact same places.
* We climb mountains and risk freezing to death for bragging rights.
{. . .}
Actually makes us sound like some kind of hybrid of Goblins and Klingons.
I thought of another: the Lilutu demon, mainly due to their ability to turn you into a husk, where you are still conscious but unable to move or do anything. And that's without even getting into their ability to impersonate people they turn into husks.
Sahkils strike me as nightmares made manifest.
Some of it makes us just sound . . . stupid and crazy.
This must be a difficult realization for you.
:)
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Some of it makes us just sound . . . stupid and crazy.This must be a difficult realization for you.
:)
Not difficult in the realization part. Living with it (because I don't have a choice) is another matter . . . In other words, it's like saying that I would have no problem realizing that I am stuck with a Yeti that has a serious gas problem(*), but being in that situation is very difficult.
(*)I am speaking, of course, of .
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Can't believe I keep forgetting to post this: The whisperer from Bestiary 6. Not only are they pretty scary to begin with, they can turn an entire area into a surreal hellscape (which can curse you so you don't want to leave and stay there till you go insane and die.) as well as having a suggestion spell that can (unlike normal suggestion) make you kill yourself. Really, pretty much everything about them is scary.
I love those!
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Can't believe I keep forgetting to post this: The whisperer from Bestiary 6. Not only are they pretty scary to begin with, they can turn an entire area into a surreal hellscape (which can curse you so you don't want to leave and stay there till you go insane and die.) as well as having a suggestion spell that can (unlike normal suggestion) make you kill yourself. Really, pretty much everything about them is scary.
Yeah, that things really gave me the heebijeebies when I first read it. Damn thing can kill a whole party without ever making its presence known.
Rakshasas are pretty scary when you think about it. Not only can they shapeshift into people, they can cast detect thoughts at will to see if you're actually falling for it or not!
Just out of curiousity, can any shapeshifters copy the memories of the person they are copying?
I was wondering that to. Their name sounds like Sanskrit or something maybe?
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The monsters which you imagine around a quiet corner or lurking somewhere outside the abandoned building you have sheltered yourself in. What's that? Did it just rattle something downstairs? It's getting closer. Closer. Closer and then! It's Janira Gavix, the phantom of good spirits and bane of 1st level characters. <screams from inside>
How about the Horla from bestiary 6? It's permanently invisible and has telepathy. Imagine one following you around all the time and threatening you telepathically. If you told anyone they would just think you were insane (and you would probably start to think that yourself eventually.) and that's without even getting into the sleepwalking part..
The Horla would mess you up in a world that no one really believes in magic. Its effectiveness is somewhat less when it's abilities are not unique.