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By this I mean not scary because they are dangerous in game but more they creep you out in real life. For me I would say any undead that can turn you undead as that seems like a fate worse than death to me (particularly considering you usually are their slave until they are destroyed). Also, any creatures that can mind control or possess you, in particular high level enchanters and psychics since they could basically reprogram your mind so you hate your best friend or something. Frankly I find the school of enchantment more disturbing than necromancy.
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The Derros.
Crazy people doing crazy experiments is just nasty for all involved parties.
Even worse are Drow fleshwarpers.
Banshees.... *shutters*
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Kytons are intentionally creepy. In game they tend to die too fast to be an issue, but IRL they'd be horrifying.
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I second Kytons. Especially the original "chain devil" species due to how their unnerving gaze works (they pull down their chainmail "veil" and reveal their face as someone you know or one of your enemies. I imagine any adventurer unfamiliar with them would be pretty freaked out at this.)
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Oh, aboleths should hit everyone's phobias. Mind control, body alteration, tentacled water monsters...
They don't creep me out quite the way kytons do but they may have a wider range of ways to horrify.
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Lost levels, back in previous editions of D&D, seemed particularly creepy, since they were essentially stripping away parts of yourself, by 'unlearning' skills and levels you'd acquired over your life. Beasties that inflicted negative levels majorly creeped me out, because it was like rapid onset senility, stealing away entire years worth of experiences, like ripping pages out of your diary/photo album. A character losing levels was like having bits of him ripped off or erased.
And anything that resembles maggots, like rot grubs. I don't like maggots. (Okay, just about nobody *likes* maggots, but just thinking about them makes me shudder.)
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rot grubs.
the innocuousness of the creature makes it seem like something that could exist IRL. Also, the whole imagery of it moving up your arm or leg just under the skin creating a rot grub shaped bulge is very disturbing. As is the idea that the things can kill you very quickly if not dealt with right away.
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Arachnophobia all the way. Then they started doing things like making them phase, putting swords on them, basing all sorts of *other* monsters on the spider body type... spiders everywhere I tell you!
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Only learned about them recently, but the aghollthu and particularly the Veiled Masters.
Starts with a personal fear of eels. They are my nightmares made literal flesh, one of few animals that I genuinely hope I do not encounter. Mix in some tentacles, which also frighten me, and life in the deep sea which is another source of anxiety, and the basic aboleth/veiled master is scary as a monster ignoring its most intimidating features.
Then mix in their ability to sew doubt in what I believe is true. They have magic which can make reality appear different than it is through illusions and enough intellect and planning skills to make these illusions subtle enough to not be investigated while influential enough to force poor decisions. They can also take away control of the body both by directly dominating you and by subtly affecting the mind by charming you. Both frighten me for different reasons, the former means I can be forced to become a monster in my own right, hurting the people and causes I love most and the latter because it is so subtle I might be not even know I am eroding what I hold dear. And to throw all that together, they can change shape and are masters of disguise and impersonation, capable of stealing my memories and using them to perfectly impersonate the people I love most while having disposed of them.
Finally, while it is a minor issue compared to the rest, I absolutely hate the perversion of text that rune magic often represents put in the context of the real world. Books and reading are an important part of my life, and the thought of someone corrupting these with magic to start eroding minds and bodies and turn them into servants is both horrifying and abhorrent.
Combining all of this with the fact that they not only can do all of this, but actively do it constantly for some alien goal and could be affecting anyone and the fact that most people are relatively unaware of the still-present, if reduced, aghollthu threat on Golarion and the Veiled Master and their kin are easily the scariest monster in PF for me on a personal level.
Though they are not a part of the Pathfinder rules set it's mindflayers. As far as PF goes it would likely be undead, because the violate the very laws of nature itself.
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As far as PF goes it would likely be undead, because the violate the very laws of nature itself.
Technically anything supernatural does that, as that's basically what the word means. I see what you mean though,
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ghouls. Mechanically, they are low CR but can wipe a low level party so easily. So much so that as a GM I don't like using them.
IC, they are like fast, intelligent zombies, that is zombies in more popular fiction. Base PF zombies don't necessarily eat you in their flavor, but ghouls do. And base PF zombies don't create more zombies, but ghouls do.
But basically, anything that'll eat me alive, which is a lot of things, actually.
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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.
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The vargouille and its kiss.
Iathavos Qlippoth.
Or any other beast that converts you into its kind. (Like the aforementioned vargouille)
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Though they are not a part of the Pathfinder rules set it's mindflayers. As far as PF goes it would likely be undead, because the violate the very laws of nature itself.
Heh. I read that as laws of copyright.
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.
Listen to the GM Word of the Week podcast episode on Wendigos. So spooky.
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Though they are not a part of the Pathfinder rules set it's mindflayers. As far as PF goes it would likely be undead, because the violate the very laws of nature itself.Heh. I read that as laws of copyright.
That just makes them even scarier!
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Ghouls & Ghasts... low level monsters that can stealthily creep u^to you and deliever the touch of paralysis, if you ever miss the save, you are defenseless until they decide whether to faise you as one of their own, or just are gonna eat you so completely it might become dangerous to take your bones together for either a raising, or an undead creation.
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You ever see what a creative GM can do with a Faceless Stalker? I had one slip into the party once without anyone recognizing it and strung em along for 2 whole levels before finding a good opportunity for a backstab.
*shudders*
Shapeshifters are the worst.
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Rust monsters, vargouilles, and [copyrighted floating ball with eye stalks]
The Unknown is terrifying. Something entirely fixated on you and stalking you to the ends of the Earth. As time goes on, it starts to wear down on your very psyche. And then it could look like just anyone.
Rust monsters, vargouilles, and [copyrighted floating ball with eye stalks]
How would a rust monster be scary outside of Pathfinder (i.e on a meta level)? I guess it might destroy your car or other valuable metal stuff but that would make more more mad than scared.
Rust monsters, vargouilles, and [copyrighted floating ball with eye stalks]How would a rust monster be scary outside of Pathfinder (i.e on a meta level)? I guess it might destroy your car or other valuable metal stuff but that would make more more mad than scared.
Well it's also a giant semi-sentient cockroach that would eat just about everything valuable I own.
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Great Wyrm Umbral Dragon Ravener
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+1 on those that take away your free will, whether by direct mind control or degradation, or by converting your body into more of them.
I second the Iathavos both due to it turning people in to nyogoth and due to it's horrific appearance making you permanently blind and feebleminded (which, due to their being no magic in real life would mean you'd be an invalid for the rest of your life).
^But shouldn't having no magic here mean that the Iathavos shouldn't be able to do that? . . . Oh wait, these things don't work that way . . . .
No human magic would be more accurate.
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Qlippoths in general would probably do it for me - they're supposedly so grotesque/unnatural that you need to make a Will save to stop your mind from reeling just from looking at them. And, as Voodistmonk said, many of them can turn you into a Qlippoth after killing you, which adds another layer of unnatural perversion.
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Ghouls & Ghasts... low level monsters that can stealthily creep u^to you and deliever the touch of paralysis, if you ever miss the save, you are defenseless
Ooh, I hate 'make a bunch of saves or lose' critters. In previous editions of D&D, the carrion crawler and grell were the worst. "Save! Save! Keep rolling until you fail! Oh, you (inevitably) failed a save? Next character..."
But they were never particularly scary, as mechanically frustrating.
well, Carrion crawlers and grell were the posterbook monsters of why you NEED to have ranged attacks, too dangerous to deal with at sword point.
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 also shot these things out like a Pathfinder Archer post Many-shot and so they obliterated an unprepared party.
Still worry about something like them showing up in other CRPGs since there was no way to handle them without the anti-beholder shield or wave upon wave of summons.
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Those were the beholder-kin known as gauths. I remember them well.
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Something I keep forgetting to add: monsters that can send you to the lower planes when they kill you even if you're not evil (e.g Apollyon and great wyrm hellfire dragons). Fortunately I think those are the only monster that do that.
Dread Thanatonic Titan.
All I know is, the monsters or things my players seem to be terrified of are Rust monsters, the Deck of Many Things, and intelligent magic weapons.
They are intimidated by locked dungeon doors, though.
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The worm that walks gives me both heebies and jeebies.
Thanks, I had forgotten about those. If you need me I'll be running for the hills, screaming.
Oozes.
Can't be reasoned with. Hard to kill. Want nothing but to dissolve you and turn you into more ooze.
Basically, 'The Blob' with some variations in theme.
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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...