By this, I don't mean because they are dangerous in-game, but because something about them freaks you out on a personal level. A few of mine are
1. Any undead that can turn you into an undead as well. It seems like a fate worse than death to me, plus in most cases you are a slave to the "parent" undead until it's destroyed
2. Broken Souls, both due to their powers (especially torturous touch), and how horrifying the concept is.
3. Kytons/Velstracs, as they're all torture experts.
4. Nightwaves. Sharks are pretty scary to begin with. Now imagine one that's really smart, evil, and the size of a blue whale.
Paizo's take on the Succubus/incubus really makes me uncomfortable. All enchantment magic kind of fits the bill but I hate monsters where the GM tells me as a player how I am supposed to feel about that creature.
| 8 people marked this as a favorite. |
I have been afraid of Green Slime since the 80s. I do not wish to become a slurry.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Paizo's take on the Succubus/incubus really makes me uncomfortable. All enchantment magic kind of fits the bill but I hate monsters where the GM tells me as a player how I am supposed to feel about that creature.
OH yes. I forgot to mention that anything with mind control freaks me out. I find enchantment to be by far the most morally sketchy of the magic schools (even more than necromancy.)
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Velstracs hit me square in my triggers, to the point where I can’t safely use them… which is a shame, because I’d be all over them if I could.
The Dominion of the Black are the only bit of cosmic horror in Pathfinder that really works for me. They freak me out (in a good, safe way).
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Gogiteths! “A slavering nightmare of teeth, eyes, and hairy spiderlike legs” that stalks you through the Darklands, skittering and popping. The popping stops and you think you’re safe, but you realize too late that it was just hiding, waiting to grab you and drag you into the depths of the tunnels, never to be seen again.
:)
Obviously actually dangerous as well, but a giant spider that’s actively malevolent and knows how to hide its presence to better hunt you down is nightmare fuel for me.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
1. Any spider or giant spider creature. Be miserable to die eaten alive in a web. You know a giant spider in a real world would be so much worse than they are in the game. A giant spider egg breaking open with hundreds of giant spiders seeking food.
2. Pickled Punks, Cannibal Child: Just a terrible image in the mind.
3. Qlippoths: Hell no. I would die right there not even wanting my brain to remain trying to figure out what it was.
I wouldn't even want to be see the horrors of a D&D/Pathfinder world. Only in a game could you fight all these horrors, take their treasure, and walk around like you took a trip to the grocery store.
Gogiteths! “A slavering nightmare of teeth, eyes, and hairy spiderlike legs” that stalks you through the Darklands, skittering and popping. The popping stops and you think you’re safe, but you realize too late that it was just hiding, waiting to grab you and drag you into the depths of the tunnels, never to be seen again.
:)
Obviously actually dangerous as well, but a giant spider that’s actively malevolent and knows how to hide its presence to better hunt you down is nightmare fuel for me.
I'll add to that:
-they come in hives, so they'll swarm you-they'd likely "Carry Off Prey" in opposite directions, splitting you and your friends apart (if you could even survive the bite)
-in some sense they're mere spiderlings for the actual creatures who spew out hordes of these horse-sized monsters; you'd practically need a tactical nuke or thermobaric bomb to eradicate that
-oh, and they're resistant to any mundane bug spray you might have ;-)
---
To the OP:
Creatures that rend
Creatures that incubate their eggs in you
Creatures that remove their faces (or yours)
ETA: While often in the high fantasy genre, Pathfinder has all the elements for horror contained within it, and that's before getting into aberrations, fiends, and undead. Humans are prey for most every monster out there. It's just in high fantasy PCs are hunting/avenging/crusading when it's just as easy to turn the story around and be the hunted struggling to survive. "Why the heck would we want to intentionally enter THAT place?!" Horror simply makes it harder to keep the party viable over an extended story arc! (RIP Dewey...)
Gogiteths! “A slavering nightmare of teeth, eyes, and hairy spiderlike legs” that stalks you through the Darklands, skittering and popping. The popping stops and you think you’re safe, but you realize too late that it was just hiding, waiting to grab you and drag you into the depths of the tunnels, never to be seen again.
:)
Obviously actually dangerous as well, but a giant spider that’s actively malevolent and knows how to hide its presence to better hunt you down is nightmare fuel for me.
I'll add to that:
-they come in hives, so they'll swarm you
-they'd likely "Carry Off Prey" in opposite directions, splitting you and your friends apart (if you could even survive the bite)
-in some sense they're mere spiderlings for the actual creatures who spew out hordes of these horse-sized monsters; you'd practically need a tactical nuke or thermobaric bomb to eradicate that
-oh, and they're resistant to any mundane bug spray you might have ;-)---
To the OP:
Creatures that rend
Creatures that incubate their eggs in you
Creatures that remove their faces (or yours)ETA: While often in the high fantasy genre, Pathfinder has all the elements for horror contained within it, and that's before getting into aberrations, fiends, and undead. Humans are prey for most every monster out there. It's just in high fantasy PCs are hunting/avenging/crusading when it's just as easy to turn the story around and be the hunted struggling to survive. "Why the heck would we want to intentionally enter THAT place?!" Horror simply makes it harder to keep the party viable over an extended story arc! (RIP Dewey...)
Being able to carry off PCs is legit terrifying to fight too. We could stand to have more creatures who do that, or use skirmish tactics in general.
The gogiterh also made an excellent starting point for me when I had to convert a bandersnatch. Those tactics plus fast healing is a hella fun combo.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Personally, the idea of being a true Lycanthrope in that world. Because of the Curse, no matter what else you do, you will go insane and try to kill and eat people (at least those who don't share the curse).
So you either try to fight the curse, but you will never be able to get rid of it as long as you live, no matter what you do, and if you screw up locking yourself up on the nights of a full moon, people will die. If you are lucky, a slayer gets to you first.
Then again, hey, wolves gonna hunt, no matter what. Could as well make the most of it. After all, when you can do something (violently permanent) about that corrupt guard/sheriff/judge/whatever and you don't, well that would make you the a$%*#%*~.
Why, you'd basically be doing people a favour! Get your kill, society gets rid of an a@*!!~~%, it's win-win! Just don't look too hard at what these people were actually doing, wouldn't want to muddy the waters with them having reasons and whatnot...
In other words, how easy and seductive it would be to lean into the curse and willingly become a total monster. At least even murder-hobo PCs usally have the good graces not to pretend to be particularly good guys.
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
Humans.
Personally, the idea of being a true Lycanthrope in that world. Because of the Curse, no matter what else you do, you will go insane and try to kill and eat people (at least those who don't share the curse).
So you either try to fight the curse, but you will never be able to get rid of it as long as you live, no matter what you do, and if you screw up locking yourself up on the nights of a full moon, people will die. If you are lucky, a slayer gets to you first.
Then again, hey, wolves gonna hunt, no matter what. Could as well make the most of it. After all, when you can do something (violently permanent) about that corrupt guard/sheriff/judge/whatever and you don't, well that would make you the a~%$#$!~.
Why, you'd basically be doing people a favour! Get your kill, society gets rid of an a*#~!*%#, it's win-win! Just don't look too hard at what these people were actually doing, wouldn't want to muddy the waters with them having reasons and whatnot...
In other words, how easy and seductive it would be to lean into the curse and willingly become a total monster. At least even murder-hobo PCs usally have the good graces not to pretend to be particularly good guys.
So you're afraid the monster is you?! :-O
Kind of goes along with some of the others where the monster controls your self or changes your self. Dying is scary, torture is scarier, but losing your identity, perhaps while experiencing it from the inside, that's both torture and dying combined. :-)
Now add a touch of dread...
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Personally, the idea of being a true Lycanthrope in that world. Because of the Curse, no matter what else you do, you will go insane and try to kill and eat people (at least those who don't share the curse).
So you either try to fight the curse, but you will never be able to get rid of it as long as you live, no matter what you do, and if you screw up locking yourself up on the nights of a full moon, people will die. If you are lucky, a slayer gets to you first.
Then again, hey, wolves gonna hunt, no matter what. Could as well make the most of it. After all, when you can do something (violently permanent) about that corrupt guard/sheriff/judge/whatever and you don't, well that would make you the a~%$#$!~.
Why, you'd basically be doing people a favour! Get your kill, society gets rid of an a*#~!*%#, it's win-win! Just don't look too hard at what these people were actually doing, wouldn't want to muddy the waters with them having reasons and whatnot...
In other words, how easy and seductive it would be to lean into the curse and willingly become a total monster. At least even murder-hobo PCs usally have the good graces not to pretend to be particularly good guys.
So you're afraid the monster is you?! :-O
Kind of goes along with some of the others where the monster controls your self or changes your self. Dying is scary, torture is scarier, but losing your identity, perhaps while experiencing it from the inside, that's both torture and dying combined. :-)
Now add a touch of dread...Especially considering the werebear. You could be the most dastardly, the most devious and the most vicious chieftain of the bandits you built from the ground up, but one run in with a werebear and the morning after the full moon you awake in a soup kitchen with a ladle in your hand. The absolute horror.
The unbearable horror!
ETA: Imagine waking up from hibernation. :-P
(Okay, maybe that doesn't sync w/ the limited time spans, but you could wake up from attempted hibernation, all fattened up and deep in a cave.)
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
The unbearable horror!
ETA: Imagine waking up from hibernation. :-P
(Okay, maybe that doesn't sync w/ the limited time spans, but you could wake up from attempted hibernation, all fattened up and deep in a cave.)
So, that's what happened to Thor in the movie then !!!
So, that's what happened to Thor in the movie then !!!
The unbearable horror!
ETA: Imagine waking up from hibernation. :-P
(Okay, maybe that doesn't sync w/ the limited time spans, but you could wake up from attempted hibernation, all fattened up and deep in a cave.)
I just figured Asgardian pregnancy operated differently...
So you're afraid the monster is you?! :-O
Kind of goes along with some of the others where the monster controls your self or changes your self. Dying is scary, torture is scarier, but losing your identity, perhaps while experiencing it from the inside, that's both torture and dying combined. :-)
Now add a touch of dread...
That's still a monster doing things to you. That's on them. An outside influence.
But telling yourself that the curse isn't so bad, or that is now your duty to put it to good use, that you are doing to yourself. That is on you.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Rust Monsters! kkkkk
No mater what edition (except 5e) no monster is more terrible to martials than this. I saw countless players crying that they preferred to be killed than have their equipment that they invested during all adventure destroyed by such merciless creature! kkkkk
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Anything.
Seriously, those of you with multiple Bestiaries, open a random one to a random page.
Humans can't even get along well with themselves, I don't see how they would be able to share the planet with anything listed here.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Which is why, in Golarion, they play TTRPGs of mundane lives in a mundane world with mundane problems. So that they can escape the horror of their lives by roleplaying tedious boredom.
The popular tabletop game, Fields and Farmhands... and its spinoff/competitor Cornfinder.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Wendigo! They absolutely freak me they hell out.
Anything that subverts or takes away free will, especially if it actually enslaves its victim or makes its victim into more of it.
Anything with mind control capability (spells or otherwise), possession, Create Spawn, or Green Slime type abilities qualifies.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Yellow Musk Creepers. In particular, Yellow Musk Thralls.
...because that person is still in there. They could be rescued... but if you try to subdue them, to make an attempt to save the person, the creeper that is puppeting their body around will tear off their forearms without a moment's hesitation, because it offers a marginal improvement to combat effectiveness.
Yellow Musk Creepers. In particular, Yellow Musk Thralls.
...because that person is still in there. They could be rescued... but if you try to subdue them, to make an attempt to save the person, the creeper that is puppeting their body around will tear off their forearms without a moment's hesitation, because it offers a marginal improvement to combat effectiveness.
Yeah, that arm-tearing addition shocked me the first time I'd read that. Oh, but you can save them, never mind the trauma.
Yeah, that arm-tearing addition shocked me the first time I'd read that. Oh, but you can save them, never mind the trauma.
It's not the trauma. People can work through trauma. It's that they're profoundly crippled in an unrecoverable way. This is all off of a CR2 monster, after all, which means that you almost certainly don't have access to regen effects or high-end prostheses. Given the situations that Musk Creepers thrive in, you're probably saving peasants, tribesmen, and woods folk - not the kind who can afford much on their own. So yeah. You saved them. They're alive and back in their right mind... and utterly incapable of pursuing their prior profession or (in most cases) making much of a living at all. Yeah. you saved them. Too bad you weren't just a *little* faster or better in how you saved them and now their life is basically ruined and they have no way to recover. Way to go, heroes.
Yeah, that arm-tearing addition shocked me the first time I'd read that. Oh, but you can save them, never mind the trauma.It's not the trauma. People can work through trauma. It's that they're profoundly crippled in an unrecoverable way. This is all off of a CR2 monster, after all, which means that you almost certainly don't have access to regen effects or high-end prostheses. Given the situations that Musk Creepers thrive in, you're probably saving peasants, tribesmen, and woods folk - not the kind who can afford much on their own. So yeah. You saved them. They're alive and back in their right mind... and utterly incapable of pursuing their prior profession or (in most cases) making much of a living at all. Yeah. you saved them. Too bad you weren't just a *little* faster or better in how you saved them and now their life is basically ruined and they have no way to recover. Way to go, heroes.
Trauma also refers to physical damage, i.e. trauma surgeon. :-P And yes, I'd meant to encapsulate both mental & physical trauma because of the specifics you've laid out. It'd be like a war had taken place, or as if a war could erupt anywhere with anyone as a casualty. And the fact it tends to take root in battlefields (et al) means it's exacerbating the fallout from an already bad situation. All done mindlessly w/ no malice.
I have to wonder if there wouldn't be high level casters who make a point of casting Regenerate on their travels. Now I feel obliged to have my Good PCs memorize it for travel days! :-)
(A bit surprised that no one mentioned Puppy Swarm.)
Worm That Walks, mainly due to the one in the Ravnica novels that could consume just about anything then take the shape of any of its previous victims along with their abilities.
|
Tzitzimitl, mostly due to scale and the general cosmic horror vibe of Aztec mythology. The implication that every star in the sky is one of these beings, and the sun is the only thing protecting you from them!
Incidentally, this is why I'm actually disappointed with Pathfinder's depiction of Cipactli. It's only 50 feet long, according to legend it's what the gods used to MAKE THE WORLD, so it should be more along the lines of planet-sized! THAT would be scary!
None of them.
Yeah, that arm-tearing addition shocked me the first time I'd read that. Oh, but you can save them, never mind the trauma.It's not the trauma. People can work through trauma. It's that they're profoundly crippled in an unrecoverable way. This is all off of a CR2 monster, after all, which means that you almost certainly don't have access to regen effects or high-end prostheses. Given the situations that Musk Creepers thrive in, you're probably saving peasants, tribesmen, and woods folk - not the kind who can afford much on their own. So yeah. You saved them. They're alive and back in their right mind... and utterly incapable of pursuing their prior profession or (in most cases) making much of a living at all. Yeah. you saved them. Too bad you weren't just a *little* faster or better in how you saved them and now their life is basically ruined and they have no way to recover. Way to go, heroes.
Well the good news is we have mad prosthetic options now, although I think most are probably uncommon.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Well the good news is we have mad prosthetic options now, although I think most are probably uncommon.
"Basic Prosthesis" costs 5 sp each, and attaches with a system of belts and cuffs. It is really unclear how much functionality it returns in the case of things like "I lost my hands at the elbow".
Oddly, by a RAW reading, basic prosthetic eyes are *also* attached with a system of belts and cuffs.