Toughest critter in 4e

[Wik]

Yes indeed. Have you had em kill any characters before?

Needlefangs actually killed a whole party of 2nd levellers. HAd to say "Okay, retry..." and re-ran the adventure. and it still nearly killed the group.

Other monsters on the list:

1) Grells (Fun, but man are they tough... if you play 'em right, they can fly out of reach of the melee fighters, and just grab and chew on weaker party members... not to mention they can pull people up and drop 'em).

2) Vine Horrors. I posted about how these guys really hurt our party. Mind you, I'd been following the one with the error in it (the Compedium is great, but they unfortunatley listed the VH's encounter as an "At-Will" that really messed things up). VH Spellfiends are also pretty damned tough.

3) Blackscale Bruiser Lizardfolk. They can deal damage, lemme tell you! Mind you, this fight was only really hard because the aforementioned bruiser was also a swordmage. Yikes!

4) Tiefling Heretic. Ran him against a 1st level group, and he was a pain to hit. And a pain to fight. He really could hurt the group.

5) Hobgoblins, in a group, are pretty tough to hit. And they can really lay on a smackdown.

I have another monster I'd love to list, but simply by listing it, I'd give away a bit of my campaign I'm not ready to divulge yet (I have players that read EN World). But it's one you wouldn't expect.

 

[Ceraus]

I nominate the Skeletal Tomb Guardian (the four-scimitar level-10 brute).

Compare to the level 12 solo Hydra and tell me it's not overpowered.

...

(actually, it's the hydra that might be horribly underpowered)


About the Tarrasque: yes, it's horribly underpowered. Its only chance to drop a character is by getting three criticals on an action point round.

 

[Starsunder]

I nominate the Skeletal Tomb Guardian (the four-scimitar level-10 brute).

Compare to the level 12 solo Hydra and tell me it's not overpowered.

...

(actually, it's the hydra that might be horribly underpowered)


About the Tarrasque: yes, it's horribly underpowered. Its only chance to drop a character is by getting three criticals on an action point round.

Yeah, I mean, compare the Tarrasque with say, Baphomet (lvl 28 solo brute) and the difference is immediately apparent.

@Wik: Hobgoblins are some of my favorite monsters to run in 4th. Love em.

 

[NMcCoy]

I've run two encounters with fire beetles. Both times, they dropped party members in the first round of combat.

 

[darjr]

Inspired by this thread I just asked my kid what he thought the toughest monster he's faced was. I suggested the group of 'Chillborn Zombies' with their stacked aura. He said, 'Naw, they were tough on front line party members, but I was fine'. He was playing a wizard.

Stacking aura's are tough.

 

[Belphanior]

Kruthik, if they have a Hive Lord with them. He can weaken several PCs every round, his allies deal double damage with basic attack, and they can all burrow in order to flee, ambush, or tactically move if needed.

The poison spikes and auto-damage auras are annoying too.

 

[Stalker0]

Another vote for the neeflefang drake swarm. At least the guard drake you can kill before it kills you. With a NDS, if you don't have a wizard with area effects you may get overwhelmed without really hurting the monster.

 

[joeandsteve]

1) Grells (Fun, but man are they tough... if you play 'em right, they can fly out of reach of the melee fighters, and just grab and chew on weaker party members... not to mention they can pull people up and drop 'em).

Just lost my rogue to one of these guys. Every time she saved on the stun, the grell was there to bite her again, and the cycle continued until death, while the other party members were busy with a Beholder. I think she got to act one round that entire encounter. Had plenty of surges too.