What is the toughest printed creature?

[Altamont Ravenard]

These figures are so ridiculously high...

 

[Al]

I'm still going for some of the greater deities. The DvR 16+ salient ability Divine Splendour kills all mortal in a 10'/rank radius with no save, and Life and Death kills mortals without any save as well.

The deity's neatest trick, however, is Antimagic. Under the description for Antimagic, it says the beings of demigod status or higher (as well as artifacts) are immune to it, so you could sit in your Antimagic Shell casting all spells and buffs, whilst your opponents can't touch you (and remember your DR...)

 

[Creamsteak]

That truely shows how weak the Cthulhu d20 gods are. Azathoth is supposed to be the most powerful being in existance, and yet he is weaker than a 100 armed freak. It is my opinion that Azathoth should have natural ability enabling him to destroy the universe at will.

He has an ability called Alter Reality at will. Instantly alter reality. Destroy the universe or turn the attackers into fluffy bunnies are both fine. The only way to beat Azathoth is to win initiative, and he's a divine rank 20 god so he always rolls a natural 20. You'd have to be VERY fast and you'd have to deal around 3000 points of damage in a single attack. CR 50 is a low rating even given this thing's relatively small-scale statistics.

 

[Hand of Evil]

While I think there are a lot of powerful monsters it really comes down to how you play them, looking at their abilities, their feats, their skills and taking the time to devolop them as a foe.

 

[Silverglass]

The Heironcateres (sp?) is not that tough an epic monster because, as far as I remember, it has no flying ability. Its a purely melee monster, albeit a very tough one.

The Atropal (especially a Paragon Atropal) is the nastiest epic monster in the ELH as far as I am concerned.

But the toughest statted creatures have to be the greater gods from the DMG. Divine Splendour is horrible, but limited as I think most gods cannot get it. But death and war gods can easily justify annihilating strike and that can get up to a DC102+ Fort save that destroys both mortals and gods of a lower divine rank. Life and Death can snuff out any mortal life as well (and Mass Life and Death is even better).

 

[Frilf]

Well, a paragon hecatoncheires would certainly be a pain in the you-know-where. Make it pseudonatural while you're at it and/or apply the "winged" template from Savage Species to it. Presto! Flying 100-handed freak of doom

The walking glacier with the same treatment (nix the pseudonatural - doesn't fit the concept) would also be a real stumper...

If you want to do non-WotC stuff, slap an apocalyptic template on it, too. Then, we're talking deity-like status

 

[ruleslawyer]

What is the toughest printed WotC 3.0/3.5E creature?

"Printed," IMHO, would rule out templated creatures (with the exception of the sample templated creatures), since one has to put a limit somewhere. Otherwise, I could just say "a paragon pseudonatural age category 75 advanced prismatic dragon with 20 divine ranks and 100 levels of sorcerer" and go from there. As far as printed creatures go, I'd say one of the gods. (NONE of the epic monsters have anything on a being with Alter Reality and Life and Death, with the possible exception of the Sphinx.)

Regarding the Sphinx: With no spells and little mobility, the Sphinx would pose insufficient challenge to an epic party; they could just avoid it or knock it through a planar rift. Corellon, OTOH...

The hecatoncheires is a definite loser in the power sweepstakes, BTW; the WotC boards had a mock battle between the Hec and Tempus (an FR greater deity), and the hec didn't even come close.

 

[Frilf]

The hecatoncheires is a definite loser in the power sweepstakes, BTW; the WotC boards had a mock battle between the Hec and Tempus (an FR greater deity), and the hec didn't even come close.

Pitting creatures (epic or not) against deities is not really fair. Of course hec is going to lose to a deity. A lot of it depends on the strategies used by each, as well. I guess in my mind deities do not count as "creatures" but rather extremely powerful NPCs.

That's what makes horse racing, I s'pose.

 

[Malachi_rc]

How on Earth could a mere tarrasque kill them, btw?

I don't think I've ever heard the words "mere tarrasque" before.

Personally, I go with Asmodeus from Tomb of Horrors. Sure, he doesn't have that high a CR, but he's the DEVIL!!! How can you get nastier than that?

 

[Alzrius]

I don't think I've ever heard the words "mere tarrasque" before.

Hah, that's nothing. There's an old Spelljammer product detailing a planet where, on the surface, roamed PACKS of Tarrasques!

Personally, I go with Asmodeus from Tomb of Horrors. Sure, he doesn't have that high a CR, but he's the DEVIL!!! How can you get nastier than that?

I think you mean Tome of Horrors, since as far as I know Asmodeus never appears in the actual Tomb...not that that could make it much deadlier than it already is.