4e Monsters that scare the crap out of characters

[hailstop]

One of the problems with 4e is that throwing higher level monsters at the party doesn't really increase the challenge because their characters are more likely to die, but mostly has the effect of extending the combat (aka grind).

This is especially so for higher than party level Soldiers, Elites and Solos.

Stalker0 has a great post on how to avoid grind by using monsters of the PC's level...but just more of them in order to make higher level encounters.

Still, it'd be nice occasionally to send them up against monsters that are truly bad-ass...where the PC's could take them out, but are likely to get very hurt doing so first.

Anyone have any good ideas how to go about this?

Brutes and Artillery are okay, but even then, they're not necessarily truly frightening unless they're either getting extra actions or doing extra damage.

I suppose one way is to move the damage track from the Low or Med damage to the high (on page 185)...or even move damage from the 'Normal' table to the 'Limited' table.

I just find that my PC's rarely are being challenged defensively...they rarely seem to need to spend a Second Wind and I don't think I've dropped one unconcious in months.

 

[Jack99]

I just find that my PC's rarely are being challenged defensively...they rarely seem to need to spend a Second Wind and I don't think I've dropped one unconcious in months.

Could you expand on that, maybe with a few examples of what level classes you have and what specific encounters were so easy that they didn't even have to use their second wind? Because either you have some very gifted players, or something is definitely off. While combats are different from past editions, I find that I have had no problems downing players regularly.

 

[Rechan]

I find I have a similar problem of putting serious hurt on folks. All those hitpoints, and two healers.

 

[Lord Xtheth]

I find that swarms scare my PCs. The new lamia works pretty well along with the spider swarm. I end up adding the swarm template to alot of small creatures in my game just to make my PCs squirm a bit. It does get a little boring every now and again though... "Ugh, another swarm?"

I read in another thread here one time (I'm waay too lazy to go find it and make a link) a good solution. Cut HPs in half, and double monster damage. It's worked for my group.

 

[joeandsteve]

Anything with an at will stun effect.

 

[Odysseus]

The thing I found that scares my players most is me saying things like thats hits a 40 against AC when rolling for monster attacks.

Actually with my group, i've found they don't use second wind that much, and only occasionly go unconscious. However they are still being challenged. They've had battles where they they blow through all their dailies in one encounter.

Also i've often found the players idea of a difficult/challenging encounter can be quite different to mine.

 

[nightwyrm]

Monsters that uses focus fire or synergizes each other.

 

[AngryMojo]

Monsters that uses focus fire or synergizes each other.

This. If you want to see a player nearly wet themselves, get a bunch of skirmishers past a defender and have them flank a ranged striker or controller. Or, find ways to bunch up PC's with push pulls and slides, then start dropping AOEs on them. I've found that nearly any monster set can scare the stripes off a zebra if strong tactics are used.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

Anything with an at will stun effect.

I don't know that that so much scares me as irritates the hell out of me.

Brad

 

[blargney the second]

Wik threw an encounter at our group recently that just wiped the floor with us. I believe it consisted of vine horrors in the controller, artillery, and soldier roles.

Here's what was so scary about the fight:
1) Area effects that pinned us down.
2) Artillery that could pound us with impunity while we were immobilized.
3) Walls that blocked us into a little shooting gallery, but the monsters could get through.
4) More conditions than we had the ability to deal with.

It wasn't the first time we got plastered in a fight - I still hate spiked devils. Bloody flying artillery...
-blarg