As a player, what monster/opponent is the most frustrating to fight?

[Felix]

Goblins scare the bejeesus out of me. I never know if they're going to go into a raging frenzy, stab me in the back, or cast a spell... because they're all wearing friggin rags, and they can all sneak up on us!

That, and hives of Stirges. They fly away gutted with your CON score and you can't kill them all. Argh.

 

[EricNoah]

Gosh, what else... seems like there are some demons or devils that can cast unholy blight at will -- isn't that the one that dazes with no save?

And there's some high CR undead in MMII I think that can cast greater dispelling every round at CL 20. Ick!

 

[Evilhalfling]

A second vote for vampires -
we didn't remeber to cut off its head after staking it, (only one character could get into the crypt, and he got dominated by minions on the way back out.)
next week we may be facing a 16th vampire priestess, 12th (ex-pc) vampire thief and some spawn (who might be full vampires)
Whee !

 

[Henry]

Gee, how stupid are your players? They fight these things multiple times and don't learn?
And what kind of cleric player doesn't have Scribe Scroll?

Well, to be fair, it's not like I use them all the time - only about once per campaign. However, that's 3 times in about 3 years, and everytime it never gets old for me. Last time I used them, they got smart, and used dispel magic at least, though it knocked out a couple of their light sources as well.

Anyway, now that 3.5 darkness has changed, it's time to retire my favorite little beasties. 20% miss in the gloom ain't what it used to be.

And up until our Artificer in Eberron came along, a lot of people found scribe scroll a waste of time - that wisdom has changed, as well.

 

[Slife]

'trices, nymphs, leprechans, and mindflayers. Need I say more?

 

[JackGiantkiller]

Flying, incorporeal wizards with Transdimensional Spell. And lots of cone effects.

 

[Pielorinho]

One group that's not been mentioned yet: creatures that can teleport at will.

I had an osyluth who bedeviled the party for several sessions wit hit-and-run nastiness. He coudl turn invisible and teleport, so he was just about perfect at spying on them; he created all kinds of nastiness around them, earning them the fear and hatred of the commoners. And in one fun session, he filled the trees of a forest they travelled through with images of himself sitting on branches, laughing at them, as they rode along huddled together to stay within the confines of a Protection from Evil spell.

Eventually they got to a big city, and he gave up on tormenting them; but while it lasted, there was very little by the rules they could do to prevent it.

Daniel

 

[Pants]

Elementals: Single-minded, very tough, nasty DR, not many tricks. The lower CR elementals are fun (and tough) to fight, but the higher CR ones are just a slog. Probably the most boring way to die Slam, slam, slam... repeat ad nauseum.

Things that grapple: Mostly because many creatures have insanely difficult grapple checks that you just really can't do anything once you're grappled.

Golems: Near immunity to magic, nasty DR, very little tricks. Look at the elementals for examples.

 

[Testament]

Incoporeal Undead. Damn that miss chance, damn it to hades!

Rust Monsters: Grudge Monsters.

Anything with Energy Drain. It makes for a much more intimidating fight, you're a barbarian with fistfuls of hitpoints? So what, what's your level, that's what counts here.

 

[ruleslawyer]

Gosh, what else... seems like there are some demons or devils that can cast unholy blight at will -- isn't that the one that dazes with no save?

You're thinking of blasphemy, which is indeed quite annoying... especially when there are TWO fiends who take turns dazing the party while the other fiend summons reinforcements.

My vote goes to golems. Incorporeal creatures are annoying, but they also present an obvious solution: Force effects and ghost touch weapons. What might be nice is if there were a spell out there that temporarily bestowed the latter property. Golems, OTOH, mean that the fighters have to sit there hacking away, with no opportunity for crits and (often) drastically-lowered damage from DR. The casters, rogues, and monks? Useless; they might as well plan to smoke a pipe and discuss the weather for the duration of the combat.

Blindsight has proved hugely irritating to my players too (and, incidentally, Hide and Move Silently probably do not work against it, since a blindsighted creature "usually do[es] not have to make Listen or Spot checks" to notice creatures within range of the ability). Two of the PCs in my group are built around sneakiness, and having something around they can't sneak up on is very hard for them to take.