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

[wedgeski]

ANYthing, with ANY kind of ability drain, of ANY ability, annoys the hell out of my players.

 

[VirgilCaine]

+30 Hide manages to "dodge" light waves, and light travels faster.

Say what? Hiding behind something or in shadows or something is in no way comparable to evading blindsense.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Say what? Hiding behind something or in shadows or something is in no way comparable to evading blindsense.

Well, hiding behind something will often enough help "evade" sound waves. Move Silently reduces the noise you produce, and probably also any other kind of vibration that might be useful for blindsight...

Blindsight is the "sensoric" equivalent to an auto-hit attack or an always-miss armor class.

 

[RuminDange]

War Trolls...now those suck.

wearing a ring of fire resistance. like the Troll chief in the 1edADnD Temple of Elemental Evil

Now put him in Acid Resistance Spiked Plate and give him Barbarian levels and a nasty big weapon. Then watch the players cry.
Did just that a few years ago, and the Troll was guarding the tunnel entrance to a temple where the tunnels only allows at most 2 PC to face him at a time. He trashed their world for while, of course the archer was upset cause he couldn't shoot him due to cover provided by the curving tunnel and lead PC's. Finally even he had to go toe to toe after the Bladesinger went out.
Boy they sure was upset at whoever supplied that troll....not that they have ever found that person, but they plan to go back someday.

Other than beefed up Trolls, try any of the following for fun:
Beholder Mage (Monsters of Faerun)
Mind Flayer Lich
Crawling Claws (the now level 35 Archer above is still afriad of them to this day)

RD

 

[iceifur]

The most frustrating enemy is a high Wizard/Fighter who is Improved invisible, flying, wearing a cape of nondetection, and shooting spells at a party. (maybe troll too with ring of fire resistance )

High on what? THAT's the question.

Seriously, though, I've found that the most annoying enemy to face is the enemy that gets away. Stupid one-use items of CL 9th Teleport (2250 gp)...

-B-

 

[Kalendraf]

I mostly DM, and take great pride in being able to challenge my players with all manner of foe. But since the question is directed at players, I'll have to draw upon my experience there and come up with my answer...

My most frustrating situations as a player have come against foes/encounters that were EL +4 or more above the party level. Not kidding there. I've seen this happen a few too many times, and it really irks me, especially when the party has no chance to avoid it, no way to diplomatically get past it, and there is no special alternative help given. If you pit the party against something that strong and they have no choice but to fight, it can easily cause a TPK. This situation can arise if the DM is overly sadistic, new to the rules, incompetent or just plain doesn't care.

As a player, it makes things overly difficult:
A) Playing in character w/o player knowledge, you really would have no way of knowing how tough most foes are when encountered for the 1st time.
B) Seeing the scenario unfold, you have to give the DM some credit that he has a reason for doing this.
C) After the character deaths, you realize the DM totally messed up, and it's hard to hold your tongue.

What's even more dangerous about this type of situation is if your party actually manages to overcome the encounter by getting extremely lucky (several party crit hits, monster failed saves, etc). The DM will feel confident in his ability to properly challenge the party and continue to toss this or even stronger things at your party. The ultimate outcome of the escalating challenges is pretty much guaranteed to be a TPK at some point. Afterwards, they may just chalk it up to dumb luck, and blindly continue down the same path next time around.

 

[Ymdar]

High on what? THAT's the question.

*Ahem* A small typo there...
High level.
Editing in progress. Edit Finished

 

[Darmanicus]

Anything created by BlackDirge!!!

The baby, (huge sized), undead spiders were bad enough, what with us being sprayed with acid every time we hit one, but Momma, (colossal sized), was a right beatch, (acid blood, reach, fear effects, SR, DR, high AC and other stuff I cannae remember)!

Thank Pelor for our cleric who saved the day on both occasions by dropping a blade barrier on a load of the babies and blinding mom with a Holy Smite me thinks, which allowed us to finally carve ourselves a meat platter, (oh yeah, thanks for the acid resistance too!)!

I'm sure it was BD who created that freakin Minotaur Death Knight too. I laughed as I sundered its evil weapon and then promptly burst into tears when it decided to 'borrow' mine and beat the bejesus out of me with it!

God bless you BD and may all of your children have templates added to them!

 

[MDSnowman]

Incorporeal undead. No, not just incorporeal undead, but stat-draining, relentless, knows-its-got-you-trapped-and-now-it's-playtime incorporeal undead.

And level-draining stuff.

Yep that pretty much sums up my least favorite things in the world...

that and anything with hefty DR.... there's a reason my fighter has to use a fullblade... it's the only way to scratch something with a DR of 15.

 

[iwatt]

I don't like energy drain, either as a player or as a DM. It's just the wrong mechanic for me. I replace it with something different (either CON damage or fatigue or exhaustion or something) when I run them as DM.

I like this. Maybe I'll yoink it for myself.