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

[Psychotic Jim]

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 couldn't agree more with this. To my players this is the most frustrating thing because you see everything you have get flushed down the toilet. Also, all the bookkeepping you have to do for the changes level loss brings about holds up the game way too much.

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

A Iron Kingdoms dragon... in an open field... at night... with boiling-mud pit traps.

Very nearly a TPK, despite the party being 80% artillery (a rogue-paladin with UMD and a monstrous artifact cannon, dwarf and Rhullic snipers, a blaster mage and a monk with ranged ki attacks from a PrC). Absolutely hideous encounter, and the dragon only retreated due to consecutive crits. Its CR was about 6 above the party's, though, and we did slaughter it in its cave in the next session.


That was the scariest/most intense "boss battle" I've ever seen in an RPG, and well worth the trouble.

The iron lich (CR 22 + custom spells against oversized party, average level 13) was also a right good time, though mostly because of its crit immunity.


Annoyances? Anything with a miss chance (bloody SHADOWS were hellish against EL 14 PCs!), and great mobs of opponents about 4-6 CRs below the party level, just because of the time it takes to resolve their attacks. Also, most outsiders with their high and oddball DRs and their spell resistance.

 

[VirgilCaine]

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.

Oil of Magic Weapon. Talk to your DM about Oil of Greater Magic Weapon (Caster level 9), which should cover you against any 3.0 DR except the Tarrasque, IIRC.

3.5? Well, talk to the party wizard about a material changing spell that turns a steel sword to mithril, cold iron, etc. etc. Then have the sword enchanted with it 3/day as a wondrous item

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

The most frustrating creature I've had to fight would be an aboleth. We had three near TPK's against a single aboleth in her underwater lair...

First domination, then the damn illusions... every time, only the bard survived, and went back to town to round up another gullible group into attacking the damn aboleth. People started thinking that the bard was in on it with the aboleth...

AR

 

[Saeviomagy]

Things that suck:

Monsters with anything "at will" that the DM wouldn't ever let a player have "at will". There's a reason the players can't have it, and believe it or not, the same reason applies to the monsters if the monsters are played intelligently. This includes - illithid stun attacks, medusa petrification, bodaks, demons with greater teleport etc etc. In short - if the DM doesn't deliberately cripple himself when playing these things, then you are all dead and there's nothing you could possibly do about it. The monster WILL outlast you and you will all die unless you're specifically prepared for the critter.

Monsters with abilities that make no sense. Example: The chuul has a paralysis effect that is (ex), but is not poison. So what is it? Does it use it's mouth tentacles to hit my acupressure points? Mainly this is a problem because it slips through the cracks and means there are no rules to deal with the situation. Kind of like trying to talk to a magical beast that has no language (but is still intelligent...). Speak with animals doesn't work. Nor does tongues. Wierd, huh?

Monsters with abilities that negate PC abilities, when there is absolutely nothing the PC can do about it. Blindsight sucks because of this as already mentioned. Creatures with deeper darkeness are just as bad. I don't think creatures with magic immunity are in this category - it's fairly easy to arm oneself such that this possibility is taken care of, or turn spells to other uses. I'm sure there are others.

 

[Testament]

About the worst thing about a Bodak is their DR. 10/Cold Iron! Hurting them can be a real pain, especially since most people see undead and break out the silver and oils of magic weapon.

 

[Sejs]

Oh yes, put me down for hating critters with instant kill abilities. No heroic struggle, no satisfying fight, no going down in a blaze of glory... just *fft* dead.

Lame.

Lame and not fun.

 

[RithTheAwakener]

I would DEFINATELY have to say its a creature with a LOT of attacks and leveldrain/stat drain to cap it off. Most of these also happen to be undead, so theyre immune to crits and probably have some form of DR. god they are annoying.... low CR's and huge amount of downtime after battles to get restored, which usually means an extra day of rest for the party


Edit: i thought of something else. When creatures generally attack you, theyre going to eat you as food. But .... we had 4 lvl 4 characters against.... dun dun dunnnnnnn... 4 wyvrens. So needless to say we were GOING to get slaughtered no matter what, but the airship is buzzing along at a very high altitude. The wyvrens (with their improved grapple) pick us up 1 by 1 and drop us off the ship, even when recovering a body from that height falling into a rainforest would be nearly impossible..... I guess what im saying is when creatures do stuff that they SHOULDNT be doing really bugs the crap out of me.

 

[Klaus]

An alternative to level drain:

Character recieves a negative level, as usual, incurring the penalty to d20s and losing the highest level spell or slot.

If the character receives negative levels equal to or greater than his character level, he collapses and is dying (automatic -1 hp). If the character doesn't stabilize, he can die and rise as an undead spawn.

If not, then the negative levels go away at a rate of 1 per hour (no chance of actual level loss).

 

[Lord Judas]

Anything with lots of level/stat drain is pretty annoying as it makes the game crawl while people "re-calculate".

However, the prize is anything with lots of DR. A creature with DR10 an +100hps takes *forever for the mid-range party to kill, especially with good AC.

Honorable mention to Beholders. I had one in a dungeon as a "gaurdian" to an optional area. The party was unanimous: 'we aint fighting that' and moved on.