D&D Monsters that Scare You and Your Players

[JVisgaitis]

Are we talking strictly core D&D?

 

[Warrior Poet]

Edit - the sad thing was, when I DMed RttToH, the mage in the party tried to control the blackball as if it were a sphere of annihilation...

His feet (still in his boots) were all that was left of him...

And that's the beauty of it . . . .

 

[R-Hero]

Rust monsters (I generaly play paladins w/steel armor & weapons)

A black pudding (or something similar) made a guy quit because it destroyed a mega powerfull weapon he had. (It was too much for his level anyway=inexperienced Dm.)

Beholders, just from the sheer many number of ray attacks
Medusas, (I can't fight back is I'm a statue)
Vampires, (Please stop dominating/draining me, master..)

Any monster that has a nasty high level spell like ability X a jillions uses per day. (Kelubars w/acid fogs for example.)

Any of these with a feindish template.... ewwww!

 

[The_Universe]

Illithids and Doppelgangers have among the largest potential to be actually *scary* if they were real.

That's my two cents, at least.

 

[demiurge1138]

I forgot about swarms! I hate them. I hate them so much.

Well, as a player, of course. As a DM, I can't get enough of 'em.

Demiurge out.

 

[Rel]

There was this critter that we kept running into in our Arcana Unearthed game called the "Staj" (I think that's how it was spelled). Basically they had a tail attack that was a grapple. If it connected then you had to make a Fort save or he ripped your eye out.

Nobody ever actually had their eye ripped out but we were deathly afraid that it was going to happen every time we encountered them.

I mean, kill me if you must. But rip my eye out? That's just wrong!

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

Nothing clears a room like rust monsters.

 

[Hand of Evil]

I forgot about swarms! I hate them. I hate them so much.

Well, as a player, of course. As a DM, I can't get enough of 'em.

Demiurge out.

My players hate them too.

Mindflayers freak me out and does cause some panic with my players.

 

[Shade]

Pretty much any monster that either:

a) Permanently destroys magic items or equipment (disenchanters, bebeliths, rust monsters, and so forth)

or

b) Permanently harms/hinders characters (the lavawight's irreversible hit point drain is the only one that immediately comes to mind)

or

c) Utterly destroys the character so that ressurection is difficult or impossible (the barghest's feed, for instance)

Fortunately, I've only been subject to "a"...repeatedly.

 

[Arnwyn]

My players seem to be scared to death by Illithids more than anything else - even more than beholders, fiends, and dragons...