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NOW LIVE! Into the Woods--new character species, eerie monsters, and haunting villains to populate the woodlands of your D&D games.
D&D Monsters that Scare You and Your Players
- Thread starter demiurge1138
- Start date
Gothmog
First Post
My players freak out the most from demons/devils. I don't play them as combat bruisers (for the most part), but a corruptive force or pure evil that can claim even the most pure heart. They rarely manifest directly and combat the PCs, but their servents and schemes are far-reaching and omnipresent. Prolonged contact with the infernal results in madness, physical deterioration, and/or mutation- and it is generally accepted that once a person is permanently tainted, his soul is forfeit. Even the hint of infernal involvement freaks my players out.
Dopplegangers/shapeshifters are scary too, especially if they assume the place of someone you know, and over time you begin to be able to tell something isn't quite right. A former NPC traveling companion was taken by a doppleganger, and it took almost 6 months of game time for them to realize what had happened, and that this doppleganger was part of a larger plot involving the replacement numerous people and manipulating political/social events to a certain outcome.
I try to make undead things to be feared as well. Undead per the MM are wusses, so I tend to beef them up by giving them cleric BAB, and DR equal to half their hit dice that cannot be bypassed. In addition, all undead gain Unholy Toughness and Frightful Presence abilities, because they are antithetical to life and are truly unholy blasphemies than can rend the soul and shatter the mind.
And then of course, the "things man was not meant to know" critters. Mind flayers, the neogi, gibbering mouthers, and most abberations fit in this category. I use them as Cthulhu mythos-like entities, which have completely alien thought patters and seemingly illogical motives. They are extremely rare (only used them in 3 out of almost 90 adventures- and in two of those adventure the PCs went looking for them), but they are often in isolated places and very dangerous. I've made hints (but no definite facts) that these entities predate humans and the gods, and that even the gods fear what could happen if they return/awaken/escape their prisons.
Dopplegangers/shapeshifters are scary too, especially if they assume the place of someone you know, and over time you begin to be able to tell something isn't quite right. A former NPC traveling companion was taken by a doppleganger, and it took almost 6 months of game time for them to realize what had happened, and that this doppleganger was part of a larger plot involving the replacement numerous people and manipulating political/social events to a certain outcome.
I try to make undead things to be feared as well. Undead per the MM are wusses, so I tend to beef them up by giving them cleric BAB, and DR equal to half their hit dice that cannot be bypassed. In addition, all undead gain Unholy Toughness and Frightful Presence abilities, because they are antithetical to life and are truly unholy blasphemies than can rend the soul and shatter the mind.
And then of course, the "things man was not meant to know" critters. Mind flayers, the neogi, gibbering mouthers, and most abberations fit in this category. I use them as Cthulhu mythos-like entities, which have completely alien thought patters and seemingly illogical motives. They are extremely rare (only used them in 3 out of almost 90 adventures- and in two of those adventure the PCs went looking for them), but they are often in isolated places and very dangerous. I've made hints (but no definite facts) that these entities predate humans and the gods, and that even the gods fear what could happen if they return/awaken/escape their prisons.
shilsen
Adventurer
In my new (2nd) Eberron group, we have a standing joke now that they're terrified of goblins. I ran a couple of one-shots for them before starting this campaign, whenever the then-regular DM couldn't show up, and coincidentally they'd always have the worst time with little goblins beating the snot out of them (the infamous gninjae!). So even though goblins haven't showed up as an enemy yet, they're already discussing how they'll run away if any do. Dragon? Charge! Goblin riding a dragon? Run!
Ralif Redhammer
Legend
I'll join the chorus of "rust monster."
In past editions, the ghost scared everybody. Aging was no laughing matter. Except for elves.
Rot grubs are nasty and give me the willies. One beholder never really bothered my gaming groups, but if there's a group of them, that really sends the PCs running for their lives.
In Ravenloft, the gaming group was petrified of Strahd Von Zarovich. The slightest hint that he was involved in any way in an adventure spooked them. Being the iconic villain of the setting, I can understand that.
In past editions, the ghost scared everybody. Aging was no laughing matter. Except for elves.
Rot grubs are nasty and give me the willies. One beholder never really bothered my gaming groups, but if there's a group of them, that really sends the PCs running for their lives.
In Ravenloft, the gaming group was petrified of Strahd Von Zarovich. The slightest hint that he was involved in any way in an adventure spooked them. Being the iconic villain of the setting, I can understand that.
focallength
First Post
we thought it was a sphere of annihilation (RTTTOEE) of course very shortly after that we ran into a juvenile red dragon that roasted half the part (-20, -45, -15) and then ate the two fighters.
Shemeska
Adventurer
Yugoloths, especially the greater 'loths that are more subtlety, guile and manipulation than combat. I made my players cry during their dealings with a Baernaloth. It's the fact that they approach evil like a manifest entity with themselves as simply its hands and willing supplicants. That they have a reverence for the alignment they exemplify that borders on a fanatical religion just creeps my players out.
"You are nothing. You are insignificant, inconsequential. You mean nothing to me one way or the other at all. But you will suffer just the same, just because I can." - summing up the 'loth perspective
Anything that has no stats. Be this Her Serenity, barely named Abyssal Lords, Baernaloths, things that are felt by the ripples of their passing but never truly seen or understood.
I really got them going with Sigil's urban myth/monster 'The Kadyx'. "Trapped, seperated, master and pawn at once, favored child and tool of beloved, hated mother."
The former factols of the Bleak Cabal in the Gatehouse of Sigil who linger on, consumed in their own insanity... scary stuff if you play it right.
"You are nothing. You are insignificant, inconsequential. You mean nothing to me one way or the other at all. But you will suffer just the same, just because I can." - summing up the 'loth perspective
Anything that has no stats. Be this Her Serenity, barely named Abyssal Lords, Baernaloths, things that are felt by the ripples of their passing but never truly seen or understood.
I really got them going with Sigil's urban myth/monster 'The Kadyx'. "Trapped, seperated, master and pawn at once, favored child and tool of beloved, hated mother."
The former factols of the Bleak Cabal in the Gatehouse of Sigil who linger on, consumed in their own insanity... scary stuff if you play it right.
We were playing in an Arcana Unearthed campaign, and ran into some staj. My runethane and a giant warmain were caught alone by a swarm, and having run into them before and nearly lost an eye, the warmain RAN, leaving my runethane alone. I lost both eyes to the blasted things, and ended up dying due to bleeding out. I don't know whether I'm more scared of staj or of cowardly giants...
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