DM's what kinds of monster features 'annoy' you or make your job harder?

[Emirikol]

DM's what kinds of monster features 'annoy' you or make your job harder? I posted this as a humorous categroy because it's not that serious, but good therapy for the people who make the game happen..

I was just thinking of my least favorite thing, and it's related to formatting:
* Monsters that can enlarge (or rage, or whatever), but then the "enlarged" version isn't included in the description.

I think petty abilities are also annoying. When you've got an epic creature that can cast cure light wounds, or monsters that have abilities that will most obviously be ignored by the character levels they are fighting.

I think some of this stuff is going to be dealt with in 4E (as well as smaller stat blocks).

Your thoughts on what they could improve?

jh

 

[EricNoah]

improved grab & grapple. There's just no way to get out of it. And the thing you should be able to do (hack off the creature's tentacles) isn't supported by the rules.

House rule idea: creatures with improved grab also have an accompanying weakness such that they can have their tentacles/whatever sundered like a weapon. DR = 1/2 natural armor bonus, hit points = 1/10 of creature's normal max hp. Or something like that.

 

[Wormwood]

Monsters whose entire schtick relies upon annoying rules such as grappling or tripping (or sundering, in the case of the excrementally irritating Hydra)

Monsters with lame 1e rule hangovers like "25% chance to summon 1d4 vrocks"---yeah, thanks for making it easy for me to balance an encounter.

Monsters with dozens of spell-like abilities, half of which will never be used in an encounter.

Idiotic 'gotcha' devices, like Bodaks and Demi-Liches.

 

[mhensley]

Monsters with abilities that are useless against the level of characters that they will normally be fighting. My latest example of this is the Night Hag. It is CR9 and can cast Sleep. Umm... when are you going to have 4th level or lower characters fighting a Night Hag?

 

[NealTS]

Regarding the "Useless" abilities... I think of those as flavor. Sure, the hag isn't gonna be putting the Heroes of the Realm to Sleep... but the ability certainly does make her that much more scary to the village of commoners that she's been terrorizing! There were three well-rested men-at-arms guarding the prince's bedchamber! How did they all nod off at the same time? It would be cool if those were bracketed off in a "flavor abilities" section, though.

My own personal bugaboos are, honestly, defensive abilities like regeneration and damage reduction. Either the PCs can counter it, in which case the monster might as well not have it, or they can't, in which case it's much more powerful than it should be. Things which can be countered, though, fall into "flavor abilities," so I guess they're all right.

 

[Huw]

Monsters with dozens of spell-like abilities, half of which will never be used in an encounter.

Don't forget its close cousin: "Monsters with dozens of feats, none of which are mentioned in its combat abilities." AKA "Oh wait, it does have Spring Attack."

 

[jmucchiello]

Monsters with special rules for attacking parts of their body, such as the Hydra.

 

[The_Gneech]

I'd have to say, "monsters that can obliterate most of the party, but can't hurt the fighter" -- although to be fair, that may be more of a problem with fighters than with monsters.

My other main gripe is level drain. It's either a party-killer (cripes, we went from four seventh level characters to one seventh, two fifth, and one first), or a speed bump ("Restoration all around!")

-The Gneech

 

[Felon]

I haven't seen anyone mention it yet, but I'd say that monsters that can easily be kited are at the top of my list. That might have come as a result of seeing one-too-many warlocks and dragon adepts that could fly at will and would just hover over monsters raining damage down on defenseless critters. There are quite a few monsters out there that only work while operating under the assumption that the party will engage them in melee.

 

[sckeener]

Any monster with ability drain. I hate keeping track of all the player's and the monsters' ability damage.

Regarding minor powers below party level, I think of that stuff as fluff. Those are the abilities that create the adventure. Also, some low level powers are useful...such as Dancing Lights