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

[Derren]

I, uh, guess you failed to note the slight advantage of the Long range on Fireball, huh?

Not only that.
Every dragon benefits from having an attacks spell with a different element as their breath weapon. That way they are not completely screwed when the PC have the correct energy protection up. So in case of a fireball it makes a good damaging spell for all non gold/brass/red dragons.

 

[Nifft]

I hate SR.

It's terribly annoying in that it gives almost all spells an extra step, and turns too many of them into ignore-or-die effects.

It's terribly game-ist: the typical value for SR is CR + 12.

SR makes encounters even more random, in that the spellcasters may turn out to be totally ineffective.

Finally, there's nothing to cheese a player off than to have him feel like he's just wasted his last 8th level spell slot for nothing.

Cheers, -- N

 

[AnonymousOne]

I have to say that seeing the effects of the grapple and improved grab mechanics at work in a recent encounter I feel the need to rant.

8th level party in an Arena battle against some sort of Rock spider what does Dex Damage and has a pair of ranged touch attack that turn into a grapple if even one of them succeed.

Now our 8th leve group is pretty well optimized and the DM wanted to challenge us. Here's the problem, the rules are really vague of th creature.

Step 1: Spider attacks twice using it's touch attack tentacle thingies. Players fail this because even my Rogue only has a touch AC of 16.

Step 2: And then they get dragged in, free bite attack. This usually wouldn't penetrate the AC of the characters.

Step 3: Right so at the end of the turn the sticky stuff on the mandibles/tentacles dissolves freeing the character. (there is no mention of whether the character is left prone, standing, etc.)

A little more clarity in MANY of the monster blocks would be a nice thing.

And please, for all our sakes, grapple can be cool, it can also be the most annoying thing on the planet and turn an interesting encounter into "Now do I have to make a touch attack to grab ... or was that last time?" kind of events.

 

[blargney the second]

Fey hit dice. They should be such cool enemies, but it's basically impossible to make them stick around longer than wet kleenex.

 

[jensun]

Anything that has "Casts spells as a Cleric of Wizard of level x"

I dont want to have to sped prep time sorting out lengthy prepared spells lists for monsters half of which will never even be used.

 

[Nifft]

Fey hit dice. They should be such cool enemies, but it's basically impossible to make them stick around longer than wet kleenex.

(Psssst! Warblade levels instead of advancement by HD!)

Cheers, -- N

 

[Voldrath]

This. I really like the concept behind it, but it's a pain to rule on during a fight.


Also: DR/magic. I houseruled back to +1 to +5.

My solution to DR/magic is to ablate the DR by 5 per 'plus'.
so if you hit a DR 15/Magic creature with a +1 sword, the DR stops 10 points.

 

[Holy Bovine]

I hate SR.

It's terribly annoying in that it gives almost all spells an extra step, and turns too many of them into ignore-or-die effects.

It's terribly game-ist: the typical value for SR is CR + 12.

SR makes encounters even more random, in that the spellcasters may turn out to be totally ineffective.

Finally, there's nothing to cheese a player off than to have him feel like he's just wasted his last 8th level spell slot for nothing.

Cheers, -- N

I'm glad I'm not the only who hates Spell Resistance. I've toyed with the idea of turning it into something like Damage Reduction for spells (with the # representing how much damage the spell resistance absorbs) but it still leaves the question of what to do about non-damage inflicting spells.

DR/magic is pretty much useless imo. I changed it back to DR/+1-+4 (each 5 points of DR = +1).

ANYTHING that is save or die sucks.

 

[Stalker0]

DR/magic is normally pretty useless, but try throwing in some guys with disarm and DR/magic and it can actually be useful. Or try dispelling their weapons, dispelling a targeted item is painfully easy to do.

To improved grab and grappling, Arcana Evolved helps tone down this problem with a very beautiful and elegant solution:

When using escape artist to avoid a grapple, your opponent does NOT receive his size bonus to grapple.

This alone helps tone down certain monsters. Also, don't forget if your not taking a -20 to your grapple checks, that big creature is still considered grappled, he loses his dex bonus and CANNOT make attacks against the party. I pretty much always take a -20 with huge creatures now, it keeps them in line for grappling.

All that said, grappling still gets ridiculous when you get to collosal creatures with big HD (and big BAB).

 

[Nifft]

DR/magic is normally pretty useless

Except that it puts summoned Elementals back in their proper place. It's one of the few things that's more effective against a Druid's typical tactics & resources, too.

Cheers, -- N