Tell me of the coolest feature of some monster...

[Turanil]

After having read some thread and webpages, I got the idea to begin the following thread:

Tell me about a cool, very cool, coolest in fact, feature of a monster. Whatever monster from any game, any legend, and whether if such a feature is attributed to an existing monster or just jumped out of your mind.

A single feature please! Now this can be whatever: a social aspect, something in their appearance, a power they have, etc.

For the first 40 posts, only post what you think is a really cool feature for a monster. Then, at post 41 and beyond, anyone should feel free to create a monster using some of the features described in the thread. But also, after post 40 one can still post cool features. My hope is that we may eventually come up with a cooool monster that will find its way as a free ENworld Community PDF available to all for download (and for which I will draw a pic!).

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I begin:

In the Imaro novels by Charles R. Saunders, there are vile sorcerers who sell their souls to odious entities to get unimaginable malevolent powers. However, when they do so their bodies are utterly corrupted and transformed. The sorcerer's head remains normal, but under his robe the body has become emaciated, and above all, in the stomach's place is an amount of wrigling tentacles full of vile magic and that are used to cast spells and generate supernatural effects.

So my single coolest feature is this: a mass of wrigling tentacles where should be the stomach, and that wield unholy magical powers.

 

[WhimsyTheFae]

I'll add - Legend

Think Grim Reaper, Boogeyman, Jack the Ripper, etc. My feature would be that the monster has a legend/story/history attached to it, which invokes fear in minds of the masses.

 

[Turanil]

My feature would be that the monster has a legend/story/history attached to it, which invokes fear in minds of the masses.

Let me expand on this one:

This new monster, nobody will be likely to know it. However, it's not really a problem. The monster is universally feared, but it works on the subconscious level because it is so horrendous that the mind represses the souvenir of it (a psychoanalytical sort of thing). As such, nobody ever thinks about the creature, yet when the name is heard (or what not), people unconsciously feel bad, even while they don't know why. They could even be afraid at the mere mention of a name they think to have never heard of before.

Of course, all of this implies many other things... that may well be cool in themselves.

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Hey! Don't hesitate to expand and elaborate on others' ideas, or suggest variants!

 

[Quickleaf]

Well, this is the most grizzly idea I ever came up with and it utterly terrified my players (who were Sensates in a Planescape game). Steel yourself....

Organ-Thief Ghouls
Came from the corpses of evil-doers who died starving in the desert having been cast out of their tribes/cities. They were brought back by a mummy-lord who suffered from decrepitude. They are sightless and mute servants driving by the hunger which killed them. And of course, their most horrifying ability...

Organ-thieving: On a successful grapple and hold, the ghoul attempts to suck the organs from its victim’s body. The opponent makes a DC 20 Fortitude check or loses one of their organs, as determined by a d8 roll. While the hit point damage can be healed, the other effects of this process are irreversible until first remove curse is cast. If no duration is listed by the result then it is permanent. Once an organ is stolen by a ghoul, there are two immediate recourses. First, killing the organ-thief ghoul allows recovery of the organ, ensuring that it is not taken to the elder harvesters for their dark rituals. Second, tracking down the ghoulish cabal seeking the organs and stealing them.

d8.....Organ.....Result
1.....An eye.....1d6 damage; -2 attack, -4 missiles, and -1 Spot
2.....An ear.....1d6 damage; deaf for 1d6 rounds; -2 Balance, -2 Listen
3.....Tongue.....1d6 damage; can’t speak for 1 week, -2 social rolls, 10% spell failure
4.....A kidney.....2d6 damage; Kidney Infection: -1 Constitution and poison saves per day unless the victim makes a successful DC 15 Fortitude save. Effects are cumulative.
5.....Liver.....2d6 damage; bleeds for 1 hp 1d10 rounds, next day victim is fatigued, after the second day the victim is exhausted permanently.
6.....A lung.....2d6 damage; Short-winded: When engaging in strenuous activity, the victim suffers 1d6 subdual damage on the third round, then 2d6 on the fourth, 3d6 on the fifth, and so on. If 10 rounds are taken to rest, the victim catches his breath.
7.....Intestines.....3d6 damage; can’t consume foods, and starts to waste away.
8.....Stomach.....3d6 damage; Abcesses: -1 Constitution and -1 Strength per day unless the victim makes a successful DC 18 Fortitude save. Effects are cumulative. In addition, the victim can no longer consume solid foods, though they can survive on fluids. After three days of fluids the victim is fatigued. After ten days, he is exhausted.

Elder Harvesters
These taller upright versions of the organ-thief ghoul are shamanic leaders. They wear gaurdy robes sewn with patches of human flesh painted with symbols of eyes and ears (sometimes these are a horrific robe of eyes). Elder Harvesters conduct dark rituals with the stolen organs the ghouls provide.

RITUALS

Ritual of Enslavement: Requiring three organs of the target, this ritual bestows a curse upon the target if they do not accept a leaser geas, typically leading a group of commoners into an ambush. Once the deed is performed, the geas ends. If the target resists, he

Ritual of the Hidden Voice: Requires a lung. The target miraculously recovers. At the time of the ritual, the elder harvester designates one of its existing rituals to hide within the returned lung. When the conditions are appropriate, the ritual’s spoken component escapes from the target’s mouth. A DC 20 Will save resists. The spoken ritual functions as if the elder harvester had performed the ritual itself.

Ritual of Opening: This parody of the sacred Opening of the Mouth ritual involves imbuing an organ-flesh ghoul with a mouth and requires a living victim’s tongue. Unable to communicate in a language, the ghoul is limited to making guttural cries. The ghoul gains the Baying ability (increase its CR by +1/2):
Baying: Taking a standard action, the ghoul lets forth an anguished cry affecting all within 30 feet. A DC 15 Will save avoids becoming shaken. A successful saving throw renders that person immune to all Baying attacks until one day has passed. The ghoul may repeat the cry, this time even more blood curdling than before, forcing a second save among those who failed the first one. These shaken victims become frightened if they fail the second save.

Ritual of Restored Vision: Requires a pair of eyes from a single target. The target miraculously recovers after the ritual. Unbeknownst to him, the elder harvester can scry at will through the target’s eyes.

Ritual of Severance: Given two nights with at least two organs of the target, the elder harvester prevents the target from healing. Not even remove curse will help him now. The target has been marked, and the organ-thief ghouls are sent to hunt him down so that the rest of his organs may be brought to Othirsis. The only way the target can heal is if they steal the canopic jar which bears their stolen organs and purify it in holy water. Of course, this means penetrating the elder harvester’s lair.

Ritual of Undeath: Requires four organs from a single target. The target is cursed with the Half-Living template for three days. At the end of this time, he must make a DC 16 Fortitude save. Failure spells death, while success indicates he has been transformed into an undead organ-thief ghoul.

Half-Living [cursed template
The Khemitians believe the soul is comprised of many parts. Some portion of your soul has been stripped from you by a necromancer or Filchers from the Deadlands. -2 Constitution,
-2 Charisma (with living), +2 Charisma (with dead). Healing magic only heals ½ the indicated damage. Energy drain and death magic is only ½ effective on you, and you are completely immune to effects that trap the soul (i.e. magic jar). You can only be raised from the dead if the person/creature responsible for taking the other half of your soul is killed; even then you return as Half-Living. Using your Bluff skill, you can pass yourself off as undead, and such beings will ignore you as if you were one of their own, provided you don’t attack them; only a successful Sense Motive check on the part of an intelligent undead reveals the truth.

 

[demiurge1138]

One of my favorite monster features is from the wendigo from the Fiend Folio. I don't know if any of the legendary wendigoes were described this way, but when the cursed person is turned into a wendigo, he races into the sky to feed on flesh so quickly that his feet burn away, leaving only bloody stumps, and the wendigo can never touch the ground again.

I always thought that was really cool.

Demiurge out.

 

[WhimsyTheFae]

Let me expand on this one:

This new monster, nobody will be likely to know it. However, it's not really a problem. The monster is universally feared, but it works on the subconscious level because it is so horrendous that the mind represses the souvenir of it (a psychoanalytical sort of thing). As such, nobody ever thinks about the creature, yet when the name is heard (or what not), people unconsciously feel bad, even while they don't know why. They could even be afraid at the mere mention of a name they think to have never heard of before.

Of course, all of this implies many other things... that may well be cool in themselves.

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Hey! Don't hesitate to expand and elaborate on others' ideas, or suggest variants!

Ok, in that case I have to go with - Mind Reading

By this, I do not mean omnipotent all knowing mind hacking, but instead a knowledge of your greatest desire (I am thinking of something along the lines of Leland Gaunt from Needful Things). I also prefer this over a knowledge of your greatest fear, in that instead of just scaring you I can now manipulate and control you.

Now don't get me wrong, magical control is all well and good, but the ability to string you along, use you and have you walk into my awaiting stomach tentacles of your own free will is much more satisfying (not to mention the horror of realization just before meeting your final fate).

I hope that this is more along the lines of what you are seeking...

 

[Tinner]

Biohazardous Blood

Sure, the obvious inspiration here is the Alien movies, but I was thinking along bigger lines ...
In the Godzilla 2000 novel by Marc Cerasini, the author goes into great detail about just what i means to be bled upon by a colossal radioactive monster.
Just a few gallons of the creatures blood can instantly dissolve a human being. A few drops are enough to cause immediate and tortorous radiation sickness.
The military attacks Godzilla, and when the Big G bleeds onto American soil, you know that NOTHING is going to grow in this area for a long, long, long time.

 

[serleran]

Partial Incorporeality (Ex): Half the creature exists in the real world, and half of it exists in the elsewhere, rendering the creature to appear to be one-sided, or to be missing vital parts. Due to this, the creature has a 50% miss chance, and is considered invisible, even when it is not. Only magical weapons, or those with the ghost touch quality, can strike the creature (but the miss chance applies). A creature with this ability also has a 50% chance to avoid damage from magical attacks, and is incapable of being directly targeted by a spell that requires line of sight. The creature is capable of bypassing armor, except effects with the [Force] descriptor, resolving all attacks as melee touch attacks. Also, because only half the creature is effectively able to be struck, it is immune to critical hits. Possessing this ability makes the creature extraplanar. Partial Incorporeality does not affect a creature's Strength score, nor does it affect its Dexterity.

 

[Gold Roger]

Posession.
Not the "Now I'm you" total possession, but the "riding along, whispering in your head kind of possession. And, as a little inovation, tack in the ability to possess multiple targets at the same time.

 

[TheGM]

In HackMaster there's the Luck Eater. A cute kitty cat that subtracts 10% from everything the party does while it's with them.

So a cuddly that provides party-wide negatives is cool. Last night it nearly killed a party that was facing a Dragon...