The monster you fear most

[SnowleopardVK]

What monster would you say you fear more than any other? The one that elicits an "Oh crap" reaction from you just with its presence alone. What has caused it to be your "most feared"?

It doesn't have to be something huge and powerful. Tucker's Kobolds are a pretty obvious example of why. Perhaps it's something your DM is just deadly with.

 

[Evilhalfling]

Beholder. Save or die, with multiple tries per round?
Even if you win, chances are somebody is a pair of smoking boots.

one killed a beloved character in 2nd ed.

in 3rd Ed (city of spider queen) my party chose the "Valorous" course in battle, changed into giant badgers and spent 2 days digging around its lair.

DMing 4th ed. I managed to kill a paragon paladin/cleric hybrid with a beholder 2 levels lower than the character. He failed sv disintegration saves long enough to bloody him, then was hit with deathray. he died with nearly full hp, but couldn't/didn't grant himself saves vs the death ray.
The surviving 2 PCs fled.

 

[Jack7]

Interestingly enough I was just about to start a thread on monsters.

All, or almost all, actually, of the monsters I create in my world/milieu are unique. That is to say there's not another version of them. So all have unique powers. Which means the players can't really know before hand what powers they have or how to fight them.

I've rarely come across this kinda thing in other campaigns but when I have most any reasonably dangerous monster is a real threat, and therefore it's a real, "Oh crap," because you usually know you've run across something deadly and will have to find out what it can do by observation (if you can keep out of it's way and watch it), or by trial and error in combat.

So my "oh-crap monsters" are ones that I don't know what they can do.

Otherwise, when I play, Trolls bother me, and Nagas.

Plus "weird monsters." Because often "weird monsters" behave in unexpected ways, so you might not know how to fight them (even if you know what they are) or even if you should fight them.

Beholder. Save or die, with multiple tries per round?
Even if you win, chances are somebody is a pair of smoking boots.

Beholder is a superb one. Weird and very dangerous.

 

[Asmo]

Ghouls - they killed an Arcane Trickster which I cared for dearly. I hate them.

Asmo

 

[The Shaman]

Anything that drains levels or turns your ass to stone.

 

[Gronin]

Ogre Mage (and all it's various incarnations)

Nasty attacks, they can escape easily (so you are never done with them unless you actually land a killing blow) and because of their ability to take other forms you don't know one is amoung you until they decide you should know.

And from a purely ugh point of view --- Stirges --- huge mothering mosquitos -- 'nuff said.

 

[Wik]

For my Players, it was the Balhannoth, from the 4e monster manual. It had an alter reality ability that made it very creepy, and its natural powers made it highly resistant to the group's established combat techniques.

Rust Monsters are an obvious feared monster, although I don't think they're going to be much of a problem in my upcoming Dark Sun campaign, for obvious reasons. Though, even if there were a "destroy equipment" monster in that campaign, I doubt it'd scare the PCs, since I'm playing with the conceit that PCs can expect to lose a fair amount of gear anyway.

Any enemy with ranged attacks that deal constitution poison damage. This is due to a fight in which the group's flying phanaton warmage (long story) got hit by enough poison arrows to knock his con low enough that the resulting HP damage was enough to kill him. Ever since, the group has been justly terrified of Con damage.

Swarms tend to elicit an "oh crap" reaction as well, as they've killed their fair share of PCs over the years.

 

[SnowleopardVK]

Oh, I forgot to say my own. It's the hobgoblins.

My group mostly uses a homebrewed aquatic campaign setting. The hobgoblins control the submarines.

When you don't have a submarine of your own it's ridiculously easy for the darn things to strike you and then get away unharmed only to come back and strike again. When you lose your ship on the open sea you're in trouble.

 

[Steel_Wind]

Mind Flayers, Beholders and Dragons, in that order.

It isn't that Mind Flayers are more dangerous than dragons (or Beholders), but the increased treasure from both Beholders and, especially dragons, tends to have my character's GREED overwhelm his good sense far more easily.

SR and Dominate Person also scare that crap out of me. Plus, it has tentacles! GAH!!

 

[Mark CMG]

Bears. They are everywhere, even close to civilization, and they cannot be reasoned with. Forget what you have heard about being able to appease them with porridge temperature control, they will not be placated. They have been my go-to monster since first running games in the Seventies and they still strike fear in adventurers/players even to this day.


Stephen Colbert knows what I am talking about -

Godless Killing Machines Mash-up - The Colbert Report