The most POWERFUL classic monsters! (Read intro before voting!!!)

[novyet]

For me it was a really close choice between the aboleth and the illithid. The aboleths are always nasty and were the subject of a very long running campaign of a friend of mine. But Illithids have always creeped me out, with the high intelligence, the psionics, the eating of brains...So they won out.

 

[Mercule]

Devils (specifically Arch-Devils, this is "classic" monster, right?)
maybe Lich

The only monsters on the list that I could base a whole campaign around.

I could do an extended run (but not a whole campaign) with Illithids.

Demons are too disorganized and brutish to have plots. Dragons rarely care about anything outside their caves, so they're one-offs (usually).

Drow? *Yawn* Boring. They haven't held any interest since 1E, and Drizzt was the last hurrah.

 

[BluWolf]

I gotta go with the Devils.

Just too many options from low to infinitely high levels.

A close second would be a tie between vampires and Illithids.

Vampires are a more attractive option in 3E since you can scale them so much easier than in earlier additions.

But you just can't beat the combined possibilities of a hellishly touched campaign. Even on the prime material (which ever one you use).

 

[thundershot]

My players fear APES. Dire Ape, Girillon, etc... Big monkeys with rend. They actually ran THROUGH a dragon's threatened area to get away from a monkey in RttToEE...


Chris

 

[The_Gneech]

Gotta be the mind flayers, who are sadly missing from the poll. Beholders and drow are second and third, respectively, in my group, but heck, my players are scared of all of 'em!

-The Gneech

 

[smetzger]

Death Knight

 

[Arkham]

I had to vote 'Other' for those vile humans.
Especially vile human wizards. My players hate when the human wizard shows up.

( In any system. Wizards, Tremere, Cult Leaders, whatever. Human(ish) wizards are always bad for the players... Muahahahahahaha! )

 

[seasong]

Probably the best villain I've ever had was a mage who would take permanent possession other people's bodies and eat their memories... kind of a particularly nasty, one-of-a-kind doppleganger. Best part? He was actually just a bit character in the larger plot, who just happened to have jumped into the body of a well-loved NPC... who just happened to have information the party needed to succeed at the larger quest. So they couldn't kill him right away.

They played at the larger quest, but their real end goal was to make him permanently dead.

So I voted other.

 

[The Serge]

Sorry about the Illithids. I actually rank them higher than Drow or Beholders as threats...

However, for me, the supreme villains are Devils[/i]! Devils, like Liches, can work behind the scenes, manipulating events, screwing with underlings, and growing more powerful as time progresses. However, unlike Liches, who typically either want to rule the world, or discover some lost knowledge to become gods, Devils want far more. Devils want SOULS!. A Devil is willing to allow PCs to win if, in the long run, it results in the collection of more souls. They already have god-like beings running around. They already rule countless worlds due the virtually infinite nature of Hell. No, they want something so singular, and yet so valuable, that it makes them the most debased evil out there.

Liches and Dragons are tied for second for me. Liches are Devils-lite. Dragons, however, are the personification of power and intellect in one terrible package. However, unlike Devils, Dragons are typically interested in relatively "mundane" matters, although a few may come out in interest of other things like souls (Ashardalon of the D&D modules).

Still sorry about the Illithids

 

[Kyramus]

For the DnD game itself. Dragons should be the most powerful Monster.

The most fun to play as antagonists against the PCs?
First Place: Evil Outsiders, the more powerful the more fun

Second place: Tied in second place are NPC (which include almost all the undead and humanoid races.)

Third place: all others.
----

I once used a Wizard of high level with Soul Transfer from the Old Empires 2nd edition. That was fun since no one can figure out what he looks like and he transfers to every more physically fit NPCs until the party figured it out.

Lasted a long amount of time. They can't figure out how a fighter in plate mail would dump his armor and teleport. or better yet, why he would teleport away when he had the upper hand and dropped half the party.
hehe