What monster abilities do you hate and why?

[roguerouge]

Fear effects irk me. It's lose two turns for the price of one: you lose a turn running, then, when the effect wears off, you lose another turn running back. Then you get the extra "benefits": you might run into another encounter, which you have to face alone; you're not on the scene, so there's none of the drama of other players trying to protect you; your character concept might very well be messed with.

 

[Aramax]

I just can't bring myself to use 'Stun"abilities.Seems like way too much of a bummer to my players. Daze on the other hand I prob. overuse.

 

[MarkB]

Teleport without error. There is nothing more annoying than an enemy that can escape at will.

Yeah, I remember those days. Got to the point in our near-Epic campaign where we'd have multiple PCs loaded out with Dimensional Anchor just to keep the bad guys in town.

 

[blargney the second]

Improved grab hands down. Way too many monsters have it in 3.5, and it is super annoying. I've taken to substituting it out for 4e effects, and our games are MUCH better for it.

 

[Wik]

Improved grab hands down. Way too many monsters have it in 3.5, and it is super annoying. I've taken to substituting it out for 4e effects, and our games are MUCH better for it.

Agreed. I avoided using it whenever possible, and there was a sort of "gentleman's agreement" that the PCs would not use it, either. Definitely one of the areas where I find 4e shines.

As for me? I dislike fiddly effects that don't really do much, except they must be remembered.

"Says here that I take a -1 penalty to attack rolls unless I am in your aura" or some such nonsense. It's a minor penalty that ties into a monster's theme, but really just drains up processing space.

Basically, I hate any monster ability that the GM has to track, especially if tracking it probably isn't worth the effort.

 

[Mentat55]

Fear and improved grab are tops on my list.

 

[GlassJaw]

For those that mentioned Improved Grab, I'm curious as to why you don't like it. Is it because it's a powerful ability? Because the grapple rules suck and slow down the game? Because the players complain?

I have my own issues with grapple and associated abilities but they mostly had to do with poor wording, inconsistencies of the rules, and cumbersome mechanics. I've done a LOT of work trying to clean up all of those things in Trailblazer.

But as far as a giant constrictor snake being able to squeeze the life out of a character? I have no problem with that. The moral of the story is don't get grappled by a giant constrictor snake.

 

[Alzrius]

Fear effects irk me.

[...]

your character concept might very well be messed with.

You know, this recently happened to my PC, and it bothered me more than I thought it would. It's kind of hard to play up your character concept as a devil-may-care, charge-headlong-into-battle type character when you're the only one in your group to fail your Will save, sending you running with fright while the other players rib you for it.

...that was one of those facial-tic-is-twitching moments.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

For those that mentioned Improved Grab, I'm curious as to why you don't like it. Is it because it's a powerful ability? Because the grapple rules suck and slow down the game? Because the players complain?

It's primarily that any monster that is at all specialized in it can grab and hold any PC, unless that PC is a dedicated grappler themselves...which is pretty rare IME. So, it's easy PC-boning.

Granted, you can and should count on your fellow PCs to have words with the monster and eventually get you loose, but if you're, say, a caster or a 2h fighter type, there's little, if anything, for you to do while you're grabbed.

Brad

 

[TarionzCousin]

Gaseous cloud. If a player doesn't get up and go outside first, it can really wreck the game.