What monster abilities do you hate and why?

[GlassJaw]

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.

But how does that differ from a fighter with a low Will save failing against a hideous laughter spell? Or confusion? Or any number of save or suck effects? At least with grapple you have a fighting chance?

Trust me, I totally understand the issue. I just see these things as a bigger issue rather than grapple specifically.

 

[Wiseblood]

Mine would have to be...

Invisibility. 2E invisibilty not so much 3e yeah they aren't just invisible for scouting they become un-attackable , unhittable and undetectable. BTW I hate miss chance. I rolled a nat 20 hit the AC by a country mile and I have to roll again to see if I hit. Why isn't a dodge bonus enough?

Until someone mentioned it I had not considered fear ... Damn that does suck.

Grapple is kindof a given considering the abominable mechanics it got stuck with.... come to think of it my same reason for disliking Invis.

 

[Dausuul]

From a DM perspective, any ability that is not intuitive and does not flow naturally when running the monster.

This. Except not just from a DM perspective.

 

[Votan]

Domination. Especially in 3.0/3.5 where Fighters had low will saves and few incentives to bump up wisdom. Your hard eyed mercenary is also a weak willed fool around a spellcaster.

But it not only removes a player but forces the rest of the group to fight them. Very hard to balance and the idea that a 1st level spell was the solution (i.,e. Protection from Evil) was very annoying.

 

[Remathilis]

Ability damage/drain and energy drain, hands down. They grriinndd a combat to a stop while the PC recalculates everything. Physical stat-drain is the worst (dex, con, str, in that order) but mental drain vs. a caster is equally poor.

Improved Grab and such got a lot better in Pathfinder, but I REALLY wished they had gone ahead and fixed the drains.

 

[Deset Gled]

As a DM: The Quickness ability of the 3.5 Choker. In 3.0, the choker basically just had Haste, but it was called something different. In 3.5, the designers realised how horrible 3.0 Haste was and changed it, but left the choker ability unchanged. Quite an annoying loophole that allowed a bunch of problems in through the back door.

As a player: A Rust Monster's rust ability (if you use metal weapons) or a Kyton's chain abilities (if you use a spiked chain). Just annoying abilities to work around.

 

[ourchair]

As a player: Ability and level drain serve no purpose other than to make things completely frustrating. "Having a hard time hitting the monster? Okay, well, OOPS, it's now even HARDER!"

As a DM: Regeneration. Pain in the ass to keep track of, and I can't trust the players to track that for me. It can also make fights way too long. So bookkeeping + long fight = ugh.

If I really wanted a long fight, I'll just pile on hit points on the monster and then 'describe' the regenerative effect in a way that suggests the players are bringing on the hurt but the monster's high HP = he recovers from those hits.

 

[blargney the second]

For those that mentioned Improved Grab, I'm curious as to why you don't like it.

It's simply far too common for my tastes. It is the de facto special ability of almost any 3.5 monster.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

From a DM perspective, any ability that is not intuitive and does not flow naturally when running the monster.

I have to agree with this to a certain extent: anything that just seems out of place as part of a creature's ability set would bug me.

Thing is, I haven't encountered that as a DM. That could just be my choice in creatures, but it is simply the case.

As a player, though...nothing springs to mind: there is no ability that I find inherently irksome.

 

[GlassJaw]

It's simply far too common for my tastes. It is the de facto special ability of almost any 3.5 monster.

I can understand that. But it's easy enough to simply not use it or swap it for something else. Why can't an owlbear have rend? Or some kind of roar/screech attack or breath weapon?