The most fearsome, frightening monster in any RPG is...

[Daemongar]

I'm still mentally scarred by Ghosts in Might and Magic II. I remember their touch causing characters to age 10 years. I remember fighting to a fountain to get back some years, it having the reverse effect, and eventually giving up the game because all my characters were dying of old age. Still annoys me to this day.

Also, as a longtime campaigner I always dreaded creatures whose XP reward was way out of line with the risk. The Wight example is great. They can steal 10,000 xps that took months to get, and if you beat them, you get 1400 or so xps divided by the number of members of your party. Say what you want about Iron Golems and Beholders, but at least the risk was worth the reward. Wights, rust monsters, and poison spiders put up a huge risk with a minimum xps and garbage treasure.

 

[Mustawd]

Not an RPG, but the mind controlling aliens from X-com were the worst

I mean making a rookie freak out and shoot both his sergeant and captain? Shit is just wrong.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Since Dungeon Master has already been taken, and this thread is in General Gaming...

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

There are a lifetime supply of frightening monsters in Elminage Gothic alone. Not only the creepy looking ones, but monsters that when you run across them it can basically turn into a party-wipe or several dead characters in an instant.

There are enemies who break your armor, forcing you to go without some armor in the middle of the battle. There are enemies who have ranged attacks, either M or L and can one-shot kill your back-line mages and weaker party members. There are enemies that can cast a breath attack based on their HP, so if you don't strike quickly and do a lot of damage, they could do serious damage to your front row in an instant. There are enemies that can behead party members in a single strike. As well as countless other ways to get maimed an murdered, such as evil little creatures that cast bolts of lightning that do ridiculous amounts of damage if they get the shot off on you.

Basically, the longer combat goes, the worse you are likely going to be off, unless you kill and kill quickly. All sorts of ways to die in that game, and in every dungeon thus far there has been at least one, if not more, enemy types that you should strongly consider running the heck away from if you encounter them.

 

[Azrael the cat]

Trebor's ghost from Wiz 4. . Starts at a semi-random location at the far end of the dungeon, and begins making his way through the levels in real-time while you play through the game turn-based. Instant kill when he reaches you. For most players, you first encounter him when you've walked away from your keyboard to go do something for a few hours (like in every other Wizardry, as it's turn-based so why pause/exit out), and then come back to your game, take one step and insta-die, and you can't even reload and retry because he's made too much ground on you before your last save and you're completely fucked.

Wiz 4 is a hard game to begin with (though, in fairness, the truly insane parts come after you've managed to dispatch Trebor), and the ghost just puts this constant time-pressure, and because you don't know where he is, you don't know whether your save-games are already in a no-win situation.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Trebor's ghost from Wiz 4.

Wow. That's just...dick move squared.

Reminded me of another game, though that one doesn't even come near Wiz 4 levels of fearsome monsters. "Outpost 41" is a small indie game where 4 mercs are sent into an abandoned space station to recover 6 valuable paintings. The station is divided into 6 floors, and each floor into several rectangular rooms connected together. You move one merc at a time, and the enemies range from human-sized monsters that go down with one well-placed headshot, to their larger cousins which require multiple headshots to go down.

And then there's the thing on the bottom floor.

If you're on the bottom floor and find yourself in the same room as the thing, you're dead. Period. It's too big and too fast to do anything with your measly guns. So what to do? You listen for its booming footsteps, and keep a healthy distance from them. It doesn't work all the time because sometimes it senses you and makes a charge towards you in a straight line of rooms, but it's a case of "insta-kill enemy" that makes players nervous and uses game mechanics that differ from the norm, instead of just being one giant chunk of cheese thrown at the player.

And then later, when you've left the floor and are busy fixing the reactor that powers the lift, you suddenly start hearing booming footsteps running towards you...

 

[octavius]

Wiz 4 is a hard game to begin with (though, in fairness, the truly insane parts come after you've managed to dispatch Trebor), and the ghost just puts this constant time-pressure, and because you don't know where he is, you don't know whether your save-games are already in a no-win situation.

But at least you can quit and save when you feel Trebor's Ghost breathing down your neck. That will reset his position, but unfortunately it will also reset all the other monsters. So there's really no dead men walking scenario. It works in both the DOS and Apple II version, although I think some version (s) were less forgiving.

 

[markec]

In Arx Fatalis the Black Beast scared the shit out of me when I first encountered it. That encounter played on your basic fears of being hunted by something you cant kill and you cant run away from it.

Lysandus ghost from Daggerfall. I remember playing for the first time and rushing to city of Daggerfall and arriving there during the night. The city gates were closed and I was thinking about waiting few hours until dawn. Suddenly something screamed "VENGEANCE!" and saw big ass ghost charging me. Fuck gates, I climbed the walls of the city in a second despite my climbing skill being shit and then ran to the nearest tavern hoping it will be my shelter.

 

[Fowyr]

I'm still mentally scarred by Ghosts in Might and Magic II. I remember their touch causing characters to age 10 years. I remember fighting to a fountain to get back some years, it having the reverse effect, and eventually giving up the game because all my characters were dying of old age. Still annoys me to this day.

There is Rejuvenate spell.
Sarakin's fountain removes year or two.
There are awesome hot springs in Murray's Resort Isle, but you need to buy ticket first. Probably this springs work only after completing Murray's quest to kill Dawn.
You need someone with Hero/Heroine skill to approach Murray.

That fucker was scary because he was almost completely invisible even when attacked.

 

[Cyberarmy]

 

[Daemongar]

I'm still mentally scarred by Ghosts in Might and Magic II. I remember their touch causing characters to age 10 years. I remember fighting to a fountain to get back some years, it having the reverse effect, and eventually giving up the game because all my characters were dying of old age. Still annoys me to this day.

There is Rejuvenate spell.
Sarakin's fountain removes year or two.
There are awesome hot springs in Murray's Resort Isle, but you need to buy ticket first. Probably this springs work only after completing Murray's quest to kill Dawn.
You need someone with Hero/Heroine skill to approach Murray.

I was playing it in 88 and 89, and didn't notice until I didn't have a save that there wasn't a character under 50, some as old as (I believe) 89. Now this is from memory but I think I noticed at level 9 so I think I leveled up to 11 to get that stupid spell ... which for some reason, I couldn't get it to work on certain characters. Don't know if it was a bug or whatever, but what killed my fun was not the aging, but having no other recourse but to let characters die because that damn spell wouldn't work.

Eh... now I kinda want to go back and play MM2. Feel bad that I never finished 1 or 2, but played the hell out of both of them.

That fucker was scary because he was almost completely invisible even when attacked.

I remember over-preparing based on the game references to the big spider on the dwarf level, and all warnings about the dangerous Slasher of Veils, but this guy from outta nowhere had a lot more profound effect. In that picture it's all well lit, but in the game facing off against one of these in a semi-dark area was almost panic inducing. The other enemies were a big buildup and you could pick when to fight.

 

[Fowyr]

but in the game facing off against one of these in a semi-dark area was almost panic inducing. The other enemies were a big buildup and you could pick when to fight.

Yup, I recently played UUW for third time, but I still shat bricks in that secret chamber of level 7. Another one is in the Key of Courage area.

 

[murloc_gypsy]

Spoiler

level scaling ...

I remember being pretty scared by the this guy first time playing Morrowind back in the day.

The weird way the head is floating at a distance from his neck, under the robe's hood, as if it's only thing holding it from flying away...

And the demon lords from Gothic, as someone else already mentioned.

 

[Snorkack]

I'm still mentally scarred by Ghosts in Might and Magic II. I remember their touch causing characters to age 10 years. I remember fighting to a fountain to get back some years, it having the reverse effect, and eventually giving up the game because all my characters were dying of old age. Still annoys me to this day.

Oh yes, those monsters that caused ageing were infuriating. Another one from MMII were the Sludge Beasts. They were part of every other encounter in the starting area and if you didn't manage to escape before it starts 'spray acid' - geegee. Those fuckers taught me there's no shame in choosing 'flee'.

In more recent games, the Merga Wraith from Neo Scavenger I found deeply unsettling. Mainly because the first few times I didn't understand what actually made this supernatural thing appearing out of nowhere, chasing me relentlessly and ultimately murdering me.

 

[oddech_wymarlych_swiatow]

Demifiend in Digital Devil Saga.

You've got to max all your levels / stats / mantras to have a slight chance of victory and pray for some character to fall asleep before he casts Gaea Rage that kills you instantly if you are not in sleep status.



I managed to kill him only thanks to save states.

 

[A user named cat]

General gaming topic, so the answer is obvious...

 

[Goromorg]

Morrowind ascended sleepers

Fallout 2 wanamingos

 

[D!!]

I have beaten DCSS few times, but I'm still afraid of this fucker.

 

[Filthy Sauce]

Kobolds with bows.

NEVER FORGIVE NEVER FORGET

 

[janior]

The first orc you encounter near Khornis in Gothic 2 was one fearsome motherfucker.

 

[Nael]

Floating screaming heads that could drive you insane was basically my childhood nightmare.

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

I'd throw in Doom Guards from Baldur's Gate 1, and those nasty Liches that appear in Baldur's Gate 2. Also, the Vampires that ambush you in BG2.

At the time I just get slaughtered badly by both of them in most cases, especially if there is more than one of the Doom Guards or other nasty stuff in the encounter (like that one house in Baldur's Gate. *shudders*).

 

[vonAchdorf]

I found the whole Tower of Latria with its Mindflayers quite scary.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

That most Erol Otus of CRPG monsters, the Chaos Eater from Dark Souls:

Spoiler

 

[Deuce Traveler]

I know this might sound ridiculous to most, but the creature that frightened me the most when I was a young BECMI D&D player (and still creeps me out when I play) is the stirge. It is one of the weakest creatures in the game with less than a handful of hit points, but it waits out of range and then does a speed dive at your character for a bonus chance to hit. If it hits it does damage, but then automatically latches on and begins to suck blood for more unavoidable damage per round. But the worst thing is that the stirge is typically not found by itself, but instead attacks in groups or swarms, so if several latch onto your characters, you can only be pulling or stabbing one off of your body per round while the others are sucking you dry. And once that swarm is all around you, it's not like you can fireball them off without killing off your own characters. Seriously, fuck stirges. I'm glad no one has tried to implement their mechanics properly in any of the D&D games.