Let's Talk About Monsters!

[Spoonwelder]

From what I have seen it is bluff/deception items that are broken. It enables sneak attack as advertised, but then automatically gives you the aggro also.

Could it be that he bluff item is turning the mob around (as advertised) which happens to be where you are? So he see's you and pounces. Ie. you bluffed him away from his primary agro and on to you?

The deception items work fine for me when I am soloing thus my thought above.

[J2345678]

*Hirelings and Summons*
The AI is buggy and terrible.
*Should not bug out and wait for everyone to die while they do nothing.
*Should attack their masters target if an enemy is targeted and they are on Attack or Defend and not more than 10ft away Standing Ground, or if told to 'Use' Attack.
*Should cast the largest single target heal available and should get the Quicken feat for free if using Mass Heal.
*Told to Stand Ground should return to THAT spot if they move for some reason, like when moving to Heal, Defend, or Attack.
*On Defend shouldn't move more than 10ft from their master unless Standing Ground, then 10ft from THAT spot, or told to 'Use' Attack. No more running through multiple rooms trying to get to the archer up a ramp shooting you.
*Artificer Iron Defenders should only use the abilities on their bar, no more wasting time trying to Bluff when you just wanted Evasion.

*Questions*

Which non-raid-boss monsters in DDO do you find the most memorable and engaging to interact with, and why?
If you think part of the reason for your answer is your class/build/playstyle, please include that!

Most memorable:
*Undead Beholders, Doomspheres 'Dead Pykzyl', 'Cholthulzz', 'Zhuggothz'.
Anti-magic, Level Drain being so urgent to remove before death, and their extra Undead resistances.
*Rust Monsters, Forged beware!
*Oozes, I like how they split when you hit them with non-bludgeoning weapons.
*Troglodyte Stench.
*Lich, high level caster, Mantle of Invulnerability that negates level 4 and lower spells plus Cyclonic Blast, Greater Shout, Sunburst.
*Living Spells, unlimited deadly spells.
*Dragons.

[Scraap]

Which non-raid-boss monsters in DDO do you find the most memorable and engaging to interact with, and why?

Non-raid boss wise, Yalthoon takes the top spot both positively, and negatively. Very flavorful with a unique encounter mechanic. Pain in the rear to pug out on elite due to minions not resetting once folks bail out. (I love pulling it off, but it really is like pulling teeth to get a group together when a quest is pass or redo from the top.)

Iron Fire Bomber from Blown to Bits. I distinctly recall cracks about playing hitpoint-limbo when it first came out.

Generally, rednamed beholders, air elementals, and before they were toned down, water elementals for non-ranged toons. (Really should see a ranged-punitive variant at some point. Say, by cranking up an earth elies grab frequency a bit, and having them move (or even earth-slide aka teleport) into melee range if they do catch someone.)

[J-mann]

I must second earlier posts that mob stat inflation, especially damage, is getting out of hand. I think that on higher difficulties mobs should get a bit more damage and hit points, but not uber amounts more like is current. I think instead they should get more varied mechanics and when you get to it better tactics at higher levels. Fighting 20,000 hit point dogs is tedious, and making them do 300 damage a swing does not make them better, just makes running in certain destinies more "necessary". That kind of damage through put should be limited to bosses and certain special mechanics certain mobs might have (and limit those mobs to 1-2 per fight).

That being said... ALLOW SAVES. Had one of the most annoying fights the other day, was fighting a skelly mage in EH spies in the house and I was ottos irresistible 15-16 times in a row (Had 8 stacks of blitz, expired when I finally managed to get to him and kill him.... thank god for evasion lol). That is just frustrating to your players, all mob based cc and powerful effects should ALWAYS have a save. Bosses are welcome to have no save cc, but put a timer on it that is LONGER than the duration of the cc preferably by at least twice as long.

That being said, mobs I like:

Purple Worms (give em swallow whole with both a reflex and a str save make em truely terrifying)
The mind flayer in in the flesh (actually like the whole chain but storage)
DRAGONS!!!! we need more of em lol

Things Id like to see more of:

mobs interacting with one another (you see a bit of this in MotU with certain factions fighting each other) remember the pc isnt always the only meal around!
special abilities for mobs
other mechanics to break up the hack n slash some

mobs id like to see added:
Night walkers
Night crawlers (there is one in the underdark though)
other dragon races (good dragons, the off races such as deep or shadow dragons)
More devils and demons
angels and deva
demigods/avatars!! were epic let us take their thrones XD (lol remembering good old baulder's gate)
or just let us fight gods on our own without our great savior npcs to help us out......

[brian14]

Night crawlers (there is one in the underdark though)

There is? Where exactly?

[oradafu]

There is? Where exactly?

He might have mistyped and meant Wheloon Prison instead of the Underdark.

[FrostBeard]

I would like you to look into 2 monsters i see in ddo because their issues really suck. baktor from devils assault. his teleporting is bugged out to hell. once he starts its very hard for him to stop. so could you please look into that one. the other is fire giant from party crashers when you group people might not notice this as much. when you solo him he constantly non stop does that stomp. most of the time you fail and are just on the ground. so i was hoping he could do other stuff besides that stomp over and over.

Devil Assault has been bugged for years with no change... makes you wonder...

[ycheese123]

Which non-raid-boss monsters in DDO do you find the most memorable and engaging to interact with, and why?
If you think part of the reason for your answer is your class/build/playstyle, please include that!

Hezrou, idk I just like fighting them. Demon of the Frenzied Blood was my favorite monster in the old epics.
Frost Giants, well I like battling Giants in general really, but I think Frost Giants look cool.
Mariliths, because they tend to be really tough and fast moving. I think there's only 2 outside of ADQ though.
Pit Fiends & Horned Devils. I can include these because there are a few outside of the raids
Dragons and Purple Worms in the wilderness areas.
Inevitables, they look intimidating, I like the "thunder punch" attack.
Iron Golems, even though they're generally weak. I like that Fire Bomber guy though.
Warforged Titans in the House C quests and Wilderness going to MA.

I mostly play melee characters and I like fighting big monsters that can beat me up.

[Havok.cry]

Could it be that he bluff item is turning the mob around (as advertised) which happens to be where you are? So he see's you and pounces. Ie. you bluffed him away from his primary agro and on to you?

The deception items work fine for me when I am soloing thus my thought above.

I do not believe that is the case, because I have experienced the following situation many many times:
player a succesfully intimidates mob.
player b successfully bluffs mob.
player b has aggro, but can still sneak attack.

[Kawai]

Young/Baby/whatever Dragons in Heroic GH wastelands.

[Grecan]

Minotaurs are memorable to me bacause of their charges.

In fact, i haven't come across one in years (most of that time i wasn't playing DDO) but that's the first monster that came to my mind when i read the OP's question.

[Eth]

Horned Devils. Healing Curses and Binding Chains

[erystelle1972]

Vaguely creepy yet fun... now all we need are suicide squirrels (like the detonator bats in VoD maybe?) to add some extra craziness to a delerium-type xoriat quest

Do you remember the original Warcraft game when you clicked on the sheep after so many times they blew up? I wish that after killing so many cute and harmless squirrels while traveling through the forest that you would get to a point where all the background animals would start attacking you first LOL! Can you imagine squirrels like that in very low level explorer areas!

That video was one of the funniest things I have seen in a long time.

[CaptainSpacePony]

My favorites in no particular order:

Beholders
Mind Flayers (Soloist bane!)
Medusas
Jumping Dragons (Evs and later)
WF Titans
Cubes
Quells
Giants
Purple worms

Looking at the list, odd means of attacking/non-standard threats are more interesting (when deployed in moderation)

Mimics didn't make the list because I find their persistent corrosive attack a bit OP from a monster that is basically vermin, but were close.

Non-Boss I'd most like to see added to the game: Umber Hulks
Boss I'd most like to see added: Demi Lich (Tomb of Horrors style)

[CaptainSpacePony]

Non-Boss I'd most like to see added to the game: Umber Hulks
Boss I'd most like to see added: Demi Lich (Tomb of Horrors style)

Forgot to mention Otyguhs!

Others I'd also be tickled to see (in no particular order)
Lammasu
Stirges
Various Plant-mosters (molds, shriekers, Carnivorous trees, spore pods (the beholder look-a-likes etc)
Intellect Devorours
Carrion Crawlers
Doppelgangers

[Cetus]

Most Memorable:

Bladeforged Paladins - They looked badass, fun to beat down

Draegoloths - These guys were dangerous, any mob that instills a moments pause is a good enemy

Glabrezu - Look great, they stand out from the mundane slew of humans that you guys threw at us in this new "expansion"

Least Memorable:

Pirates (please, no more pirates in future updates - you guys can do much better than this. The house D chain sucks because nobody cares about pirates)

Humans - do you folks realize how boring the enemies are in this recent "expansion"? Ice ellies, shades (pretty much humans), giants, humans, a few dogs, orcs, and gnolls. Yay.

[AzB]

I believe there actually IS one of these, in the Vale. Or is that an invisible stalker? Either way, I love that it's there, and think there should be more of them.

It's an invisible stalker. I usually end up killing it accidentally while swinging away at a spider or something. Kinda reminds me of the scene in 3 amigos with the invisible swordsman.

[Loromir]

It's an invisible stalker, and yes I think it is the only one in DDO.

There is one in the orchard too.

[dunklezhan]

Pirates (please, no more pirates in future updates - you guys can do much better than this. The house D chain sucks because nobody cares about pirates)

*I* care about pirates. I like pirates. I like the fact that they say (y)aaargh! when they die. I only wish they threatened to splice me mainbrace when they came into attack.

That said, I *do* think that there are enough pirates in the game, I just wanted to make sure someone spoke up to appreciate them. I love 3BC and the House D chain. Not because they are piratical, but the point is the piraticalness is appropriate in those areas, it's a good fit for the level range and an entirely convincing assortment of mobs and costume.

I'd actually quite like to see more in the way of skypirates. A random encounter that could appear in any non 'planar' explorer area in Eberron where a skyship swoops down and disgorges a random assortment of pirates, complete with treasarrrrgh would be freakin' awesome as far as I'm concerned.

[Spoonwelder]

That being said... ALLOW SAVES. Had one of the most annoying fights the other day, was fighting a skelly mage in EH spies in the house and I was ottos irresistible 15-16 times in a row (Had 8 stacks of blitz, expired when I finally managed to get to him and kill him.... thank god for evasion lol). That is just frustrating to your players, all mob based cc and powerful effects should ALWAYS have a save. Bosses are welcome to have no save cc, but put a timer on it that is LONGER than the duration of the cc preferably by at least twice as long.

I would rather have the casters use things like dance versus moving away a few feet because the bad man is hitting me.

Dancing has a solution - spell absorption. That said it should be a touch based spell and thus displacement/blur/clouds should also give a % chance that the spell doesn't land at all maybe also add dodge%. Ie. caster uses appropriate tactic - we counter with appropriate tactic - caster blows clouds away and/or casts dispell - we rebuff etc.......Casters that cast one spell then move five feet away turn to cast again - realize you are too close - move farther away ...on repeat are more frustrating to me than dancers.