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I've made some progress in Demon's Winter, but not enough for a full posting. This "special topic" occurred to me in my Oblivion thread when I was talking about Morrowind's cliff racers. I'll update it as I go through future games, but based on the games I've already played, these are the creatures that make me long for NetHack's Scroll of Genocide.
1. Reapers (Ultima IV)
The reapers in Ultima IV have a spell that puts your entire party to sleep, and they use it over and over and over. "But I have an (A)waken spell!" you say. You fool. The spell only awakens one party member at a time, and by that time the reaper's put your entire party to sleep again.
This would be forgivable, maybe, if reapers were otherwise challenging, but their regular attack is so pathetic that there would be no reason not to set up camp right next to a reaper. In fact, if you could capture one, they might come in handy. Take it out of its sack at night, let it put everyone to sleep, and enjoy it's occasional tickle as you dream. Mothers would say, "Oh, honey, you can't sleep? Let me get the reaper out of the attic."
Their only purpose is to slow you down; to make you take baby steps through the room before you can finally get in weapon range. The room above, which had nine reapers, took me 45 minutes. Jackasses.
2. Sprites (Might & Magic I)
Sprites love to roam the corridors of Sorpigal, the starting city in Might & Magic, and if you encounter a pack of them before you hit Level 4, you might as well shut down the game and reload. Their special ability is a "curse" spell that lowers your chances of hitting them, and when they cast these spells en masse, you can't hit anything. Only when you get spells that affect entire groups of monsters do they stop being a threat. Centaurs are almost as bad, but by the time you start encountering them, you have better defenses.
3. Gigglers (Dungeon Master)
Everything about these little thieving bastards is annoying, from the shuffle of their feet as they approach from behind to the annoying sound they make [MP3 link] as they steal your stuff and go scampering off into some dark corner. Eager not to lose your prized Sword of Whatever, you go charging after them, falling into traps, encountering foes you didn't expect, getting lost, only to finally run into them, have them steal something else, and go running off again. The only solution I found was to keep a couple of fireballs handy and loose them at the moment of their approach.
4. Flying Eyes (Might & Magic VI)
Technically, this is a class of creatures, including flying eyes, terrible eyes, and maddening eyes. The last name is best, though it would be better if they'd called them drive-you-insane-and-make-you-want-to-smash-your-computer eyes. How do I hate thee? Let me count the ways: you stay out of melee weapon range; you keep moving, so missile weapons and spells usually miss you; you have a spell that cancels every single one of my spells, and you don't even have to hit me with it; indeed, you can even cast said spell through walls, so that the merest hint of your presence on a level above or below me, or through a wall adjacent to me, will send me spinning into the dark with no protection. Your ranged attacks turn my characters insane. And there are about 600 of you in Castle Darkmoor; clearing the castle literally takes a day of game time.
One of the greatest pleasures of Might & Magic VI is returning to Castle Darkmoor once it's respawned and you've achieved mastery of blaster rifles.
5. Cliff Racers (Morrowind)
These relentless @#^*$s are near-legendary: The way they tail you from above and suddenly descend without warning; the way they pile up on top of each other so suddenly you're facing eight of them; their heart-stopping screech; and most of all, the way they chase you tirelessly across the entire island of Vvardenfell. They're everywhere. You literally cannot outrun them. (If you're very lucky, you might be able to trap one behind a fallen branch and make your getaway.) If you encounter one as a low-level character with waning health, you'd better hope you have a teleport scroll, or you might as well lie down. They'll even follow you into towns, mercilessly attacking guards and citizens, sometimes killing quest-dependent characters. Oh, and they have a reasonably good chance of giving you blight disease!
Their only saving grace is their racer plumes, which you need for levitation potions.
The Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages notes that "the development team has admitted the sheer amount of cliff racers in the game was a mistake." No kidding. In Oblivion, there's a reference to "St. Jiub, who drove the cliff racers from Vvardenfell." Jiub is the Dunmer who you encounter in the ship at the very beginning of the game. I'd love to replay Morrowind as him rather than the Nerevarine.
6. Beholders (Baldur's Gate II)
Man, these guys are tough. You encounter them by the dozens during one of the quests, and they blast you with rapid-fire damage, petrification, and death spells. They also have an annoying habit of ignoring your summoned creatures. Your only defense is to seriously buff your lead character and send him gingerly forward while everyone else rains missile weapons at them.
Late in the game, you get a cloak of mirroring that turns their own spells back at them. The character wearing it can stroll through a beholder dungeon, letting all of them slay themselves, collecting all their experience, without having to lift a finger. They're either bloody impossible or no challenge at all. That's what we call "bad balance."
7. Barrow Wights* (Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter)
1. Reapers (Ultima IV)
The reapers in Ultima IV have a spell that puts your entire party to sleep, and they use it over and over and over. "But I have an (A)waken spell!" you say. You fool. The spell only awakens one party member at a time, and by that time the reaper's put your entire party to sleep again.
This would be forgivable, maybe, if reapers were otherwise challenging, but their regular attack is so pathetic that there would be no reason not to set up camp right next to a reaper. In fact, if you could capture one, they might come in handy. Take it out of its sack at night, let it put everyone to sleep, and enjoy it's occasional tickle as you dream. Mothers would say, "Oh, honey, you can't sleep? Let me get the reaper out of the attic."
Their only purpose is to slow you down; to make you take baby steps through the room before you can finally get in weapon range. The room above, which had nine reapers, took me 45 minutes. Jackasses.
2. Sprites (Might & Magic I)
Sprites love to roam the corridors of Sorpigal, the starting city in Might & Magic, and if you encounter a pack of them before you hit Level 4, you might as well shut down the game and reload. Their special ability is a "curse" spell that lowers your chances of hitting them, and when they cast these spells en masse, you can't hit anything. Only when you get spells that affect entire groups of monsters do they stop being a threat. Centaurs are almost as bad, but by the time you start encountering them, you have better defenses.
3. Gigglers (Dungeon Master)
Everything about these little thieving bastards is annoying, from the shuffle of their feet as they approach from behind to the annoying sound they make [MP3 link] as they steal your stuff and go scampering off into some dark corner. Eager not to lose your prized Sword of Whatever, you go charging after them, falling into traps, encountering foes you didn't expect, getting lost, only to finally run into them, have them steal something else, and go running off again. The only solution I found was to keep a couple of fireballs handy and loose them at the moment of their approach.
4. Flying Eyes (Might & Magic VI)
Technically, this is a class of creatures, including flying eyes, terrible eyes, and maddening eyes. The last name is best, though it would be better if they'd called them drive-you-insane-and-make-you-want-to-smash-your-computer eyes. How do I hate thee? Let me count the ways: you stay out of melee weapon range; you keep moving, so missile weapons and spells usually miss you; you have a spell that cancels every single one of my spells, and you don't even have to hit me with it; indeed, you can even cast said spell through walls, so that the merest hint of your presence on a level above or below me, or through a wall adjacent to me, will send me spinning into the dark with no protection. Your ranged attacks turn my characters insane. And there are about 600 of you in Castle Darkmoor; clearing the castle literally takes a day of game time.
One of the greatest pleasures of Might & Magic VI is returning to Castle Darkmoor once it's respawned and you've achieved mastery of blaster rifles.
5. Cliff Racers (Morrowind)
These relentless @#^*$s are near-legendary: The way they tail you from above and suddenly descend without warning; the way they pile up on top of each other so suddenly you're facing eight of them; their heart-stopping screech; and most of all, the way they chase you tirelessly across the entire island of Vvardenfell. They're everywhere. You literally cannot outrun them. (If you're very lucky, you might be able to trap one behind a fallen branch and make your getaway.) If you encounter one as a low-level character with waning health, you'd better hope you have a teleport scroll, or you might as well lie down. They'll even follow you into towns, mercilessly attacking guards and citizens, sometimes killing quest-dependent characters. Oh, and they have a reasonably good chance of giving you blight disease!
Their only saving grace is their racer plumes, which you need for levitation potions.
The Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages notes that "the development team has admitted the sheer amount of cliff racers in the game was a mistake." No kidding. In Oblivion, there's a reference to "St. Jiub, who drove the cliff racers from Vvardenfell." Jiub is the Dunmer who you encounter in the ship at the very beginning of the game. I'd love to replay Morrowind as him rather than the Nerevarine.
6. Beholders (Baldur's Gate II)
Man, these guys are tough. You encounter them by the dozens during one of the quests, and they blast you with rapid-fire damage, petrification, and death spells. They also have an annoying habit of ignoring your summoned creatures. Your only defense is to seriously buff your lead character and send him gingerly forward while everyone else rains missile weapons at them.
Late in the game, you get a cloak of mirroring that turns their own spells back at them. The character wearing it can stroll through a beholder dungeon, letting all of them slay themselves, collecting all their experience, without having to lift a finger. They're either bloody impossible or no challenge at all. That's what we call "bad balance."
7. Barrow Wights* (Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter)
The opening sections of the Heart of Winter expansion to Icewind Dale have a host of creatures that are good candidates for this list, including wailing virgins (spirits who decimate you with magic while hovering just outside of attack range) and drowned dead (nearly impossible to damage). But barrow wights have to be the worst. When you first encounter, them, they are way overpowered. A single wight can tear apart your entire party if you encounter him unprepared, and they move at double-time, so you can't outrun them.
Fighting them is like preparing for Waterloo. You buff the hell out of your characters.You set any traps you have. You summon as many creatures as the game will let you summon. You cast "haste" on your party. You slowly advance forward, keeping your summoned creatures ahead of you, until one sees you. If you're lucky, he charges your summoned creatures while you pummel him with arrows, spells, and magic items. In a few seconds, your summoned beasts have been turned to vapor. Hopefully, by the time he comes in melee range, he's either badly wounded or almost dead. He takes your lead character down to 1/4 hit points before you finally kill him. You stand over his corpse, arrows running low, spells spent, exhausted from the "haste" spell wearing off. Congratulations: you've killed one. There's like 25 more.
(*The original posting had "cold wight" here, which is a separate creature in the game that I confused with barrow wights. Thanks to an anonymous commenter for pointing that out.)
8. Wisps (Ultima V and Oblivion).
8. Wisps (Ultima V and Oblivion).
Wisps are very different creatures in these two games, but they're infuriating in both of them. In Ultima V, they can possess your characters, which leaves you with no good options except to kill them. You can negate the possession with a "negate magic" spell, but the problem is that wisps hide out behind walls, and they need their magic abilities to teleport into range. Thus, if you have "negate magic" active, you can't fight them, and if you turn it off, you end up fighting your own characters.
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| The only thing worse than wisps is wisps AND sharks |
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Oblivion's wisps are some of the toughest bastards in the game. They take very little damage from non-magic weapons and they cast continuous "drain health" at you, which not only depletes your health but regenerates theirs. It's possible to beat at one with a sword, axe, or mace for an hour, constantly refreshing your health and stamina with potions, and still have them at full health. The only solution is to charge them quickly with a magic weapon--shock works best--and whale at them before they can get a good rhythm going with their damage health spells.
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| The good news is they drop glow dust. I was always short on "light" potions. |
These two games, however different their original treatment of wisps, have something in common: they both completely retcon wisps in later installments. In Ultima VI, they become telepathic communicators to another dimension, and in Skyrim, they become dangerous-but-nowhere-nearly-as-annoying emanations from a "wisp mother."
More annoying enemies added to this list as they occur to me!
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