>A horrifying invincible creature is after the party. >But

>>49140346
Make it never have to rest. It's always getting closer. It might be slow, but every night when you sleep you lose ground.

>>49140346
Make escape from the immediate area extremely difficult or maybe impossible. Thinking about movies like the original The Thing, your characters might be in a hostile environment where fleeing from the immediate surroundings would result in almost certain death.

It's the most dangerous enemy, but there are other weird little ones too who can cause you serious problems. You're trying to shoot your way through a horde of rat-spiders that keep poisoning you and mangling your legs, when the invincible critter shows up.

The monster is guarding something important to you. You'll have to figure out a way to get it to leave in order to achieve your objective.

>>49140374
This, and/or put the party in a place where the exit is sealed off, so it just feels like a slow inevitability.

Make the characters desire to carry out a lengthy task that occupies a small amount of landmass that doesn't have easy escape routes, like a small island or confined tower.

Have it go after the unsuspecting people the characters care for rather than the player characters themselves.

>>49140374
This. Four miles per hour is 672 miles per week. It doesn't sleep or eat or breathe. The ocean is a minor inconvenience to it. A mountain will be climbed or bypassed at the same glacial pace. It will not slow down or stop, ever, until you or it are dead. The key word here is inevitability, in the same sense that death is inevitable, and unstoppable in the same sense that you can't stop a glacier.

>>49140346
Irrelivant, because your players are idiots and will charge in swinging their weapons, with no regard to the fact that they aren't having any effect, until they all die.

You may have to pause the game occasionally as your players remind you of all the buffs and special effects that their characters have active, and flip through rulebooks to show you the passages that say those abilities negate or overcome whatever defensive ability they've concluded the monster has.

Why is the bbeg the only thing after the party? If its only weakness is speed, force other things to slow the party down. Difficult terrain that it can avoid, a town in its path that they must draw the creature away from, a random mob of moos to waste a few minutes.

>>49140482
>The key word here is inevitability
would it even be able to climb up a properly made pitfall?

You've got all the time in the world to prepare one.

>>49140346
>A horrifying invincible creature is after the party
>But it's slow as shit.
Sounds boring, and not very intimidating, indeed.

If you want to make the being that tracks the party actually dreadful, then don't make it slow as shit. Have it catch up with the party once or twice.

Also, don't constantly remind them that they are being chased , but rather drop subtle hints from time to time.
At night, or during certain scenarions, have one of the players notice weird sounds, so that you keep them under pressure.
Maybe it was just a bird, or was it? Did it really catch up to us already?
Always a great concept to lead the party astray, for example if they fail certain check roles.

Mysterious foes, unseen threats or other unconventional monsters are always more threatening than the more common beings.
Perhaps you can use a shapeshifter, or some sort of parasite that switches host to get close to the party?

Honestly, you can really go crazy with such a concep if you don't restrict yourself to a specific sort of enemy.

>>49140520
Yeah, this is why in the games I run I let everyone know from the start that monsters and NPCs do not follow the same rules as players, so don't try to tell me the necromancer raising a dead guy has to spend a minute to do so.

>>49140346
Have him pop up in places he otherwise shouldn't be able to get to, and regardless of his speed. Like a slasher movie villain.

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>>49140520
>Irrelivant, because your players are idiots and will charge in swinging their weapons, with no regard to the fact that they aren't having any effect, until they all die.
>You may have to pause the game occasionally as your players remind you of all the buffs and special effects that their characters have active, and flip through rulebooks to show you the passages that say those abilities negate or overcome whatever defensive ability they've concluded the monster has.
Then just flat out tell them it's invincible by having it constantly scream I'M FUKIN INVINCIBLE because players are memsters who can only communicate in memes.

>>49140346
>How do you make this kind of bbeg intimidating when the party realizes how easily they can outwalk it?


Fortunately, that will never happen with at least 4/5 of all parties.

>>49140593
This. and this >>49140570

Slasher movie villains. Also, another option akin to that archetype: at the end reveal there was more than one the whole time, thus explaining its sudden jump in speed or ability to be somewhere it shouldn't.

>>49140617
I think that's more of a cop out than just not explaining it at all.

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>>49140346

>>49140346
>It turns away and begins walking to the nuclear power plant
Oh I'm sorry we're you going to use this city for something?

>>49140346
Looks like it's time for an ESCORT MISSION!

Have them be responsible for guiding and protecting the refugees from the city that it just finished wrecking.

They have to try to keep them supplied until they can find sanctuary and come up with a plan to defeat the BBEG.

Refugees don't move fast. You can have sickness, natural hazards like roads being washed out, having the opportunity to either harvest some natural resource or get farther away from the BBEG. Or make them able to supplement their food stores by travelling slower.

You can still have them go and do other stuff for combat and more traditional questing, but the problem is you've essentially just put them on a timer and that sucks.

Or have it be travelling to a goal that isn't chasing the party.

What >>49140593 said, but also make sure he's tireless. Undead, construct, some other thing that let's him not need to stop for food, for shelter, for bedding. Don't make them fear the beast, make them fear their own mortality. Make them turn every argument of "We need to rest, we need to recuperate X" turn into a massive party infighting because some characters don't want to sit still for 8 hours while that...THING catches up to them.

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Watch pic related
>never stops ever
>probably chasing them for some cursed axe or some shit they picked up
>they can pass it on to other people but eventually it will kill those people and chase the original curse-ee
>a statless force of nature that will literally rape your PCs to death if it is ever allowed to catch them
DU-DUN DU-DUN DU-DUN every time it's getting close
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dwvCkaTBz0

>>49140638
Not really, so long as there is a valid reason for there to be more than one.

>>49140734
not to mention
>can look like anyone but will always be moving towards the victim at a steady, incessant pace
>is clever enough to detect and walk around traps and environmental hazards
>WAY TOO FUCKING TALL if you've seen it you understand

>How do you make this kind of bbeg intimidating when the party realizes how easily they can outwalk it?

You turn their confidence into paranoia.
It has allies, or at least connections. They feed it info on the party, though imperfectly, and they provide it long range transportation, though not at a moment's notice.
They party's own allies are also imperfect; sometimes they can say he's in this city or not, sometimes they're silent for a while and you find out a group got wiped out.
It has a life of its own, so sometimes it just shows up randomly at a weird time. (if you REALLY want to freak them out, a steamy bathhouse. right when they're nude and unarmed.) It has an agenda. It does things when they aren't around. Things they might feel the need to oppose; and yet, since it's connected, it might be there when they show up to do something.

Any time the PCs are distracted and haven't seen him in a while, he might show up then. Bad times, like during a complex fight that is running a bit long.

It escalates over time. The PCs try to discover a weakness, but it plants false rumors and leads them into traps.

At the very least, the players should begin to fear areas that obscure their senses, rough terrain that slows them down, places where the exits are hard to reach. Times where the party is split up or pinned down. Jobs that require them to stay in the same general area for a long time.
Because some day it will catch them in one of those places. Some day.
At the very least, they should feel threatened enough that when they escape, it's more like "we're badass, that was close" than "lol he's so slow".

>>49140734
Also it can camouflage itself as other people, so its victims don't notice it till it's very near.
If you want to go full It Follows, only it's intended victims can see It

>>49140557
>You've got all the time in the world to prepare one
Not necessarily. It would depend on the level of containment. It would also require the threat to have a very predictable path for you to lure it into a sufficient trap. Even Jason Voorhees knew how to use a window instead of Cool Aid manning through everything.

>>49140346
Give it friends with fast cars.

>>49140820
>It Follows
I really like that films concept but hated the ending.

>>49140820
I fucking forgot the best part, yeah. Your other PCs think the victim is batshit crazy while you're passing notes of "You make out a figure you've never seen before seemingly walking towards you with unknown intent"
Watch them fucking SWEAT

>>49140779
It could probably sprint after it's victims if it wanted too
It just doesn't bother, because it knows it'll catch up to you eventually

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>>49140346
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VDvgL58h_Y

>>49140346
Well the first problem is you've essentially put the party on a timer and that's fucking gay.

So you're not only going to have to give them some agency to affect the timer, but force them to decide between exercising that or doing other things.

IE go full faggot and make it an escorts mission. The BBEG destroyed their home town, and now they have to help guide and protect the survivors as they travel through hostile/wild/unexplored territory and terrain. The party has to choose between traveling faster or slowing down to hunt. Stopping if people start getting sick, or abandoning them. Negotiating or fighting with nomadic tribes and such encountered along the way. If they can't spend the time, then they have to fight the BBEG for a while to delay it.

Alternatively it's not chasing the party, but is proceeding to some other goal. The party can travel faster, but they have to get macguffins and complete tasks to get past the barriers around the place.

Gotta make it feel like it's not just a timer yo.

Maybe it poisons the world around it, and slowly word gets around that it's following the party. So people start to refuse them entry to cities or try to chase them off. Survivors that have lost their homes at first come to help the party, but if they don't see any progress or effort put towards fighting it they'll start to leave to do it on their own and when they fail, everyone starts to chase the party down to force them to face it so it stops fucking shit up.

>>49140482
I get the discworld reference

>>49140887
my thoughts exactly

>>49140854
The pool bit?
Or the super ambiguous bit at the end?
[spoiler}Cause I think that the thing that saved them for a short while was your man fucking a prostitute, who would have quickly passed it on. The shooting only slowed It down for an hour or two at most[/spoiler]

>>49140916
>Or the super ambiguous bit at the end?
This it the movie just kind of fizzled out and ended abruptly to me.

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>>49140889
>yo

>>49140933
Aye, I feel you there. Ain't that just the way with most horror flicks though?

>>49140815
So the BBEG is just some guy?

For some reason I imagine a teenager living out the edgelord fantasy. He's coming at you slowly because he thinks it makes him look cool, but then he remembers he forgot to go buy milk so he sprints off.

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>>49140887
I remember finding this years ago. One of my favorite things on the internet.

>>49140934
I grew up in the 90s dude. So sue me.

>>49140346
Give it over the horizon targeting with spells.

>>49140520
Sounds like you have shitty players.

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>>49140346
First of all, make it extremely clear that your monster is fucking invincible, and give a good plot reason for that and plan for in-contingencies (for instance, maybe the player CAN beat it, but it will always come back somehow. You can still fight and beat Nemesis, after all.)

>But it's slow as shit. Walking with a limp levels of slow.

Make it move at the speed of plot. Think Jason.

Every time it's not on camera, have the monster move at an arbitrary speed depending on your needs. If your party is fucking around doing nothing, have the monster appear right in the middle of it.

If they are in a dungeon, make it so the monster can easily teleport in-and-out of every dark corner of the dungeon, so it always feels like it's giving chase but not actually getting too close to your characters to give them an incentive to move forward.

Needles to say, you shouldn't include any sort of puzzle in this shit whatsoever, because players are fucking retarded and they will get stuck over the tiniest things, no matter how "clever" or "simple" you think your puzzles are.

That said, if you DO add a puzzle, it would make for a nerve wrecking experience as they scramble for an answer and you make it clear through roars and foot-steps that the monster is nearby.

PROTIP: The monster won't actually attack them until they solve the puzzle, but only you know that, right?

PRO-PROTIP: If the assholes are still stuck on the puzzle, have the monster burst through a passage and solve the riddle for them, at the cost of having to outmaneuver the monster now.

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Avatar: the last Airbender season 2 episode 8

Seriously, that's how you do it right. How has this not been mentioned yet?

>>49141023
>If the assholes are still stuck on the puzzle, have the monster burst through a passage and solve the riddle for them, at the cost of having to outmaneuver the monster now.
So it got triggered, sat down, and solved the sliding picture puzzle for them before proceeding to try and beat the crap out of them?

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>>49141053
You just gave me the darnedest mental picture.

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>>49141117
>At that point the party realizes the truth.
>The "monster" is actually that angry neck-beard they beat in a game of chance at the tavern all those nights ago.
>He wants a rematch.

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>>49140346
This is essentially the premise of the horror movie 'It Follows'. A supernatural creature is slowly walking towards the protagonist, and when it reaches her it will tear her limb from limb with supernatural strength. It can look like anyone, it seemingly cannot be harmed, nobody else can see it, and no obstacle can slow it down for long. The only way to get rid of it is to have sex, then it follows that person instead, functioning like a transmitted curse. When it kills its target (or I presume its target dies of any means), it moves on to the previous target, thus sex is only a temporary escape from the creature.

Why is it intimidating? Because it's unstoppable, and there's no practical way to know that the 'cure' is still in effect. Even if you get rid of it by sending it after someone else, all it takes is their death and you're its target again. It's the Sword of Damocles, forcing you into a life of constant running and fear, never knowing who to trust or when your end will come.

The end of the movie heavily implies that the protagonists fail to defeat the creature and it's moments from killing them. So, yeah, you can make it even scarier by presenting a possible method of defeating the creature, only to reveal later that they failed and the creature kills (or severely injures) a party member.

>>49140346
It can't be trapped. It can't be slowed down. Trying to take the high ground just means you'll die from the fall.

Give the PCs an initial "safe zone" against it, and if they hide there, have it destroy everything around the safe spot.

>>49141053
that would be hilarious and terrifying.
>How many steps are in that puzzle again?
>ten
>which step is he on?
>I think the fifth...
>Okay at this rate he's going to get through in... 2 minutes
>shit

>>49141196
nigga did you read the thread

>>49141214
I had to do something mid-reply, by the time I got back someone else had already mentioned the movie. No need to get upset.

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>>49141252
>upset

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>>49140557
>would it even be able to climb up a properly made pitfall
Low speed does not necessarily mean low dexterity.

>>49140346
I'm imagining Solomon Grundy with the personality of the demons from the Hush episode of Buffy.
Perhaps it could run, skip, jump, or dance.
But it doesn't.
It only slowly steps forward towards it's goal.
It ignores every distraction, and steps forward.
It shrugs off every attack, and steps forward.
It calmly slides the rubble of the building you dropped on it, and steps forward.
It silently rips apart the walls you raise in defense, and steps forward.
It effortlessly digs free of every pitfall you place before it, and steps forward.

It relentlessly pursues, with an equally relentlessly silent calm.
It knows this pursuit is just a moment of the inevitable stretch towards eternity.
It knows it will reach it's target.
It does not rest.
It does not fear.
It does not struggle.
It steps forward.

Absolutely anything can be lost forever by throwing it into a supermassive black hole.
>But won't it die by tidal forces before it becomes trapped inside the event horizon?
If the black hole is really, really, really large the tidal forces will become quite small.

So simply cast a Wish to teleport the creature into a supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHdDxKy2QW0

>>49140346
Put a proximity sensor on that makes the players have to bring it close to the door to open it, like arms reach close to it.

>>49140346
Make it have ranged grasping attacks? dc13 to struggle out or something? The more you fail the more graspers hold you down, allowing the thing to catch up to you.

>>49141369

>>49140374

Are you saying...It Follows?

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>>49141369
>>49141423
forgot pic

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>>49140959
update your images anon

>>49140583
>Yeah, this is why in the games I run I let everyone know from the start that monsters and NPCs do not follow the same rules as players, so don't try to tell me the necromancer raising a dead guy has to spend a minute to do so.
Good for you. There are too many players who would lose their shit over this.

give it a missile launcher

>>49140583
But if I geek the necromancer and grab his spell book I can learn the spell of "Fast Animate Dead" for myself right?

>>49141297
That's assuming that your medieval PCs know what a black hole is IC.

>>49141053
>the party is stuck on a puzzle
>discussing the puzzle and how to solve it when the unstoppable monster busts through the door to the previous room, screaming at them
>party screams, getting ready to make a break for it
>"AAAAAAAAAH YOU FAGGOTS CAN'T EVEN SOLVE THIS BABY SHIT?"
>Monster angrily gets down and solves the puzzle while angrily screaming the solution at them
>Goes back to screaming and chasing the party afterwards

>>49140346
It can walk through the loading screen doors.

AKA that thing that it's got no right being able to do to get at your party? Something that they take for granted as impossible? Have it do that.

>>49141790
I'm actually deeply disappointed we've gotten so far into this thread without anyone saying "STAAAAARS!"

I find it bit amusing that Nemesis is the OP picture, given that the fucker was one of the scariest bosses in RE because the fucker ran after you AND had a gun.

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>>49142354
I never made it past outside the police station because camera and that motherfucker giving me ZERO time to align properly to open the fucking door or try to gun him down.

>>49140346

Make the terrain difficult/deadly for the players but not the monster

>>49140734
I watched this to get an idea of what you meant anon. I don't know why I watched two hours of anachronistic hipsters playing sex-tag to hide from the murderrape ghost. That movie was silly.

>>49140346
If you're going to have an enemy like this, you need to consider that slowness does not make the entirety of the monster. What else can it do? Is it strong, can it shoot a gun, does it know magic?
The real way to make an enemy scary, at least in my experience, is making it inconsistent. If it's slow as shit until it gets really close to you, or if it seemingly teleports when you can't see it, or some other BS which is just there to make sure it's dead on their heels, then they're gonna be paranoid.

Alternatively, have something they need to protect. Have it unable to move. Give them no choice but to: A) Protect it to the death, or B) Leave it.

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>>49140346
By locking then in with it in a place it knows better than they do.

It also helps to have additional dangers that the players are able to overcome. If for no other reason than to have the monster show up during one of these smaller skirmishes.

Years ago a friend of mine had me draft him a map of a massive mansion (ended up using it to get a decent grade in drafting) and then he added secrets to it and used it. Trapping us in a locked mansion with some fuckhuge monster and a crazy fuck armed with a AK.

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Monsters that have the ability to move in the darkness are common enough. Darkness is scary, you can't see or predict where it'll come from. But what about a monster than can only persist in the light? The party unearths it in some dungeon, tomb, or cave (those abandoned places where they shine the first light in centuries) which activates its metabolism. Before they leave it to the darkness, it disappears, moving to another light source, whether it be the bright surface or something they left behind. Then, after it finishes its business with whoever left it there, it comes back for the players. They can hide in the night, but that opens them to other dangers- and day will always come. So long as there is light, that bastion of hope and awareness, there is the fear that this creature could strike.

>>49140346
Have it be so strong that it can literally punch itself like a projectile, like in those japanese cartoons where a single hit sends people careening at many miles an hour and punching through a mountain, except a little less than that, maybe about a few hundred feet at a time. It always flies about 150ft, so it often overshoots, and while it doesn't actually take damage from punching itself in the face to fly, it doesn't like doing it TOO often because that much force still hurts.

>>49140346

The creature is slow not because it cannot move fast, but because it sees no need to.

Unknown to the party it has a non-linear perception of time, it perceives time as a fixed spatial dimension rather than a series of events, and everything that occurs within it as merely differing coordinates.

It already knows everything the party will throw at it, how fast they will run from it, where they will hide and when it will find them again. And it already knows it has won.

So why rush?

From the party's perspective of course it will seem like an unstoppable force that is always one step ahead of them, no matter how slowly it moves.

>>49140596

>having it constantly scream I AM INVINCIBLE

Pseudo-intellectual players just see that as "oh well anyone who has to keep saying they're invincible is not really invincible lolol I have such deep insights because I watch game of thrones" and try to kill him anyways.

Plus it reminds people of Boris Grishenko

>>49140346
>>49140374
As this one said, and/or have it haunt a location where the party needs to do some other shit, like finding survivors and provisions while fighting minor monsters. They'll have to be on the move and hide often because they know the piece of shit can get at them at any moment.

Also make sure the thing has some sort of ranged attack or power that it may use to prevent the party to just walk away to disengage it. Something like Roadhog's hook could be great, or a cursed aura of weakness that would slow down nearby characters to his same pace.

>>49141053
Nope, if you really want to be evil make the monster solve the puzzle and then move on to loot the dungeon before they can.

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>>49140662
What the fuck did I just read?

>>49141946
Not that anon, but I'd allow such shit in my games. If you down a super-monster, you can learn it's power (maybe weakened/rebalanced for PC use).
I'd warn you of how nerfed it would be tho, and maybe make some way to reclaim it in full power, eg. maybe the Necromancer was half-lich and that let him fast animate; to you it would've been slightly faster animate until you go down the lichdom path.

>>49140346
Walks slow as shit during the day. Full on superhuman sprints during the night. So when the pcs are sleeping in their nice warm beds, this unspeakable abomination is running in a straight line directly towards the party.

>>49140557
Probably would dig his way out with bare hands

>>49140346
Give it a super long ranged attack, and ability to communicate very precisely with its subordinates.

When treetrunk sized arrows start raining down through the roof the party has to run or shut up the guy who's telling their actions.

>>49140346
They can't outwalk it. They can outrun it. That leads to exhaustion, while the monster never has to take a breather

>>49142651
Learn to run along walls and mash action, nigga.

>>49140346
How would one make this concept viable in space? I'm running a Traveller game soon and would love to implement an enemy like this.

>>49140583
So there's basically no point in planning or strategizing, and battles are won or lost pretty much at your whim?

Not my style, to be honest.

>>49140520
You may not be setting up your monsters properly. If you're doing something your players don't expect to see in a game ever, you're going to have to find some way to introduce the concept.

Idiot.

>>49140733
But if it's super slow, it wouldn't be very hard to stand a distance away, calculate how fast it's moving and how much of a head start you'd need to rest eight hours before it shows up.

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>>49140346
With the fact that he can literally burst through a wall when you least expect him
and the fact that you can sink all your piss weak ammo on him and he still keeps coming
it's the looming threat of the possibility of the dude coming at any time that makes him intimidating
all in all i liked nemesis as the main bad guy
>fight
>run
RUN!

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>>49141009
>not offering the player characters any chance of finding out that something is up in any case ever
You know, fuck that guy with a cactus sideways.

I play investigative kind of characters so I would have to have incredibly bad luck calling people out on their bullshit and this is definitely full of it.

Fuck this guy and everything he does.

>>49146277
Alien

or

Alien Isolation

(The xenomorph isn't exactly slow, but it's not constantly running after you... although you know it will get you eventually)

>>49140346
whenever eye contact is made , let players roll for willpower. they are paralised if they fail.

or give it some kind of ranged attack , like whipping tentacles with teeth at the party

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>Tonberry begins casting Immobilize

>>49146515
Figuring out that something is up would mean the party avoids the entire adventure. I mean, would YOU go into a tomb that's only potentially containing treasure, but definitely contains a horrible monster you have no chance of defeating?

I'm not disagreeing with you by the way. It's a badly designed module in my opinion, but in that way at least it matches its source material.

>>49140557
The problem is that you DON'T have all the time in the world. IT has. And it takes it less effort/time to dig out than it takes you to dig the pitfall.

well, ignoring high magic and the like, but then we're going into "teleport the threat to the other end of the galaxy, set an alarm to check on it in a century maybe and forget about it" territory

>>49146876
No, not really. Just figuring out that there is a thing that eats people down there won't be enough.

Of course he would find out that the priest and the villagers will not let them leave in the first place, that's the most important thing.

>>49145220

So, even though the encounters don't play by the players' rules, the players can play by the encounters' rules if they want to? I like it.

>>49140346
Let them forget about it, and then have it appear when the party least expects it.

>>49140346
It's also invisible.

>>49140346
I did that.
It strengts wouldve been its inteligence and ability to reproduce like zombies. Also with strenght and hardness to turn a grown man into red mist and giblets.

It wouldve been following them with an untiring army if my players hadnt decided to take a finall stand in a confined place , trying to stab the rock hard man who just walked trough a wall and blew a guy up with his fist. Yes your high pressure sand blaster spell had little effect on the man made out of fuckyouinum, fu king escape trough the many exits around you that I've told you about.

>>49142265
>It can walk through the loading screen doors.

The single most pant-shittingest moment in the whole history of video games.

>>49140346
A bike?

>>49140346
I'd say one of two options:
1)Have its creators control, escort or otherwise reposition it as necessary
and/or
2)Have it manifest by possessing people, meaning it can burst from anyone at any time (with some rules attached).

This allows for you to turn the situation on its head as you require - for example:
Scenario 1
>Some plot device the party needs is believed to be smuggled into the city tonight
>Party checks first couple of merchant wagons, nothing happens
>Come to third wagon, speak with merchant at the reigns
>Hand comes out, crushing merchant's head
>IT'SHERE.jpg

Scenario 2
>Party + city guide is resting at a temple
>No sign of the creature for days
>Temple monk opens door, allowing moonlight into the room
>City guide bursts into abomination
>IT'SHERE.jpg

Make it so the party never knows when to expect it, and so they feel they have to drop everything in order to fucking RUN from whatever it is.

Make it smart enough to take hostages.

>>49141053
I think you just gave me the beginnings of a great idea for my setting

> Vampires are really fuckin OP
> But there's many ways of stopping them, but not killing them
> Vast underground labyrinths filled with like a billion rubix cubes around a coffin chained with silver
> Stopping a vamp trying to catch you by thinking up riddles for it to solve before it can touch you or throwing down a bag or rice for it to count
> If you interrupt them by attacking them while they're solving their puzzle, they'll be able to attack you as well, but can't otherwise
This is pretty amusing, actually.

>>49140662
Best one yet.

>>49140346
Can it fly? Cause my character can

>>49140346
Watch the horror film "it follows"

Ghost can take the form of any human but can only be seen by the ones its haunted, walking pace but NEVER stops, every time you stop or sleep its slowly walking towards you from somewhere

Secretly make it the center of the campaign climax so you can set up a marathon chase.

Set it up with a courtier arranging a meeting at an inn with the party. They are contracted to venture a kingdom over to recover a magical macguffin and bring it to the designated drop point. The item is very valuable so there may be a slow acting curse attached to it, but noting returning ASAP wouldn't solve.

So the party heads off in that direction, slowly making their way over there but taking quests they are given as they travel. Dangerous cult here, orc tribe there, drake nest over yonder. They have business to attend to, but witcher contracts are plentiful. They also find ominous signs, gashes in forest road treelines, brutalised adventurers, whispers of violent assassins, etc, but the fantasy is as high as the death toll, so it goes with the theme. One kingdom later, they finally arrive. They find that a lich is experimenting with the macguffin. The lich does their speech, and the party learns that the maguffin appears to have the odd property of causing the danger and chaos in the area around it to rise when it's not in it's magically designated 'place', and that the lich is trying to research it's power and defend it from theft, albeit due to a generic lust for power. After pocketing the macguffin, the party will see if they look at the large, rune covered, yet oddly unassuming statue holding a great machete stood as if watching over the maguffin that its' eyes have begun to faintly glow red, and that it's slowly breaking pose, revealing it as a golem. About the same time the place will start shaking violently as if about to collapse, casing them to flee and the golem to begin it's slasher villain impression.

As they begin the return trip, they'll realise that the mangled adventurer's remains have machete shaped gashes in, the violent assassinations were carried out by the kool aid man, stuff like that.

1/2

>>49140346
Make it a sort of omnipresence that will not only target the party but also the things around the party they cear about, the thing walks slowly only when near the party, when the party dont see it, the rules change. You want to learn that spell from X teacher? The thing is there when you get there fucking up the whole place. That important quest you want to finish? Guess whos waiting at mcguffin city. The whole idea of beaing hunted is not "there is person x chasing us but we know where he is", it's "we dont know where the next attack comes from and how to stop it"

>>49153489

When the party get the hint, let them notice muttering villagers talking about ominous things. Villages saying they saw a statue on the road that wasn't there before, and after passing it they felt oddly concerned about repaying what they owe and returning what they've taken. It can be cheesy, as long as it's eerie. After a time, hammer the point home. The party makes a listen check at night in an inn, and realises that something is smashing under one of their rooms' windows. They look down and it's the golem climbing up the wall, one kool aid manned handhold at a time. The golem will reach them in the end, moving as the crow flies even when it's impractical doesn't matter much. It doesn't have to always be sensible and mundane when it had the power and resiliance to do what it wants. When the chase is on, the golem can catchup whenever it wants; even if it only moves at 5 mph, while the party sleeps it will gain 40 miles, and it's max speed is 'whatever is necessary.' Let it directly confront the party sometimes; it arrives when the party is at a market, and they must sprint through the crowds while the golem walks at the speed of plot after it. Also ensure that the party have to deal with the danger of the macguffin itself, as it's power will bring plenty of encounters even when Golem Vorhees is away. All of the evils of the kingdom are making moves where the party is, so they can expect backstabbing brigands, rampaging demons, and pillaging orcs to buy their main threat plenty of time. Neglecting to pick up on too many witcher contracts in one area may bite the party's ass now, as potential sanctuaries may be found razed by forces that could barely raid a trade caravan whenthey were a mere sidequest. This can be spun to the advantage of a very clever and very ballsy party, letting undead hordes fall to the hands of Golem Vorhees at the hand of a very panicked nercomancer as the group hides near their escape route.

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/inevitable/inevitable-marut

Use one of these in a Pathfinder game to great effect. It was introduced at lower levels, and the first time they attempted to fight it, a single hit convinced them to run. I played it more as The Terminator than It Follows, and every time the group went through a city or town, they had to deal with the repercussions of the thing eventually following them through that city or town.

>>49140732
This. In a campaign I ran, I had An Ancient Evil take over a NPC's body and mind then take off in a direction while the party was too busy dealing with a Undead horde that popped up at the same time. While the Evil travelled slowly (on foot), each time he passed by any kind of village he would turn the whole settlement into a part of his army. If he ever reaches his goal, he would have literally a nation's worth of Undead to command on top of the army he was building. I called it the Death March. The party was able to buy some time by closing passes, forming trenches, until they found a way to banish the Ancient Evil once more. Now they're trying to figure out how to move him back into the Material Plane so they can kill it.

>>49154023

If all goes well, the party can arrive at the designated drop point, where a court wizard looking very much out of his depth pockets pockets the macguffin and gulps at the sight of the golem. He may produce the antimacguffin of deus ex machina, slay the golem, and designate the macguffin a new 'place' to call home, granting the throne the sword and sorcery equivalent of a nuclear deterrant and the unsettling power it affords. Alternatively, the court wizard can fail, the royal guard can be mowed down by Golem Vorhees, and the throne's defences can be left with a hole that an enemy can exploit or a murderhobo can fill. The future after the macguffin arrives is subject to your discretion.

Any thoughts? Cause I for one certainly want to be part of a campaign of this.

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>>49141369
>realizing just now they're just wearing wool instead of chain

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>>49141469

no u

>>49140346
Make it YUGE and give it a big ol' chain on a hook or a harpoon.

>>49140662
>the priest apologizes and explains the pit is for dumping mennonites and Spaniards

god damn I want this DM

>>49153138
>walking
>never stops
couldn't you just move to the other side of the planet, do a little math, and move back to the other side every so many months/years?

>>49140346
<They are trapped in a labyrinth

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>>49157822
Yes, in the modern age where men in their 30s can't get out of their fucking parent's basement, why don't we just travel across the world every other year/month?

Yes, this is very viable for horror flick teenager in bumblefuck nowhere of US.

Also, there's no indication that it's obligated to follow you at all. It could just choose to settle down at a spot for a bit and strike while closer.

>>49140557
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xO7CwDkvDEw

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>>49140346

I kind of want to run this in Dark Sun. Lots of creepy old war relics are in that world--I can picture the players awakening a mummy, bone golem or some other horror that follows them slowly, inexorably, programmed by a long forgotten god-king to kill whomsoever gets on his bad side. Except he's long dead--and thus, so is the "off" switch for this thing.

Would be fun to give it sand-walk teleportation or something. The party thinks they've escaped, but they forgot that patch of silt in the corner... And suddenly there's a cracking sound.

It's the rearmost party member's neck being slapped.

>>49140346
>hide portable hole under a rug in front of the only door
>laugh as it falls in.
>close portable hole

Now I've got my own portable pocket nightmare. Might just toss in a couple alchemist fires every so often so it doesn't get bored.

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>>49159226

*snapped

A slap would be funnier though
>the monster rolls a 1
>its attack is just mildly annoying
>it still has necrotic touch though lolol

>>49140346
>the party has an item/delivery for it, but it's really bad at articulating, so it's following the p[arty around trying to get the item it wants/ordered
>if/when it finally catches up to the party, it simply lifts whoever has the item, takes it from them, gently sets them back down, then starts making the trip back home

>if the party really wants/needs it, they now have to chase down an unstoppable force that wants to go home
>they need to take breaks while following it, while it simply walks away, untiring, at it's own slow pace

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>>49140346
Give it a hook.

Give it occasional bursts of speed, some sort of ranged capacity or way to bring the PCs to itself, have the PCs go around obstacles that Mr spooky can just go right through, have it show up again and again, occasionally in their way so they have to contrive a way to get past it, etc. Try to encourage interaction, or at least make it seem like it's dangerous in other ways. Maybe have it start bringing down scenery and creating an environmental hazard that slows the PCs down if they don't have the appropriate skills. Or allow it to spooky Teleport or otherwise have an alternate means of getting about, like boosts of speed when it's not being observed. Slenderman doesn't walk fast, but he's still dangerous.

>>49140662
Literally cannot tell what the fuck is going on in this picture, and not in a good way

>>49142265
So what you're telling me is that it does not have an initiative roll. It simply moves, very slowly, at all times, even when it's not it's turn. It just takes a step forward whenever it feels like it.

>>49140346

Trap it on an treadmill and use it to power the world.

>>49140346
There was a free form RP I was going to join once (it never got off the ground) with a really good scenario that would be great for this.

Pretty much, give each player a special power. Something like teleportation or super strength or the ability to charm people. You could have them discover some kind of treasure that grants them all this (in the original idea, each character was born with it). But once they've gotten used to their quite literally broken powers they discover that all these powers once belonged to a single... Thing. This ancient horrible thing is looking for it's lost power and it's coming for them. And if it kills them it gets that power back. If it kills the player with super strength? Now that thing can bust down walls. If it kills the player with teleportation powers? You better learn to start hiding. It adds both a personal side to it (the creature is specifically hunting you down because you have something of it), along with the anxiety and horror of knowing that fucking up will only make things worse and that if you fail then this horrible thing will now be back at full strength.

>>49140346
I once ran a game with a labyrinthine crypt guarded by a variety of monstrous undead golems. The monsters were hard to see in the dark and because of the mazelike nature of the level, the players could only rarely see them. Keeping track of where the golems were moving was confusing and they had to stay out of their line of sight.

I would tap the table to tell the players when they changed position like footsteps. The amount of taps indicated the amount of spaces they moved, though there was generally no indication of what direction the monsters were moving. The players knew they had been seen when the amount of taps per movement increased.

It was a pretty successful game. the players were thoroughly spooked and it got really frantic near the end when there were three monsters and people were losing track of where they were moving. (i kept track via a smaller map i drew behind my screen.)

>>49140346
Everywhere it goes, everything is just fucked. Like, we can no longer go here levels of fucked. The trees grow poisonous thorns, the animals become mangy and rabid, people they've spoken to turn into emaciated, desperate husks. Glass breaks into razor sharp glitter, the ground is scorched and fallowed, crops are rancid and sparse.

Eventually, they'll realize they're running out of places to hide.

>>49160953
Oh, I like that.
>Okay Frank, it's your turn.
>Great! I'll cast... why did you move its mini?
>Go on, Frank. You were saying?

A enemy I want to use is like this

It's a physical manifestation of entropy, a lumbering black void in the vague shape of a very large (about 20ft tall) humanoid.

I figure maybe the group inadvertently release it from an ancient tomb built to hold it, or it's sent down by an extremely angry god or something like that.

He'd be constantly moving at an extremely slow pace, but impervious to all damage, incorporeal and capable of walking through solid objects. Within a certain radius he'd also have probably an anti-magic field or a permanent silence (since he's like a contained black hole or some shit)

anything within a certain radius of him takes XdX necrotic damage per turn that ramps up the closer it gets to them.

when it nears its prey, the entropy void also begins to corrupt/decay anything around it.

I just have this image of the party camped around a fire in the woods, the ranger begins to notice that there is no birds or wildlife making any sort of noise and that the wind rustling the trees has died down. Off in the distance he begins to see trees and flora wither and die, in a straight line headed directly for their camp

I dunno how they'd be it but the ramifications of such an entity strolling through a world is fucking sweet too

>>49161507
As long as you give your players an out, otherwise its quickly going to go from intimidating to irritating.

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>>49140662
damn.... I fucking love this...maybe too much

Once we had a game in sort of deep post apocaliptic setting (inspired by lovecraftian novel i forget the name. Something about global warming killing every life, no giant cosmical beigns). So concept is our party on Earth. They descendants of rather tribal society that formed after humanity collapsed few times. There are desert anywhere. We do not sure if are any other humans left. We have to move out becouse our last crop died. Once we encauntered some being in the cave. Its some kind of big wolf or bear. To weak to fight off, but this creature also too weak to attack. It follows us on the horison and watch if we ever stop moving.
Thats not exactly what OP asked, but it shows other side of the coin. Until the end of out journey we kinda bond with creature, it became part of our own, because its only thing alive except us left. Or maybe its just twisted psychology thing like stockholm syndrome.

>>49140887
He's like the Saint of Killers' mentally retarded cousin

>>49161863
>dat bulge
Unf

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>>49161863

>>49144391
That's not scary that's just dumb

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>>49140346
Did this once with a hulking suit of armor.
The party freaked the fuck and out tried everything to kill it from afar, they would think they finally won, but he'd show up again later, even if they buried the armor under rubble or tricked it into a pit.
Finally, when they were trapped in a tomb, the armor caught up with them, lifted it's mangled visor and said, Message for you sirs, the great Lich of the North accepts your alliance, please, accept this enchanted armor as a token of his generosity.

"You have to sleep sometime." - t. My Grandma

>>49140346
Get it a horse.

Have it heading towards something that the party doesn't want it to reach. THEY might be able to out walk it but a city is stuck where it's at. Even if they convince the whole place to evacuate you could have some sort of mystical focal point or what have you that they can't let it reach.

>>49144784
Beautiful.

>>49159248
It breaks out.

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>>49165105
And it's pissed

>>49146277
Unerring implacable energy being. Doesn't need a ship. Floats through all but the most energy draining and expensive EM/plasma/energy shielding. Flies through space directly toward the players at potentially high speeds. Slowed by natural or artificial gravity.

>>49165105
>it breaks out
Yeah, into the Astral plane.

>>49140374
Step 1: sail across ocean
Step 2: calculate velocity and distance
Step 3: when it is near the shore, sail back

Also, if it's literally walking across, it'll probably fall into some ocean trench or tectonic crevasse.

If the pressure isn't enough to kill it, it will still take forever to climb up

>>49140467
>Have it go after the unsuspecting people the characters care for rather than the player characters themselves.
>Send an unstoppable kill machine after the players loved ones for cheap drama

Do you want murderhobos?

Because that's how you get murderhobos.

>>49140346
This quote would be perfect.
>"It can't be bargained with, it can't be reasoned with... It doesn't feel "pity", or "remorse", or "fear"! And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead!"

>>49167999
Are you really gonna comfort like that then you go to sleep?

>>49140346
In addition to what >>49140374 said:
Make it ignore height. I think I'd only do that when off screen though. Your players manage to lure it into a pitfall? As soon as it is out of their sight he walks into the wall of the pitfall and appears at the edge at the top. Kinda as if glitching in a vidya. And he always covers X horizontal miles when walking. Crossing a mountain that is 1mi across takes him no longer than crossing a plain field that is 1mi across.

>>49140596
https://www.youtube.com/shared?ci=Dp1lSFqi10w

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>>49140520

>>49169468
>Problem that can come up in almost every game
>Basically entirely dependent on player mindset and builds
>"Stop playing D&D"

Please kill yourself. I guarantee everyone will be happier for it.

>>49159248
Anon there's no guarantee that any DM with any common sense would allow that. Defeats the purpose of having a unstoppable monster if it can be stopped so easily.

>>49169797
>The monster astrally projects itself back to reality and becomes even more unstoppable.

Actually, an astrally projected enemy from another material plane could be a pretty good unstoppable enemy. He just goes poof when he dies, then comes back a day later when he's regained his spells.

>>49140346
Isn't there something in Pathfinder that turns a monster into a slasher villain, including off-screen FTL that allows them to follow you everywhere as long as you're not directly looking at them, making them stupidly powerful and tough to fight and have an aura that makes the PCs trip over nothing and their horses not starting no matter how many times you whip them and randomly locking doors for no good reason?

>>49169545
I've told stories about major problems that came up in Savage Worlds and that pic shows up.

There are certain pics that should end in an autoban.

>>49141426
Oh god. Stop.

The scariest part of that movie was knowing that no matter what I do, I'll never have the time I spent watching that back.

>>49169928
>autoban
I first read that as autobaHn and thought to myself "why? so they can throw themselves onto it?"