History DemonicSpiders / Roguelikes

** The regular Crystal Caves are bad enough with [[Dangerous Terrain the sticky webbing on the ground]] hampering your movement in places, but it also contains two kinds of enemies you'll quickly learn to respect: literal DemonicSpiders with quick, erratic movement skittering about and [[BeamSpam Laser]] [[FrickinLaserBeams Crystals]] that can either pick you off at a distance or even [[OneHitKill kill you instantly]] if you so much as ''brush against them''. Now try entering the level with a [[EvilWeapon Cursed]] [[StuckItems Weapon]] in your inventory and watch as all the enemies become much, ''much'' deadlier: the Crystal Spiders now have a chance of replicating when killed, the Laser Crystals shoot much faster and more often on top of blinking around randomly, sometimes right on top of you if you get within melee range, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and both types now have reversed color schemes]]. Oh, and the ''entire floor'' is now completely webbed up [[SarcasmMode for your convenience]].

** Now, imagine a sniper with about eight times the HP, a rapid-fire attack, a bigger spread on its bullets, and a larger explosion on death, and you have the Snow Tank. The only redeeming factor about them is that they actually have a delayed explosion, giving you a second to run for cover.

* A large number of enemies are brutal in the {{roguelike}} ''{{Spelunky}}''. While common enemies like the [[GoddamnedBats bats]] aren't too difficult to kill, some are just plain evil:

** Hurna Riders (goblins riding Rhinos). Each time a door is opened, you gain resources for that turn, but monsters can spawn from any unpowered rooms that aren't occupied by heroes. Hurna Riders have the ability to smash down doors in a few hits. They target a random locked door and attempt to reach it and smash it down, and if they succeed at doing so, it can spawn a huge amount of monsters (including more Hurna Riders to smash more doors!) that will eventually overwhelm you.

** Chimera Keepers. Let them grow too big and they can destroy a team of four heroes easily due to their high regenerating health and heavy area damage. Even worse is the fact that they provide regeneration and attack boost to all other monsters in the dungeon while reducing the chance of dust drops. They also spawn in dark rooms, forcing your heroes to get through the waves of monsters to even reach them.

** Now, imagine a sniper with about three times the HP, a rapid-fire attack, a bigger spread on its bullets, and a larger explosion on death, and you have the Snow Tank. The only redeeming factor about them is that they actually have a delayed explosion, giving you a second to run for cover.

* ''ZAngband'' has [[CalvinAndHobbes The Disembodied Hand That Strangled People]]. The name says it all.

** Hurna Riders (goblins riding Rhinos) from . Each time a door is opened, you gain resources for that turn, but monsters can spawn from any unpowered rooms that aren't occupied by heroes. Hurna Riders have the ability to smash down doors in a few hits. They target a random locked door and attempt to reach it, and if they succeed at doing so, it can spawn a huge amount of monsters (including more Hurna Riders to smash more doors!) that will eventually overwhelm you.

* Hurna Riders (goblins riding Rhinos) from ''VideoGame/DungeonOfTheEndless''. Each time a door is opened, you gain resources for that turn, but monsters can spawn from any unpowered rooms that aren't occupied by heroes. Hurna Riders have the ability to smash down doors in a few hits. They target a random locked door and attempt to reach it, and if they succeed at doing so, it can spawn a huge amount of monsters (including more Hurna Riders to smash more doors!) that will eventually overwhelm you.

* Hurna Riders (goblins riding Rhinos) from ''VideoGame/DungeonOfTheEndless''. Each time a door is opened, you gain resources for that turn, but monsters can spawn from any unpowered rooms that aren't occupied by heroes. Hurna Riders have the ability to smash down doors in a few hits (and in fact prioritize doing so), which can spawn a huge amount of monsters that will eventually overwhelm you. If that's not enough, they can also spawn in an unexplored room to smash down the door whenever monsters spawn.

* ''[[TalesOfMajEyal TOME]]'':

*** Since the 2012 version (0.34.11), zombies in some evil biomes may spontaneously rise from the dead. The catch is that "zombie" does not necessarily have to be a whole creature -- body parts, bones, skin, hair, and even ''mussel shells'' can rise from the dead. That angry goblin corpse that your swordsdwarf killed? [[NiceJobBreakingItHero You've only made more zombies by cutting it up.]]

* Anything with a projectile-based weapon in ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress''. On paper, arrows and bolts deal about as much damage as any other attack (non-players, please note that 'any other attack' is in this case a hit from a spear, and that a particularly fine kitten-bone bolt does as much damage as a basic iron spear). However, they deal 'piercing' damage, which means that any arrow that hits will more than likely deliver fatal damage to your various organs. Not only that, but they seem to completely ignore armor all together, are nearly unblockable, rarely miss or 'glance away', meaning that if that arrow has your name on it and it hits you, you'll probably end up on the ground bleeding to death. Worse yet, archers and such have virtually no attack delay, meaning that they fire off shots like they're holding a machine gun more than a piece of wood with string attached. In Adventure mode, they can also shoot at you from several screens away, meaning that your Legendary Swordmaster, who can effortlessly fight off entire crowds of foes and strike down Demons without taking a single hit, can be killed by a single wooden arrow fired by a novice archer that shouldn't even be able to see you. And then, on Fortress Mode, you can have entire armies of bowmen descend upon you, perforating your champions with dozens upon dozens of missiles the minute the idiots stagger outside to do battle. It's a frustrating experience, but then again, most Roguelikes are. Fortunately, [[GameBreaker traps]] are an effective method of dealing with goblin sieges. Editing the text files containing the damage values for bolts and arrows is another option.
** Elephants used to be the most feared and revered animal in the history of ''DF'', their brutality unmatched. One good example of this was Boatmurdered; packs of elephants would suddenly attack and eat dwarves, their enormous tusks gleaming red with blood. Such was their brutality that they were named the king of all beasts, and a undead elephant was a symbol in itself in dwarven culture and society to mean brutality, terror, death and destruction.
** Appropriately enough, DF also has the dreaded Giant Cave Spiders, which can immobilise you with webs before you've even seen them, completely paralyse you within a few rounds, and are entirely capable of reducing you to a soggy pile of Dwarf Chunks with their basic melee attacks.

** In older versions, nothing but sheer terror awaited dwarves that settled near a stream or river thanks to carp. They attack creatures outside of water as if they were in, even though they're half the size of a dwarf. Their default attack did 1-6 damage, compared to a dwarven punch of 1-2 damage. Coupled with the fact that dwarves are not known for their swimming habits and can be dragged underwater in the blink of an eye, or even just "dodging" into the lake, it got so bad that [[WordOfGod Toady One himself]] said "I think I made the fish too hardcore." They've since been toned down, but their reputation as stone-cold dwarf killers remains.

** Circa [=DF2012=], the King of Beasts is the fuzzy ball of anger, hate, and claws known as the badger. A single badger is no threat, but they move in huge pack able to skillfully rip even an armored dwarf to death in seconds. Worse yet, there are also Giant Badgers; no one who has ever seen a Giant Badger has lived to tell the tale. As if one [[TurnsRed becoming enraged]] at the slightest provocation and effortlessly ripping a dwarf to bloody ribbons alone wasn't enough, they also come in large packs that can even swarm and kill a full armored military squad. Adventurers can handle badgers fine enough, though.

** The 2012 version features "husks", zombie-like monsters with a singular hate for all life. Certain evil biomes feature clouds that turn normal creatures into husks; once they're turned, they're nigh impossible to kill and powerful to the point of being broken. Oh, and they tend to be covered in the dust that caused them to turn, which makes more husks if you touch it. [[OhCrap And they keep all the combat skills they had before they got husked]]. [[http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=101438.0 This thread from the forums]] suggests that not even [[spoiler:'''''DEMONS''''']] can stand toe-to-toe with a swarm, or even a small band of husks.
** Giant keas are surprisingly lethal for what are basically overgrown parrots with serious kleptomania. They run on a policy of step one, go into fortress; step two, try to steal stuff; step three, kill every dwarf they come across. While they ''can'' be killed, they're still fast-moving, high-damage dwarfrippers.
** And then there's Giant Sponges before [=DF2014=]. Yes, sea sponges. Your dwarves' ArtificialStupidity makes them fight sponges to the death-- and since sponges have no vital organs, blood or even targetable limbs, they're effectively immortal, so the dwarves either drown trying to reach them or get pushed to death. (Yes, they have a slam attack. [[LogicBomb Despite being immobile]].)
** As a corollary to all of the above, anything else can be included on the list as long as its a [[OurZombiesAreDifferent zombie]]. Zombified creatures don't feel pain, which means [[CriticalExistenceFailure they will not stop attacking until destroyed]]. Back in the day they couldn't be destroyed at all since they didn't have vital organs; a later patch turned zombies into the first enemies in the game to have HitPoints. And yes indeed, long-time players keep modding zombified creatures in to make their game even harder.

** Most quadruped enemies are {{Mighty Glacier}}s; slow, but obscenely powerful once they get close. Except NetHack tends to deemphasize the 'glacier' part, while focusing on the might. The most infamous of these is the mumak, a ferocious war elephant with a headbutt attack that does ''4d12'' damage. At the levels you're likely to start encountering them, a couple of those can almost certainly kill you, and they get multiple attacks per turn, at least one of which will be a headbutt.

*** Finally, you have the big two: Ancient Liches and Orbs of Fire. Ancient liches are horrifyingly powerful undead conjurers with broad spell lists; they can summon greater demons to torment you and blast you with hellfire, melt your equipment with acid, cast you into [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace the Abyss]], raise zombies to mob you, turn invisible at will, or just freeze, fry, stake, or drain you to death. Orbs of fire lack an ancient lich's versatility, but make up for it with sheer power; they are extremely fast, beefy enough to tank several strong hits, have near-perfect elemental resistances, and can either roast you with brutally powerful fire magic or mutate you to death.

*** Moths of Wrath berserk anything within four tiles of them, and they are ''everywhere'' in Zot.

** Jellies are usually not a problem for any caster, but melee fighters can severely damage their equipment trying to fight them unless they have artifacts, highly enchanted equipment, or dwarven equipment. It gets worse for ranged fighters, as jellies heal by eating the ammo you throw at them-- unless it's rocks, which don't do that much damage in general. Luckily, they are quite slow so unless you get cornered you can usually get them.

* Anything with a projectile-based weapon in ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress''. On paper, arrows and bolts deal about as much damage as any other attack (non-players, please note that 'any other attack' is in this case a hit from a spear, and that a particularly fine kitten-bone bolt does as much damage as a basic iron spear). However, they deal 'piercing' damage, which means that any arrow that hits will more than likely deliver fatal damage to your various organs. Not only that, but they seem to completely ignore armor all together, are nearly unblockable, rarely miss or 'glance away', meaning that if that arrow has your name on it and it hits you, you'll probably end up on the ground bleeding to death. Worse yet, archers and such have virtually no attack delay, meaning that they fire off shots like they're holding a machine gun more than a piece of wood with string attached. In Adventure mode, they can also shoot at you from several screens away, meaning that your Legendary Swordmaster, who can effortlessly fight off entire crowds of foes and strike down Demons without taking a single hit, can be killed by a single wooden arrow fired by a novice archer that shouldn't even be able to see you. And then, on Fortress Mode, you can have entire armies of bowmen descend upon you, perforating your champions with dozens upon dozens of missiles the minute the idiots stagger outside to do battle. It's a frustrating experience, but then again, most Roguelikes are.
** Fortunately, [[GameBreaker traps]] are an effective method of dealing with goblin sieges.
*** Editing the text files containing the damage values for bolts and arrows is another option.

** Appropriately enough, ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'' also has the dreaded Giant Cave Spiders, which can immobilise you with webs before you've even seen them, completely paralyse you within a few rounds, and are entirely capable of reducing you to a soggy pile of Dwarf Chunks with their basic melee attacks.

** Circa DF2012, the King of Beasts is the fuzzy ball of anger, hate, and claws known as the badger. A single badger is no threat, but they move in huge pack able to skillfully rip even an armored dwarf to death in seconds. Worse yet, there are also Giant Badgers; no one who has ever seen a Giant Badger has lived to tell the tale. As if one [[TurnsRed becoming enraged]] at the slightest provocation and effortlessly ripping a dwarf to bloody ribbons alone wasn't enough, they also come in large packs that can even swarm and kill a full armored military squad. Adventurers can handle badgers fine enough, though.

** And then there's Giant Sponges before DF2014. Yes, sea sponges. Your dwarves' ArtificialStupidity makes them fight sponges to the death-- and since sponges have no vital organs, blood or even targetable limbs, they're effectively immortal, so the dwarves either drown trying to reach them or get pushed to death. (Yes, they have a slam attack. [[LogicBomb Despite being immobile]].)

** The earliest ones the players encounters are the orc priests, often found before level 5 of the dungeon. They have a smite attack allowing them to kill you with [[HolyHandGrenade holy wrath from their god]] while standing safely behind a couple of regular orcs that shield them from anything you could cast at them. The best defense at this point is having a spell with an area of effect, which is part of the reason Mephitic Cloud (as the only low-level area spell, which has the benefit of disabling casting) is so damn unseful.

** Jellies are usually not a problem for any caster, but melee fighter can severely damage their equipment trying to fight them, unless they have already found some artifacts, highly enchanted equipment, or dwarven equipment. It gets worse for ranged fighter as they heal by eating the ammo you throw at them, unless it's rocks, which don't do that much damage in general. Luckily, they are quite slow so unless you get cornered you can usually get them.
** Pretty much any eyeball-type monster, but the crown goes to the humble giant eyeball. If it can see you, it can paralyze you. Doesn't matter if there's monsters, clouds of gas, or even transparent walls in the way, if you're in its line of sight, you are at risk of paralysis, unless you have stasis. Honorable mention goes to shining eyes, which will repeatedly mutate you into a weak, twisted mockery of yourself, and eyes of destruction, which fire irresistible energy bolts.
** The Spider Nest is a branch that has one chance out of two of appearing instead of the Snake Pit in a game. As the name implies, it's full of spiders, and unless you are poison resistant (or even better, poison immune, which means you are playing a Gargoyle or an undead) many of those qualify as DemonicSpiders. Some have an extremely nasty poison that will bring down the toughest characters in a few turns, which can quickly burn through your stash of potions of healing. Some have an attack that confuses the character, allowing their allies to swarm you. Some throw insanely powerful orbs of destruction at you while staying on the edge of your line of sight. And worst of all, the ghost moth. It's invisible, extremely tough, very fast, it eats away you magic just by being in your field of vision (except you can't see it... because it's invisible), and has a confusion-inducing melee attack. Oh, and unlike most of the denizens of the Spider Nest, it's also poison resistant.
** Almost every monster specific to the Abyss, with the exception of abominations, is a DemonicSpider. One of the worst offenders is probably the Wretched Star, which has a smiting attack that gives you bad mutations. Those mutations go away eventually as you kill monster, but it's not that easy to kill things when you're considerably slower than monsters, have -30% HP and MP as well as diminished stats, don't regenerate HP anymore, shout regularly to attract monster's attentions and have a 30% chance of failure when using scrolls.
** Nearly everything in [[TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon The Realm of Zot]]:

*** Orb Guardians, found in the Orb of Zot's chamber, are simple melee attackers, except they're fast, tough enough to soak up lots of abuse, hit like a truck, and like to swarm you while you're engaged with some of the more exotic monsters in Zot. While difficult normally, they become nigh-unstoppable when they're enraged by a...
*** Moth of Wrath. These guys can berserk anything within four tiles of them, and they are ''everywhere'' in Zot.

** The true demonic spiders of dwarf fortress are the [[spoiler:demons, appropriately enough]]. Not because they are individually tough, not because they fly, only partly because they're stealthy and avoid traps, but mostly because some of them set everything nearby on fire AND breathe massive bursts of fire. On the positive side, you'll never get more than a few dozen on any one map, and if you defeat them all you can then amuse yourself by chucking garbage and enemies into Hell.
*** That was written before the 2010 update. The Hidden Fun Stuff is more difficult to conquer now: [[spoiler:The number of demons is now either ''several billion'' or ''infinite'' - nobody seems quite certain so far - and some of them, lacking multiple body parts or vital organs and blood, are functionally immortal.]] Evidently the developer decided the old version was too easy.
** Nothing but sheer terror when a lake or stream is nearby due to carp. They attack creatures outside of water as if they were in (a creature half the size of a dwarf mind you). Their default attack is a bite that does 1-6, compared to a dwarven punch of 1-2 damage. Coupled with the fact that dwarves are not known for their swimming habits and can be dragged underwater in the blink of an eye, or even just "dodging" into the lake. It's so bad their nickname amongst the in-crowd has been known as the "Aquatic doombringer." Best suggestion when greeted with carp at the beginning of a game: restart.
*** The horror is unmatched when you encounter carp on a map that can generate undead. As undead carp can ''leave the water'', and drag screaming dwarves out of their beds to their doom in the lake...
**** ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'': we promise nothing but amphibious zombie whales that silently infiltrate your fortress.
*** "I think I made fish too hardcore" -[[WordOfGod Toady One]]. "Carp" are said to stand for "Creatures of Awful Ravenous Power."

** The Crown of All Beasts now rests on the fuzzy ball of anger, hate, and claws known as the badger. A single badger is no threat, but they move in huge pack able to skillfully rip even an armored dwarf to death in seconds. Worse yet, there are also Giant Badgers; no one who has ever seen a Giant Badger has lived to tell the tale. As if one [[TurnsRed becoming enraged]] at the slightest provocation and effortlessly ripping a dwarf to bloody ribbons alone wasn't enough, they also come in large packs that can even swarm and kill a full armoured military squad.
*** Not for adventurers--you can run away from giant badgers. The real fear of the adventuring wanderer is the bogeymen, who spawn in mid-sized numbers, are VERY good at dodging, can teleport to you if you run away, and only appear in total darkness. Despite being small, they can sometimes KICK IN YOUR SKULL THROUGH A STEEL HELMET. And they don't need to be great, because they dodge enough that it is almost impossible to hit one! Oh, and some can fly. The only good thing about them is that even a single companion will stop them from spawning, but it is very possible to be attacked and killed while you go to a fortress to get a companion who won't get killed on your first quest, or while going back to civilization after all of your companions died in a quest. Not much fun, but lots of [[InsistentTerminology Fun]].

** And then there's Giant Sponges. Yes, sea sponges. Your dwarves' ArtificialStupidity makes them fight sponges to the death- and since sponges have no vital organs, blood or even targetable limbs, they're unkillable, so the dwarves either drown trying to reach them or get pushed to death. (Yes, they have a slam attack. [[LogicBomb Despite being immobile]].)

* ''VideoGame/DoomTheRoguelike'' has Arch-Viles. They revive the dead. Normally one could leave the entry at that, but they're also much faster than the player (unless geared for maximum speed) and have an undodgeable attack that hits for 20 damage. This can be lowered by resistances, but 20 damage is a lot - for reference, the most a player can start with is 60. Oh, and [[ThatOneLevel they have a level dedicated to them.]]
** There's more than just that. Pretty much everyone that was a DemonicSpider in the original keeps the status here, and some that were not that bad got horrid here, like the Mancubi, who are ''much'' harder to dodge, and getting caught by the three rockets when near a wall is usually a death sentence.

** As known by the [=DoomRL=] community, the VMR (Archviles, Mancubi, and Revenants). Archviles have the most HP of any non-boss and non-nightmare monster, are one of the fastest monsters, have a very powerful attack that can only be dodged if your speed is fast enough, and most importantly, are capable of fully reviving any dead monster in their sight. Mancubi have very high HP and high natural armor, and have the deadliest attack of any monster in the game (which consists of them firing three rockets that individually deal very high damage, and have a large splash radius that can result in you getting hit by all three if you're near a wall, resulting in extreme damage if not an instant kill), though they are hindered by their extremely low speed and being easy to corner shoot. Revenants, while not having as high of HP as the other high tier monsters, are fast and shoot a powerful projectile with a splash radius that aims at the tile the player was standing on, which results in their attack never missing. The threat of the VMR can be easily nerfed though, as they all deal fire damage in their projectile attack, and fire damage is very easy to gain resistance to (a simple fireproof armor assembly on Red Armor will give the player a Red Armor with 55% fire resistance, which can even make the full brunt of a Mancubi blast easily brushed off). There's also the Fireangel perk if you really, ''really'', '''''really''''' hate these guys, which makes you completely immune to splash damage, nerfing them even more at the cost of other master perks.

** Above all else are the dreaded Orbs of Fire, found only in TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon. High speed, high HP, near-perfect elemental immunity, absolutely ''brutal'' fire magic, and the ability to cause bad mutations, all stacked together into a monster that can kill even the most well-kitted out adventurer.

** Shotgunners, of all enemies, are a starting melee build's worst nightmare. Most other attacks can be dodged with the right perks. Shotguns cannot -- and unless you have Badass or armor that acts to reduce your knockback, chances are you may very well end up dead without even getting close enough to them to do your job.

* ''VideoGame/DoomTheRoguelike'' has the Unholy Trinity of Revenants, Mancubi and Archviles, all of which can end a run in seconds.
** Just like their Doom II counterparts, Revenants fire homing rockets, with all the headaches that explosive weapons tend to cause in this game (wrecking walls, setting off barrels, destroying items, etc). They ALWAYS hit their target tile, which makes dodging pretty much useless. They're also 50% resistant to bullets, making pistol builds and chaingun-focused autofire builds a liability.
** Mancubi fire three rockets at a time, one down the middle and two from each side. They also fire a second volley regardless of whether they see you or not.
** And Archviles, just like their Doom II counterparts, can not only ruin your day in a hurry with their fire attack, but they can resurrect any monster they find and bring them back into action against you. And worse, they're immune to lava, so blowing them into the pits is not going to work.

* VideoGame/DoomTheRoguelike has the Unholy Trinity of Revenants, Mancubi and Archviles, all of which can end a run in seconds.

* ''[[TalesOfMajEyal TOME]]'' has the [[TheLordOfTheRings Nazgul aka the Ringwraiths.]] If they hit you, you get infected by the Black Breath, which slowly drains your stats and hard-earned experience. If you hit ''them'' it destroys your weapon and gives you Black Breath, and it doesn't even hurt them if it isn't a magical weapon. Magical weapons count...but they get damaged, and it's very hard to fix them. This is in addition to the other magical attacks and summons they can do. Oh, and even if you luck out and "kill" them, they'll keep coming BackFromTheDead until Sauron is killed. Permanently, as Sauron will keep coming back until the One Ring is either used or destroyed. Not a bad depiction of them, actually.
** More annoying to me are [=RNGs=], when you first meet them, in the forest. One is easy to kill. But they breed, so if they are awake you'll be facing more than one. They hit to confuse, meaning you can't aim attacks, or use any escape/healing magic. (And they occur several levels before confusion resist becomes common.) Oh, and they can move through trees, so that forest that's limiting your sightlines and probably hindering your movement? Yeah, the'll come straight through that.