History DemonicSpiders / Runescape

* Pretty much ''[[EverythingTryingToKillYou everything]]'' on Ape Atoll, unless you're a monkey. The spiders and scorpions, despite being tiny, can easily smack you with nasty poison and respawn almost instantly after death. The monkeys come in packs and can deal ungodly damage, and the zombie and skeletal varieties in the gnome tunnel will mob you if you give them the chance.

** The giant swamp snakes. Not only do they have powerful, fast melee and magic attacks, pack hefty HP, and come in packs, but unlike the other nasty monsters (shades, snails, ghasts, and nail beasts), they can't be easily distracted from your companion. When you enter the area for the event, you're almost guaranteed to get swarmed, with several of them focusing on your companion. If you don't have enough food in your companion, or are not quick to distract them with the Provoke ability, then you're screwed, and it can be outright impossible on the hard route without Provoke.

* Revenants, powerful Wilderness-dwelling ghosts that can attack from all three corners of the combat triangle. They will ZergRush you as soon as you enter their lair, the Forinthry Dungeon (in ''3'') or the Revenant Caves (in ''Old School''), which can be deadly considering they can hit almost as hard as (and in some cases harder than) players of similar combat level (though in ''3'' there is an item you can use to make them non-aggressive). They also have the ability to rapidly heal themselves when their health drops low, so you'll probably spend more time killing them than you would want to. It certainly doesn't help that you can be attacked by [[PlayerKilling PKers]] at any time, and given how valuable some of their drops are, [[ParanoiaFuel you're very likely to encounter a PKing team there at some point]]. They were worse when they were originally introduced into the Wilderness as a replacement for [=PKers=] following the infamous 12-10-07 update to remove [[PlayerVersusPlayer PvP]] in the Wilderness. Not only did they roam all around the Wilderness, but they could teleblock and bind you in addition to their healing powers and high damage output, not to mention that if you could succesfully kill them, their drops were much worse than what they currently are (their original best drop was a measly ''dragon scimitar''). Thankfully, when PlayerKilling returned about three years later, they were contained in the aforementioned Forinthry Dungeon, and also lost their bind and teleblock powers.

* Revenants, powerful Wilderness-dwelling ghosts that can attack from all three corners of the combat triangle. They will ZergRush you as soon as you enter their lair, the Forinthry Dungeon, which can be deadly considering they can hit almost as hard as (and in some cases harder than) players of similar combat level (though there is an item you can use to make them non-aggressive). They also have the ability to rapidly heal themselves when their health drops low, so you'll probably spend more time killing them than you would want to. It certainly doesn't help that you can be attacked by [[PlayerKilling PKers]] at any time, and given how valuable some of their drops are, [[ParanoiaFuel you're very likely to encounter a PKing team there at some point]]. They were worse when they were originally introduced into the Wilderness as a replacement for [=PKers=] following the infamous 12-10-07 update to remove [[PlayerVersusPlayer PvP]] in the Wilderness. Not only did they roam all around the Wilderness, but they could teleblock and bind you in addition to their healing powers and high damage output, not to mention that if you could succesfully kill them, their drops were much worse than what they currently are (their original best drop was a measly ''dragon scimitar''). Thankfully, when PlayerKilling returned about three years later, they were contained in the aforementioned Forinthry Dungeon, and also lost their bind and teleblock powers.

** Celestial Dragons have been given a major buff compared to their rather tame surface counterparts. Instead of using their time control powers to stun you, they use it to heal themselves for large amounts during a fight. It can be stopped by stunning them, but the healing comes instantly and has no delay before it happens, unlike the surface versions, so if they start healing while your stuns are on cooldown, you will have to put up with their hard-hitting magic for that much longer.

** The tribesmen on Karamja. Though not very strong by any means, if they damage you, you'll be smacked with a deadly poison that can deal 11 damage per hit - a lot of damage for ''Old School [=RuneScape=]'', and nearly three times what their actual attacks can hit. Thankfully, there is a shop that sells antipoisons if you get hit with it, and they stop bothering you once you reach level 65 combat.
** Cave crawlers, for similar reasons as the aforementioned Tribesmen. Although they're not aggressive, and their poison isn't as dangerous as the tribesmen's poison (though it can still hit 8s), what makes them DemonicSpiders is the fact that they are a Slayer monster, which means that you may sometimes be ''required'' to kill them. Worse yet, you can receive these from even the lowest level Slayer master at as low as level 10 Slayer. If your combat level is under 20 and you get them as a task, well, you'd better hope you brought antipoisons. Fortunately, there are safespots in most of their locations.
** The Temple Trekking swamp snakes are much more dangerous in ''Old School'' than they are in ''[=RuneScape=] 3''. Not only are their attacks faster, but once they start attacking your follower, there's no distracting them unlike in ''[=RS3=]''. If you don't kill them quickly, your follower won't stand a chance against their heavy damage output.
** Waterfiends. It's bad enough that they have accurate, hard-hitting attacks, but what makes them frustrating to kill is their obscene defence against anything that isn't a crushing attack. Most good melee weapons on ''Old School'' tend to be stab or slash weapons. Decent crush weapons are few and far in between, and the best ones cost quite a lot, while still being worse than similarly-levelled weapons like the Abyssal Whip. Not at all helped by their average-at-best drop table, inconvenient locations, and the fact that they are a very common assignment from high-level Slayer masters.
* The [=TokHaar=]-Ket-Zek, [=TokHaar=]-Tok-Xil, and [=TokHaar=]-Yt-[=MejKot=] found in the [=TokHaar=] Fight Kiln and Fight Cauldron. All of them do hideous amounts of damage, possibly hitting for well over a thousand damage. The Ket-Zek uses magic and melee, the Tok-Xil uses ranged and melee, while the [=MejKot=] sticks exclusively to melee.

** Waterfiends. It's bad enough that they have accurate, hard-hitting attacks, but what makes them frustrating to kill is their obscene defence against anything that isn't a crushing attack. Most good melee weapons on ''Old School'' tend to be stab or slash weapons. Decent crush weapons are few and far in between, and the best ones cost quite a lot, while still being worse than similarly-levelled weapons like the Abyssal Whip. Not at all helped by their poor drop table, inconvenient locations, and the fact that they are a very common assignment from high-level Slayer masters.

**

** Reborn Mages on Warped floors. In addition to being able to drain your stats and remove your Shadow Silk Hood's effects (if you have one) like Forgotten Mages, they can also summon hard-hitting Reborn Warriors that attack with melee. As if this wasn't enough, they can even ''follow you into other rooms''.

** Cave crawlers, for similar reasons as the aforementioned Tribesmen. Although they're not aggressive, and their poison isn't as dangerous as the tribesmen's poison (though it can still hit 8s), what makes them DemonicSpiders is the fact that they are a Slayer monster, which means that you may sometimes be ''required'' to kill them. Worse yet, you can receive these from even the lowest level Slayer master at as low as level 10 Slayer. If your combat level is under 20 and you get them as a task, well, good luck. Fortunately, there are safespots in most of their locations.

* [[DegradedBoss Tormented Demons]] are one of the hardest and most complicated enemies in the game. Like Edimuus, they are very aggressive and several may attack you at once, and have very powerful attacks, but they are far worse. Although they have much less health than Edimuus and don't heal themselves, they more than make up it by using BarrierChangeBoss mechanics. They start with a fire shield that blocks 75% of all damage which can only be removed by damaging them with Darklight or Holy Water, and they can use protection prayers that block 100% damage from one combat style at a time (even at the same time as the fire shield), and they can also use all three combat styles, forcing you to frequently switch weapons and protection prayers while fighting them.

* Revenants, powerful Wilderness-dwelling ghosts that can attack from all three corners of the combat triangle. They will ZergRush you as soon as you enter their lair, the Forinthry Dungeon, which can be deadly considering they can hit almost as hard as (and in some cases harder than) players of similar combat level (though there is an item you can use to make them non-aggressive). They also have the ability to rapidly heal themselves when their health drops low, so you'll probably spend more time killing them than you would want to. It certainly doesn't help that you can be attacked by [[PlayerKilling PKers]] at any time, and given how valuable some of their drops are, [[ParanoiaFuel you're very likely to encounter a PKing team there at some point]]. They were worse when they were originally introduced into the Wilderness as a replacement for [=PKers=] following the infamous 12-10-07 update to remove PvP in the Wilderness. Not only did they roam all around the Wilderness, but they could teleblock and bind you in addition to their healing powers and high damage output, not to mention that if you could succesfully kill them, their drops were much worse than what they currently are (their original best drop was a measly ''dragon scimitar''). Thankfully, when PlayerKilling returned about three years later, they were contained in the aforementioned Forinthry Dungeon, and also lost their bind and teleblock powers.

** Iorwerth and Cadarn elves in Prifddinas. Unlike most ability-using monsters, their adrenaline meter is constantly locked at 50%, enabling them to use threshold abilities [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard without having to build it up]]. It's not terribly uncommon to attack a Cadarn Magus and have him immediately stunlock you with an Asphyxiate combo. Worse yet, while the elves are not aggressive, it's not horribly uncommon for high level players with access to Morvran (the game's highest-levelled Slayer master) to teleport to him while still under the effects of their aggression potions from a prior task, and immediately get [[ZergRush piled]] ([[CurbStompBattle and likely murdered]]) in the process of trying to get a new task. At least there are several banks and even a prayer altar within walking distance.

* How about a few from the SpinOff, ''Old School [=RuneScape=]''?[[note]]Most of these wouldn't count in ''[=RuneScape 3=]'' due to being either non-aggressive or much weaker.[[/note]]

* How about a few from the SpinOff, ''Old School [=RuneScape=]''?[[note]]Most of these are either non-aggressive or much weaker in ''[=RuneScape 3=].[[/note]]''

* Goraks, extradimensional monsters that can ignore prayer, hit excessively hard, and drain your stats. They're only found in a couple places (God Wars Dungeon and the Gorak Plane), but they're extremely aggressive and can be dangerous if you don't have a quick means of escape or a way to raise your stats back up. Just to add to that, their drops mostly consist of low-level weapons and pitiful amounts of gold.

* How about some old ones?
** In the older versions (as well as the current ''Old School'' version) of ''[=RuneScape=]'', you had the infamous Dark Wizards south of Varrock, the ultimate bane to new players' existence. Aggressive monsters with surprisingly strong magic attacks, they could kill any player fresh off Tutorial Island in as few as two hits. Newcomers would head up to Varrock for the first time, only to be picked off by the wizards on the way there and lose their tutorial gear. Making matters worse, their combat level was [[MinMaxing deceptively low for the damage they dealt]], and they could even give higher-levelled players a run for their money.
** Not as deadly as the dark wizards, but still a fair threat, were the Draynor jail guards. Even though they only hit half as hard as the aforementioned dark wizards, it was still enough to drop a new player in four hits. Compounding matters further, they were aggressive and located in a multicombat area less than a minute away from Lumbridge, the starting town. To new players just starting out, they were a nightmare to deal with, but they would gradually decrease to GoddamnedBats status as players gained levels. In fact, medium-leveled players sometimes even exploited their aggression and used them for training. Nowadays, not only are they much weaker than before, they are no longer even aggressive, averting the trope (at least in ''[=RuneScape=] 3'').
** There were also the tribesmen on Karamja. Though they weren't very strong by any means, if they damaged you, you'd be smacked with a deadly poison that could deal 11 damage per hit - a lot of damage back in the day, and nearly three times what their actual attacks could hit. This was so bad that it actually had to be nerfed at one point to 6 damage. Today, their poison is even weaker still... unless you're playing Old School, in which case their poison still deals the full 11 damage, though there is a shop that sells antipoisons if you get hit with it.

** Iorwerth and Cadarn elves in Prifddinas. Unlike most ability-using monsters, their adrenaline meter is constantly locked at 50%, enabling them to use threshold abilities [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard without having to build it up]]. It's not terribly uncommon to attack a Cadarn Magus and have him immediately stunlock you into an Asphyxiate combo.

** The giant snails themselves count, if you don't know the trick. They have devastating ranged attacks; even with melee armor, you'll still be taking a lot of damage quickly, and they can outright wreck your companion. The trick is to take a shell from one of the smaller snails you find in Mort Mire and chisel it into a helmet; wearing it reduces the damage their ranged attacks deal by 90-95%. [[GuideDangIt Naturally, this is explained nowhere in game, and only vaguely hinted at it in the official Runescape guide]].

** In the older versions (as well as the current "Old School" version) of Runescape, you had the infamous Dark Wizards south of Varrock, the ultimate bane to new players' existence. Aggressive monsters with surprisingly strong magic attacks, they could kill any player fresh off Tutorial Island in as few as two hits. Newcomers would head up to Varrock for the first time, only to be picked off by the wizards on the way there and lose their tutorial gear. Making matters worse, their combat level was [[MinMaxing deceptively low for the damage they dealt]], and they could even give higher-levelled players a run for their money.
** Not as deadly as the dark wizards, but still a fair threat, were the Draynor jail guards. Even though they only hit half as hard as the aforementioned dark wizards, it was still enough to drop a new player in four hits. Compounding matters further, they were aggressive and located in a multicombat area less than a minute away from Lumbridge, the starting town. To new players just starting out, they were a nightmare to deal with, but they would gradually decrease to GoddamnedBats status as players gained levels. In fact, medium-leveled players sometimes even exploited their aggression and used them for training. Nowadays, not only are they much weaker than before, they are no longer even aggressive, averting the trope (at least in Runescape 3).

** ''Dimension of Disaster'' has New Varrock guards. Not only can they use abilities, they also have no weakness and you can only bring very low level equipment to fight them, so you will struggle to kill just one of them. And if you attack any of them, all of the nearby guards will attack at you once. Good thing it isn't actually necessary to fight them.

* [[DegradedBoss Tormented Demons]] are one of the hardest and most complicated enemies in the game. Like Edimuus, they are very aggressive and several may attack you at once, and have very powerful attacks, but they are far worse. Although they have much less health than Edimuus and don't heal themselves, they more than make up it by using BarrierChangeBoss tactics. They start with a fire shield that blocks 75% of all damage which can only be removed by damaging them with Darklight or Holy Water, and they can use protection prayers that block 100% damage from one combat style at a time (even at the same time as the fire shield), and they can also use all three combat styles, forcing you to frequently switch weapons and protection prayers while fighting them.

* Edimmus in the Edimmu dungeon are a challenge to fight. Edimmus have very high health for their level and very accurate high damaging attacks. In Dungeoneering you will only encounter them one at a time, and although they take a long time to kill they aren't too difficult. But in the Edimmu dungeon, they are FAR more dangerous because they are very aggressive and several of them may attack you at the same time. And sometimes a Elite Edimmu will spawn. They have a ridiculous amound of health and take much longer to kill than standard Edimmus, and while you are fighting them it is likely that a large number of Edimmus will also attack you at the same time. Although you can avoid the elite Edimmus because they are not aggressive.
* [[DegradedBoss Tormented Demons]] are one of the hardest and most complicated enemies in the game. Like Edimuus, they are very aggressive and several may attack you at once, and have very powerful attacks, but they are far worse. Although they have much less health than Edimuus, they more than make up it by using BarrierChangeBoss tactics. They start with a fire shield that blocks 75% of all damage which can only be removed by damaging them with Darklight or Holy Water, and they can use protection prayers that block 100% damage from one combat style at a time (even at the same time as the fire shield), and they can also use all three combat styles, forcing you to frequently switch weapons and protection prayers while fighting.

* To those without at least level 90 gear and/or overloads, Airuts can also be this. No weakness, high defence that ''increases'' as they take damage, and powerful melee and ranged attacks already make this monster's case. However, what really makes them dangerous is their special attacks, where they pound their chest, then hit you for rapid, heavy damage. The only way to stop their special attack? You have to ''counter'' it with a specific threshold ability — Flurry for melee, Rapid Fire for ranged — and it only works ''while'' they're using their special attack, and ''only'' if you successfully damage them. Worst of all, they can use this special attack ''at any time'', meaning you could be stuck without a way to stop it (though you can fortunately reduce it with the correct protection prayers).

** Brutes. They're not as infuriating as the dungeon spiders and only appear on Furnished and Warped floors, but their attacks are utterly devastating, especially at higher levels where they will consistently hit into the 1000s. On furnished floors, they also feature in a puzzle room where you have to pickpocket them while they're asleep to obtain the key to the door. Failing to pickpocket them or making noise by running in the room and stepping on debris will result in you facing ''four'' of them at once.

* [[DegradedBoss Tormented Demons]] are one of the hardest and most complicated enemies in the game. Like Edimuus, they are very aggressive and several may attack you at once, and have very powerful attacks, but they are even worse. They are immune to all weapons until you hit them with either Darklight or Holy Water, and they can use protection prayers and all three combat styles, forcing you to switch weapons and protection prayers throughout the fight.

* ''Dimension of Disaster'' has New Varrock guards. Not only are they very strong, they can use abilities, they have no weakness, and you can only bring low level equipment to fight them, so you will struggle to kill just one of them. And if you attack any of them, all of the nearby guards will attack at you once. Good thing it isn't actually necessary to fight them.

* Pretty much any monster that can use abilities in combat, but in particular are the Iorwerth and Cadarn elves in Prifddinas. Their adrenaline meter is constantly locked at 50%, enabling them to use threshold abilities [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard without having to build it up]], whereas you do not have that luxury. It's not terribly uncommon to attack a Cadarn Magus and have him immediately stunlock you into an Asphyxiate combo.

* Revenants, powerful Wilderness-dwelling ghosts that can attack from all three corners of the combat triangle. They will ZergRush you as soon as you enter their lair, the Forinthry Dungeon, which can be deadly considering they can hit almost as hard as (and in some cases harder than) players of similar combat level (though there is an item you can use to make them non-aggressive). They also have the ability to rapidly heal themselves when their health drops low, so you'll probably spend more time killing them than you would want to. It certainly doesn't help that you can be attacked by [[PlayerKilling PKers]] at any time, and given how valuable some of their drops are, [[ParanoiaFuel you're very likely to encounter a PKing team there at some point]]. They were worse when they were originally introduced into the Wilderness as a replacement for [=PKers=] following the infamous 12-10-07 update to remove PvP in the Wilderness. Not only did they roam all around the Wilderness, but they could teleblock and bind you in addition to their healing powers and high damage output, not to mention that if you could succesfully kill them, their drops were much worse than what they currently are (their original best drop, barring clue scrolls, was a measly ''dragon scimitar''). Thankfully, when PlayerKilling returned about three years later, they were contained in the aforementioned Forinthry Dungeon, and also lost their bind and teleblock powers.

* Revenants, powerful Wilderness-dwelling ghosts that can attack from all three corners of the combat triangle. They will ZergRush you as soon as you enter their lair, the Forinthry Dungeon, which can be deadly considering they can hit almost as hard as (and in some cases harder than) players of similar combat level (though there is an item you can use to make them non-aggressive). They also have the ability to rapidly heal themselves when their health drops low, so you'll probably spend more time killing them than you would want to. It certainly doesn't help that you can be attacked by [[PlayerKilling PKers]] at any time, and given how valuable some of their drops are, [[ParanoiaFuel you're very likely to encounter a PKing team there at some point]]. They were worse when they were originally introduced into the Wilderness as a replacement for [=PKers=] following the infamous 12-10-07 update to remove PvP in the Wilderness. Not only did they roam all around the Wilderness, but they could teleblock and bind you in addition to their healing powers and high damage output, not to mention that if you could succesfully kill them, their drops were much worse than what they currently are (their original best drop was a measly ''dragon scimitar''). Thankfully, when PlayerKilling returned about three years later, they were contained in the aforementioned Forinthry Dungeon, and also lost their bind and teleblock powers.

** Forgotten Mages. Trying to get past all of those enemies in that one room with your Shadow Silk Hood? Good luck trying to pull it off without the hood's effects as they will promptly reveal you to the other monsters, who will promptly ZergRush you. It certainly doesn't help that they can bind you in place and lower your melee stats, making it frustrating to kill them with melee. Necromancers are similar, except instead of trying to bind you, they instead summon zombies to attack with melee.

** Forgotten Mages. Trying to get past all of those enemies in that one room with your Shadow Silk Hood? Good luck trying to pull it off without the hood's effects as they will promptly reveal you to the other monsters, resulting in you being [[ZergRush piled]]. It certainly doesn't help that they can lower your stats or bind you, making it frustrating to kill them with melee. Necromancers are similar, except instead of trying to bind you, they instead summon zombies to attack with melee.

** There were also the tribesmen on Karamja. Though they weren't very strong by any means, if they damaged you, you'd be smacked with a deadly poison that could deal 11 damage per hit - nearly three times what their actual attacks could hit. This was so bad that it actually had to be nerfed at one point to 6 damage. Thankfully, their poison is even weaker still... unless you're playing Old School, in which case their poison still deals the full 11 damage, though there is a shop that sells antipoisons if you get hit with it.