Least favorite monsters

[Pete Mack]

* kavlax. Black d is hard to see, and hard to distinguish from mature black dragon.
* black scorpion is hard to see, and can render you helpless in a single turn.
I once managed to confuse a carrion crawler for an orc captain, but that was just funny.

[Cryomaniac]

-Druj from vanilla (eye/skull variations in particular). They have very high chance of throwing a damaging spell at you every turn - and you can't lure them since they're immobile. They're a part of one of Hengband's nastiest quests, and ToME 2.x.x could have borderline unwinnable quest setups with them.

-Arch-viles in Hengband. They appear in early game, move at +20 speed (almost guaranteed to outspeed you at this point), and spam fireballs which can hurt even with rFire, and can destroy your inventory unless you have double resistance.

-Dark elven warlocks in Hengband. Early game opponents, appear in groups, move at +10 speed, can cast mana bolt, which deals a ton of damage at this point of game, can confuse.

-Gachapin in Hengband. Appears in early game, and has hard to resist chaos/toxic waste attacks; hydra summoning is more of an annoyance, but can end up being deadly in Cloning Pits. Can be one of possible quest monsters for level 24; overly cautious players might attempt to get rChaos before entering Angband 24

-Great fairies in Gensouband. Can appear in the Scarlet Devil Mansion overworld area (which otherwise is a good place for weaker characters), and can summon groups of other fairies around you.

-Koishi Komeiji in Gensouband. Late game unique, incredibly difficult to notice (messages describing her actions always refer to her as 'it' as if you couldn't see her, even if you have see invisible, and she's never displayed as a character on screen, like the It unique from Hengband), and has powerful spells.

[Pete Mack]

Those are all legitimate nasty monsters. My problem with the two I mentioned is purely UX, which is why they're particularly annoying.

[Cryomaniac]

In this case, I can mention Water hounds from 2.x.x. Visually similar to fire hounds, except instead of breathing fire for low damage, they cast water balls that are far more damaging. Likely to get you killed if you don't know what you're dealing with.

(also, I'd say Kavlax is a legitimately dangerous monster even aside from UI confusion)

[Pete Mack]

So are black scorpions dangerous, if they get the jump on you. They do huge poison damage, and there's no way to escape except staff of teleportation. (It's no big deal when a weak monster gets the jump on you.)

[Estie]

There is that option to display uniques in purple which I do check. And...errr....whats a black scorpion ?

[Jay]

There is that option to display uniques in purple which I do check. And...errr....whats a black scorpion ?

That's how I handle it, too, after one too many times attacking Kavlax thinking I was taking on a baby, young, or mature black dragon. (You can find that option by hitting = then a for user interface options. It's item q in 4.2.4.)

Giant black scorpion - Natural creature normally found at depths of 1450 feet (level 29) and moves quickly. Average life rating of 189 and an armor rating of 60. Rarely detected by telepathy. Resists bright light and poison, does not resist acid, lightning, fire, cold, nexus, or disenchantment. Can claw to attack (x2), sting to poison, and sting to blind.

[Pete Mack]

I do it by making kavlax and the scorpion purple through the knowledge menu. I prefer most unique to keep their native colors