I will only put the strong monsters for debate. No point of putting cultsits, etc. No spawns/masks would be included, either. Also I'm aware the title says "strongest" but you should really choose the monster that has the largest impact.

vs.

vs.

We're talking about the monster that has the largest impact, not the monster that's hardest to kill. That's pretty much removes Flying Polyp out of the equation, as it'll hang in the sky until you close a hex gate, and even if he does attack you it's easily evadable. That leaves us with Dark Young and Dark Druid: Obviously, Dark Young has tremendous impact, being one of this game's best gate guardians. If you come prepare, though, it's not that hard to kill: Easy horror and combat rating makes it managable if you aren't completely naked. That leaves us with Dark Druid, which in my honest opinion has the largest impact on the game. If you don't kill it right away it can easily cause stalkers and fliers to become more threatning, and most importantly, if there are some monsters in Dunwich you're pretty much screwed. What do you think?

Previous Great Debates

Oh man! I was waiting for the Hex beasts.

Now while the Polyp is a harder battle to win, I'm offering the same answer as with the crescents: when it's in the sky, it's out of the way. Dark Young NEVER leave (and they're tough to evade).

Dark Druid is not of any note. His ability is interesting, but as of yet it's not even officially clarified how it works. Plus he's really not hard to kill.

I play it that if a black hex comes up in the mythos card, all monsters have a second movement after their first movementm, e.g. black monsters move on black, fast monsters more on black twice, green monsters "move", flying monster move to or from the sky, stalking monster have stalker movement or move on black if not possible, same goes for aquatic, and yellow monsters don't move.

Dark Young...they have been the bane of my games since day one. And with so many of them...Hands down, the young.

kroen said:

I do that too. Plus it is in line with Kevin's ruling on how "move on a color" works, referencing his answer to Rifts inside Vortexes.

Moving all the other monsters a second time as though their symbols were on black is a quick and elegant way to handle it, but it would be nice to be sure.

Assuming we are allowed to factor in how common they are (I think the BGoTW added three more) the Young definitely affect me more than the other two. I hate when the Polyp lands, but I'm usually not dawdling in the streets so it isn't an issue. The Druid is annoying, certainly, but easy enough if someone can just get over and kill it off.

Dark Young hands down. They have been screwing up my games since day one (The very first mythos card I ever drew spit a Dark Young into the street right in from of my only investigator. Such a fitting way to start my first game...).

Flying Polup.

The Dark Druid should have been elusive with a slightly higher sneak. As it is its just too weak to make a huge impact on the game since it will get killed quickly.

The Dark Young might seem like the biggest impact but thats cause it has an unfair advantage. There are so many dark young in the bag compared to the other 2 that you encounter them more and they seem to cause big problems as gate gardians. In reality they have relatively poor stats making them easier to deal with than most of the other very strong monsters. If you want their numbers to be taken into account then yes the dark young have a bigger impact.

The FP is beastly strong. It makes killing monsters in the street a lot more dangerous cause he's hanging there ready to swoop. saying don't end in the streets isn't always posible if you have to kill some monsters.

The Flying Polyp is a scary monster. If an investigator gets an encounter that reads "A monster appears" and its a Flying Polyp, they are scared. Hoping that they can sneak past it. A Dark Young is a problem in this situation, but not as much of a threat.

Now, there is 1 flying polyp. But about 6 or 7 Dark Young. Stationary is a great benefit for such a tough monster, since they are ideal gate guardians. Due to their abundance and refusal to move from gates I think that a Dark Young is more of a menace. Flying Polyps are tough, but a rare enough and easy to avoid.

Flying Polyp

For some reason this 'anomaly' is always a big trouble for investigators in games I have played. Usually only meeting it takes you to asylum. Fortunately, it is very rare.

Though I'm still going with Dark Young, we once drew The Terrible Experiment and had a Flying Polyp in the stack. Nobody wanted to deal with the nasty bugger, so the experiment wound up sticking around for the entire game. Eventually, it popped waking Yig, who ate us with one doom token remaining.

The Flying Polyp. Once it is in play, no one wants to stay on the streets, meaning other monsters accumulate there.

Flying Polyp. Obviously you're much more likely to see a Dark Young appearing in a game, but the Polyp is waaay nastier.

The Dark Druid's ability can be dangerous, but actually I find that monsters moving can be helpful as well as being a problem. They're more likely to move out of annoying positions as in to them.