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.
The hound is cute, but the Colour is clearly stronger. Both in impact, and that he's harder to kill. Agreed?
Disagreed. When the Hound appears it's almost always going to find someone, and it's a rather tough monster to face. Colors rarely do more than 1 point of sanity loss in my games and are absurdly easy to evade. Half the time we can close a gate to Another Dimension before they even get a chance to do anything, since even when moving it's only a 50% shot. When the hound moves, you can bet that somebody is going to be eligible for its attack and even with good magical weapons it can be quite a pain.
How is killing him with a good magical weapon a pain? He has a rating of -1 and 2 toughness... I can kill that thing with an Enchanted Blade.
The problem I see with the Hound is this: If an investigator is suited to kill the Hound, they'll go after it and finish it. However, in my group the players that are killing monsters and the investigators that are sealing gates are (generally) two different groups. Except in certain situations, we prefer for investigators to have 5 clues before getting in a gate. Hounds generally appear because of a gate. Normally if an investigator can't take or evade the monster they just wait for it to a leave. Here in lies the problem with Hounds. When they move, they move to attack. They won't simply walk into the streets and leave, leaving a "sealing" investigator with the chance to move in.
What it boils down to is that the Hounds, when they attack, are usually attacking people who aren't prepared to take them. Sure, if a hound happens upon an investigator with good spells or magic weapons, its no problem. But in most cases it seems the hound happens upon those investigators that aren't prepared to fight them and if an investigator isn't prepared to fight a Hound, they are toast.
Now sure, the Color is a pain. Its has two immunities and will take 1 sanity from each investigator in Arkham (statistically) once every six turns. Everyone loosing one sanity is a nuisance, but rarely is it really a serious problem. The investigators that most need their sanity/stamina are the investigators in other dimensions, who are immune to the color's wrath. Should an investigator get a few clues, Mountain, martial arts, or be Lilly Chen, the Color is no problem. Its not even an effective guardian, as it is easy to sneak past.
Theoretically the Color is more of a problem. But in practice, and in my experience, the Hound is a much more consistent menance and my players let out a much more audible groan when a Hound is drawn.
Colour out of Space
Never actually met this one. Hound of Tindalos is a big pain but I can figure that the Colour out of Space is even bigger.
I can't stand the Colour, but the Hound is even a little worse. I'll have to go with hound for this one. That hunting ability, combined with its physical resistance is just too annoying.
The Hound. The insane (pun intended) horror damage along with the hunting ability make it a threat every time it appears, while the Color, although annoying, can be worked around.
They both require someone with a healthy load of sanity to absorb the horror hit, and even then you need someone with a magical weapon or good Fight score. The sanity-sucking power of the Colour is annoying... but the Hound seeks you out and can actively block you from going where you want.
I'm leaning towards the Hound on this one.
The Hound. It's more certain to actually do something when it moves, and if even one person fails its Horror check then it's done about as much Sanity damage as you'd expect the Colour to do in a whole game.
The Hound. It is probably my most hated monster. It always seems to dive on the 1 investigator least likely to be able to hadle it, and drive insane those who could. The Colour is annoying, sure, but the Hound is...death.
Quick question about the hound: Thematically, wasn't it an undead monster? Is it the Hound in The Hound? And didn't that hound turn out to be the guy wearing the amulet? Oh, spoiler alert, sorry. I kinda assume most of us have read the complete works.
No, the Hounds of Tindalos come from the short story of the same name. It is about—and I kid you not—some dude who thinks that he can see extra dimensions if he gets really high. So he does it while his friend watches (perv).
The guy flips out and claims he's seeing all of time as a continuous path, while he himself is an outside observer. He also spots some other outside observers—the hounds.
They occupy some region of angular time that is separated from normal time. When he comes down from his trip he's all freaked and says that he caught the attention of the hounds, who are now aware of his existence and are coming to get him. Real twilight-zone stuff.
They also show up in Brian Lumley's The Transition of Titus Crow, where they seem to be a sort of predator that stalks time-travellers and dimension-travellers, making those types of travel very difficult. They're not really dogs of any sort; they're only called 'hounds' because of their behaviour. They're a bit like the Reapers from the Doctor Who episode 'Father's Day'', if you've seen that.
I think their name comes from the fact that they live in a ruined city called Tindalos which was built on Earth by aliens billions of years ago, but I might be wrong about that.