So far, here are the toughest critters that I have stumbled across in my naps (about six hours worth this afternoon):

Emerald Slime (nasty due to hit points & paralyzing attack)
Succubus Slime (nasty due to ~300 hit points)
Vampire Bats (obvious reasons--can Drained status be removed?)
Pestilence Rats (eight of them wiped out my party early on, never have come across them again, had ~80 hit points apiece & disease attacks)

Here is my party at this point (don't remember names):

Fighter Level 10
Monk --> Ninja Level 9
Ranger --> Samurai Level 9
Priest Level 10
Bard --> Alchemist Level 10
Mage Level 10

This group is fairly powerful, I haven't had to reload due to serious difficulty/death in quite some time. I still haven't found a really good weapon for either my fighter or my samurai (best so far is broadsword purchased from Burz at some point).

Anyway, this is probably all that I will play with the demo...going back to BGII for a while now (at least until I can get my hands on a copy of the full Wiz8 once it is released ;) ).

--Greystone

Vile roaches and dung beetles pack the most wallop - you don't want to be surrounded by these suckers anless you have some serious resurrection and healing capacity. Never had a problem with Saffy either time - Succubus slime was a HUGE disapointment - I wandered everywhere and camped for hours trying to flush one of these suckers out of hiding - then when I am only a fraction of the way into the fight (maybe a round and a half), the monk throws some 1% critical strike nonsense in there and kills it outright [img]tongue.gif[/img]

I have to agree with Davros. Dung beatles are the worst. They come in packs of 9 and have 70-90 hp each. That means you have to do at least 750 pts of damage to destroy them. Much more than a measly 300 pt succubus slime. The Vile Roaches can disease you, but the Dung Beatles poison you, taking your hp down much quicker.

The worst part is that those suckers are FAST!!! I hit the group near the main hall and those things had me surrounded before I could say "Huh?" I couldn't run away and I couldn't catch them all in magic attacks. After several rounds I had 4 people poisoned and no magic points left. I had only killed 5 of them. And this was a level 9 party. (My former bard was unconscious with no stamina from blowing on the pipes.)

Another viscious foe, at least for early parties, is the Slithering Slimes. I know, I know, they only have 50-70 hp each, but they tend to try to surround you as well. And they are tough to hit. If you don't have your magic charged up, they can be a big pain. It got a little easier when I found that they could be blinded. Trouble is that when I blinded some of them, they ran away around the corner, recovered and continued around the corner to sneak up on me from behind. Truly a pain in the behind.

Knarfling