What are some groups of low health enemies that are surprisingly capable of taking down a high health one when infighting?

[invictius]

I'd like to use an mmo mouse so I have a button bind to summon every monster type in gzdoom, so I can spawn heaps and see if they can take down a spider or cyber.  But that's a lot of binds and combinations just to find out.  I'd rather ask here to narrow the results down a bit, then I can bind them to keyboard keys (It's important to make them binds that are close to wasd, because you need to be moving while summoning them because they'll obviously be permanently stuck if spawned in the same space)

[Stupid Bunny]

I've definitely watched even modest sized groups of imps take down a spider mastermind on multiple occasions.  Of course, most of the time this is in non-ZDoom ports where the spideys are easily locked in place by mêlée attacks, and it will take a larger number in GZDoom, but even so, their large size, relatively slow speed, and tendency to spray hitscans willy-nilly makes them both likely to aggravate lots of monsters and then an easy target for said aggravated monsters.

 

Cybers are a taller order because they're faster, narrower, have extremely low pain chance and, even though their splashy rocket volleys are also good at aggravating lots of monsters, they can also take down most opposing beasts in a single volley anyway.  I don't know what your threshold for "low health" is, but revenants are fast and fire homing projectiles so can be fairly effective against cybies en masse.  Formers tend to suck in these situations because they'll kill each other way faster than they can effectively gang up on anything else.

[ReaperAA]

Chaingunners are notorious for being capable of taking down higher health enemies such as cacodemons, mancubus and arachnotrons due to being able to stunlock them, provided they survive the first hit and are close enough to them.

 

Likewise, I have seen like 3-ish arachnotrons being able to stunlock and kill a spidermastermind. But then again, even imps or pinkies can kill SMM if the spider gets stuck.

 

Cyberdemon can also be killed by lower tier enemies if cyber gets stuck. But unlike SMM, the cyber has much much less chance of getting stuck.

[baja blast rd.]

Cacodemons don't have the most pure firepower and are slow, but they are extremely good infighters against turret cyberdemons. What happens is a cybie rocket can make the cacos disperse (and they disperse even more in ZDoom). So the cybie will often be tracking one (badly, because cacos will get pushed off into the distance) while everyone just lobs accurate fireballs since the cyb is turreted. In sufficiently open spaces you can have a small swarm beat a cyber with only modest casualties. 

[Klear]

You might be interested in The Peepeepoopoo Infighting Theorem.

[Biz!]

Haven't seen anyone mention pinkies yet, they're fast and do good melee damage, hard to deal woth in groups but if you could lead them towards getting hit by a projectile then that aggravator will be gone in no time.

[ducon]

I already saw one imp scratching a cornered spiderdemon to death.

[Fiber Wire]

 

[Klear]

Helpless? I'm pretty sure that was consensual, whatever it was.

[maxmanium]

1 hour ago, Fiber Wire said:

-snip-

 

Sledge Moment

Sledge Moment

[Zahid]

Anarch almost always kill same health hell Knight and often can kill baron which got double health manc is also very deadly in groups can kill cyber demon...

In low tier Revs and chaingunners are capable to take down bigger enemies 

[LadyMistDragon]

shotgunners can take down hell knights under the right circumstances.

 

More specfically, if basically anything with lots of health get caught in Arachnotron crossfire, it's easy for them to get stunlocked  thanks to the Arachnotron's ability to permanently fire as long as there's a target in range. Although a Cyberdemon at least will probably get enough rockets in to dispose of one or two easily. An Arachnotron killing a Cyberdemon that especially has taken some damage isn't outside the realm of possibility.

 

Pinkies can kill Cyberdemons too, although said Cyber should probably get stuck first.

[TheShep]

17 hours ago, ducon said:

I already saw one imp scratching a cornered spiderdemon to death.

 

https://clips.twitch.tv/TangiblePoliteGrouseFreakinStinkin-LjAEKrQAeNiAwOsW

 

this one ain't cornered

Edited April 11, 2023 by TheShep

[Eurisko]

I’ve seen Pinky’s do some damage in large numbers. 

[Anarkzie]

Pinkies can easily take down a Spidermastermind

[TheSlipgateStudios]

Turbo Pinky goes brrrrrrr

[prfunky]

My 2021 release, ChapDM3 , has an animated title screen which employs ThingHate

between the resident monsters. It starts out with Lost Souls and Demons but soon

after it begins, an Arachnotron moves in followed by a bunch of Shotguys. Once no

Hated enemy exists for the Hater to Hate on anymore, the Hater goes dormant. It's

always entertaining to watch to see who wins. As expected, a large percentage of the

time, Arachnotron cleans house. But it doesn't always win this battle of the Baddies.

Sometimes the shotguys win, sometimes the Demons win. It's kindof a hoot if you

haven't already watched this movie. Mind you, the starting position and quantity of

monsters is always the same; this is object-orientation in action.