[Taqwus]

One of the more brutal aspects is that large units also tend to be the ones targeted by the long-range, fairly common (lizard shamans, totem shields, others. Think twice before taking your pretender into an indy province controlled by lizardmen), unresistable, and permanent Curse spell which IIRC greatly increases the chance of afflictions per hit.

Then there are the attacks which have an unusually high, sometimes 100%, chance of causing afflictions -- the Black Bow of Botulf causes Feeblemind, Vision's Foe removes an eye, one of the scythe artifacts causes crippling... and whose owners are likely to have "fire/attack large monsters" or something like that.