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[Melting Sky]

I had always thought that Titans were identical to Forgotten Beasts except that they appear above ground but after reading through about a hundred descriptions of each type I came to the realization that they are not generated quite the same way and FBs are the more powerful of the two.

Both Titans and FBs are huge, powerful, randomly generated creatures with all sorts of crazy physical body combinations and compositions but where they seem to differ is in their special abilities. Only FBs seem capable of having the more deadly special attacks such as the infamous deadly dust, poisonous vapors, noxious secretions, poisonous gas and deadly blood.

The Titans are limited to generally less lethal abilities such as poison bites, spittle, stings, webs, fire breathing etc. All of these lesser abilities can also be possessed by FBs. Although webs and fire breathing aren't anything to sneeze at they aren't on the same level of horror as deadly dust and some of the other syndrome AOE syndrome attacks the FBs can have.

I'm curious if I'm just way behind the curve and this is relatively well known or not? Even the wiki implies they are the same aside for habitat.

[FallenAngel]

Webs aren't a "less lethal ability".
When mixed with a tough creature, like something made of smoky quartz or hematite, it's far worse than deadly dust, poisonous vapors, noxious secretions, poisonous gas, and deadly blood.
GCS are dangerous.
A Forgotten Beast/Titan/Spoiler made of a tough inorganic material, like a stone, gem, or metal, with webs? Nigh. Flogging. Impossible. To. Kill.
Unlike the GCS which takes a while to murderize a dwarf, said FB/T/S will weblock entire armies and first break random limbs and then cave in the skull.
The "deadly special attacks" have a wide range of lethality - from mild dizziness/fevers/numbness to super ebola mixed with leprosy. Webbing is always at the exact level of lethality. How efficient it is at killing you depends on the creature.
A FB/T/S made of fire with webs? One or two lucky hits on your part and you'll be fine with some minor injuries.
Fire breathing is also painful but you'll survive if you're well-armored and have few flammable items on you.
Chainmail is the difference between being slow and being slow-roasted.
Tl;dr version: Webs are hardcore and make an already deadly creature drastically more powerful. Fire is also bad but at least you have a chance of killing it.

[RedSeven]

Forgotten beasts with webs are so deadly to melee dwarfs, in my last fort the first FB i got was one with deadly dust, i took it down with 1 squad of axedwarfs, all of those dwarfs where blind and every part of them was rotting after that fight, but they where able to recover (somewhat at least). The next forgotten beast was one with webs, it killed my 4 squads of melee dwarfs so fast i had no time to close the gate to my fort, they could not even injure the FB before they got killed. My new fort will have lots of marksdwarfs because of this.

[ComatosePhoenix]

I would say forgotten beasts are more random then titans, Titans are generally monsterous, giant animals with extra limbs. but they also seem to be less hideous.

Titans are like beasts from ancient mythology destructive but they have an organized mystique to them
Forgotten beasts are more eldritch abominations twisted into forms that no natural creature could have and survive.

as for the difficulty for every Forgotten beast made of rock and Steel there is another made of soap, or sludge.

for every titan made of rock or steel, there are a dozen or so made of perfectly normal flesh.

Murphy's law aside of course.

[Melting Sky]

I would say forgotten beasts are more random then titans, Titans are generally monsterous, giant animals with extra limbs. but they also seem to be less hideous.

Titans are like beasts from ancient mythology destructive but they have an organized mystique to them
Forgotten beasts are more eldritch abominations twisted into forms that no natural creature could have and survive.

Yeah, the forgotten beasts have a wider and more varied repertoire of abilities to randomly choose from and the expanded selection includes the nastier eldricth type stuff like flesh melting clouds and contagious syndromes such as dwarf ebola. The Titan's abilities are more reminiscent of the natural world with attacks like webs, stings, poisonous bites etc. Fire is the only exception but that's still classic elemental power.

Forgotten beasts with webs are so deadly to melee dwarfs, in my last fort the first FB i got was one with deadly dust, i took it down with 1 squad of axedwarfs, all of those dwarfs where blind and every part of them was rotting after that fight, but they where able to recover (somewhat at least). The next forgotten beast was one with webs, it killed my 4 squads of melee dwarfs so fast i had no time to close the gate to my fort, they could not even injure the FB before they got killed. My new fort will have lots of marksdwarfs because of this.

Deadly dust varies wildly in lethality depending on what the syndrome is. As powerful as webs and fire are they still aren't any where near as nasty as a deadly dust attack that carries any sort of fast acting crippling and or lethal syndrome, particularly if the residue remains toxic and is spread by contact. On the other hand if it carries the FB equivalent of the sniffles then the dust will only cause impact damage and won't pose as serious a threat as webs or fire.

A lot also depends on the setting of the battle. If you are fighting a fire titan in the middle of a forest it is WAY more dangerous than it would be otherwise. If you fight a FB that leaves dwarf ebola behind, then fighting it in one of the your high traffic areas will be far more devastating than if you kill it in some forgotten corner of the caverns.

I just thought it was interesting that they aren't quite the same. I had always heard they were functionally identical other than place of origin. It would be cool to give the more nature themed Titans a chance to roll a regenerative healing ability to give them something special the FBs don't have.

[Torrenal]

I've actually managed to not encounter any titains yet.

The FBs I have run into do fall on either side of what I'd consider a titan.
From the quartz FB with webbing that one-hit any dwarf that go caught in its webs, to the fire breathing dragonfly which died to marksmen before it could inhale, FBs come in a variety of difficulties.

Titans, I envision as a giant made of metal (bronze, iron, whathaveyou), which knock off a dwarf foot with their first attack, and then spend weeks beating that dwarf to death with it's own sock.  In short - circumstances too can vastly vary the difficulty of any given foe.

With Boatmurdered, it was a butterfly that nearly defeated the fortress.  Not an FB butterfly.  Not even a live butterfly, but rather where the butterfly chose to die.

Circumstances > Everything Else.
//Torrenal