I understand that Static worlds are obviously going to have tougher cities (and be tougher in general), but why do I find Mi-Gos so often in forests? They havea lot of hp and they are really fast - I always play Quick characters and can only barely outspeed them. It’s ironic that I encounter wolves and bears more sparingly, and usually only after a few days have passed; instead I often find Mi-gos in my first 5 (real time) minutes of play!
Are they supposed to be this common? If so, how do I deal with them?
Mi-gos and some of the other nether creatures were added in some corpse spawns to balance out the free-ness of the loot. Presumably, they are what killed the corpses and left them mangled. My suggestion would be to turn and run as soon as you see the indicator for it in your monster HUD, though a slight reduction in their sight range might not be uncalled for.
Probably because you’re always turning and running when you see them. As far as I’m aware, the only other condition for them to spawn on the surface besides corpse spawns (all types of corpses, not just scientists) are portals, which are about 1/150 as common as total corpse spawns.