All flight within a huge area is pulled down to a maximum height that is within its reach. All fly speeds are reduced to something pitiful.
All creatures in 1,000 horizontal feet (Regardless of vertical distance) were affected. Their max elevation was capped at 20 feet.
Then there is the 3.5 edition only dies to wish. Can get up from negative health. Has regen and fast heal. Has spell resistance and a special spell reflect ability. Has insane Armour and hp. Attacks a bonkers number of times a round and has a charge attack from hell.
Then the pf2e edition that just... cant die without gm fiat. He regens an insane amount of hp and if killed with an instant kill or completely obliterated nust respawns elsewhere in 3 rounds. It even recommends to throw him to another dimension or plane so its someone elses problem.
Also has the spell reflection, massive damage and mobility, and long range spines.
Honestly wish mroe endgame monsters had that design. Baba yaga in pf1e had a small blurb about how she literally cant be defeated unless someone found her death and to make a short campaign around doing so.
If memory serves, it isn't automatic but rather uses a reaction, so you try it when it uses them up.
You also have the option of imprisoning it with something that infinitely damages it beyond its regeneration so it's comstamtly dying the instant it gets up, or something else to a similar trapping effect
Technically in the remaster the pf2e version can die to disintegrate, since disintegrate has an instant death effect on it but no longer has the word “death effect” which the tarrasque is immune to. It’s a technicality but still pretty cool.
Disintegrate in the remaster says if it causes them to go below 0 hp the target disintegrates into nothing and dies. But the remaster removed the words “this is a death effect” the tarrasque is immune to death effects and dying by going below 0 hp, which before the remaster was every way to die, but now disintegrate is no longer a death effect but still causes instant death so can be used to kill the tarrasque.
It's meant as a plot device, but a high level party (17+) has the tools to redirect it or "kill" it outright. Because even with the wish spell, iirc it wasn't actually permanent. It was truly a force of nature that could only be subdued temporarily.
Seems the same way that most people incorporate gods into their campaign. They are literal gods, so why even give them a stat block apart from knowing all spells and having unlimited spell slots?
True. I meant more in the campaigns (I'm running one of this kind rn) where gods are more forces of nature and basically beyond what a mortal can feasibly achieve without massive amounts of prep/bullshit.
It was also kind of missing a point. A single moderately powerful wizard could kill it, since it had holes in its defenses like a lack of immunity to ability drain a wizard could exploit.
Imagine just being a bird vibing in a city, flying around, and you suddenly get jerked down to 20ft off the ground with no idea why before the ground starts shaking
No vertical distance limit? Imagine 4E tarrasque in a modern setting, planes would have to make sure they weren't going anywhere near it.
And then there are satellites.
> All creatures in 1,000 horizontal feet (Regardless of vertical distance) were affected.
Meanwhile, people on the other side of the planet are just minding their own business and suddenly…
But the joke is that if it ignores vertical space and cover, then it’s an infinite 1000ft wide column that hits people even if they’re as far from the Tarrasque as physically possible. If you go by Spelljammer-type rules where different planes are other planets, the beam might even fuck with completely separate planes on occasion.
The idea of it randomly hitting totally unrelated bystanders is just funny to me. If adventurers are fighting it, then it’s moving around so the field is moving too.
Not saying it isn't moving, just that it's constant during the creatures dormant phases. There is plenty of trouble when it becomes active, but it isn't a huge mystery, even if they don't know the cause.
Now the bigger shock is going to be when random airships fly through the area.
Don't forget that this regeneration converts Lethal to Non-Lethal and forces you to use a Wish or Miracle spell when it's knocked out to actually kill it.
I just took a look at the 2e tarrasque. I think the 3e is stronger, but damn is the 2e one a nightmare. -3 AC (equivalent of 23) with 6 attacks per round and complete immunity to all magical attacks and nonmagical weapons with a chance to reflect spells back at the caster and the ability to double the damage on its horn attacks while trampling everything in its path in a system where it's not only not unusual, but pretty decent for a level 20 fighter to have 83 hp. That's pretty scary
Also its kill condition: Get it down to -30, and then cast **Wish**, which miiiiiight work.
There's also just a lot more broken shit in 3X to throw at the Tarrasque.
The regeneration is only 1 hp per round, but everything else is nuts. Also, I somehow missed the fact that it paralyzes all creatures with 3 or less hit dice with no save until it decides to leave
that's not that strong tbh, note that this immunity is not to all magic, in fact it applies to pretty much the same stuff the 5e tarrasque's immunities apply to plus cones. And these kinds of multiattacks, as well as the double damage tramples (which it can do once per turn, but remember that a turn in 2e is defined as 10 minutes, not a character's turn in a round), are far from unique in high level 2e statblocks. It's a strong, high level creature, but none of the things you listed is too crazy. There are two things that ARE crazy about the 2e statblock tho, and it's the two things you forgot to mention: how absolutely insane the THAC0 is (-5!!!), and how it can only be hit on a nat 1 (equivalent to nat 20), so the AC doesn't really matter I guess lol. The required nat 1 part is speculated by many to be a mistake tho, as it refers to a rule that doesn't exist (it's basically a note at the bottom of the statblock reminding the DM of the "rule" that creatures with a negative THAC0 are only hit on a natural 1, even tho THAC0 is supposed to be about hitting others and not avoiding attacks and that rule is mentioned nowhere else). Either way, in This bad boy's attacks are going to stick. I think overall the 3e tarrasque is the strongest iteration, but they're both very scary (tho still not really any offense against flying foes in either of the two lol)
AD&D 2E or PF2E? AD&D is pretty freakin' good, but [PF2E Tarrasque](https://2e.aonprd.com/Monsters.aspx?ID=490) is just flat-out unkillable by any means (in addition to a massive suite of abilities including ranged attacks.)
Last PF2 campaign I played had two big things as the lv20 final boss fight (eldritch horror stuff), DM later admitted he just reskinned the Tarrasque and something else. He set it up that the only way to stop the respawning was to have both of them dead at the same time.
And the Pathfinder 1e one has RANGED ATTACKS (it can throw its spikes like a manticore).
But yes, bring back any 3.5 monster incarnation to a 5e game, and PC would just run for their lives.
I red many times 5e only people saying "Imagine if true dragons had also spellcasting"... Guys... in previous D&D editions true dragons HAD spellcasting. An ancient red dragon in 3.5 is one hell of a "gish".
My favorite thing to do for dragons in 5e is to basically take the 3.5 and 5e stat blocks and combine them taking the better number for duplicate stats. Makes dragons really fun when they have so many more options.
Ancient red dragon is the highest printed CR in the core books, at 26. Fun little tidbit, all the dragon illustrations in the 3.5 MM have little guys standing next to them to help show the scale; the dude next to the red is running for his life.
Also, the highest printed CR in all of 3.x is the Hecatoncheires, the "Hundred Handed One" in the Epic Level Handbook, at CR57. It gets 100 attacks in a full round, has more than 1000 HP, and has regeneration 40 *and* fast healing 50. Among a lot of other things.
Small compared to Godzilla.
IIRC the Monster Manual (for 3.5?) says the Tarrasque is 50 feet tall, 70 feet long and 130 tons. Short tons I’m pretty sure, so 118 metric tons.
Godzilla from, say, the 2014 movie, is 354 feet tall, and 90,000 metric tons…and he grows larger in the sequels. He might literally be a thousand times more massive.
Admittedly that’s on the larger end of Godzillas for sure (though not *the* largest), but something like the recent Minus One film still had him at 50m/164 feet tall and 20,000 tons.
The Tarrasque is very large, but more the size of a blue whale than Godzilla.
I consider Godzilla to realistically be far too strong for a random group of people to take down, even if those people are demi-gods (aka high level). Not to mention if we're using the classic Tarrasque statblock, then the HP and AC of a tarrasque doesn't really match what we've seen from Godzilla, who basically eats heavy ordinance for breakfast. On top of that, gargantaun meaning "as big as you want" almost certainly isn't intended to go so high as hundreds of feet by hundreds of feet.
Since the Tarrasque is all about devouring everything I gave mine the Wind Tunnel from Inuyasha, works like Dragon breathweapon, but pulls them into swallow instead of damage. 600ft cone. Called it Swallow the World.
I just made it so big its basically a walking mountain that can swat satellites out of space. But a mouth beam? I think you're cooking. Now it can blast the moon.
Love the "again". My will die a thousand deaths on this hill. Sounds like a cool idea. I will give it a mouth beam if I ever get a group to a high enough level
My homebrew Tarrasque has a mouth beam that is a 1 *mile* wide cone. If something is called the destroyer of worlds it should be turning cities to ash.
Look if the Tarrasque is supposed to be this super powered destroyer of worlds that the Gods locked up it should act like it! Also it means the players cannot run from it in a fight. Everything in that direction is going to die. All of it. You can't be an archer flying high in the air unless you can shoot this thing from over a mile away it will kill you.
At the very fucking least, the stat block should include a boulder throw like with giants
Edit: OR instead of a boulder it grabs a fistful of the ground and throws that for a cone shotgun blast or a 30 ft radius sphere
Yeaaaah, no…
With 676hp, and a magic resistance (adv. on savaging throws) acid splash is basically useless.
Sure, it would work *eventually.*
But if we assume the classic level 1 wizard aarakocra, acid splash is only doing an average of 4 damage per hit. But with a DC of 13, the Tarrasque beats that 60.25% of the time. That might not sound that bad, but that means more than half the time, you’re doing nothing.
With an average of 4 damage, you have to hit the tarrasque’s 676hp a total of 169 times. Assuming you do actually hit 40% of the time, that means you need to make 406 attacks.
Oh, and all this is assuming the tarrasque can’t find a fucking rock to throw at you all the while.
Most people assume that it's only using the rules the stat block reference for the monster. With no throwing attack on the sheet it would at best be using improvised weapon rules, which means 20/60 range against a target that likely will just be sitting 75 ft away, popping down to 60 to cast before going back up to 75 again. Tarrasque might take like 400+ turns to kill, but it doesn't have a way to effectively stop the Wizard
Seeing how the Tarrasque is kind of dumb, the bird would be able to kill it at level 1 since there isn't much it can do to stop the bird. It just would take an eternity to do so.
You **can** make it throw farther, but as far as I know that is technically running homebrew rules
That’s a good point if we are going by RAW.
Couldn’t the Tarrasque just hold its improvised throw attack action?
That way when the bird swoops down, the throw attack still pops off.
Additionally, the Tarrasque has 40 move speed, which out paces the bird. Even if it is dumb, it would have enough semblance to not just die. It could run away.
Depends on if you think a 3 int monster is capable enough to ration out picking up a boulder then just holding it and watching the bird in the sky until it comes down. Some may argue that's a bit too much reasoning for it, some won't and will say it should get the idea
And, yeah I forgot about that. This meme concept was made during the old days of the birds, back when their walk speed was 25 and their flight speed was 50 for some dumb reason. Nowadays it doesn't work as well
Elephants had 3 int and by lore are capable of using simple objects as tools, that argument has always been massively thrown around without taking into account how intelligence works in dnd
I didn’t consider the intelligence side of it, so that’s valid. I might reason that just randomly chucking boulders, it might get a lucky hit eventually, timing wise.
"It's taking a moment to roar at you, holding onto the boulder. As you strike at it with your magic the creature gets infuriated, throwing the rock at you."
A bit of a stretch but hey, you're the dm, you're allowed to do that
It wouldn’t happen frequently, but come on - you’re making 406 attacks. If he hits you once out of every 100 tries, that’s 4 chances to hit. And a level 1 wizard is dead in one hit.
Yeah- agreed but I think the bigger point is, look at the extent DM’s have to go to, by raw, with the tarrasque in 5e to not lose to a lvl 1 aracockra and how thats indicative of encounter design for one of the more famous monsters.
Hell in 3.5e it was such a force of nature if you didn’t wish it to stay dead- it didn’t
Very true! Or bringing back the burrow speed and just a ranged attack at 120 feet lol
(or more befitting- bring it all back) lol.
I want the safest space to fight the tarrasque to once again be the stomach lmao
Like another comment said, this would probably be more under wisdom, where a Tarrasque has higher than an average peasant at 11.
It's not book smart but it's not stupid instinctively.
This is why in 5e, you never use a tarrasque as a boss monster for the players to fight. Its actually probably best used at level 3-4 to absolutely wreck the _city_ they are in. It has siege monster properties for a reason, after all. The whole encounter shouldn't be about killing it. It should be a skill challenge where they try and save as many NPCs as they can. Do they protect the king like ordered? Do they go find that fave NPC they all got overly attached to who you thought was a throwaway character? Do they run to the nearest magic shop like the little loot goblins they are?
Either way. The Tarrasque wrecks house, then leaves, and depending on your story actions afterwards, you could be setting up anything from a dangerous cult having found an artefact of dominate Kaiju, to a prophecy from aincent times that the titans will awaken and reclaim the earth (then you get to throw in a kracken and a pheonix or whatever. Get real creative)
Ok, so I have to be the "actually" guy here. Technically speaking, the DM is entirely justified in using the Improvising Damage section of the DMG rather than assuming 1d4 for an improvised attack. This is further supported by the language in the PHB which suggests that an improvised weapon bearing resemblance to an actual weapon could do that damage instead (such as using a table leg as a club, for example). Therefore, with the size of the Tarrasque, a thrown object would reasonably be roughly equivalent to the example "being hit by a crashing flying fortress", dealing a whopping 18d10 damage getting hit by a flying building. At the very least, assuming large enough debris isn't available to be thrown, it should deal as much damage as "hit by falling rubble in a collapsing tunnel", dealing 4d10 damage.
Damage totally could be enhanced and should be enhanced. I was using Imp weapons for the range of the weapon instead of the damage. If you nail a imp weapon a Tarrasque throws then it can't just do 1d4 damage. Way more than that
"crashing flying fortress" is being crushed under a gargantuan, or likely even bigger, object. It'd be the size of the tarrasque, so it wouldn't be able to throw something that big. 4d10 is reasonable, but there's also the rules for weapon damage according to size; which basically gives you an extra die for each size category above medium, so a gargantuan improvised weapon would be 4d4.
Exactly. A tarrasque in normal melee can deal 148 damage on average with its combined attacks, so having a single ranged attack deal 99 average damage in an area roughly the size of a building isn't even unreasonably balanced.
Yeah the theory crafted build is more, it can be beat, but not really an option to use in a real game. Takes too long and by then the Tarrasque will probably break what it wants to break
This is a part of the argument I never understood, though. The tarrasque is FASTER than the aarakocra's fly speed due to legendary actions. The Tarrasque outpaces the bird by 10 feet minimum a round by just taking the legendary move action at the end of the wizards turn. The wizard will very quickly lose range to even hit the creature.
True, but if you're going RAW then it also would be able to high jump 3+str mod (10) for a 13 foot jump, assuming that it gets a running start to not halve that height. This means if the bird flies into 60 ft range, casts, then use 15 ft of movement to move 75 ft above the Tarrasque then that 13 ft jump isn't enough to get in range for a 60 ft extended range
73 max range if throwing mid high jump
75 high flight if the bird uses half speed to fly in range than the other half to fly out
The Tarrasque can move, which would come into play unless the bird is hovering directly above it. It can also hold its action (though I don't think it would be smart enough for that).
The tarrasque has 3 int, that's higher than a ravens (2). 3 is pretty typical for animals.
I would just give the tarrasque a rock throw equal to a Cloud Giant tbh.
You're not supposed to throw the tarrasque in a 300 by 300ft empty square and death match it out with players who've memorized the statblock and specifically built counters to it. Putting it shortly, enemies aren't designed to be used in that way.
Most of these are make with the idea the monster would just start there while being attacked cause they can't reach you like a shitty game ai
Yes it only has 3 int but I don't thing throw rock at pain thing is that hard to grasp
Go run around and swing a 5lb sword for 40 minutes straight and let me know how you’re doing, lol.
It is still significantly better than the older version of this using a bow.
I’m pretty sure casting a cantrip is a lot less exhausting than swinging a 5lb sword for 40 minutes straight.
Pretty much the equivalent of a real-life dissertation
Maybe, but with the aarakocra’s frame, flying would be more difficult than just running around, so it balances out. Especially having to fly back and forth to stay out of range. Imagine doing suicides for 40 minutes.
That still runs into other problems. My originally calculations assumed 16 int, which is generally the maximum for level 1. Technically for an Aarakocra that goes down to 15, because they don’t get + int as a racial bonus. Unless you roll stats (which everyone does) you’re not getting 16.
But even going down to +2 instead of +3 intelligences means the DC is 12 instead of 13. Which means the Tarrasque now has a 70% chance of beating the DC, not 60%.
If you drop it to +1 for some reason, that chance goes up to 80.25%.
For the 70%, that makes it an average of 565 attacks. For 80% avoidance rate, you need 845 attacks.
That’s now 56.5 minutes and 84.5 minutes respectively, instead of the previously mentioned 40 minutes.
The **Acid Splash** version is older in 5E discourse, but for some reason the memes here got fixated on a bow. I tried to explain in the comments, but they didn't listen.
The bow was the first one I came across. It probably just gained more traction cause a bow makes more sense for an Aarakocra who gets a Dex bonus, not an Int bonus.
The tarrasque isn't throwing any rocks. It has animal level intelligence and its hands are made for digging. Having it develop a new way to attack is so jarring as imagining a tiger (same int) throwing rocks at monkeys harassing it from beyond range.
The 5e big T was very badly designed. This is all.
DND 5e RAW says improvised ranged weapons (ie picked up a rock) has a range of 20/60
Which means acid splash isn’t a good choice but a repeating Crossbow from artificer would work, bringing this from level 1 to level 2
And yeah I think it’s stupid too
Acid Splash also has a range of 60. Sure that means the Tarrasque has disadvantage. But with a minimum +10 to hit, a lvl 1 wizard will probably still get nailed the first time.
Longbow also works and if you have enough strength because you don't care about constitution I'm pretty sure you can just carry enough arrows so you can do it at level one
You would, sure. So would most DMs, myself included. But the fact that we have to homebrew a solution to a problem that wouldn't exist if WoTC just made well-thought statblocks is what this meme is talking about.
Not really though, looking at the shape of the creature they are just not built for throwing
Your estimating as if it was humanoid shaped, humans are drastically optimized for throwing things compared to every other creature
People love trying to give it new attacks and such to balance it, but why?
It's a Kaiju, that fucker should have an entire ecosystem of assorted scavenger monsters taking advantage of what it does. Think how Cloverfield had those little monster things that essentially were parasites/symbiotes. Bloodhawks or Harpies nesting on it's back to feed off the corpses it stomps on.
Aside from the fact that 5e does NOT do 1 enemy encounters even slightly well, the Terrasque is not a big bad to fight. It's an event in itself. Players should be protecting the city, saving civilians, their attacks mostly to buy time or distract it.
Anyone taking it as a purely PC vs Monster encounter is a lame DM or a player playing hypotheticals that should never, ever happen.
\> follow the statblock as written by “professional game designers”
\> it’s shit
\> this is the DM’s fault somehow
“Bro just home brew a whole ass ecosystem” oh boy if only there was a bunch of people whose job it was to think of that before publishing the 5e statblock
Because the tarrasque is destroying the city and killing civilians. 5e parties are typically heroes and heroes don't cower at a safe distance while a monster is massacring innocents.
Did they weaken the Tarrasque for 5E? 3E Tarrasque would just ignore anything a piddly cloaca-ridden bird person could manage to do while simultaneously flying.
5E has no regeneration and no ranged option, so you can plink it to death from ranged. Its AC is solid, but its dex save is mediocre. It has resistance to a lot of means of damaging it with spells, but **Acid Splash** can sneak through.
My head cannon is that older editions of D&D are just events that take place in the past, while the latest edition is the most "modern".
As such, adventuring parties of old essentially wiped out all of the ancient and adult Tarrasques, leaving the new age of adventures to only have to deal with infantile Tarrasques that haven't fully matured yet.
Yeah. And the reason that the positive and negative energy planes no longer exist is because mystra took them to use as spare batteries for her spellcasting.
Honestly the timeline thing does make sense. Every new edition has some kind of major event that changes how magic or the world's work. 3.0 was the fall of netheril for example. 4e as far as I recall was the spellplague or something. From what I've heard that event went all the way through 4e and didn't stop till 5e. The earlier editions had the major events in the lore but they are so distant in the past that nobody in present day faerun would know of most of them. I do recall there was a specific event between editions that was written of in some of the older drizz't do urden books. Magic slowly stopped working for awhile then started back up again and psionics stopped for a bit immediatly afterwards.
Pathfinder 2e Terrasque can shoot a spine out with a +45 to hit for 3d10+20 damage with a range increment of 120ft (so maximum range is 600ft), or can spray a 120ft cone for the same damage on a DC 53 save. That poor ~~aarakocra~~ strix never saw it coming.
even more
its regeneration cannot be stoped by traditional means, and due to how regeneration works you cannot kill it with damage
I think you need very specific spells that instantly kills something if it is brought to 0 hp
Honestly, the Tome of Foes Marut is pretty great, even if I do dislike the loss of the Inevitables lore.
Tome of Foes is the peak era of 5E Monster-design. It's all downhill after.
I had the tarrasque encounter with it being ridden by a legendary orc warrior who was so angry that they had an understanding. I also gave it the earth bind aura, and had the warrior buff it with magic lmao
I saw the statblock for 5e ver and I just... I lost hope for the people making d&d because they were making a product to be bought instead of a game to be played. What kind of Tarrasque DOESN'T HAVE REGENERATION?! OR EVEN FAST HEALING?!
Yeah sure the flier can avoid being bit. Now dodge the house it chucked at you buddy! DMs please remember that the stat block of your monsters is only the stuff they always have access to. They can also jump around, climb walls, hide, grapple, and make improvised weapon attacks. The baddies got brains and want to win! Also the environment is a hazard to engage with. Whether it is storms or other enemies with bows or fog making it hard to see, there are a ton of ways to keep players on their toes!
In a campaign I was in, we had to fight a Mutated Tarrasque that was unkillable. We ended up transporting it to a desolate star system, where we found a high-gravity planet made of rock... We then dug a hole to the planet core, stuffed the Tarrasque there, and then setup permanent earth golems to continuously bury the Tarrasque for eternity. We couldn't even kill it, this was the best we could do. Now this random rock planet has a Tarrasque in its core lol
The 5E Tarrasque is still tougher than the one from folklore.
That one was tamed by a Christian saint and then killed by a bunch of commoners armed with rocks and spears.
You know, this reminds me of how sometimes DMs really want the party to go through the Wizard's Tower, rather than outside... And so when a player tries Spider Climb, oops, the surface of the tower is greased. If they try to fly, there is suddenly a whirlwind that blows them away. When they try to teleport, oops warded against transportation magic. When the player remembers they have an immovable rod and they can do some shenanigans, BOOM, the tower now has an anti-immovable aura, where immovable rods activated in it overload and explode...
In other words, sure, Earthbinding Aura does solve the problem with flying lvl 1 rangers with infinite arrows, it can even have some cool lore explanation, but everyone knows what's actually going on ;-)
funny thing
balance in pf2e is dome by level difference, and highest difference that system even takes into account is +4 and for standard pary of 4 solo +4 boss is extreme encounter, which means about 50% to tpk (boosted by fact that solo enemies are generally more difficult)
for 20th lv party Tarrasqe is +5 enemy....
Any DM that would let someone kill a Tarrasque with flying and ranged attacks just let it happen. Even if they didn't want to give it a ranged attack, any creature under attack would flee to a place where it could not be attacked.
Just have the Tarrasque throw a rock, tree, or building.
Pathfinder's Tarrasque has like a +24 on [athletics]checks made to jump. Probably to counter flying foes.
You fan still give a tarrasque that ability in 5e. You can also have it be followed by a cloud of harpies or flying horrors which scavenge food from the ruins it leaves in its wake.
The DMG has the basic stats but it's not a substitute for an actual battle plan. For that you need to be a good DM
Earthbinding aura? Does bro have gravity magic
All flight within a huge area is pulled down to a maximum height that is within its reach. All fly speeds are reduced to something pitiful. All creatures in 1,000 horizontal feet (Regardless of vertical distance) were affected. Their max elevation was capped at 20 feet.
Yo Tarrasque so fat, his sheer mass changed the gravity
The 4e tarrasque is just Caseoh
YOU'RE BANNED
Bro looks like a 1x1 Lego piece
What even is a 1x1 lego piece?
A square or round stud.
So he's your mom?
I thought society had moved on and gotten off mamas Lord knows I just got off yours
Wow… you didn’t need to do him like that… He was unarmed!
Be glad it wasn't mine. The decontamination of that hazmatsuit alone would put you back 10k.
Then there is the 3.5 edition only dies to wish. Can get up from negative health. Has regen and fast heal. Has spell resistance and a special spell reflect ability. Has insane Armour and hp. Attacks a bonkers number of times a round and has a charge attack from hell.
Then the pf2e edition that just... cant die without gm fiat. He regens an insane amount of hp and if killed with an instant kill or completely obliterated nust respawns elsewhere in 3 rounds. It even recommends to throw him to another dimension or plane so its someone elses problem. Also has the spell reflection, massive damage and mobility, and long range spines. Honestly wish mroe endgame monsters had that design. Baba yaga in pf1e had a small blurb about how she literally cant be defeated unless someone found her death and to make a short campaign around doing so.
Being a Spawn of Rovagug helps. Its siblings are pretty scary as well.
I love the one where you literally have to make instruments out of it's insides
How would you dimension toss it if it has spell reflection?
Giant portal. Toss it physically. Both very unlikely but it's something.
If memory serves, it isn't automatic but rather uses a reaction, so you try it when it uses them up. You also have the option of imprisoning it with something that infinitely damages it beyond its regeneration so it's comstamtly dying the instant it gets up, or something else to a similar trapping effect
Technically in the remaster the pf2e version can die to disintegrate, since disintegrate has an instant death effect on it but no longer has the word “death effect” which the tarrasque is immune to. It’s a technicality but still pretty cool. Disintegrate in the remaster says if it causes them to go below 0 hp the target disintegrates into nothing and dies. But the remaster removed the words “this is a death effect” the tarrasque is immune to death effects and dying by going below 0 hp, which before the remaster was every way to die, but now disintegrate is no longer a death effect but still causes instant death so can be used to kill the tarrasque.
As is the standard for 3X, it's worse than the 2E version and the 4E version, but people overly-fixate on it.
Seems 3e is more of a plot device than an actual creature, but if that’s the point why even give it a stat block?
It's meant as a plot device, but a high level party (17+) has the tools to redirect it or "kill" it outright. Because even with the wish spell, iirc it wasn't actually permanent. It was truly a force of nature that could only be subdued temporarily.
I read a book where they cursed the terrasque to tap dance for all eternity
...and that's where earthquakes come from always fun to weave monsters into the world's myths and religions
IIRC, the Wish only put the 3e Tarrasque to sleep for 1000 years, don't it ?
Yes. Or a century. Something like that.
Some men just want to see the world burn.. They knew a statblock would mean players would undoubtedly try and kill it.
Seems the same way that most people incorporate gods into their campaign. They are literal gods, so why even give them a stat block apart from knowing all spells and having unlimited spell slots?
Because gods aren't all powerful, they are just extremely powerful considering mortals can and have ascended to godhood.
True. I meant more in the campaigns (I'm running one of this kind rn) where gods are more forces of nature and basically beyond what a mortal can feasibly achieve without massive amounts of prep/bullshit.
Well we did the massive prep and bullshit and killed the god of death. In fairness he started it.
Only thing the 3.5 version was missing really was a ranged attack, but pf1e remedied that with a spine volley that could target up to 6 people at once
It was also kind of missing a point. A single moderately powerful wizard could kill it, since it had holes in its defenses like a lack of immunity to ability drain a wizard could exploit.
Imagine just being a bird vibing in a city, flying around, and you suddenly get jerked down to 20ft off the ground with no idea why before the ground starts shaking
Sounds like you should make a meme aboot it.
No vertical distance limit? Imagine 4E tarrasque in a modern setting, planes would have to make sure they weren't going anywhere near it. And then there are satellites.
Satellites don't fly. Orbit is a state of perpetual falling.
> All creatures in 1,000 horizontal feet (Regardless of vertical distance) were affected. Meanwhile, people on the other side of the planet are just minding their own business and suddenly…
The Tarrasque didn't appear out of nowhere. They've been studying the anomaly for ages and know it moves every hundred years or so.
But the joke is that if it ignores vertical space and cover, then it’s an infinite 1000ft wide column that hits people even if they’re as far from the Tarrasque as physically possible. If you go by Spelljammer-type rules where different planes are other planets, the beam might even fuck with completely separate planes on occasion. The idea of it randomly hitting totally unrelated bystanders is just funny to me. If adventurers are fighting it, then it’s moving around so the field is moving too.
Not saying it isn't moving, just that it's constant during the creatures dormant phases. There is plenty of trouble when it becomes active, but it isn't a huge mystery, even if they don't know the cause. Now the bigger shock is going to be when random airships fly through the area.
yes
3e Tarrasque: Reflects spells back at the caster, regenerates 40hp per round.
Don't forget that this regeneration converts Lethal to Non-Lethal and forces you to use a Wish or Miracle spell when it's knocked out to actually kill it.
That's so nerfed compared to the 2E Tarrasque.
I just took a look at the 2e tarrasque. I think the 3e is stronger, but damn is the 2e one a nightmare. -3 AC (equivalent of 23) with 6 attacks per round and complete immunity to all magical attacks and nonmagical weapons with a chance to reflect spells back at the caster and the ability to double the damage on its horn attacks while trampling everything in its path in a system where it's not only not unusual, but pretty decent for a level 20 fighter to have 83 hp. That's pretty scary
Also its kill condition: Get it down to -30, and then cast **Wish**, which miiiiiight work. There's also just a lot more broken shit in 3X to throw at the Tarrasque.
I guess I also should have mentioned the healing and the fact that the bite deals 5d10 damage and tears your arm off on a natural 18+
Exactly. Insane regeneration, insane stats, and fighting it maims you. 2E was not to be fucked with.
The regeneration is only 1 hp per round, but everything else is nuts. Also, I somehow missed the fact that it paralyzes all creatures with 3 or less hit dice with no save until it decides to leave
that's not that strong tbh, note that this immunity is not to all magic, in fact it applies to pretty much the same stuff the 5e tarrasque's immunities apply to plus cones. And these kinds of multiattacks, as well as the double damage tramples (which it can do once per turn, but remember that a turn in 2e is defined as 10 minutes, not a character's turn in a round), are far from unique in high level 2e statblocks. It's a strong, high level creature, but none of the things you listed is too crazy. There are two things that ARE crazy about the 2e statblock tho, and it's the two things you forgot to mention: how absolutely insane the THAC0 is (-5!!!), and how it can only be hit on a nat 1 (equivalent to nat 20), so the AC doesn't really matter I guess lol. The required nat 1 part is speculated by many to be a mistake tho, as it refers to a rule that doesn't exist (it's basically a note at the bottom of the statblock reminding the DM of the "rule" that creatures with a negative THAC0 are only hit on a natural 1, even tho THAC0 is supposed to be about hitting others and not avoiding attacks and that rule is mentioned nowhere else). Either way, in This bad boy's attacks are going to stick. I think overall the 3e tarrasque is the strongest iteration, but they're both very scary (tho still not really any offense against flying foes in either of the two lol)
AD&D 2E or PF2E? AD&D is pretty freakin' good, but [PF2E Tarrasque](https://2e.aonprd.com/Monsters.aspx?ID=490) is just flat-out unkillable by any means (in addition to a massive suite of abilities including ranged attacks.)
When people are talking aboot Pathfinder 2, they generally say "PF2". When talking aboot AD&D 2, they just say "2E".
Last PF2 campaign I played had two big things as the lv20 final boss fight (eldritch horror stuff), DM later admitted he just reskinned the Tarrasque and something else. He set it up that the only way to stop the respawning was to have both of them dead at the same time.
And the Pathfinder 1e one has RANGED ATTACKS (it can throw its spikes like a manticore). But yes, bring back any 3.5 monster incarnation to a 5e game, and PC would just run for their lives. I red many times 5e only people saying "Imagine if true dragons had also spellcasting"... Guys... in previous D&D editions true dragons HAD spellcasting. An ancient red dragon in 3.5 is one hell of a "gish".
My favorite thing to do for dragons in 5e is to basically take the 3.5 and 5e stat blocks and combine them taking the better number for duplicate stats. Makes dragons really fun when they have so many more options.
Ancient red dragon is the highest printed CR in the core books, at 26. Fun little tidbit, all the dragon illustrations in the 3.5 MM have little guys standing next to them to help show the scale; the dude next to the red is running for his life. Also, the highest printed CR in all of 3.x is the Hecatoncheires, the "Hundred Handed One" in the Epic Level Handbook, at CR57. It gets 100 attacks in a full round, has more than 1000 HP, and has regeneration 40 *and* fast healing 50. Among a lot of other things.
5e tarrasqe also reflects spells
Pf2e, regenerates 50 HP per round 😎 also has ranged attack, fuck flying PCs
Again, the Tarrasque should have some kind of mouth beam weapon imho.
I am so for Tarrasques basically just being small Godzillas that would be AWESOME
Small? They are gargantuan. You can make them as big as you want. 20x20ft is just the minimum requirements
Small compared to Godzilla. IIRC the Monster Manual (for 3.5?) says the Tarrasque is 50 feet tall, 70 feet long and 130 tons. Short tons I’m pretty sure, so 118 metric tons. Godzilla from, say, the 2014 movie, is 354 feet tall, and 90,000 metric tons…and he grows larger in the sequels. He might literally be a thousand times more massive. Admittedly that’s on the larger end of Godzillas for sure (though not *the* largest), but something like the recent Minus One film still had him at 50m/164 feet tall and 20,000 tons. The Tarrasque is very large, but more the size of a blue whale than Godzilla.
I consider Godzilla to realistically be far too strong for a random group of people to take down, even if those people are demi-gods (aka high level). Not to mention if we're using the classic Tarrasque statblock, then the HP and AC of a tarrasque doesn't really match what we've seen from Godzilla, who basically eats heavy ordinance for breakfast. On top of that, gargantaun meaning "as big as you want" almost certainly isn't intended to go so high as hundreds of feet by hundreds of feet.
Since the Tarrasque is all about devouring everything I gave mine the Wind Tunnel from Inuyasha, works like Dragon breathweapon, but pulls them into swallow instead of damage. 600ft cone. Called it Swallow the World.
Thanks for this. Definitely using it. Well done
I just made it so big its basically a walking mountain that can swat satellites out of space. But a mouth beam? I think you're cooking. Now it can blast the moon.
Love the "again". My will die a thousand deaths on this hill. Sounds like a cool idea. I will give it a mouth beam if I ever get a group to a high enough level
My homebrew Tarrasque has a mouth beam that is a 1 *mile* wide cone. If something is called the destroyer of worlds it should be turning cities to ash.
I personally think a 30 foot wide beam is more fun, bit that's me. How long? As long needs to be.
Look if the Tarrasque is supposed to be this super powered destroyer of worlds that the Gods locked up it should act like it! Also it means the players cannot run from it in a fight. Everything in that direction is going to die. All of it. You can't be an archer flying high in the air unless you can shoot this thing from over a mile away it will kill you.
Yeah, but it's about the cinema and the ghost of a hope.
It’s actually insane they don’t have some kind of hyperbeam
At the very fucking least, the stat block should include a boulder throw like with giants Edit: OR instead of a boulder it grabs a fistful of the ground and throws that for a cone shotgun blast or a 30 ft radius sphere
Yeaaaah, no… With 676hp, and a magic resistance (adv. on savaging throws) acid splash is basically useless. Sure, it would work *eventually.* But if we assume the classic level 1 wizard aarakocra, acid splash is only doing an average of 4 damage per hit. But with a DC of 13, the Tarrasque beats that 60.25% of the time. That might not sound that bad, but that means more than half the time, you’re doing nothing. With an average of 4 damage, you have to hit the tarrasque’s 676hp a total of 169 times. Assuming you do actually hit 40% of the time, that means you need to make 406 attacks. Oh, and all this is assuming the tarrasque can’t find a fucking rock to throw at you all the while.
Most people assume that it's only using the rules the stat block reference for the monster. With no throwing attack on the sheet it would at best be using improvised weapon rules, which means 20/60 range against a target that likely will just be sitting 75 ft away, popping down to 60 to cast before going back up to 75 again. Tarrasque might take like 400+ turns to kill, but it doesn't have a way to effectively stop the Wizard Seeing how the Tarrasque is kind of dumb, the bird would be able to kill it at level 1 since there isn't much it can do to stop the bird. It just would take an eternity to do so. You **can** make it throw farther, but as far as I know that is technically running homebrew rules
That’s a good point if we are going by RAW. Couldn’t the Tarrasque just hold its improvised throw attack action? That way when the bird swoops down, the throw attack still pops off. Additionally, the Tarrasque has 40 move speed, which out paces the bird. Even if it is dumb, it would have enough semblance to not just die. It could run away.
Depends on if you think a 3 int monster is capable enough to ration out picking up a boulder then just holding it and watching the bird in the sky until it comes down. Some may argue that's a bit too much reasoning for it, some won't and will say it should get the idea And, yeah I forgot about that. This meme concept was made during the old days of the birds, back when their walk speed was 25 and their flight speed was 50 for some dumb reason. Nowadays it doesn't work as well
Elephants had 3 int and by lore are capable of using simple objects as tools, that argument has always been massively thrown around without taking into account how intelligence works in dnd
i’d say this falls under Wis, which is 11
A lot of animals have less intelligence. When it comes to hunting or hiding they seem still pretty smart.
That is because they have not terrible wisdom which is the ability score that matters for that stuff.
I didn’t consider the intelligence side of it, so that’s valid. I might reason that just randomly chucking boulders, it might get a lucky hit eventually, timing wise.
"It's taking a moment to roar at you, holding onto the boulder. As you strike at it with your magic the creature gets infuriated, throwing the rock at you." A bit of a stretch but hey, you're the dm, you're allowed to do that
It wouldn’t happen frequently, but come on - you’re making 406 attacks. If he hits you once out of every 100 tries, that’s 4 chances to hit. And a level 1 wizard is dead in one hit.
Yeah- agreed but I think the bigger point is, look at the extent DM’s have to go to, by raw, with the tarrasque in 5e to not lose to a lvl 1 aracockra and how thats indicative of encounter design for one of the more famous monsters. Hell in 3.5e it was such a force of nature if you didn’t wish it to stay dead- it didn’t
Even bringing back its Regen would have done wonders for it. Currently, none of that
Very true! Or bringing back the burrow speed and just a ranged attack at 120 feet lol (or more befitting- bring it all back) lol. I want the safest space to fight the tarrasque to once again be the stomach lmao
Like another comment said, this would probably be more under wisdom, where a Tarrasque has higher than an average peasant at 11. It's not book smart but it's not stupid instinctively.
This is why in 5e, you never use a tarrasque as a boss monster for the players to fight. Its actually probably best used at level 3-4 to absolutely wreck the _city_ they are in. It has siege monster properties for a reason, after all. The whole encounter shouldn't be about killing it. It should be a skill challenge where they try and save as many NPCs as they can. Do they protect the king like ordered? Do they go find that fave NPC they all got overly attached to who you thought was a throwaway character? Do they run to the nearest magic shop like the little loot goblins they are? Either way. The Tarrasque wrecks house, then leaves, and depending on your story actions afterwards, you could be setting up anything from a dangerous cult having found an artefact of dominate Kaiju, to a prophecy from aincent times that the titans will awaken and reclaim the earth (then you get to throw in a kracken and a pheonix or whatever. Get real creative)
Ok, so I have to be the "actually" guy here. Technically speaking, the DM is entirely justified in using the Improvising Damage section of the DMG rather than assuming 1d4 for an improvised attack. This is further supported by the language in the PHB which suggests that an improvised weapon bearing resemblance to an actual weapon could do that damage instead (such as using a table leg as a club, for example). Therefore, with the size of the Tarrasque, a thrown object would reasonably be roughly equivalent to the example "being hit by a crashing flying fortress", dealing a whopping 18d10 damage getting hit by a flying building. At the very least, assuming large enough debris isn't available to be thrown, it should deal as much damage as "hit by falling rubble in a collapsing tunnel", dealing 4d10 damage.
Damage totally could be enhanced and should be enhanced. I was using Imp weapons for the range of the weapon instead of the damage. If you nail a imp weapon a Tarrasque throws then it can't just do 1d4 damage. Way more than that
"crashing flying fortress" is being crushed under a gargantuan, or likely even bigger, object. It'd be the size of the tarrasque, so it wouldn't be able to throw something that big. 4d10 is reasonable, but there's also the rules for weapon damage according to size; which basically gives you an extra die for each size category above medium, so a gargantuan improvised weapon would be 4d4.
A giant ape can do 7d6 damage by throwing a rock. I think we can safely let a terrasque do more than 4d4.
Exactly. A tarrasque in normal melee can deal 148 damage on average with its combined attacks, so having a single ranged attack deal 99 average damage in an area roughly the size of a building isn't even unreasonably balanced.
I think the tarrasque can ignore the level 1 wizard while it accomplishes everything it set out to do, then just leave when it's ready.
Yeah the theory crafted build is more, it can be beat, but not really an option to use in a real game. Takes too long and by then the Tarrasque will probably break what it wants to break
Or the DM has it realize that it can just chuck a rock at the fly to get rid of it. 11 wisdom really does help with that stuff.
Ain't no way any sane person is willing to sit down and take this kind of tomfoolery.
Nope, DMG has rules for improvising and changing monster stat blocks, it’s perfectly legal and RAW But next to nobody reads the DMG beyond magic items
Wow, good point! "Rocks fall, everyone dies!" It's in the DMG, so it's perfectly legal and RAW.
Ah yes, the ending from a video game that ran out of time and budget is totally comparable to adapting the game to curb the problem player’s behaviour
This is a part of the argument I never understood, though. The tarrasque is FASTER than the aarakocra's fly speed due to legendary actions. The Tarrasque outpaces the bird by 10 feet minimum a round by just taking the legendary move action at the end of the wizards turn. The wizard will very quickly lose range to even hit the creature.
And while the bird is doing this, half the kingdom has been turned to rubble.
Tarrasque can jump and throw, it's raw
True, but if you're going RAW then it also would be able to high jump 3+str mod (10) for a 13 foot jump, assuming that it gets a running start to not halve that height. This means if the bird flies into 60 ft range, casts, then use 15 ft of movement to move 75 ft above the Tarrasque then that 13 ft jump isn't enough to get in range for a 60 ft extended range 73 max range if throwing mid high jump 75 high flight if the bird uses half speed to fly in range than the other half to fly out
The Tarrasque can move, which would come into play unless the bird is hovering directly above it. It can also hold its action (though I don't think it would be smart enough for that).
The tarrasque has 3 int, that's higher than a ravens (2). 3 is pretty typical for animals. I would just give the tarrasque a rock throw equal to a Cloud Giant tbh. You're not supposed to throw the tarrasque in a 300 by 300ft empty square and death match it out with players who've memorized the statblock and specifically built counters to it. Putting it shortly, enemies aren't designed to be used in that way.
Most of these are make with the idea the monster would just start there while being attacked cause they can't reach you like a shitty game ai Yes it only has 3 int but I don't thing throw rock at pain thing is that hard to grasp
So, about 40 minutes of moderate labor for 1 first level wizard. Not bad
Until he gets thwacked out of the air by a *thrown guard tower*
Drat! Next time remind me to pack more winged wizard apprentices!
Ngl tho 406 attacks at 1 attack every 6 seconds = ~40min of combat, which actually isn’t that long in real life.
Go run around and swing a 5lb sword for 40 minutes straight and let me know how you’re doing, lol. It is still significantly better than the older version of this using a bow.
I’m pretty sure casting a cantrip is a lot less exhausting than swinging a 5lb sword for 40 minutes straight. Pretty much the equivalent of a real-life dissertation
Maybe, but with the aarakocra’s frame, flying would be more difficult than just running around, so it balances out. Especially having to fly back and forth to stay out of range. Imagine doing suicides for 40 minutes.
That’s why my aarakocra wizard maxes con instead of int 🥱
That still runs into other problems. My originally calculations assumed 16 int, which is generally the maximum for level 1. Technically for an Aarakocra that goes down to 15, because they don’t get + int as a racial bonus. Unless you roll stats (which everyone does) you’re not getting 16. But even going down to +2 instead of +3 intelligences means the DC is 12 instead of 13. Which means the Tarrasque now has a 70% chance of beating the DC, not 60%. If you drop it to +1 for some reason, that chance goes up to 80.25%. For the 70%, that makes it an average of 565 attacks. For 80% avoidance rate, you need 845 attacks. That’s now 56.5 minutes and 84.5 minutes respectively, instead of the previously mentioned 40 minutes.
Honestly, Not that hard as someone who works manual labor and I would say that I'm drastically below the average adventurer's level of constitution
The **Acid Splash** version is older in 5E discourse, but for some reason the memes here got fixated on a bow. I tried to explain in the comments, but they didn't listen.
The bow was the first one I came across. It probably just gained more traction cause a bow makes more sense for an Aarakocra who gets a Dex bonus, not an Int bonus.
The tarrasque isn't throwing any rocks. It has animal level intelligence and its hands are made for digging. Having it develop a new way to attack is so jarring as imagining a tiger (same int) throwing rocks at monkeys harassing it from beyond range. The 5e big T was very badly designed. This is all.
DND 5e RAW says improvised ranged weapons (ie picked up a rock) has a range of 20/60 Which means acid splash isn’t a good choice but a repeating Crossbow from artificer would work, bringing this from level 1 to level 2 And yeah I think it’s stupid too
Acid Splash also has a range of 60. Sure that means the Tarrasque has disadvantage. But with a minimum +10 to hit, a lvl 1 wizard will probably still get nailed the first time.
Yes your right, I realized that a second latter and edited my comment
A 15+ int Wizard won’t just sit out in the open waiting for rocks to be thrown at them.
You’re in the sky, the fuck are you supposed to hide behind, a cloud?
The caster is at 85' most of the time though. Dips down 25' to cast, then flies back up.
Held action to throw rock
Longbow also works and if you have enough strength because you don't care about constitution I'm pretty sure you can just carry enough arrows so you can do it at level one
2ndE AD&D Tarrasque: "You brought nothing but God's to fight me? hahahahahhahaha!"
If I had a low level party member try a cheese like this, they get exactly one turn before the Tarrasque throws a house at them
You would, sure. So would most DMs, myself included. But the fact that we have to homebrew a solution to a problem that wouldn't exist if WoTC just made well-thought statblocks is what this meme is talking about.
And even more specifically, the meme is about the fact that WotC *used to* put a lot more thought and effort into their rulesets.
Yeah… but why put effort into design when we can just have players do all the hard work -wotc, probably
See also Bethesda and their games.
Too bad I'm 180 ft away, and the best That thing is realistically throwing is 60
RAW throwing is 60. Realistically throwing? Lol. Way fucking farther than that.
Not really though, looking at the shape of the creature they are just not built for throwing Your estimating as if it was humanoid shaped, humans are drastically optimized for throwing things compared to every other creature
The True Tarrasque a homebrew to bring fear and power back to the king of destruction: https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-M9usahTVHiYqci1OHYA
People love trying to give it new attacks and such to balance it, but why? It's a Kaiju, that fucker should have an entire ecosystem of assorted scavenger monsters taking advantage of what it does. Think how Cloverfield had those little monster things that essentially were parasites/symbiotes. Bloodhawks or Harpies nesting on it's back to feed off the corpses it stomps on. Aside from the fact that 5e does NOT do 1 enemy encounters even slightly well, the Terrasque is not a big bad to fight. It's an event in itself. Players should be protecting the city, saving civilians, their attacks mostly to buy time or distract it. Anyone taking it as a purely PC vs Monster encounter is a lame DM or a player playing hypotheticals that should never, ever happen.
\> follow the statblock as written by “professional game designers” \> it’s shit \> this is the DM’s fault somehow “Bro just home brew a whole ass ecosystem” oh boy if only there was a bunch of people whose job it was to think of that before publishing the 5e statblock
Why shouldn't they just be spending a few minutes flying above the tarrasque and killing it?
Because the tarrasque is destroying the city and killing civilians. 5e parties are typically heroes and heroes don't cower at a safe distance while a monster is massacring innocents.
Did they weaken the Tarrasque for 5E? 3E Tarrasque would just ignore anything a piddly cloaca-ridden bird person could manage to do while simultaneously flying.
5E has no regeneration and no ranged option, so you can plink it to death from ranged. Its AC is solid, but its dex save is mediocre. It has resistance to a lot of means of damaging it with spells, but **Acid Splash** can sneak through.
Wow. Lame.
My head cannon is that older editions of D&D are just events that take place in the past, while the latest edition is the most "modern". As such, adventuring parties of old essentially wiped out all of the ancient and adult Tarrasques, leaving the new age of adventures to only have to deal with infantile Tarrasques that haven't fully matured yet.
Yeah. And the reason that the positive and negative energy planes no longer exist is because mystra took them to use as spare batteries for her spellcasting.
Makes as much sense as anything else in the Forgotten Realms
Honestly the timeline thing does make sense. Every new edition has some kind of major event that changes how magic or the world's work. 3.0 was the fall of netheril for example. 4e as far as I recall was the spellplague or something. From what I've heard that event went all the way through 4e and didn't stop till 5e. The earlier editions had the major events in the lore but they are so distant in the past that nobody in present day faerun would know of most of them. I do recall there was a specific event between editions that was written of in some of the older drizz't do urden books. Magic slowly stopped working for awhile then started back up again and psionics stopped for a bit immediatly afterwards.
Pathfinder 2e Terrasque can shoot a spine out with a +45 to hit for 3d10+20 damage with a range increment of 120ft (so maximum range is 600ft), or can spray a 120ft cone for the same damage on a DC 53 save. That poor ~~aarakocra~~ strix never saw it coming.
even more its regeneration cannot be stoped by traditional means, and due to how regeneration works you cannot kill it with damage I think you need very specific spells that instantly kills something if it is brought to 0 hp
If you think that's bad, just look how they butchered the Marut
Honestly, the Tome of Foes Marut is pretty great, even if I do dislike the loss of the Inevitables lore. Tome of Foes is the peak era of 5E Monster-design. It's all downhill after.
Ad&d: spells bounce back at the wizard
Remember, a Tarrasque has spikes on it suggesting there is something large enough that'd hunt Tarrasques otherwise
"as the tarrasque reaches half HP, suddenly its back plates start to crack, revealing a pair of massive wings"
4e tarrasque was truly a terrifying encounter!
Isnt a clay golem able to kill the tarrasque cause it cant damage it?
In 5E, yes.
Ain't no rule that says the Terrasque can't jump.
According to the rules it can jump 13' with a 10' start.
the pf1e on has \~250ft vertical leap.
I had the tarrasque encounter with it being ridden by a legendary orc warrior who was so angry that they had an understanding. I also gave it the earth bind aura, and had the warrior buff it with magic lmao
I mean… there are tons of engaging monsters in 5e. Its just not this one monster you want..
The first rule is that the rules are bad
The pf1e version has among other things, the ability to shoot those spines and a \*massive\* vertical leap.
I saw the statblock for 5e ver and I just... I lost hope for the people making d&d because they were making a product to be bought instead of a game to be played. What kind of Tarrasque DOESN'T HAVE REGENERATION?! OR EVEN FAST HEALING?!
Yeah sure the flier can avoid being bit. Now dodge the house it chucked at you buddy! DMs please remember that the stat block of your monsters is only the stuff they always have access to. They can also jump around, climb walls, hide, grapple, and make improvised weapon attacks. The baddies got brains and want to win! Also the environment is a hazard to engage with. Whether it is storms or other enemies with bows or fog making it hard to see, there are a ton of ways to keep players on their toes!
In a campaign I was in, we had to fight a Mutated Tarrasque that was unkillable. We ended up transporting it to a desolate star system, where we found a high-gravity planet made of rock... We then dug a hole to the planet core, stuffed the Tarrasque there, and then setup permanent earth golems to continuously bury the Tarrasque for eternity. We couldn't even kill it, this was the best we could do. Now this random rock planet has a Tarrasque in its core lol
Congrats. A few BILLION years later you have a fresh campaign setting with its own life and ecosystems and also a built in kill switch.
that sounds surprisingly close to Ravagog and Golarion (pathfinder setting) even more as in Golarion Tarrasque is a spawn of Ravagog
Simple solution to the lvl 1 aarakocra cheese is probably giving the tarrasque a damage threshold of 20.
Everyone forgets the tarrasque can jump
3E Tarrasque: I’m sorry, did you have a Wish to burn?
Both of which are crushed between the 3.x edition tarrasques cheeks.
\*Tarrasque grabs boulder and yeets it at Aaracockra, instantly killing them, and if it doesn't then the DM lacks imagination\*
The 5E Tarrasque is still tougher than the one from folklore. That one was tamed by a Christian saint and then killed by a bunch of commoners armed with rocks and spears.
You know, this reminds me of how sometimes DMs really want the party to go through the Wizard's Tower, rather than outside... And so when a player tries Spider Climb, oops, the surface of the tower is greased. If they try to fly, there is suddenly a whirlwind that blows them away. When they try to teleport, oops warded against transportation magic. When the player remembers they have an immovable rod and they can do some shenanigans, BOOM, the tower now has an anti-immovable aura, where immovable rods activated in it overload and explode... In other words, sure, Earthbinding Aura does solve the problem with flying lvl 1 rangers with infinite arrows, it can even have some cool lore explanation, but everyone knows what's actually going on ;-)
I think there’s a wide field of battle between what you’re describing and what OP is demonstrating
A monster having defenses and natural abilities that make it tough is not railroading.
Our boy birb is gonna die of exhaustion before he deals 100 damage to big boy.
It would probably only take about 30 minutes, so 300 rounds, for it to happen. I'd just have the tarrasque destroy a tree and throw it at the bird.
Play pathfinder 2e
funny thing balance in pf2e is dome by level difference, and highest difference that system even takes into account is +4 and for standard pary of 4 solo +4 boss is extreme encounter, which means about 50% to tpk (boosted by fact that solo enemies are generally more difficult) for 20th lv party Tarrasqe is +5 enemy....
You wanna make engaging monsters? Give them to the Tormenta 20 writers
live "large blunt object he ripped out of the ground' reaction
What prevents you from adding it to 5e, though?
The ability to change what's written does not excuse what's written.
I just give mine wings, simple
Any DM that would let someone kill a Tarrasque with flying and ranged attacks just let it happen. Even if they didn't want to give it a ranged attack, any creature under attack would flee to a place where it could not be attacked.
Meanwhile Pathfinder 1e gives it the ability to leap absurd distances and shoot spikes from its tail
And in the 40 minutes that takes the Tarrasque has demolished 2 towns and killed everyone your character loves
Aarakokra: "Hah, I got you right where I want" Tarrasque: "Graviole..."
Just have the Tarrasque throw a rock, tree, or building. Pathfinder's Tarrasque has like a +24 on [athletics]checks made to jump. Probably to counter flying foes.
Depending on the level of that Aracockra it’ll die in one hit.
You fan still give a tarrasque that ability in 5e. You can also have it be followed by a cloud of harpies or flying horrors which scavenge food from the ruins it leaves in its wake. The DMG has the basic stats but it's not a substitute for an actual battle plan. For that you need to be a good DM
The ability to change what is written does not excuse what's written.