I was just pondering the interaction between an Intellect Devourer (CR3) and the Tarrasque (CR30). I realised that 4 intellect devourers could take out the tarrasque in one turn, if they got the jump on it.
The intellect devourer can force the Tarrasque to make an intelligence save (DC12) or take damage, and then on an equal or higher roll of 3d6 (vs intelligence 3, so guaranteed) the Tarrasque drops to Int 0 and is stunned until it's fixed. They can literally stop it in its tracks. It would need 4 due to the Tarrasque's 3 legendary resistances eating the first 3 efforts. With -4 on the roll, the Tarrasque is more than likely to fail the DC12 check (needing a 16+ on the dice to win), and 3d6 vs Int 3 is guaranteed to stun.
What else in the world can really easily take out a Tarrasque, despite being a whole lot weaker?
I would say the weakest thing that can beat the Tarrasque is a first level aaracokra cleric with sacred flame.
Stay out of range and spend 3 days battering it with weak ranged attacks. A classic bossfight strategy.
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Life is very busy unfortunately, gone from most Pbp's indefinitely. If you'd like to contact me, I am on Discord at GreatAxeblade#7595, always happy to chat :)
I would say the weakest thing that can beat the Tarrasque is a first level aaracokra cleric with sacred flame.
Stay out of range and spend 3 days battering it with weak ranged attacks. A classic bossfight strategy.
I'm not convinced...
60ft range. Tarrasque can move up to 120ft per turn and still attack (40ft, 40ft dash, legendary action to move 20ft, legendary action to move 20ft, legendary action to attack), and that attack has 20ft range, so 140ft attack range with the tail which does 4d6+10 damage. Can't imaging a level 1 cleric taking that much damage each turn and surviving!
I would say the weakest thing that can beat the Tarrasque is a first level aaracokra cleric with sacred flame.
Stay out of range and spend 3 days battering it with weak ranged attacks. A classic bossfight strategy.
I'm not convinced...
60ft range. Tarrasque can move up to 120ft per turn and still attack (40ft, 40ft dash, legendary action to move 20ft, legendary action to move 20ft, legendary action to attack), and that attack has 20ft range, so 140ft attack range with the tail which does 4d6+10 damage. Can't imaging a level 1 cleric taking that much damage each turn and surviving!
If the Aaracokra flew above the creature and used the spell, with a +3 modifier to spellcasting, it would hit about 36% of the time on the Tarrasque (+0 to Dex saves, advantage on saves against spells), or a little more than 1 every 3 attempts. At 4.5 avg damage per hit, and assuming average tarrasque hitpoints of 676, it would take 428 rounds of combat on average (assuming the tarrasque uses its 3 automatic saves), to kill the beast in this fashion, or about 42.8 minutes of constant spamming the cantrip while moving from 85 feet above the Tarrasque, to 60 feet, casting the spell, and flying back up to 85 feet.
By RAW, the Tarrasque has a vertical leap of 13', and its longest reach is 20', so 60' of distance should be fine. Even if you allow for the creature to reach half its height before making the attack, that's only 58' max (given the height of the creature at 50' per the MM)
Edit: original calc used probability of 2 d20's rolling 13 or less. revised uses probability of rolling 12 or less (DC 13 Spell Save)
I'm unconvinced that a level 1 bird-person cleric would be able to involve themselves in such a prolonged flying battle without eventually succumbing to exhaustion mechanics before they do an appreciable amount of damage to the magic-resistant tarrasque. At least in this version, they removed the tarrasque's regeneration ability, which would easily outpace cantrip level damage, but I can't realistically see a race that requires musculature for flight to be able to stay aloft for hours on end while also casting spells every few seconds to get very far before tiring out.
Life is very busy unfortunately, gone from most Pbp's indefinitely. If you'd like to contact me, I am on Discord at GreatAxeblade#7595, always happy to chat :)
I agree, even a nominal regeneration ability or practically any ranged attack on par with its melee attack would remove a lot of the cheese regarding ways to beat the creature at low levels, but what I've described is basically the RAW way for a single lvl 1 PC to beat the thing.
I'm unconvinced that a level 1 bird-person cleric would be able to involve themselves in such a prolonged flying battle without eventually succumbing to exhaustion mechanics before they do an appreciable amount of damage to the magic-resistant tarrasque. At least in this version, they removed the tarrasque's regeneration ability, which would easily outpace cantrip level damage, but I can't realistically see a race that requires musculature for flight to be able to stay aloft for hours on end while also casting spells every few seconds to get very far before tiring out.
Nothing in RAW imposes a penalty on a flying creatures ability to fly assuming normal weather and conditions. Plus, the on average 45 ish minutes (see my post above) it would take is not a long stretch of time by any imagination. That said, a repetitive stress injury to the casting hand during the 150+ (avg 428) castings of the spell is more likely than they get tired from flying.
IRON COOKING POT This reply probably belongs under Story & Lore, but the memory made me smile, so I thought someone might enjoy hearing it.
In a homebrew campaign that my husband ran a couple of years ago, our party was hired by a bronze dragon to retrieve pieces of an ancient artifact. He believed that once assembled, it would grant him (Or another dragon who possessed it) certain powers. This lore was actually false, and had been planted long ago, by a very clever and nefarious foe of dragon-kind. After several adventures, we had collected the various pieces and undertook our final task -- a ceremony at a "sacred" site on a mountaintop. We carefully went through several steps (Arcana and crafting checks) while others in the party kept watch against potential foes. We had been forewarned the the power we would invoke would be felt by other dragons and could bring rivals to disrupt our efforts -- with potentially disastrous results.
Success! The pieces went together perfectly. But... Our patron instantly vanished. Then the artifact began to change shape before our eyes. In seconds, we were staring at a tiny tarrasque that had manifested in our midst. And the thing was growing! The monster immediately tried to vanish into the wilderness where it could complete its development before wrecking havoc on the region.
The party sprang into action. We captured the tiny terror, which even at its reduced size was nearly impervious to our psychical attacks. (It kept its AC and I believe most/all? of its hit points, but fortunately, not its strength.) Thinking frantically, we imprisoned it within the iron cooking pot that came with the Folk Hero Background. There followed more chaos as one character began regretfully melting down all the bullets for their rare and exotic fire arm in order to make a lead seal for the pot, while another improvised a (badly off-key) lullaby, in attempt to soothe the beast. The pot and its contents were then rushed to the capital city, to the largest temple, where amid shouts for assistance and a demand to see the highest ranking cleric, we begged to have the thing sent to another plane before it could outgrow the pot.
So, that's the story. I'd actually love to see art of that scene at the temple with a party of harried looking adventurers all focused on the cooking pot in their midst, yelling demands and requests, while the barbarian tried both to lug the thing and to forcibly keep the lid in place. Unfortunately, none of us who played through the experience can draw. Anyway, I hope this bit of reminiscence makes someone smile. Our games don't usually get to that extreme of sheer panic and hilarity, but this one did and I will never forget it.
Life is very busy unfortunately, gone from most Pbp's indefinitely. If you'd like to contact me, I am on Discord at GreatAxeblade#7595, always happy to chat :)
I would say the weakest thing that can beat the Tarrasque is a first level aaracokra cleric with sacred flame.
A Tarrasque is 50 feet tall and can jump 13 feet; if it somersaults, that's 83 feet with the tail. You're giving yourself a 2 foot margin of error, which I respect, but wow, that's cutting it close. You're also counting on the GM to rule against the high jump claim that your arms can reach up half your height - if the GM goes with that, a high jumping Tarrasque can claw something 88 feet up, and your Aarakocra will die in one hit.
It's int 3 and OP didn't specify a time limit, so this feels pretty legitimate, but I'd be more comfortable using the 3.5E standby of digging a pit 80 feet deep, coating it with a thick layer of lard, covering it with a platform that will hold up one ton but will collapses under hundreds of tons, putting bait on the platform, and filling the pit with smoke.
Life is very busy unfortunately, gone from most Pbp's indefinitely. If you'd like to contact me, I am on Discord at GreatAxeblade#7595, always happy to chat :)
I agree, even a nominal regeneration ability or practically any ranged attack on par with its melee attack would remove a lot of the cheese regarding ways to beat the creature at low levels, but what I've described is basically the RAW way for a single lvl 1 PC to beat the thing.
I'm unconvinced that a level 1 bird-person cleric would be able to involve themselves in such a prolonged flying battle without eventually succumbing to exhaustion mechanics before they do an appreciable amount of damage to the magic-resistant tarrasque. At least in this version, they removed the tarrasque's regeneration ability, which would easily outpace cantrip level damage, but I can't realistically see a race that requires musculature for flight to be able to stay aloft for hours on end while also casting spells every few seconds to get very far before tiring out.
Nothing in RAW imposes a penalty on a flying creatures ability to fly assuming normal weather and conditions. Plus, the on average 45 ish minutes (see my post above) it would take is not a long stretch of time by any imagination. That said, a repetitive stress injury to the casting hand during the 150+ (avg 428) castings of the spell is more likely than they get tired from flying.
Then they'd have to go to the bar and explain they single-handedly killed the tarrasque, but they got carpal tunnel in the process. So even though that got them up to level 14 in less than an hour, they haven't found enough diamond dust for greater restoration to fix it.
Depends on what you consider "easy". If the heir to the throne pledges themself to a powerful enough patron, warlock-style, in return for killing the Tarrasque (it's been ravaging the kingdom or something) Big T would bite the dust and the heir wouldn't need any power at all - they'd just have to be a tasty enough prospect for the patron.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
Technically the tarrasque can pick up rocks and throw them; it has no special traits that allow it to do so, but can still use them as improvised weapons with range 20/60. If you're willing to say an improvised thrown weapon uses strength, +10/1d4+10, even with disadvantage, is probably sufficient against a first level cleric.
I was just pondering the interaction between an Intellect Devourer (CR3) and the Tarrasque (CR30). I realised that 4 intellect devourers could take out the tarrasque in one turn, if they got the jump on it.
The intellect devourer can force the Tarrasque to make an intelligence save (DC12) or take damage, and then on an equal or higher roll of 3d6 (vs intelligence 3, so guaranteed) the Tarrasque drops to Int 0 and is stunned until it's fixed. They can literally stop it in its tracks. It would need 4 due to the Tarrasque's 3 legendary resistances eating the first 3 efforts. With -4 on the roll, the Tarrasque is more than likely to fail the DC12 check (needing a 16+ on the dice to win), and 3d6 vs Int 3 is guaranteed to stun.
What else in the world can really easily take out a Tarrasque, despite being a whole lot weaker?
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
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I have started discussing/reviewing 3rd party D&D content on Substack - stay tuned for semi-regular posts!
I would say the weakest thing that can beat the Tarrasque is a first level aaracokra cleric with sacred flame.
I have a weird sense of humor.
I also make maps.(That's a link)
Stay out of range and spend 3 days battering it with weak ranged attacks. A classic bossfight strategy.
Life is very busy unfortunately, gone from most Pbp's indefinitely.
If you'd like to contact me, I am on Discord at GreatAxeblade#7595, always happy to chat :)
Homebrew races: ~Otterfolk! Play as a otter!~ Playable Dryad! (Literally just the monster sheet ported to player race)
Sauce Archpriest!- Join the Supreme Court of Sauces! Join the Cult of Cults! EXTENDED SIGNATURE Tooltips
I'm not convinced...
60ft range. Tarrasque can move up to 120ft per turn and still attack (40ft, 40ft dash, legendary action to move 20ft, legendary action to move 20ft, legendary action to attack), and that attack has 20ft range, so 140ft attack range with the tail which does 4d6+10 damage. Can't imaging a level 1 cleric taking that much damage each turn and surviving!
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
DrivethruRPG Releases on This Thread - latest release: My Character is a Werewolf: balanced rules for Lycanthropy!
I have started discussing/reviewing 3rd party D&D content on Substack - stay tuned for semi-regular posts!
If the Aaracokra flew above the creature and used the spell, with a +3 modifier to spellcasting, it would hit about 36% of the time on the Tarrasque (+0 to Dex saves, advantage on saves against spells), or a little more than 1 every 3 attempts. At 4.5 avg damage per hit, and assuming average tarrasque hitpoints of 676, it would take 428 rounds of combat on average (assuming the tarrasque uses its 3 automatic saves), to kill the beast in this fashion, or about 42.8 minutes of constant spamming the cantrip while moving from 85 feet above the Tarrasque, to 60 feet, casting the spell, and flying back up to 85 feet.
By RAW, the Tarrasque has a vertical leap of 13', and its longest reach is 20', so 60' of distance should be fine. Even if you allow for the creature to reach half its height before making the attack, that's only 58' max (given the height of the creature at 50' per the MM)
Edit: original calc used probability of 2 d20's rolling 13 or less. revised uses probability of rolling 12 or less (DC 13 Spell Save)
I'm unconvinced that a level 1 bird-person cleric would be able to involve themselves in such a prolonged flying battle without eventually succumbing to exhaustion mechanics before they do an appreciable amount of damage to the magic-resistant tarrasque. At least in this version, they removed the tarrasque's regeneration ability, which would easily outpace cantrip level damage, but I can't realistically see a race that requires musculature for flight to be able to stay aloft for hours on end while also casting spells every few seconds to get very far before tiring out.
This is why, if I were to run the Tarrasque, I'd allow it to throw trees, small buildings, etc. at out-of-reach foes.
Wizard (Gandalf) of the Tolkien Club
tree is just another word for
VERY LARGE JAVELIN
Life is very busy unfortunately, gone from most Pbp's indefinitely.
If you'd like to contact me, I am on Discord at GreatAxeblade#7595, always happy to chat :)
Homebrew races: ~Otterfolk! Play as a otter!~ Playable Dryad! (Literally just the monster sheet ported to player race)
Sauce Archpriest!- Join the Supreme Court of Sauces! Join the Cult of Cults! EXTENDED SIGNATURE Tooltips
I agree, even a nominal regeneration ability or practically any ranged attack on par with its melee attack would remove a lot of the cheese regarding ways to beat the creature at low levels, but what I've described is basically the RAW way for a single lvl 1 PC to beat the thing.
Nothing in RAW imposes a penalty on a flying creatures ability to fly assuming normal weather and conditions. Plus, the on average 45 ish minutes (see my post above) it would take is not a long stretch of time by any imagination. That said, a repetitive stress injury to the casting hand during the 150+ (avg 428) castings of the spell is more likely than they get tired from flying.
I think the Tarrasque is worth enough XP for the cleric to get to 14th level.
I have a weird sense of humor.
I also make maps.(That's a link)
IRON COOKING POT
This reply probably belongs under Story & Lore, but the memory made me smile, so I thought someone might enjoy hearing it.
In a homebrew campaign that my husband ran a couple of years ago, our party was hired by a bronze dragon to retrieve pieces of an ancient artifact. He believed that once assembled, it would grant him (Or another dragon who possessed it) certain powers. This lore was actually false, and had been planted long ago, by a very clever and nefarious foe of dragon-kind. After several adventures, we had collected the various pieces and undertook our final task -- a ceremony at a "sacred" site on a mountaintop.
We carefully went through several steps (Arcana and crafting checks) while others in the party kept watch against potential foes. We had been forewarned the the power we would invoke would be felt by other dragons and could bring rivals to disrupt our efforts -- with potentially disastrous results.
Success! The pieces went together perfectly. But... Our patron instantly vanished. Then the artifact began to change shape before our eyes. In seconds, we were staring at a tiny tarrasque that had manifested in our midst. And the thing was growing! The monster immediately tried to vanish into the wilderness where it could complete its development before wrecking havoc on the region.
The party sprang into action. We captured the tiny terror, which even at its reduced size was nearly impervious to our psychical attacks. (It kept its AC and I believe most/all? of its hit points, but fortunately, not its strength.) Thinking frantically, we imprisoned it within the iron cooking pot that came with the Folk Hero Background. There followed more chaos as one character began regretfully melting down all the bullets for their rare and exotic fire arm in order to make a lead seal for the pot, while another improvised a (badly off-key) lullaby, in attempt to soothe the beast. The pot and its contents were then rushed to the capital city, to the largest temple, where amid shouts for assistance and a demand to see the highest ranking cleric, we begged to have the thing sent to another plane before it could outgrow the pot.
So, that's the story. I'd actually love to see art of that scene at the temple with a party of harried looking adventurers all focused on the cooking pot in their midst, yelling demands and requests, while the barbarian tried both to lug the thing and to forcibly keep the lid in place. Unfortunately, none of us who played through the experience can draw. Anyway, I hope this bit of reminiscence makes someone smile. Our games don't usually get to that extreme of sheer panic and hilarity, but this one did and I will never forget it.
This is AMAZING.
Life is very busy unfortunately, gone from most Pbp's indefinitely.
If you'd like to contact me, I am on Discord at GreatAxeblade#7595, always happy to chat :)
Homebrew races: ~Otterfolk! Play as a otter!~ Playable Dryad! (Literally just the monster sheet ported to player race)
Sauce Archpriest!- Join the Supreme Court of Sauces! Join the Cult of Cults! EXTENDED SIGNATURE Tooltips
A Tarrasque is 50 feet tall and can jump 13 feet; if it somersaults, that's 83 feet with the tail. You're giving yourself a 2 foot margin of error, which I respect, but wow, that's cutting it close. You're also counting on the GM to rule against the high jump claim that your arms can reach up half your height - if the GM goes with that, a high jumping Tarrasque can claw something 88 feet up, and your Aarakocra will die in one hit.
It's int 3 and OP didn't specify a time limit, so this feels pretty legitimate, but I'd be more comfortable using the 3.5E standby of digging a pit 80 feet deep, coating it with a thick layer of lard, covering it with a platform that will hold up one ton but will collapses under hundreds of tons, putting bait on the platform, and filling the pit with smoke.
Don't skimp on the lard.
Ff it's 50' tall you can attack it from 110' in the air.
A bored DM.
Life is very busy unfortunately, gone from most Pbp's indefinitely.
If you'd like to contact me, I am on Discord at GreatAxeblade#7595, always happy to chat :)
Homebrew races: ~Otterfolk! Play as a otter!~ Playable Dryad! (Literally just the monster sheet ported to player race)
Sauce Archpriest!- Join the Supreme Court of Sauces! Join the Cult of Cults! EXTENDED SIGNATURE Tooltips
Oh, yes, that's fair. Don't know why I was measuring elevation from the ground.
Then they'd have to go to the bar and explain they single-handedly killed the tarrasque, but they got carpal tunnel in the process. So even though that got them up to level 14 in less than an hour, they haven't found enough diamond dust for greater restoration to fix it.
Depends on what you consider "easy". If the heir to the throne pledges themself to a powerful enough patron, warlock-style, in return for killing the Tarrasque (it's been ravaging the kingdom or something) Big T would bite the dust and the heir wouldn't need any power at all - they'd just have to be a tasty enough prospect for the patron.
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
Technically the tarrasque can pick up rocks and throw them; it has no special traits that allow it to do so, but can still use them as improvised weapons with range 20/60. If you're willing to say an improvised thrown weapon uses strength, +10/1d4+10, even with disadvantage, is probably sufficient against a first level cleric.
On the other hand, in that 428 rounds, the tarrasque has done an average of 126,688 points of damage to the buildings of the city it is trashing.
I don't think the ruler of the city is going to be that impressed with the flying level 1 cleric. :-)