Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
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Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
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Yes, after dropping it to -40 HP. Most creatures died at -10.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
I don't know about the one in 3e, but it was the requirement in AD&D 1e.
Just because the stat block doesn't have options for chucking something at your flying Tiefling doesn't mean I'm not going to allow improvised weapon use rules to have the monster throw a wagon at your PC.
It was the case in 3E as well.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Wagons, ho!
I imagine the adventurers seeing the Tarrasque rise up over the city of Baldur's Gate and say, "we'll save you" then promptly spam toll the dead while the city burns. A funny vision, and while you'll get the XP, I think the repercussions will be quite awful for everyone except you.
I feel as though attempting to kill the Tarrasque by spamming a spell that has the same range as its movement and uses a saving throw that it's got +9 and advantage on is unlikely to succeed.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Not to mention the recharge on it's Thunderous Bellow has a higher probability every round than that of it failing the Toll the Dead saving throw and that has a considerably larger range than Toll the Dead.
It should have kept it's Regeneration from earlier editions.
That would be because 5e, and 5.5e have significanty nerfed the abilites of all Monsters, in an attempt to balance the game for the players. In the past the creature was by far the most difficult monster to fight.
2nd Edition Monstrous Manual page 339
The legendary tarrasque, for there is fortunately only one known to exist, is the most dreaded monster native to the Prime Material plane. The creature is a scaly biped with two horns on its head, a lashing tail, and a reflective carapace.
Combat: The tarrasque is a killing machine and when active (see below) eats everything for miles around, including all animals and vegetation. Normal attacks are with its two forelimb claws (1d12 points of damage each), a sweeping tail lash (2d12 points of damage), a savage bite (5d10 points of damage plus acts as a sword of sharpness, severing a limb on a natural attack roll of 18 or better), and two thrusting horn attacks (1d10 points of damage each).
Once every turn, the normally slow-moving tarrasque can rush forward at a movement rate of 15, making all horn attacks cause double damage and trampling anything underfoot for 4d10 points of crushing damage.
The mere sight of the tarrasque causes creatures with less than 3 levels or Hit Dice to be paralyzed with fright (no saving throw) until it is out of their vision. Creatures of 3 or more levels or Hit Dice flee in panic, although those of 7 or more levels or Hit Dice that manage to succeed with a saving throw vs. paralyzation are not affected (though they often still decide to run away).
The tarrasque's carapace is exceptionally tough and highly reflective. Bolts and rays such as lightning bolts, cones of cold, and even magic missiles are useless against it. The reflection is such that 1 in 6 of these attacks actually bounces directly back at the caster (affecting him normally), while the rest bounce off harmlessly to the sides and into the air.
The tarrasque is also immune to all heat and fire, and it regenerates lost hit points at a rate of 1 hit point per round. Only enchanted weapons (+1 or better) have any hope of harming the tarrasque. The Tarrasque is totally immune to all psionics.
Habitat/Society: It is fortunate that the tarrasque is active only for short periods of time. Typically, the monster comes forth to forage for a week or two, ravaging the countryside for miles around. The tarrasque then seeks a hidden lair underground and lies dormant, sleeping for 5d4 months before coming forth again. Once every decade or so, the monster is particularly active, staying awake for several months. Thereafter its period of dormancy is 4d4 years unless disturbed. The ratio of active to dormant states seems to be about 1:30.
Ecology: Slaying of the tarrasque is said to be possible only if the monster is reduced to -30 or fewer hit points and a wish is then used. Otherwise, even the slightest piece of the tarrasque can regenerate and restore the monster completely. Legend says that a great treasure can be extracted from the tarrasque's carapace. The upper portion, treated with acid and then heated in a furnace, is thought to yield gems (10d10 diamonds of 1,000 gp base value each). The underbelly material, mixed with the creature's blood and adamantite, is said to produce a metal that can be forged by master dwarven blacksmiths into 1d4 shields of +5 enchantment. It takes two years to manufacture each shield, and the dwarves aren't likely to do it for free.
It is hoped that the tarrasque is a solitary creation, some hideous abomination unleashed by the dark arts or by elder, forgotten gods to punish all of nature. The elemental nature of the tarrasque leads the few living tarrasque experts to speculate that the elemental princes of evil have something to do with its existence. In any case, the location of the tarrasque remains a mystery, as it rarely leaves witnesses in its wake, and nature quickly grows over all remnants of its presence. It is rumored that the tarrasque is responsible for the extinction of one ancient civilization, for the records of their last days spoke of a “great reptilian punisher sent by the gods to end the world”.
Note: Creatures with a negative THAC0 can only miss on a roll of a 1.
Basically you needed a high level party everyone needed magic weapons, and spell casters really didn't have the tools needed to do much to it.
And here I was, reading from your picture before scrolling down...
Oh, I’d forgotten about those old damage numbers like damage 5-50. Early D&D editions were responsible for many of my math word problem solving skills when they just expressed a range instead of telling you what to roll. Like 2-7 means a d6+1, while 2-8 means 2d4.
yeah... I wanted to show from my copy, but it needed to be typed out for easy reading. I also have the 3rd and 4th books on my desk... but the time it took for 2nd means I will pass on that idea.
edit:
I was tempted to translate the numbers into 5e but it would loose it's authentic feel. As a DM I do like to add back some more dangerous parts of older monsters into my games, both to change it up and to foil meta gaming.
Not really. Sure, it had high damage and was hugely durable, but it had the same problems of poor ranged options and low mobility as every other version, and thus under realistic conditions a significant number of creatures would be more dangerous. The basic requirements to beat the Tarrasque, by edition, would be
While you are not wrong in some of the things you are saying.
You have to be over level 7 to even face a Tarresque, and be lucky on the save. The next issue with your statment is to think level 7 is considered low level. 1st and 2nd were designed very differantly. The game was lethal to player characters at all levels, the XP curve was torcherous, and if you make it to level 10 by the end of a campaign your DM was being generous. Early D&D was balanced around a much differant expectation. Some Races had level caps on some classes usually around 10.
So yeah a level 10 pair of players could defeat a Tarresque, but that would be the crown of a 4 year campaign.
IIRC, under 2nd Edition rules you also needed enchanted arrows to damage a creature that was immune to nonmagical weapons. Shooting nonmagical arrows out of a magical bow gave the bow's bonus to the attack and damage rolls, but they were still considered nonmagical for the purposes of what they could harm. So you needed to expend a small fortune's worth of magical ammo into the thing in the suggested tactic.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
When did I say level 7 is low level? I said it was midlevel. AD&D level bands are much the same as 3e and 5e -- low level is 1-4, mid level is 5-10, high level is 11+.
Not really, In 2E, "high level" hit around 8-9th level when you reached your maximum hit dice.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Alright, let me explain how the D&D leveling experience in 1st, AD&D, and 2nd went.
Each class had it's own XP table, and had differant rules on what counted for XP. Thieves got XP for successful thief rolls, Clerics for Clerical stuff etc. Wizards had the Fastest XP chart as they were by far the weakest class to a degree that was significate, and they only became a threat after level 3rd level magic was unlocked.
The games were balanced around starting as a level 1, and you might level to level 2 after 1500~2500 XP earned.
Chart for XP earned from AD&D DMG
3,000 + 1,000 per additional Hit Die over 13
I'm sure you can maths this and see why it took a long time between levels.
The DM was also encrouaged to give individual XP, so yes some players might be level 3 while others were still level 1.... and that is not counting Multi-Class. (Which had it's own things which slowed down progression)
You could take all of High School going from level 1 to 4 playing an Elf Wizard having 1 hour sessions every wednesday, with teacher suppervision. Just saying, old DnD was very differant.
Also all the tables were made by hand and count as art not formula, Gygax knew how to copyright what should have been unable to be copyrighted.
The XP tree was then a expotential growth chart soft caping at level 11 with a hard cap at 20, and 30 if the DM owned specific books. Which was effectively the Max level. The game was balanced around level 11 being the max level. Yes they had released books and material all the way to level 30, but this was because people only played 1 character, and after 20 years of one character they made rules allowing them to get higher levels.
I should point out going on normal leveling curves, with a 4 hour session once a week, starting at 1, it would take 6 months to get to level 5, a year to get to level 9, 2 years to get to 11, and about 10 years to get to 20. Level 30 material was for games that had been going for 10 years or more.
When you reaalize most games today last maybe a year, and the story goes to around to about 15~16 the same type of campaign in AD&D would have been level 8~9. Making the Tarrasque a cap stone fight at the end of a campaign. Which honestly was what all the giant monsters were for. ie Facing a Dragon, a Tarrasque, or other boss monster, this was usually a fight after defeating the last boss of a campaign BTW, allowing a player to use the legendary weapons earned from the Big Bad. Note for my most famous moment, the DM gave my elf thief a pair of daggers one had powerword "heal", and the other had powerword "kill" built into them. Only instead of following the spell rules, one blade had a chance to instant kill anything, while the other if they had a charge could restore life to anyone... The kill blade triggered on a Turtle Dragon last fight. Ah the memories. I was a level 4 thief 5 wizard.
Sadly that DM passed not long after that campaign, he was young too.
The thing is, the idea that a level 9 was a mid level in AD&D is false, that was the expected max level for most campaigns. By todays standards I would say a level 9 from that era would not translate to 5e or 5.5e well, but would be similar to a level 16~17. A party of level 16s can destroy anything in the 5e monster manual, and with only one exception any thing in the 5.5e monster manual. The one exception is a creature I have not used as DM, so have no clue how my players would deal with it.