Reverse Gravity is a DEX save, if the creature can grab onto something fixed. The tarrasque can just grab the ground and it can use its legendary resistances to succeed three times if you keep trying it.
Spells with DEX or INT saves may still be the best way to fight one, but it’s not going to be easy.
+1 t othe idea that a Tarrasque is a creature you are meant to stop, not one you're meant to fight. It's not going to be stood ready to fight the group of 4-6 heroes - it's going to be aiming to destroy the town and eat the population, and that's what you'll need to prevent - your goal isn't "stop the tarrasque from living", it's "stop the tarrasque from killing everyone".
There was some discussion a year or so ago that you could spam the Heroes' Feast spell to feed it, as the tarrasque is basically just hungry, and that would leave it not destroying anything. The spell says it takes an hour to eat and doesn't limit the size of the creatures, so it could technically feed 12 tarrasques for an hour. You'd just need people to pay an endless tribute of gem-encrusted bowls worth at least 1000gp!
There was some discussion a year or so ago that you could spam the Heroes' Feast spell to feed it, as the tarrasque is basically just hungry, and that would leave it not destroying anything. The spell says it takes an hour to eat and doesn't limit the size of the creatures, so it could technically feed 12 tarrasques for an hour. You'd just need people to pay an endless tribute of gem-encrusted bowls worth at least 1000gp!
That's silly, goodberry is a much cheaper solution.
There was some discussion a year or so ago that you could spam the Heroes' Feast spell to feed it, as the tarrasque is basically just hungry, and that would leave it not destroying anything. The spell says it takes an hour to eat and doesn't limit the size of the creatures, so it could technically feed 12 tarrasques for an hour. You'd just need people to pay an endless tribute of gem-encrusted bowls worth at least 1000gp!
That's silly, goodberry is a much cheaper solution.
There was some discussion a year or so ago that you could spam the Heroes' Feast spell to feed it, as the tarrasque is basically just hungry, and that would leave it not destroying anything. The spell says it takes an hour to eat and doesn't limit the size of the creatures, so it could technically feed 12 tarrasques for an hour. You'd just need people to pay an endless tribute of gem-encrusted bowls worth at least 1000gp!
That's silly, goodberry is a much cheaper solution.
Yes, but it only takes a round to eat.
true, but if the tarrasque is sustained for a day, it's not hungry, so is it still going to be rampant?
Has your DM ever made you all fight one, how did you defeat it, or better yet, how did you survive?
All you need is access to being able to fly and ranged attacks - the Tarrasque can't fly, has no ranged attacks, and is Intelligence 3. Your DM might have it try to flee and hide from you, depending on how your DM wants its attitude to be, but even that will be quite difficult for it.
My group has never fought one but we theory-crafted out how we would and yeah...flying and ranged attacks. There are also a few spell effects that will push a target around that are not limited by size so, strangely enough, your Warlock might be able to shove the thing around. Then you look for a cliff...
For fun, I homebrewed a Terrasque that resembled a certain tall lizard that breathed atomic fire. We calculated that the party would be incinerated by turn 2 so we set that one aside...for now.
Slightly off topic, but the best way I have found to make the Tarrasque a better threat is to give it stuff from the previous 2 editions.
Anything within a massive range that is flying cannot fly above 20 feet.
Every once in a while, it can move 200 feet in a round. Once it does that once, even if the party doesn't know it is a limited use, they stop trying to kite it.
Give it damn near complete spell immunity. For this one to not feel unfair, make it's saves insane rather then making nothing work. Just nothing should work.
Give it immunity to anything that isn't a magical weapon. And even then, +3 or bust.
Damage reduction and regeneration.
Then add in the ability to just wade through walls of force
Slightly off topic, but the best way I have found to make the Tarrasque a better threat is to give it stuff from the previous 2 editions.
Anything within a massive range that is flying cannot fly above 20 feet.
Every once in a while, it can move 200 feet in a round. Once it does that once, even if the party doesn't know it is a limited use, they stop trying to kite it.
Give it damn near complete spell immunity. For this one to not feel unfair, make it's saves insane rather then making nothing work. Just nothing should work.
Give it immunity to anything that isn't a magical weapon. And even then, +3 or bust.
Damage reduction and regeneration.
Then add in the ability to just wade through walls of force
That's a nice touch. That spell has hemmed in more large enemies than I can shake a stick at.
Slightly off topic, but the best way I have found to make the Tarrasque a better threat is to give it stuff from the previous 2 editions.
Anything within a massive range that is flying cannot fly above 20 feet.
Every once in a while, it can move 200 feet in a round. Once it does that once, even if the party doesn't know it is a limited use, they stop trying to kite it.
Give it damn near complete spell immunity. For this one to not feel unfair, make it's saves insane rather then making nothing work. Just nothing should work.
Give it immunity to anything that isn't a magical weapon. And even then, +3 or bust.
Damage reduction and regeneration.
Then add in the ability to just wade through walls of force
That's a nice touch. That spell has hemmed in more large enemies than I can shake a stick at.
4e tarrasque has 'elder of annihilation' which ignores all forms of damage resistance (4e didn't really have immunity outside of very special cases; I'd have it able to break the unbreakable in 5e).
You’re forgetting that the Tarrasque is entirely animalistic in nature; it’s not smart enough to use tools and thus, won’t think of tearing a chunk out of the ground to chuck at the party.
You’re forgetting that the Tarrasque is entirely animalistic in nature; it’s not smart enough to use tools and thus, won’t think of tearing a chunk out of the ground to chuck at the party.
You've never seen an animal throw something?
"Chucking a rock" is well within the intellectual scope of a 3Int creature.
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I'm probably laughing.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.
To be honest, they nerfed the Tarrasque in 5e. It used to be MUCH stronger. Previously the only way to actually kill it was to take it down to -300 hp (300 below zero), then cast Wish to wish it to be dead. That was the only way to actually kill it. It used to reflect spells below (if memory serves - as i'm too lazy to reach over to my bookshelf and look it up) 6th level back to the caster, and its bite severed limbs on crits.
Now, anyone with a shortbow and the ability to fly can kill a Tarrasque (or better yet 2 people, with one just carrying the arrows the other will use).
To be honest, they nerfed the Tarrasque in 5e. It used to be MUCH stronger. Previously the only way to actually kill it was to take it down to -300 hp (300 below zero), then cast Wish to wish it to be dead. That was the only way to actually kill it. It used to reflect spells below (if memory serves - as i'm too lazy to reach over to my bookshelf and look it up) 6th level back to the caster, and its bite severed limbs on crits.
Now, anyone with a shortbow and the ability to fly can kill a Tarrasque (or better yet 2 people, with one just carrying the arrows the other will use).
It does need to be a magical shortbow, which are technically in relatively short supply, although of course in practice most parties have +1 weapons for all the weapon-users by level 5. And the "someone can just plink it to death" scenario assumes a video game style confrontation where the monster does nothing but mindlessly attack. A Tarrasque might not be anyone's idea of a MENSA candidate, but if it's constantly being hurt by something it can't reach it can dash for a total of 80 ft and Legendary Action another 60 ft of movement a round. This also assumes the players are free to spend a very long time combat-wise killing the monster with bug bites. Given that this thing is clearly designed to kaiju its way through a city, such an approach would likely have some significant long-term consequences.
Don't mean to nitpick, but the point still stands. It is extremely easy to make an attack magical (thru spell, special ability, level in some cases, or magic weapon). The Tarrasque has zero chance to defend itself against targets flying higher than it can reach/jump, and it is literally just a matter of time before that flying foe kills it.
If the Tarrasque gets driven away, that works too; and if a city is being threatened by one they likely have more than one person who will be flying to rain down arrows from a mere +1 bow (there are several playable races that have wings). They don't even need to be proficient with that bow, they just need to fly high enough, long enough, and have enough arrows.
Once upon a time the Tarrasque was truly dangerous and only the toughest of the tough would even challenge it. It was in the game to show that even the strongest characters are not the top of the food chain. That is simply no longer the case.
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Playing D&D since 1982
Have played every version of the game since Basic (Red Box Set), except that abomination sometimes called 4e.
It does need to be a magical shortbow, which are technically in relatively short supply, although of course in practice most parties have +1 weapons for all the weapon-users by level 5. And the "someone can just plink it to death" scenario assumes a video game style confrontation where the monster does nothing but mindlessly attack. A Tarrasque might not be anyone's idea of a MENSA candidate, but if it's constantly being hurt by something it can't reach it can dash for a total of 80 ft and Legendary Action another 60 ft of movement a round. This also assumes the players are free to spend a very long time combat-wise killing the monster with bug bites. Given that this thing is clearly designed to kaiju its way through a city, such an approach would likely have some significant long-term consequences.
Being able to force the giant rampaging monster to run away and hide from a few low level characters is... really not fulfilling the job of a giant rampaging monster.
Once again let me reiterate that by the time you can manage to plink your way through most of 700 HP on an AC 25 monster, it’s had enough time to walk up to castle, eat the king, and walk back out. It’s weakest attack does almost 50 damage on average to structures with enough to hit bonus that only a nat 1 will keep it from damaging the target. And it’s making 5-8 of those attacks a round. Unless you’ve got whole high level party of these hypothetical flying bowmen, you honestly might as well not have any when it comes to defending most locations.
Once again let me reiterate that by the time you can manage to plink your way through most of 700 HP on an AC 25 monster, it’s had enough time to walk up to castle, eat the king, and walk back out. It’s weakest attack does almost 50 damage on average to structures with enough to hit bonus that only a nat 1 will keep it from damaging the target.
Let me reiterate that a segment of a structure is 10'x10'x10', so it's going to need to destroy two segments. And that stone walls have 30 hp per inch, so a 5' thick wall has 1800 hit points. Meaning it's going to take on the order of a minute to bash through a single reinforced wall, which is plenty of time to move to another location where it needs to bash through a new wall.
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Reverse Gravity doesn't need a saving throw, it just happens the only way around it is if it is anchored to the ground with it can't do
Reverse Gravity is a DEX save, if the creature can grab onto something fixed. The tarrasque can just grab the ground and it can use its legendary resistances to succeed three times if you keep trying it.
Spells with DEX or INT saves may still be the best way to fight one, but it’s not going to be easy.
+1 t othe idea that a Tarrasque is a creature you are meant to stop, not one you're meant to fight. It's not going to be stood ready to fight the group of 4-6 heroes - it's going to be aiming to destroy the town and eat the population, and that's what you'll need to prevent - your goal isn't "stop the tarrasque from living", it's "stop the tarrasque from killing everyone".
There was some discussion a year or so ago that you could spam the Heroes' Feast spell to feed it, as the tarrasque is basically just hungry, and that would leave it not destroying anything. The spell says it takes an hour to eat and doesn't limit the size of the creatures, so it could technically feed 12 tarrasques for an hour. You'd just need people to pay an endless tribute of gem-encrusted bowls worth at least 1000gp!
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!
That's silly, goodberry is a much cheaper solution.
Yes, but it only takes a round to eat.
true, but if the tarrasque is sustained for a day, it's not hungry, so is it still going to be rampant?
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!
My group has never fought one but we theory-crafted out how we would and yeah...flying and ranged attacks. There are also a few spell effects that will push a target around that are not limited by size so, strangely enough, your Warlock might be able to shove the thing around. Then you look for a cliff...
For fun, I homebrewed a Terrasque that resembled a certain tall lizard that breathed atomic fire. We calculated that the party would be incinerated by turn 2 so we set that one aside...for now.
Slightly off topic, but the best way I have found to make the Tarrasque a better threat is to give it stuff from the previous 2 editions.
Anything within a massive range that is flying cannot fly above 20 feet.
Every once in a while, it can move 200 feet in a round. Once it does that once, even if the party doesn't know it is a limited use, they stop trying to kite it.
Give it damn near complete spell immunity. For this one to not feel unfair, make it's saves insane rather then making nothing work. Just nothing should work.
Give it immunity to anything that isn't a magical weapon. And even then, +3 or bust.
Damage reduction and regeneration.
Then add in the ability to just wade through walls of force
That's a nice touch. That spell has hemmed in more large enemies than I can shake a stick at.
4e tarrasque has 'elder of annihilation' which ignores all forms of damage resistance (4e didn't really have immunity outside of very special cases; I'd have it able to break the unbreakable in 5e).
Though damage resistance in 3 and 4E was a flat number that reduced incoming damage of the correct type down and could reduce it to zero.
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.
Get your bard to seduce it!
You’re forgetting that the Tarrasque is entirely animalistic in nature; it’s not smart enough to use tools and thus, won’t think of tearing a chunk out of the ground to chuck at the party.
You've never seen an animal throw something?
"Chucking a rock" is well within the intellectual scope of a 3Int creature.
I'm probably laughing.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.
To be honest, they nerfed the Tarrasque in 5e. It used to be MUCH stronger. Previously the only way to actually kill it was to take it down to -300 hp (300 below zero), then cast Wish to wish it to be dead. That was the only way to actually kill it. It used to reflect spells below (if memory serves - as i'm too lazy to reach over to my bookshelf and look it up) 6th level back to the caster, and its bite severed limbs on crits.
Now, anyone with a shortbow and the ability to fly can kill a Tarrasque (or better yet 2 people, with one just carrying the arrows the other will use).
Playing D&D since 1982
Have played every version of the game since Basic (Red Box Set), except that abomination sometimes called 4e.
It does need to be a magical shortbow, which are technically in relatively short supply, although of course in practice most parties have +1 weapons for all the weapon-users by level 5. And the "someone can just plink it to death" scenario assumes a video game style confrontation where the monster does nothing but mindlessly attack. A Tarrasque might not be anyone's idea of a MENSA candidate, but if it's constantly being hurt by something it can't reach it can dash for a total of 80 ft and Legendary Action another 60 ft of movement a round. This also assumes the players are free to spend a very long time combat-wise killing the monster with bug bites. Given that this thing is clearly designed to kaiju its way through a city, such an approach would likely have some significant long-term consequences.
Don't mean to nitpick, but the point still stands. It is extremely easy to make an attack magical (thru spell, special ability, level in some cases, or magic weapon). The Tarrasque has zero chance to defend itself against targets flying higher than it can reach/jump, and it is literally just a matter of time before that flying foe kills it.
If the Tarrasque gets driven away, that works too; and if a city is being threatened by one they likely have more than one person who will be flying to rain down arrows from a mere +1 bow (there are several playable races that have wings). They don't even need to be proficient with that bow, they just need to fly high enough, long enough, and have enough arrows.
Once upon a time the Tarrasque was truly dangerous and only the toughest of the tough would even challenge it. It was in the game to show that even the strongest characters are not the top of the food chain. That is simply no longer the case.
Playing D&D since 1982
Have played every version of the game since Basic (Red Box Set), except that abomination sometimes called 4e.
Being able to force the giant rampaging monster to run away and hide from a few low level characters is... really not fulfilling the job of a giant rampaging monster.
Once again let me reiterate that by the time you can manage to plink your way through most of 700 HP on an AC 25 monster, it’s had enough time to walk up to castle, eat the king, and walk back out. It’s weakest attack does almost 50 damage on average to structures with enough to hit bonus that only a nat 1 will keep it from damaging the target. And it’s making 5-8 of those attacks a round. Unless you’ve got whole high level party of these hypothetical flying bowmen, you honestly might as well not have any when it comes to defending most locations.
Let me reiterate that a segment of a structure is 10'x10'x10', so it's going to need to destroy two segments. And that stone walls have 30 hp per inch, so a 5' thick wall has 1800 hit points. Meaning it's going to take on the order of a minute to bash through a single reinforced wall, which is plenty of time to move to another location where it needs to bash through a new wall.