The Clay Golem is Immune to Acid damage, nonmagical slashing, piercing and bludgeoning damage SO the Tarrasque can't do any damage it to a Clay Golem and an artificer can easily make a Clay Golems in 30 days as long as you have a lot of clay that is very common. WHY????? this should not be possible 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬
Someone, please explain to me how to stop this, I'm a DM and in the campaign when the Tarrasque attacked them (Tarrasque is BBEC in this campaign) they ran away and the artificer started making a clay golem and I can't let them kill the Tarrasque that easy.
Not to be a DMvPC Dm, but you can just have the Tarrasque deal magical damage. Baring that: A Tarrasque isn't really the kind of monster one should copnsider as being killable by normal means. in case of the clay golem: just have it pick up the ball of squishy clay and trow it to another continent. Or just plainly ignore it - there are enought HP in a tarrasque that that clay golem won't stop it.
What are the consequences of the party leaving the tarrasque for 30 days, The tarrasque is said to eat the world, 30 days is about 500,000 actions enough to easily destroy a major city possibly to or 3. A with no ranged attacks it is easy to kill given enough time (in theory a level 1 arakokora with a +1 bow can defeat it) the problem is defeating it quickly to minimise collateral damage.
This is one of those things whereby someone realised this, posted it to the internet, and now literally everyone knows that clay golems are technically immune to everything that a Tarrasque can do to it. Your players are essentially using metagame knowledge to take on what they think is a 'by the book' threat. If your players are savvy and well read up on D&D monsters, then change things up and just homebrew it.
Here are some things that you, as a DM, can do to easily rectify the situation:
The Tarrasque's claws count as adamantine
The Tarrasque's attacks count as magical
The Tarrasque has a Burrow speed, burrows down, puts the golem there, comes back out and covers it over with earth
The Tarrasque (Gargantuan) picks up the Clay Golem (Large) after Grappling it and then carries it to a well/harbour/river/the ocean (easy to do with STR30) and drops it down the well. The golem won't die but it won't be able to get out.
The Tarrasque can use Siege Monster to collapse a building on top of the Clay Golem, thereby trapping it
The Tarrasque regenerates 10 hit points per turn (more than the clay golem's Damage Per Round)
Or if for some odd reason you refuse to homebrew (homebrew is literally the lifeblood of this game) then just use this:
The Tarrasque moves 40 feet per turn, and the Clay Golem moves 20 feet per turn. The Tarrasque can move, attack, and then move on and attack something else. The Tarrasque destroys cities, it doesn't stand still trading blows with golems. Attack, move, attack, move. After 3 moves, the Clay Golem is forced to Dash to try to catch up to the Tarrasque. If you want to keep the Tarrasque away from it forever, then have the Tarrasque Dash every 3rd turn. The Golem is now useless. Clever PCs might Haste it or something, so here are some other options. It takes a Clay Golem 77 turns to kill a Tarrasque, including taking critical hits into account. The Clay Golem can never achieve this before the Tarrasque gets away and/or completes it task of annihilating everything else around it.
Oh and now that I think of it, it can move 20 feet every Legendary action as well. Since the clay golem takes a turn, the tarrasque can move 60 feet per turn and the clay golem can only dash 40. A clay golem can never catch a Tarrasque, even if the Tarrasque doesn't Dash.
The Tarrasque, if it wants to slow down its 77 turn demise, can Swallow the Clay Golem. Once swallowed, the clay golem is only coming out if the Tarrasque throws it up or poops it out. Whilst inside, the Clay Golem is Restrained, increasing the number of turns it takes for it to kill the Tarrasque to something like 144. It is not possible for the golem to do enough damage to escape whilst restrained inside it, even if it's immune to the acid damage.
Easy solutions for anyone who isn't just looking at the stat block, and all good fun ways to waste the PCs attempts at messing with the campaign.
There are a lot of things that don't make sense if you play rules as written. There are no monsters in the monster manual that are immune to common sense is what I'm saying.
The Clay Golem is Immune to Acid damage, nonmagical slashing, piercing and bludgeoning damage SO the Tarrasque can't do any damage it to a Clay Golem and an artificer can easily make a Clay Golems in 30 days as long as you have a lot of clay that is very common. WHY????? this should not be possible 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬
Someone, please explain to me how to stop this, I'm a DM and in the campaign when the Tarrasque attacked them (Tarrasque is BBEC in this campaign) they ran away and the artificer started making a clay golem and I can't let them kill the Tarrasque that easy.
The easiest solution, which it's too late for, is not giving your Artificer the recipe, ingredients, and tools to make a clay golem - you're well into homebrew territory already. Since you've already done this, the follow-up solution is to copy the original clay golem mythology, and have it turn against its creator. A clay golem that can't be deployed against the Tarrasque is pretty useless in this context.
There have been good suggestions in this thread for modifying the Tarrasque in response (mostly Sanvael's post), although incorporating them depends on how you've introduced your Tarrasque and how your players determined the clay golem solution would work - why do they think the clay golem is immune to Tarrasque damage and also capable of hurting the Tarrasque? Are they relying on an information source that might be unreliable? Etc. Their information source could simply be wrong, the Tarrasque could magically evolve over time (it has, what, a full 30 days to grow, right? You could have it evolve every day or every week or even every month and have that be sufficient.)
To add to Sanvael's post very slightly: you could upgrade the Tarrasque's stomach to deal both acid and magical adamantine silvered bludgeoning damage, which would more closely match up with the way the Tarrasque has been depicted in D&D since its introduction, something capable of digesting anything.
If they're using the Manual of Clay Golems then it is important to note the full requirements to complete the process.
To create a clay golem, you must spend 30 days, working without interruption with the manual at hand and resting no more than 8 hours per day. You must also pay 65,000 gp to purchase supplies.
Now the gold may not be a big deal for level 20 PCs, but the significant part to me is "working without interruption with the manual at hand". So all you have to do is disrupt the Artificer so they have to start over...
Otherwise, go with Sanvael's ideas and tweak the Tarrasque so it can demolish their puny little clay man.
This is one of those things whereby someone realised this, posted it to the internet, and now literally everyone knows that clay golems are technically immune to everything that a Tarrasque can do to it. Your players are essentially using metagame knowledge to take on what they think is a 'by the book' threat. .
...
Easy solutions for anyone who isn't just looking at the stat block, and all good fun ways to waste the PCs attempts at messing with the campaign.
It is clear players should not metagame and only act with the knowledge their PC has but we do not know if that is the case here.
DM. You see a huge monster destroying the city
Artificer. Do I know what it is and what it's strengths and weaknesses are
DM. Roll a history check
Artificer. 34
DM. You know it is a tarrasque, it has the ability to reflect back spells, it is immune to fire and poison, its attacks are all martial types but it can swallow you and their are strong acids inside.......
Artificer. I have a book on how to make a clay golom that will be immune to any damage from that thing, it will only take 30 days.
Yeah, I’ve always played Tarrasques as massive engines of destruction that prefer to crush buildings and pay almost no attention to creatures it can’t murder very quickly.
So they play like a disaster - if they can bite and swallow a bug, do it. But then they move onto the next village over and destroy it.
Against a party of 3, that means eating the easiest target first.
First Round: Roll to hit bite the closest annoyance then turn and run towards next village at 40ft. First Legendary Action, Chomp (2). Next Legendary Action, move 20ft.
Second and subsequent Rounds: Move 40ft, Dash 40ft. All 3 Legendary Actions move 20ft for a total of 140ft of movement.
And it doesn’t stop for anything until it reaches its destination and is being pestered again reliably (as in, they can move 140ft+ per turn and still do damage).
This signifies how much of a terror it actually is - it doesn’t stick around and try tactics out, it doesn’t swat all day at a fly, etc. It wants to do one thing: destroy as much shit as possible with as much ferocity as it can.
So, coming at it from that perspective, the PCs are going to have to find ways to slow it down, prevent themselves from getting eaten, and move extremely quick to cut it off if they’re going to defeat it.
This strategy nullifies the old “I can just fly and attack option”, because even Rogues with Fly spell and Bonus Action Dash can only move 120ft per round and keep attacking. Clay Golems are useless, because the Tarrasque would just ignore anything it can’t kill (or swallow and forget it forever).
Edit:
Some calculations:
If PCs can move 60ft per round with Action Dash, then the Tarrasque will take 37 rounds to go a mile and the PCs will take 88. Maybe enough time to watch the last building of a small town crumble before it moves on to the next.
51 rounds per mile travelled behind means the PCs are going to have to do more than just have the right attacks ready - they going to have to think about movement and ways to slow it down.
The Clay Golem is immune to bludgeoning damage from nonmagical attacks. Fall damage is not an attack at all.
A Tarrasque is titan sized and has a strength of 30. It will have no problem grappling the Clay Golem, lifting it over its head, and then dropping it for fall damage (3d6) every single round. Or it could grapple it, find a cliff somewhere, and throw it off for a more efficient kill.
And to prevent anyone from objecting to fall damage being a nonmagical attack, here is a post from Sage Advice regarding fall damage.
And you can always pull out part of the 1e version and after the party "kills" it, they have to disintegrate the ashes and wish it to stay dead. Otherwise it comes back.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
Give some support such as a necromancer or some other powerful monster that can counter the clay golem.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Know your enemy, know your self" Click here to read my Homebrew thread! "Veni, vidi, vici...
Status update: I am going to be afk very frequently for a currently un predictable amount of time, for more information/details on this, check my homebrew thread which can be found easier by clicking the 'here' above ^^^
Or if that doesn't work, say that the terrasque got magical inhancements or something that can bypass the situation, your the DM, what you says goes!
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Know your enemy, know your self" Click here to read my Homebrew thread! "Veni, vidi, vici...
Status update: I am going to be afk very frequently for a currently un predictable amount of time, for more information/details on this, check my homebrew thread which can be found easier by clicking the 'here' above ^^^
I think immunities shouldn't make you completely 100% immune and that if it is a form of damage way more powerful than them that it should just be a resistance.
Remember that just because something is in the rules that it has to be followed like the law, and that you are free to make your own rules and adaptations.
The ideas above which suggest making the terrasque have magical attacks are okay, but my advice is, plain and simple, don't run the terrasque.
The terrasque is a poorly designed boss. There are hundreds of YouTube videos that explain how to effortlessly kill it, and if it isn't with a clay golem, it will be with something else.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Panda-wat (I hate my username) is somehow convinced that he is objectively right about everything D&D related even though he obviously is not. Considering that, he'd probably make a great D&D youtuber.
"If I die, I can live with that." ~Luke Hart, the DM lair
The terrasque is a poorly designed boss. There are hundreds of YouTube videos that explain how to effortlessly kill it, and if it isn't with a clay golem, it will be with something else.
It would be possible to make something based on/inspired by the Tarrasque that was a decent boss, but as written a it should be beatable by an average level 8-10 party (and at lower levels by more specialized setups).
"Know your enemy, know your self" Click here to read my Homebrew thread! "Veni, vidi, vici...
Status update: I am going to be afk very frequently for a currently un predictable amount of time, for more information/details on this, check my homebrew thread which can be found easier by clicking the 'here' above ^^^
Putting aside my personal distaste with the use of a tarrasque, as a GM I'd argue that a creature with the siege attacker trait is going to bypass conventional immunities/resistances on a construct. Also the Tarrasque is gargantuan with a strength of 30 (which means it has a carry valure of 3600 lbs and lift of 7200) so it can probably just pick up the goelm and throw it away.
Choose a different BBEG. Yeah thats right. The tarrasque is the easiest boss ur players will ever have to kill. Not only is the tarrasque so stupid that it has no tactics, but players can literally FLY over it and rain down arrows from 30 feet above its head. Trust me, choose a smarter, craftier, and deadlier opponent for your PC's. It'll make the play experience so much better for you and ur players. Its that easy.
The Clay Golem is Immune to Acid damage, nonmagical slashing, piercing and bludgeoning damage SO the Tarrasque can't do any damage it to a Clay Golem and an artificer can easily make a Clay Golems in 30 days as long as you have a lot of clay that is very common. WHY????? this should not be possible 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬
Someone, please explain to me how to stop this, I'm a DM and in the campaign when the Tarrasque attacked them (Tarrasque is BBEC in this campaign) they ran away and the artificer started making a clay golem and I can't let them kill the Tarrasque that easy.
Not to be a DMvPC Dm, but you can just have the Tarrasque deal magical damage. Baring that: A Tarrasque isn't really the kind of monster one should copnsider as being killable by normal means. in case of the clay golem: just have it pick up the ball of squishy clay and trow it to another continent. Or just plainly ignore it - there are enought HP in a tarrasque that that clay golem won't stop it.
What are the consequences of the party leaving the tarrasque for 30 days, The tarrasque is said to eat the world, 30 days is about 500,000 actions enough to easily destroy a major city possibly to or 3. A with no ranged attacks it is easy to kill given enough time (in theory a level 1 arakokora with a +1 bow can defeat it) the problem is defeating it quickly to minimise collateral damage.
This is one of those things whereby someone realised this, posted it to the internet, and now literally everyone knows that clay golems are technically immune to everything that a Tarrasque can do to it. Your players are essentially using metagame knowledge to take on what they think is a 'by the book' threat. If your players are savvy and well read up on D&D monsters, then change things up and just homebrew it.
Here are some things that you, as a DM, can do to easily rectify the situation:
Or if for some odd reason you refuse to homebrew (homebrew is literally the lifeblood of this game) then just use this:
Easy solutions for anyone who isn't just looking at the stat block, and all good fun ways to waste the PCs attempts at messing with the campaign.
There are a lot of things that don't make sense if you play rules as written. There are no monsters in the monster manual that are immune to common sense is what I'm saying.
The easiest solution, which it's too late for, is not giving your Artificer the recipe, ingredients, and tools to make a clay golem - you're well into homebrew territory already. Since you've already done this, the follow-up solution is to copy the original clay golem mythology, and have it turn against its creator. A clay golem that can't be deployed against the Tarrasque is pretty useless in this context.
There have been good suggestions in this thread for modifying the Tarrasque in response (mostly Sanvael's post), although incorporating them depends on how you've introduced your Tarrasque and how your players determined the clay golem solution would work - why do they think the clay golem is immune to Tarrasque damage and also capable of hurting the Tarrasque? Are they relying on an information source that might be unreliable? Etc. Their information source could simply be wrong, the Tarrasque could magically evolve over time (it has, what, a full 30 days to grow, right? You could have it evolve every day or every week or even every month and have that be sufficient.)
To add to Sanvael's post very slightly: you could upgrade the Tarrasque's stomach to deal both acid and magical adamantine silvered bludgeoning damage, which would more closely match up with the way the Tarrasque has been depicted in D&D since its introduction, something capable of digesting anything.
If they're using the Manual of Clay Golems then it is important to note the full requirements to complete the process.
Now the gold may not be a big deal for level 20 PCs, but the significant part to me is "working without interruption with the manual at hand". So all you have to do is disrupt the Artificer so they have to start over...
Otherwise, go with Sanvael's ideas and tweak the Tarrasque so it can demolish their puny little clay man.
It is clear players should not metagame and only act with the knowledge their PC has but we do not know if that is the case here.
DM. You see a huge monster destroying the city
Artificer. Do I know what it is and what it's strengths and weaknesses are
DM. Roll a history check
Artificer. 34
DM. You know it is a tarrasque, it has the ability to reflect back spells, it is immune to fire and poison, its attacks are all martial types but it can swallow you and their are strong acids inside.......
Artificer. I have a book on how to make a clay golom that will be immune to any damage from that thing, it will only take 30 days.
Yeah, I’ve always played Tarrasques as massive engines of destruction that prefer to crush buildings and pay almost no attention to creatures it can’t murder very quickly.
So they play like a disaster - if they can bite and swallow a bug, do it. But then they move onto the next village over and destroy it.
Against a party of 3, that means eating the easiest target first.
First Round: Roll to hit bite the closest annoyance then turn and run towards next village at 40ft. First Legendary Action, Chomp (2). Next Legendary Action, move 20ft.
Second and subsequent Rounds: Move 40ft, Dash 40ft. All 3 Legendary Actions move 20ft for a total of 140ft of movement.
And it doesn’t stop for anything until it reaches its destination and is being pestered again reliably (as in, they can move 140ft+ per turn and still do damage).
This signifies how much of a terror it actually is - it doesn’t stick around and try tactics out, it doesn’t swat all day at a fly, etc. It wants to do one thing: destroy as much shit as possible with as much ferocity as it can.
So, coming at it from that perspective, the PCs are going to have to find ways to slow it down, prevent themselves from getting eaten, and move extremely quick to cut it off if they’re going to defeat it.
This strategy nullifies the old “I can just fly and attack option”, because even Rogues with Fly spell and Bonus Action Dash can only move 120ft per round and keep attacking. Clay Golems are useless, because the Tarrasque would just ignore anything it can’t kill (or swallow and forget it forever).
Edit:
Some calculations:
If PCs can move 60ft per round with Action Dash, then the Tarrasque will take 37 rounds to go a mile and the PCs will take 88. Maybe enough time to watch the last building of a small town crumble before it moves on to the next.
51 rounds per mile travelled behind means the PCs are going to have to do more than just have the right attacks ready - they going to have to think about movement and ways to slow it down.
RAW the Tarrasque will have no problem at all killing the Clay Golem.
The Clay Golem is immune to bludgeoning damage from nonmagical attacks. Fall damage is not an attack at all.
A Tarrasque is titan sized and has a strength of 30. It will have no problem grappling the Clay Golem, lifting it over its head, and then dropping it for fall damage (3d6) every single round. Or it could grapple it, find a cliff somewhere, and throw it off for a more efficient kill.
And to prevent anyone from objecting to fall damage being a nonmagical attack, here is a post from Sage Advice regarding fall damage.
And you can always pull out part of the 1e version and after the party "kills" it, they have to disintegrate the ashes and wish it to stay dead. Otherwise it comes back.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
Give some support such as a necromancer or some other powerful monster that can counter the clay golem.
"Know your enemy, know your self"
Click here to read my Homebrew thread!
"Veni, vidi, vici...
Status update:
I am going to be afk very frequently for a currently un predictable amount of time, for more information/details on this, check my homebrew thread which can be found easier by clicking the 'here' above ^^^
Or if that doesn't work, say that the terrasque got magical inhancements or something that can bypass the situation, your the DM, what you says goes!
"Know your enemy, know your self"
Click here to read my Homebrew thread!
"Veni, vidi, vici...
Status update:
I am going to be afk very frequently for a currently un predictable amount of time, for more information/details on this, check my homebrew thread which can be found easier by clicking the 'here' above ^^^
I think immunities shouldn't make you completely 100% immune and that if it is a form of damage way more powerful than them that it should just be a resistance.
Remember that just because something is in the rules that it has to be followed like the law, and that you are free to make your own rules and adaptations.
Homebrew: Creatures | Magic Items | Races | Spells | Subclasses
The ideas above which suggest making the terrasque have magical attacks are okay, but my advice is, plain and simple, don't run the terrasque.
The terrasque is a poorly designed boss. There are hundreds of YouTube videos that explain how to effortlessly kill it, and if it isn't with a clay golem, it will be with something else.
Panda-wat (I hate my username) is somehow convinced that he is objectively right about everything D&D related even though he obviously is not. Considering that, he'd probably make a great D&D youtuber.
"If I die, I can live with that." ~Luke Hart, the DM lair
It would be possible to make something based on/inspired by the Tarrasque that was a decent boss, but as written a it should be beatable by an average level 8-10 party (and at lower levels by more specialized setups).
True that!
"Know your enemy, know your self"
Click here to read my Homebrew thread!
"Veni, vidi, vici...
Status update:
I am going to be afk very frequently for a currently un predictable amount of time, for more information/details on this, check my homebrew thread which can be found easier by clicking the 'here' above ^^^
Putting aside my personal distaste with the use of a tarrasque, as a GM I'd argue that a creature with the siege attacker trait is going to bypass conventional immunities/resistances on a construct. Also the Tarrasque is gargantuan with a strength of 30 (which means it has a carry valure of 3600 lbs and lift of 7200) so it can probably just pick up the goelm and throw it away.
Here's the answer...
Choose a different BBEG. Yeah thats right. The tarrasque is the easiest boss ur players will ever have to kill. Not only is the tarrasque so stupid that it has no tactics, but players can literally FLY over it and rain down arrows from 30 feet above its head. Trust me, choose a smarter, craftier, and deadlier opponent for your PC's. It'll make the play experience so much better for you and ur players. Its that easy.
Rolled a Nat 1...
Imma just curl up and die
i love the idea of something so basic as a clay golem beating a CR30