Tarrasque or not Tarrasque?

[Talmun]

Ok, so we all know him as one of the most famous and infamous beasties in the D&D lexicon, so my questions are;
How many of you DM’s out there have actually thrown him against your players?

How many of the players out there have fought him?

And…

What are your opinions on his abilities (3.5 in particular, I know his stats changed from 3.0…)?

The main reason I ask, other than curiosity, is that we are about to pick up an epic level (well, divine really) game and I was considering tossing him in the ring for the first fight, although I might have to advance him a few HD…

 

[Crothian]

I had a campaign built to where the finally would be a combat with him. WE never got that far, the game died out arounfd tenth level.

Personally, I think he has great defenses but his attack power at theat level is weak. Sure, he can ripe one apart if you go hand to hand with him, but 20th level characters have no need to do that.

 

[Olfactatron]

In 3.0 near the end of the game we fought the big T in downtown Greyhawk. It was pretty cool. It turned out he had been awakened and summoned by a wizard who wanted to test our abilities. We won after 7 rounds of intense combat. The funny highlight was when the ranger got swallowed, used a helm of teleportation to get out and then was immediately swallowed again. Ultimately, the cleric used a scrole of miracle she had been keeping around to put him down for good.

 

[Voadam]

I've never used him or fought him.

I was tempted to use the spelljamming world that is infested with tarasques though as a hazard planet.

 

[takyris]

Never used him. Never really see a need to. I like my villains a little bit more interesting than a giant lizard with no offensive magical abilities. Heck, even Godzilla breathes lightning.

 

[Talmun]

Never used him. Never really see a need to. I like my villains a little bit more interesting than a giant lizard with no offensive magical abilities. Heck, even Godzilla breathes lightning.

I think whether he's interesting as an opponent depends to some extent on how you use him...Godzilla doesn't reflect 30% of spells cast on him back at the caster...

Still, you (and others) have a point about his lack of offensive ablilties beyond melee attacks...
Hmmm, Half-Dragon T maybe?

 

[Epametheus]

We always stick Big T somewhere in the campaign world. We've also been giving him wings for the past few campaigns.

We've never actually gotten around to fighting the thing, though.

 

[Particle_Man]

I was playing a character in a 5th level party and we encounterd The Tarrasque as a wandering monster in the wilderness. We screamed, scattered and ran. It got the paladin but the rest of us got away. Then we told the nearby elves about it, and they told "higher level types", who then dealt with it.

I also encountered a "Tarrasque" as a 1st level character. I said "I disbelieve the illusion". What do you know, it WAS!

Oh, this was all pre-3rd edition.

 

[dream66_]

I've fought the Tarrasque many times. Game with a guy who used to ever adventure he ran at some point in the adventure we fought the Tarrasque, usually 1st level characters.

 

[Aristotle]

I played one game where two full sessions were nothing but combat with two (yeah I said two) big T's in a pocket dimension. He had the little dimension set up to allow for various tactics and strategies... but it wa still cheese.

I ran one adventure (characters were like 15th level, 2nd edition) where the players foud their characters in the path of of the Tarasque after he had waken to go into a feeding frenzy. The characters eluded him and changed course but the big T kept finding them. They found out later that a psionic item that they had found (they knew it had magical properties but did not know it was intelligent or psionic) was actually using itself as a psionic beacon to summon the monster (that is what it did, it gave you all sorts of power, but then constantly tried to pit you against the biggest, meanest things in range to force you to prove yourself worthy of ownership).

The characters didn't "win". They fought the thing on several ocasions, but just long enough to make a getaway. I think one or two died over the course of the adventure. They eventually discovered what was happening and destroyed the psionic item...