D&D 5E Is the Tarrasque tough enough?

[KarinsDad]

Many other primates other than hominids throw objects, and as most monkeys would be less intelligent than a Baboon they would surely be Int 2-3. Throwing is as much to do with physiology as intellect, and the Tarrasque is built more like a simian than any of the other Int 3 animals.

Tool use (and throwing something at someone else is tool use) is learned behavior, for primates, for elephants, and even for humans.

The Tarrasque doesn't have other Tarrasques to emulate. And any creature that would use thrown weapons against the Tarrasque wouldn't really be a role model (rather, they would tend to be dead if they were close enough to throw something at a Tarrasque).

If the Tarrasque really is limited to animal intelligence, then it's behavior should be limited. It shouldn't be able to do the things that most untrained animals cannot do and other untrained animals took a long time to learn as a species. It should use its prehensile limbs for digging and other similar behaviors (those behaviors assigned to it by the game designers). A lot of lizards in the animal kingdom have prehensile tails, but they do not use them for throwing. And even when primates and non-human hominids throw things, it's often in a semi-random direction.


Sure, some of the old Godzilla movies had him sometimes acting nearly as smart as a normal human (throwing rocks at other creatures, jumping and hugging itself in joy, etc.), but that's not what should be happening with an animal intelligence 5E monster who is not designed that way. JMO.

 

[EnglishLanguage]

Surprised the easy exploit hasn't been pointed out here yet.

Fly+Acid Splash=Killed by acidic pinpricks. Garbage Dex save, Acid Splash is unaffected by Reflective Carapace, and the Tarrasque has no way to handle flyers outside of houserules. A couple level 5 Wizards(at minimum, higher preferable) easy kills the Tarrasque before their Fly spells run out.

 

[Eejit]

Tool use (and throwing something at someone else is tool use) is learned behavior, for primates, for elephants, and even for humans.

The Tarrasque doesn't have other Tarrasques to emulate. And any creature that would use thrown weapons against the Tarrasque wouldn't really be a role model (rather, they would tend to be dead if they were close enough to throw something at a Tarrasque).

The Tarrasque is an immortal who have lived through eons. It'll have encountered Giants throwing boulders, and Dragons who would make appropriate targets. It has the intelligence and wisdom of an Orca, with a physiology fairly well suited to throwing.

Improvised attacks are part of the RAW.

It really isn't a stretch...

 

[Derren]

The Tarrasque is an immortal who have lived through eons.

How when it can be killed by a few wizards with fly and acid splash?

 

[Eejit]

How when it can be killed by a few wizards with fly and acid splash?

Yet we know that it is the case. Ipso facto, it can't be killed by flying mooks with acid splash and will use improvised thrown weapon attacks allowed by the rules.

 

[Wrathamon]

Since it is still alive it must have survived the level 5 wizards ...

 

[KarinsDad]

The Tarrasque is an immortal who have lived through eons. It'll have encountered Giants throwing boulders, and Dragons who would make appropriate targets. It has the intelligence and wisdom of an Orca, with a physiology fairly well suited to throwing.

Improvised attacks are part of the RAW.

It really isn't a stretch...

Giants throwing boulders do not hurt it. Why would it think that such a thing is useful? That stuff flying through the air doesn't do anything. It's like throwing smoke from the POV of a Tarrasque.


You are using metagaming knowledge to justify something that doesn't make sense. The world view of a creature that is immune to practically everything and only has animal intelligence wouldn't be the world view of humanoid creatures that learned to throw objects at enemies.

 

[EnglishLanguage]

will use improvised thrown weapon attacks allowed by the rules.

If you're going strictly by what the rules say, good luck hitting anything with that Dexterity score.

 

[jadrax]

If you're going strictly by what the rules say, good luck hitting anything with that Dexterity score.

Thrown attacks go on Strength.

 

[Tormyr]

Surprised the easy exploit hasn't been pointed out here yet.

Fly+Acid Splash=Killed by acidic pinpricks. Garbage Dex save, Acid Splash is unaffected by Reflective Carapace, and the Tarrasque has no way to handle flyers outside of houserules. A couple level 5 Wizards(at minimum, higher preferable) easy kills the Tarrasque before their Fly spells run out.

Reread Magic Resistance on the Tarrasque. The Tarrasque will probably save at least 25% of the time against a 20th level mage (average 15 vs DC19), and half the time against a level 5 wizard average (average 15 vs DC15).

I am one of the DMs who would allow the Tarrasque to try throwing stuff after getting annoyed for a while, since rock throwing is in the MM and Mearls confirmed that was reasonable. Without proficiency, it would take the Tarrasque maybe 2 attacks to knock the wizard out of the sky. If the wizard ducks out of the 60ft range between attacks so the Tarrasque has disadvantage, it might take another 2 or so attacks. Then the wizard has an average 36 damage, a DC18 Con save to keep flying, and a 110 foot drop for another 38 (11d6) damage to look forward to.

I am not saying it is not a good idea, I just don't see any one tactic working very well. Now, if you had someone flying and using acid splash, an army of soldiers on the ground firing missile weapons (for the lucky hits getting through), the other heroes unloading their alpha strikes, and some useful weapons and tools that have popped up along the way, I could totally see the Tarrasque going down. But it most likely takes a big unified effort and help from outside the party in terms of an army or a plot device to have half a chance of success without lots of death.