Anyone here ever used the Tarrasque succesfully?

[blargney the second]

It depends on how you term successfully ...

The party encountered it during its hibernation (they had to travel to the top of the mesa through caverns) - it freaked them out ... for the next couple of levels they were regularly discussing Tarassque killing tactics, bringing in its stats and making notes. They spent most of their treasure on buying things to help them.

You see they thought that ... since I had let them see it, it was only a matter of time before I let it wake up and go rampaging and thus they would have to stop it.

That's really kind of cute! That's definitely a successful use of the Tarrasque, as far as I'm concerned
-blarg

 

[Mystery Man]

If we had only four PCs, we probably still would have won... however, the fight would be boring, as everything would involve spellcasters buffing and healing nonspellcasters. That creature had severe offensive weaknesses (it can't fly, it can't cast spells) and some defensive weaknesses (it can't see the invisible). Of course, you can only beat it if you happened to prepare wish or miracle that day.

Does it really need to fly? (serious question)
What if you ran the encounter on the astral plane? Everything can fly there. Or confine the encounter to an enclosed space that where the PC's can fly all they want but they'll be within the Tarrasque's reach?

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Does it really need to fly? (serious question)

My cleric was walking on air and raining down spells, both healing and offensive, onto the battlefield below. It literally could not hurt me.

The party could just fly over it and pepper it with magical arrows. (Good thing we didn't have an artificer - bane bows, anyone?) We would ride on phantom steeds, as the duration of fly was rightfully nerfed.

What if you ran the encounter on the astral plane? Everything can fly there. Or confine the encounter to an enclosed space that where the PC's can fly all they want but they'll be within the Tarrasque's reach?

On the Astral Plane, isn't speed determined by Intelligence? Something makes me think the tarrasque will lose.

We tried a battle with a "big bad" in an enclosed space - it was boring. It also means you lose out on tactical flexibility. I would hate to be an archer or wizard in such a set up. Indeed, what prevents the party from teleporting away and then either waiting for it to come out, luring it out, or flooding the place?

 

[jgsugden]

Yes, in a quicky 'summer' campaign in high school (~1988) I used the Tarrasque to great effect: versus a 1st level party.

The brand new party of adventurers was stumbling around in a recently uncovered ancient temple when they came across a puzzle. They solved the puzzle without investigating why the puzzle was there ... and accidentally released the Tarrasque. It killed them pretty much instantly, but they were brought back by a cleric from a nearby country nearly a year later. As it turned out, the 'legends' stating that a wish must be used to kill the Tarrasque left out a key component: The one casting the wish must be the one that freed the Tarrasque. Unfortunately, the one that had freed the beastie was a paladin.

The party spent the entire summer advancing, fleeing from bands that wanted them dead (peramenently) to guarantee the Tarrasque's rampage would last forever, and trying to avoid the path of the living storm that was the Tarrasque (as well as turning their paladin into a powerful wizard). It was fun, but the party made a key mistake in the final battle, and the paladin/wizard died before he had a chance to unleash his wish, and the cult worshipping the Tarrasque managed to spirit off the body and dump it into their Sphere of Trash Removal (aka Annihilation). The rest of the party fled, and the land was forever imperiled by the Tarrasque, which must have eventually destroyed everything.

 

[Mystery Man]

My cleric was walking on air and raining down spells, both healing and offensive, onto the battlefield below. It literally could not hurt me.

What did you use that wasn't a ray, line or cone?

The party could just fly over it and pepper it with magical arrows. (Good thing we didn't have an artificer - bane bows, anyone?) We would ride on phantom steeds, as the duration of fly was rightfully nerfed.

Were they epic arrows?

On the Astral Plane, isn't speed determined by Intelligence? Something makes me think the tarrasque will lose.

Wisdom actually, he'll be fine.

We tried a battle with a "big bad" in an enclosed space - it was boring. It also means you lose out on tactical flexibility. I would hate to be an archer or wizard in such a set up. Indeed, what prevents the party from teleporting away and then either waiting for it to come out, luring it out, or flooding the place?

I doubt very much if I would limit tactical flexibility, but I would also never run a tarrasque encounter out in the open. Sooner or later the party would have to close in and engage the thing.

 

[buzzard]

Yeah, the tarrasque is actually, ironically perhaps, a pretty weak CR challenge.

Which is, of course, why I slap the Paragon template on mine...

Oh lordy, I just did some applying of that template to a tarrasque, and it comes out quite obnoxious.

Of course the template doesn't actually solve everything weak about the tarrasque though.

Then again something with AC 66 and a bite for +90 4d8+35 damage is a bit disturbing. Oh yeah, and over 2K HP with SR 70.

buzzard

 

[Angel of Adventure]

Yeah, I had the monster fight against my Epic party (about lvl 23-24), although other foes were involved as well. The T survived longer than the other baddies and was generally difficult, but not impossible to kill.

-AoA

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Positively. Ingenious.

<bows>

I try to do my best.

But frankly, I think there are similar problems with how many monsters, especially the big and powerful ones are represented. They are not just combat encounters for a party of big game monster hunters. They have a real impact on the world around them, something that should be empathized to heighten their impact on the game. And a monster like the Tarrasque must be very famous - or if it has only awakened very recently, it will become famous on a short order. It will leave a trail of devastation in its wake - destroyed villages, towns, and even cities whose appearance will make all but the most hardened adventurers shudder. Trade routes will collapse just because it is nearby. Food prices will soar since no one has time to harvest anything when they are busy fleeing from it. Governments will fall if they are unable to deal with it one way or another.

To sum it up, its appearance will be a major event in your campaign, one that will have repercussions even far away from and long after its appearance. At least, it should be.

After all, what kind of DM would miss an opportunity like that?

 

[ruleslawyer]

Oh lordy, I just did some applying of that template to a tarrasque, and it comes out quite obnoxious.

Of course the template doesn't actually solve everything weak about the tarrasque though.

Then again something with AC 66 and a bite for +90 4d8+35 damage is a bit disturbing. Oh yeah, and over 2K HP with SR 70.

buzzard

Well sure it doesn't solve everything. You'd need to give it wings too.

 

[DragonLancer]

I haven't used it since 2nd edition, but after reading this thread I may have to tie it in somewhere down the road.