Best level to fight the Tarrasque

[Kae'Yoss]

Assuming they have time to plan and he's not just behind some random door.

Imagine my astonishment as I opened my closet to get that broom out...

 

[Rackhir]

*pictures that tiny blade slicing through the 10 foot thick neck in one swift blow, amazed at the absurdity of it...then keenly recalls the passage about how DMs might need to make judgement calls about the effectiveness of vorpal and when it does or doesn't work*

You're obviously not a Japanese animation fan . In anime weapons regularly cleave in half objects, far larger than the blade could possibly cut. Perhaps the Terrasque has a "cut here" perforated section on it's neck?

 

[kreynolds]

You're obviously not a Japanese animation fan .

No so much. Not bad. Not great. Depends on the product in question. Besides, this isn't Dungeons and Akira.

 

[DantesFury]

Player knowledge and character knowledge are 2 different things... Anyone who sees the big guy shouldnt sit there and say , "ok, it has this many HPs, ac of this, DR here and Sr there... If the characters are freely using info that they shouldnt have then the DM should feel free to make changes where neccessary to keep the game surprising and challenging... Not to mention fabled creatures like that should rare and not easily put down by anyone.... please flame below.....

 

[Pielorinho]

Narzul, can you give us some context?

There's at least three ways to use the Tarrasque:

-As a means to scare the spit out of your players. This is best in a story-based game: you want to show them the Tarrasque at a point when they can't fight it, and then in several levels, they'll face it again. I'd do this around 10-12 level.
-As a fight in a story-based game. This should be hard, and the culmination of an adventure, most likely. I'd do this around 16-17th level: you want the fight with the Tarrasque to majorly tax the party resources.
-As a fight in a beer-and-pretzels game. This fight should be tough, but it doesn't necessarily need to use all their resources. If they fight it around 16th-level, it'll use a lot of their resources probably; if they fight it around 20th level or beyond, it should (theoretically) use 20% of their resources or less.

Note that an optimized rogue using flasks of acid can, with the standard amount of equipment for her level, finish off the Tarrasque at 11th level. Acid flasks require only touch attacks, and the Tarrasque has a crappy touch AC. And they can do sneak-attack damage. And a rogue can have a good UMD skill, allowing her to read the scroll of Wish that she's keeping handy.

As for the cleric who killed the Tarrasque, I'd love to see the cleric's stats -- I'm wondering if the Tarrasque was played straight from the MM. In any case, I think I woulda had the Tarrasque run away, once it realized it wasn't gonna be able to reach the mean archers; even very stupid animals flee if they're being wounded by enemies they can't reach.

Daniel

 

[Femerus the Gnecro]

Any wizard with fly, greater invisibility, spider climb and a buncha plane shift scrolls can get rid of the tarrasque without any problem.

Fly above it.

Turn on invisibility.

Latch onto it with Spider Climb.

Then slap it with plane shift till it misses its save.

I suggest the elemental plane of water, or the para-elemental plane of vacuum so it'll either drown or asphyxiate, thus killing it without having to worry about DR or regeneration.

-F


edit: oh yeah, answer the question. from a party level standpoint, that only requires the funds for the scrolls, or the level to cast them.

second edit: sort of a rant to those above: would you PLEASE actually read the MM entry? The Tarrasque doesn't take normal damage from ANYTHING. This includes acid, sneak attack damage, GMW spells, +15 arrows of exploding, etc.

 

[kreynolds]

Hey Crothian? Remember that Miasma errata you and I were talkin' about? I can't find it now. Was that in a Sage Reply? I thought I had it, but I can't find it now.

 

[Darkness]

The best level to fight the tarrasque?

Why - the higher, the better, of course!

And the best situation to use it?

High-level enemy druid changes into tarrasque, and...

 

[Anubis]

12th.....seriously, the twelveth level cleric (Archer type) killed it by himself with a scroll of wish to finish it off.

He just used wings of flying and stayed in the air above it and pelted it with +5 GMW arrow and bow. Add in haste and divine power and it wasn't all that hard. The rest of the group just watched from the air. Im not sure the exact numbers but his attack bonus was near 30-35 ish and + to damage per arrow was like 20.

So much for scaring the hell out of my players.

I think you were ignoring how Tarraque is run and seemingly unaware of its numerous abilities.

First, it has AC 35. Cleric and Level 12, no matter how many buffs, should not be able to hit this thing too awful easily, maybe a 50/50 chance.

Second, ir has DR 25/+5, and Cleric at Level 12 likely has no way of getting Arrows +5 with which to do this. Remember, for DR purposes, the enhancement bonuses from bows and arrows DO NOT STACK, so the arrows alone would need to be at least +5 or the bow would need Sure Striking.

Third, Regeneration 40 is a very big factor. At most, Cleric should be doing in the range of 10-15 damage per hit with an arrow that bypasses DR, and without hitting on every single attack, Tarrasque would likely shrug off all the damage.

Fourth, although its dumb, it is still a good fighter. If it can't reach you, it will still find a way to hit you. It has a 25 foot reach for one, meaning characters would have to be at least 80 feet in the air to be out of his reach. Then again, trees make nifty missile weapons, as do parts of mountains and huge boulders. Why was Tarraque just sitting there taking this crap from the little fly in the sky?

As for Vorpal weapons, I would rule that one could only decapitate a creture up to two sizes larger than the weapon, no more. House rule for sure, but a wise one. I'm sure that is what the Sage or any of the developers would agree upon.

 

[kreynolds]

As for Vorpal weapons, I would rule that one could only decapitate a creture up to two sizes larger than the weapon, no more. House rule for sure, but a wise one.

Not a bad idea, but again, that can't universally apply. Picture a gargantuan snake that's really long but no thicker than your thigh.

I'm sure that is what the Sage or any of the developers would agree upon.

In actual truth, they like to completely avoid the issue, or at best, provide tentative answers that don't actually contain a real answer of any kind. That's why I completely redesigned vorpal for my games, and 3 out of the 4 other DMs in games game have adapted my version as well. The last DM that didn't adapt it simply bans vorpal completely.