D&D 5E I have something... THE TARRASQUE!

[Zaukrie]

Wow, I might change the final battle in my multi year campaign mouse.....interesting idea.

 

[Umbran]

Thats not how legendary actions work. Teleporting takes 2 of the 3 uses the Sphinx has each turn, but they are not dependent on the number of creatures involved. The Sphinx can teleport just fine with only one enemy left, refuting your pacing theory.

Not fully. When you have three opponents, it can take three actions, going down to two, and then to one as the opponents go away. All the actions are still available, by my reading, but it gets fewer of them, which still impacts pacing.

 

[Derren]

Not fully. When you have three opponents, it can take three actions, going down to two, and then to one as the opponents go away. All the actions are still available, by my reading, but it gets fewer of them, which still impacts pacing.

Isn't that what I said?
Every time a creature ends its turn the monster can use a single legendary action which cost charges. Each turn the creature has 3 charges to use and some actions more than one.
And that still means that even if only one other creature is part of the combat, when it turn ends the legendary creature can use one of its legendary actions including the ones which cost multiple charges.

So against a single opponent the Sphinx still can use spellcasting and teleportation. It does not slow down at all like permerton assumes (and because teleportation and spellcasting takes more than one action the Sphinx could never use them twice a turn, no matter how many enemies are around).

 

[pemerton]

Thats not how legendary actions work. Teleporting takes 2 of the 3 uses the Sphinx has each turn, but they are not dependent on the number of creatures involved. The Sphinx can teleport just fine with only one enemy left

When you have three opponents, it can take three actions, going down to two, and then to one as the opponents go away. All the actions are still available, by my reading, but it gets fewer of them, which still impacts pacing.

I see. In my mind I had "1 action per opponent's turn, max 3" as opposed to "3 actions, max 1 per turn".

As Umbran indicates, this still means that, as the climax approaches, the time spent on the sphinx and the time spent on the last PC standing become more equal.

How was that fallacy called that the ability of houseruling doesn't solve the underlying problem? As written the Sphinx can not teleport on its own, making legendary action a gameist rule.

I am not houseruling. When I GM a game, the action resolution rules are for the purpose of resolving players' actions declared for their PCs. If the sphinx wants to teleport off-screen, that is not an issue of action resolution. So I don't need rules for that: I just narrate the backstory that I want.

 

[Umbran]

So against a single opponent the Sphinx still can use spellcasting and teleportation. It does not slow down at all like permerton assumes (and because teleportation and spellcasting takes more than one action the Sphinx could never use them twice a turn, no matter how many enemies are around).

Derren, look at that spell selection for a minute. It is by no means a powerhouse of combat spells.

Think about it realistically, in the kind of encounter you find Sphinxes. Sure, early in the fight, when there are still lots of opponents, it'll use a legendary action to pull out that Flame Strike. But by the time there's only one or two PCs left, that resource is probably used up. The other spells in there are largely defensive. So, yes, if it is using the legendary action to spellcast later on, then it is slowing down - taking care of things other than offense!

If it is teleporting late in the fight, what do you expect it is doing? Leaving its post of guardianship to chase down the one last adventurer who is running away? That's out of character for the sphinx. If it is using that late in the fight, it is to save its own bacon and get out of melee range - so, again, slowing down on killing the PCs...

So, yeah, in context, not at all proof that it isn't a pacing mechanism.

 

[Hussar]

Looking at the MM table of contents, I wonder if the picture is counted as the first page. I don't think so since the big T on the first page of the Tarrasque picture appears to be the first page of the "T"'s. So, I think, from the ToC, we're missing another page of the Tarrasque description.

 

[MarkB]

I suddenly want to run a campaign where some horrific thing arrives from the lower planes or from the stars, and the only chance humanity has is for someone (i.e. the PCs) to find and wake the tarrasque to fight it.

Maybe someone is invading from another plane using massive, piloted golems.

"To fight giant robots... we had to tame our own giant robots."

 

[Vaeron]

Looking at the MM table of contents, I wonder if the picture is counted as the first page. I don't think so since the big T on the first page of the Tarrasque picture appears to be the first page of the "T"'s. So, I think, from the ToC, we're missing another page of the Tarrasque description.

According to the table of contents, page 288 is the Thri-Kreen, so the Tarrasque is indeed just the one page + picture, sadly. I was hoping for an extra page where some regional abilities like regen (and the usual carapace uses) would be found.

 

[MortalPlague]

How appropriate. You fight like a dairy farmer.

Augh! Someone uses a Monkey Island insult swordfighting reference, and I can't XP! Must spread around...

But still, you fight like a cow.