D&D 5E Tarrasque vs. Clay Golem (A thought experiment)

[Mistwell]

You know that feeling of when you try to swallow too big a mouthful and the food gets stuck in your throat? Imagine that, but the food is holding on to the walls of your stomach and/or esophagus to stay inside. Or don't, it's slightly disturbing.

The whole issue is moot anyway. Clay golems don't think (it says they cannot think or act for themselves). They follow a general order, but no order can be specific enough to get it to adapt to being swallowed and regurgitated. It would just sit there once swallowed probably.

 

[Cernor]

They follow a general order, but no order can be specific enough to get it to adapt to being swallowed and regurgitated. It would just sit there once swallowed probably.

Most likely it would, yeah. On the other hand, since this was a thought experiment I did to see what was possible within the RAW, we can assume its orders were similar to "kill the first Tarrasque you see" or even pointing it out, saying 'kill it' then the golem's creator runs like hell. Let's not argue the probability of this happening as in the OP, I think it's safe to assume that this situation would never show up in actual play.

 

[Kaychsea]

They follow a general order, but no order can be specific enough to get it to adapt to being swallowed and regurgitated.

"Destroy the Tarrasque"?

 

[Mistwell]

"Destroy the Tarrasque"?

As soon as it no longer sees the Tarrasque (in stomach) that order ends. And it sits there. It really can't think.

 

[Kaychsea]

As soon as it no longer sees the Tarrasque (in stomach) that order ends. And it sits there. It really can't think.

When it's in the Tarrasque it can't see anything else. If not the best way of defending yourself from a golem is to have a box. It's not like it's a cat.

 

[jadrax]

As soon as it no longer sees the Tarrasque (in stomach) that order ends. And it sits there. It really can't think.

It also says that they 'understands its commands perfectly'. That adds a bit of ambiguity as far as intent goes tbh.

Also note it doesn't necessarily just stop when it cannot fulfill an order, it may go Berserk instead.

 

[Mistwell]

It also says that they 'understands its commands perfectly'. That adds a bit of ambiguity as far as intent goes tbh.

Also note it doesn't necessarily just stop when it cannot fulfill an order, it may go Berserk instead.

True it might go berserk...like I said, it gets thrown up if it's a real issue for the Tarrasque. Unlike the golem, it can think (though like an animal - a relatively smart animal, but still an animal). It throws it up, and digs a hole, and covers the golem over with a mountain of dirt, and walks away. And it walks away much much faster than a golem could ever catch it.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Just need to animate them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terracotta_Army

that is my new idea... an evil mummy about to animate a terracotta army, and a tarrasque about to wake up, if the PCs stop the mummy then they can't stop the tarrasque, but if they let the army out what happens when the tarrasque is beat?

 

[Adam Hickenbotham]

According to the description, "If the tarrasque takes 60 damage or more on a single turn from a creature inside it, the tarrasque must succeed on a DC 20 Constitution saving throw at the end of that turn or regurgitate all swallowed creatures, which fall prone in a space within 10 feet of the tarrasque. If the tarrasque dies, a swallowed creature is no longer restrained by it and can escape from the corpse by using 30 feet of movement, exiting prone."
The Clay Golem would never do enough damage to the Tarrasque to force it to regurgitate it although 2 Crits could potentially do 8d10+10 damage. Even if it did, the Tarrasque must make a DC 20 Con save. I think it would have a +19 Modifier with its 30 Constitution and a +9 Proficiency Bonus. Additionally, it has Legendary Resistance which allows it to make 3 saves per day automatically. The Tarrasque has a 3 intelligence so it wouldn't do anything very intelligent either. The damage would not be enough to trigger regurgitation and it could not hurt the Clay Golem when it was swallowed.

 

[MechaTarrasque]

I think it depends on how you run the Tarrasque. I tend to think of it as a really big bearded dragon. It wakes up in the morning, looks around to see if there is another beardie...I mean Tarrasque trying to steal its territory, if not, it looks for something that wiggles or twitches to eat, does its business in an inconvenient place, and finds someplace warm to heat up. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

Clay golems aren't tasty but it does move, so the big T would take a bite to see if it edible. I doubt the golem tastes good, so the big guy will move on to tastier pastures. Unless the golem is as fast as the Tarrasque, it won't catch up until after the big T has eaten its fill and sunk back into the earth to digest its meal.

Now if you made a Tarrasque-sized clay golem that would be different (that would trigger the "other Tarrasque is trying to steal my territory" scenario), but it wouldn't be a CR 9 monster anymore.

This way of running the Tarrasque makes for more challenging stories for PC's, because, if the Tarrasque is heading towards a city, hit and run isn't going to do you a lot of good.