Think you have what it takes to be a powergamer? Take this test.

[RangerWickett]

Just one note to the duelist-writer. . . . Brilliant energy weapons ignore non-living things. A tarrasque's natural armor is living, so the brilliant energy weapon is worthless. Better to be hasted and cast True Strike each round (or better yet, make up some higher level spell that gives you True Strike for a couple rounds).

 

[Kraedin]

I think the celestials with regeneration are supposed to be fast healing, but I heard that the Tarrasque was going to be changed so that you could Miracle it to permanant death at -30 or it's hitpoints + 30 in subdual damage.

 

[Squire James]

I'm pretty sure the MM intended for the Terrasque to be killable, otherwise they would have put something like "n/a" for its Challenge Rating. Going with that premise, we have some badly-worded text here, and it is not the only place in the MM it is so.

Either the Regeneration has to become Fast Healing, or -30 hp is possible with subdual damage. Making it Fast Healing would be simpler than changing the nature of subdual damage, so if I were DM-ing a Terrasque it'd have Fast Healing 40 (still a potent ability). Then again, if I were DM-ing, the Harm spell would only be cutting its HP in half (no save), which makes the spell useful but not encounter-ending. Encounter-enders with no save should probably be 9th level, not 6th level...

Me? I'd have my Sor20 cast Haste, Fly, Improved Invisibility, Stoneskin (in case the DM forgets the terrasque's attacks emulate +5 weapons), and then swoop in and do 2 Imprisonment effects a round (I'll get 6 tries) until it fails SR. Sure, it won't be dead, but it wouldn't be bothering anyone anytime soon either! Then all you would have to do is prevent some other high-level arcane magic type from casting Freedom in the area... which may be harder than dealing with the Terrasque.

 

[Kraedin]

I'm pretty sure the MM intended for the Terrasque to be killable, otherwise they would have put something like "n/a" for its Challenge Rating. Going with that premise, we have some badly-worded text here, and it is not the only place in the MM it is so.

It is killable, it's just tricky. To get it to -10, you need Slay Living, Destruction, or some other non-ray death spell. Then a simple Bestow Curse to lower it's constitution score by 6. That causes it to lose 48*3 hitpoints, which gets it well below the number we need here, -30.

Honestly, the Tarrasque should be a CR of 17. I would say even lower if it were not for the Wish/Miracle requirement. A Great Red Wyrm: now that's a CR 20 creature! None of this "invisible flying about mages" nonsence. They have Blindsight 1600' and Meteor Swarm. (And Mord's Disjunction, and Gate. Or, If you're using Tome & Blood, they have a Chain Contengency triggered in the event of it's death tied to a Raise Dead, Heal, and Haste.) That's CR 20.

 

[Omegium]

Ok, my try for beating Mr. T in melee. I am assuming now that it is fast healing 40.

Sorcerer 1/fighter 12/weapon master 7

Stats:
Str 18+6(item)+5(lvl) = 29 = +9
dex 13
Con 16 + 6(item) = 22
Int 13

HP: 10 + 1d4 + 18d10 + 120 = 221

Feats: Dodge, Mobility, Expertise, Spring Attack, Weapon Focus (scimitar), Improved Critical (scimitar), Fly-by attack (don't know if it is needed, but to be sure), combat reflexes, whirlwind attack, power attack, quick draw, improved initiative, Death blow

To hit: 19 (bab) + 9(str) + 1 (WF) +1 (SWF) + 2 (charge) + 1 (+1 scimitar) + 2 (invisibility) = 34

Items:

Potion of expeditious retreat: 50
Potion of fly 750
Wand of improved invisibility 21000
Keen Vorpal +1 scimitar 98000
Belt of Giants Strength 36000
Amulet of super duper con 36000
Ring of at least 1 wish 97500
Boots of speed 8000
Sure striking, +1 Scyte 8000

Strategy: Cast fly and expeditious retreat for a speed of 180. Cast improved invisibility to be safe against his attacks (stupid thing doesn't have any way to detect invisibility). I think it is difficult to ready against an attack by an invisibly foe, if it is allowed he has 75% chance to hit. With 4d8 + 17 damage he can sustain a lot of hits, so that is not really a problem. If T. decides to shallow whole, he can just contintue from the inside. Inside is safer than outside. He has a crit range of 10-20, a +34 on his attack, so 50% of his attacks will result in instant deaths. If he is slain, activate boots of speed, quick draw scyte, CDG with 19 points of power attack, for at least 80 damage. He is at -90. One round later, he is at -50, and can be wished to death

 

[Caliban]

It is killable, it's just tricky. To get it to -10, you need Slay Living, Destruction, or some other non-ray death spell. Then a simple Bestow Curse to lower it's constitution score by 6. That causes it to lose 48*3 hitpoints, which gets it well below the number we need here, -30.

I'm afraid that wouldn't work. PHB, page 9, Constitution, first bullet point: "...a penalty can never drop a Hit Die roll bellow one...", and DMG, page 72, Ability Score Loss, top of second column: " A full hit point score, however, can't drop to less than 1 hit point per Hit Die."

You always have at least one HP per HD, and in the situation you outline above, the tarrasque would just stay at -10 hit points. (No matter how much you drain the tarrasque's Con score, it would have at least 48 hit points, although it's technically dead at a 0 Con.)

That's why I went for the Stirge Swarm of Death (tm), because it's the only way I can think of to reduce it's Con to 0. If that doesn't count as -30 hit points, then the thing is impossible to kill, short of using a wish to force it to take real damage instead of subdual damage, and then using a second wish to keep it dead. (If it get's errata'd to Fast Healing instead of Regeneration, then this problem goes away, but until then that's about what it would take. )

 

[hong]

Strategy: Cast fly and expeditious retreat for a speed of 180. Cast improved invisibility to be safe against his attacks (stupid thing doesn't have any way to detect invisibility). I think it is difficult to ready against an attack by an invisibly foe, if it is allowed he has 75% chance to hit. With 4d8 + 17 damage he can sustain a lot of hits, so that is not really a problem. If T. decides to shallow whole, he can just contintue from the inside. Inside is safer than outside.

Hmm. Never noticed that before, but you could be right. And not only that, but the tarrasque's entry in the MM doesn't state that you need a light weapon to damage it when swallowed, unlike most other monsters. Just don't forget to put a prot. elements (acid) and/or resist elements (acid) on yourself, if you're going to carve it up from the inside.

He has a crit range of 10-20, a +34 on his attack, so 50% of his attacks will result in instant deaths. If he is slain, activate boots of speed, quick draw scyte, CDG with 19 points of power attack, for at least 80 damage. He is at -90. One round later, he is at -50, and can be wished to death

You can't CDG the tarrasque, because you need a weapon that deals normal damage, and nothing does normal damage to the T. Not to worry, just keep hacking away until its subdual damage is high enough.

 

[hong]

That's why I went for the Stirge Swarm of Death (tm), because it's the only way I can think of to reduce it's Con to 0. If that doesn't count as -30 hit points, then the thing is impossible to kill, short of using a wish to force it to take real damage instead of subdual damage, and then using a second wish to keep it dead. (If it get's errata'd to Fast Healing instead of Regeneration, then this problem goes away, but until then that's about what it would take. )

I'm damn sure I read somewhere that Skip and Monte went over the T's entry again, and modified the conditions for death so that you need to deal 870 points of subdual damage (and then cast wish). In practice it's the same thing as taking it to -30, but gets around the technicalities with regen and negative hp.

 

[Omegium]

You can't CDG the tarrasque, because you need a weapon that deals normal damage, and nothing does normal damage to the T. Not to worry, just keep hacking away until its subdual damage is high enough.

Yes, that's true. But I think it is realistic to allow to do an automatic critical when someone is helpless, even if it isn't really a CDG. And even if it is not allowed, there are a lot of ways to do enough damage.
And when I thought about it, maybe it is better to use a kukri instead of a scimitar: crit range is the same, but it is light, so you can use it while being grappled in case he decides to grapple but not to swallow.

 

[dvvega]

To bring hope to those would-be Tarrasque killers:

I wrote to Monte Cook a while ago, asking about the Tarrasque, and he wrote Skip Williams. The question was basically regarding what someone here already noted, you can't get someone to -30 if they only take subdual damage. You can't even get them to negative hit points at all.

It cannot be killed by normal means, all "death spells" set it at -10 hit points and then it regenerates from there.

The answer came back as:

===
You're right. That doesn't make sense. So I contacted Skip Williams (the writer of said beast). He says that the tarrasque's entry should be changed to this:

Regeneration (Ex): No form of attack deals normal damage to the tarrasque. The tarrasque regenerates even if disintegrated or slain with death magic: These attack forms merely knock it unconscious and set its total subdual damage to 850 points (unless it already has more subdual damage than that).
It is immune to effects that produce incurable or bleeding wounds, such as a sword of wounding, mummy rot, or a clay golem's wound ability. The tarrasque can be permanently slain only by raising its subdual damage total to 870
points and using a wish or miracle spell to keep it dead.
====

Basically you need only a wish and lots of damage capacity.