Less a power question and more trying to get in the mindset of WOTC designers (and perhaps there is an interview out there someone could point to that explains why).
The Tarrasque, the CR30 big baddie, the apocolyptic force that threatens even 20th level parties. And yet with the Tarrasque of 5e has often come the memes about the how the flying wizard with cantrips or the army of 1000 schlubs with bows can take out Big T. Wotc has made adjustments over time to prevent some of these shenanagans and yet hasn't utilized the easiest one of all..... regeneration.
Historically, the Tarrasque in earlier editions had regeneration, in fact, you had to have special weapons and a wish spell to stop the regen and actually kill the Tarrasque. And while I can respect 5e removing some of those special elements, it removed the regeneration as well.
Why?
Other monsters in the book have Regen, while its not a common trait, there are several monsters with the capability. Perhaps because of the extra complexity of regen? If Big T was a hard monster to run I could possibly see that (one less thing to remember in a high level battle with tons of effects going on), but Big T is actually about as dirt simple a legendary monster as you get. Its got some powerful attacks, a few basic conditions, and some movement legendary actions. Any old spellcasting monster is far more difficult to run.
Even 20-30 regen wouldn't matter much to the type of parties that are supposed to take on Big T, but it would immediately remove any of the meme shenanigan and ensure that Big T can only be taken out by groups with dedicated, sustained damage power, not being plinked away for hours by gnats.
So why of all the monsters to remove regen from, did WOTC choose the Tarrasque? What was the thinking beyond the decision when regen was kept for many other monsters. And then as 2024 has come up, they consciously made the decision again to keep the regen off the table.
I can only speculate, but if anyone has any hard info like interviews and such I would love to know.
The Tarrasque, the CR30 big baddie, the apocolyptic force that threatens even 20th level parties. And yet with the Tarrasque of 5e has often come the memes about the how the flying wizard with cantrips or the army of 1000 schlubs with bows can take out Big T. Wotc has made adjustments over time to prevent some of these shenanagans and yet hasn't utilized the easiest one of all..... regeneration.
Historically, the Tarrasque in earlier editions had regeneration, in fact, you had to have special weapons and a wish spell to stop the regen and actually kill the Tarrasque. And while I can respect 5e removing some of those special elements, it removed the regeneration as well.
Why?
Other monsters in the book have Regen, while its not a common trait, there are several monsters with the capability. Perhaps because of the extra complexity of regen? If Big T was a hard monster to run I could possibly see that (one less thing to remember in a high level battle with tons of effects going on), but Big T is actually about as dirt simple a legendary monster as you get. Its got some powerful attacks, a few basic conditions, and some movement legendary actions. Any old spellcasting monster is far more difficult to run.
Even 20-30 regen wouldn't matter much to the type of parties that are supposed to take on Big T, but it would immediately remove any of the meme shenanigan and ensure that Big T can only be taken out by groups with dedicated, sustained damage power, not being plinked away for hours by gnats.
So why of all the monsters to remove regen from, did WOTC choose the Tarrasque? What was the thinking beyond the decision when regen was kept for many other monsters. And then as 2024 has come up, they consciously made the decision again to keep the regen off the table.
I can only speculate, but if anyone has any hard info like interviews and such I would love to know.
