D&D 5E (2024) Why doesn't the Tarrasque have Regen?

Stalker0

Legend
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.
 

log in or register to remove this ad

I vaguely recall a designer saying something to the effect that they didn't need regeneration because they had all the hit points. This of course was likely what they were thinking before the MM came out and people started bringing up the issues.

Why haven't they changed it in 2024? Probably because it's a verisimilitude thing, and 2024 really doesn't care about that.
 

A lot of time it does feel like a creature with regeneration should have just had more hit points- either the creature goes down quick and the regen barely matters, the regen is shut off and barely matters, or the combat drags out because the party lacks the tools to deal with regen effectively.

Like, take Trolls. If you have a caster with Acid Splash, Firebolt, or Chill Touch, easy peasey. If you don't, you're stuck futzing around with expensive acid, oil, or swinging torches (all improvised weapons, naturally). If your DM is truly a jerk, you'll be fighting a Scrag (aquatic Troll) underwater, lol. It would have been so much easier to say "give Trolls another 15-20 hit points and make them vulnerable to acid and fire", and give them something like the zombie's ability to potentially not die when they hit 0 hit points, and you'd have the same narrative, but with less bookkeeping.
 


The new tarrasque is an absolute beast. Thunderous bellow and the full suite of powers it has is truly terrifying.

It’s worth saying the tarrasque has been changed so that instead of regenerating from a speck of flesh a new tarrasque now awakens somewhere else in the world. There are many challenges with the concept of endless regeneration which don’t translate well into game terms.
 
Last edited:

I question why even having the thing in the first place. But is is supposed to be iconic, but so are several other monsters. Same with tradition or providing a challenge to high level PCs.

I feel that regeneration is generally weak with the other powers out there. Give it a damage reduction 50 or immunity to slashing/piercing/bludgeoning, or both. Then there is no need for regeneration.

I also seem to recall some backstory about there only being one tarrasque and a new one spawns if the first is killed. Maybe when killed it slumbers for hundreds of years or such. Having regeneration might affect this if the idea is that is is not 'killed'.
 

I question why even having the thing in the first place. But is is supposed to be iconic, but so are several other monsters. Same with tradition or providing a challenge to high level PCs.

I feel that regeneration is generally weak with the other powers out there. Give it a damage reduction 50 or immunity to slashing/piercing/bludgeoning, or both. Then there is no need for regeneration.

I also seem to recall some backstory about there only being one tarrasque and a new one spawns if the first is killed. Maybe when killed it slumbers for hundreds of years or such. Having regeneration might affect this if the idea is that is is not 'killed'.
The original was unique, until Spelljammer revealed there was a whole planet of them, where they rule the surface, and the underground is ruled by Mind Flayers. Because of course there is.
 

A lot of time it does feel like a creature with regeneration should have just had more hit points- either the creature goes down quick and the regen barely matters, the regen is shut off and barely matters, or the combat drags out because the party lacks the tools to deal with regen effectively.

Like, take Trolls. If you have a caster with Acid Splash, Firebolt, or Chill Touch, easy peasey. If you don't, you're stuck futzing around with expensive acid, oil, or swinging torches (all improvised weapons, naturally). If your DM is truly a jerk, you'll be fighting a Scrag (aquatic Troll) underwater, lol. It would have been so much easier to say "give Trolls another 15-20 hit points and make them vulnerable to acid and fire", and give them something like the zombie's ability to potentially not die when they hit 0 hit points, and you'd have the same narrative, but with less bookkeeping.
I agree that for many monsters, the regen values are not high enough to really impact your standard "3 turn combat" scenario.

Regen does two principal things:

1) Keeps out the riff raff. Its a mechanic that ensures you have to either have certain capabilities or deal X amount of damage consistently to beat a creature. Now generally this is never a problem in 5e for near CR monsters, but it can be a thing for boss monsters that are much higher in CR than the group. It ensures that not any Tom, Dick, and Harry can slay this creature.

2) It promotes prolonged combat scenarios. The vampire is a great example of this. The vampire has decent regen, but at CR 13 high level parties are still going to get through it with little issue. But it encourages the vampire to not just stand and fight, but running, by turning gaseous and slipping through the cracks, etc....it allows the vampire to fully recover. So it changes the dynamics of a fight if its used well.


For the Tarrasque, it would probably take something like 50 regen to actually have a combat impact (as Morrus did with the A5e Tarrasque). But even a 20 regen would "keep out the riff raff", it ensures that an army can't just plink down Big T over time. Its a monster you cannot attrition away....it requires raw power to defeat, not endurance.
 

Haven't used one yet but I'm thinking of giving less HP but at the start of its turn if it above 0 hp, it regains all its hps!

Sulking cos the PCs spanked the 472 hp kraken last night in almost 2 rounds
 

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.
That's not quite true. The tarrasque had its regeneration removed in 4e, not 5e. That was probably because 4e generally simplified monsters. The 4e tarrasque did have its hit points bumped up from 858 (3.5e) to 1,420 hp (4e), possibly to offset that lack of regen.

Given this, I suspect that the reason the tarrasque doesn't have regen in 5e is because it didn't have it in 4e, and there wasn't a particularly good reason to add it back.
 

Remove ads

Top