PDA

View Full Version : Tarrasque Centered Campaign [3.5]



Enguhl
2009-06-09, 01:35 AM
So in my next campaign, the world is going to be changed to a more nomadic styled place due to a permanently wandering tarrasque. The campaign will start low level (three probably) with the end goal obviously being to destroy the tarrasque.

On the Big T: I'm planning on modifying it to prevent simple ways of stopping it, such as having a constant (downward) wind wall around it for 30ft or so, water breathing and a swim speed so it terrorizes multiple continents, etc. The wind wall will also be extremely tall making it so clouds swirl around and whatnot, so its easy to tell where it is (people are still alive due to their ability to pack up and get on the move ahead of time).

Now for my main issue, can anyone think of a "tarrasque"-ish template of sorts? I was planning on having the moon be like a gateway to the tarrasque's home, so sometimes a sort of "radiation" would emit from the moon turning people/things into more tarrasquien creatures. I'm looking for something around the power of the half dragon template if anyone has ideas/etc.

bosssmiley
2009-06-09, 04:43 AM
The City Built Round the Tarrasque (http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=261519)

You need to read this thread. It has Tarrasque-derived templates, classes, magical materials, the secret origins of Trolls and Stirges, and some evocative world building ideas.

Sample post:
originally posted by Archer:
The Tarrasque normally 'eats everything for miles around, including all animals and vegetation.' In order to keep it satiated and regenerating, the armies of Tarrascon are going to be wiping out large swaths of the landscape. Forests. Herds of cattle. Villages. Maybe they can only feed it enough to keep it alive, but sooner or later they're going to want to give it a more substantial meal.

I imagine their army as it crosses the land, each soldier painted with inhuman blood, bulging with muscles and strange growths, covered in scars that no human could survive, girded in armour of reflective carapace, and wielding swords of bone set with diamond teeth.

I picture them returning after the conquest, bringing their spoils with them. Animals, crowded into cages or driven in herds.. Whole harvests mowed down, entire forests felled, villages razed to the ground, all of it piled upon creaking carts to bring along. Then come the people, bound together in rows, forming a line that fills the road and stretches back to the horizon.

The procession moves slowly down the street, as gloating fanfare sounds and the citizens line the street in their splendid clothes, cheering. The ancient, gnarled wordbearers speak a solemn ritual as the gates are opened and the procession leads up the broad steps. The tarrasque screams and gnashes his teeth, drowning out the cheering, chanting, sobbing, wailing. And then, one by one, the carts are thrown into its gaping mouth.

I imagine the lords of Taralsqua started out using their immense wealth to buy the food they needed. Then, when their armies grew mighty enough, they began to demand it, turning their neighbours into tributary states. Recently, one of those tributaries rebelled, and Taralsqua made an example of it, razing the kingdom to the ground and feeding everything and everyone to the tarrasque. And they discovered the tarrasque liked it. Fed the products of violence and plunder, it regenerated faster, with blood and meat of better quality. It even thrashed around less, killed fewer butchers.

When the last remains of that kingdom was devoured, it was clear what had to be done. The armies marched again...

KillianHawkeye
2009-06-09, 05:14 AM
Hmm.... have you played Final Fantasy X?

mistformsquirrl
2009-06-09, 05:24 AM
... Bosssmiley that is neat <o.@> *bookmark*

Gods I love it when people get imaginative >_<

Biffoniacus_Furiou
2009-06-09, 06:00 AM
There are three very simple steps to making the Tarrasque a challenge for even the most optimized high-level party:

1. Give it Divine Rank 0 (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/divine/divineRanksAndPowers.htm#divineRanks). Its land speed becomes 140 ft., and it gets a few more immunities and passive defenses. Most of what it would gain is redundant with what it already has.

2. Make it a Half-Fiend (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/halfFiend.htm). It gets a fly speed, a lot more skill points, higher Int score, and some extremely useful spell-like abilities. Caster level 48 Blasphemy can one-shot just about anything, but most adventurers would be aware of this and protect themselves by casting Spell Immunity. Now the Big T actually takes some research and preparation to even stand a chance against it.

3. Change out its feats for something that's actually useful, and give it at least as many class skills as it gets skill points/level. It gets seven regular feats and ten epic feats. I'd give it something like Multiattack, Improved Multiattack, Rapidstrike (Claws), Improved Rapidstrike (Claws), Rapidstrike (Horns), Improved Rapidstrike (Horns), Power Attack, Cleave, Great Cleave, Quicken Spell-Like Ability: Destruction, Quicken Spell-Like Ability: Horrid Wilting, Combat Reflexes, Weapon Focus: Bite, Improved Critical: Bite, Overwhelming Critical: Bite, Devastating Critical: Bite, and Improved Toughness. That's just a full attack themed feat selection, you could instead go defensive and include Improved Spell Resistance x9, so any Wish to permanently end it would have to overcome SR 50. Or maybe give it Frightful Presence, Imperious Command, Never Outnumbered, and max ranks in Intimidate. Or even give it Snatch, Improved Snatch, Multisnatch, Snatch and Swallow, Combat Reflexes, Martial Study: Charging Minotaur, and Martial Stance: Crushing Weight of the Mountain, and just have him grapple everything.

For its skills, it gets 8 skill points/level, -2 for Int 7, and it already has Listen, Search, Spot, and Survival, so I'd add Hide, Move Silently, and Autohypnosis (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Autohypnosis) and only take 5 ranks in Search. Maybe even give it the elite array and make sure it gets Int 10, in which case its last skill should probably be 5+ ranks each in Balance, Jump, Climb, Swim, and Tumble. With Hide, Move Silently, Spot, and Listen at 51 ranks each he'll be extremely hard to get the jump on, with Survival at 51 ranks he'll be able to track down anyone. With his fly speed he can go anywhere he wants and he'll be extremely hard to outrun or elude. Anyone who continually keeps out of reach can be targeted by a Horrid Wilting or Destruction. Definitely a difficult fight, but still far from impossible if the PCs are willing to put some effort into it.

Enguhl
2009-06-09, 06:31 AM
The City Built Round the Tarrasque (http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=261519)

You need to read this thread. It has Tarrasque-derived templates, classes, magical materials, the secret origins of Trolls and Stirges, and some evocative world building ideas.

Holy crap, thats quite amazing, thank you. Probably not using the fortress specifically, but some ideas from it.

Biffoniacus_Furiou: I'm not really trying to make it deadly, I want it to be something you can run from, but have no hope of standing against it any time soon. Those will probably be ideas I add to it when the PC's don't complete something. IE: Fail to stop the crazy cult thinking the tarrasque is a good thing and try to make it stronger.

BooNL
2009-06-09, 06:45 AM
You could go the Dune route and have safe areas where the tarrasque cannot come, like rock is for sandworms.

Do you want the tarrasque to just be a menace, destroying everything in its wake or do you want to link certain social/economic/political thingies to it? Like spice for sandworms. Maybe people settle near a tarrasque heavy area because his constant burrowing digs up valuable mineral deposists.

Awesome concept by the way. :smallsmile:

HamsterOfTheGod
2009-06-09, 09:00 AM
For lower level pcs you will need lower level enemies. For ex there could be a cult of the tarrasque who follow the tarrasque around. The cults priests and other members find sacrifices for the tarrasque. And by giving the tarrasque enough treasure, meat and intelligent beings the tarrasque remains quiescent and away from major centers of power. This is similar to the cult of the bat of the red goddess from the old runequest campaign. The pcs may want to stop the tarrasque but then if they stop the sacrifices, it might make things worse. Anyway, a cultist scouting party might make a good low level encounter. Later, they might meet the agents of nomad or imperial rulers who want to keep the status quo. The tarrasque might not only be a demigod but a weapon of mass destruction kept in storage so to speak in the hinterlands.

Dungeon or dragon magazine had a 5 level prestige class based on the tarrasque. It developed as a fighter except instead of fighter feats you got a shell (that provided natural armor and SR), natural weapons and increased strength and con. In exchange you lost 8 points of int so in the end you became a mindless brute. Perhaps these man-tarrasque could be created by your lunar radition or maybe they are used by tarrasque cultists like hunting dogs.

Other encounters along the adventure path could consist of bulletes or purple worms or giant insects or other creatures that might be considered the "natural prey" of the tarrasque.

One dragon magazine had an adventure which was sort of based on mid level pcs stopping a tarrasque like epic monster. The monster was summoned and controlled by an ancient artifact. The gargantuan sized beast was summoned from other plane (maybe like the moon). It was an epic challenge unkillable by pcs of say 10th level. However it was used as mobile fortress and seige engine by a group of gnolls. The gnolls would attack with ranged weapons, spells, seige weapons and even flying assault troops from their mobile base. The pcs had to board the gargantuan beast, stop the gnolls and destroy the artifact rather than fight the epic monster directly. The monster itself was no much to worry about unless you unwisely got to within reach of its jaws.

ZeroNumerous
2009-06-09, 09:46 AM
Biffoniacus_Furiou: I'm not really trying to make it deadly, I want it to be something you can run from, but have no hope of standing against it any time soon. Those will probably be ideas I add to it when the PC's don't complete something. IE: Fail to stop the crazy cult thinking the tarrasque is a good thing and try to make it stronger.

Without DvR 0 it's still subject to the Allip style of WIS drain. Two to three Simulacrum, with Improved Invisibility, Blur or other defensive buffs auto-kill him. Even if you're not going to make him more deadly, at least protect him from a Wizard 5/Master of Shrouds 8.

GreyMantle
2009-06-09, 10:23 AM
Given that the tarrasque is kind of a joke monster, I heartily agree with the suggestions of giving it some extra powers/templates. As it is, a giant creature with a low speed, no methods of transportation besides walking, and a barely sentient intelligence is going to get torn apart by parties with a modicum of ranged skill as early as beginning double digit levels, making it very difficult to believe that no one has killed it before. (But, of course, if you have a low-level world, then that becomes irrelevant)

But, done correctly, this could be a seriously hardcore campaign.

Enguhl
2009-06-09, 05:04 PM
GreyMantle: The campaign is starting level 3, and the tarrasque is, at that point, just an ever present threat, sort of an explaination to why the world is in shambles and everyone leads a semi-nomatic life.

ZeroNumerous: I'll keep that in mind, the campaign wont be starting for a while, so I just add the little things like that to my list. I think I'll add 'immune to ability drain' to it as well.

HamsterOfTheGod: As for your first part, there will be several points in the campaign where they take stratigec things/places, such as killing and replacing a pirate captain and taking other ships to easily transport people, or a keep that they know can hide a limited number of people (the tarrasque is getting a 'life sense' style ability) from big T and use as an ops center. Even the first leg of the adventure is to take out orcs that use warg riders to lure big T to the humans that are too strong to kill themselves.
Secondly, there was going to be a giant mech the PCs had to capture so the humans could use it in an attempt to attack big T, but since its not currently in the hands of the humans, they have to get on it and take out the enemy.

BooNL: It will be slightly like that, there will be certain areas that are guarded by artifact-style items which create zones where the tarrasque can't sense the lives of a few dozen people. And the tarrasque itself is just destroying everything, though there are cults or opportunists that will come into play as well.

Thanks for the ideas and input everyone.

MichielHagen
2009-06-10, 04:51 AM
Don't forget to deal with "Ray of Stupidity". You don't want a wizard lvl 3 to kill a few Tarrasques with a lvl 2 spell.

krko
2009-06-10, 07:46 AM
Don't forget to deal with "Ray of Stupidity". You don't want a wizard lvl 3 to kill a few Tarrasques with a lvl 2 spell.

The Tarrasque has ability damage immunity.

Raevhen
2009-06-10, 10:12 AM
Have you thought about the existence of Flying Citadels like in Dragonlance?

http://www.geocities.com/~kitiaria/LancePics/ArtOfDL.jpg

Ravens_cry
2009-06-10, 10:32 AM
Dungeon or dragon magazine had a 5 level prestige class based on the tarrasque. It developed as a fighter except instead of fighter feats you got a shell (that provided natural armor and SR), natural weapons and increased strength and con. In exchange you lost 8 points of int so in the end you became a mindless brute.
I am sorry, but but the first thing I thought of when reading that was it sounded like a Darker and Edgier (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DarkerAndEdgier) version of, well. . . Koopa Troopas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koopa_Troopa#Koopa_Troopa).

HamsterOfTheGod
2009-06-10, 02:39 PM
I am sorry, but but the first thing I thought of when reading that was it sounded like a Darker and Edgier (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DarkerAndEdgier) version of, well. . . Koopa Troopas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koopa_Troopa#Koopa_Troopa).

Yeah it looks like that but not as cute. I think it was called waker of the beast and it was in Dragon #296 along with other aberration worshipping prestige classes like sphere minions (beholders) and illithidkin (illithids 'course)I've seen illithidkin used in other places. The others, not so much. Oh well, they can't all be winners