The Zombie Tarrasque - What Happens?

[Lord_Gareth]

So, you know him and may or may not love him, but here is The Tarrasque (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/tarrasque.htm) in all of his faded glory. He's so tough that flinging him into the Negative Energy Plane doesn't kill him - and neither does drowning, dismemberment, explosions, or even direct divine wrath!

So what happens when we reduce his Constitution to 0?

Not an easy feat, actually, because anything that would strip away his last bit of Con that permits a save would reduce him to -10 instead of taking away that Con. BUT NEVER FEAR, TOME OF BATTLE IS HERE - Mountain Tombstone Strike and Bonesplitting Strike both deal Con damage with no save! So we flay away every last bit of Big T's Con and...what happens?

Currently evidence points to the idea that since he can't be dead (the only listed condition for having 0 con), he just goes down to 42 HP and keeps coming like the relentless eating machine he is, but does anyone else have any ideas?

[Studoku]

Special Qualities: Carapace, damage reduction 15/epic, immunity to fire, poison, disease, energy drain, and ability damage, regeneration 40, scent, spell resistance 32
How are you getting around this?

[Lord_Gareth]

How are you getting around this?

By creating this scenario at 4 AM >.>

Okay, so we need to find a source of Con DRAIN with no save. Anyone got a solution?

[Morph Bark]

Gargantuan vampires with insane grapple modifiers.

[Fouredged Sword]

Ok, so half giant Psiwar vampires with totemist levels and lots of tenticals check.

[Starbuck_II]

So, you know him and may or may not love him, but here is The Tarrasque (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/tarrasque.htm) in all of his faded glory. He's so tough that flinging him into the Negative Energy Plane doesn't kill him - and neither does drowning, dismemberment, explosions, or even direct divine wrath!
In 3.5? He doesn't die.


In Pathfinder, he actually does die from save or die spells just regains life 3 rounds after. Meaning you can totally make a Zombie/ghoul/Mummy Tarrasque.

"No form of attack can suppress the tarrasque's regeneration—it regenerates even if disintegrated or slain by a death effect. If the tarrasque fails a save against an effect that would kill it instantly, it rises from death 3 rounds later with 1 hit point if no further damage is inflicted upon its remains"

So in Pathfinder, you use Disintegrate or a death effect: it dies, then you cast Animate Dead (Pathfinder Zombies don't have HD limit).
It is stuck as a Zombie losing all supernatural abilities till someone Resurrects it.

[WinWin]

Power Drain can inflict con drain. As it is a sustained effect, there is immediate death.

It does need to be converted from a ray to something else though, such as through a Spellsword's channel spell ability.

[searlefm]

ok let me start by saying ''The Spell Imprisonment also work's''
as nowhere (at least not in his stats) dose it say hes immune to permanent imprisonment in the core of the earth.

but having 0 con means dead or at least undead
the same for negative levels
these will both probably cause cause him to become undead gain some stats more health and immunity to wherever could affect him in the first place - positive energy.

if you ask me that's not a good idear unless you have hundreds of followers that can all channel positive energy then that might work temporally,
but if you could target him with limitless range teleport and get it to work aim for a different planet (or the sun) and let the fact he cant reach world any more make you the hero's (unless that other planet was occupied then your evil, really really really evil).

[ahenobarbi]

In 3.5? He doesn't die.

Why? I don't see anything in it's description that would make it exception to the rule that creature dies when it's con is reduced to 0.

[searlefm]

It is immune to ''DEATH'' not death effects(well he also immune to death effects) but ''DEATH'' macing it unkillable unless you use wishes/miracles.
this is renowned as one of the strongest enemy in the game for that reason.

[Shred-Bot]

Why? I don't see anything in it's description that would make it exception to the rule that creature dies when it's con is reduced to 0.

In the regeneration section (emphasis mine):

"The tarrasque can be slain only by raising its nonlethal damage total to its full normal hit points +10 (or 868 hit points) and using a wish or miracle spell to keep it dead. "

There is always room for argument (in regard to ability damage vs. drain particularly) but it looks like they at least intended for this to be the only way to kill big T.

[Chilingsworth]

Well, the specific killing method aside, what would happen if BigT was zombified after it had been (permenantly) killed?

The answer (ignoring the question of how a creature with 48 HD would be zombified,) would be that it wouldn't be that much more dangerous than any other colossal zombie. It would be slightly harder to control, though
Command Undead would do the job just fine.

[Flickerdart]

It doesn't seem like Big T would care about being drained to 0 Constitution, since "dead" is the only effect of 0 Con, and he's immune. He would, however, have maximum HP of 42, so dropping him to -10 would be easy after that.

[searlefm]

It doesn't seem like Big T would care about being drained to 0 Constitution, since "dead" is the only effect of 0 Con, and he's immune. He would, however, have maximum HP of 42, so dropping him to -10 would be easy after that.

True another good question is would it become a wight is you use enough negative level spells on it.

[Chilingsworth]

True another good question is would it become a wight is you use enough negative level spells on it.

If it did, it would probably use the wight creature template. That would be... pretty scary, actually.:smalleek:

[Lord_Gareth]

True another good question is would it become a wight is you use enough negative level spells on it.

He's immune to Energy Drain, so no. He can never become a Wight because he can't gain negative levels.

[searlefm]

well that's a shame.
i guess we are all saved from a Wight Tarrasque then although that's still quite bad

[Answerer]

this is renowned as one of the strongest enemy in the game for that reason.
It is renowned as one of the strongest enemies in the game for that reason, but that's a myth. In reality, keeping yourself safe from the Tarrasque as a PC is very easy, and with the correct knowledge (admittedly somewhat hard to get with that DC 58 Knowledge check), he's also pretty easy to put down safely. Getting the wish spell isn't too hard, either, thanks to the (utterly stupid) Candle of Invocation.