1-round tarrasque takedown

[Thealtruistorc]

A DM of mine has a huge beef with Tome of Battle, seeing the "book of weeaboo fightin magic" (what he actually calls it). as overpowered. When I asked him why, he said that there were 20th-level builds in the book that could nova a tarrasque in one round.

It's high time I prove to him that's nothing special.

The challenge here is to find a way to reduce a tarrasque to total incapability over the course of one round as a level 20 character. No insane pun-pun tricks, as the concept is to prove that anyone can pull it off.

[Zanos]

Not in one round, but a spellcaster could just cast Summon Undead 4 for an allip and wisdom drain Big T to death, as Big T has nothing to hurt an incorporeal creature with.

[heavyfuel]

Ok, so this isn't a 1 round thing. But considering it can be done at 1st level, it might provide a valid argument.

Step 1 - Get Rebuke Undead (via negative energy Cleric is best, but there are other options)
Step 2 - Find an Allip; if you're evil, create one by driving a person mad enough to commit suicide. Getting creative is key.
Step 3 - Command the Allip to drain Big T's Wisdom. Considering the Tarrasque can't harm incorporeal creatures, he can do nothing but take it.
Step 4 - Command the Allip to keep draining Wis until you tell him to stop. Never tell him to stop.


Options 2 and 3 are plain Mailman or Ubercharger builds. Both can deal more HP damage in a single round than Big T's HP + DR

[Rubik]

Not in one round, but a spellcaster could just cast Summon Undead 4 for an allip and wisdom drain Big T to death, as Big T has nothing to hurt an incorporeal creature with.This. A 7th level wizard can knock it out with a single spell slot with a failure chance so low that it's not even worth considering.

[PsyBomb]

Yeah, dropping the Tarrasque is not really an accomplishment. Anything with a Fly speed and decent ranged attacks can do so with no chance of taking an attack in return, whether or not they successfully kill in one turn.

[Nettlekid]

Seconding Ubercharger. The posts so far have proved that it's easy to do, sure, but if you're actually going for it in one round, something with full BAB, Power Attack, Shock Trooper, Leap Attack, a Valorous Weapon, perhaps buffed with Rhino's Rush, will do

(20*(2+1)+Weapon Damage+Str*1.5)*3=180+(Weapon Damage+Str*1.5)*3 per hit, and a Pouncing Ubercharger can easily make 5 attacks (four from iterative attacks and then Haste or Speed or something) to deal 900+(Weapon Damage+Str*1.5)*15 in a turn, which is more than enough to beat the Tarrasque.

And that's barely optimizing, I promise. Adding in Frenzied Berserker, Headlong Rush, and Battle Jump (if you can activate it) changes that to (20*(4+1)+Weapon Damage+Str*1.5)*5=500 per attack before weapon damage, and 2500 total. And that's with a conservative reading of Leap Attack, which may give you more for Frenzied Berserker.

Honestly, Tome of Battle lets you do a lot more that ISN'T damage-based. Teleports, ability damage, moving AC around, healing, stuff like that. You don't need any more ways to draw blood.

[WhamBamSam]

In terms of actually one-rounding the thing, the Tarrasque's Will Save isn't that great. It shouldn't be too hard to jack up the save DC on Ensul's Spelltheft then hit it with a Maximized one. Throw on True Casting and you're basically assured success against its SR.

A Factotum 20 with enough Fonts should be able to cast Summon Undead V 8 times in a round for a grand total of 16 Alips. Each Allip has a 95% chance of hitting Big T on it's Touch Attack and deals an average of 2.5 on a hit. Big T will therefore be hit about 14-15 times and take more than twice his Wis damage. A full caster or Psion could similarly break the action economy badly enough to cast Twinned Summon Undead V enough times to generate a large enough Allip Swarm for a 1 round takedown.

A Death Master of at least 10th level can have an Allip as an Animal Companion.

Or just do damage. If a ToB character can do it with straight damage, a Barbarian can do it 10 times over.

[PsyBomb]

Seconding Ubercharger. The posts so far have proved that it's easy to do, sure, but if you're actually going for it in one round, something with full BAB, Power Attack, Shock Trooper, Leap Attack, a Valorous Weapon, perhaps buffed with Rhino's Rush, will do

(20*(2+1)+Weapon Damage+Str*1.5)*3=180+(Weapon Damage+Str*1.5)*3 per hit, and a Pouncing Ubercharger can easily make 5 attacks (four from iterative attacks and then Haste or Speed or something) to deal 900+(Weapon Damage+Str*1.5)*15 in a turn, which is more than enough to beat the Tarrasque.

And that's barely optimizing, I promise. Adding in Frenzied Berserker, Headlong Rush, and Battle Jump (if you can activate it) changes that to (20*(4+1)+Weapon Damage+Str*1.5)*5=500 per attack before weapon damage, and 2500 total. And that's with a conservative reading of Leap Attack, which may give you more for Frenzied Berserker.

Honestly, Tome of Battle lets you do a lot more that ISN'T damage-based. Teleports, ability damage, moving AC around, healing, stuff like that. You don't need any more ways to draw blood.

Totemist Pouncer can do other craziness as well, and has the advantage of being able to come from a VOP to add insult to injury (and also comes from a fun but mid-to-low power book)

[Der_DWSage]

Personally, my favorite is having a Druid walk up to a Tarrasque and using the never-relevant Wild Empathy to turn him into a cuddly pet. (Well, okay, you need a few roll-boosting buffs, but it works.)

I'd also point out to him that at level 20, Wizards and Clerics are literally rewriting reality at a whim. Level 20 is the ultimate moot point, especially when talking about mere murder. Tell him to reign his complaints back to level 7 or so, where most campaigns actually see the light of day.

[Forrestfire]

I'm gonna keep it simple and not take any prestige classes, since those are sometimes thought of as cheesy by this sort of person. Orc Barbarian 20.

Important ACFs: Whirling Frenzy, Spirit Lion Totem
Feats:
1st: Power Attack
3rd: Power Lunge
6th: Leap Attack
9th: Improved Bull Rush
12th: Shock Trooper
15th: Reckless Rage
18th: Planar Touchstone (Catalogues of Enlightenment: Magic Domain)

Gear (not the most optimized, but good enough for our purposes):

+5 Valorous Greatsword with a Wand Chamber (72,450gp)
Wand of Wraithstrike (4,500gp)
+5 Manual of Gainful Exercise (137,000gp)
+6 Belt of Giant Strength (36,000gp)
+1 Eager Gauntlet (8,302gp)
+1 Warning Gauntlet (8,302gp)
Wings of Flying (54,000gp)


With a starting strength of 18, a Manual of +5 Strength, 5 ability points from level-ups put into Strength, and +4 from Orc, we're at 32 base Strength. Our belt brings us to 38, and the +8 from Whirling Frenzy brings us to 46, then Reckless Rage brings us to 48.

We have an initiative of +7 from our eager and warning gauntlets, and we can spend more gold on getting a better bonus, a reroll, and the like, to make sure we go first. At the start of the turn, we use out wand of Wraithstrike so we're using touch attacks. Then we activate Whirling Frenzy and charge. Using Shock Trooper, we tank our AC by 20 to boost our damage, and using Leap Attack, we triple that to 60 per hit. There are other bonuses (see below)

The barbarian's full attack action is +39/+39/+34/+29/+24, and each hit will deal:


2d6

+21 [Str bonus (14)*1.5 (two-handed weapon)]
+28 [Str bonus (14) * 2, (Power Lunge)]
+60 [AC penalty*3 (Shock Trooper, Power Attack, Leap Attack)]
+5 [Magic weapon]
*2 [Valorous weapon]

We are dealing 4d6+228 damage per hit, and only miss on a 1. The Tarrasque has 858 hit points and DR 15/epic, so if we hit every attack, we are guaranteed to deal with him. If I'm remembering correctly, we can get magic items to help alleviate any natural 1s we get. We've got a lot of leftover gold. If you have an allied spellcaster, it gets even better, since they can throw buff spells like size increases on you. Alternatively, through some creative item use, we can get access to Giant's Size and Bite of the Werebear, bringing us to 90 Strength for a minute. This brings our total damage to 16d6+375 per hit.

Not enough? Let's bring in some cheese to make you a target of thrown books.

I think that I'll use a Psychic Warrior instead of Barbarian. Level 20 Kalashtar Psychic Warrior, whose feats are mostly irrelevant. You want Overchannel, Psionic Fist, and Unavoidable Strike. Your gear is a Monk's Belt, an Orange Prism Ioun Stone (granting you +1 Manifester Level), and 20 Power Link Shards embedded in you, and maybe a Wings of Flying, since I'm too lazy to find another good source of flight.

Anyway, at the start of your turn, manifest Psionic Lion's Charge, overchanneling to ML 24. Activate your Power Link Shards, adding another 40 effective power points to the augment (explicitly breaking the normal cap of your ML, which is neat.) Psionic Lion's Charge has a fun little typo:

[B]For every additional power point you spend, each of your attacks after a charge in the current round gains a circumstance bonus on damage equal to the number of additional points spent.


Emphasis mine.

You've spent 64pp on the power, or 41 additional power points. Each of your charge attacks gains +41 to the damage roll per power point spent. This means your unarmed strike, assuming a Str of 10, deals 1d4+1681 damage. Unavoidable Strike on the first one means you only miss on a 1. Maybe grab Planar Touchstone for the granted power of the Pride Domain to reroll it if you screw up. Either way, the Tarrasque is pretty screwed :smalltongue:

[heavyfuel]

People suggesting Valorous weapon: Valorous weapons deal double Weapon Damage. So a +5 Valorous Greatsword deals 4d6+10. Damage from other sources, notably PA and Str are not multiplied.


When used in a charge, the valorous weapon deals double damage

[Rubik]

People suggesting Valorous weapon: Valorous weapons deal double Weapon Damage. So a +5 Valorous Greatsword deals 4d6+10. Damage from other sources, notably PA and Str are not multiplied.Add the sizing and morphing properties to a manyfang dagger to turn it into a lance.

[AvatarVecna]

Taking down the tarrasque? Oh, let me count the ways...

1) Leadership abuse: warlock followers FTW.

2) Ubercharger

3) Mailman

4) Ultimate Summoner summons tons of big beasties to take it down.

5) Dual-wielding, crit-fishing ranger with paladin dip for fearlessness; specializes in fighting magical beasts, wields twin magical beast-bane weapons, has buffing items.

And that's without all the allip b.s. that's usually used to fell the tarrasque.

Honestly, taking down the tougher dragons is more challenging: they can fly and have spells.

[Darkweave31]

King of smack could probably do it if you want something comparable to ToB. Then again, in my experience psionics is hated even more than ToB for some reason. They often use the same arguments too. "It's OP and the flavor sucks!" It irks me.

[Kraken]

In addition to charging based attacks to do thousands of damage in one round, there are tricks to do thousands of damage with archery, too.

The question that makes me curious is what's the lowest amount of optimization required to reliably dominate a tarrasque. If you can get a necrotic cyst through its really big fort save, then necrotic domination is only a 4th level spell, so you can get it fairly early. It's just a question of how you can land it reliably, and in one round.

And for what it's worth, I'll echo the sentiment that being able to kill a tarrasque is a poor measure of a character's power, due to the numerous glaring weaknesses possessed by the tarrasque.

[Rubik]

1) Leadership abuse: warlock followers FTW.

3) Mailman.I hope these two attempts have found ways to get past the tarrasque's carapace reflection.

[heavyfuel]

I hope these two attempts have found ways to get past the tarrasque's carapace reflection.

Orb of Fire isn't a ray, a line, a cone, or magic missile

[AvatarVecna]

Well, the warlocks could get past the carapace by being clawlocks or glaivelocks

Seeing as this is an optimization challenge, I'm gonna see if someone with a maxed out Leadership score and some Leadership feats could just send their minions to deal with it. Not even their cohort, just the followers. Combine the regular Leadership feat with the Extra Followers feat, and you've got...

(270) ECL 1 characters
(26) ECL 2 characters
(14) ECL 3 characters
(8) ECL 4 characters
(4) ECL 5 characters
(4) ECL 6 characters

I'm gonna go see what I could do with that...

[heavyfuel]

Well, the warlocks could get past the carapace by being clawlocks or glaivelocks

Seeing as this is an optimization challenge, I'm gonna see if someone with a maxed out Leadership score and some Leadership feats could just send their minions to deal with it. Not even their cohort, just the followers. Combine the regular Leadership feat with the Extra Followers feat, and you've got...

(270) ECL 1 characters
(26) ECL 2 characters
(14) ECL 3 characters
(8) ECL 4 characters
(4) ECL 5 characters
(4) ECL 6 characters

I'm gonna go see what I could do with that...

Shame ToB is banned from this discussion, otherwise you could use the White Raven capstone to kill anything within charge range

[AvatarVecna]

I think I'll settle for the army of magical-beast hunting rangers and fighters being buffed by clerics and wizards.

[Mr Adventurer]

Instead of a +5 weapon, take a +4 Magical Beast Bane weapon - Big T is one, so its enhancement bonus becomes +6 and overcomes his DR...

[Chronos]

Let's keep it nice and simple: Grey Elf wizard 20. Max out Int (so 36), and take Spell Focus and Greater Spell Focus for enchantment, and Spell Penetration. Swift action to cast Assay Spell Resistance, and you're guaranteed to get past its spell resistance. Cast Dominate Monster, and your save DC is 34, compared to its Will save of +20, so you have a 65% chance of dominating it in one turn. If it doesn't work, then try it twice more (via a greater rod of quicken) the next turn (and you will have a next turn, because you're flying, so it can't touch you).

If you prefer, you can also do this without the feats, and still have over a 50% chance. And not only have you defeated it, you've also gotten a perfectly loyal pet killing machine in the process.

[gooddragon1]

To be fair, there's only 1 thing I know of that's enabled by ToB which will nova Big T in 1 round... and it's questionably rules legal: The 1d2 Crusader.

Ingredients:
Imbued Healing Feat (Luck Domain)
Cleric Level 1 (1 of your 2 domains is the luck domain)
Crusader Level 11 (take aura of chaos stance)
A weapon with a damage dice of 1d2
Cure Light Wounds prepared

How it works:
-Cast cure light wounds on yourself with imbued healing luck domain.
+Result = any damage roll of 1 on a damage dice is treated as a 2, unless 1 is the max result possible
-Assume Aura of Chaos Stance
+Result = if you get a maximum damage result on a damage roll, add that result and roll again.
-Attack with 1d2 weapon and roll a d2, if you get a 1 it becomes a 2 and if you get a 2 it's already a 2. Reroll infinitely and assume infinite damage. The tarrasque will now be down indefinitely until someone uses a non-numeric form of healing to bring it out of infinite nonlethal damage. Such as polymorph any object it into a stone golem and transmute mud to rock.

Why it's questionable at best: You could very easily read that aura of chaos requires you to actually roll a 2 and not have it treated as a 2.

Note: A 20th level wizard can take out Big T in 1 round by casting polymorph any object to change it into an animal that does not have regeneration and then killing it. He could also create 9001 explosive runes and dispel them with a wand of dispel magic created by a 5th level caster to auto fail the dispel checks required. Against SR 32, he needs to roll 12 or higher with no investment of any kind to beat spell resistance. That means about 3002 of the things still get through. If the Tarrasque saved against all of them he'd take 1501 equivalent damage getting through. If you rolled minimum on each one it would be 6*1501 for 9006 damage, which is still over 9000 damage. When asked later in an interview about why he spent so long in a timeless plane creating 9001 explosive runes he responded with "I thought it would be funny". In other news, worried about injuries and food necessity? Look no further than resetting spell traps, story at 6, movie at 8.

[holywhippet]

There is always the War Hulk Hurler - no Tome of Battle required. The damage it can do in a single round will almost certainly put a tarrasque into the negatives unless they miss.

[Chronos]

While Polymorph Any Object can work, it's a really bad choice, since unless you're a Tainted Scholar, T is only going to fail a Fort save on a natural 1. Much better to target Will.

[Inevitability]

Rearing (as per handle animal) a Tarrasque is a DC 78 Handle Animal check. Hard? Actually...

1. Start as a human with 15 charisma (elite array), then boost this to 20 when you level.
2. Put max ranks in Handle Animal. At 20th-level, this will be 23 ranks.
3. Take Skill Focus (handle animal), Craft Wondrous Item and Animal Affinity.
5. Craft an item granting a +50 competence bonus to Handle Animal. The prize for this should be 502 times 100. That's about 250,000 GP, which is easily affordable at level 20. If you have a fast time plane (and why not) you can do this in (material plane time)... 7 rounds.
6. You now have a 5+23+5+50=+78 bonus to your check. Your minimum result is 79, enough to beat the DC.
7. According to the rules, you are now allowed to rear 3 Tarrasques at once. I don't claim to be a genius, but 3 Tarrasques > 1 Tarrasque. You win.

Oh, and this? Only the SRD is required for it.

[AvatarVecna]

Rearing (as per handle animal) a Tarrasque is a DC 78 Handle Animal check. Hard? Actually...

1. Start as a human with 15 charisma (elite array), then boost this to 20 when you level.
2. Put max ranks in Handle Animal. At 20th-level, this will be 23 ranks.
3. Take Skill Focus (handle animal), Craft Wondrous Item and Animal Affinity.
5. Craft an item granting a +50 competence bonus to Handle Animal. The prize for this should be 502 times 100. That's about 250,000 GP, which is easily affordable at level 20. If you have a fast time plane (and why not) you can do this in (material plane time)... 7 rounds.
6. You now have a 5+23+5+50=+78 bonus to your check. Your minimum result is 79, enough to beat the DC.
7. According to the rules, you are now allowed to rear 3 Tarrasques at once. I don't claim to be a genius, but 3 Tarrasques > 1 Tarrasque. You win.

Oh, and this? Only the SRD is required for it.

So...first problem, the Tarrasque is generally unique; I think the description actually mentions it being the only one of its kind. Secondly, you can't have a +50 competence bonus to any skill pre-epic. That's not to say that other bonuses can't be used to boost it to the right levels; just that you have to be a little more diverse in your bonuses than that.

For starters, you could get a race that really optimizes Charisma; I think the highest I've ever gotten it without Dragonwrought Kobold shenanigans is like 31 or so (although it uses some Dragon Mag content).

[Kraken]

Rearing (as per handle animal) a Tarrasque is a DC 78 Handle Animal check. Hard? Actually...

1. Start as a human with 15 charisma (elite array), then boost this to 20 when you level.
2. Put max ranks in Handle Animal. At 20th-level, this will be 23 ranks.
3. Take Skill Focus (handle animal), Craft Wondrous Item and Animal Affinity.
5. Craft an item granting a +50 competence bonus to Handle Animal. The prize for this should be 502 times 100. That's about 250,000 GP, which is easily affordable at level 20. If you have a fast time plane (and why not) you can do this in (material plane time)... 7 rounds.
6. You now have a 5+23+5+50=+78 bonus to your check. Your minimum result is 79, enough to beat the DC.
7. According to the rules, you are now allowed to rear 3 Tarrasques at once. I don't claim to be a genius, but 3 Tarrasques > 1 Tarrasque. You win.

Oh, and this? Only the SRD is required for it.

I'd argue that a tarrasque would need to be made friendly to be reared. But then again, it has int 3, so is it eligible for handle animal? If int 3 means it'd merely need a diplomacy check, presumably with a starting attitude of hostile, then as a full round action you can make a diplomacy check to make it a fanatic for yourself. The DC for that'd be 160, or only DC 45 if you'd settle for making it helpful.

[Twilightwyrm]

To be fair, there's only 1 thing I know of that's enabled by ToB which will nova Big T in 1 round... and it's questionably rules legal: The 1d2 Crusader.

Ingredients:
Imbued Healing Feat (Luck Domain)
Cleric Level 1 (1 of your 2 domains is the luck domain)
Crusader Level 11 (take aura of chaos stance)
A weapon with a damage dice of 1d2
Cure Light Wounds prepared

How it works:
-Cast cure light wounds on yourself with imbued healing luck domain.
+Result = any damage roll of 1 on a damage dice is treated as a 2, unless 1 is the max result possible
-Assume Aura of Chaos Stance
+Result = if you get a maximum damage result on a damage roll, add that result and roll again.
-Attack with 1d2 weapon and roll a d2, if you get a 1 it becomes a 2 and if you get a 2 it's already a 2. Reroll infinitely and assume infinite damage. The tarrasque will now be down indefinitely until someone uses a non-numeric form of healing to bring it out of infinite nonlethal damage. Such as polymorph any object it into a stone golem and transmute mud to rock.

Why it's questionable at best: You could very easily read that aura of chaos requires you to actually roll a 2 and not have it treated as a 2.

Note: A 20th level wizard can take out Big T in 1 round by casting polymorph any object to change it into an animal that does not have regeneration and then killing it. He could also create 9001 explosive runes and dispel them with a wand of dispel magic created by a 5th level caster to auto fail the dispel checks required. Against SR 32, he needs to roll 12 or higher with no investment of any kind to beat spell resistance. That means about 3002 of the things still get through. If the Tarrasque saved against all of them he'd take 1501 equivalent damage getting through. If you rolled minimum on each one it would be 6*1501 for 9006 damage, which is still over 9000 damage. When asked later in an interview about why he spent so long in a timeless plane creating 9001 explosive runes he responded with "I thought it would be funny". In other news, worried about injuries and food necessity? Look no further than resetting spell traps, story at 6, movie at 8.

I believe a Swordsage 20 that has taken Time Stands Still, Raging Mongoose, and Inferno Blade, while in Assassin's Stance, can deal enough damage to one round him. The basic idea is using Dual Boost, Tiger Claw Diamond Mind Swords to make up the then boosting your base damage per hit as high as possible (adding Shadow Blade, Belts of Giant Strength and Gloves of Dexterity, etc.) so that those first 12 attacks at your highest attack bonus can kill him. I haven't ran the numbers, but if you would like to avoid energy damage, you can throw on Dancing Mongoose in addition to Raging Mongoose to give you 16 attacks at your highest attack bonus, but I find boost to damage tend to escalate damage quicker than more attacks. I can remake the build and give the numbers for you if you want.

[WhamBamSam]

To be fair, there's only 1 thing I know of that's enabled by ToB which will nova Big T in 1 round... and it's questionably rules legal: The 1d2 Crusader.I often use the Tarrasque as a benchmark for trip checks in Tornado Throw optimization. The standard, no frills build, Wildshape Ranger 6/Swordsage 14 (Dragon Wild Shape into a Very Young Mercury Dragon, Quicksilver Motion+Tornado Throw) makes 20 trip attempts on a Tornado Throw all of which are above +84, so Big T loses by around 40 if he rolls a 20 and I roll a 1. That ends up being several hundered d6 worth of damage and will put him into negatives and then some. Even if I don't catch him off guard/can't find a way to eat up his AoOs with SNA cannon fodder and need to tumble (making fewer throws) or use One With Shadow or Cloak of Deception in place of Quicksilver Motion, I still shouldn't have a problem one rounding him.

Also, it's possible to pump melee damage without losing too many initiator levels. An all-out ubercharger does several orders of magnitude more damage than Big T's HP. You can fit enough of it in alongside maneuvers to turn most things into a fine red mist or put Big T down for nap time as a full round action. Or use stuff like in Twilightwyrm's above post.

Really though, if all a character does is melee damage, it shouldn't be an issue that they can punch out the Tarrasque in one round at level 20 given free reign to do their thing. It should be an issue if they can't.

[ILM]

Low-op, PHB only:
- Wizard 20
- Start with 16 int, end up at 32 (+5 from levels, +5 from book, +6 enhancement bonus)
- Spell focus/greater spell focus Enchantment
- Spell penetration/greater spell penetration
- Ioun stone that increases caster level
- cast Fly
- proceed to spam Dominate Monster until it sticks. You'll beat its SR on a 7+, and it'll fail its Will save on a roll of 11 or less.

Medium-op, external sources:
- race with +2 intelligence
- cast Assay Spell Resistance to automatically beat its SR
- cast Mystic Surge for a +2 to the DC
- grab a Veil of Allure for another +2
- choice of feats: Fey Power, Shadow Weave Magic, each granting +1 to the DC
- the Tarrasque now fails its save on a roll of 16 or less

Now with metamagic:
- open up with a fell frightening orb of whatever to make it shaken and take -2 to all its saves. Big T now needs a 19 or a 20 to make its save.

Might need a few tries but we're beating it with no risk to the caster, and with Enchantment.

[AvatarVecna]

Keeping to a mundane build (this was compared to a ToB build, even if it's the d2 Crusader), I'm gonna see if how hard a specialized swift hunter can take it down at ECL 20.

Race: Raptoran

Class Lvls: Scout 1/Ranger 2/Fighter 2/Uncanny Trickster 3 (Scout)/Fighter +6/Cragtop Archer 2/Fighter +4

Stats (32 pb, before adjustments): Str 16; Dex 18; Con 8; Int 14; Wis 8; Cha 8

Stats (after level and items): Str 22; Dex 34; Con 8; Int 14; Wis 8; Cha 8

Feats: Point Blank Shot; Far Shot; Weapon Focus (Footbow); Knowledge Devotion; Rapid Shot; Mountain Warrior; Manyshot; Greater Manyshot; Weapon Specialization (Footbow); Swift Hunter; Improved Critical (Footbow); Improved Favored Enemy; Ranged Weapon Mastery (Bludgeoning); Improved Precise Shot

Flaws: Noncombatant; Vulnerable

Skills: Knowledge (Nature) +25; other skills needed for PrCs

Skill Tricks: Collector of Stories; other skill tricks needed for PrCs

Items:
--Slayer's Footbow (+1 MW Footbow (Mighty 6); Collision, Fiercebane, Force, and Splitting enchantments)
--Crystal Mask of Knowledge (Nature)
--Gloves of Dexterity +6
--Greater Bracers of Archery
--Quiver of Plenty
--Belt of Battle
--Enemy Spirit Pouch (Magical Beasts)
--Undershirt of Str +6
--Ring of the Mighty Bludgeon (Continuous "Greater Mighty Wallop", CL 16)
--Manual of Quickness of Action +5
--175850 gp

Okay, so a couple items are kinda customs, but they're not that far-fetched, or even highly integral to the build's overall effectiveness. Still, I've added them in for the sake of being thorough. Incidentally, I've left out the armor; as it doesn't make a difference in the character's offensive capabilities, I don't think it matters much for this exercise. Now, down to business: what are their combat stats?

Well, to get things started, when using Knowledge Devotion, they auto succeed on their Knowledge (Nature) check, giving a +5 to attack and damage against, among others, magical beasts.

--Atk Bonus: +39, 8 attacks per Manyshot (19 BAB+12 Dex+5 KD+1 PBS+1 WF+2 RWM+1 MW weapon+1 Enh.+2 Fiercebane+2 GBoA+1 Mountain Warrior-8 Manyshot)

--Dmg Base: 6d6 bludgeoning (1d8 bludgeoning blunt arrows+Colossal size)

--Dmg Bonus Dice: 4d6 (+2d10 on crit) (2d6 skirmish+2d6 Fiercebane(+2d10 on crit))

--Dmg Bonus: +39 (9 Str*1.5+5 KD+1 PBS+2 WS+2 RWM+2 Strike from Above+1 Enh.+2 Fiercebane+1+5 Collision+4 Favored Enemy+3 Improved Favored Enemy+2 Enemy Spirit Pouch)

8 attacks, at +39 AB each; on hit, deal 10d6+39 nonlethal bludgeoning force damage; crit on 19-20, dealing 22d6+2d10+117 nonlethal bludgeoning force damage

Some quick calculations in google docs tells me that every arrow does an average of 82.31 nonlethal bludgeoning damage. 8 shots won't quite take out the tarrasque...but that's what the belt of battle is for: spend two charges for another standard action, and you can Manyshot again...dealing a total of 1316.96 dmg before DR...that is, if you didn't have the Force enchantment, which lets you bypass DR.

...

There's several things I love about this build. Firstly, it's got no spellcasting: it takes down the tarrasque through some items and mundane awesomeness. Sure, a mage made the items, but that's a gimme at this level. Secondly, it's got a ton of skills early on, allowing it to be decent at a whole bunch of things, while allowing it to branch out in numerous directions later. Thirdly, I love that it's a nonlethal combatant, and that by going out of their way to specialize in using nonlethal tactics, they've practically doubled their DPR. Fourthly, it has (Ex) Flight. Awesome.

But the last and best thing I love about this build is this: all the favored enemy crap can be changed to anything. Things that aren't affected by precision damage? There's a weapon crystal for that. Dragons? Demons?They can all suck it. This build ignores DR, but is stopped by the incredibly rare immunity to force damage. It's a flying build that can deal out somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 damage per round, or more to their favored enemy. This mundane character is freaking awesome.

And I didn't even need the Deadeye feat from Dragon Magazine that gives Dex to damage. I didn't need tons of sneak attack. I didn't need ubercharger cheese. The cheesiest stuff used is pretty weak cheese: the combo of Swift Hunter, Greater Manyshot, Greater Mighty Wallop, the Splitting enchantment, and Flight makes for huge damage, and that's about it. They've got great skills, but they're mostly a DPR machine. They could be better at it, they could be worse; they could be more diverse. But this build is solid; it's not just a great build, it's the kind of build that wouldn't be particularly frowned upon by a DM (at least, not until they saw it in action). It doesn't use tons of templates or sketchy spells or allips; it uses blunt arrows, and fells gods.

[GoodbyeSoberDay]

First, let's note that the challenge is not to permanently remove Big T, but to reliably deal 858 HP in damage against Big T's AC/DR/other defenses. This is fair, since a Weaboo Fightan Magician can't really perma-remove Big T outside of item-based methods anyone could do or a very generous interpretation of Iron Heart Surge. Not to say that anyone has challenged this assumption, but just noting that the benefit of permanent wisdom drain doesn't really come into play in this context.

To take a slightly different tack, I'm stuck on the "Weaboo Fightan Magic" interpretation of ToB. Maybe show him that a real fighting magician, that is, a wizard who decides to beat people to death, can fight better than a weaboo fightan magician. A meleeing incantatrix can straight up beat down the Tarrasque at much lower levels (someone could probably do better, but this is off the top of my head).
Wizard 5/Incantatrix 3/fullcasting PrC3 (could be more Incantatrix). Relevant feats: Prerequisite stuff, Otherworldly, Persistent Spell, Arcane Disciple: Hero, Ocular Spell

Pump spellcraft (Loresong is nice for this). Get a big list of persistent buffs, including but not limited to:
Draconic Polymorph (Jarilith)
Bite of the Weretiger
Wraithstrike
Ocular Haste
Divine Power (from Hero Domain)
Ferocity of the Sanguine Rage
And some non-persistent but long-term buffs like:
Greater Magic Weapon (with Suffer the Flesh and other CL boosters this should be pretty high)
Greater Mighty Wallop (see above)
Heroics (if need be you can Ocular Persist this, get it for Leap Attack, which you qualify for given you get PA from Bite of the Weretiger; just remember to invest in Jump ranks CC)

Finally, we invest most of the WBL into a morphing manyfang dagger as described above, turning it into some sort of two-handed bludgeoning weapon for the purposes of Greater Mighty Wallop. Full power attacking on a leaping pounce (and hitting Big T's touch on a 2 with plenty of room to spare), our Fighting Magician deals a little under 400 damage a hit, attacking 4 times with the weapon and with some natural attacks left over to seal the deal.

Without the Manyfang Dagger craziness he needs a little more oomph in the damage department. We can either level him to 15 and get Giant Size/Bite of the Werebear/other lulzy stuff, or make him a Half Orc Wizard and get Headlong Rush. Either way, without blowing all the cash on a MFD, our Fighting Magician can get an appropriate Bane weapon to overcome the DR and a Belt of Battle for another full attack.There. Straight up damage, as a real Fighting Magician, with room to spare for actual defense and utility.

[RoboEmperor]

Does it have to be 1 round? There are easy ways that aren't one round.
1. Legend Lore, scrying, etc to find it
2. Cast fly on yourself
3. Teleport to him, he can't hurt you cause you're sky high.
4. Spam dominate monster on him. You may want to use assay resistance and true casting, but the fact of the matter is he doesn't have a ranged attack and is not immune to mind affecting spells, and if you fail, just repeat the next day. Now you got a permanent tarrasque pet. This could be done at level 17, and arguably meets your goal if you get lucky on your first turn.

If you want to take him out normally
1. Play a sorcerer
2. Legend Lore, scrying, etc to find it
3. Cast fly on yourself
4. Teleport to him.
5. Blast him with orb spells until he falls.
Feats are:
arcane thesis: orb of fire
Empower Spell
Maximize Spell
Twin Spell
Repeat Spell
Residual Magic.
Energy Substitution (if you don't get this get orb of acid instead)

Cast a Energy Substituted (acid) Empowered Repeat Twin Orb of fire at 4+1+1+3=9th level spell, with a rod of maximize. It will do 270 damage. Next turn you will do another 270 damage thanks to repeat spell, and with residual magic, you can twin the orb of fire without any additional cost so just replace it with maximize spell and you'll do another 270 damage. Start of next turn another 270 damage will occur and its "dead." This is no way "cheese" because it doesn't have incantatrix, or dragon blood sorcerer. Only arcane thesis. If you do add incantatrix and dragon blood stuff... that will be a total of -3 metamagic cost per metamagic, so... you'll literally be limited only by the amount of metamagic feats you can take.

Just tell your DM fly alone will make tarrasque a cake walk. I'd say a balor is harder than a tarrasque, or a pit fiend who can use its 1/year wish.

[GoodbyeSoberDay]

I think the DM's problem is that a ToB class does too much damage in one round; the Tarrasque seems secondary. It could just be a big blob of HP with no attacks and just the defenses. Anyway, you can also one-round the tarrasque with a little bit of planning by just flying over and dropping things on him. Observe:

Some method of flight + Shrink Item + many boulders + a well-timed area Dispel = Rocks Fall, Tarrasque dies.

Alternatively, Psionic Glyph of Warding + fully-augmented Crystal Shard* + lots of very small containers that would break open if they happened to fall on Big T's back = containers fall, Tarrasque dies. This is, by the way, a hilarious thing for a Psion or Erudite to do in his downtime, as Psionic Glyph of Warding has no material component cost.

*or swarm of crystals if you're worried about interpreting who opened the containers... the key is to augment it high enough to have enough damage bypass the epic DR, which should be fine for a higher level psion. You could also use metapsionics to up the damage, but it's easier to just drop more containers.

[Chronos]

AvatarVecna, why does that build include Uncanny Trickster? There are three uses for that class that I know of, and none of them seem to apply here. First, you can use it to get more skill tricks, but the only skill trick you need is Collector of Stories "plus others to qualify for PrCs", and the only PrC you have that requires skill tricks is Uncanny Trickster itself. Second, you can use it to advance a low-skills class while keeping your skills high, but the class you're advancing with it, Scout, is already a high-skills class. Third, you can use it to advance a class beyond its normal maximum level, but again, you're using it on Scout, a base class with 20 levels (plus an epic progression) available.

[AvatarVecna]

AvatarVecna, why does that build include Uncanny Trickster? There are three uses for that class that I know of, and none of them seem to apply here. First, you can use it to get more skill tricks, but the only skill trick you need is Collector of Stories "plus others to qualify for PrCs", and the only PrC you have that requires skill tricks is Uncanny Trickster itself. Second, you can use it to advance a low-skills class while keeping your skills high, but the class you're advancing with it, Scout, is already a high-skills class. Third, you can use it to advance a class beyond its normal maximum level, but again, you're using it on Scout, a base class with 20 levels (plus an epic progression) available.

I took 3 levels of Uncanny Trickster because of the class feature advancement. You're right: it can be used to advance a class beyond it's normal level limit, allowing for shenanigans. But I'm not taking it for the cheese potential, I'm taking it for the skill tricks. If I'd skipped Uncanny Trickster and gone with more scout levels, I would have a slight change to all saves, less class skills (the UT has many), I'd have a bonus feat that doesn't help the build, and I'd have less skill tricks.

I took UT instead of Scout because the choice was Scout 4 class features or Scout 3 class features and Uncanny Trickster 3 class features; by going the UT route, I gain more class skills, and more skill tricks, and more opportunities for skill tricks. Those levels do nothing to help to slay the tarrasque that levels in scout wouldn't do; what they do is give me just enough capabilities as a scout to get 2d6 from skirmish and a second favored enemy, while also allowing the character to gain capabilities that aren't related to killing things. It's about making the character more versatile than just a DPR machine, and when you consider that the build can deal out about 500 damage in an average round that ignores DR, you realize I didn't need to spend those levels increasing its DPR capabilities.

EDIT: So why use it in such a nonoptimal way? Because this build isn't meant to be optimal: it uses Swift Hunter to get effective skirmish and favored enemy of a character with 5 levels in scout and ranger; it uses Greater Manyshot and splitting to get tons of arrows in the air every round; it uses Greater Mighty Wallop to turn the base damage up to 11. But even without splitting, even without GMW, even without Knowledge Devotion, this character could still heavily damage big T, or any other big single target, or any group of targets; it would only be a matter of how much butt he was kicking, rather than whether or not he could deliver the kick.

This version of the character can do around 80 damage per shot to favored enemies, or around 70 to others, and gets 8 arrows per standard action. Taking out splitting makes that 4 arrows per turn; taking out GMW takes the damage down to about 65 vs FE and 55 vs others; taking out KD takes the average damage per shot down to 60 vs FE and 50 vs others, leaving him with only a +34 to all 4 attacks. That still hits big T on a 1 (or would, if 1s weren't auto fails), so now instead of taking down big T in one round without help, he needs an average of 4 rounds without using the Belt of Battle.

I'm going to say that again: taking out the ridiculously optimized parts of this build just means he needs 4 rounds to solo the tarrasque instead of 1. The rest of the build? It's exactly as optimized as the game is considered to be by the creators: a Scout is using Greater Manyshot; they're meant to do that. Low-level Swift Hunter use; it's meant to do that. A high level ranger focused on killing one specific creature type; of course they're gonna kill it quickly.

The optimal parts of this build aren't even wholy necessary: you can be a total badass without them...but they do let you dial it up to 11. And that's awesome.

[Phelix-Mu]

I'm still ironing out the details, but with brown mold, almost any group of commoners can arrange to kill a tarrasque. It's not easy, but it's not hard either. The stuff is really pretty stupidly useful, and can deal enough nonlethal damage to the tarrasque over time to render it permanently comatose. On the other hand, it's not alive so I really don't know how the tarrasque can kill it.

The real trick is growing a big enough series of patches, finding a way for the damage to stack, and keeping everyone else out of the tarrasque's attack radius while Big T passes out. A bit of finagling, to be sure, but mathematically it should work.

[Optimator]

Let's keep it nice and simple: Grey Elf wizard 20. Max out Int (so 36), and take Spell Focus and Greater Spell Focus for enchantment, and Spell Penetration. Swift action to cast Assay Spell Resistance, and you're guaranteed to get past its spell resistance. Cast Dominate Monster, and your save DC is 34, compared to its Will save of +20, so you have a 65% chance of dominating it in one turn. If it doesn't work, then try it twice more (via a greater rod of quicken) the next turn (and you will have a next turn, because you're flying, so it can't touch you).

If you prefer, you can also do this without the feats, and still have over a 50% chance. And not only have you defeated it, you've also gotten a perfectly loyal pet killing machine in the process.

FWIW Dominate Monster is a one-round casting time. Still though, the point stands that Big T can be easily enchanted.

[Rubik]

He could also create 9001 explosive runes and dispel them with a wand of dispel magic created by a 5th level caster to auto fail the dispel checks required.A wand isn't needed. Just cast an area Dispel at minimum CL, and you're fine.

[Forrestfire]

Technically, you'd need someone else to dispel them (or write them), since explosive runes only explode if others do it.