Tarrasque on the Western Front

[Drakevarg]

So just a bit of vague hypotheticals I've been thinking about lately, but what would it take for an NPC army to take down the Tarrasque, in the event that no legendary heroes were available to take it down? Let's assume arbitrarily large supply of soldiers to throw at it, but no NPCs higher than would be allowed by the community modifier of a metropolis (16 at most for Wizard, for example), and no magical equipment that could not be made by NPCs within that level range. The Tarrasque doesn't necessarily need to be killed, just eliminated as a threat to the kingdom.

What strategy would they use? And in the event of it being impossible within the restrictions, what about some other colossal minor kaiju, like a Mountain Landwyrm?

Since I'm sure someone will come up with some ridiculous cheese to take care of it almost trivially, try to lean away from Tippyverse and assume that this event is occurring in some typical setting that a DM might actually use.
Optional Bonus Round: Try to figure out how to do it in E6.

[Zsaber0]

A group of low level casters summoning allips to knock it unconscious then getting a group of mundane to bury it/fill it's mouth with dirt.

[flappeercraft]

Assay Resistance + True Casting + Plane Shift to Positive Energy Plane. Nuff said

E6: Incorporeal summons like Allips?

Edit: Ninjad

[Alent]

A team of highly skilled Rangers with Warbeast Riding Dire Bats and a towed glider with an enveloping pit staging ground would kite it around into enemy states while the king puts out a call for barkeeps to put a call out for adventurers to kill rats in a cellar. :smallamused:

[daremetoidareyo]

Knowledge religion can be used to extort wishes from demons through sacrificing people. I'm sure Jormengand can build a character capable of that by level 5.

Enough thieves with maiming strike and craven and rangers with the acf that makes a hit target autoflanked could kill him through charisma damage. Just got to get within 30.' Although enough thieves with wands of that assassin spell that gets rid of range limitations for sneak attack (sniper's shot) will help. Add a wand or 7 of the near horizon (assassin 2 ranger 2) spell and you can maiming strike attack with crossbows from a considerable distance.

[ZamielVanWeber]

Knowledge religion can be used to extort wishes from demons through sacrificing people. I'm sure Jormengand can build a character capable of that by level 5.

1st actually if she uses truenamer.

[Zanos]

Assuming you don't want to use the Allip strategy or bargain with dark gods...

If you have access to a 16th level wizard this isn't all that complicated. The tarrasque has no movement modes other than a land speed, a wizard can pretty easily shape the terrain to trap it and then fill a pit with acid or water or whatever. You don't even need to kill it, just drop it in a deep, sheer hole.

If you have enough permanency scrolls you can surround it with permanent walls of force. It has no way to destroy this or teleport out.


1st actually if she uses truenamer.
Jormengand doesn't use gendered pronouns last I checked.

[ZamielVanWeber]

Jormengand doesn't use gendered pronouns last I checked.

Huh. I always use the female when talking to her. I will check next time I see her (them?) Thank you.

[AvatarVecna]

Rolls (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22303370&postcount=44)

I'll be assuming that the rule is "For every 1 of Level X, 2 of Level X/2 (rounded up)", even though the RAW flip flops on which way to round (3 is half of 5 if you round up, but 1 is half of 3 if you round down, frustrating). I'll also be assuming a 25000 member Metropolis, the smallest possible.



Level
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24


Adept
115
48
16
8
8


4
4






2
1
1








Aristocrat
115
32

16


6
2




3

1











Barbarian
64
32

16


4
4




1
1
2











Bard
80
40
8
12
4

2
4
2




1
1
1

1








Cleric
80
40
8
12
4


6
2





1
2

1








Commoner
20828
64
32

4
12



2
2
4







1
1


2


Druid
96
48
16
8
8


4
4





1
1

2








Expert
686
64
32

12
4


6

2





1
2


1





Fighter
96
48
16
8
8

2
2
2
2



1

1
1


1






Monk
64
32

16


4
4




1
1
2











Paladin
64
32

16


6
2




2
1
1











Ranger
64
32

16


8





1
3












Rogue
96
48
16
8
8


4

4




1
1



2






Sorcerer
64
32

16



8






2
2










Warrior
1144
64
32

16



8







2
2








Wizard
64
32

16


2
6





1
2
1













Alright, so here's what happened: Doctor Brown, the 21st lvl Expert Scientist, has determined that the Tarrasque is approaching the city. All the experts agree that if the Tarrasque reaches the city, it will wreck havoc. Mayor Cheesehead, the 15th lvl Aristocrat, decides to send his best woman onto the job (Jill, the 20th lvl Fighter); because he's in love with Jill, Bill the 18th lvl Bard will tag along that he may tell the tale of her epic quest, and has dragged along Francis the 18th lvl Cleric and Derek the 16th lvl Wizard.

Unrelated to that group, Zeke the epic Blacksmith has decided that Big T is enough of a threat to his livelihood that he's hired a pair of assassins (Bob and Rob, 20th lvl Rogue twins) to help kill Big T before he becomes a threat. Bob and Rob, not being morons, call in a few favors and end up with a small group of 8th lvl casters following them to buff them up for the fight.

Additionally, unrelated to that group, an order of monster hunters operating in the city has decided that killing the tarrasque would be a major victory for them, so their leadership (Abigail, Tom, and Mary, Ranger 14s), and their hit squad (Aaron the 15th lvl Druid, Ian the 14th lvl Fighter, Carrey the 16th lvl Sorceress, and Vlad the 15th lvl Barbarian) all

Now we have three groups arriving near the Tarrasque.

Fighter 20
Bard 18
Cleric 18
Wizard 16

Rogue 20
Rogue 20
Bard 8
Cleric 8
Druid 8
Sorcerer 8
Wizard 8

Ranger 14
Ranger 14
Ranger 14
Druid 15
Fighter 14
Sorcerer 16
Barbarian 15

None of these groups should have any trouble taking out Big T, if they've got decent combat builds.

[Darrin]

There are already a few methods for taking down the Big T at lower levels.

There's the Spur Mount trick (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?188302-Silliness-Record-on-dropping-the-Tarrasque) from meschlum.

The Blister Oil Bomb (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=12138520&postcount=94) is also within the WBL of E6.

If you just want to throw waves of hired mercs at it... I'd probably use halflings in teams of 21, each armed with a gnome calculus (50 GP, A&EG) and flasks of aboleth mucus (20 GP, Savage Species). Assuming 1st level fighters with at least 15 Dex and EWP/WF gnome calculus, they hit the Big T's touch AC of 5 on any attack roll except a '1'. If 20 hit, then Big T has to make 20 Fort saves. Odds are he eventually rolls a '1'. Once that happens, wait 70 rounds and he'll start to suffocate. Assuming the team drops back every round to throw and Big T charges + bites, they lose one slinger per round. A team of 21 armed with 20 flasks each would be.... 451 x 21 = 9,471 GP.

Or... it would be cheaper to buy 100 goats and douse them with aboleth mucus. 2,100 GP.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

For a completely mundane city of commoners and such: Maybe a whole lot of pigs covered in burning oil, in combination with a giant pit trap, deep enough that the Tarrasque trying to climb or dig his way out will just result in it collapsing in on him. Instead of scaring it into jumping around by flaming pigs a single fast enough rider with a bow or a large enough offering of food (same pigs, different use) might be able to lure it into the trap. In the mountains you might be able to set it up for an avalanche, less work digging.

I mean, you are supposed to bury it for another ten thousand years right?

[Drakevarg]

I was a bit skeptical about the Blister Oil Bomb because of the DC 15 Fort save, but I had completely forgotten that saves auto-fail on a 1.

Which is... pretty bad when you're talking about a single target with no blanket immunities vs. an army. You could pretty much spam any contact/inhaled/injected poison or disease at it until it collapsed. My personal preference would probably be to try and lure it into some volcanic vents, and let it breathe for about two minutes. First failed save, instant unconsciousness. Every failed save after that, CON damage. After about three days, volcanic fever kicks in so even more CON damage. And the gas cloud is persistent, so it's not getting up again.

Did they literally just port the Tarrasque straight from 1E with no thought whatsoever?

Edit: Re-read it, didn't see the immunity to disease/poison/ability damage. So I guess that kind of cheese only works on "not-technically-poisons."

[Goaty14]

Pretty sure you cannot kill it with anything short of a wish/miracle.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

But can you keep it at -10 hp continually?

[Drakevarg]

What would happen if the Tarrasque was tricked into eating ~600 vials of Freeze Powder (hidden in an elephant carcass, for example)? Each vial produces a 1-foot-diameter ball of ice out of whatever liquid it touches (like the Tarrasque's stomach acid), and the Tarrasque has the stomach capacity for 512 Tiny creatures (minus the elephant).

Edit: Also, thinking about it, DR doesn't apply to acid damage, and acid flasks are hella cheap. Just hit the thing with a consistent bombardment of at least 12 flasks/round until it collapses. Oh! Trebuchet shot with the rocks replaced with acid flasks. A bag of shot for a heavy Trebuchet is 100 lbs. An acid flask is 1 lb. So it'd cost about 1000g per bag but you'd be dealing 100d6 of acid per hit. More if you convinced the DM to make the impact force from being fired from a trebuchet count too.

[Telok]

Silence, invisibility, summoned small air elemental, bag of holding, portable hole.

Although at some point in the future you may have to deal with a githyanki raiding party riding a tarrasque.