So... My level 5 party woke up the terasque...

[braveheart]

My party was trying to escape my megadungeon, when they noticed with a cast of detect magic that there was a powerful artifact, under the sleeping terasque. They went a good ways off and let the rogue risk his life on the Artifact. Rolls went great, he got a powerful totem of Gia (homebrew mguffin like artifact) and as he was leaving he rolled a nat one to quietly l
walk away. The party was able to escape the megadungeon. With the artifact. But they are worried that the terasque will get out of the megadungeon and destroy the nearby city, that they call home. Also they want to get back into the megadungeon at some point too.

They spent an hour after we finished doing the math to figure out an estimation for how many arrows it would take for the rogue to take it down while running from cover to cover. They found that he'd need around 200 arrows and as many turns. They found this encouraging and want to fight it now.

Any advice or thoughts? I know they may be able to fight it, and they have about a month to prepare irl. For a fight like this I have no issue with the party meta gaming, but I don't know if they can come up with a viable plan to beat it. At least not one that doesn't get at least half the party killed.

[Lunali]

There are a lot of ways a low level party can fight a tarrasque as long as they have long range magical weapons, high speed movement, and a lot of patience. I would be more concerned with finding a way to have them not be able to fight it or at least not kill it. To that end, I suggest coming up with an improvised ranged attack for it to use ahead of time so you don't have to do it on the fly. Also, set up the terrain so it isn't an infinite plane or forest for them to work with. As a last resort, give it back its burrow speed.

[nickl_2000]

So are you asking for advice on how to run the combat? Or ways to give the PCs a method to get out of the combat?

This is a level 5 party, they should lose to a tarrasque and all die if they fight it. Personally if this happened to me, I would give the PCs a time sensitive way to put the tarrasque back to sleep without fighting it (or with fighting it, but more as a distraction verses trying to actually kill it). By doing this it makes more sense from a narrative standpoint (PCs this level shouldn't have a chance), it gives them more strategic methods of fighting and makes it more interesting for everyone (the PCs can duck, run, distract, set up traps, and all kinds of other thigns as a delaying action instead of a kill it style), and it leaves you with an interesting powerful creature that is always lurking beneath the ground and can come back.

[Tanarii]

They spent an hour after we finished doing the math to figure out an estimation for how many arrows it would take for the rogue to take it down while running from cover to cover. They found that he'd need around 200 arrows and as many turns. They found this encouraging and want to fight it now.
Is this by using the Dash bonus action? Because he'll exhaust himself long before that if so. See the Chase rules DMG p252

[Xihirli]

And then the Tarrasque doesn’t even notice the weak attacks on it as it heads directly for the nearest city or town.

[Shuruke]

Is this by using the Dash bonus action? Because he'll exhaust himself long before that if so. See the Chase rules DMG p252

Chase rules are for chases in combat they don't get used.
However being chased by a tarrasque could be a really memorable thing

[Zhorn]

It'll be a long while before my players are ready for a Tarrasque, but I know when it happens, I'm giving mine a godzilla style breath weapon.

[Tanarii]

Chase rules are for chases in combat they don't get used.
Chase rules include combat, so this statement is clearly untrue.

[Diceomancer]

The PCs can try to guide the terasque away from the city using bait (such as themselves), illusions, or by attacking in and running away from the city as it chases them. They could maybe lure it into some sort mountain range and create an avalanche blocking its way back.

[braveheart]

Is this by using the Dash bonus action? Because he'll exhaust himself long before that if so. See the Chase rules DMG p252

Thank you for pointing these out, I haven't read them in ages, and I don't think I've actually used them yet.

[Tanarii]

Thank you for pointing these out, I haven't read them in ages, and I don't think I've actually used them yet.They're written so you can segue between combat in a set area and chases (ie mobile combat) very easily if you want. The Dash limitation is basically the most important part of mobile combat / kiting.

[Mellack]

Is this by using the Dash bonus action? Because he'll exhaust himself long before that if so. See the Chase rules DMG p252

If you use a phantom steed (speed 100) you can never be caught.

[Lunali]

If you use a phantom steed (speed 100) you can never be caught.

The tarrasque can move up to 140 per round using dash and legendary actions so you'll have to use dash pretty regularly even on a phantom steed. If you use the chase rules for this instead of treating it as a mobile combat encounter, you will end up exhausted pretty fast while the tarrasque will auto pass any con saves to keep going.

[nickl_2000]

The party rogue needs to fire about 200 arrows.

So it's a rogue that 200 rounds and therefore 20 minutes. I severally doubt any animal (and it has a 3 intellegence) is going to chase after someone for 20 minutes straight while it is getting hurt, even if it's small plinks at a time. They are going to chase you maybe 2 minutes, then stop a go after easier targets to kill and eat.

Also you are basicially the size of a fly to him. Chasing after you to eat you isn't really worth the expenditure of energy needed for a creature of that size to eat you.

[Mellack]

The tarrasque can move up to 140 per round using dash and legendary actions so you'll have to use dash pretty regularly even on a phantom steed. If you use the chase rules for this instead of treating it as a mobile combat encounter, you will end up exhausted pretty fast while the tarrasque will auto pass any con saves to keep going.

Not if it is just the rogue as suggested. T moves 40, dash 40, and goes 20 as his single legendary. Exactly 100, the same speed as the phantom steed. Steed never needs to dash, and rogue has his action to shoot.

[stoutstien]

And then the Tarrasque doesn’t even notice the weak attacks on it as it heads directly for the nearest city or town.

2nd this. tarrasque are not an encounter, they are a natural disaster that can end civilizations. even if you cheese it up and take advantage of the lack of ranged attacks the party is looking at dealing with a lot of pissed of people for wakening it up.

[Chronos]

The Tarrasque is supposed to be a nigh-unbeatable natural disaster. But the 5e stats really wimped it out, to the point that, yes, very low-level characters can in fact beat it. If you don't want the most legendary monster in the book to be beatable by a bunch of lowbie scrubs, then you'll need to change its stats somehow. One good start would be to give it back the huge regeneration that was always its signature trait.

[Wildarm]

A bit of regeneration added to the beast will make it apparent to the group that little pokes at range will have little effect on such a legendary monster. Have them seek out legends on how to put the thing to sleep again. I prefer a rare plant that it needs to consume ALOT of. Players need to gather it and somehow feed it to the beastie.

[Keravath]

Where do you get 200 arrows from?

Tarrasque
AC 25
676 hit points
Speed 40'
DC17 wisdom fright attack

Let's assume rolled stats, 20 dex, at level 5 a rogue would have +7 to hit. This hits on an 18+ for an average damage of 9.5 (one third are crits for 14 damage so total average would be about 11) This also needs to be a magical weapon or it does no damage.

676/11 = 62 hits required to kill the monster.

The rogue will not get sneak attack unless an ally is adjacent (in which case an ally dies once/turn) or they have advantage. However, if they are using their bonus action to dash then they can't be hiding.

Hit chance is 15%. Or just less than 1/7 will hit. This means that the rogue would require closer to 414 attacks (not 200).

The Tarrasque base movement is 40'. It can dash up to 80'. In addition, one of its legendary actions is to move up to 1/2 of its movement on another creatures turn. If you have 3 or more creatures in combat then it could move 20' on EACH of those turns. A typical rogue will have a base movement of 30' and a bonus action dash for another 30'. The tarrasque can dash for a few turns to get closer then chomp the rogue when he is in range.

However, the Tarrasque's weakness as written is the lack of a ranged attack. A flying character can plink at it all day which is probably why a Tarrasque would retreat to a cave or lair when confronted with an opponent that stays out of range but causes damage. Either that or possibly try batting boulders at the irritating fly speck but that would be a DM call.

The bottom line is that a level 5 party should be told by the DM that they have no chance of standing up to this creature if it comes to combat.

[Bjarkmundur]

A bit of regeneration added to the beast will make it apparent to the group that little pokes at range will have little effect on such a legendary monster. Have them seek out legends on how to put the thing to sleep again. I prefer a rare plant that it needs to consume ALOT of. Players need to gather it and somehow feed it to the beastie.

Feel like I've heard this story before :P

How about filling a firetruck with head and shoulders, and pumping it up its A S S?

[stoutstien]

Where do you get 200 arrows from?

Tarrasque
AC 25
676 hit points
Speed 40'
DC17 wisdom fright attack

Let's assume rolled stats, 20 dex, at level 5 a rogue would have +7 to hit. This hits on an 18+ for an average damage of 9.5 (one third are crits for 14 damage so total average would be about 11) This also needs to be a magical weapon or it does no damage.

676/11 = 62 hits required to kill the monster.

The rogue will not get sneak attack unless an ally is adjacent (in which case an ally dies once/turn) or they have advantage. However, if they are using their bonus action to dash then they can't be hiding.

Hit chance is 15%. Or just less than 1/7 will hit. This means that the rogue would require closer to 414 attacks (not 200).

The Tarrasque base movement is 40'. It can dash up to 80'. In addition, one of its legendary actions is to move up to 1/2 of its movement on another creatures turn. If you have 3 or more creatures in combat then it could move 20' on EACH of those turns. A typical rogue will have a base movement of 30' and a bonus action dash for another 30'. The tarrasque can dash for a few turns to get closer then chomp the rogue when he is in range.

However, the Tarrasque's weakness as written is the lack of a ranged attack. A flying character can plink at it all day which is probably why a Tarrasque would retreat to a cave or lair when confronted with an opponent that stays out of range but causes damage. Either that or possibly try batting boulders at the irritating fly speck but that would be a DM call.

The bottom line is that a level 5 party should be told by the DM that they have no chance of standing up to this creature if it comes to combat.

or the tarrasque is going to pick up a building and chuck it at said flying character. boulders are for plebs.

[Toofey]

Have it waking up wake up another monster and have the two monsters start fighting.

Have the party get some attacks thrown their way willy nilly if they get in the way.

have environmental threats resulting from the fight start the party moving away from it and towards wherever you want them.

Bing bang boom.

[Bjarkmundur]

4e skill challenge!

[mephiztopheleze]

I had to go brush up on Tarrasque's stats, looks like the huge regen is gone now which makes things a lot easier (seriously, once was a time you had to do 40 or 60 points per round just to cut through that regen). Still has the weakness to Intelligence saves, so there's an obvious target.

As for 'ways to fight it', there's a big city nearby they call home, yes? Assuming the party aren't a group of known criminals who'll be arrested on sight, how about running back with dire warnings that the Tarrasque Is Coming, sort of a Midnight Ride of Paul Revere style thing?

What kind of forces can the city rally together? Do they have a local Wizard's school or enclave? A large temple full of mid-level Clerics? A standing militia? 1,000 Archers from the local Militia, all with Levitation cast on them by the local Wizards being 'towed' behind a squadron of Flying Carpets (or similar) will whittle Tarrasque down pretty quick while staying out of that 120' Frightful Presence range.

"Orbital" Bombardment might also work. 'Reduce' a LOT of boulders then use a flying character with one half of an Arcane gate above the Tarrasque while the rest of the party (and helpers) throw the reduced boulders through the other end of the Arcane Gate and the flying character speaks the password as they exit the gate and start descending on Tarrasque (this character only needs to be 130' above Tarrasque). The 500' range of the Arcane Gate is going to be an issue, so this would need to be setup as part of a trap. (A strict reading of the Arcane Gate spell wouldn't allow this sort of shenanigans, I merely offer it as an idea, there may be other spells that can manage the stunt. Gate should do it just fine if there's a suitably high level Wizard handy).

Of course, all these options will wind up splitting the XP so many ways that they'd probably only get a couple hundred each if they succeed.

Luring it into a trap of some sort is probably the best bet. That 3 INT makes a lovely target for some Illusion tomfoolery. The aforementioned lure-to-mountains-and-set-off-an-avalanche option is pretty strong.

What does this Totem of Gia (Gaia?) do? Does it, for example, send Tarrasque's to sleep?

For more specific suggestions it'd be nice to know the composition of the party. All I know about it just now is that one of them is a Rogue. Moar Datum Pl0x.


... and as he was leaving he rolled a nat one to quietly
walk away.

and that's when they regretted not being a Halfling.....

[Mith]

Feel like I've heard this story before :P

How about filling a firetruck with head and shoulders, and pumping it up its A S S?
That's a movie I haven't thought of in a long time. Probably for the best.

[Lunali]

Not if it is just the rogue as suggested. T moves 40, dash 40, and goes 20 as his single legendary. Exactly 100, the same speed as the phantom steed. Steed never needs to dash, and rogue has his action to shoot.

Until a bird flies by and gives it another legendary action.

[Mellack]

Until a bird flies by and gives it another legendary action.

I am going to assume you are not being serious. If a DM has to start including random woodland creatures into the combat tracker to for a monster to work, either the DM or monster sucks or both.

[Lunali]

I am going to assume you are not being serious. If a DM has to start including random woodland creatures into the combat tracker to for a monster to work, either the DM or game sucks or both.

Well if the party is going to metagame by only having one person engage the CR30 monster, the DM can too.

[Mellack]

Choosing to buff your teams best (perhaps only) archer to do hit and run tactics does not require metagaming. Especially as they could be possibly the only member with a magic ranged weapon.

Accept it. They made this monster poorly. What is supposed to be an epic monster can be taken down by tier 2 characters without too much difficulty. Kiting is not a new thing. Not giving the terrasque a ranged attack or at least regeneration was a huge mistake in design.

[MeimuHakurei]

Choosing to buff your teams best (perhaps only) archer to do hit and run tactics does not require metagaming. Especially as they could be possibly the only member with a magic ranged weapon.

Accept it. They made this monster poorly. What is supposed to be an epic monster can be taken down by tier 2 characters without too much difficulty. Kiting is not a new thing. Not giving the terrasque a ranged attack or at least regeneration was a huge mistake in design.

Second this really hard. You cannot claim the Tarrasque is a legendary civilization-destroying monster if it doesn't have the stats to actually destroy civilizations. Best it can destroy is some random villages that have no casters whatsoever and even then a fair amount of villagers can escape with their lives.

If you want to have legendary monsters able to threaten big cities, try dragons instead.

[Tanarii]

Well if the party is going to metagame by only having one person engage the CR30 monster, the DM can too.It's not particular necessary. The rogue is within range of frightful presence after 5 rounds (assuming Con 16) of bonus dashing, during which s/he was attacking at disadvantage, after which it risks exhaustion if it does any more Dash actions.

If the rogue is mounted it gets a bit further before the mount is exhausted and s/he dismounts and continues on foot.

Either way it's a dead rogue without some kind of magical assistance to get airborne, or a large dash-free speed boost and plenty of open space.

[Lunali]

It's not particular necessary. The rogue is within range of frightful presence after 5 rounds (assuming Con 16) of bonus dashing, during which s/he was attacking at disadvantage, after which it risks exhaustion if it does any more Dash actions.

If the rogue is mounted it gets a bit further before the mount is exhausted and s/he dismounts and continues on foot.

Either way it's a dead rogue without some kind of magical assistance to get airborne, or a large dash-free speed boost and plenty of open space.

If the rogue is on a speed 100' mount and has their party hidden away and out of the fight, they can move as fast as the tarrasque without having to dash. If anything else enters the initiative order, the tarrasque will be able to move another 20' per round, forcing the rogue to dash. Which is fine if it's treated as combat, but if it's treated as a chase, the mount will become exhausted.

[braveheart]

The swashbuckler rogue has a pet pteradon which has flyby, and a magic dagger (they've been refining the plan) . The rest of the party consists of a wizard, a forge domain cleric, a champion fighter, and a glamour bard. The new plan includes the rogue using the pteradon's flyby to hit it getting the sneak attacks, and letting the rest of the party hide.

As for how I look at a terrasque in my setting, it's HP is what it takes before it goes back to sleep and becomes indestructible as it recovers over the next century, after which point it can be woken up, or will continue sleeping for an indeterminate period. This leaves the 5e stats while allowing it to continue to be unkillable.

[Tanarii]

If the rogue is on a speed 100' mount [...]Well yes, but now we're talking about a magical speed boost, since horses move base speed 40ft. And back to plenty of open terrain to run away across (given its starting underground ...), and a T that chases the magically mounted rogue instead of ignoring it and going on a rampage against whatever is local.

Very white room. Or white open plains, I guess.


The new plan includes the rogue using the pteradon's flyby to hit it getting the sneak attacks, and letting the rest of the party hide.
One Ready attack will wreck his day, won't it?

[braveheart]

Well yes, but now we're talking about a magical speed boost, since horses move base speed 40ft. And back to plenty of open terrain to run away across (given its starting underground ...), and a T that chases the magically mounted rogue instead of ignoring it and going on a rampage against whatever is local.

Very white room. Or white open plains, I guess.


One Ready attack will wreck his day, won't it?
Yes, it certainly would, but it'll take a few passes for the terrasque to get the timing (int 3)

[JackPhoenix]

If the rogue is on a speed 100' mount and has their party hidden away and out of the fight, they can move as fast as the tarrasque without having to dash. If anything else enters the initiative order, the tarrasque will be able to move another 20' per round, forcing the rogue to dash. Which is fine if it's treated as combat, but if it's treated as a chase, the mount will become exhausted.

Even if they share initiative, both the mount and the rogue have their own turns, so the tarrasque gets to use his legendary action for both of them.

[Elysiume]

A bit of regeneration added to the beast will make it apparent to the group that little pokes at range will have little effect on such a legendary monster. Have them seek out legends on how to put the thing to sleep again. I prefer a rare plant that it needs to consume ALOT of. Players need to gather it and somehow feed it to the beastie.I hadn't considered the possibility that the Tarrasque lost its regen in 5e prior to this thread and I was really confused by the discussion of slowly whittling down a Tarrasque up to this point. It was such a huge part of the Tarrasque in 3.5/PF.

[thereaper]

And then the Tarrasque burrows into the ground, rendering kiting tactics useless.

The entry makes it very clear that the Tarrasque spends most of it's time underground, then bursts out of nowhere to destroy things. This is only possible if the Tarrasque can burrow underground (even if it isn't the official burrow ability).

[mephiztopheleze]

Yes, it certainly would, but it'll take a few passes for the terrasque to get the timing (int 3)

Tarrasque's Wisdom isn't crap, he'll figure out what's going on pretty quick, like by round 3 at the latest it'll have a Readied action waiting.

[Toofey]

So no one else is considering plot changes to rescue the situation from at best a tedious and still very dangerous fight. (It's a *game* the tedium is the real enemy) when this could roll right into the beginning of like half the Kaiju movies ever made instead?

You guys are silly. It should always be about story.

[Willie the Duck]

My party was trying to escape my megadungeon, when they noticed with a cast of detect magic that there was a powerful artifact, under the sleeping terasque. They went a good ways off and let the rogue risk his life on the Artifact. Rolls went great, he got a powerful totem of Gia (homebrew mguffin like artifact) and as he was leaving he rolled a nat one to quietly l
walk away. The party was able to escape the megadungeon. With the artifact. But they are worried that the terasque will get out of the megadungeon and destroy the nearby city, that they call home. Also they want to get back into the megadungeon at some point too.

They spent an hour after we finished doing the math to figure out an estimation for how many arrows it would take for the rogue to take it down while running from cover to cover. They found that he'd need around 200 arrows and as many turns. They found this encouraging and want to fight it now.

Any advice or thoughts? I know they may be able to fight it, and they have about a month to prepare irl. For a fight like this I have no issue with the party meta gaming, but I don't know if they can come up with a viable plan to beat it. At least not one that doesn't get at least half the party killed.

Okay, the part that bothers me is that the party somehow knows how many arrows it takes to take down the Tarrasque? Why do they know its stats? It is the iconic unknown threat monster. I get it, you don't have a problem with them metagaming, given that you've already thrown them up against a creature many times above a reasonable challenge, but then why have thrown them up against it in the first place?

Regardless, people have brought up the clear and obvious way to defeat it -- kiting from the back of a non-tiring mount. If you want to run through that scenario, go ahead. Mind you, they will then automatically succeed unless (and this honestly will happen, if you actually play it out round for round) someone screws up somewhere. If you (and it sounds like they) want to do this, go ahead. My only advice is to either 1) play it straight, including a 'laid is played, live with the consequences' ruling on screw-ups, or 2) after 15 rounds, when everyone is bored, offer, 'okay, this isn't as much fun as I thought, if you want, we can finish this 'as a movie montage' without going through each round, but the XP will be more level appropriate.'


Accept it. They made this monster poorly. What is supposed to be an epic monster can be taken down by tier 2 characters without too much difficulty. Kiting is not a new thing. Not giving the terrasque a ranged attack or at least regeneration was a huge mistake in design.

Who exactly do you think doesn't realize this. What surprised me the last time we had a Tarrasque thread was that previous editions, particularly AD&D 1&2, also had Tarrasques with stats that did not match the reputation. I consider it a success of my previous DMs that I still remember the creature as the iconic challenge it was meant to be, rather than the creature that appears in the various monster manuals.


So no one else is considering plot changes to rescue the situation from at best a tedious and still very dangerous fight. (It's a *game* the tedium is the real enemy) when this could roll right into the beginning of like half the Kaiju movies ever made instead?

You guys are silly. It should always be about story.

Oh cute! This also takes me back. We started rolling our eyes at the guy injecting themselves into a thread to bleat 'it's called ROLEplaying, not ROLLplaying!' back in the days of Usenet. Thank you sir, you've given me a good chuckle and fond memories. :smallbiggrin:
Seriously though, multiple people have done just exactly this, including nickl_2000, Xihirli, Zhorn, Diceomancer, stoutstien, Bjarkmundur, and mephiztopheleze.

[Bloodcloud]

The swashbuckler rogue has a pet pteradon which has flyby, and a magic dagger (they've been refining the plan) . The rest of the party consists of a wizard, a forge domain cleric, a champion fighter, and a glamour bard. The new plan includes the rogue using the pteradon's flyby to hit it getting the sneak attacks, and letting the rest of the party hide.

As for how I look at a terrasque in my setting, it's HP is what it takes before it goes back to sleep and becomes indestructible as it recovers over the next century, after which point it can be woken up, or will continue sleeping for an indeterminate period. This leaves the 5e stats while allowing it to continue to be unkillable.

Player does one sweep.

DM: The Tarrasque is now looking directly at you, licking it's lips. It is waiting for you.

The Tarrasque use Ready action.

Player's turn:
Pteranodon gets in range for the sweep:

Tarrasque uses tail, Pteranodon is very dead, Rogue falls on the ground and is now prone, in front of the tarrasque, who still has four attack. Using one to swallow the pteranodon means Big T still has three attacks with advantage. I believe any one of those is enough to one shot him, especially since he's already taken falling damage. Maybe it gives him a chance by only using a claw to grapple, catching him in mid-air, then swallow him... oh, at the end of the Rogue's turn, Big T gets to swallow him with a legendary action. Only way he lives is a frankly improbable amount of natural 1 and some magic to get out of range (cause he ain't getting out by running and the OA WILL kill him.)

Your player is very very dead with that plan. Getting within range of the Tarrasque before very high level is a death sentence. Only way to do otherwise is kiting while never getting any closer than 105 ft.

So yeah, give them a story thread on how to put it back to sleep, let them do the plan, and may they remember the time they tried to take on the Tarrasque. Tell the Rogue to have a new character ready.

If you are feeling particularly generous, point them toward the ready action section of the PHB.

[Yunru]

A readied attack isn't necessary, the Pteradon has a fly speed of 60ft., certainly not enough to do a flyby and get out of range.

[Phoenix042]

Any advice or thoughts? I know they may be able to fight it, and they have about a month to prepare irl. For a fight like this I have no issue with the party meta gaming, but I don't know if they can come up with a viable plan to beat it. At least not one that doesn't get at least half the party killed.

If I were running the Tarrasque, I'd make it clear that the thing can rip your massive stone cover apart with ease and bring whole sections of the dungeon down on you; that it can essentially burrow through the place and that your rogue is NOT going to get to plink for 200 rounds.

Also, when creatures fall below half HP in my games, they become "wounded" and their behavior usually changes dramatically. If the Tarrasque hasn't touched the rogue in that time, he'll likely just start burrowing away.



Rather, this should be some kind of skill challenge with some other, side combats involved.

A couple of ideas:

1) The city outside starts experiencing sudden "earthquakes" which are causing damage and injuring people. This is caused by the Tarrasque slowly digging its way out of the dungeon. In one week, it will be free. The players must convince the city to evacuate before it's too late. A stupid noble or priest NPC acts as the antagonist, attempting to prevent the city from fleeing for political, economic, or religious reasoning (if written well, this character should ultimately have a secret motivation to do with gold or power).

The players engage in a complex skill challenge against the clock. Mysterious thugs / assassins (working for our antagonist, it turns out; or - Plot Twist! - the supposed antagonist is just another pawn!) attack them in the night two or three times, becoming increasingly desperate and possibly carrying clues about what's going on.

2) The artifact your rogue uncovered is the key to a ritual that can put the Tarrasque back to sleep. A mysterious and dark cult will help the party pull off this complex ritual - but only if the party agrees to give up the artifact! If the party refuses, the cult will show up in the dungeon and try to interfere instead.

3) Only another legendary monster can defeat the Tarrasque before he lays waste to the city. This legendary monster lives nearby, and now the party must convince him to fight the Tarrasque to save the city.


These adventures are more interesting and more level appropriate than "we plink at the legendary, challenge 30 creature with our level 5 rogue for 20 minutes until math and metagaming wins the day."

In my games, there are always paths the players can walk forward, but the idea that combat can every be so tightly controlled as to prevent any particular character from risking any damage during a 200 round encounter...

He should last maybe two rounds before a ceiling crashes down on him. And the players really ought to know that; if they try to attack the Tarrasque, try to make it clear that the mega dungeon is falling apart before his rage. Demonstrate him ripping a column apart while the party is still far away, let them feel the walls quake and see the floor crack when he roars, let them see massive chunks of rock rain down around the creature.

Oh, option 4: They can try to take out enough of the structural support of the place to bring the whole freaking thing down on him. That might or might not actually kill a Tarrasque in my games, but it would at least be fun.


And try to remember; the party can fail. Maybe they survive because the Tarrasque just doesn't care enough about them, but the city absolutely can be totally destroyed. Try to think Desolation of Smaug. That sort of game makes for more interesting stories than one in which the DM just makes sure that the party can't ever fail.

[ImproperJustice]

To build on Phoenix’s reply:

The Terasque is massive. It should have. No trouble hurling rocks, trees, boulders, houses, etc... at anything flying or playing cat and mouse.

It can probably damage targets just by moving or rolling through a target’s space.

It should at least be able to kick up enough dust, dirt,and debris to provide a round or two of obscurement penalties.

[hboyce1]

And then the Tarrasque doesn’t even notice the weak attacks on it as it heads directly for the nearest city or town.

Agreed. Makes sense. A Tarrasque is not necessarily malicious, so why would it necessarily attack such insignificant creatures?

[Toofey]

Seriously though, multiple people have done just exactly this, including nickl_2000, Xihirli, Zhorn, Diceomancer, stoutstien, Bjarkmundur, and mephiztopheleze.

oh, didn't see that all the posts I read were stuff like thieves flying around firing hundreds of arrows I'm not trying to avoid the Rolls btw, just the tedious ones. It just seems like the team is prepping for a terribly unfun grind whereas a bunch of non-fighting challenges which could still be stat roll based could work well to get the plot back into order.

[Tanarii]

oh, didn't see that all the posts I read were stuff like thieves flying around firing hundreds of arrows I'm not trying to avoid the Rolls btw, just the tedious ones. It just seems like the team is prepping for a terribly unfun grind whereas a bunch of non-fighting challenges which could still be stat roll based could work well to get the plot back into order.
Does seem like an opportunity for a skill challenge.

[nickl_2000]

Agreed. Makes sense. A Tarrasque is not necessarily malicious, so why would it necessarily attack such insignificant creatures?

would you slap at a fly buzzing around your head so much it woke you up? I know I would.

[mephiztopheleze]

Agreed. Makes sense. A Tarrasque is not necessarily malicious, so why would it necessarily attack such insignificant creatures?

because said insignificant creature is being annoying with all these little sticks it keeps throwing at the Tarrasque.

also: said insignificant creature may smell tasty. Tarrasque has just woken up, it's probably keen on a decent meal. that annoying, insignificant creature looks and smells for all the world like a canape.

[Kane0]

'Waking up big T' sounds more like a campaign arc than an encounter to me.

[Phoenix042]

'Waking up big T' sounds more like a campaign arc than an encounter to me.

Or at least a solid adventure hook. You can get SO much mileage out of something like this.

[braveheart]

What I'm really expecting is for the rogue to try to fight the terasque for a few rounds, get mulched, then the other party member will likely flee and try to lead an evacuation, they have enougb charisma among them that convincing the town that there is in fact a genuine threat coming should be no problem. It will likely be several sessions of evac, then the stubborn berks who won't leave dieing as the terasque rips the town apart.

There is also a chance that the party will try to bait the terrasque toward the nearby boarder with the xenophobic elves who have been jerks to the party in the path, but that depends on how malicious the players are feeling that day.

[Kane0]

Take your first expectation, account for it and throw it out. Too obvious.
Take your second expectation, account for it and throw that away too. Plan B never works.
Take your third expectation, account for it and throw that away for good measure. Players never do what you expect them to do.
Your fourth expectation, thats something you can work with.
And always be ready to improvise anyways.

[Willie the Duck]

Take your second expectation, account for it and throw that away too. Plan B never works.

Plan #2, Plan B implies they will need no more than 26 plans. :smalltongue:



What I'm really expecting is for the rogue to try to fight the terasque for a few rounds, get mulched, then the other party member will likely flee and try to lead an evacuation, they have enougb charisma among them that convincing the town that there is in fact a genuine threat coming should be no problem. It will likely be several sessions of evac, then the stubborn berks who won't leave dieing as the terasque rips the town apart.

There is also a chance that the party will try to bait the terrasque toward the nearby boarder with the xenophobic elves who have been jerks to the party in the path, but that depends on how malicious the players are feeling that day.

Okay, I know it doesn't matter, but-- Tarrasque (or Tarasque, in the original French), not Terasque. Terasque to me implies "10^12 sques." :smallbiggrin:

Anyways, while I do think reinforcing actions=>consequences is important in DMing (such that your players know that they can/should run when facing unwinnable odds), I hope you've telegraphed to the rogue's player just how overwhelmed he is (if you indeed think he'll get mulched).

[Sigreid]

Honestly, most of my characters would just wander off the other direction.

[mistermysterio]

How would the rogue carry hundreds of arrows? Does he have like 10 quivers strapped to his back (considering a single quiver only holds 20 arrows)?
7 quivers and an efficient quiver?

I don't think he could just throw them into a bag of holding, since you need an action to take something out.

[Sigreid]

How would the rogue carry hundreds of arrows? Does he have like 10 quivers strapped to his back (considering a single quiver only holds 20 arrows)?
7 quivers and an efficient quiver?

I don't think he could just throw them into a bag of holding, since you need an action to take something out.

2 quiver of whatever would be 120 arrows.

[mistermysterio]

don't think you could have multiple magical quivers. Either way, i doubt the rogue went into this with 2-12 quivers on him for some reason. This is happening on the fly due to a failed roll... so even with metagaming you can't really say he was carrying around multiple quivers worth of arrows just in case. would be pretty tough to sneak around with 200+ arrows strapped to your back by any means that enable you to access the arrows without using up actions, I think

[braveheart]

T-day is comming up, I'll be sure to post how it goes.

[Yunru]

My money's on "Crunch."

[Azgeroth]

er... i mean... TPK.

no seriously, their underground, there is a terasque chasing them.. game over, it can literally smash the place to pieces (thus blocking the escape path) and then munch through the debris until it gets to the fleshies.. level 5? not any more!

[Damon_Tor]

Yes, it certainly would, but it'll take a few passes for the terrasque to get the timing (int 3)

Int 3 is above average Animal intelligence, it's what you find on a cunning predator, like a wolf or a tiger.