Tarrasque Gear Solid: Magic Missiles of the Patriots

[Askaris]

One of my many neuroses in RPGs is to, when placed in an overt fantasy setting, try to work out how to create equivalents to high tech gear, from automatic weaponry all the way to (as the title suggests) full size doomsday mecha (there is no helping some technophiles ). I recently started off on this particular train of thought after reading a certain text document detailing the various ways of killing a tarrasque at low (read: 13) levels, one of them in particular catching my eye.

The document in question mentioned using the spell Simulacrum to create a lower grade double of the original tarrasque, losing a lot of the ability of the original, but making up for it by dint of being A) under your control and B) having the potential to be many lesser tarrasques, rather than just one. At about 2am last night while trying to get to sleep, this struck me as remarkably similar to the difference in the Metal Gear series between the original Metal Gear Ray, and it's mass produced variants.

And so, yet another D&D doomsday device idea appeared. The aim is, in essence, to create a walking, long range doomsday-device equipped (read: railgun nuke launcher equivalent), war machine using a simulacrum tarrasque as a chassis. This requires several components...

The "Chassis":

Determining which abilities a simulacrum tarrasque retains and which it doesn't is something of a DM's discretion matter; when it's hit dice (and thus abilities) are halved, does it keep it's regenerating health at the expense of something else, have the rate of regeneration halved, or lose it entirely? It's also worth noting that while the simulacrum is completely obedient to it's creator, it's not a telepathic link. This gets addressed later.

Of course, this is all assuming that you can get a bottle of essence du tarrasque to create a simulacrum in the first place.

The Primary Weapon (BFG):

This is where I generally get stuck. There are plenty of powerful damage spells in the average caster's arsenal, but full scale city busters? Current idea is to apply physics abuse and create a railgun with a series of wands of lightning bolt, but that's somewhat hacky at best. It also doesn't have the scale of destruction needed; while it'd suffice for a launcher (as with Metal Gear Rex), it needs a payload as well. Manufacturing magnetic shells would be problematic as well.

The Secondary Weapons:

This, at least, is easy. It's a tarrasque. Possibly could do with some extra ranged attack options, but those aren't hard; wands of magic missile or rays deal with that gap nicely.

The Cockpit:

Because a tarrasque isn't the smartest creature ever created, you'll need a pilot to operate anything more complex than the creature's fists, as well as give it orders. If security is an issue (as it should be with a doomsday device), the creator could be permanently telepathic-bonded to the tarrasque, thus making it so only one person can exert control over the creature. This does however have the disadvantage of rendering the creature temporarily useless if the creator is killed (the risk of which can be reduced). If it's more essential to keep the creature functional, the creator could simply give a standing order that the creature obeys the order of whoever is telepathically bonded to it.

It's more difficult to find ways of activating the other weapons. One thing Vampire2948 suggested (when in a similar situation) was to create homunculi to operate weapon turrets; while that's probably the most cost effective method, the vulnerability to the creator created by putting them on the exposed weapon systems (that being 2d10 damage per homunculi destroyed) can render the whole system nonfunctional very quickly. On top of that, if the creator is killed, the control system for the weaponry/any other gadgets is gone too.

Ideally, what's needed is some kind of password/keycard locked magical control panel. I've yet to find spells that would allow that to work though.

Finally, the pilot will need somewhere protected to be secured during combat. Currently thinking of a fully enclosed armoured cockpit on top of the tarrasque's head, with a crystal ball for scrying. Only problem with that is that, as telepathic bond doesn't transmit sensory data, the pilot can't see anything that passes a will save. Need some kind of remote sight (or, alternatively, a better quality telepathic link with the tarrasque. There's probably a psionic one which I'm unfamiliar with.)

Peripherals (or, other gizmos):

The urge to give it a suit of tailored fullplate is quite strong, given the MGS inspiration. It would improve the AC even more, which has debatable necessity, but would definitely look damn cool. Other than that, there's a whole plethora of options here. A cloaking device immediately springs to mind, although the merit of cloaking something that will be making the earth shake is dubious.


As is evident by my lack of hard numbers, this is still very much in the idea phase. Any suggestions/criticisms/declarations that I am a madman are very much welcome.

[vampire2948]

To get around the lack of ability to control it from another place:


- Scry on the Tarrasque and surroundings.
- Attach a Psicrystal/Familiar to the Tarrasque from the feat that gives you one.
- Awaken the Tarrasque, mind-rape it just incase, and telepathic-link it.
- Use an Astral Projection of yourself to sit on the Tarrasque, invisibly. Who's going to think to look at the invisible projection sitting on it? There's a tarrasque to worry about!

[hamishspence]

The Primary Weapon (BFG):

This is where I generally get stuck. There are plenty of powerful damage spells in the average caster's arsenal, but full scale city busters? Current idea is to apply physics abuse and create a railgun with a series of wands of lightning bolt, but that's somewhat hacky at best. It also doesn't have the scale of destruction needed; while it'd suffice for a launcher (as with Metal Gear Rex), it needs a payload as well. Manufacturing magnetic shells would be problematic as well.

There's a few spells which damage areas measured in miles, but not many.

Rain of Fire, in the Epic Handbook, does minimal damage (1 pt fire damage per round) but keeps doing this over a period of 20 hours, and a radius of 2 miles.

Apocalypse from the Sky, in BoVD does 10d6 damage (fire, or acid, or sonic), to everything with a 10 mile radius (the book says radius 10 miles per caster level, but the later book Elder Evils, has a 16th level caster (Ur-Priest) only be able to affect a 10 mile radius with it).

Erupt, in Serpent Kingdoms, does 10 pts of fire damage per caster level, radius 100 ft per caster level.

That's before you get into metamagic exploits of dubious legality by RAW, like the Locate City Bomb.

[hewhosaysfish]

METAL..... GEAR?!

*ahem*

this struck me as remarkably similar to the difference in the Metal Gear series between the original Metal Gear Ray, and it's mass produced variants.

This is a complete tangent to your actual question but you mean the difference between REX and the mass-produced RAYs?

This does however have the disadvantage of rendering the creature temporarily useless if the creator is killed (the risk of which can be reduced). If it's more essential to keep the creature functional, the creator could simply give a standing order that the creature obeys the order of whoever is telepathically bonded to it.

You're assuming the creator is not a megalomaniac. Given the subject matter, I find this to be a very dubious assumption.
Why would you want someone else, possibly your killer, to be riding around in/on your Gearrarsque after you're dead? It should explode and take them with you. And your secret hi-tech high arcana lair too.

It's more difficult to find ways of activating the other weapons. One thing Vampire2948 suggested (when in a similar situation) was to create homunculi to operate weapon turrets; while that's probably the most cost effective method, the vulnerability to the creator created by putting them on the exposed weapon systems (that being 2d10 damage per homunculi destroyed) can render the whole system nonfunctional very quickly. On top of that, if the creator is killed, the control system for the weaponry/any other gadgets is gone too.

Intelligent items, maybe? The gun is the gunner? Expensive but it means the only way to stop the weapon from firing is to destroy rather than targetting the squishy creature holding it.

Ideally, what's needed is some kind of password/keycard locked magical control panel. I've yet to find spells that would allow that to work though.

Tricky... Perhaps instill some post-hypnotic suggestions (using Mindrape or similar) that will compel certain actions from it when certain trigger phrases are received (which could be telepathically, not necessarily verbally).

Finally, the pilot will need somewhere protected to be secured during combat. Currently thinking of a fully enclosed armoured cockpit on top of the tarrasque's head, with a crystal ball for scrying. Only problem with that is that, as telepathic bond doesn't transmit sensory data, the pilot can't see anything that passes a will save. Need some kind of remote sight (or, alternatively, a better quality telepathic link with the tarrasque.

It may be a bit of a break from the concept but one possibility would be to simply construct a transparent cockpit.
The spell Hardening cast by an 18th level Wizard can make glass (hardness 1) as hard as steel (hardness 10). Although it doesn't increase it's hitpoints....
OK, so we don't use glass. Deep crystal has the same stats as steel to start with. Throw a hardening on there and it rises to a hardness of 16, putting it just above Mithril (15) and second only to Adamantine (20).

If you don't mind setting specific stuff, theres also Glassteel

There's probably a psionic one which I'm unfamiliar with.)

Sense Link

Of course, you don't use Sense Link on the Gearrasque itself but on a Simulacrum Beholder attached to the left shoulder, giving you a much better field of vision. Just hope no plucky hero takes the Beholder out, forcing you to choose between fighting blind and cracking open your cockpit...

A cloaking device immediately springs to mind... Any suggestions/criticisms/declarations that I am a madman are very much welcome.

Stealth Camo on a Metal Gear?!
You are a madman! And yet, strangely, I feel that the world would be a better place if someone sent this idea to Hideo Kojima...

[Darrin]

I am familiar with this text you mention, but it doesn't address how to cast the simulacrum spell. You need a caster level of at least 24 to create a simulacrum of a Tarrasque.

[AslanCross]

Apocalypse from the Sky is probably the easiest way to destroy a city.

However, if you are in a standard medieval setting, you have to recognize that simply starting a fire in the city can result in widespread damage to begin with. A Conjuration effect like Incendiary Cloud can easily wreck a city by setting it on fire.

Disease could also work, and it's pretty easy to put together a biological WMD in D&D.

For more dramatic explosions, you're going to have to put together a lot of metamagic effects, notably Widen, Explosive, and probably Maximize.

The 9th-level spell Tsunami can also probably destroy a coastal city.

[Godskook]

I am familiar with this text you mention, but it doesn't address how to cast the simulacrum spell. You need a caster level of at least 24 to create a simulacrum of a Tarrasque.

That's a pitifully easy goal for a pre-epic TO build to attain.

For your reading pleasure:

http://community.wizards.com/go/thre...g_Caster_Level

[Tengu_temp]

The 9th-level spell Tsunami can also probably destroy a coastal city.

But that smells a lot like MGS2 to me. And would you like to have that in your game, huh? Would you?

I would. That's my favorite MGS game.

[Urpriest]

Given how silly the rest of this is, some variant of the Locate City Bomb seems mandatory for your nuke-equivalent. Although the more RAW version, the Wightocalypse, is also less flashy.

[Jack_Simth]

I am familiar with this text you mention, but it doesn't address how to cast the simulacrum spell. You need a caster level of at least 24 to create a simulacrum of a Tarrasque.

I suspect the list referenced was based on the 3.0 version of D&D, where things were a little bit different. Not too hard to get a Simulacrum Tarrasque pre-Epic, though. If nothing else, be a Cleric-20, activate a Bead of Karma, and then realize that a piece of Mr. T doesn't have a listed value when you're duplicating the spell in question with Miracle (and there's ways to boost your caster level further, letting you pull this off at lower levels).

As for gear....

Third Eye Sense: Place a scrying sensor anywhere on the same plane, one standard action. Can't see anyone under Nondetection, Mind Blank, or similar, though. For that, just use Magic Jar. Order Mr. T Mini to fail his save. As a bonus, you can cast any spells you have prepared as Silenced, Stilled, and Eschewed.

Stealth Mode:
Make sure the cockpit has access to your fake Mr. T's skin. Order Mr. T Mini to lower his SR, then cast Invisibility on your fake Mr. T. His equipment (and everything hiding inside his equipment) is now invisible for the duration. You may also want Silence and Fly to go with it. For the endurance, you could put a Ring of Invisibility on your copy of Mr. T as well. Oh yes, and technically, he understands Common.

Gunners:
As long as you're making Simulacrums anyway, why not make some of yourself? Totally loyal, know much of what you know, and while they're expensive, they don't have any other drawbacks on dissolution. And if you're the SPELLCASTER setting this up, why... you don't need actual guns to go with the gunners - they're inherent to you.

Megablastage:
Eh, just point all the gunners at the same target. Or hand them scrolls of spells like Earthquake. But then, there's always the massive set of Explosive Spell Delayed Blast Fireballs, dipped in Quintessance, dropped, and then set off by using an Explosive Spell Fireball to clear some of the Quintessance. Takes a while to reload, though.

[Soren Hero]

for secondary weapons, I would go with something like Spell Turrets from DMG II and Stronghold Builder's Guide..it lets you have four spells launching in sequence, so you could have a disjunction (to get rid of defenses), chained twin spell split ray Enervation (to lower people's levels), Wail of the Banshee (to auto kill people), and some other spell...i'm not entirely sure what the rules are for Spell Turrets (not having access to those books will do that).

[Darrin]

That's a pitifully easy goal for a pre-epic TO build to attain.

For your reading pleasure:

http://community.wizards.com/go/thre...g_Caster_Level

I was trying to figure out a way to do it with a level 1 commoner, UMD a scroll of summon mirror mephit (with a potion of guidance of the avatar for +20 on the skill check) to get a simulacrum of an efreet, then use the efreet's wish to simulacrum a solar, then use the solar to simulacrum the Tarrasque. But the solar's wish is only CL 20, and I couldn't figure out a way to get it up any higher than CL 22 (heighten SLA feat). I don't think anything on that list affects SLAs.

The SLAs are to get around the XP/material component requirements. However, if you've got a simulacrum of an efreet and a solar, with three wishes at your disposal... do you really need a Tarrasque at that point to be badass?

Assuming we can get the simulacrum to work, why settle for half HD when we can get full HD with the ice assassin spell? Cast mantle of the fiery soul if you're worried about fire damage (which would still have to get around the Regeneration/nonlethal thing).

Your TGS might still be vulnerable to a Lasso + Blister Oil Bomb + Sovereign Glue. Can we come up with a counter for that? Like... can we make the Tarrasque immune to nonlethal damage? Emerald Legion IKEA Tarrasques?

[jseah]

BFG:
Decanter of Endless Water + Wall of Fire boiler
Permanent Wall of Force barrel and structure

Resilient Sphere for plugging the barrel and "charging" the steam-powered pressure cannon.
Put a big ball in the Wall of Force barrel, wait for Resilient Sphere to run out (or dispel it)

Supersonic ball comes free with gouts of scalding supercritical water.

[Jack_Simth]

summon mirror mephit

This Step Doesn't Work:

When the spell that summoned a creature ends and the creature disappears, all the spells it has cast expire. A summoned creature cannot use any innate summoning abilities it may have, and it refuses to cast any spells that would cost it XP, or to use any spell-like abilities that would cost XP if they were spells.

(Emphasis added)

[Darrin]

This Step Doesn't Work:
(Emphasis added)

Hmm... I dimly remembered something about that, but couldn't find it in the SRD. I'm puzzled Curmudgeon didn't call me on it earlier. Good to know!

Can a Spellthief get around that? Probably not... "refuses" isn't the same as "can't", though... what if the mirror mephit were dominated?

[true_shinken]

This thread is made of win.

Askaris, your avatar oozes awesome.

[Valameer]

For the BFG, what about widened, enlarged meteor swarm?

These four missiles would hit a range of 800' + 80' / caster level and explode in an 80' radius spread. That's a considerable amount of carnage at a decent range. Meteor swarm looks really cool too, and it's hardly ever used.

The damage is only around 6d6 fire, which would level a cityscape (especially since cities tend to be flammable) but wouldn't devastate PCs, nor make them giggle.

Apocalypse from the sky might be more effective, but it's less dramatic than meteor swarm - so it depends on what you're going for. AftS is a blanket wipe out, closer to an actual nuke. MS is more like an alien attack in a Michael Bay film, where you get to describe all the fancy and important state buildings that are blowing up each round.

I can't believe I just promoted the Michael Bay agenda...

[true_shinken]

Oh, for casting simulacrum on the tarrasque, I believe circle magic is the best choice.

I'm actually borrowing this idea for my game. ^^

[Volthawk]

Another big attack may be Iceberg, from Frostburn.

Maybe have a way of using one of the 9th level mass summoning spells from the SpC (like Hellish Army), and some way of animating dead. So you aren't just relying on your Tarrasque.

[Flickerdart]

Can't you get those ridiculously broken Spell Clocks on it for weapons?

[BunnyMaster42]

Another big attack may be Iceberg, from Frostburn.

Actually, a better choice from Frostburn would probably be Frostfell.

Medium range, a 20ft cube/level area (though strangely it doesn't say it's shapable), deals up to 20d6 of frostburn damage on a save, turns creatures to ice if they fail, and it also drops the temperature in the area by 3 temperature bands for an hour a level, and it stacks with succesive castings. That means that from a moderate starting climate, one casting will pretty much drop everything in the area, and anything that survives takes 1d6 points of cold damage every 10 minutes. Oh, and it makes everything in the area slippery due to the frost.

Not a bad city killer I would say, although it won't actually destroy the buildings I don't think.

[Volthawk]

Actually, a better choice from Frostburn would probably be Frostfell.

Medium range, a 20ft cube/level area (though strangely it doesn't say it's shapable), deals up to 20d6 of frostburn damage on a save, turns creatures to ice if they fail, and it also drops the temperature in the area by 3 temperature bands for an hour a level, and it stacks with succesive castings. That means that from a moderate starting climate, one casting will pretty much drop everything in the area, and anything that survives takes 1d6 points of cold damage every 10 minutes. Oh, and it makes everything in the area slippery due to the frost.

Not a bad city killer I would say, although it won't actually destroy the buildings I don't think.

Oooh, nice. And as it has a duration, it means you can then use the buildings yourself later.