How to kill a tarrasque in 1st edition.

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Leema Har'gachi
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How to kill a tarrasque in 1st edition.

Post by Leema Har'gachi »

So the tarrasque is a legendary hard to kill monster introduce in the Monster Manuel 2 1st edition book, now a days even getting away from an encounter with one alive is a pretty impressive feat. but, what if I told you in first edition AD&D it is possible for you to kill the tarrasque in two rounds (granted with a bit of luck). First this is only possible if your DM is allowing their players to use races, classes, equipment, and spell from the Unearthed Arcana; otherwise your shit out of luck. Second, Their need to be a magic-user in the part of at least 5th level though 10th level won't hurt at least to give you a chance of surviving a direct hit, but it doesn't actually guarantee it will work any better. This is only possible because of the tarrasque states in 1st edition, you see the tarrasque has a armor class of -3 meaning your unmodified roll needs to be 20 to hit it Fighters start out with a 0 bonus on attack rolls and gain a +2 every two levels until 16th level maxing out on a +16 to hit (the DMG says if the DM prefers they can give them a +1 bonus each level instead, but the end results is still the same), Magic-user start with a -1 on attack roll and gain improvements every 5 level tell maxing out at 21st level with a +9, this is all from a mechanical break down I did of the matrices in the DMG. I believe I even have a copy of the attack roll and armor class document in my scribe account. High level fighter should have not much problems hitting the tarrasque, but none of the physical attack classes can kill it, they are immune to damage from weapons that aren't a +1 magical weapon or higher, they regenerate 1 hit point per round (1 minute), and can basically function until reduce to -30 hit point. To make matters worse they save as a 17th level fighter, however this is also were they are most vulnerable to spell as their worst save throw is against Spell which requires a roll of 6 or higher to save.

So you must be thinking what on earth can a magic-user possible do to make it dead, well first I point out that in 1st edition the tarrasque has a magic resistance of standard meaning it doesn't have any magic resistance (unlike in 3rd edition and up where it very much does have it) so that make it easier for this to work. Now the Magic-user must know two spells the 1st level spell Enlarge (so they can prepare its reverse Diminish, it was reduce in the Players handbook but for some reason the Unearthed Arcana and later 1st edition books refer to it as Diminish instead for some reason I can't find anything about) and they must know the Cantrip Exterminate from the Unearthed Arcana. For those of you who don't know Exterminate affects a 6" square area that the caster points to within 10 feet, a small creatures of 6" in size in the area dies instantly, no save or damage. If multiple really tiny creature are in the 6" area they can all be affect by the spell, they spell also works on magically shrunk creatures but not creatures that polymorph into a shape of that size. This is how we are gonna nuke the tarrasque, the difficulty will be successfully hitting it with diminish thanks to that spell save of 6. You see the tarrasque is 50 feet in size (600 inches) a 5th level magic-user casting diminish on it can reduce to 6" (1/100th of 50 feet), though a 10th level magic-user could diminish it to 3" (1/200th of 50 feet), but that not really necessary to meet the requirements of the spell Exterminate. Since Exterminate doesn't deal damage the tarrasque can't regenerate and since it doesn't allow a save throw once the tarrasque is hit with this spell it just drops dead, isn't instant death spells grand. that is as long as your DM allows this to work, they might get a little pissy if you do this though. But, that is how you can kill a tarrasque in two rounds.
CODENAME:Leema
Real Name:Leema Apollyon Har'gachi
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Bhaern Quel
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Re: How to kill a tarrasque in 1st edition.

Post by Bhaern Quel »

Well that does sound good.

You should take a look at this site: http://www.rogermwilcox.com/ADnD/index.html

One I found years ago. It is all about rules (and using them) and even adapted a little to Second edition.

Here the characters even face their DM.
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Leema Har'gachi
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Posts: 235
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Re: How to kill a tarrasque in 1st edition.

Post by Leema Har'gachi »

Bhaern Quel wrote: Sat Aug 01, 2020 9:43 pm Well that does sound good.

You should take a look at this site: http://www.rogermwilcox.com/ADnD/index.html

One I found years ago. It is all about rules (and using them) and even adapted a little to Second edition.

Here the characters even face their DM.
I'm glad you like the idea and thanks for the links.
CODENAME:Leema
Real Name:Leema Apollyon Har'gachi
Class:Variant Illusionist Favored Soul {gestalt}
Race:Shadow Drow
Height:5'8"
Weight:158 Ib.
Hair:Yellowish
Eyes:Purple(pinwheel)
Skin:Pitch-black(surrounded by Shadowy Purple Aura)
Deity:Eilistraee
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