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LeateWonceslace
2017-04-25, 03:49 PM
First, some context. I'm currently DMing my first game, and the plot I have in mind is centered on the Tarrasque awakening. Since my players are fairly experienced and the campaign is high-powered, I've started a project to bring the power of the Tarrasque to something approaching a challenge for an Epic level party. I've looked around older posts on this forum, to help me find ideas, and have decided to give it the following abilities, none of which I've actually written rules for yet:

Extraordinary abilities: a once per 15 minute Stinking cloud (possibly made more powerful), a reflex save breath weapon that causes anyone who fails the save to be swallowed whole (Think Kirby's inhale), a roar that forces everyone within a certain radius to save against the Tarrasques's fear aura, a burrow speed, the ability to throw things, and changing the Tarrasque's fear Aura to extraordinary.
Supernatural abilities: Ghost touch, a regeneration-fluffed fortitude save substitution for certain will saves.

Lastly, as the title of the post says, I was thinking of giving the Tarrasque "minions" in the form of internal parasites feeding off of it, which pop out randomly when it's wounded or otherwise appropriate. Unfortunately, I don't have much to go off of with my parasite idea, or how to stat them. My initial thoughts have not gone beyond possibly worms and possibly adamantine teeth.
Stats for the Tarrasque's Parasite:

Wirrn
Size/Type Medium Magical Beast
Hit Dice 15d10+150 (225)
Initiative +5
Speed 30 ft.
AC 23 (18 Natural +5 Dexterity)
BAB/Grapple 15, 24
Attacks Bite, Slam, Sting
Full Attack Slam (+15 Melee), Bite (+10 Melee), Tail, Sting
Space and Reach 10,5
Special Attacks Improved Grab, Egg Sting, Energy Drain, Poison
Special Qualities Secretions, DR 5/Epic, Adamantine Teeth, Regeneration 4, Immunity to acid and Crushing Damage
Saves Fort: 20, Will: 5, Ref: 15
Abilities Str 20, Dex 20, Con 30, Int 1, Wis 10, Cha 6
Skills <Not Selected>
Feats Improved Grapple, Ability Focus (secretions), improved natural attack×4
Environment Tarrasque, Occasionally in the Underdark
Organization Solitary, or Colony in Tarrasque
CR —
Treasure nil
Alignment TN
Advancement 15-18 (Medium) (Younger) 19-25 (Large) 26-35 (Huge) (Only Alpha)
LA —

Adamantine Teeth (Ex): A Wirrn’s bite attack is considered an adamantine weapon for all purposes. Only Wirrns that spawn inside a creature that has a large amount of adamantine in their system possess this characteristic. If the creature instead has large amounts of another metal or mineral, the Wirrn will typically acquire teeth of that kind.
Expert Grappler (Ex): A Wirrn can maintain a grapple without penalty and still make attacks against other targets (normally, attacking other targets while grappling imposes a -20 penalty on grapple checks). A Wirrn is never considered flat-footed while grappling.
Greater Magic Fang (Sp): A Wirrn can use Greater Magic Fang, as the spell, three times per day using its HD as the caster level
Implant (Ex): Any creature Stung with a Wirrn’s sting that hits with a critical must make a DC 15+HD Fortitude save or be infected with wirrn gestation, and take 1d3 constitution damage. The disease has an incubation period of 1 day, and deals 1d6 constitution damage per day. If the character dies from the disease, a baby wirrn swarm bursts from their corpse. A Wirrn can not sting a creature while grappling with its lower portion (initiated a grapple with its tail attack with its Tail attack). If a Wirrn is grappling a creature with its lower portion, it may take a move action that provokes an attack of opportunity; the Wirrn and its victim must make opposed grapple checks, if the wirrn succeeds, it has successfully maintained its grapple, and can the implant the creature that its grappling with. If a Wirrn stings a creature it is grappling, it is considered a critical hit for the purpose of this ability.
Improved Grab (Ex): To use this ability, a wirrn must hit with its slam or tail attack. It can then attempt to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity. If it wins the grapple check, it establishes a hold and can attempt to implant the foe the following round, if it landed with its slam attack.
Regeneration (Ex): A Wirrn Regenerates 1per 5 HD +1 HP each round. Adamantine weapons deal normal damage to a Wirrn. Wirrns do not possess this ability if they’ve been outside of the Tarrasque for more than a week.
Secretions (Su): When infecting a creature, Wirrns suffer from any ability drain that affects its host. As a result, wirrns secrete a fluid that absorbs nutrients at a fantastic rate and produce a poultice that heals ability drain. Any Contact with a wirrn, such as being hit with its slam attack, or failing to escape from a grapple, Drains 1d3-1 levels (Min 1) unless they succeed a fortitude save, and Heals 1 ability score drain. The Tarrasque, while infected with a Wirrn colony, can heal 1 point of ability drain per minute. If the Tarrasque is not suffering from ability drain, the Wirrn secretions build up in a reservoir of healing with a maximum capacity of 15 points that instantly heals any ability drain that the tarrasque has until it is depleted.
Secretion Buildup (Su): Over the long months of slumber, the secretions of the Wirrn colony build up in the tarrasque and steadily embed themselves in the Tarrasque’s fat reserves. Under extreme stress, the tarrasque begins to break down its fat reserves, which releases these secretions. While infected with a wirrn colony, the Tarrasque can make a free action. 2d10 minutes later, it is instantly healed of all ability drain, and is immune to ability drain for 30+3d10 minutes. The Tarrasque must go for a period of one full week without taking any ability drain before it can use this ability again. Wirrns inside a creature other than the Tarrasque do not produce secretions.

Morphic tide
2017-04-25, 05:01 PM
Well, the question of the title's answer is "whatever is felt like." But more seriously, I'd have them be something largely normal, yet dangerous. The Tarrasque is a functionally immortal creature, with a lot of flesh to go through. Crunch-wise, Swarms are your most likely choice for something that's a moderate threat, as they can only be properly damaged by AoEs.

The Tarrasque is very badly optimized, but feats can cover a lot. It has six takes of Toughness as well as Awesome Blow, which are massively sub-optimal. Dodge is largely a joke at this level. You can fix a lot about the Tarrasque by switching up feats and giving select bonus feats like Improved Critical applied to it's bite can up the threat quite a bit.

There's a feat called Improved Natural Attack which ups the damage dice size of a selected natural attack by one step. One grab of it, according to it's table, would add 2d8 damage to each Bite, with a second bringing the total to 12d8 per Bite. And these Bites have a default crit of 18-20/x3, so Improved Critical gets you quite a bit of power combined with two grabs of Improved Natural Attack. Which means a grand total of 36d8 damage on a crit, with a range of 15-20 or 16-20, provided you grab Improved Critical.

Multiattack reduces the penalty on secondary natural weapons to -2, giving an effective +3 bonus to each secondary attack for one feat, making it so that close hits become massively more likely to do something.

Don't underestimate Spell-Like abilities, either, as there's a feat to allow 3/day Quicken or Empower for one chosen Spell-Like ability, with no equivalent for Extraordinary on the SRD I look to for basic reference. Unless the party has really good SR, you can get quite a bit out of handing the Tarrasque a well-chosen SLA to Empower or Quicken. Heck, Quicken SLA makes it so that you can use healing in practical combat to make the fight a much greater grind by giving the Tarrasque three Quickened Heals or something, and you also can bring out the Epic feats to make things notably harder.

LeateWonceslace
2017-04-26, 02:24 PM
I think this was solid advice all around.
I hadn't considered making them swarms before, and I'll look into changing the feats around as well. I have considered giving the Tarrasque spell-llike abilities, but casting a spell doesn't really feel like a Tarrasque thing to do.
I'm also thinking I'll post the changes to the Tarrasque that I'm making here.

rferries
2017-04-26, 03:39 PM
I think this was solid advice all around.
I hadn't considered making them swarms before, and I'll look into changing the feats around as well. I have considered giving the Tarrasque spell-llike abilities, but casting a spell doesn't really feel like a Tarrasque thing to do.
I'm also thinking I'll post the changes to the Tarrasque that I'm making here.

I think the Tarrasque is also notoriously vulnerable to ability drain (the famous Tarrasque-defeated-by-rebuked-Allip scenario), so assuming you don't shore up that weakness the parasites could inflict some kind of ability drain or damage (blood drain seems a classic parasite special attack anyways, or alternatively energy drain).

Knaight
2017-04-26, 03:56 PM
I think the Tarrasque is also notoriously vulnerable to ability drain (the famous Tarrasque-defeated-by-rebuked-Allip scenario), so assuming you don't shore up that weakness the parasites could inflict some kind of ability drain or damage (blood drain seems a classic parasite special attack anyways, or alternatively energy drain).

You could also go the other way - the parasites are at least somewhat symbiotic, and they heal the Tarrasque of ability drain while eating their ever growing flesh. Once they pop out they start doing the same thing to the PCs, which is suddenly a big problem.

Morphic tide
2017-04-26, 04:46 PM
I think this was solid advice all around.
I hadn't considered making them swarms before, and I'll look into changing the feats around as well. I have considered giving the Tarrasque spell-llike abilities, but casting a spell doesn't really feel like a Tarrasque thing to do.
I'm also thinking I'll post the changes to the Tarrasque that I'm making here.

Martial Study and Shape Soulmeld are rather good picks. I made a thread focusing on the feat picks. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?523026)


I think the Tarrasque is also notoriously vulnerable to ability drain (the famous Tarrasque-defeated-by-rebuked-Allip scenario), so assuming you don't shore up that weakness the parasites could inflict some kind of ability drain or damage (blood drain seems a classic parasite special attack anyways, or alternatively energy drain).

The Tarrasque has immunity to Fire, Poison, Disease, Energy Drain and Ability Damage. You can totally have blood drain. You can have flaming, blood-draining, poisonous, plague-ridden and energy draining parasites that don't actually affect the Tarrasque in any way but devour fools who dare to fight the Tarrasque by the party.

Edit:

You could also go the other way - the parasites are at least somewhat symbiotic, and they heal the Tarrasque of ability drain while eating their ever growing flesh. Once they pop out they start doing the same thing to the PCs, which is suddenly a big problem.

Deal Ability Damage to remove Ability Drain? Sounds like a neat thing to pull. Too bad the Ability Damage doesn't stop when you are out of Ability Drain... Although the two could cancel out, removing an amount of Ability Drain equal to the Ability Damage, and come with a Fortitude and/or Will save to negate the Ability Damage. Fort for Strength/Dexterity/Constitution and Will for Charisma/Wisdom/Intelligence. With something like DC 30 to resist the ability damage.

The Energy Drain can also be a nice form of tying symbiosis to being immune to something. Energy Drain against all creatures in X radius to apply Y positive energy to all creatures in Z radius. This gives the Tarrasque a defence against goon swarms, including Undead, by granting health based on the number of living creatures in the area, while also giving nasty debuffs to living creatures. And because it's on parasites/symbiotes, it can be working off of a far better Charisma score than the mere 14 the Tarrasque has.

Knaight
2017-04-27, 01:28 AM
Deal Ability Damage to remove Ability Drain? Sounds like a neat thing to pull. Too bad the Ability Damage doesn't stop when you are out of Ability Drain... Although the two could cancel out, removing an amount of Ability Drain equal to the Ability Damage, and come with a Fortitude and/or Will save to negate the Ability Damage. Fort for Strength/Dexterity/Constitution and Will for Charisma/Wisdom/Intelligence. With something like DC 30 to resist the ability damage.

I was thinking just HP damage here, but I'm liking the idea of dealing ability damage, healing ability drain, and having the save.

LeateWonceslace
2017-05-03, 12:22 PM
Okay, so this is what I have so far for the parasites (Apologies, I haven't gotten the hang of the tables yet, but I'm figuring it out. Once I do, I'll be posting the stats for the Tarrasque and Wirrn in Table form in the first post):
I'm basing the idea off of the Wirrn, a monster that didn't make the cut for the Fiend Folio. Since I can't find the original stats, I'm using the Purple worm as a starting point.
I'm not sure if the image for it is under copyright, so I won't post it here. It does look like a ringed worm with a stinger coiling in a tunnel though.


Medium Magical Beast
Hit Dice 15d10+150 (225)
Initiative +5
Speed 40 ft.
AC 23 (18 Natural +5 Dexterity)
BAB/Graple 15, 24
Attacks Bite, Slam, Sting
Special Attacks: Improved Grab, Implantation, Energy Drain, Poison
Special Qualities: Secretions, DR 5/Epic, Adamantine Teeth, Regeneration 4, Immunity to acid and Crushing Damage
Saves: Fort: 20, Will: 5, Ref: 15
Abilities: Str 20, Dex 20, Con 30, Int 1, Wis 10, Cha 6
Feats: Improved Grapple
Environment: Tarrasque
Treasure: nil
Alignment TN
Advancement: 15-18 (Medium) 19-25 (Large) 26-35 (Huge) (Only Alpha)

Adamantine Teeth (EX): <something about Chewing through the Tarrasque's tough flesh and adamantine existing in the Tarrasque's system from occasionally eating adamantine weapons, description of the teeth> A Wirrn’s bite attack is considered an adamantine weapon for all purposes.
Secretions (Su): <affected by energy drain inflicred in the tarrasque, protect themselves by helping their host> Any contact with a wirrn, such as being hit with its slam attack, or failing to escape from a grapple, Drains 1d4 levels and Heals 1 ability score drain. The Tarrasque, while infected with a Wirrn colony, can heal 1 point of ability drain per minute. If the Tarrasque is not suffering from ability drain, the Wirrn secretions build up in a reservoir of healing. In this way, the Tarrasque can heal up to 15 ability drain instantly before taking any lasting ability drain. The reservoir replenishes at a rate of 1 point per minute.
Expert Grappler (Ex): A Wirrn can maintain a grapple without penalty and still make attacks against other targets (normally, attacking other targets while grappling imposes a -20 penalty on grapple checks). A Wirrn is never considered flat-footed while grappling.
Regeneration (EX): A Wirrn’s Regeneration is bypassed by adamantine weapons. <Regeneration is 1 per 5 HD +1 HP.>
Improved Grab (Ex): To use this ability, a wirrn must hit with its slam attack. It can then attempt to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity. If it wins the grapple check, it establishes a hold and can attempt to implant the foe the following round.
Implant (EX): <Uses sting, implants an egg disease effect?>

Ecology: Alpha exists in the intestine, and spans the entire length. <Rest to be worked out in the future>

Thoughts/Suggestions/Ideas/Criticisms?

noob
2017-05-03, 03:19 PM
It should do something against incorporeal creatures since the creature the most likely to neutralize a Tarrasque with stat drain is incorporeal.

Magikeeper
2017-05-03, 05:48 PM
You could also have it be infested by a second species, a mildly sapient winged beast that fuses with the tarrasque's back.

Quickly tossed together statblock (A Tarrasque wingrot would be considerably advanced, which would result in a will save DC the Tarrasque would have little chance of passing):


Wingrots are a monstrous parasite that latch onto a host's back, consuming it over time. Creatures with swift regeneration sometimes form a symbiotic relationship with Wingrots, allowing one of them feast on their flesh in exchange for the benefits it provides a host.

Small Magical Beast
Hit Dice 3d10+15 (30 hp)
Initiative: +3
Speed: 30 ft, Fly 60ft (Good)
AC: 17 (4 Natural + 3 Dexterity + 1 size)
BAB/Grapple: +3, +4
Attacks: Slam +5 melee (1d6+1, Attach) or 2 Wing Slaps +5 melee (1d4+1)
Special Attacks: Attach, Share Life, Consume Life, Spell-Like Abilities
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60ft, Low-Light Vision, Telepathy 60ft, Bound Flight, Bound Reactions, Immunity to Mind-Effecting Effects, Fire, and Acid, Vulnerability to Cold
Saves: Fort: +8 , Ref +9: Will: +6
Abilities: Str 12, Dex 16, Con 20, Int 8, Wis 19, Cha 6
Feats: Ability Focus(Attach)
Skills: Spot +10*, Listen +10*, Sense Motive +6*, Spellcraft +5*
Environment: Any Warm Environment
Treasure: nil
Alignment: NE
Advancement: 4-6(Small), 7-15 (Medium), 15-23 (Large) 24-28 (Huge), 29+ (Gargantuan)
*Wingrots have a +6 racial bonus to Spot and Listen checks, and a +2 bonus to Sense Motive and Spellcraft checks.

Attach(Ex): Whenever the Wingrot successfully hits a living creature, that is its size category or larger, with its slam attack the Wingrot may adhere itself to the creature's back. Once attached, the host must make a DC 18 Will save. If the host fails the check they cannot make any attempt to remove the Wingrot, and defends it as though it were a part of their body and dearest friend while so attached. Creatures immune to mind-effecting effects and/or enchantment spells automatically pass this will save.

If the host succeeds on their saving throw they may attempt to remove the Wingrot by making a successful DC 18 strength check as a full-round action on their turn. Any other creature can attempt to remove the Wingrot as well (without needing to make a will save). The Wingrot cannot use its slam attack while attached to a host.

If the Wingrot is not removed within an hour of attachment can no longer be detached by any means until it or its host have died.

All of the above save DCs are constitution-based, and include the +2 bonus from the Wingrot's ability focus feat.

Share Life(Su): While attached to a host, the Wingrot may have half (rounded down) of all damage dealt to it be dealt to its host instead. The damage type does not change (e.g. if the Wingrot is dealt damage of a type the host is immune to, the host takes no damage).

Furthermore, the Wingrot may choose to have any spell or magical ability that effects its host effect it as well and vice-versa.

Consume Life(Su): While attached to a host, the Wingrot deals 1 damage to its host every round. The host does not feel this damage, which sustains the Wingrot without needing food or water. This damage cannot be prevented, cannot be healed through magical means, and bypasses damage reduction, but it can be converted into non-lethal damage by non-magical regeneration. This damage is increased by 1 for each size category above small the Wingrot is (5 damage for a gargantuan Wingrot).

Spell-Like Abilities (Sp): A Wingrot's spell like abilities are wisdom-based, and automatically bypass their host's spell resistance (if any). If the Wingrot has been attached to its host for at least an hour the host is always considered to be "willing". What spell-like abilities a Wingrot has accessed to are based on its HD as indicated below. The abilities are cumulative:

3-6: At-Will - Detect Magic, Suggestion (Host Only); 3/Day - Dispel Magic; 1/Day - Sanctuary
7-15: 3/day - Augury, Freedom of Movement, Bestow Curse; 1/Day - Break Enchantment
16-23: At-Will - Dispel Magic; 3/Day - Greater Dispel Magic, Death Ward; 1/Day - Contingency (Self and/or Host)
24-28: 3/Day - Dimension Door (Self/Host Only), Spell Resistance; 1/Day - Moment of Prescience(Self and/or Host)
29+: At-Will - Greater Dispel Magic; 3/day - Disintegrate; 1/Day - Foresight, Disjunction

The Wingrot's caster level is equal to its HD.

Telepathy (Su): A Wingrot can telepathically communicate with any creature that speaks Giant or any language its host knows, provided the creature is within 60ft.

Bound Flight (Ex): While attached to a host, the Wingrot's base fly speed is reduced to 40ft (Poor Maneuverability). The Wingrot's host is carried with the Wingrot. The Wingrot cannot use its land speed while attached to a host. The host's base movement speeds are unaffected by the Wingrot.

Bound Reactions (Ex): Whenever the Wingrot and its host roll for initiative, it may choose to have both itself and its host use the highest total (So if one of them would have an 18 and the other a 4, they can both treat their result as 18). This ability also applies to any spot and/or listen checks it and its host make.

LeateWonceslace
2017-05-03, 10:08 PM
So, I am already giving the tarrasque a few little tricks to deal with incorporeal and flying targets. But I probably will still use Wing Rots, likely as part of the life cycle of the other parasite. Thanks for the feedback, it's a great help.

Waker
2017-05-04, 12:45 PM
There are obvious choices like blood-sucking ticks, leeches, worms or other things. One other thing to remember though is that Big T spends an enormous amount of time dormant, spanning decades or centuries. How about giving him a fungal (plant or ooze) parasite that ends up coming along for the ride when he wakes up. It could be the one that generates your Stinking Cloud effect or something worse, most of which T is immune to since he doesn't care about poisons, diseases and so on.
You could even say the fungus hates sunlight, so to protect itself it emits a constant fog effect, making ranged attacks less effective against T without first using a wind effect to negate it.

Knaight
2017-05-04, 12:50 PM
I like the Wirrn, but as pointed out that still leaves issues with incorporeal and flying foes - which suggests a second option. For incorporeal foes I kind of like the idea of a spectral fungus that eats chitin and bone and has thus covered the tarrasque's claws, teeth, and armor. As the fungus is partially incorporeal, they make the tarrasque count as incorporeal for striking purposes. Then there's the matter of how they could get all over the place when the tarrasque is struck, which combines really well with how they eat bone.

Sredni Vashtar
2017-05-04, 12:54 PM
Speaking as a veterinary technician, and more towards fluff than crunch here, but the first thought I had upon reading the title was "it depends on what exactly the Tarrasque is."

Is it a mammal or reptile? Both? Something else entirely? Is it a species or a lone individual? If unique, how long of a time has it been around?

Internal parasites that are animals (like tapeworms) tend to be mostly species-specific, with some crossover among similar groups. External animal parasites (fleas and ticks) tend to latch onto a group of species, like warm-blooded mammals, but not reptiles. Fungal parasites are most likely to spread between species (for example, you can get ringworm from your cat, and vice versa). The reason I bring this up is that it can help flesh out the world. If the Tarrasque is unique, there shouldn't be a Tarrasque tapeworm (unless the tapeworm species has had time to evolve to its new environment), but a Tarrasque with a fungal scale infection is reasonable.

Obviously, when dealing with mixing fantasy games and real world biology, take it with a grain of salt. I'm just offering food for thought. :smallsmile:

Crisis21
2017-05-04, 03:31 PM
Well, you could do something a little left-field here if you'll excuse the expression. Namely you can have the parasites be creatures that simultaneously feed off of and weaken the tarrasque.

Example: The players learn about the parasites as an independent threat that has been growing for some time but been mostly contained until recently when their numbers and strength exceeded the ability of those charged with keeping them contained. Thus the campaign shapes up to be a standard extermination quest: discover the source of the creatures and wipe them out.
Except then the players learn that the 'source' of these creatures' strength is the tarrasque, and that by consuming its power the parasites keep the tarrasque dormant. So they must face a choice: Wipe out the parasites even though it could very well mean awakening the tarrasque themselves (and when they're weak from fighting the parasites no less), or leave the tarrasque dormant and try to find a new way to contain a swarm of super-parasites that is slowly growing continually stronger from feeding off the tarrasque.

LeateWonceslace
2017-05-04, 07:42 PM
There are obvious choices like blood-sucking ticks, leeches, worms or other things. One other thing to remember though is that Big T spends an enormous amount of time dormant, spanning decades or centuries. How about giving him a fungal (plant or ooze) parasite that ends up coming along for the ride when he wakes up. It could be the one that generates your Stinking Cloud effect or something worse, most of which T is immune to since he doesn't care about poisons, diseases and so on.
You could even say the fungus hates sunlight, so to protect itself it emits a constant fog effect, making ranged attacks less effective against T without first using a wind effect to negate it.


I like the Wirrn, but as pointed out that still leaves issues with incorporeal and flying foes - which suggests a second option. For incorporeal foes I kind of like the idea of a spectral fungus that eats chitin and bone and has thus covered the tarrasque's claws, teeth, and armor. As the fungus is partially incorporeal, they make the tarrasque count as incorporeal for striking purposes. Then there's the matter of how they could get all over the place when the tarrasque is struck, which combines really well with how they eat bone.

So I'm going to gank the incorporeal fungus as a reason that the Tarrasque is able to strike out incorporeally.


Speaking as a veterinary technician, and more towards fluff than crunch here, but the first thought I had upon reading the title was "it depends on what exactly the Tarrasque is."

Is it a mammal or reptile? Both? Something else entirely? Is it a species or a lone individual? If unique, how long of a time has it been around?

Internal parasites that are animals (like tapeworms) tend to be mostly species-specific, with some crossover among similar groups. External animal parasites (fleas and ticks) tend to latch onto a group of species, like warm-blooded mammals, but not reptiles. Fungal parasites are most likely to spread between species (for example, you can get ringworm from your cat, and vice versa). The reason I bring this up is that it can help flesh out the world. If the Tarrasque is unique, there shouldn't be a Tarrasque tapeworm (unless the tapeworm species has had time to evolve to its new environment), but a Tarrasque with a fungal scale infection is reasonable.

Obviously, when dealing with mixing fantasy games and real world biology, take it with a grain of salt. I'm just offering food for thought. :smallsmile:

So, evolution is a thing in my game, and an important, though not usually relevant fact about my game's prime material is that no one knows how it got there or how old it is. (The gods showed up and basically wondered how long it'd been there, and this was after the humanoids evolved, and the rest is a story for another time.) With that said, certain species (i.e. most magical beasts) didn't evolve quite the same way as the majority of the creatures did. The Tarrasque has many legends surrounding its creation, and all of them are apocryphal, because it existed before the discovery of the prime material. Since we don't have any sort of near-tarrasque creature, it's a safe bet that the Tarrasque (probably) came about with some sort of abrupt magical influence. If this is true, then it won't necessarily fit cleanly into any sort of genus or species-level clade, as that magical influence may have merged two species of a different genus. With that said, I think it's basically a weird mamal-dinosaur hybrid.


Well, you could do something a little left-field here if you'll excuse the expression. Namely you can have the parasites be creatures that simultaneously feed off of and weaken the tarrasque.

Example: The players learn about the parasites as an independent threat that has been growing for some time but been mostly contained until recently when their numbers and strength exceeded the ability of those charged with keeping them contained. Thus the campaign shapes up to be a standard extermination quest: discover the source of the creatures and wipe them out.
Except then the players learn that the 'source' of these creatures' strength is the tarrasque, and that by consuming its power the parasites keep the tarrasque dormant. So they must face a choice: Wipe out the parasites even though it could very well mean awakening the tarrasque themselves (and when they're weak from fighting the parasites no less), or leave the tarrasque dormant and try to find a new way to contain a swarm of super-parasites that is slowly growing continually stronger from feeding off the tarrasque.

That sounds like a fun idea, but it's not really compatible with my campaign. The premise is that the Tarrasque is a vast, quickly replenishing, well of resources both mystic and mundane. (For this next part to make any sense, one needs to keep in mind that this is a custom campaign world that pulls elements from p. much every wizard source book.) The current board state is that: The tarrasque is waking up, someone (Asmodaeus and the forces of hell) is keeping the Tarrasque from being captured with a ritual (that involves a certain notorious artifact that's difficult to control) so that no one else can have it. The Undying Court (taken and modified from the Eberon campaign setting) is the other prime contender for possessing it, and the forces of Mechanus and hell are both launching separate but coordinated attacks against them, to make sure their resources are too thin for them to accomplish much. Mechanus is attacking mainly because every member of the Undying court is on their Marut List, and Hell is attacking for the aforementioned reasons. The PCs are currently allied with the UC, and are attempting to find out the who, what, how, and why of the ritual, and subsequently stop it, followed by capturing and subduing the Tarrasque.

So, the position of displaced influence of the Tarrasque is taken, and I'd rather it didn't get old.

To keep confusion to a minimum, I'm going to be adding the updated stats to the first post shortly