Why the Tarrasque is Non-Epic 2

Last we looked, the base stats of a Tarrasque garnered a CR 18 and some serious doubts about the fairness of its BAB and damage potential.  Today, we’ll take a look at a couple of its special abilities.  The guide to improving monsters states that if a “monster possesses special attacks or qualities that improve combat effectiveness in a minor way” they get a +1 to CR.  If a “monster possesses special attacks or qualities that significantly improve combat effectiveness” then it is granted a +2 to CR.  Following these two rules, I will now go down the list of the Tarrasque’s abilities.  Note that I won’t even mention any abilities related to feats, only those that are apparently ad hoc or otherwise not the norm for a magical monster.

First on the list, augmented critical.  This ability apparently quadruples the normal threat range for the creatures bite and causes it to deal triple damage on a critical hit.  While awesome, I’d have to say that since it is only one of the beasties many attacks, that it only improves combat effectiveness in a minor way, although your fighter won’t agree when he gets critted.  Still, a +1 CR bonus for this minor ability, at most.  I may put that in conjunction with a couple other less combat oriented abilities as well.  We’ll say CR 19 for the nonce, however.

Second, the Tarrasque has a frightful presence like a dragon with a very respectable DC (quite difficult to make even for very well equipped 20th level characters) which doesn’t share the traditional once a day limitation.  You can get affected by this ability every single time you’re within 60′  of the Tarrasque.  For that ability, I’llgive another CR+1 making the CR 20 at this point.  That may seem overgenerous so check as I evaluate the rest of the abilities and try to even the score a bit.

Third, Rush allows the Tarrasque surprisingly fast, but brief, movement.  I’d say that this ability, although a great trump card, can be tossed in with the former abilities to nicely balance the current CR.

Fourth, Improved Grab and Swallow Whole seem to go together.  Swallow whole allows the Tarrasque to swallow a creature and move on to more interesting prospects.  Improved Grab makes every bite a prospective ticket to dinner.  I’d say that each of these abilities easily merit a +1 CR adjustment since it gives the Tarrasque real power to put even powerful opponents temporarily out of battle and completely ignore any opponenet not strong enough to cut its way out.  The CR is now up to 22.

Fifth, the carapace.  This armored carapace reflects rays BEFORE we find out if they failed.  The 30% reflection rate and rather specific spell type makes this a minor ability at best.  Rather than granting another CR increase, we’ll leave this as an interesting perk and move on.

Sixth, Regeneration. Oh man, I mean OH MAN! This is what makes the Tarrasque an epic creature.  Regeneration 40 that nothing overcomes deserves a +2 CR adjustment right there.  On top of that, the thing can’t die and doesn’t bleed.  That deserves at least one more +1 CR adjustment, and that only a +1 because I recognize that regardless of how not dead you are, being unconscious is pretty comparable.  With that additional +3 to CR, we’re up to 25 CR, and we’re not done.

DR 15/Epic.  At this point, with the Tarrasque ranking as easily epic, DR 15/epic is almost ho-hum and practically a must at CR 25 for a creature possessing such a low AC.  Besides, a very well equipped party will entirely ignore that number, so I’m afraid this gets no CR adjustment.

Immunities.  Likewise, at epic levels, immunities are a given.  Nearly every creature has half a dozen.  The Demi-lich is immune to Freaking ALL MAGIC!  These paltry immunities do little for the Tarrasque’s survivability except deter the wizard from further fireball spells.  However, the immunity to energy drain and ability drain is very important since that prevents opponents from circumventing the Tarrasque’s huge hp.  For that, I’ll grant an additional +1 CR kicking it up to 26.

SR 32.  Now, that does give the epic wizard about a 25-30% chance of losing any given spell, plus the carapace as mentioned before for all ray spells.  However, that’s also practically standard for any epic creature and there are a dozen and one ways to bypass or mitigate that chance of failure.  So this gets no bonus CR either.

Lastly, the Tarrasque has a major, major vulnerability in common with zombies.  It’s really slow (usually) and it has no ranged weapon.  In order to make the beastie truly an epic creature, I’ll probably apply a template that will give some kind of ranged attack to the Tarrasque.  In the meantime, I think that at least a -2 CR adjustment for that massive and crippling oversight is required.  Basically, a good archer could stand or hover about 200′ from the tarrasque, or perhaps a flock of the aforementioned archers, and poke it full of holes till it was unconscious, then the beastie could be disposed of, even if that meant just dumping it into a chasm where it couldn’t do any significant damage until it went back to sleep.

So, the final count is CR 24.  I can see an adjustment from a conservative grader down at CR 22, but CR 20 still seems just a tad low to me.  An example of Wizards of the Coast stuffing this monster into a non-epic game because they couldn’t be bothered to figure it out past 20 yet.