Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Darth Sephiroth 01-28-07, 12:13 AM	In the campaign I've been running the players recently went up against the Tarrasque as part of a setup that led to the main villain capturing the thing for later use against the capital city of the country the PC's are working with. I'm trying to figure out how to outfit and improve the Tarrasque as the centerpiece of an attacking force and really have no idea where to start with armoring and arming the thing as a siege weapon.
RLRapp 01-28-07, 12:21 AM	Firstly add an amulet of health. With its HD 1-3 additional hp per HD is a big deal.
Korone 01-28-07, 12:35 AM	As a siege weapon ? A spiked heavy fortified full plate. Bladed gauntlets and bladed steel jaws made out of adamantine, so the thing can do more damage with its natural attacks and crush walls and other things easily. An item to give it powerful charge, it need to walk through everything. Magic item to give it immunity to mind affecting effect, I think. You don't want ennemies to control that thing agaisnt you. Anything to increase its speed. Some static walls of force on it, like in the upper front of its head to block incoming arrows, boulders, etc. And lots of places to keep mages and archers on it. It need defence agaisnt flying things. Other than that.. no ideas.
runestar 01-28-07, 01:44 AM	A magic item which makes you immune to non-lethal damage. Like an item of persistant ilmater's grace?;)
dok 01-28-07, 02:52 AM	From a practical point of view, you don't "arm" the Tarrasque in this scenario. It's an engine of destruction unto itself. Instead, you exploit its strength. The Tarrasque doesn't get armed, but the army marching behind it loads the catapults with oil & alchemist's fire. Who cares if the area around the beast becomes an inferno if the beast is immune to fire? With DR 15/Epic, using massed archery fire works just fine. So here's what I'd do, being the evil DM that I am... 1.) The Tarrasque rushes the opponents, tying them down to melee fighting. 2.) The catapults reign hot, burning death upon the entire battlefield, since the Tarrasque is immune. 3.) The archers perform massed fire on the battlefield, since they can't hurt the big T. anyways. This approach works especially well if it's against a city. The tarrasque draws guards, the fire burns the guards, and the massed archery fire kills the folks who are trying to fight the fire. Similarly, having arch mages casting cloudkill around the creatuer works well, since its immune to ability score damage, and the cloudkill prevents attackers from bothering the creature while it tears down the walls. Spells that require strength checks, like entangle impede the big T less than others, clearly, and area effects (like Swarms from an insect plague or creeping doom) don't bother the big T at all, but keep attackers from getting too close. The other approach is to use those same spells/effects (wall of fire, cloudkill, insect plague) but instead of putting them in the same area as the Tarrasque, placing them in other areas to herd opponents into fighting the tarrasque.
Return of the Flumph 01-28-07, 07:14 AM	You could also go with the elephant approach; have them attach platforms to the tarrasque with archers, magi, and seige weapons mounted on them.
Threefists 01-28-07, 07:49 AM	Unless this Villain has some way of Controlling the Tarrasque (Dear god if he does do NOT let the Players get hold of it! Think of the Orcs!), there is no way in hell the T-Machine is gonna let anything hitch a ride... That said, the Jaws of the Dragon, Claws of the Ripper and Gemstone of Heavy Fortification from the Draconomicon would certainly add some extra grunt to the T-Machine... Claws increases the crit of teh T's claw-attacks to x4, Jaws increase the damage of the T's bite by one size (Can you say "Gib-Machine", Kiddies?) and the Gemstone will making it impossible for anyone or anything to sneak attack the T-Machine....and unless you forget my absolute favourite magical doo-dad, the Amulet of Natural Attacks could even add the Speed enchant to one or more of the T-Machine's attacks. In fact, you could even put the Vorpal enchant on it if you felt like being a real prick. DM:"The Tarrasque bites your head off." Player:"Wait....what?" DM: "The surviving members of the party notice there is a curious glow surrounding the Tarrasque's teeth and claws, not coming from the horrid metal device affixed to the inside of the beast's mouth, from which your head dangles by a length of torn flesh..." Players: "Ewwwwww!" DM: "....but from it's beasts own natural weapons!!" Surviving Players: "F**k THIS for a Game for soldiers, we're off!" Dead Player: "At least get a finger of mine or something so the Druid can regenerate my body...hey....HEY!" DM: *Evil cackling*
runestar 01-28-07, 08:03 AM	Have its natural attacks enchanted with permanent greater magic fangs while you are at it.:)
Return of the Flumph 01-28-07, 08:45 AM	Unless this Villain has some way of Controlling the Tarrasque (Dear god if he does do NOT let the Players get hold of it! Think of the Orcs!), there is no way in hell the T-Machine is gonna let anything hitch a ride... I was making that assumption.
Khael 01-28-07, 09:05 AM	Some kind of death ward (Two words: allip attack), and a fast heal effect. Congrats you have the perfect siege weapon on legs. And I so dare you to strap a vat of alchemists fire to it's back, with two others to it's arms... And drop a fireball on the vats when it gets to melee...
Threefists 01-28-07, 09:11 AM	Yeah, I kinda figured but....what the hell is gonna control the Tarrasque? I mean, we're talking about a nigh-on invulnerable killing machine that is freaking IMMORTAL unless the Party's got a hot-line from on high on how telling them how to permanently snuff it....if it could be controlled, surely Erynthul or some other "I love the smell of carnage in the morning!" God/Demon/Insane Wizard would have figured out a way to, if not directly control, then at least 'channel' the Tarrasque in the preferred direction.....can just imagine Erynthul telling the T-Machine "See that building? The one with the sign out front saying 'Kitten Orphanage'? Your breakfast is in there." Cue rather disturbing image of the Tarrasque with a dog collar around it's neck... Just....one thing. If this Villain is going to control the Tarrasque, exactly how is he/she/it/them going to achieve this? I can't exactly see them being able to knock the T-Machine out, let alone finding someone suicidal enough to grapple the Tarrasque long enough to slip a Collor of Domination around it's neck....and that's assuming the damn Spell Resistance doesn't make it next to useless...Unless the Villain(s) have uncovered the secret origins of the Tarrasque...wouldn't that freak your players out? See the T-machine come over the hill....followed by a half-dozen pseudo-Tarrasques... Also (For more evil, evil fun), you could decided to slap some grafts onto the Tarrasque (Maybe that's how the Villain(s) are controlling the beast. Removing the grafts could cause the Tarrasque to 'reverse' it's orders and go attack the Villain's forces rather than the Players 'home'.) to give it some ranged attacks or just some more melee ability (like it needs it anyway, but y'know...)
Khael 01-28-07, 09:40 AM	It's the balance of power that stops gods doing it (simply put if Pelor or Vecna or whoever directly trys it, the gods of the other side gang up, and his firends gang up... Mutually Assured Destruction AKA part of the reason in RL nukes don't get used. Also the reason PCs get given their missions by gods/gods intermediates instead of the gods doing it themselves) and since gods tend not to like fiends such a move by most of them will be vetoed too. Which leaves mortals... And I quite like the idea of someone standing on the back of its head, a sword embeddened in T's skull and twisting it until T goes in the right direction... With a wizard or two armed with walls of force to stop the smushing of course. Which is why the known loners who are insane wizards don't do it either.. Or there is voodoo-esque magic (The old 'I hold out your eye, our foes shall die'...The caller But use a different body part please...loss of depth perception in something that big, is not pretty.)
Darth Sephiroth 01-28-07, 11:45 PM	Well, the villain used an airship to basically entrap the Tarrasque by attaching a harness to it after the heroes knocked it out because of damage while the heroes were distracted by a controlled dragon attacking them when they were preparing to use their Wish spell to take big-T out. The villain is capable of controlling things rather effectively and has used the ability repeatedly in the game while at the same time being a highly charismatic character with a knack for deception and making worshipers.
Threefists 01-29-07, 04:16 AM	Wait wait wait wait wait!!! Are you telling me the Villain is a Epic Mindbender using his Thrall special ability to make the T-Machine his...well, *****? Holy Cow....perma-Dominated Tarrasque....I waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan t it! :$$:
Darth Sephiroth 01-29-07, 11:33 AM	Wait wait wait wait wait!!! Are you telling me the Villain is a Epic Mindbender using his Thrall special ability to make the T-Machine his...well, *****? Holy Cow....perma-Dominated Tarrasque....I waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan t it! :$$: The guy is an epic threat, I haven't really gotten around to stating him out, but that's basically what he does. I've been using him as a mix between Kuja from FFIX and Creulos from Dinoriders though with more social skills and a view of all other life as mere pawns in his games.
Silverthumb128 01-29-07, 12:44 PM	Give it 20 levels of Gestalted Paladin/Sorceror. Trust me, it'll be funny.
JiCi 01-29-07, 06:23 PM	In the campaign I've been running the players recently went up against the Tarrasque as part of a setup that led to the main villain capturing the thing for later use against the capital city of the country the PC's are working with. I'm trying to figure out how to outfit and improve the Tarrasque as the centerpiece of an attacking force and really have no idea where to start with armoring and arming the thing as a siege weapon.As far as the rules go, the Tarrasque can be made as en effigy (Complete Arcane). Now you got yourself a tank.
Darth Sephiroth 01-30-07, 02:05 AM	As far as the rules go, the Tarrasque can be made as en effigy (Complete Arcane). Now you got yourself a tank. That would be something entirely different than what I'm aiming at. Basically this is more of how to equip one for a more military use