[RPG] Why is the Tarrasque the most dreaded creature

dnd-5emonsters

The D&D 5e Tarrasque does not look that dreadful to me. It seems very vulnerable to airborne attacks. In a world where fly is a third level spell, hippogriffs (among other flying creatures) can be ridden and longbows have a range of 150/600, it would seem that a relatively small force of flying longbowmen can easily defeat it. 20 flying longbowmen only hitting on a crit and having +1 damage from dex bonus will kill it in ~70 rounds. Sounds very long for players but it is only 7 minutes in real time.

Sure, it is still a big challenge for a party of 4 and not every town and village in the realms would be able muster airborne archers. Yet, the King should be able to muster even a larger force if the Tarrasque is an existential threat to his realm. Tarrasque also does not have an AoE attack so it seems vulnerable to numbers as long as they can stay out of the fear aura. 1600 longbowmen would likely one-shot kill it, again assuming only hitting on a crit and doing +1 damage from Dex (It would require very disciplined unit positioning, though).

The ancient red dragon, on the other hand, would be a superweapon on the battlefield with its 80 ft fly speed and 90 ft breath weapon every third turn.

The archers need magic weapons so the 1600 archer scenario is not very likely. Still, 20 flying archers with magic weapons should be enough.

Best Answer

Part of the reason that the Tarrasque is so dreaded is what it is doing during those 70 rounds.

For example, if it is eating a city, 70 rounds means a lot of buildings and roads destroyed and a lot of civilians killed. In that situation, the ruler of the city is not going to accept the adventurers sitting on flying creatures way out of harms way, plinking away with arrows.

I'm not paying you to sit up there and shoot arrows! Get in there and kill the —ing thing before it eats any more of my city!

A dragon or demon is probably going to go after the characters. A tarrasque is going to ignore them and just keep smashing everything it its path.

To phrase it another way, a tarrasque is not an enemy combatant; it is a force of nature.

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