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THE TARRASQUE
🕑 Added 2025-09-03 17:56:47 +0000 UTCWeep and lament for the end comes.
An earth Titan of horrific power and primordial origin—The Tarrasque is a cataclysmic force whose footsteps reshape continents. It cannot be defeated, only sent back into depths to slumber for a time before it inevitably reemerges to bring devastation to the world.
I've started developing a series of TITAN monsters, and to give you a vibe check of what these will be check out this GM advice note:
These encounters are intended to be particularly unique and challenging. The Tarrasque, for instance, does not move and has unique survival and damage mechanics that obviates the need. Heroes move around (and inside) it, but this titan is beyond small things like movement.
Why create such huge monsters?
It's true that very few tables will play all the way to level 20, but having creatures like this is very important for game design and world building. Above the table, monsters like this can be incredibly inspiring for players to even think about fighting. This sets the bar and the limits of difficulty. Story-wise it also helps ground the heroes and prevents them from feeling too much of "super heroes" knowing there are things out there far more powerful than them. This creature explicitly cannot be killed. It can act in the story without ever actually coming into the story—it is the monster that a cult threatens to awaken. It is the weapon a kingdom unleashes on its enemies. It is the story device that reshapes your world, the nexus that calendars are based upon "before the cataclysm…"
What's coming next??
While this one is firmly a 20+ level challenge and only a small departure from standard legendary monsters, not all of the Titans will be. Many will be for lower levels so that more groups can encounter them, and others will depart much more from current expectations: some with explicit roleplaying challenges, some are composed of multiple stat blocks (leg, tail, head, etc.), some are entire dungeons themselves!
I'm very much looking forward to cooking up more of these baddies. Thank yo uall for your continued support 💪
Comments
Chas
Always, I think. It’s 50 damage minus your dex save result (although, that means the “DC 20” isn’t needed).
Kraig Przybylski
This is awesome! I’m excited for more of these as my world is inspired by Ancient Greece and will have Titans!
Joe Drozdik
For Cataclysm do players take damage on a successful save or just failure?
