D&D 5E Could a monk could kill a tarrasque with one hit?

[machineelf]

The way I read the rules, a Way of the Open Hand monk could kill a tarrasque with one strike, with the quivering palm strike the monk gains at level 17. Sure, the tarrasque could succeed on a constitution saving throw (with a +10 to the roll), but there is a real chance that it would fail, and the monk could kill it on its next turn. And if it didn't kill it, the monk could just try again immediately. The tarrasque has legendary resistance, and can choose to succeed on a ST if it wants, but only three times, I believe. So that does somewhat protect it against the monk, at least at first.


Am I reading those rules correctly?

 

[Paraxis]

Sure, but legendary resistance is used after a failed saving throw. So say the the Tarrasque fails the DC 19 save with his advantage and +10 modifier, which happens only 16% of the time by the way, he then can decide to make that saving throw.

So the monk has to hit him and use quivering palm, then spend his next turns action to activate the ability, all at the cost of 3 ki points.

I would say the monk will be long dead and well out of ki points before the tarrasque fails 4 times.

 

[Dausuul]

Am I reading those rules correctly?

No. You can apply Quivering Palm with any strike that hits by expending 3 ki; but it costs a full action to trigger the death effect, and only then does the target roll its saving throw. Thus, it will take you a minimum of 8 rounds and 12 ki to kill the tarrasque this way.

Round 1: Attack, set up Quivering Palm.
Round 2: Trigger Quivering Palm. Tarrasque fails saving throw, uses Legendary Resistance.
Round 3: Attack, set up Quivering Palm.
Round 4: Trigger Quivering Palm. Tarrasque fails saving throw, uses Legendary Resistance.
Round 5: Attack, set up Quivering Palm.
Round 6: Trigger Quivering Palm. Tarrasque fails saving throw, uses Legendary Resistance.
Round 7: Attack, set up Quivering Palm.
Round 8: Trigger Quivering Palm. Tarrasque fails saving throw, has no more Legendary Resistance, dies.

And that's assuming the tarrasque fails every save. Remember that the tarrasque can wait to use Legendary Resistance until it sees the result of its saving throw; if it makes the save, it doesn't expend LR. With +10 Con save against the monk's DC of 19, it has a 60% chance to succeed, so on average it's going to take you 10 tries to bring it down (each attempt results in an average 0.4 failed saves, and you need a total of 4 failed saves to kill). That's 20 rounds. Not only that, but it's 30 ki, which you ain't got.

Bottom line: Even if you somehow manage to get the attack and the death trigger on the same round, and find a way to make the tarrasque fail all its saving throws, that's still 4 rounds you have to survive going toe-to-toe with the tarrasque in melee. Good luck.

 

[Eric V]

So the answer is "yes," but with lottery-winning odds.

 

[machineelf]

Very true responses. But I'd think throwing a monk into the mix will make an interesting fight, especially if your other party members can help burn off some of the tarrasque's legendary resistances. So I suppose in reality the monk couldn't kill it in one hit, but theoretically it could if it had used up legendary resistances, but by that time it has already been hit a lot.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Yes, you are correct, as far as I can tell. The point of Legendary Resistance is that the creature won't drop from one failed save, and that replaces all of the old immunities that such creatures would have against auto-kill attacks.

Keep in mind that the order of operations would require the Tarrasque to fail four times before one of them took hold, since Legendary Resistance kicks in after the save would have failed. Given the range of that ability, and the reach of the Tarrasque (and the ability of the Tarrasque to eat the monk in response to that attack being attempted), it seems unlikely that such a thing would ever happen during actual play.

 

[Dausuul]

So the answer is "yes," but with lottery-winning odds.

Which can be said of almost anything. I mean, hell, a 1st-level fighter with a +1 sword can kill the tarrasque by hacking it to death. She just has to hit on every attack and the tarrasque has to miss. Easy peasy.

 

[Eric V]

Sure. Fewer rolls required in the monk example, but yeah.

 

[machineelf]

Of course, the monk could hit it, and hold off on the trigger until the tarrasque used up its legendary resistances. The monk can go hide and try not to get eaten. Although that's probably too far across the meta-game line for my tastes on second thought.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Of course, the monk could hit it, and hold off on the trigger until the tarrasque used up its legendary resistances. The monk can go hide and try not to get eaten. Although that's probably too far across the meta-game line for my tastes on second thought.

Of course, you have no way of knowing when it actually uses a Legendary Resistance point (rather than simply succeeding on the save), unless the DM chooses to narrate it as such. And even then, it's more likely that you would hold off on the trigger until you think it's out of charges, and it succeeds on its throw anyway.