By The Brass Dragon

I recently tweeted a matchup between an Ancient Red Dragon and the Tarrasque, asking the question of could the dragon win? In this article I’ll go over the various scenarios that could occur within this clash of titans, and include a short story about a tyrannical Red Dragon going face to face with a Tarrasque intruder.

Thermak the Sun Eater, a short story. 

Thermak the Sun Eater had slumbered for centuries within the searing heart of a volcano. The mountain had become home to a clan of dwarves who dug relentlessly and built their fortified hold there – a hold that an army of orcs could not breach. 

Then when Thermak deemed it to be the right time, he awakened. The land trembled and clouds of ash blotted out the sun for weeks as he burst from the top of the blackened mountain, wings three-hundred feet in span and wreathed in fire rising from its peak.

That was the day the realm learned his name and learned to fear it. For centuries since, Thermak dwelt within the ruins of that dwarven kingdom, surveying the charred lands for miles around with pride. Neighbouring kingdoms had bent the knee and offered tribute. Many of them had only measly trinkets, and now only existed as a scorch mark upon the map of the world. 

The most prosperous kingdom within his domain was that of another dwarven clan in their mountain home of Gazar Karym. This hold had a near endless supply of mithril and gold, and Thermak made sure he was given the entire sum in tribute each year. The dwarves knew that should they fail to mine as much riches as the previous year, they’d lose a fifth of their population to the dragon’s stone-melting breath. 

But there would be one other night that those dwarves would never forget. As their mining picks clang in chorus throughout the shimmering caverns, a terrible beast emerged from one of the great walls as though it were water, disturbing only the glimmering veins of gold within it. 

This thing stood taller than the grand and ancient gates to their mountain home. It had a carapace as thick as a hundredfold shields, adorned with spikes that resembled towering stalagmites. It had claws longer than spears, a maw wide enough to swallow the colossal stone golems the dwarves sent to fight it off. 

Then it began to feast upon the dwarves. Their narrow tunnels and fortified chambers built in secret to protect them from the dragon were of no use, for this beast, this ‘Tarrasque’ as the greybeards called it, simply emerged through cavern floors, walls, and ceilings, making it even more unpredictable and dangerous. 

The dwarves were left with no choice but to flee, leaving their griffons and rams behind in a desperate attempt to distract this voracious monster while they escaped across the charred fields. 

Shortly after, the beast emerged from the mountain moving faster than a galloping steed. 

Spotting this commotion from a high clifftop was a small red kobold. He knew the master would want to know about this and grew excited at the prospect of a mighty reward for being the first to bring the news to him. 

He scurried for miles upon miles through burnt thickets, ash-filled canyons, and across ember scarred hills to get to the master’s mountain, still blotting out the sun with its volcanic plumes. 

He told no-one of what had transpired. This news was for Thermak the Sun Eater alone, for none other could have the glory of being the first to tell him. 

Thermak bathed in a lake of lava within the central chamber of the mountain, where once the throne of a dwarven thane stood. The kobold approached through the grand tunnel the dragon had carved with his own breath and decorated with the charred remains of adventurers that had tried to slay him. 

The moment the red dragon spotted him, and that moment did not take long to occur, the kobold grovelled with his snout pressed into the sizzling hot ground. 

Thermak rose slowly, standing over the tiny little lizard with wings out-stretched as wide as the cavern allowed. His eyes swirled with flame. His claws sank into the rocky floor as though it were dirt. Embers dripped from him like droplets of water. He stood at forty feet in height, and twice that in length. 

“Oh great and mighty lord of all dragons,” the kobold began, gesturing with both arms raised as if worshipping a deity. “Thermak the Sun Eater, the Flame of Flames, the World Scorcher, he who strikes fear into all other beings, he who–” the titles went on for a long while, and Thermak soaked them up, allowing them to inflate his cataclysmic ego. “–A strange monster has emerged from Gazar-karym, displacing all of the dwarves. It moves through earth without resistance, and is at least fifty feet in height!” 

Thermak’s nostrils flared at the last part. 

“Did I say fifty?” the kobold said, quivering in fear as the dragon stepped closer to him. “I meant, uh.. Thirty nine?” 

The kobold was rewarded with fire and ash. 

Thermak could not allow another creature to terrorize his domain. If the dwarves truly were fleeing, then that meant the steady growth of his hoard would be stifled, and more importantly it meant they weren’t currently fearing him, but this new monster instead. 

He would show this foolish intruder the error of its ways. The mountain shook as he strode through the tunnel, and the air cracked as he took flight, like thunder announcing a storm. 

He did not have to search for long. He followed the tens of thousands of birds all fleeing in the opposite direction. He incinerated most of them as he flew by for daring to fear anything other than him. 

There in an open field, finishing off a small number of screaming dwarves, was the monstrosity the kobold minion had described. The dragon had a moment of hesitation as he realised that the original size estimate had been correct. 

No matter, he’d simply bring it down a peg. With the force of an erupting volcano he slammed into the side of the clueless beast, sinking his claws into its thick hide and his teeth into its dense neck. 

The beast roared and the land quaked. How dare its roar be louder than that of Thermak the Sun Eater. 

To the dragon’s satisfaction, the beast fell onto its side, crushing some fleeing dwarves. His teeth sank deeper, although he struggled to comprehend why the beast hadn’t been decapitated yet. Once his maw could clamp shut no further, he ripped a colossal chunk of flesh from his foe, flinging it through the air and spreading his wings wide as he released a triumphant roar. 

But the beast still moved, and was now standing back up again, even with the mighty dragon still clinging to it. There was no way its strength could surpass Thermak’s! The dragon clawed and chomped, depriving the beast of ribbons of flesh larger than the trees that snapped like splinters all around them as their battle moved to a nearby forest of charred pines. He snapped one of its massive horns from its head and plunged it into its eye, causing it to roar in pain, much to the dragon’s delight. 

The Tarrasque reached up and grabbed the dragon by one of his legs then slammed him upon the ground. The dragon’s blood boiled hotter than magma at the disgrace, and he delivered a kick strong enough to fell a castle to the beast’s head. This freed him from its grasp and he quickly righted himself, then delivered a thunderous tail whip to the side of his foe before beating his gargantuan wings and taking to the air. 

He looked down upon his witless foe. It flailed around like a rabid animal. The chunks of flesh missing from its form spewed acidic bile upon the lifeless earth.

But then his rage returned as he noticed those wounds healing themselves. The beast could regenerate. 

Absolutely unacceptable! He’d simply have to overwhelm it with sheer power instead. His maw opened wide and he unleashed a torrent of liquid fire upon his foe, completely enveloping it in the Flame of Flames which had been hot enough to reduce the mightiest fortresses of the world to blackened bubbling puddles. 

Yet the Tarrasque did not flinch. Its wounds had fully healed and the flames had left not even a scorch mark upon its hide. It reached up and pulled the horn from its eye as though it was an ape removing a piece of straw from its fur. It was not tired, and now it strode menacingly towards Thermak. 

For the first time in the dragon’s millenia of life, it felt fear. 

What could the red dragon do? Would it allow itself to flee and admit defeat? Would it find a way to overcome this force of nature, or would this apex predator be displaced from its own domain by this unstoppable natural disaster? 

The Breakdown 

There are several ways the fight could occur. I will go over each of them, discussing which creature is likely to emerge victorious. Editions vary, although in most cases the Tarrasque emerges victorious, especially if we are using 5th Edition, which is what we often use for these matchups. 

1. Rules as Written: In this scenario, the red dragon cannot even harm the Tarrasque depending on the edition. The Tarrasque is immune to fire damage, and it’s also immune to non magical attacks. The red dragon’s attacks are technically not magical, and of course its breath weapon is fire. The Terrasque wins easily. 
2. Magical Attacks: This was what I used in the short story, as in my mind it makes no logical sense that an ancient red dragon’s attacks aren’t magical, as that means it could not kill a werewolf with physical damage. The Tarrasque is still immune to fire, but the dragon can harm it with bites and claws. However, is that enough to overcome its impressive regeneration ability? Well, that might depend on the edition. The regeneration ability varies, with older editions having it regenerate 1 hit point each round, and 5e doing away with the ability altogether. It is possible that the dragon could eventually whittle it down, but would it be able to do that before its whittled down itself? Unlikely. The Tarrasque should win in a brawl, so the Tarrasque wins. 
3. Spellcasting: This scenario gives the dragon magical attacks and also spellcasting. Older editions suggest an ancient red dragon would not know any spell above 4th level, and in those same editions the Tarrasque is immune to spells of 5th level or lower, so they’d have no effect. But let’s say that the dragon knows up to 9th level spells. Well, realistically most of its spells would be innate and probably fire based, but let’s imagine it has a few other damage types as well and some utility, buffs, and crowd control. Of course, with the sheer amount of spells you could probably find specific ones that give the dragon the edge. But take into account the Tarrasque, even in 5e, has magic resistance and is designed to be difficult to beat with spellcasting. For a 9th level spell, the dragon would likely have meteor swarm, which can harm the Tarrasque but only with the bludgeoning aspect. It’s unlikely to win the fight, but it might damage the Tarrasque enough for other spells or regular attacks to finish it. Result: Could go either way, depending on the spells used. 
4. Dragon Generosity: Let’s be as generous as possible to the dragon. In many editions the Tarrasque can only be killed permanently by casting a Wish spell after bringing it down. Let’s give the dragon wish and a host of other high level spells, like disintegrate, gate, forcecage, etc. Of course, with the most powerful spells and abilities granted to it in the game it would likely win, but the result still isn’t a guaranteed success, as there are also variants of the Tarrasque with ranged abilities too, but as far as I am aware all of the variants have the magic resistance trait, making it likely to succeed its saving throws. Gate was suggested as a way to simply teleport the Tarrasque to another plane where it could be destroyed. This also depends on the edition, as in 5e Gate cannot teleport another creature to another dimension, instead it teleports a creature to your location. It is also 20ft wide at most, meaning the Tarrasque wouldn’t even fit through it. Even if it did and you teleported it to a plane where it would be destroyed, would it not simply reappear on the material plane, as a demon might reappear in the abyss? The answer to that isn’t clear. But, with enough leniency towards the dragon, it could surely find a way to win. The ancient red dragon wins this scenario. 
5. The Dragon’s Hoard: If we want to get very meta, someone did suggest the dragon could use some gold from its hoard to purchase manuals of clay golems, which are immune to non magical damage. The Tarrasque suffers from the same problem the dragon has (its attacks aren’t magical for some reason), meaning clay golems could technically defeat it. Now, this would be a colossal stretch of the imagination to have this happen, but it is ‘technically’ possible to pull off. Would the red dragon know to do this? Possibly. Would its pride and arrogance allow it to do this? Probably not. I featured stone golems in the short story as well, as in my opinion the Tarrasque would just crush any golem with very little difficulty, but if you’re going by the rules then yes clay golems can defeat the Tarrasque. Besides, what other magical items does the red dragon possess? An item that lets it cast wishes? Who knows. The red dragon wins this scenario. 

Summary 

To answer the question of could the red dragon win? Yes. There are ways an ancient red dragon could find to drive the Tarrasque off, from powerful spellcasting to use of its immense hoard. An Ancient Red Dragon has lived for a thousand years, and in that time would have likely built up quite an impressive collection of magical items, as well as many minions, including other dragons potentially. With all resources at its disposal, the limit is your imagination for what the dragon could do. 

However, in order for the red dragon to win you have to give it many generous handouts and cover a countless array of hypotheticals. Realistically, whether mechanically or lorewise, the Tarrasque likely wins. 

Winner: The Tarrasque

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