Jan. 14: A Tarrasque at the Top

Why One of D&D's Biggest Monsters Stands on top of the monster's ranking.

Author

Christopher Hutton
January 14, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes

Happy 2025! I went on a bit of a break there, but I am back in the coverage seat here, hopefully with interesting news for you and your players. I got a scoop from the 2024 D&D Monster Manual, and some other news to catch up on in the first couple of weeks of the year.

A Feature to Remember

The final book in the 2024 D&D trifecta is the Monster Manual, which has slowly released new information over the last few weeks. I got to sit down with the team to discuss what the new book contains.

Wizards of the Coast is attempting to go even bigger with its upcoming Monster Manual, including some significantly larger monster types that might rival the game’s greatest predator known as the Tarrasque.

The book will now have monsters that represent the “apex threat of their creature type,” said Wizards of the Coast Game Director and Monster Manual co-lead Jeremy Crawford at a press conference. These include classic monsters like ancient dragons for dragons, the tarrasque for monstrosities and some other new options which will allow DMs to present high-level threats related to nearly every monster type in the game.

At the top of the Manual’s ranking of dangerous monsters remains the Tarrasque, a kaiju-sized monstrosity who is designed to decimate cities and fend off the strongest of adventurers. This level-30 challenge rating monster will remain the hardest monster to fight in the MM, Crawford confirmed, but players should also expect it to get some serious updates to its abilities. “If anyone has experienced a group of player characters who’ve attempted to attack the Tarrasque at long range while thinking “this thing can’t do anything to us, just meet the new Tarrasque. It will be blowing up buildings at long range, shutting down teleportation around it and a whole lot more.”

Learn more in my report on the topic over at The Fandomentals.

News You May Have Missed….

Several TTRPG publishers organized its “New Gamemaster Month,” a new initiative to help players get into its various systems as 2025 starts. These vary from Runequest to Call of Cthulhu to Tales of the Valiant. There are a number of new resources designed to help players get comfortable with the games and hopefully encourage their tables to try something new.

Critical Role paused production because their home city of LA experiencing severe wildfires. While the company intends to return to broadcasting on Jan. 16 (aka this week,) the state of the fires may limit whether that can happen. The company also donated 30,000 to assist victims of the fire.

Chaosium is releasing The Sutra of Pale Leaves: Twin Suns Rising, a Call of Cthulhu adventure based in 1980s Japan. The adventure will center on the Lovecraft Mythos icon known as the King in Yellow, who seeks to return and decimate reality once again. It’s a curious culture gesture by the company since Japan has played a significant part in Chaosium’s success in the past.

That’s it for this issue! We’ll have your weekly round-up of the news out later this week. If you find coverage and roundup like this helpful, make sure you subscribe!