How to Defeat Tartuccio: The Kamikaze Strategy

An amusing way I found of defeating Tartuccio during the battle at the Sycamore.

Blaze of Glory!

Seeing as how so many people are having trouble with Tartuccio and the Sycamore, I've decided to write this simple guide on a clever (if somewhat reckless) way of defeating him. It's quick, it's easy, and if you do it correctly, the boss will handle most of the fight for you!


The first thing players will probably notice when entering this boss battle is that it's like a knife fight in a cupboard. The door locks behind you, trapping you in a small space with an army of Kobolds who look ready to mess up your day. And behind them all stands Tartuccio, in his purple kobold disguise.


The second thing players will probably notice is that Tartuccio is a bit of a moron, because the first thing he does in this battle is start casting a Fireball spell! Although in his defense, Sorcerers don't really need intelligence in order to cast spells...


Now anybody who's familiar with D&D knows that Fireball is bad news, especially since this battle is probably taking place at a point in the game where your own party can only cast up to 2nd level spells. But don't worry, because Tartuccio has almost quite literally shot himself in the foot with this strategy!


As I said, this is a tiny room, and Fireball has a 20 foot explosive radius that hits everything within range, including friendly fire! And to make things even better, the army of kobolds he has with him are scattered around the room, instead of clustered into a scaly shield wall. This gives you the opening you need to pull off the Kamikaze strategy.

Once the battle begins, command your entire party to immediately rush Tartuccio, while ignoring every other Kobold in the room. The army is spread out enough that your team is able to run right past them, which causes the Kobolds to begin chasing you back towards Tartuccio's direction.

Now for the beautiful part, Tartuccio should be in the process of casting Fireball, except that the people he was targeting are now directly on top of him. So what does he decide to do?

He casts the Fireball at point blank range, causing it to literally explode in his face! But that's not all, because the size of the explosion should be large enough that he also blows up his own army who were rushing to help him!

Now depending on your level, equipment and difficulty settings, there's a good chance most of your party survived the spell, but Tartuccio's minions are not so lucky. Kobolds are weak enough that anybody who got hit with that Fireball is probably dead, or on the verge of death.

With Tartuccio reeling from the 6D6 Fireball he just shot himself with, and most of his army reduced to crispy, Kobold burgers, you should have a much easier time killing him!

[Womeus]

You made my day! My Party LVL 3 tried about 20 times, but with your strategy it worked at once! Had my MC cast Grease first hand. Tart is quite susceptible and slipped during the first round. That gave me the possibility to position all PM in turn based mode. Initiative could be buffed by using Mutagen Dexterity plus Inspire Competence, so my C was first in th row.

[dwarfpcfan]

his fortitude save is pathetically weak, and his initiative is nothing to write home about. meaning you can just have improved init, then cast stinking cloud to ruin his day

[wolf470]

Oddly enough, Taruccio came out last on the three rolls for initiative.... Val bum rushed him (I use turn based to control the crazy chars) and got hit once for 0 damage, meanwhile Jaethal casts aid and Linzi, the PC (myself) and Octavia use bows, Amiri started swatting Kobolds that got close to the archers and picking targets worked Taruccio and the Kobold archer went down in the first volley. Oh and the fight was only two turns with nitwit getting pincushioned the first round and dying... I've run the battle three times that's why I noted three rolls for initiative. He just wasn't a problem...

[\/oron Agrrav]

managed to Accidentally do this, was a moment of hmm, Well that's certainly one way of clearing the room

[Lost Valkyrie]

wait that nut was casting fireball? never seen the spell always waded in and killed him too soon. Kenetic Knight for the win......

[Shades]

How to defeat Tartuccio:
1: Grab sword.
2: Make sure not to grab the pointy end, grab the other.
3: Hit enemy.
4: Repeat until enemy is no longer alive.

[Kimagure]

Tartuccio will target the first character, who's likely your tank. You can get the same effect by having the tank rush Tartuccio while everyone else falls back. That way, only the tank will eat the fireball (which they may evade if they have 2 levels of rogue). Tartuccio's fireballs should wipe out almost all of the kobolds.

[renaishtar]

the battle was in no way a problem. it did raise my eyebrows and I dusted off my healer from where he usually stood unused. on normal difficulty. The 'Dreaded' fireball is more problematic in a real game of Pathfinder where the sceanery often catches fire.

Still vary good advice.

[Doc CC]

The fireball from a scroll uses minimum save DC in PF1E. The save is Reflex DC 14. That save relatively easy, and you have access to Resist Energy (Cleric 2) and possiblyResist Energy, Communal or Protection from Energy. If need be, a scroll can provide it.

PfE has enough absorption to negate all the damage. A single character with PfE can rush taking zero from fireball. The kobolds will be wiped, that lone character is meleeing Tartuccio, and the rest of the party can join the rush.

Resist Energy provides fire resistance 10 at level 3. Average damage from a 6d6 Fireball 21, Reflex Save DC 14 for half (all fractions round down in PF1E). A single channel energy at level 3 restores an average of 7 hp of damage. That means that a party which is resists fire 10 takes 0 damage on a successful save, 11 on a failed save. A cleric can with one action offset it almost entirely.

It doesn't take much to outwit the fireball.

[𝔗𝔢𝔞 ❀]

Yes, that's how it went.