Converting True Dragons

[Cleon]

What about blight? It's along the lines of horrid wilting, but we already have some fairly high-level SLAs. Blight could come in at a lower age category and more times per day. What about the last thing being heat or fire related? Heat metal might be thematically appropriate.

Oh I forgot about blight. Not sure I like it, since it seems more a disease/affliction than a desert dehydration effect and I'd rather have something that doesn't only affect plants.

Adding heat metal is a good idea though.

As for the level of the SLAs, let's do a quick comparison.

Red Dragon: locate object (2nd/3rd), suggestion (2nd/3rd), find the path (6th), discern location (8th).
Gold Dragon: bless (1st), geas/quest (6th), sunburst (8th), foresight (9th) plus non-standard luck bonus (2nd), detect gems (2nd).
Silver Dragon: feather fall (1st), fog cloud (2nd), control winds (5th), control weather (7th), reverse gravity (7th/8th)

Dune Dragon #1: X (???), heat metal (2nd), hallucinatory terrain (4th), move earth (6th), whirlwind (8th)

If we made the additional spell something low level, like say whispering wind or pass without trace. That'd give its SLAs a range of levels roughly similar to the Silver Dragon.

Giving it horrid wilting for the highest level SLA works better for me than whirlwind though, e.g.:

Dune Dragon #2: X* (1st or 2nd), heat metal (2nd), hallucinatory terrain (4th), move earth (6th), horrid wilting (8th)
*whispering wind or pass without trace.

 

[freyar]

Hmmm, I prefer whirlwind to horrid wilting because (a) it's not as common and (b) necromancy just doesn't feel right for these. But maybe you can convince me.

Pass without trace might go along with the druidic aspect.

 

[Cleon]

Hmmm, I prefer whirlwind to horrid wilting because (a) it's not as common and (b) necromancy just doesn't feel right for these. But maybe you can convince me.

Pass without trace might go along with the druidic aspect.

Yes, I was preferring pass without trace out of the two, for the same reason.

I'm OK using whirlwind, which makes it:

Dune Dragon Spell-Like Abilities: pass without trace, heat metal, hallucinatory terrain, move earth, whirlwind

We still need to decide on the usages. How about 1/day for hallucinatory terrain and whirlwind, 3/day for heat metal and move earth, and At-Will for pass without trace?

 

[freyar]

That looks like a good list. I will also agree to the usage. How about age categories to start using each of these? I'd go with all age categories for pass without trace, juvenile and up for heat metal, old and older for hallucinatory terrain, ancient for move earth, and great wyrm for whirlwind.

 

[Cleon]

That looks like a good list. I will also agree to the usage. How about age categories to start using each of these? I'd go with all age categories for pass without trace, juvenile and up for heat metal, old and older for hallucinatory terrain, ancient for move earth, and great wyrm for whirlwind.

I'd be OK with that arrangement, except I prefer the adult age category for the move earth. Also, I'd fancy giving it another SLA so it doesn't have an "empty slot". How about waves of exhaustion 1/day at the ancient category?

e.g.:

Pass Without Trace (Sp): A dune dragon can use pass without trace (as the spell) at will.

Other Spell-Like Abilities: 3/day—heat metal (juvenile or older), move earth (adult or older); 1/day—hallucinatory terrain (old or older), waves of exhaustion (ancient or older) and whirlwind (great wyrm).

 

[freyar]

That's fair enough. It's on par with a bronze or silver dragon, roughly speaking. I'll go with that.

 

[Cleon]

That's fair enough. It's on par with a bronze or silver dragon, roughly speaking. I'll go with that.

Seems we're agreed.

Updating the Dune Dragon Working Draft.

 

[Cleon]

OK, that seems to be it for the age category bits, so we just have the CR and Level Adjustments to decide on.

Well, assuming the Treasure and Alignment are alright by you - the Advancement is already implicit in the age category's HD.

 

[freyar]

Treasure and Alignment make sense to me.

They're pretty good, probably as strong as a Silver or Red. How about we use the CR and LA progressions from one of those --- CR is the same for the two, LA is slightly lower for Silver.

 

[Cleon]

Treasure and Alignment make sense to me.

Updating the Dune Dragon Working Draft.

They're pretty good, probably as strong as a Silver or Red. How about we use the CR and LA progressions from one of those --- CR is the same for the two, LA is slightly lower for Silver.

Yes, they're pretty close to the Red and Silver, except for their size, Strength and Constitutions which are slightly lower at the largest sizes. e.g. the Great Wyrm is Gargantuan and Str 39, Con 27, compared to the Colossal sized Great Wyrms of the Red (Str 45, Con 31) and Silver (Str 43, Con 31).

I'm tempted to give the Great Wyrm Dune Dragon Str 41, Con 29 just to even them out a bit.

Anyhow, using the Silver/Red Challenge Ratings makes sense, they're certainly a better match to it than using the Bronze CR progressions.

As for the LA, the Silver Dragon's Wyrmling +4, very young +4, young +5 seems a better fit than the Red's LA. They don't have the benefits of Large size at the young/very young ages like the Red, so oughtn't to have the Red's higher LA at those sizes.