Cleon
Legend
Sorry, I may have been getting confused about our proposal before. Or else I am now.
Yeah, it seems we were talking at cross-purposes.
I am pretty happy with what you have in post 1397. But I still think I'd prefer the base dragon (including appropriate age category) to be within one size category of the base creature. I'm not too worried about wyrmling vs very young as long as we deal with CR appropriately. And there are still base dragons that work for all the SRD humanoids and giants. I'm not sure how to work the numbers quite otherwise.
Urm, but post #1397 is nothing like that.
If I'm understanding you rightly, that would require us to drop the "base dragon must be a LA category" idea and go back to the "all age categories are possible" approach, but with the additional wrinkle that the age category must be within a size step of the base creature.
I don't care for that much.
Consider a Red Weredragon. If it were a Halfing (Small) it could ONLY be a Wyrmling (Medium) under that rule, but if it were a Cloud Giant (Huge) it could be any age from Very Young (Large) up to Wyrm (Gargantuan), with only Great Wyrm (Colossal) being unavailable.
Contrariwise, a Copper Weredragon could range from Wyrmling (Tiny) to Juvenile (Medium) as a Halfling and Young Adult (Large) to Great Wyrm (Gargantuan) as a Cloud Giant.
A Medium sized base creature like a human or elf could be Wyrmling (Medium) to Juvenile (Large) as a Red Dragon and Very Young (Small) to Adult (Large) as a Copper Dragon.
Youngest:
Halfling Wyrmling Red Weredragon: +7 HD, +6 Str, +4 Con
Halfling Wyrmling Copper Weredragon: +5 HD, +0 Str, +2 Con
Human Wyrmling Red Weredragon: +7 HD, +6 Str, +4 Con
Human Very Young Copper Weredragon: +8 HD, +2 Str, +2 Con
Cloud Giant Very Young Red Weredragon: +10 HD, +10 Str, +6 Con
Cloud Giant Young Adult Copper Weredragon: +17 HD, +8 Str, +6 Con
Oldest:
Halfling Wyrmling Red Weredragon: +7 HD, +6 Str, +4 Con
Halfling Juvenile Copper Weredragon: +14 HD, +6 Str, +4 Con
Human Juvenile Red Weredragon: +16 HD, +18 Str, +8 Con
Human Adult Copper Weredragon: +20 HD, +12 Str, +8 Con
Cloud Giant Wyrm Red Weredragon: +37 HD, +30 Str, +20 Con
Cloud Giant Great Wyrm Copper Weredragon: +38 HD, +26 Str, +16 Con
Hmm, that introduces an additional wrinkle that the smaller dragons may produce stronger weredragons since they have to be in older age categories. A Small base creature like the aforementioned Halfling is a lot tougher as a Juvenile Copper Weredragon than a Wyrmling Red Weredragon after all.
If we are going to go for the "all age categories" option, I would much rather let the Halfling Weredragon go all the way up to Great Wyrm than nerf its upper limit. My mental model is that weredragons might get a lot more "dragoney" as they grow older, so their humanoid forms become an increasingly trivial part of their nature.
If we keep the current "stay within LA limits" limits, I would rather keep the "within a size of any age of the base dragon" rule, like so:
Creating a Weredragon
Size and Type: The base creature's type does not change, but the creature gains the shapechanger subtype plus any subtypes possessed by the base dragon.
The base creature must be within one size category the base dragon can grow to, including sizes of age categories without Level Adjustments. For example, a weredragon with the Medium sized juvenile copper dragon as its base dragon can be from Diminutive to Colossal in size, ranging from one size smaller than the Tiny copper wyrmling up to one size bigger than a Gargantuan wyrm or great wyrm copper dragon.