Who is Ashardalon?

[Vorput]

Think "draconic Keyser Soze".

well, that had me laughing for a good long minute

 

[IcyCool]

I believe the Draconomicon has a Prestige class named after him "Disciple of Ashardalon".

 

[kenobi65]

I am Ashardalon!

No, wait...I am Spartacus! Agador Spartacus!

 

[Remathilis]

You're all correct.

SPOILERS FOLLOW!




The original D&D adventure Path (Sunless Citadel -> Bastion of Broken Souls) introduced Asharadon to us. He was a powerful Red Dragon who had his own cult of devoted followers. He was opposed by a powerful Druid named Dydd who, in an epic battle, wounded Asharadon's heart but perished in the process. Asharadon knew he was dying so, so bound a demon (a balor named Ammet) to him to keep him alive. Thus, he became a half-fiendish Red Dragon and began to look for new ways to achieve immortality...

He or his cult has appeared in a variety of places in 3e since then. Including.

* A sample Intelligent magical dagger in the DMG 3.5 (the tooth of Asharadon)
* As a planar touchstone site in Planar Handbook
* As a vestige in Dragon Magic
* As a Prestige class in Draconomicon (Disciple of Asharadon, who gain fiendish qualities and seek immortality)

His name and cult appears in the Sunless Citadel and Heart of the Nightfang Spire. Info on Dydd appears in The Standing Stone. Asharadon's stats (as well as more info on him and on Dydd) appear in Bastion of Broken Souls.

His head priest is Guthias, a staked vampire from which the Guthias tree grows (out of the wooden stake). After the tree is defeated, Guthias is freed and becomes the main villain in the Nightfang Spire (not sure most people caught that reference.)

 

[BrickBronze_E-Genasi]

is there any 3.5 stats for ashardalon?

 

[Matrix Sorcica]

is there any 3.5 stats for ashardalon?

Nope, only for 3.0 and 4E.


SPOILERS follow!!





But really, it should be easy enough. Just take a Great Wyrm Red Dragon and apply the half-fiend template, add regeneration 20 as long as he's in the sould stream (IIRC) and you're done (from memory, de did have slightly more than average hp)

 

[frankthedm]

Spoiler

But really, it should be easy enough. Just take a Great Wyrm Red Dragon and apply the half-fiend template, add regeneration 20 as long as he's in the sould stream (IIRC) and you're done (from memory, de did have slightly more than average hp)

The big thing is one of the spell like abilities becomes auto kill to just about any PC because 3.5 Blasphemy is easy to break with caster level boosts or using monster HD for caster level.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/d-d-le...rding-bastion-broken-souls-spoiler-alert.html

 

[coyote6]

Yeah, I decided to cap blasphemy at CL20 for any villains that are fighting non-epic PCs; otherwise, it's not much fun, IMO.

Standing Stone also foreshadows another villain from Bastion, the Cathezar.

 

[doctorhook]

I don't think anyone mentioned it yet, but IIRC the Bastion of Broken Souls also appeared in Magic of Incarnum. Maybe there's still more Ashardalon lore in that book...

 

[Runestar]

The big thing is one of the spell like abilities becomes auto kill to just about any PC because 3.5 Blasphemy is easy to break with caster level boosts or using monster HD for caster level.

Blasphemy is also possible to counter, given sufficient prior knowledge. So in the end, it would do jack squat, because you would have your party be immune to its effects precisely to avoid a TPK.

Though apart from the SLAs, I feel the half-fiend template doesn't really merit a +3cr increase to the red dragon, since many of its benefits are made redundant. That and you want his special abilities to emphasis his dragon powers (and hurling horrid wilting just doesn't fit).

I feel he should be redesigned from the base up. Xorvintaal and ravenous templates anyone?