Jan van Leyden
Adventurer
I like the idea of Regional Effects for legendary creatures - i.e. adult and beyond dragons.
D&D 5E MM Preview: Here be Red Dragons
- Thread starter Wolfskin
- Start date
I seem to recall that there will be rules for customizing monsters (DMG?). I would think that adding spellcasting (and other features) to a creature would be part of that-- easily allowing you to add those features to a dragon. If so, it makes sense to me. I know that not everyone likes the idea of dragons having spells. It can make them far more complicated to run (I seem to recall whole threads on 'how to run your dragon' toward the end of 3e). One could ignore the spells and spell-like abilities, but when they are part of the statblock, you feel like you are not using the dragon to its full effect unless you use them.
This way, you have a fun, challenging and dynamic creature to run, even if you don't want to bother with spells or similar abilities. But if you think an ancient dragon should have some extra tricks, you have options for adding those tricks to the more straightforward base creature. It hopefully gives everyone what they want
Anyway, my two cents.
AD
This way, you have a fun, challenging and dynamic creature to run, even if you don't want to bother with spells or similar abilities. But if you think an ancient dragon should have some extra tricks, you have options for adding those tricks to the more straightforward base creature. It hopefully gives everyone what they want
Anyway, my two cents.
AD
If so, that sounds good. I do want my dragons to have more tricks*, but I really don't want to go back to the bad-ol'-days of 3.5E, where dragon battles were the same as evil-wizard battles, but 100' taller.
*4E kinda sucked for customizing monsters with new powers; it had customization options, but they amounted to "replace this power with this other power". It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't flavourful. Smart creatures like dragons should almost never run out of tactical options.
That was foreseeable from the previews. Unless the DM heavily starts to use Rule 0 dragons in 5E seem to be the ultimate XP pinata who sit in their lair and wait for the PCs to come slay them. The regional effects dragons have and their lair actions enforce this style of usage even more.
Without spells or rituals, the only way for those dragon to affect the world is to roam around and stomp things. And without immunity from nonmagical weapons, this also only works on the small scale. Having dragons as evil mastermind is hardly doable unless they cede so much power to humanoid minions that they practically become oversized guard dogs who are completely dependent on their minions.
Thaumaturge
Wandering. Not lost. (He/they)
Slight clarification: innate spellcasting is called out as a variant.
Thaumaturge.
Thaumaturge.
Ah, there it is. I have to admit I was a bit surprised that it wasn't mentioned as a variant. That works for me. Then if I want my 'super evil mastermind' I can (presumably) just give him some sort of wizard or sorcerer template.
AD
That's great news! Can you provide any more details? Number of spells = Charisma modifier, usable once per day; what levels can the spells be?
I didn't think Venomfang from LMoP was tough enough, so I think he needs a boost.
Thaumaturge
Wandering. Not lost. (He/they)
That's great news! Can you provide any more details? Number of spells = Charisma modifier, usable once per day; what levels can the spells be?
I didn't think Venomfang from LMoP was tough enough, so I think he needs a boost.
Highest spell level is no higher than 1/3 CR. You can almost certainly guess what the dragon's spellcasting stat is.
Thaumaturge.
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