D&D 5E 5e Updates: Monstrous Compendium

[Stalker0]

So I had a pretty simple idea that seemed so intuitive I can't believe I didn't think of it sooner. Just give the dragon an action option to recharge their breath instead of a recharge roll.

Breath Weapon (1/short rest).
Legendary Action (2) - Recharge Breath: The dragon regains the use of its breath weapon. The dragon cannot take an action until the end of its next turn.


Effectively you are trading in an entire round of inaction to recharge your breath. Now in a straight up fight you generally would not want to do that, but if your doing a "fly by" type encounter with a dragon, it might be worth it for the dragon to recharge every other round to do another breath weapon pass (that's why I left it at 2 legendary actions...so the dragon can reposition while it charges up the "nuke")

Doing the Offensive Math on the Adult dragon, its 123 normal vs 131 with the breath, recharge, breath. So if you drop the breath just a bit (from 88 to 85), and increase the claw damage from 17 to 20... the two routines becomes virtually equivalent (125 vs 126), and they remain at the same CR 20 offensive range.

I found that instead of removing the legendary actions, if you just make the recharge an action and make the following adjustments:

1) Breath: 88 -> 80
2) Bite: 33 -> 36
3) Claw: 17 -> 20

You get to 124 vs 126... still really close and that removes all the awkwardness of spending legendary actions before your action and then realizing you can't recharge your breath, etc. It also means that the dragon can still apply a little pressure on the party when its recharging, instead of just "twiddling thumbs".

 

[dave2008]

I found that instead of removing the legendary actions, if you just make the recharge an action and make the following adjustments:

1) Breath: 88 -> 80
2) Bite: 33 -> 36
3) Claw: 17 -> 20

You get to 124 vs 126... still really close and that removes all the awkwardness of spending legendary actions before your action and then realizing you can't recharge your breath, etc. It also means that the dragon can still apply a little pressure on the party when its recharging, instead of just "twiddling thumbs".

I think that is the ticket - nice work. I will update the dragons -again!

There is some nice flavor in their two as it will be obvious it is not taking an action you can describe it as charging up.

I will have the dragons update with new recharge and scales details later tonight or tomorrow.

 

[Protonicmass]

I think that is the ticket - nice work. I will update the dragons -again!

There is some nice flavor in their two as it will be obvious it is not taking an action you can describe it as charging up.

I will have the dragons update with new recharge and scales details later tonight or tomorrow.

When you are finished with those general updates, will you move on to the specific dragon subspecies (gold, black, topaz, etc)?

 

[Protonicmass]

Yeah its a little messy. You mentioned you didn't want dragons to suffer the dragon scales against each other, but why not? That would just mean dragon fights are extra long and epic, is that really a bad thing?

Alright here's another idea, that is more applicable in regular combat.... see if the flavor works in your opinion. I'm going with two versions, one a simpler and more general concept, the second more specifically geared to thwart ranged attackers.

Dragon Scales (V1): The dragon has resistance to any attack made at disadvantage, unless the attack is a critical hit.

--Flavorwise, this represents that you have to target weak spots on the dragon or you can't do much damage. This would means that the ranged mob firing at long distance would barely scratch the dragon....though at closer range could do some real damage. It also means that the firebreath opaque effect could have some extra oomph, as you would normally be at disadvantage to attack through it.

Dragon Scales (V2): The dragon has resistance to any attack made from beyond 100 ft, unless the attack is a critical hit. (adjust range to taste)

--So this version would actually have impact on ranged spell users as well, and encourages dragon hunters to get "close and cozy" with a dragon if they want to beat them. Compared to version 1, the ranged mob couldn't get in the big pain unless they are at 100 ft, whereas in version 1 they could do it at 150 ft.

Dragon Scales (V3): The Dragon is immune from nonmagical slashing, piercing, and bludgeoning damage, unless the weapon used has been dipped in dragon blood*

*DMs are encouraged to substitute another ingredient that bests fits their campaign.

--So in this model, we are going with the notion that you need magic to even hurt a high level dragon. But for those games where magic items are low, we are offering a flavor way to bypass it. Again, this ensures the riff raff can't hurt the dragon, but allows the PCs to attack it normally.

what if you combined V1 & 2, and made the dragon immune to different magic levels depending on its teir (e.g a Wyrm would be immune to more powerful magic than an Elder)?

 

[dave2008]

When you are finished with those general updates, will you move on to the specific dragon subspecies (gold, black, topaz, etc)?

Once the red dragons are correct I will use them as a template for the other dragons. However, I am only doing the chromatic dragons right now. After that I am moving on to revising my Epic Updates. Time for some deities, primordials, and archfiends OH MY!

 

[dave2008]

what if you combined V1 & 2, and made the dragon immune to different magic levels depending on its teir (e.g a Wyrm would be immune to more powerful magic than an Elder)?

I went with version 2 and then added in a damage threshold for the Ancient and the Wyrm.

 

[dave2008]

I have updated the Adult - Wyrm red dragons again. I think this the last pass. I just need to make a few adjustments to the younger dragons and then on the next Chromatic - an suggestions?

 

[Stalker0]

I have updated the Adult - Wyrm red dragons again. I think this the last pass. I just need to make a few adjustments to the younger dragons and then on the next Chromatic - an suggestions?

I think that is one big old can of whoop butt Definately feels like a boss monster, its throwing conditions around left and right, has no true weaknesses, can counter the tricks that a high level party can dish out.... it looks scary as hell, I really want to throw a party at it to see how they do!

 

[dave2008]

I think that is one big old can of whoop butt Definately feels like a boss monster, its throwing conditions around left and right, has no true weaknesses, can counter the tricks that a high level party can dish out.... it looks scary as hell, I really want to throw a party at it to see how they do!

Please do! Now I need to rest my brain a bit before I finish up the smaller reds.

 

[Stalker0]

A note on the Wyrm's mythic actions.

1) Imolate foe is normally 1 LA, but once you go mythic its 3. Is that intended?

2) You make spell-casting part of the mythic LAs, but since you made a specific note that the spells are flavor and not really a party of the Dragon's core CR, it seems strange to add them in as LA actions.