D&D 5E Bead of Force - And Green Dragon Breath attack - poisonous gas

[Igo]

Quick question:

Would a Bead of Force prevent a green dragons poison breath?, and yes, I mean if I dropped the bead of force on myself to prevent the dragon from breathing on me effectively, nullifying his attack, and therefore leaving his action spent that round? Aside from the obvious why are you willing to damage yourself to prevent damage, its because I know my DM well enough to know that this dragon is gunning for me, and taking 5d4 damage in a minute will be much less than a dragon would do under these circumstances, and my party can then focus on the dragon while the dragon tries to focus on me

BEAD OF FORCE
This small black Sphere measures 3/4 of an inch in diameter and weighs an ounce. Typically, 1d4 + 4 beads of force are found together.

You can use an action to throw the bead up to 60 feet. The bead explodes on impact and is destroyed. Each creature within a 10-foot radius of where the bead landed must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw or take 5d4 force damage. A Sphere of transparent force then encloses the area for 1 minute. Any creature that failed the save and is completely within the area is trapped inside this Sphere. Creatures that succeeded on the save, or are partially within the area, are pushed away from the center of the Sphere until they are no longer inside it. Only breathable air can pass through the sphere's wall. No Attack or other Effect can.

An enclosed creature can use its action to push against the sphere's wall, moving the Sphere up to half the creature's walking speed. The Sphere can be picked up, and its magic causes it to weigh only 1 pound, regardless of the weight of creatures inside.

Thank you for responding if you do ;-)

 

[Yora]

Perfectly reasonable.

Only breathable air can pass through the sphere's wall. No attack or other effect can.

The text is pretty clear, but of course it's always up to the GM what the dragon will do exactly.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

"Other effect" are the key words here. Any breath weapon is clearly an "other effect" and is blocked by the sphere. It doesn't matter about the breathable air bit, the sphere blocks breath weapons of all types.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

That sort of tactic is playing D&D right IMO. It‘s creative, it isn’t overpowered, it has a tradeoff, and its fun and memorable.

Of course, this is coming from someone who, last session, apologized to his nearby party member before centering a fireball on an area that included them both, so YMMV.

 

[MarkB]

Sounds like a good way to protect against the breath weapon. At which point the dragon will have to resort to the tactics employed by eagles against tortoises.

 

[NotAYakk]

By RAW, you'd have to do it before the breath occurred. And if you ready an action, it happens after the trigger (ie, too late).

So the dragon would see you in the force bubble, and decide to breathe or not.

As you weigh 1 pound, it could just pick you up and fly upwards, then drop you when the bubble failed. Ka splat.

 

[Umbran]

By RAW, you'd have to do it before the breath occurred. And if you ready an action, it happens after the trigger (ie, too late).

Not necessarily.

A readied action is not based on the opponent taking an action, but on a "perceivable circumstance". So, arguably, "If the dragon takes a big inhale (the common depiction is a big inhale, and then an exhale of breath weapon), I set off a bead of force on myself" is probably an acceptable readied action, but at the point where it is too late for the dragon to call off his breath.

As you weigh 1 pound, it could just pick you up and fly upwards, then drop you when the bubble failed. Ka splat.

It can be picked up, but the bubble is 10 feet across. You have to be BIG to have that kind of arm span. A gargantuan dragon might do it, but a large one probably cannot, and a huge one might not.

More importantly, as the dragon takes off with the bubble, it provokes attacks of opportunity.

 

[MarkB]

It can be picked up, but the bubble is 10 feet across. You have to be BIG to have that kind of arm span. A gargantuan dragon might do it, but a large one probably cannot, and a huge one might not.

More importantly, as the dragon takes off with the bubble, it provokes attacks of opportunity.

20 feet across - it has a 10 foot radius.

Mind you, a 20 foot sphere weighing only 1 pound is pretty much in scale with a party balloon in terms of size-to-weight ratio - maybe even lighter. The dragon should be able to punt that thing fifty feet up with one talon swipe, and then just keep on blowing it further upwards with wing buffets.

 

[Stormonu]

Dragon could still roll you downhill into something unpleasant to get out of - a river, over a cliff, etc. Or bat you around with its tail. I don't imagine bouncing around inside the globe would be all too pleasant, especially if it comes to an abrupt halt.

<Edit> With it being mentioned it's a 20-foot sphere, it might be possible to catch the dragon in it, though you'd have to be damn lucky or somehow immobilize it first so it would automatically fail the Dex save.

 

[J.Quondam]

A propos of nothing, but... does it float?