Special Conversion Thread: Lycanthropes and their ilk

[Cleon]

OK, sure. I wondered if that might be it.

Updating the Weredragon (True Drakanthrope) Working Draft.

What part do you want to look at next?

I'd just go through it in order, so Special Attacks next.

 

[freyar]

Well, we've changed the language about when it gets various SAs (the current " Unless otherwise noted, weredragons only gain the special attacks of the base dragon's wyrmling age category regardless of the base dragon's size and Hit Dice" doesn't apply to the Ex special attacks unless we want to otherwise note them). We should use language like we did for the Attacks, noting that a dragon or hybrid form of given size gets the attacks "if the dragon type of the base dragon has those attacks at any age category." Agreed?

 

[Cleon]

Well, we've changed the language about when it gets various SAs (the current " Unless otherwise noted, weredragons only gain the special attacks of the base dragon's wyrmling age category regardless of the base dragon's size and Hit Dice" doesn't apply to the Ex special attacks unless we want to otherwise note them). We should use language like we did for the Attacks, noting that a dragon or hybrid form of given size gets the attacks "if the dragon type of the base dragon has those attacks at any age category." Agreed?

Yes, this is going to need some serious thought.

I'm thinking some of the Special Abilities will need tweaking, particularly the Breath Weapon.

The original stats has "They can also use the dragon’s breath weapon once each day."

Which is a bit problematic since it doesn't give a size or damage, which are both age-variable for 2E dragons.

Also, we were using the Half Dragon as a source of inspiration and that has a 6d8 damage breath weapon, which is far stronger than any Wrymling SRD dragon. Wyrmlings range from 2d4 to 2d10 breath weapon damage.

That raises one concern I had. Shouldn't a strong weredragon have a decent breath weapon even if the base dragon's only a Wyrmling.

Say you have a Storm Giant base creature (19d8) and a Black Dragon Wyrmling base dragon (4d12) which adds up to 23 Hit Dice. Having a Wyrmling Black Dragon's 2d4 acid breath is too tiddly. It's barely worth spit.

How about having the Weredragon breath weapon match that of the true dragon with similar Hit Dice.

So for the aforementioned Storm Giant Black Weredragon, its 23 Hit Dice falls within the 22-24 HD of a Mature Black Dragon which has a 14d4 breath weapon, for 35 average damage.

If it was a Gold Weredragon, the same 23 Hit Dice would match an Adult Gold Dragon (23-25 HD) which has a 12d10 breath weapon (66 average damage).

 

[freyar]

I can go for that. It's usually not too hard to convince me to make a monster tougher.

 

[Cleon]

I can go for that. It's usually not too hard to convince me to make a monster tougher.

How's this:

Special Attacks: A weredragon retains the special attacks of the base creature or base dragon, depending on which form it is using, and also gains the special attacks described below.

In hybrid form a weredragon retains the special attacks of the base creature and gains the special attacks described below. If the base dragon has a special attack tied to a natural weapon, such as a rust dragon's rusting bite, it retains that special attack in hybrid form.

Breath Weapon (Su): A weredragon can use its breath weapon in both hybrid and dragon form. The breath weapon is the same as a dragon whose type and racial hit dice matches the weredragon's base dragon. For example, a wyrmling bronze ogre weredragon with 6 dragon hit dice and 4 giant hit dice will have a breath weapon as powerful as a 10 hit dice very young bronze dragon. The area of the breath weapon always matches the biggest size the weredragon can assume in dragon form.
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