D&D (2024) 2025's Ancient Green Dragon Stat Block From The New Monster Manual

The new ancient green dragon from the 2025 Monster Manual was previewed at Gen Con.

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[smetzger]

Q: What does "3 reactions per round but only 1 per turn" mean?

 

[Stalker0]

Q: What does "3 reactions per round but only 1 per turn" mean?

It means that when a player takes a turn, the dragon can react to them, but only once (aka that player's turn). Then when the next player goes (a new turn), the dragon can take another reaction. They can do this up to 3 times in a round.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

different order in which the monsters appear I guess, i.e. Green Dragon under G, not Dragon, Green under D

I would hope it's under D. It's possible the fact that there are more monsters just pushed it back.

Like if its under G that means there is not going to be a Dragon section that talks about them as a whole, same with Demons and Devils, which I would not like.

 

[Nikosandros]

I would hope it's under D. It's possible the fact that there are more monsters just pushed it back.

Like if its under G that means there is not going to be a Dragon section that talks about them as a whole, same with Demons and Devils, which I would not like.

I also dislike this arrangement, but -from what I recall - that's what they announced some time ago.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

I also dislike this arrangement, but -from what I recall - that's what they announced some time ago.

Yes but I hope they changed their mind. I brough up in surveys I was not a fan. I don't care if the D section is large.

 

[mamba]

they said they weren't changing the CR of creatures, doesn't mean they weren't changing the math of what a CR22 actually means in terms of AC, HP, and Damage

maybe, but they cannot really change it drastically either or they just effectively changed the CR for all monsters

 

[Stalker0]

maybe, but they cannot really change it drastically either or they just effectively changed the CR for all monsters

no, it means all monsters of that particular CR have to change their damage, aka EXACTLY what should be done!

 

[mamba]

no, it means all monsters of that particular CR have to change their damage, aka EXACTLY what should be done!

again, you can only make minor changes. If you e.g. change the formula so the damage is doubled for that CR, you throw all adventures out of whack

 

[Chaosmancer]

The thing is, to do everything a dragon could do makes for a huge and unwieldy statblock. I know, I have made many, many, many dragon statblocks and tried many different things. It is a fight between what it should/could do and what is more iconic or interesting. It is a tough balance.

What I would like is just some general actions by age category or whatever (like tail sweeps & wing buffets) in a sidebar (like spellcasting used to be) or table in the Dragon section that can be assumed to be part of a dragon's statblock, but not actually included in each stat block. Alternately, just use the improvised action options in the DMG.

Of course, I don't really need any of this as I can do it myself, but...I do like to see how others would do it!

When I saw the lack of Dragon Fear, I wondered if they were doing that, placing some iconic "all dragons do this" abilities in the generic "dragon" entry, to open up room in the statblock

 

[reidonly]

Why do the rules call out the spellcasting ability is charisma if it also specifies the save DC? You wouldn't adjust the save DC further, right? What requires the ability score backing the ability to be specified?