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<blockquote data-quote="Stalker0" data-source="post: 8101418" data-attributes="member: 5889"><p>Ok, so after our discussion on the Young Adult, I will shift my "boss monster" eye to this guy. Lets see how he does.</p><p></p><p><strong>Ignite</strong>: I've mentioned before that I think the ignite mechanic is a little weird flavor wise. Its so little damage at 18th level that its barely worth tracking, but the fact that it negates reactions and concentration is an incredibly powerful ability. Now such power is perfectly valid for this CR, but it is delivered in a weird package. Personally I would just set it at 10 (3d6) damage, so at least its a nice round number if its going to be small. Remove the reaction drop and auto concentration drop.... the ignite damage will generate more concentration checks, and the main breath damage will represent the "stripping of concentration". I also threw in a combination mechanic with Wing Attack (see below).</p><p></p><p><strong>Breath Weapon:</strong> I really like the area effect you have going on with the breath. Just to give the dragon a little more tactical options, perhaps give the ability for the dragon's breath to be a cone, or an area effect around the dragon (flavor wise, the dragon is breathing around itself and engulfing the area in flames. This offers the dragon some protection against pesky melee types, and provides it a "shield of fire" to help against mass ranged damage. This augments the tactical nature of your ongoing fire effect.</p><p></p><p><strong>Defense: </strong>I wouldn't mind seeing the dragon scale power start at this level. It helps keep out the "riff raff".</p><p></p><p><strong>Move</strong>: Just confirming, do you intend this to be the dragon's "ground speed", and the Wing Attack to be the Dragon's "Fly Speed". I think a lot of DMs (myself included) always default to the fastest travel form until its specified, so I wanted to see what your intentions were here.</p><p></p><p><strong>Wing Attack: </strong>Would love to see a "knockback" effect here. This would give the dragon room to use its half speed movement without provoking OAs from the front line. Since you are already doing prone with the tail, swapping prone with a knockback here would give you a wider range of effects as well. If you wanted to throw on a little more "spice", you could say that an ignited creature immediately takes the ignite damage (the old blowing on a fire causing it to rage up).</p><p></p><p><strong>Detect: </strong>Just confirming if you meant a single attack, or all attacks made with the attack action? I think its just cleaner to say "advantage on all attacks until the end of the dragon's next turn". Yes that does mean that the dragon can get in a tail attack with its normal action routine, but I don't think that will break the bank...and it simplifies the maneuver.</p><p></p><p><strong>Overall: </strong>In general<strong>, </strong>I think the problem is that at these CRs, a typical party has so many tricks that can mess up a big bruiser...and at the end of the day for all its power, this dragon is still just a bruiser. It has a few means to knock away magic, but wall spells and the like can still just wreck its day, which for a boss fight can be very unappealing. So let me offer one more upgrade to really make the statement that you just do not mess with a dragon.</p><p></p><p><em>Burn Magic</em>: Any magical spell or effect in the area of the dragon breath weapon is subject to <em>Dispel Magic </em>(5th level). Use the dragon's charisma modifier for the spell. If a magical effect is vulnerable to Disintegrate, then the effect is removed as if hit by Disintegrate.</p><p></p><p>--This is the Dragon's omni-tool to tell with pesky mortal magic. Oh trap them behind a wall of force? BURN IT TO THE GROUND! Managed some kind of special magic circle that dragon's cannot cross? BURN IT TO THE GROUND! Party is buffed to the nines with dragon killing magic....BURN IT TO THE....well you get the idea<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Stalker0, post: 8101418, member: 5889"] Ok, so after our discussion on the Young Adult, I will shift my "boss monster" eye to this guy. Lets see how he does. [B]Ignite[/B]: I've mentioned before that I think the ignite mechanic is a little weird flavor wise. Its so little damage at 18th level that its barely worth tracking, but the fact that it negates reactions and concentration is an incredibly powerful ability. Now such power is perfectly valid for this CR, but it is delivered in a weird package. Personally I would just set it at 10 (3d6) damage, so at least its a nice round number if its going to be small. Remove the reaction drop and auto concentration drop.... the ignite damage will generate more concentration checks, and the main breath damage will represent the "stripping of concentration". I also threw in a combination mechanic with Wing Attack (see below). [B]Breath Weapon:[/B] I really like the area effect you have going on with the breath. Just to give the dragon a little more tactical options, perhaps give the ability for the dragon's breath to be a cone, or an area effect around the dragon (flavor wise, the dragon is breathing around itself and engulfing the area in flames. This offers the dragon some protection against pesky melee types, and provides it a "shield of fire" to help against mass ranged damage. This augments the tactical nature of your ongoing fire effect. [B]Defense: [/B]I wouldn't mind seeing the dragon scale power start at this level. It helps keep out the "riff raff". [B]Move[/B]: Just confirming, do you intend this to be the dragon's "ground speed", and the Wing Attack to be the Dragon's "Fly Speed". I think a lot of DMs (myself included) always default to the fastest travel form until its specified, so I wanted to see what your intentions were here. [B]Wing Attack: [/B]Would love to see a "knockback" effect here. This would give the dragon room to use its half speed movement without provoking OAs from the front line. Since you are already doing prone with the tail, swapping prone with a knockback here would give you a wider range of effects as well. If you wanted to throw on a little more "spice", you could say that an ignited creature immediately takes the ignite damage (the old blowing on a fire causing it to rage up). [B]Detect: [/B]Just confirming if you meant a single attack, or all attacks made with the attack action? I think its just cleaner to say "advantage on all attacks until the end of the dragon's next turn". Yes that does mean that the dragon can get in a tail attack with its normal action routine, but I don't think that will break the bank...and it simplifies the maneuver. [B]Overall: [/B]In general[B], [/B]I think the problem is that at these CRs, a typical party has so many tricks that can mess up a big bruiser...and at the end of the day for all its power, this dragon is still just a bruiser. It has a few means to knock away magic, but wall spells and the like can still just wreck its day, which for a boss fight can be very unappealing. So let me offer one more upgrade to really make the statement that you just do not mess with a dragon. [I]Burn Magic[/I]: Any magical spell or effect in the area of the dragon breath weapon is subject to [I]Dispel Magic [/I](5th level). Use the dragon's charisma modifier for the spell. If a magical effect is vulnerable to Disintegrate, then the effect is removed as if hit by Disintegrate. --This is the Dragon's omni-tool to tell with pesky mortal magic. Oh trap them behind a wall of force? BURN IT TO THE GROUND! Managed some kind of special magic circle that dragon's cannot cross? BURN IT TO THE GROUND! Party is buffed to the nines with dragon killing magic....BURN IT TO THE....well you get the idea:) [/QUOTE]
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