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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Upper_Krust" data-source="post: 9554013" data-attributes="member: 326">Well even if the PCs...A: Don't know they are facing a dragonB: All lose initiativeC: Are bunched up tight enough so they all get hit by the breath weaponD. None have fire resistance as standard or Absorb ElementsE. All fail their saves...I still don't see 71 damage a big deal....Cleric casts Mass Heal.All of which do damage mitigated by Absorb Elements.Admittedly I don't play Wizards very often but don't most people consider them the most powerful class?In my experience the average is typically around the average. It might be 15-20% lower or 15-20% higher, it won't deviate by much.Only if it wants to win.Depends on the circumstances.If the character does something stupid (ie. get surrounded rather than fight in a tight corridor) and they go down; then it was their fault. If a party go into a fight with a dragon and bunch up so they all get hit by the breath; then it was their fault.But If one character loses initiative and gets targeted at the start of the fight with Banishment with a Charisma DC 24 which they might only pass on a roll of 20 (because 5e has a serious, if easily fixable, flaw with saving throws) then that to me is both unfun and unfair. That's another thing that annoys me about the change from Claw/Claw/Bite to Rend x3. There is no 'build-up' to the big (bite) attack - they all do the same damage. Psychologically if the GM keeps the "big" attack for the end they build up the suspense and sense of dread among the players. That's gone now.  I suppose the GM 'could' give it 812 HP instead of 546, just like the party composition could be 4 Fighters or Barbarians all with the Toughness feat. But let's stick with averages here. Plus the monsters CR is largely determined by it having 546 HP.I don't have a problem with monsters having healing; though its very unlikely that using healing (rather than attacking) will be the optimal choice for any given monster.Personally I prefer monsters to have Regeneration with some sort of Vulnerability 'off switch' the PCs can exploit (rather than healing that is).No because the likelihood is that they won't all lose Init, they won't all get caught in the breath, they won't all fail the save, one or more will have ways to mitigate fire damage...and most of that predicates they won't even know they are facing a dragon before-hand and have no prep in place.Unless there is something drastic in the Legendary Actions I think the dragon get's curb-stomped, but then I play a lot of Epic Tier.Hypothetically we could maybe build a party of Level 18 characters from scratch and pit them against the dragon and it might be very close, BUT any player that has played their character up from the lower levels and has honed their tactics will have such a massive advantage over someone just running a character for a playtest.Hopefully that's just the poor half.+16 I thought.</blockquote>

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