Converting monsters from Dragon magazine (Part Two)

[Shade]

Let's not increase the Dex, as they are "deficient" true dragons, nearly none of which has a Dex score other than 10.

I'd also rather standardize the natural armor, instead of basing it off parents (and having yet another table entry). If the majority prefers loads of table entries, though, I'll defer.

 

[Leopold]

I'd shoot for an Average natural armor, stats, and abilities for these things with templating only the breath weapon and SUs. This way the DM can pick a green "false lindorm" (I like this idea) and add in it's few abilities as easily as say a blue one. Maximum flexibility.

 

[Cleon]

Let's not increase the Dex, as they are "deficient" true dragons, nearly none of which has a Dex score other than 10.

I'd also rather standardize the natural armor, instead of basing it off parents (and having yet another table entry). If the majority prefers loads of table entries, though, I'll defer.

As you like, averaging out the NA-10 approach for the full evil draconic spectrum gives us +8 natural armour.

AC 17 (-1 size, +8 natural), touch 9, flat footed 17

 

[freyar]

Large, 5HD, +8 natural all sounds good. I also don't want to bump the Dex, but the abilities look good. Still use Int 6, Wis 12, Cha 9?

 

[Shade]

Added to Homebrews.

 

[freyar]

Looks pretty good! We don't want to keep the 3/day limit on the breath? That would make them more like half-dragons.

 

[demiurge1138]

I like the 3/day limit to the breath weapon. Again, makes them draconic, but deficient.

 

[Cleon]

Large, 5HD, +8 natural all sounds good. I also don't want to bump the Dex, but the abilities look good. Still use Int 6, Wis 12, Cha 9?

Looks OK. I've never liked true dragons having mediocre Dexterity, but have learned to live with it...

Added to Homebrews.

5d10 damage for its breath weapon seems high for a 5 Hit Dice dragon. I was thinking 5d4 or 5d6.

We need some more stuff in Advancement. Its breath weapon should increase in damage (say 1d4 or 1d6 per Hit Dice?) as well as size, and I was thinking its natural armour should increase faster than normal advancement, like true dragons do.

How about natural armour around +13 for a Huge lindorm and NA +20 for Gargantuan?

Looks pretty good! We don't want to keep the 3/day limit on the breath? That would make them more like half-dragons.

Are we talking 3/day and a 1d4 round delay between breaths? I guess I don't mind that.

 

[freyar]

I think the original breath weapon has 5d8, but 5d6 also seems reasonable. These are pretty low CR probably.

I could go either way on the exceptional advancement.

Yeah, I meant 3/day and 1d4 rounds between.

 

[Shade]

Oops...breath weapon should've been 5d8. Will fix.

In this instance, I can live with the "1d4 rounds but only up to 3/day" exception, since it can be easily explained by their deficient nature.

I agree that breath weapon and natural armor should scale with advancement. +13/+20 sounds reasonable for the armor, and I propose breath weapon increase by an additional 1d8 per 3 HD gained.