Converting True Dragons

[Shade]

This is a very powerful dragon. The first breath weapon sounds like half-cold and half-acid damage to me; the second sounds like an entangling effect. Wasn't there a conversion of the amber dragon that had a similar effect with its breath weapon?

Here's what we gave the amber:

Breath Weapon (Su): The amber dragon has one type of breath weapon, a cone of superheated and very sticky sap that deals fire damage, those that fail their save against the breath weapon are entangled for 1d4 rounds per age category of the dragon. An entangled creature can make an opposed strength check against the breath weapons DC to break free as a standard action. Creatures that are immune to fire must still make a save against the breath weapon to avoid getting entangled.

We can use either the gold or red dragon stats as a basis, as the latter is ever so slightly more powerful than the silver.

It looks like the red is stronger, but lacks in the mental stats, so we could take the base silver stats and use the red's physical ability score progression.

Since the obsidian was 8 feet longer than the red and silver, and the red is now bigger than the silver, we can go with the red's size progression.

Sound good?

 

[freyar]

Red physical and Silver mental stats sounds good, as does Red size progression. Adapting the amber breath weapon sounds reasonable. Do we want to bump the use of the breath weapons up to every 1d4 rounds (in between any breath weapon)?

 

[Shade]

Added to Homebrews.

 

[freyar]

1st: do we want to rename to avoid confusion with the other obsidian dragon? Maybe we can make this a ferrous dragon (!) if we can come up with an appropriate metal.

Ok, why don't we say that the 1st breath weapon is just a cone of acidic frost, which deals half cold and half acid damage? Then we can go with

Breath Weapon (Su): The obsidian? dragon has two types of breath weapon. The first is a cone of acidic frost that deals half cold and half acid damage. The other is a web of black ice 10 feet in diameter that may be shot up to 60 ft away. Creatures in the target space of the web that fail a Reflex save against the breath weapon are entangled for 1d4 rounds per age category of the dragon. An entangled creature can make an opposed strength check against the breath weapons DC to break free as a standard action. Creatures that are immune to cold must still make a save against the breath weapon to avoid getting entangled.

 

[Shade]

1st: do we want to rename to avoid confusion with the other obsidian dragon? Maybe we can make this a ferrous dragon (!) if we can come up with an appropriate metal.

Nah, I'd rather not make them ferrous. If anything, I'd call them Oeridian Obsidian Dragons. Since the others are gem dragons (and I believe a Mystaran obsidian gem dragon variant exists as well...), I think we can just call them obsidian dragons and note the other types in the flavor text.

Ok, why don't we say that the 1st breath weapon is just a cone of acidic frost, which deals half cold and half acid damage? Then we can go with

Breath Weapon (Su): The obsidian? dragon has two types of breath weapon. The first is a cone of acidic frost that deals half cold and half acid damage. The other is a web of black ice 10 feet in diameter that may be shot up to 60 ft away. Creatures in the target space of the web that fail a Reflex save against the breath weapon are entangled for 1d4 rounds per age category of the dragon. An entangled creature can make an opposed strength check against the breath weapons DC to break free as a standard action. Creatures that are immune to cold must still make a save against the breath weapon to avoid getting entangled.

A good start, but I think we need to work in the suffocation as it adds an interesting twist...

Three times per day, the obsidian dragon can also breathe forth a membranous web of black ice 10' in diameter, shot up to 60' away. Those failing a saving throw vs. dragon breath are enveloped in the web and encased in 5-8" of black ice by the end of that round. All encased creatures are held immobile and must make a second saving throw vs. breath weapon to keep their faces from being covered. Otherwise, they will suffocate in 2-5 rounds unless they can make their bend bars/lift gates strength rolls to break free, or unless the black-ice web suffers at least 12 hp damage (attack vs. AC 4). One-quarter of the damage done to the blackice web is instead inflicted on the victim so
encased.

 

[freyar]

Shoot, I just rewrote the breath weapon, and the post got lost! Anyway, I am ok with leaving the name, but let's definitely mention the other obsidian dragons. Trying again:

Breath Weapon (Su): The obsidian dragon has two types of breath weapon. The first is a cone of acidic frost that deals half cold and half acid damage. The other is a web of black ice 10 feet in diameter that may be shot up to 60 ft away. Creatures in the target space of the web that fail a Reflex save against the breath weapon are entangled for 1d4 rounds per age category of the dragon. An entangled victim must then make a second Reflex save against the breath weapon DC to keep their face free; on a failure, the victim begins to suffocate.

An entangled creature can make an opposed strength check against the breath weapons DC to break free as a standard action. In addition, the web of black ice is destroyed if it takes 12 hp of damage (AC 16, hardness 2), but 1/4 of the damage done in an attack against the black ice web instead is spread evenly among the entangled creatures. Creatures that are immune to cold must still make a save against the breath weapon to avoid getting entangled.

 

[Shade]

Looking good. Perhaps the hp should vary by age category? Since juvenile is the assumed age category, dividing by 4 yields 3 hp/age category. Hardness could equal 1/2 age category, or just leave it at two. Thoughts?

 

[freyar]

I like that. 3hp/age category and hardness = 1/2 age sounds good. BTW, normal ice has hardness 0, but I thought this should be kind of magical.

 

[RavinRay]

That's a good write-up for the breath weapon, freyar. Since this isn't ordinary ice, it's reasonable for it to have higher hardness than water ice.

Getting a bit ahead, what should we do about tail attacks? The 20-ft. restriction can either mean this dragon's reach with it's tail is smaller than normal for dragons, or that it can only use its tail to attack targets within a narrow arc of its rear (not a full circle).

 

[Shade]

Getting a bit ahead, what should we do about tail attacks? The 20-ft. restriction can either mean this dragon's reach with it's tail is smaller than normal for dragons, or that it can only use its tail to attack targets within a narrow arc of its rear (not a full circle).

Good question. Was the tail attack standard for dragons of that era?