The breath weapon of the scintillating dragon is a shimmering beam of energy, 10 feet wide and with length equal to five times the length of the dragon (up to a maximum of 230 feet). The presence of the beam is practically undetectable; the beam itself is invisible, but when it is in use the affected area resembles thousands of glinting dust particles in a strong beam of light. Damage is computed by rolling one d6 for each hit die the dragon has (up to 12d6), with a saving throw vs. breath weapon for half damage. The dragon can use this breath weapon up to 3 times per day.
The damage from this breath manifests itself in an unusual form. Only half the damage is felt immediately (round down), as "burn damage." The remainder appears over the course of the next two days (half of the remainder each day) as the victim gradually weakens (losing 1-3 strength points each day) and breaks out in large burns. Non-magical healing from these wounds doesn't begin until the fourth day after infection and proceeds at only half the usual rate. Magical healing applied on the day of the attack heals only half the damage rolled for at the time of the healing, but the remaining half of regained hit points will be applied against the delayed damage.
Only after the victim's healing is completed (by magic, time or a combination of the two), he victim may become aware of the worst effect of this insidious ray: Short of the use of regeneration or a limited wish spell, not all of the damage done by the breath weapon will heal. Permanent damage to a victim is reflected in a reduction in the victim's number of recoverable hit points.
To compute the amount of permanent damage, roll percentile dice and multiply the result, as a percentage, times the amount of delayed damage incurred by the victim (round down). This gives the number of hit points that may not be recovered thereafter without the use of high-level magic. If the hit points or strength points of a victim drop below zero at any time during the "delayed damage" process, he is dead.
The loss of strength points is independent of the amount of damage taken, even if more than one breath attack is used on the same figure. The lost strength points will be recovered at the same rate as lost hit points (one every 2 days), and magical cures will not help this (except for regeneration). When a healing/curing spell is used on a character who has also suffered damage of another sort, the other damage is recovered first, before applying any of the healing power to the breath damage.
Example: Kasanati the Unwise, sixth level fighter, and his party are involved in a melee with a scintillating dragon 39 feet long. During the fight, the dragon breathes on Kasanati, doing 10d6 of damage. Kasanati successfully rolls his saving throw, cutting the damage in half, but still suffers 14 points of damage. Seven points are applied immediately. The party's cleric casts a cure light wounds spell, expecting to heal about 4 points of damage, and is puzzled when only 2 points are cured. (The spell actually did heal 4 points of damage, but only half of the healing points are applied immediately.)
The next day, as they travel, Kasanati feels weak (he has lost 1 strength point) and, by day's end, he has lost another 3 hit points (4 minus 1 of the "healing points") and large blemished areas are appearing on his skin.
The next day, Kasanati loses another d3 of strength (2 points this time) and 2 more points of damage (3 minus the last "healing point"). Kasanati does not die, since his original hit-point total and strength score were high enough to stand these losses. The DM now rolls percentile dice for permanent damage, getting a 68. This means that the unlucky fighter will be unable to recover 68% of the hit points he lost to the "delayed damage" effect of the dragon breath. The delayed loss was 7 hit points (simply half of the total damage; the effect of the cure spell does not enter into this calculation).
So, of the hit points Kasanati lost to delayed damage, four are lost forever (68% of 7 = 4.76, rounded down to 4) and the other three can be recovered. The maximum number of hit points Kasanati can have when at full strength is now four less than it was before he decided to engage the scintillating dragon (as if he had never rolled those four hit points in the first place). This reduction can only be offset by regeneration, limited wish, or alter reality spells.
