Converting True Dragons

[RavinRay]

First impressions...

• Start it off at 3 HD for wyrmling. A 2d12 true dragon wyrmling seems too weak for me.
• A steam breath weapon like the mist dragon and dragon turtle that deals fire damage.

 

[Shade]

sorry to break the train of thought once it got moving, but i've been meaning to post that one for days. there are probably others, when i think of them...

No problem. I'll add it to the list.

 

[Shade]

First impressions...

• Start it off at 3 HD for wyrmling. A 2d12 true dragon wyrmling seems too weak for me.
• A steam breath weapon like the mist dragon and dragon turtle that deals fire damage.

OK, we'll go with the 3-36 progression.

I'll take a look at the breath weapons you mentioned.

 

[Shade]

A jacinth dragon breathes a cone of scalding air 1 foot wide at the mouth, 50 feet long, and 20 feet wide at its terminus, igniting easily combustible materials (e.g., paper, oil, and cloth) unless they successfully save vs. normal fire. A successful save vs. breath weapon indicates, as with most dragons, that a character suffers only half damage from such an attack.

Dragon Turtle Breath Weapon (Su): Cloud of superheated steam 20 feet high, 25 feet wide, and 50 feet long, once every 1d4 rounds, damage 12d6 fire, Reflex DC 21 half; effective both on the surface and underwater. The save DC is Constitution-based.

Mist Dragon Breath Weapon (Su): Mist dragons have two types of breath weapons: a cone of scalding steam that deals fire damage and a line of caustic slime. Creatures struck by slime must make Fortitude saves or be sickened for 1d6 rounds plus 1 round per age category of the dragon.

So how about....

Breath Weapon (Su): Jacinth dragons have one type of breath weapon, a cone of scalding air that deals fire damage and ignites any unattended combustible objects within the area.

 

[Shade]

Jacinth dragons speak their own language, and they can communicate telepathically with any other creature having that ability, as well as creatures with Intelligence of 18 or higher.

Telepathy to a distance of 10 feet x age category?

Using riddling talk and personal charm, jacinths can entrance those who are involved in combat or otherwise distracted. Anyone within 90 feet who listens to a jacinth has a 10% cumulative chance per round to become affected as by a suggestion spell. A successful save vs. spell indicates that the character can resist the charm for at least six rounds, after which there's a 5% cumulative chance to be charmed. Those who successfully save twice can't be charmed by that dragon.

Do we want to simplify this to just having suggestion as a spell-like ability, or try to create a unique ability?

Furthermore, the jacinth dragon has the innate ability to interplay the shades of its skin so as to have a hypnotic effect on viewers. Thus, after three rounds of a peaceful encounter, the dragon can attack with a +3 bonus to surprise rolls if necessary. In addition, the hide reflects sunlight so brightly that any creature who gazes for more than two rounds upon the dragon on a particularly sunny day is blinded for 5d6 rounds unless the victim rolls a successful save vs. spell.

Maybe allow the jacinth to use its Diplomacy skill instead of Bluff for feints?

How's this for the second ability?

Blinding Hide (Ex): In areas of natural sunlight or a daylight spell, a jacinth dragon's hide reflects the sun so brightly that any creature viewing the dragon must succeed on a Fortitude save (DC equals breath weapon DC) or be blinded for 5d6(?) rounds. A creature that successfully saves is instead dazzled for 1d4(?) rounds.

Due to its relatively small size, the fear aura of a neutral dragon allows a +4 bonus to opponent's saving throws. Also, neutrals cannot polymorph themselves unless they carry the spell of the same name. However, they do have the innate ability to blink six times per day (as a 10th-level caster).

Krishnath chose to drop the fear aura bonus for the amber. Do we want to retain it? (and if so, I'll update the amber to reflect it as well). The polymorph bit isn't an issue anymore. Here's how Krishnath handled the blink ability:

Blink (Sp): A very young or older amber dragon can use this ability as the spell once per day for each two age categories it is, thus an adult amber dragon can use the ability three times per day. This is as the spell cast by a sorcerer of the dragon’s age category or its caster level whichever is higher. The range is personal.

I think this works well. Any objections?

 

[RavinRay]

• Telepathy works fine.
• I'd go for suggestion (Sp).
• Diplomacy works better than Bluff, after all the dragon is trying to be friendly.
• What's the range of Blinding Hide, is it dependent on the range of vision of the other creature?
• I don't think the fear aura bonus is necessary either.
• After looking at Tiny wyrmling dragons (brass, white, sapphire, mercury, and steel), all but the sapphire advance their breath weapons by only 1HD, and all except the mercury use d6 (d8 for mercury). So a jacinth dragon's breath weapon should advance by 1d6 per age category, or if you really want it weaker, 1d4.
• Fire subtype? Energy immunities/vulnerabilities?

 

[Shade]

For the subtype, I was thinking fire as well. That will automatically give it immunity to fire and vulnerability to cold.

Oddly, the black dragon retained its 2e breath weapon damage progression (2d4-24d4), yet the brass changed from 2d4-24d4 to 1d6-12d6. I suppose we can go either way with it.

Good catch on blinding hide. It should probably have a limited range. Maybe 10 feet per age category, beginning with young (30 ft.)?

Its 2e AC progression was the same as both black and white dragons. Now the black's natural armor bonus is 1 higher than the white at each age category. Shall we mimic the white?

Its spellcasting is quite potent...not as good as a gold, but better than silver, red, mercury, shadow, and steel (all among the best spellcasters in 2e). All of them now go from 1st to 19th beginning at young, so that's probably the best approach for the jacinth.

Since it could cast priest spells in 2E, we'll need to pick some domains. Fire seems a good fit, as does Trickery. Any suggestions for a third domain?

Its magic resistance progression followed the same as the brass in 2e, so perhaps we'll just follow the brass's spell resistance progression?

Its land speed matches the 2e black, green, and reds, which all have 40 feet in 3e. As a flyer, it falls between the topaz and crystal dragons and the black in speed, but has better maneuverability than all dragons I could find with 3E counterparts. So how about following the speed progression of the topaz, crystal, and black (all appear the same), with one maneuverability class better?

Class skills? Diplomacy and Sense Motive, the two most obvious choices, are already class skills for dragons. Maybe Appraise? Bluff?

For ability scores...

Its damage output is closest to the bronze dragon in 2E, so maybe we can use the Str progression of the bronze.

Nothing seems to indicate that their Dex is better or worse than most dragons, so 10's all the way should suffice.

Since they are hearty desert survivors, I'd assume Con is decent.

Int is on par with gold, amethyst, and sapphire dragons.

Wis should probably be slightly less than Int and Cha.

Cha should be decent due to their reliance on magic.

 

[RavinRay]

The desert is becoming a crowded place! Jacinths have to share it with blues, brasses, browns, rattelyrs, sands, and yellows, not to mention lesser dragons like air drakes, desert landwyrms, sand wurms, spinwyrms, sun wyrms, and vishaps.

Be back to add some more comments.

 

[RavinRay]

Ok, I've got this huge spreadsheet with true dragon stats I made a long time ago and am updating with new dragons, so I'll be using it as a handy reference.

Most Material Plane true dragons have natural AC=HD-1 (brown is -3 due to its leathery scales), and the jacinth isn't different enough to vary from this.

So Blinding Hide is at young? Sounds reasonable.

This is a general conversion question but I didn't ask this earlier. Do we limit ourselves to the PHB clerical domains, or can other domains in the SRD (like those from Deities & Demigods, as well as Mind from XPH) be used? If so, Charm is a good choice, otherwise... hmm, Magic, considering that it might turn our to gain fewer Sp and Su abilities than other dragons at great wyrm age.

Hmm, isn't the black dragon 60 ft in 3.5e, like the white? Most of the smallest dragons have 60 ft (except for copper and mist at 40). But 40 ft is a better match for the jacinth.

Yes, give it the brass dragon's SR! Then let's see how the two face off in a confrontation, with the jacinth's possible higher Cha scores tipping the balance.

I haven't suggestions yet on the class skills and ability scores (save for Dex 10 throughout). For the latter, I can always experiment with calculations on the spreadsheet and come up with a matrix.

That's my 2 cp for today...

 

[BOZ]

as for clerical domains (and other book references), we prefer to stick to the PHB/DMG/MM core books as much as possible, but yeah if need be we have referenced other SRD materials before.