Converting True Dragons

[demiurge1138]

All of the above sound reasonable. I might be tempted to say 70ft for the land speed.

Demiurge out.

 

[Shade]

All of the above sound reasonable. I might be tempted to say 70ft for the land speed.

I may be tempted to agree.

 

[freyar]

The breath weapon of the night dragon is an extremely bright beam of light only ½" in width, effective out to a length equal to the length of the dragon converted to scale "inches." Hence, a 25-foot-long dragon can use his breath weapon to a distance of 25", converting to 250 feet indoors or 250 yards outside). When the breath weapon hits an enemy, the light causes damage equal to the dragon's number of hit dice, except that damage is rolled with d6s instead of the d8s used for hit dice; thus, the breath weapon of a 120-year-old night dragon will do 8d6 damage. A successful saving throw vs. breath weapon allows half damage.

In addition - only if the saving throw is failed - the breath weapon will cause blindness in victims by damaging their eyes. A character blinded by a night dragon will remain sightless for 2 days, unless magical aid (such as cure blindness) is used to restore vision. At the end of the 2 days, the victim can regain his or her lost sight by making a save vs. poison. Failing this saving throw means that the victim is permanently blind unless magical aid is employed.

Breath Weapon (Su): A night dragon has one breath weapon, a line of extremely bright light. In addition to hit point damage, any creature damaged by the breath weapon is blinded for two days. At the end of two days, the victim may make a Fortitude save (DC equal to that of the breath weapon) to regain sight; the blindness is permanent on a failure. Magic may restore the victim's sight at any time.

How's that? Any thoughts about the damage progression? It seems like the original was kind of low (probably because of the blindness), but, since night dragons have no SLAs or spellcasting, I could see a reasonable amount.

Also, this dragon looks like it only has 8 age categories. Are we going to go to the usual 12?

 

[GrayLinnorm]

Also, this dragon looks like it only has 8 age categories. Are we going to go to the usual 12?

Since true dragons only had 8 age categories in 1e, why not?

 

[freyar]

Since true dragons only had 8 age categories in 1e, why not?

Ah, excellent, I learn something new every day, even weekends!

 

[RavinRay]

We can stick with 12 age categories and still have the short life span since the rattelyr from Faerûn's Shining South ages 5× faster than normal, reaching great wyrm at 240 years. Also the rattelyr, like the night dragon, has very few abilities (hood and rattle), but these are potent.

 

[freyar]

A short life span sounds good to me. So let's make sure this has a couple of strong abilities to go along with a powerful breath weapon.

 

[Shade]

We can stick with 12 age categories and still have the short life span since the rattelyr from Faerûn's Shining South ages 5× faster than normal, reaching great wyrm at 240 years. Also the rattelyr, like the night dragon, has very few abilities (hood and rattle), but these are potent.

I like that idea.

 

[freyar]

So... any other SAs to add to this?

 

[Shade]

Added to Homebrews.

Night dragons are almost never encountered in daylight, spending their days in their caves or other dark lairs. For this reason their range of vision includes both infravision and ultravision, but their vision is rather weak in the normal spectrum.

Perhaps greater darkvision than normal, but give them a penalty on Spot checks in daylight?

The beast's quiet movement and the ability to stand perfectly still when approached provide it excellent cover. In any encounter in the dark, a night dragon will be 90% undetectable at a range of over 3" unless it is backlighted or within the radius of a light spell (or faerie fire, etc.). When within 3" of a party, a night dragon will attack, usually with surprise, unless the dragon has already been detected. If strong light is used by its opponent(s), the dragon will be at a slight disadvantage (-1 "to hit" on all of its attacks, including its breath weapon).

Something like the shadow blend ability of the shadow dragon?

Night dragons are quite intelligent and sometimes hunt in groups of 2 or more. These hunting packs are especially fearsome since they will act in concert, to the maximum disadvantage of their prey. Such tactics as baiting an enemy into an ambush (with ambushers hidden in the dark), attacks from the rear, and group breath attacks are not unknown.

Maybe a greater bonus on flanking or other teamwork abilities?