Converting True Dragons
- Thread starter Shade
- Start date
Shade
Monster Junkie
Updated.
Per the original Mystaran dragons article, ruby dragons are 15% lawful good, 80% lawful neutral, and 5% lawful evil.
Red dragons can also cast cleric spells and those from the Chaos, Evil, and Fire domains as arcane spells. For ruby dragons, perhaps Fire, Law, and one of the following: Earth, Nobility, or Weather?
Appraise, Bluff, and Jump are considered class skills for red dragons. Appraise and Jump still seem a good fit, and maybe Swim (for "swimming" through magma) or Spellcraft?
Scaling resistance to cold? Maybe start at 5, increase to 10 at juvenile, 15 at mature, and 20 at ancient?
Per the original Mystaran dragons article, ruby dragons are 15% lawful good, 80% lawful neutral, and 5% lawful evil.
Red dragons can also cast cleric spells and those from the Chaos, Evil, and Fire domains as arcane spells. For ruby dragons, perhaps Fire, Law, and one of the following: Earth, Nobility, or Weather?
Appraise, Bluff, and Jump are considered class skills for red dragons. Appraise and Jump still seem a good fit, and maybe Swim (for "swimming" through magma) or Spellcraft?
Scaling resistance to cold? Maybe start at 5, increase to 10 at juvenile, 15 at mature, and 20 at ancient?
RavinRay
Explorer
Nobility doesn't fit for me. They may be lawful, but their treatment of dwarves and their avarice for gems strikes me as ignoble. I'd rather go for Earth. Appraise and Jump fit, still out on that last skill.
The cold resistance mirrors the fire resistance of gem dragons that Steve Winter added in their MM2 stats. Originally fire resistance 30, it was dropped to 15 for balance reasons, I'd guess. It is still sufficient for protection in the Elemental Plane of Fire in case gem dragons chose to plane shift there. I'd go either way for a static or scaling resistance.
The cold resistance mirrors the fire resistance of gem dragons that Steve Winter added in their MM2 stats. Originally fire resistance 30, it was dropped to 15 for balance reasons, I'd guess. It is still sufficient for protection in the Elemental Plane of Fire in case gem dragons chose to plane shift there. I'd go either way for a static or scaling resistance.
Shade
Monster Junkie
Updated.
Go with this again?
Camouflage (Ex): Since a ruby dragon looks like a red dragon in areas of shadowy illumination or darkness, it takes a DC 20 Spot check to notice its true nature. Anyone with ranks in Knowledge (arcana) can use that skill instead of Spot to notice the difference. Because the resemblence is only visual, creatures with the scent ability automatically notice the difference.
Red dragons have Environment: Warm mountains.
For ruby dragons, Environment: Any mountains and underground?
Red dragons "reek of smoke and sulfur". What scent will differentiate the ruby dragon?
Go with this again?
Camouflage (Ex): Since a ruby dragon looks like a red dragon in areas of shadowy illumination or darkness, it takes a DC 20 Spot check to notice its true nature. Anyone with ranks in Knowledge (arcana) can use that skill instead of Spot to notice the difference. Because the resemblence is only visual, creatures with the scent ability automatically notice the difference.
Red dragons have Environment: Warm mountains.
For ruby dragons, Environment: Any mountains and underground?
Red dragons "reek of smoke and sulfur". What scent will differentiate the ruby dragon?
Shade
Monster Junkie
Dragon, Crystalline
CLIMATE/TERRAIN: Cold mountains and any arctic
FREQUENCY: Very rare
ORGANIZATION: Solitary or clan
ACTIVITY CYCLE: Any
DIET: Ore, gems, crystal
INTELLIGENCE: Genius (17-18)
TREASURE: Special
ALIGNMENT: Lawful neutral
NO. APPEARING: 1 (1d4+1)
ARMOR CLASS: -2 (base)
MOVEMENT: 9, Fl 30 (C), Br 9
HIT DICE: 15 (base)
THAC0: 5 (base)
NO. OF ATTACKS: 3
DAMAGE/ATTACK: 1d12 (claw)/1d12 (claw)/2d12 (bite)
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Varies
SPECIAL DEFENSES: Varies
MAGIC RESISTANCE: Varies
SIZE: G (40' base)
MORALE: Fanatic (18)
LEVEL/XP VALUE: Varies
Though they share many traits with the crystal dragons of other worlds, Mystara’s crystalline dragons stand apart. They boast more Hit Dice and are larger. Further, crystalline dragons can employ a unique breath weapon.
At birth, crystalline dragons have white scales that are glossy and opaque, like packed snow. As they age, the scales acquire greater translucence, as if the once-snowy scales were transformed into gleaming glacial ice. Unde faint light, the scales of a nature dragon luminesce softly. In bright light, venerable crystalline dragons shine so brilliantly that it pairs others to look upon them.
Crystalline dragons speak their own language and the tongue common to all gem dragons.
Combat: The crystalline dragon’s breath weapon is a blast of freezing cold identical in effect to that of a white dragon. The breath appears as a cone of scintillating particles, like brilliant shards of ice. The breath weapon’s secondary effect makes it unique. A victim who fails the saving throw not only takes full damage (as per the table below) , but all his nonliving carried items must save vs. disintegration (with a +4 bonus) or turn to crystal. If the victim makes his saving throw, the victim takes only half damage and his items are unaffected. Any weapon, tooth or claw turned to crystal can still be used to attack, but will probably (1 to 5 on 1d6) shatter with a successful hit.
If the weapon shatters, it inflicts the minimum possible damage for that blow and is destroyed. A stone to flesh spell can be used to permanently turn up to 100 cubic feet of crystal items (easily including all items normally carried by 1 to 3 persons) back to their normal forms. (This is, of course, provided they haven’t been shattered already.) A dispel magic spell also restores crystallized items (use the age category of the dragon as the opposing caster level).
Habitat/Society: The crystalline dragon especially favors glaciers in arctic and high mountainous regions, making its lair in caves burrowed out of the living ice. It prefers cold regions, where its shimmering scales make it difficult to be seen against a background of ice and snow.
Mystara’s crystalline dragons are more serious and orderly than their frolicking crystal kin found in other worlds.
Ecology: Crystalline dragons subsist on a diet of ore and gems. They are also particularly fond of the crystallized remnants of adventurers’ equipment, considering them a special taste treat. Glaciers are an ideal home, because as they slowly crawl across continents they scrape up tons of rock and soil. The crystalline dragon uses its massive, sharp claws to burrow through the hard-packed ice in search of veins of mineral-rich strata scraped centuries before from the earth’s skin.
Rather than type out the whole table, here are the progressions:
Body length ranges from 1-10 feet to 133-142 feet. Tail length goes from 1-6 feet to 80-87 feet.
AC ranges from 1 to -10.
Breath weapon damage is 2d4+1 to 24d4+12.
Spellcasting ragnes from Wizard/Priest Nil/1 at age 4 to 2 2 1 1 / 2 2 2 1 at age 12.
SR ranges from 15% at age 5 to 50%.
CLIMATE/TERRAIN: Cold mountains and any arctic
FREQUENCY: Very rare
ORGANIZATION: Solitary or clan
ACTIVITY CYCLE: Any
DIET: Ore, gems, crystal
INTELLIGENCE: Genius (17-18)
TREASURE: Special
ALIGNMENT: Lawful neutral
NO. APPEARING: 1 (1d4+1)
ARMOR CLASS: -2 (base)
MOVEMENT: 9, Fl 30 (C), Br 9
HIT DICE: 15 (base)
THAC0: 5 (base)
NO. OF ATTACKS: 3
DAMAGE/ATTACK: 1d12 (claw)/1d12 (claw)/2d12 (bite)
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Varies
SPECIAL DEFENSES: Varies
MAGIC RESISTANCE: Varies
SIZE: G (40' base)
MORALE: Fanatic (18)
LEVEL/XP VALUE: Varies
Though they share many traits with the crystal dragons of other worlds, Mystara’s crystalline dragons stand apart. They boast more Hit Dice and are larger. Further, crystalline dragons can employ a unique breath weapon.
At birth, crystalline dragons have white scales that are glossy and opaque, like packed snow. As they age, the scales acquire greater translucence, as if the once-snowy scales were transformed into gleaming glacial ice. Unde faint light, the scales of a nature dragon luminesce softly. In bright light, venerable crystalline dragons shine so brilliantly that it pairs others to look upon them.
Crystalline dragons speak their own language and the tongue common to all gem dragons.
Combat: The crystalline dragon’s breath weapon is a blast of freezing cold identical in effect to that of a white dragon. The breath appears as a cone of scintillating particles, like brilliant shards of ice. The breath weapon’s secondary effect makes it unique. A victim who fails the saving throw not only takes full damage (as per the table below) , but all his nonliving carried items must save vs. disintegration (with a +4 bonus) or turn to crystal. If the victim makes his saving throw, the victim takes only half damage and his items are unaffected. Any weapon, tooth or claw turned to crystal can still be used to attack, but will probably (1 to 5 on 1d6) shatter with a successful hit.
If the weapon shatters, it inflicts the minimum possible damage for that blow and is destroyed. A stone to flesh spell can be used to permanently turn up to 100 cubic feet of crystal items (easily including all items normally carried by 1 to 3 persons) back to their normal forms. (This is, of course, provided they haven’t been shattered already.) A dispel magic spell also restores crystallized items (use the age category of the dragon as the opposing caster level).
Habitat/Society: The crystalline dragon especially favors glaciers in arctic and high mountainous regions, making its lair in caves burrowed out of the living ice. It prefers cold regions, where its shimmering scales make it difficult to be seen against a background of ice and snow.
Mystara’s crystalline dragons are more serious and orderly than their frolicking crystal kin found in other worlds.
Ecology: Crystalline dragons subsist on a diet of ore and gems. They are also particularly fond of the crystallized remnants of adventurers’ equipment, considering them a special taste treat. Glaciers are an ideal home, because as they slowly crawl across continents they scrape up tons of rock and soil. The crystalline dragon uses its massive, sharp claws to burrow through the hard-packed ice in search of veins of mineral-rich strata scraped centuries before from the earth’s skin.
Rather than type out the whole table, here are the progressions:
Body length ranges from 1-10 feet to 133-142 feet. Tail length goes from 1-6 feet to 80-87 feet.
AC ranges from 1 to -10.
Breath weapon damage is 2d4+1 to 24d4+12.
Spellcasting ragnes from Wizard/Priest Nil/1 at age 4 to 2 2 1 1 / 2 2 2 1 at age 12.
SR ranges from 15% at age 5 to 50%.
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