Converting True Dragons

[freyar]

Looking good, and reducing nat by 2 vs jade is also fine.

 

[Cleon]

Looking good, and reducing nat by 2 vs jade is also fine.

Okay, let's have a start at the other half of the table then.

So far we've got the Jade Dragon with a -2 NA. To that I'll add a Swim speed (30 ft. going by the original).

I'll blank out the Jade's Special Abilities, spellcasting and SR. I'm sure we'll have some arguing to do about them! Since it's a diver I reckon it ought to have Hold Breath, so I've put that in.

The AD&D stats give it an 18 (C) fly speed. That's remarkably low for a dragon, offhand I can't think of any other True Dragon that's that slow in the air.

So, give it a 40 ft. / 50 ft. / 60 ft. fly speed?

That would give it:

[FONT=Courier New]Age...................Speed........................Initiative..Armor Class..........................................Special Abilities..............Caster..SR
Wyrmling.....40 ft., fly 40 ft.(good), swim 30 ft......+0......16 (+2 size, +2 natural), touch 12, flat-footed 14...Hold Breath..............................
Very Young...40 ft., fly 50 ft.(average), swim 30 ft...+0......18 (+1 size, +5 natural), touch 11, flat-footed 16...[/FONT][FONT=Courier New].........................................[/FONT][FONT=Courier New]
Young........40 ft., fly 50 ft.(average), swim 30 ft...+0......21 (+1 size, +8 natural), touch 11, flat-footed 19...[/FONT][FONT=Courier New].................................1st[/FONT][FONT=Courier New].....[/FONT][FONT=Courier New]
Juvenile.....40 ft., fly 50 ft.(average), swim 30 ft...+0......23 (+11 natural), touch 10, flat-footed 21...[/FONT][FONT=Courier New].........................................3rd[/FONT][FONT=Courier New].....[/FONT][FONT=Courier New]
Young Adult..40 ft., fly 50 ft.(average), swim 30 ft...+0......26 (+14 natural), touch 10, flat-footed 24........[/FONT][FONT=Courier New]........[/FONT][FONT=Courier New]...[/FONT][FONT=Courier New].........................5th[/FONT][FONT=Courier New].....[/FONT][FONT=Courier New]
Adult........40 ft., fly 50 ft.(average), swim 30 ft...+0......28 (–1 size, +17 natural), touch 9, flat-footed 26...[/FONT][FONT=Courier New].................................7th[/FONT][FONT=Courier New]....[/FONT].[FONT=Courier New]
Mature Adult.40 ft., fly 50 ft.(average), swim 30 ft...+0......31 (–1 size, +20 natural), touch 9, flat-footed 29...[/FONT][FONT=Courier New].................................9th[/FONT][FONT=Courier New].....[/FONT][FONT=Courier New]
Old..........40 ft., fly 50 ft.(average), swim 30 ft...+0......34 (–1 size, +23 natural), touch 9, flat-footed 32...[/FONT][FONT=Courier New]................................11th[/FONT][FONT=Courier New].....[/FONT][FONT=Courier New]
Very Old.....40 ft., fly 50 ft.(average), swim 30 ft...+0......37 (–1 size, +26 natural), touch 9, flat-footed 35...[/FONT][FONT=Courier New]................................13th[/FONT][FONT=Courier New].....[/FONT][FONT=Courier New]
Ancient......40 ft., fly 60 ft.(poor), swim 30 ft......+0......39 (–2 size, +29 natural), touch 8, flat-footed 37...[/FONT][FONT=Courier New]................................15th[/FONT][FONT=Courier New].....[/FONT][FONT=Courier New]
Wyrm.........40 ft., fly 60 ft.(poor), swim 30 ft......+0......42 (–2 size, +32 natural), touch 8, flat-footed 40...[/FONT][FONT=Courier New]................................17th[/FONT][FONT=Courier New].....[/FONT][FONT=Courier New]
Great Wyrm...40 ft., fly 60 ft.(poor), swim 30 ft......+0......45 (–2 size, +35 natural), touch 8, flat-footed 43...................................19th[/FONT][FONT=Courier New].....[/FONT]

 

[Shade]

Agreed to all that; emphatically so for hold breath.

 

[Cleon]

Agreed to all that; emphatically so for hold breath.

Okie-Dokey.

Shall we do the Breath Weapon next?

It's a cone of steam. The original version does a measly 1d4+1 per age category, which is even worse than the AD&D Black Dragon. Only a couple of 2E dragons have a breath weapon that feeble (e.g. the Crystal Dragon).

The crystal drake has a 1d6-per-age breath weapon in its Creature Catalogue conversion, shall we give the Pearl the same?

We can borrow some of the flavour text from the Mist Dragon:

Breath Weapon (Su): A pearl dragon has one type of breath weapon, a cone of scalding steam. Creatures caught in this cloud can make a Reflex save for half damage.

 

[Shade]

Looks good. Although it's fairly obvious, we should note that it deals fire damage (like the dragon turtle).

 

[RavinRay]

Brass, white, and mist dragons, among others, only have 1 die progression for breaths so the pearl dragon is in their league. IMHO the 3E crystal dragon should have too but that's moot now.

 

[Shade]

Added to Homebrews.

 

[Cleon]

So, sorcerer caster level next?

These are strong spellcasters with both Wizard and Cleric spells, the original was a better spellcaster than a Gold Dragon! Just compare the great wyrm:

Pearl Dragon Great Wyrm Wizard/Priest Spells: 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 / 2 2 2 2 2

Gold Dragon Great Wyrm Wizard/Priest Spells: 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 / 2 2 2 2

The Pearl Dragon has got one more Wizard spell at each level (1st to 7th) and can cast 2 5th level Priest spells, whereas Goldie tops of at 4th level Priest spells.

However I notice that they both start gaining spells at age category 4.

Hmm, so what to do. Have the Pearl start a stage earlier and go up to 21st level casting?

 

[Shade]

I'd prefer to keep them same as the gold. Their spellcasting will already be really out of whack with their rellative power level in other areas.

We'll need to come up with some SLAs for these guys, too.

 

[Cleon]

I'd prefer to keep them same as the gold. Their spellcasting will already be really out of whack with their rellative power level in other areas.

We'll need to come up with some SLAs for these guys, too.

I could have sworn I included the standard "gold/silver spellcasting" as an alternative in my last post. It must have evaporated into the ether.

19th level sorcerer spell casting doesn't seem that excessive for a 38HD Dragon, though.

Let's make their spellcasting the same as Gold's then. I'll edit that into post #402.

What types of spells? I'm thinking Cleric spells plus the Luck and Weather domains.