CR for a Old Black Drag. PsyWar5?

[Dagredhel]

Pics are available at www.myspace.com/ravenscape

I don't generally have much use for miniatures, but those pics are *full-sized* cool.

 

[irdeggman]

I actually ruled that the Dragon received a greater degree of cover from being nearly submerged underwater; +8 AC / +4 Reflex

So treating it as water and not swamp. It is strange that the rules for swamps are are fewer than water.

But that is exactly what it says if the water is at least chest deep. Improved cover for attacks from land.


Now if he was under water instead of only mostly he would have had total cover from attacs from land, which means no line of effect. Too bad for this situation though.

The surface of a body of water blocks line of effect for any fire spell.

The Dragon had 22 ranks in Hide, -8 for size, and a +10 bonus to Hide checks. The "Guardian at the Gates of Forlorn", (the Dragon) was hiding in the swamp, so I rolled to establish how well he had hidden himself up until the characters got there. Sorceror's spot chech result 26, I rolled a 2. So he Spotted the Dragon, had line of effect, and went for it.

Technicallly you can't hide ahead of time (strange I know, but the rules are weird that way). You can take 10 to hide as long as you aren't rushed or threatened, you can never take 20 since that means an auto failure along the way and you can not hide if you have been spotted.

 

[the Jester]

Brace, I think your tactics were fair but not great. A dragon's best approach is to stay out of range of the best stuff the pcs can throw at them. Usually they're fast enough that they can run out of everything but long range in a single round, if they're getting smacked around.

A few dragon tactics I've used include dropping boulders from far above on the party like bombs, having several waves of minions attack first to deplete pc resources, using the surrounding environment against the party (for example, collapse the bridge the pcs are on, the red dragon uses its breath to light the forest the pcs are in on fire, the white dragon uses its breath and freezes the water that a pc is swimming in, etc) and lies and duplicity.

Your pics are totally bitchin, by the way. I really enjoyed looking at them. Do you have a story hour? You might be interested in writing one, or reading some.

Technicallly you can't hide ahead of time (strange I know, but the rules are weird that way).

I've always ruled that you can go ahead and hide, but you don't roll until you are opposed.