Draconomicon Excerpt: Heart of Darkness

[Phaezen]

Draconomicon Excerpts: Heart of Darkness

A dragon lair encounter, always usefull for adventure planning. The dragon in this case is fairly active in its lair defence. Interesting tidbit for this, the Purple Dragon is psychic.

Phaezen

 

[Imban]

Well, I'll say this. I thought the Brown Dragon sucked - it was 3.5e's Sand Dragon, only now they're all CHEFAGON, THE GOURMET CHEF DRAGON. Which makes them entirely useful for one encounter ever, because it makes them an entire race of one really annoying NPC basically.

Which, well, even given 4e's design philosophy for monsters, there are multiple ages of Brown Dragons, so I can still complain because I'd never want to run into more than one of them.

The purple dragon seems, from this preview, to be totally badass.

 

[Derren]

A bit better than the other previews. But I wonder why the dice decide when the dragon returns and not the DM? Well, it fits with my impression of 4E (which I won't repeat here to avoid flames).

Also, in 4E this tactic is rather suboptimal as it gives the PCs the chance to recharge their HP and encounter powers when you leave long enough.
Still, its nice to see that Hit & Run tactics are finally supported in a product.

As for the purple dragon. Looks nice, but I don't like its sunlight vulnerability. That should be reserved for undead.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

Me likey that Purple Dragon, I can definitely see this one being the I adopt as a "Urban Dragon". I can see it as the type that hides behind darkness, mind-tricks, psionic abilities, etc.

The weakness from the sun is a purely psychological issue and non-magical because it fears and is not used to such exposure (probably will be magical in the actual fluff, but that is how I am taking it )

 

[Imban]

The weakness from the sun is a purely psychological issue and non-magical because it fears and is not used to such exposure (probably will be magical in the actual fluff, but that is how I am taking it )

While in 4e, HP represents other things than just physical damage, I am inclined to say 233 damage is not a psychological problem.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

While in 4e, HP represents other things than just physical damage, I am inclined to say 233 damage is not a psychological problem.

*Goes back to read* Whoops, lol, my cursory glance missed the damage from sunlight and paid attention to only being allowed a standard action and missed the damage at the end. Oh well, 4 words and 1 number to snip off that text.

 

[HazardCatcher]

But what could be MORE appropriate?

But I wonder why the dice decide when the dragon returns and not the DM? Well, it fits with my impression of 4E (which I won't repeat here to avoid flames).

As someone who's looked in a 2ed product directed towards DMs, this is hardly the edition to complain about random die rolls influencing what the PCs face.

And in this case, just like the rolls to recharge monster powers, it is to prevent the monsters actions from being completely predictable to the players, they NEVER know when this big monster is gonna show up, because NO ONE knows.

And if you as a DM think there is an appropriate or dramatic time for the big bad to pop out on them, then go ahead, what could be easier? At least the encounter gives you directions for a fun encounter and a rough idea for how often the monster should show up, even if you do want to wing it.

This is what instructions to use randomness in an encounter should be like.
Better than a random enounter table that could have the party facing a displacer beast, a flumph, or a dragon. (Although like a lot of things from the 80's, it's kind of awesome, though probably frustrating in actual play.)

 

[Klaus]

Heart of Darkness, wherein lairs Orukurtz?

Great, now I see the purple dragon being voice by Brando.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Heart of Darkness, wherein lairs Orukurtz?

Great, now I see the purple dragon being voice by Brando.

Wow. Five hours, 37 minutes from the preview; the book's not even out.

I thought it would take people longer to pick up on that.

 

[D.Shaffer]

Also, in 4E this tactic is rather suboptimal as it gives the PCs the chance to recharge their HP and encounter powers when you leave long enough.

If the dragon pops up, by itself, long enough after an encounter that the player's encounter powers have reset, you're not running it right. During an encounter, it will pop up again so long as the encounter is ongoing. When the encounter ends, the dragon wont show up again until the players hit another encounter, in which case they have other things to use powers on then just the dragon.