Dragon Breath weapon wait duration?

[Herzog]

I have to DM a dragon, and can't figure out this one:

Once a dragon breathes, it can’t breathe again until 1d4 rounds later.

Suppose I roll a 1. Does that mean I get to use the breath weapon the next round again, or do I have to skip a round (in other words, spend one round doing other stuff)?

 

[Dandu]

You have to skip a round.

 

[Gilladian]

And see, I read that as the exact opposite. "One round later" is the NEXT round. No wait.

 

[HRSegovia]

Too oversimplify it, look at it as losing turns in a board game: A turn is going to be lost. The die just tells you how many.

 

[frankthedm]

And see, I read that as the exact opposite. "One round later" is the NEXT round. No wait.

Agreed. A dragon can breath every round if it is very lucky. Just as drinking a haste potion means losing out on a part of one round of being hasted, a dragon waiting one round to use its breath is breathing each round.

For almost all purposes, there is no relevance to the end of a round or the beginning of a round. A round can be a segment of game time starting with the first character to act and ending with the last, but it usually means a span of time from one round to the same initiative count in the next round. Effects that last a certain number of rounds end just before the same initiative count that they began on.


Topic did get brought before

http://www.enworld.org/forum/d-d-legacy-discussion/50731-dragon-breath-recharge-question.html

 

[DumbPaladin]

I have to DM a dragon, and can't figure out this one:

Suppose I roll a 1. Does that mean I get to use the breath weapon the next round again, or do I have to skip a round (in other words, spend one round doing other stuff)?

Yes.

I've come to realize that, for me, the best way to read that is, "In 1d4+1 rounds (counting this round), I will be able to do this again."

Or, you can say to yourself, "I will have [1d4] rounds in which I CANNOT do breath weapons, and after that I can do it when I please."