Dragon Duel Questions ... B.A.D.D. ?

[Rashak Mani]

So we tried a duel between a CR 25 Red Dragon vs 6 PC at 20th lvl... it ended up as a rules lawyer Duel and very little combat. We stopped early due to time constraints.

Some questions... can Dragons use Rods, wands and magical items ? I thought because they are inteligente and have hands and so forth that yes....

Anti Magic Field... (p.175 PHB) falls in the Enlarge Spell Feat or Widen Spell Feat ? It has range and is centered on caster... which doesnt make sense unless its like the Bless Spell described in the Enlarge Feat (p.82 PHB). Area of Effect determined by range. Yet in the MoFaerun... Widen Spell Feat includes emanations. Emanation is in the AMF description...
(This is relevant because the Dragon used AMF enlarged some extra times to cover his oversized body )

For the Anti Magic Field the Dragon used the enlarge feat three more times... that would mean 1 action becoming 1 full round and then 2 more full rounds to complete metamagicked spell ?

In the Duel a mage in ethereal form got close to the Dragon... since the Dragon has the very large Blindsight 360' he was aware that one of the PCs had "dissapeared"... could he ready an action to attack the wizard when he popped back into our existence ? Should the mage complete his action first ? In the game the Dragon specified he wanted to partial charge the Mage that had "dissapeared".. not anyone...

Dragon Blindsight... how powerful is it really ? Can he ID different characters ? How precise can he pinpoint them ?

Thanks for any responses... please do refrain from quick and dirty answers these arent simple issues.

 

[Crothian]

Yes, Dragons can use magical items and should . I think that is a simple issue.

The Anti magic thing was talked about at length. If you can find the thread it should help. Otherwise I have no idea.

"Specify the partial action a character will take and the conditions under which it will be taken. When those conditions are met, the character may take the readied partial action. The partial action comes before the action that triggers it. For the rest of the fight, the character's initiative result is the count on which the character took the readied action, and the character acts immediately ahead of the character whose action triggered the readied action. "

that's from the SRD. So, the Dragon redies a partial charge saying that when the wizard appears he will charge him. Yes, it's allowed. If the Wizard reapears later that round and the Dragon can sense himand he is in range of the Dragon's Charge it will happen.

 

[Rashak Mani]

Can you ready action for something you arent aware of like an ehtereal Mage ? If the mage had shown on the other side of the Dragon perhaps.... but he popped right in front of the Dragon...

 

[JacktheRabbit]

The ethereal part really doesnt matter. The dragon knows one of his foes disapeared. It could be from ethereal, invisible, dimension door, or teleport. The exact method really does not matter though.

So the readied action is simply if a foe appears out of thin air within my range I will charge him.

Can you ready action for something you arent aware of like an ehtereal Mage ? If the mage had shown on the other side of the Dragon perhaps.... but he popped right in front of the Dragon...

 

[Rashak Mani]

bump !

 

[drnuncheon]

For the Anti Magic Field the Dragon used the enlarge feat three more times... that would mean 1 action becoming 1 full round and then 2 more full rounds to complete metamagicked spell ?

I assume you are looking at the SRD text quoted here:

Some spellcasters choose spells as they cast them. They can choose when they cast their spells whether to use metamagic feats to improve them. As with other spellcasters, the improved spell uses up a higher-level spell slot. If its normal casting time is 1 action, casting a metamagic spell is a full-round action for a spellcaster that chooses spells as they cast them. For spells with a longer casting time, it takes an extra full-round action to cast the spell.


As you can see, the text refers to "a metamagic spell" - that is, any spell that has been affected by one or more metamagic feats. In other words, it doesn't matter how many feats you cram onto the spell, it still only goes from 1 action to full round. A still magic missile takes a sorcerer the same amount of time to cast as a still silent maximized empowered magic missile.

So, the dragon would have needed one (and only one) full-round action to cast his spell.

J

 

[Werdnam]

Re: Re: Dragon Duel Questions ... B.A.D.D. ?

So, the dragon would have needed one (and only one) full-round action to cast his spell.

J

And that's just a full-round action, not "casting time 1 full round;" i.e., the spell goes off at the end of the dragon's turn, not at the beginning of his next one.

Just an extra point of clarification. The original post was a little ambiguous on this point.

 

[Rashak Mani]

Well that answers the time limit needed for multiple metamagics... what about the rest ?

 

[Burne]

The readying an attack issue. Yes, it works. I assume you could word your trigger in such a way such that it doesn't work, but that's your fault. " I ready a partial charge against any enemy suddenly appearing in my charge range" is just perfect and assumes no knowledge of exactly what the mage did.

Blindsight: Blindsight is powerful, how powerful is up to the DM. All I can offer is the SRD listing for it and perhaps some commentary.

From the SRD:
BLINDSIGHT
Some creatures have the extraordinary ability to use a nonvisual sense (or a combination of such senses) to operate effectively without vision. Such sense may include sensitivity to vibrations, acute scent, keen hearing, or echolocation. This ability makes invisibility and darkness (even magical darkness) irrelevant to the creature (though it still can’t see ethereal creatures). This ability operates out to a range specified in the creature description.
Blindsight never allows a creature to distinguish color or visual contrast. A creature cannot read with blindsight.
Blindsight does not subject a creature to gaze attacks.
Blinding attacks do not penalize creatures using blindsight.
Deafening attacks thwart blindsight if it relies on hearing.
Blindsight works underwater but not in a vacuum.

Dragon Blindsight... how powerful is it really ?
All Blindsight is very powerful. 300ft blindsight is crazy.

Can he ID different characters ?
Tough call, definition says can't "distinguish color or visual contrast" which _could_ mean that your can identify all other identifing clues (like smell or weight or size) and you can ID different characters. Or you could argue the other way. Personal opinion, it's blindSIGHT. It works as well as vision.

How precise can he pinpoint them ?
As precisely as sight can and a bit better as well. Magic spell wise, I consider blindsight to defeat any magic that See Invisibilty would defeat. I would understand others as placing it a step above that and defeating all Concealment type magic. Another DM call.

Burne
Too lazy to Spellcheck