Five Dragon Skulls

[chronoplasm]

Young White Dragon Skull Level 3 Soldier
Medium Natural Animate (Undead, Construct) XP 150
HP 50; Bloodied 25
AC 19; Fortitude 16, Reflex 15, Will 15
Speed 1, Fly 6 (Hover)
Immune to Poison and Disease

• Bite (at-will, standard action). Cold
  +10 vs. AC; 1d10 +3 cold damage.
• Frost Guard (at-will, immediate reaction when hit by a cold attack)
  Close burst 2; each ally in burst gains a +1 bonus to AC until hit by a fire attack.
• Breath Weapon (recharge 5/6, standard action). Cold
  +8 vs. Reflex; 3d6 +3 cold damage.

Young Red Dragon Skull- Level 3 Artillery
Medium Natural Animate (Undead, Construct) XP 150
HP 40; Blooded 20
AC 15; Fortitude 16, Reflex 15, Will 15
Speed 1; Fly 6
Immune to Poison and Disease

• Bite (at-will, standard action). Fire
  +10 vs. AC; 1d6 +3 fire damage.
• Flame Guard (at-will, immediate reaction when hit by a fire attack)
  Close burst 2; each ally in burst gains a +1 bonus to Reflex until hit by a cold attack.
• Breath Weapon (recharge 4/6, standard action). Fire
  +8 vs. Reflex; 2d8 +3 fire damage.

Any suggestions on these before I go on with the other three?

The basic idea here is that the five skulls are all found resting in a kobold temple. They will all attempt to stay next to each other to take advantage of their special powers; immediate reactions that trigger when they are hit with an attack of a certain type, and grant a defense or attack bonus to nearby allies.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

If it is an immediate reaction it will happen AFTER the attack resolves. Make it an immediate interrupt. I would also have it grant say Resist 5 for the appropriate damage type as opposed to a REFLEX defense bonus personally. The main reason is timing. An immediate interrupt can trigger on damage of the appropriate type, but damage happens after the roll to hit and damage type is not always known at that point. It just creates extra complications over rules interpretation, whereas if it grants a resist then there is no argument that the buff comes too late to help because that happens at the point where damage is allocated, and at that point you know if it is fire, etc.

The even simpler way to do it is just make it an aura.

Aura 2: Fire Resistance; all allies in the aura gain resist 5 fire.

If you really DO want to make it kick in after the attack, then it is fine the way it is. You could also use less than resist 5 if you want. 5 is pretty standard for a 'weak level of resistance' but 2 or 3 wouldn't be out of line for a level 3 monster.

Should be an interesting monster. 3d6+3 for an every other round use power at level 3 is fairly strong, but you don't specify if it is a blast or a melee attack. If it is a blast you may want to cut it back some. Your average CON 10 Rogue has 37 HP at level 3. The combat will probably last 8 rounds anyway, so figure 4 breath attacks per skull, probably half hits at +8 vs Reflex. 14 damage per attack, if a party member takes 3 hits they are down, so probably takes 4-5 hits to fry them for good. With 20 total breaths happening if it is a blast 2 there is a pretty good chance you can fry the whole party. Kind of depends on the terrain etc. Anyway, it isn't way overpowered and may be just right. Just keep an eye on that. As a melee attack it isn't so bad, nobody is likely to take enough hits to go down as long as they use good tactics.

 

[Asmor]

If they're the skulls of young dragons, I'd think they'd be smaller than medium size. I'd make them at least small, if not tiny.

 

[chronoplasm]

OK, so I've run into an issue with the green dragon skull.

The whole point of these dragon skulls is to use them all in one encounter so that they grant each other their resistances.
The green dragon skull would grant resistance to poison.
The problem is that being undead, they would all be immune to poison anyway.
I could just omit the green dragon skull, but I wanted to have the five heads of Tiamat represented.

Your thoughts?

 

[Asmor]

Maybe it could give them all a few extra points of poison damage.