How to make a dragon extraplanar.

[Krishnath]

It seems I have run into a conundrum. Whilest tinkering around with my homebrew (as I am prone to do). I ran across a dragon named Cerulean. Now said dragon is a half-dragon (green) blue dragon is currently trying to unite the gnoll tribes of his realm under his banner, achieving mixed results. But said dragon is supposed to be from another realm of existance, so the crux of the problem is figuring out how to make him extraplanar without changing his creature type, or just slapping the extraplanar subtype on him, as I would like it to make sense from a rules standpoint. On one hand I could add the fiendish or axiomatic template to him, as neither would change his alignment or type, but the abilities gained from these two templates are fairly weak considering that he is allready higly resistant to fire (a class feature) and has DR 20/epic, which in turn does not equate with the CR increase of +2.

Thus my request is this: I need good, logical, solid, and preferebly original templates that grant the extraplanar subtype without changing the creatures type.

Do you think you can handle it? I would be very grateful.

 

[Mortis]

Can't you just give him the Extraplanar subtype - so his type would be Dragon (Extraplanar) ?

Regards,

Mortis

 

[BOZ]

that would be the easiest way - then, advance him or give him class levels.

 

[Krishnath]

Apparently someone has not read the entirity of what I wrote, and I quote:

so the crux of the problem is figuring out how to make him extraplanar without changing his creature type, or just slapping the extraplanar subtype on him,

So? Any takers?

 

[Gez]

OK. So you want:

• Keep dragon type
• Not be just the extraplanar subtype tacked on
• Not be the Fiendish template because it's weak
• Not be the axiomatic template because it's weak
• Not be the celestial template because it's not appropriate
• Not be the anarchic template because it's not appropriate

So, I bring you the Voidmind Creature template, and then you slap Extraplanar. It doesn't do what you want, but at least it doesn't change the creature's type -- it's the only one I found that doesn't. You'll still have to just slap the extraplanar subtype, but at least you did something else!

BTW: If the creature came from another plane, it will have the extraplanar subtype anyway. It's as simple as that: planeshift out of your homeplane, become extraplanar.

So, you simply can't avoid slapping that subtype, unless you change its backstory to have your dragon native to this world. Whether you want it or not, whether you tack on templates or not, your extraplanar dragon is extraplanar. You can't fight it!

Alright, so listen, because here's how you do:

1. Blue Dragon.
2. Monster of Legend Template. Turns to Outsider.
3. Spellwarped Template. Turns to Aberration.
4. Axiomatic Template. Stays Aberration.
5. Fiendish Template. Stays Aberration.
6. Half-Fiend Template. Turns to Outsider.
7. Entropic Creature Template. Turns to Outsider once again.
8. Pseudonatural Creature Template. Turns to Outsider yet once more.
8½. Insert a few dozens other templates, just for fun. Half-Troll Tauric Titanic Kaiju Psionic Half-Illithid Half-Tarrasque Half-Water Elemental. Weeee! Go on, you know you want to.
9. Half-Green Dragon Template. Turns to Dragon.

So you have a Dragon (Air, Augmented Aberration, Augmented Dragon, Augmented Outsider, Chibi, Earth, Epic, Evil, Extraplanar, Fire, Force, Goblinoid, Human, Lawful, Munchkin, Negative, Positive, Psionic, Water).

Happy now?

 

[Shade]

How about something as simple as this:

Sometimes creatures are born on planes other than the Material Plane, yet they are not truly any different from their Material Plane counterparts other than their place of birth.

Planar Creature

"Planar " is an inherited template that can be added to any creature that does not possess the Extraplanar or Native subtypes (referred to hereafter as the base creature).

A planar creature uses all the base creature’s statistics and special abilities except as noted here.

Size and Type: The creature’s type does not change, but it gains the Extraplanar subtype. Size is unchanged.

 

[Krishnath]

OK. So you want:

• Keep dragon type
• Not be just the extraplanar subtype tacked on
• Not be the Fiendish template because it's weak
• Not be the axiomatic template because it's weak
• Not be the celestial template because it's not appropriate
• Not be the anarchic template because it's not appropriate

So, I bring you the Voidmind Creature template, and then you slap Extraplanar. It doesn't do what you want, but at least it doesn't change the creature's type -- it's the only one I found that doesn't. You'll still have to just slap the extraplanar subtype, but at least you did something else!

BTW: If the creature came from another plane, it will have the extraplanar subtype anyway. It's as simple as that: planeshift out of your homeplane, become extraplanar.

So, you simply can't avoid slapping that subtype, unless you change its backstory to have your dragon native to this world. Whether you want it or not, whether you tack on templates or not, your extraplanar dragon is extraplanar. You can't fight it!

Alright, so listen, because here's how you do:

1. Blue Dragon.
2. Monster of Legend Template. Turns to Outsider.
3. Spellwarped Template. Turns to Aberration.
4. Axiomatic Template. Stays Aberration.
5. Fiendish Template. Stays Aberration.
6. Half-Fiend Template. Turns to Outsider.
7. Entropic Creature Template. Turns to Outsider once again.
8. Pseudonatural Creature Template. Turns to Outsider yet once more.
8½. Insert a few dozens other templates, just for fun. Half-Troll Tauric Titanic Kaiju Psionic Half-Illithid Half-Tarrasque Half-Water Elemental. Weeee! Go on, you know you want to.
9. Half-Green Dragon Template. Turns to Dragon.

So you have a Dragon (Air, Augmented Aberration, Augmented Dragon, Augmented Outsider, Chibi, Earth, Epic, Evil, Extraplanar, Fire, Force, Goblinoid, Human, Lawful, Munchkin, Negative, Positive, Psionic, Water).

Happy now?

Very funny, just one problem, the Creature of Legend template cannot be added to anything but animals, magical beasts, and monstrous humanoids. Also the voidmind template does not fit a creature that is gathering and leading gnoll tribes. Funny though.

Shade: Idea is good, but it needs something, I can't quite place it... I think it might be the severe lack of any abilities. In fact, just granting the extraplanar subtype is a drawback. Makes on vulnerable to banishment type spells, so some gains are needed.

 

[DnDChick]

Just out of curiosity, why don't you want to just use the Extraplanar subtype?

That subtype was invented so you can have creatures from other planes that aren't always Outsiders or Elementals. Slap the Extraplanar subtype onto any monster and that automatically makes it native to some other plane. Even player-characters get the Extraplanar Subtype when they travel to other planes. If you're not on your home plane, you're Extraplanar. It's a catch-all subype and really is all you need to make a dragon of any kind extraplanar.

 

[Shade]

Shade: Idea is good, but it needs something, I can't quite place it... I think it might be the severe lack of any abilities. In fact, just granting the extraplanar subtype is a drawback. Makes on vulnerable to banishment type spells, so some gains are needed.

Well, the planar dragons all have spell-like abilities. Perhaps grant it a few spell-like abiliies? If you want to keep it generic, maybe plane shift 1/day and greater teleport (self only) 3/day. That outta make up for the vulnerability to additionals spells and probably be worth a +1 CR adjustment.

 

[Krishnath]

Just out of curiosity, why don't you want to just use the Extraplanar subtype?

That subtype was invented so you can have creatures from other planes that aren't always Outsiders or Elementals. Slap the Extraplanar subtype onto any monster and that automatically makes it native to some other plane. Even player-characters get the Extraplanar Subtype when they travel to other planes. If you're not on your home plane, you're Extraplanar. It's a catch-all subype and really is all you need to make a dragon of any kind extraplanar.

Trust me, it makes sense for the campaign, he is supposed to come from one of the outer planes, see, as did his parents, only thing is, neither the fiendish, nor the axiomatic template fits the bill. And just slapping him with the extraplanar subtype would be weak and unimaginative. Besides, he is a quasi-deity (courtesy of twelve levels of the dragon ascendant prestige class).

Shade: Much better, now it just needs to be written up as a proper template

edit: So I made one little mistake because I didn't pay attention, but I fixed it, I fixed it good...