I have the Draconomicon!

[John Crichton]

BTW, I'm ordering Draconomicon via Amazon today (Saturday) ANyone who wants to receive a share the love discount from me please send me an email or a pm (with your email, of course). You'll get a 10% discount.

Hook me up at mglickman-nospam@snet.net

Get rid of the -nospam of course. Thanks!

 

[Nellisir]

I'd like to know whether the book features any sample dragons, with complete spell list, hoard, and lair. And are there tactics for dragons?

There are sample hoards for most CRs. There is extensive discussion about lairs and tactics. There are sample dragons, with complete spell lists, of every MM true dragon of every age category.

It's alot of dragon.

Oriental dragons are referenced but not included stat-wise. The half-dragon template is expanded to include all types of true dragons, including oriental.

Cheers
Nell.

 

[JPL]

The half-dragon template is expanded to include all types of true dragons, including oriental.

Cheers
Nell.

Goro lives!

 

[Kae'Yoss]

There are sample hoards for most CRs. There is extensive discussion about lairs and tactics. There are sample dragons, with complete spell lists, of every MM true dragon of every age category.

Capital! Now the players can't try to make me play dragons stupid cause I don't have one whipped-up. (Not that they did it before).

 

[ConnorSB]

How would you rate the usefulness of the section on dragons being involved with the party, or even as PC's. Are these sections actually helpful and providing good solutions or more just a don't do it kind of thing or best left to epic et c.

Lets see...

First it talks about advantages and disadvantages of having a dragon in the party. Basically this part is pretty obvious: dragons have cool powers and players dont, but as they age, dragons cant fit small places like humans can, and in addition will have the usual monster problems of low HP and saves (which they exchanged for cool powerz). This section is reasonably useful, mostly as a reminder to the player and DM what they are getting into.

It then talks about dragons as mounts, and includes a table of thier overland movement and load range sorted by size of riders and type/size of dragon. This part is pretty useful, as it includes not only the awsome table, but outlines the circumstances associated w/ dragon mounts, like raising a dragon, caring for a dragon mount, and asking service of a non-mount dragon ("Hey mr. Red dragon, take me home!" *breathes fire* "Hey, stupid adventurer, No!").

Then it talks about dragons as NPC members of the party, and has various tables for use as a regular cohort, a paladin's special mount, a blackguard's fiendish servent, and a wizard/sorcerer's familier. The tables include the special benifits they recieve from each and equivelent level for the character to use them. This part is integral for anyone who wants a dragon NPC in the party, as it provides info for basically everything. Oh, and there is a special Wiz/Sorc feat, Dragon Familier, that lets you get a dragon familier.

Finally it talks about dragons as PCs. It provides two sample ideas for how to integrate dragon PCs and/or the PrCs of the book. It talks about how one goes up in levels as a dragon (b/c since dragons age, things get funky), including how a dragon gains feats and skills. Finally, there are three tables.

One is the HD, Level adjustment, and ECL of all the chromatic/color dragons by color and age (The ones in the MM).

The next is the same format but for the "other" true dragons. These are the psionic dragons and the planar dragons. These tables are a bit condensed, and refer back to the first set (IE: The BLAH Dragon is the same as the COLOR dragon, save that its HD look like #/#/#/#).

The third table is the Level adjustments for the "lesser dragons." Figuring the ECL is left up to the reader.

Basically, the section provides most of the hard to figure out crunch for using dragons in the party, and sends the reader off to other books and sections to find the real stats for everything (IE: it provides the ECL for a wyrmling blue dragon, but not the statistics. Those are in the later chapters). It's got some good ideas and points to make, and provides quite a few tangible solutions. I think its actually pretty useful, for being a rather short section. My only beef w/ it is that you probably need Savage Species to make it work "legally", and the back cover doesn't ever say that the SS might be useful, or needed.

 

[ConnorSB]

Tell me about the hoardstealer.

It sounds like just the thing for a dwarf rogue.

The hoard stealer is most probably a rogue before entering the PrC (well, duh), and so I'm going to compare the PrC to a full rogue of equivelent level.

The rogue basically gives up a continuing sneak attack increase and his higher level abilities for...

Improved Trapfinding and sensing ability.
The ability to "hide from dragons" (like invisibility to undead. Its a spell in the book).
A small spell list (4th level spells max, focuses on moving self or objects)
The cool ability to basically turn any bag into a bag of holding-like object for limited periods of time
A darkvision range increase or three
AND
The ability to sense where large deposits of treasure are, usable a few times a day.

It looks like a pretty specialized, but pretty awsome PrC, and I can see its aplications outside of Hoard Stealing.

 

[Knight Otu]

Given that Ashardalon is my secondary account here on ENWorld, I have to ask: Is there more about him in the book apart from the PrC?

 

[ConnorSB]

I haven't found anything beyond the PrC about him, although the PrC does give some info about him (that whole balor heart thing).

 

[JPL]

The hoard stealer is most probably a rogue before entering the PrC (well, duh), and so I'm going to compare the PrC to a full rogue of equivelent level.

The rogue basically gives up a continuing sneak attack increase and his higher level abilities for...

Improved Trapfinding and sensing ability.
The ability to "hide from dragons" (like invisibility to undead. Its a spell in the book).
A small spell list (4th level spells max, focuses on moving self or objects)
The cool ability to basically turn any bag into a bag of holding-like object for limited periods of time
A darkvision range increase or three
AND
The ability to sense where large deposits of treasure are, usable a few times a day.

It looks like a pretty specialized, but pretty awsome PrC, and I can see its aplications outside of Hoard Stealing.

Very nice. Thanks for the info.

 

[Spatula]

I think its actually pretty useful, for being a rather short section. My only beef w/ it is that you probably need Savage Species to make it work "legally", and the back cover doesn't ever say that the SS might be useful, or needed.

It sounds like it already gives you everything you need - which is basically just the level adjustment (and how to handle the dragon aging/leveling, which SS does not cover). Everything else is easily gotten from the dragon entries in the monster books.