Interesting fact about Dragon SRs.

[UD]

I agree with DWARF and RangerWickett.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hi BronzeDragon!

As an aside, Monster Compedium : Monsters of Faerûn raised the bar a little bit. At CR 20, all the dragons in the book present a SR of 30 (which is, BTW, exactly 45% magic resistance against the typical 20th-level spellcaster [without any penetration feat(s)]).

What do you guys think about this?

Its always nice to know there was some reasoning behind this or that attribute.

P.S.: Went to take a look at my Creature Collection II, and our friend Upper_Krust went against the norm and gave the Slarecian Dragon a SR of 32 at CR 20.

Remember that the Slarecian Dragon is (effectively) a 'Dragon of Magic'. Hence the reason it has (relatively) weak combat abilities but superior magic abilities.

From a personal point of view I love the way they have taken the creature idea and integrated it into the Scarred Lands history!

 

[UofMDude]

The problem is the Red Great Wyrm is a CR 25 creature, while the White Great Wyrm is a CR 20 one.

Unless the DM is a sadistic person (a distinct possibility , he won't throw a Red Great Wyrm at the same group he was going to throw a White Great Wyrm at.

If he goes by the book, he will give them an Old Red dragon, which will be, and this should be a real shocker, actually slightly WEAKER than the White Great Wyrm, even though they are both CR 20. The only thing the Old Red has an advantage at is the Breath Weapon damage, while basically all other statistics are either in favor of the white or equal.

So, even when the CRs are the same, the challenge is skewed in the wrong direction.

Well, if the party is 25th level, why not send wave after wave of great wyrm white dragons after them? That way we can have more interesting threads about how easy dragons are to kill just to upset B.A.D.D. members!

UofMDude

 

[EOL]

It's up to the narrative to make encounters interesting. Yes, unique stats can help inspire DMs, but really, a good DM shouldn't be put off my simple rules. In fact, in my opinion, they should've just had a single Dragon entry, with the same base stats for all ages, and then templates to apply over it to make it a particular color. I prefer simple rules, because it makes it easier to focus on the story, rather than the stats.

Preach on Brother Wickett!

Yes this is basically the point turning your D&D session into raw mathematics where 2 sets of numbers do battle and yeah reagardless of what a Dragon's SR is it's going to be boring. I'm not accusing anybody of doing that, but if you go the opposite way where every session is a cinematic adventure and it won't matter whether ever CR 20 Dragon has the same SR.