New Young Gray Dragon

[brad-pet]

I'm actualy trying to update a young gray dragon.

What do you think of it ?

Caustrex Young Gray Dragon Level 5 Solo Soldier
Large natural magical beast (dragon) XP 1 000
HP 260; Bloodied 130

AC 21; Fortitude 20; Reflex 18; Will 18 Initiative +6

Speed 8, fly 6, overland flight 12 Perception +10


Resist 15 acid Darkvision

Saving Throws +5; Action Points 2

Traits
​

O Aura of Terror (fear) • Aura 5

Any enemy within the aura takes a -2 penalty to saving throws.

Action recovery

Whenever the dragon ends its turn, any dazing, stunning, or dominating effect on it ends.

Instinctive Sclicing Fury


On an initiative of 10 + its initiative check, the dragon can use a free action to use Tail Lash. If the dragon cannot use a free action to make this attack due to a dominating or stunning effect, then that effect ends instead of the dragon making the attack.

Standard Actions

m Claw • At-Will

Attack: Reach 2; +10 vs. AC

Hit: 2d8 + 4 damage, and the target is immobilized and takes ongoing 5 damage (save ends both).

m Tail Lash • At-Will

Attack: Reach 2 (one or two creatures); +10 vs. AC

Hit: 1d6 + 5 damage, and the target takes ongoing 5 damage (save ends).

C Breath Weapon (acid) • Recharge 5 6

Attack: Close blast 5; +8vs. Fortitude

Hit: 2d10 + 3 acid damage, and the target is pushed 2 squares. The target also takes ongoing 5 acid damage and is immobilized (save ends both).

C Frightful Presence (fear) • Encounter

Attack: Close burst 5 (targets enemies); +8 vs. Will

Hit: The target is stunned until the end of the dragon's next turn.

Aftereffect: The target takes a -2 penalty to attack rolls (save ends).

Triggered Actions

M Warding Tail • At-Will

Trigger: When an enemy misses the dragon with a melee attack.

Effect (Immediate Reaction): The dragon makes a tail lash attack against the triggering enemy.

C Bloodied Breath (acid) • Encounter

Trigger: When first bloodied.

Effect (Free): The dragon’s breath weapon recharges, and the dragon uses it immediately.

Skills Arcana +9, Intimidate +8

Str 20 (+7) Dex 15 (+4) Wis 16 (+5)

Con 17 (+5) Int 14 (+4) Cha 13 (+3)

Alignment evil Languages Common, Draconic

 

[Mentat55]

Not that it matters, but the Monster Vault took away Frightful Presence from all the dragons, and I largely agree with the decision. I'd rather have the dragon be scary because it is tearing the fighter apart and then flying over the frontline to maul the wizard.

That comment aside, I have a question about the tail lash attack. It seems to have an Effect line that allows the dragon to make a two more attacks, after making a tail lash attack against potentially 2 targets. Or is there a power name missing, some sort of draconic double attack?

Personally, I would just drop all or most of the ongoing damage, and boost the basic damage. Damage now is a lot scarier. If it is thematic, then maybe have the tail attack do ongoing damage.

 

[Noctos]

Not that it matters, but the Monster Vault took away Frightful Presence from all the dragons, and I largely agree with the decision. I'd rather have the dragon be scary because it is tearing the fighter apart and then flying over the frontline to maul the wizard.

i guess i was gone to dnd longer than i thought but when i last played dragons caused fear. had a radius effect going on. it's a dragon they are f-ing scary. ok but as the game progressed i always lowered it's modifiers as i rolled being as the last 6 or 10 dragons heads were now hanging from dining rooms walls. So in my opinion fear is great. the larger, old, stronger the dragon the more fear it should cause. it's honestly the being frozen with fear the truly makes a dragon deadly. When my party was no longer having random members paralyzed for a few rounds with fear the dragon was squashed rather quickly. but as most dm figure out a single foe no mater how strong is easyer to defeat than even a small horde of kobolds.


ok now i have to ask before i go much farther in my judging of your dragon., what is it going up against. lvl's of players, number, classes, magical to normal item power ratio. all these things will help me decide if it's to weak or too strong. cause i think 5 players of lvl 7-9 could smash that dragon quickly far quicker then you might expect.





but

 

[brad-pet]

Hi
This dragon was for 4 lvl 6 players. I palyed Cliffside lair from Draconomicon.

The battles were fairly funny.

For the first encounter there was a lot of Kobolds so it was a little hard to track.
Caustrex the Dragon was fair I used the above stats. I played frightful presence but forgot + 5 save and the aura

I agree that fright full presence wasn't very funny for the players.
Instictive actions for Solos are good ideas.

The effect line after tail lash was an error from the original monster. I remove it.

Yes, ongoing damage is thematic, a little boring to track :

Mentat55 : You're right !

Thanks

PS : Sorry for my english.