Redone Black Dragon from GenCon

[FireLance]

Yep, I like the basic concept, just not the execution. If it gave ongoing acid instead, then it could still do 5-10 damage, but it wouldn't double up for rangers and its upper bound of damage wouldn't be enough to drop people from full.

An actual downside to twin strike? I fail to see the problem.

 

[Festivus]

Still won't knock a dwarf off it's feet... but a halfling has no hope of using second chance against the tail swipe.

 

[FireLance]

Also interesting to me is the fact that the stunning frightful presence and the blinding cloud of darkness are now gone. The young black dragon's defenses have also dropped by 2 points for Fortitude, Reflex and Will, and a whopping 4 points for AC.

All in all, it looks like its action denial and hit denial abilities have been significantly curtailed.

 

[FireLance]

Still won't knock a dwarf off it's feet... but a halfling has no hope of using second chance against the tail swipe.

Sure he does; there's still an attack roll. Just don't stand adjacent to someone who has a low Reflex defense.

 

[Festivus]

Sure he does; there's still an attack roll. Just don't stand adjacent to someone who has a low Reflex defense.

Second Chance is an immediate reaction, you can't take immediate actions on your turn. So i fyou are a rogue and you miss, you don't get to use it. But of course, any rogue worth their salt isn't going to miss.

If someone else missed, yep, you bet he can. But again, any rogue worth their salt won't be standing next to a dragon unless it's a flank... and even then you should have those boots that let you stand as a minor

 

[FireLance]

Second Chance is an immediate reaction, you can't take immediate actions on your turn.

Ah, you're right. I forgot about that.

 

[keterys]

More and more, I wonder if the game would work better if you could take immediates and opportunities on your own turn.

 

[FireLance]

More and more, I wonder if the game would work better if you could take immediates and opportunities on your own turn.

Alternatively, just make the immediates and opportunities that you should be able to take on your own turn into free actions (like elven accuracy), and make it explicit whether or not they interrupt the triggering action.

This is probably a discussion for another thread, though.

 

[mneme]

I have to agree, btw, that it complicates the game without providing signficiant value that you can't take immediates and opportunity abilities on your own turn. Pretty much the -only- advantage this gains is that it gives tactically minded players a way to bypass powerful opportunity actions posessed by enemies -- but that's also a major disadvantage, as if can frequently trivialize such abilities.

 

[Aegeri]

Yep, I like the basic concept, just not the execution. If it gave ongoing acid instead, then it could still do 5-10 damage, but it wouldn't double up for rangers and its upper bound of damage wouldn't be enough to drop people from full.

For some reason, I just can't derive any sympathy within my cold dark and blackened heart to care about the poor ranger and twin strike (or multiple attacks in general). In fact I think it's a good thing multiple attacks might actually have to have a disadvantage in some situations.

Edit: Is it okay for the OP to post the stat block? I'm just wondering.