Shadow Dragon Breath Weapon

[Lord_Horzt_Bowsmen]

Okay, I know you always round down, but usually that's to a minimum of 1. Shadow dragons present a problem in that their damage is not normal damage, but rather negative levels. The description even says that a save reduces the number by half and to round down, but I'm not sure if that is to a minimum of 1 or 0.

The rules imply that is the damage is 1 for a shadow dragon, that a save makes that 0, meaning no negative levels. There is a possibility, though, that the normal rule still applies, but that would mean that a save against a smaller shadow dragon's breath weapon is pointless.

I'm thinking that a save makes it 0, but I'm not certain. Thoughts?

 

[UltimaGabe]

The minimum is still 1.

Think of it this way: If you didn't have Evasion and a Wyrmling Red Dragon breathed on you, and somehow managed to get a total of 1 damage, and you made your save, you'd still take 1 damage, correct? Then why should it be any different with Negative Levels? Every Breath Weapon attack, if the target doesn't have Evasion, has to do SOMETHING. If you fail the save it's even worse, but in every case, something has to happen. Just because it's negative levels doesn't mean it's not privy to the same rules as everything else.

 

[Anubis]

I'm not sure I agree with that. Negative levels are far more deadly than raw damage. If the minimum is 1 and you make a save, then the saving throw should do something.

In addition, the PH states that the rounding rule and 1 minimum applies to actual damage and hit points as well; negative levels don't count as either, technically speaking, and the PH states to go with what the entry says. Unlike every other dragon entry, the shadow dragon's actually states to round down, and does not give a 1 minimum, so that implies strongly that if you save against 1, it goes to 0.5 and rounds down to 0.

The only other advice I'd give is that, if you make the damage stick, you've got to let the successful saving throw do something else. Otherwise, why would there even be a saving throw for the shadow dragons with 1 negative level damage? If you can't round down to 0, there's no point rolling a saving throw at all. So if you don't let it round down to 0 . . .

Well, if they make the initial saving throw, you could always have the negative level just go away with no threat of level loss in that case. It's that or make it 0 damage, but the initial saving throw must do SOMETHING. If not, the shadow dragon would be totally broken.

 

[the Jester]

I'd round down to 0.