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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7006384" data-attributes="member: 42582">A 4e black dragon does not summon insects during combat (unless the GM alters the statblockor permits this as a p 42 improvised action).But the 4e black dragon absolutely can use darkness - either darkness lite, via the Monster Vault shroud of darkness, or darkness in the full-blooded sense, via the Monster Manual version which has a different stat block from MV and is the one I used in my 4e campaign (and I can assure you it was using darkness - and the party wizard was using a magical statue of the elven Summer Queen to dispel that darkness).As far as corrupting water is concerned, that is not an in-combat ability. As I've already posted, the 4e stat block does not purport to regulate the non-combat portions of the game. The extent to which a black dragon can corrupt water is a matter for GM determination as part of the process of managing the fiction and the backstory of the game (similarly to how there are no rules for harvets and for famine, and deciding whether or not a particular villlage is flush with grain or suffering a famine is something the GM would determin as part of managing the fiction and the backstory of the game). This is the point [MENTION=87792]Neonchameleon[/MENTION] made in his response to you - when it comes to worldbuilding, 4e puts fiction ahead of mechanics - in other words, if (as GM) I want my black dragon to magically corrupt some water, I just use my authorial power to stipulate that it is so! (And contra [MENTION=48965]Imaro[/MENTION] in post 202, that is not "DM fiat to adjust a monster's ability" - there is no "monster ability" being adjusted - it is just the way 4e expects the GM to engage in world building.)The stat blocks and approaches over the years have varied quite a bit, and the 4e versions are very concise, and complete. But that's not my issue. When I look at the 4e black dragon I wonder:Sure, if you deny a basic premise of 4e's damage mechanics - that bleeding occurs when the "bloodied" state is incurred - then you won't like a mechanic that links having blood drip on you to having bloodied your enemy! But the answer to your question is no mystery - you answered it yourself! This is something that 4e leaves to GM adjudication. And, as [MENTION=87792]Neonchameleon[/MENTION] pointed out, by default most swords used by PCs to stab this dragon will be magic.The GM is of course free to narrate that NPCs who tried to stab the dragon with non-magic swords had their swords corrode. That's just colour.Why does the dragon breathe when it starts bleeding? Because it's now really angry! It's a pacing mechanic - it helps express, at the table and in the course of resolution, the story of the dragon's anger.Your question about the tail sits oddly with your preference for legendary actions, because they exhibit the same property: the dragon can only make a wing attack off turn; and the more enemies there are, the more attacks the dragon can make (and the more Perception checks it can make!). These are all mechanisms for managing pacing and action economy. They're are not mechanical representations of dragon biology.(I'll bracket the issue of Action Recovery, which is standard in MV dragons.)It's not a "limitation" - it's about providing a particular experience at the table. The game tends to assume that a fight with a dragon will be a fairly big deal, and that there won't be a lot of repeats. The abilities are intended to help each of those fights to have a distinctive, memorable feel. So it's a mistake to infer from the allocation of abilities to some sort of conjecture about "dragon biology".Any dragon can fly and attack. But creatures with a fly-by attack ability will be particularly noteworthy for their flying by and attacking. That will be part of the experience of fighting them. Within the context of 4e this questio makes no sense. Hit points aren't a property of ogres (like their height, weight, or hair colour). They're an element of monster stat blocks, and serve as a marker for the degree of staying power this creature has in combat.So the GM (i) has to decide what degree of staying power a creature should have; and the (ii) has to assign hit points. 4e has fairly intricate advice on how to move from (i) to (ii), based on its hp/level charts and its categories of standard, elite, solo, etc. The decison at (i), though, can be decided either by accepting the default suggestions (by working from the MM) or by making one's own decision about pacing, genre considerations, etc.As Neonchameleon explained, in 4e if you don't want your black dragon to be an instinctive devourer, then you change the statblock. The game is predicated on the idea that the function of the mechanics is to produce the desired experience in play, including the desired fiction. If you want different fiction, you change the mechanics!For instance, the only time I used a black dragon in 4e was a young one using the MM (not the MV stats). [MENTION=87792]Neonchameleon[/MENTION] described it as anaemic, but for me it worked well, and it's darkness ability generated the sort of play experience I wsa hoping for. Likewise I've had good play experiences with wraiths (a monster many people hate because they are insubstantial - half damage - and cause weakness - more half damage).But if I wanted a different play experience, I would change things. I do this all the time in 4e - change stat blocks to help ensure that the creature, in play, will be as I envisage it and want it to be in the fiction.That's why it makes no sense, in the 4e context, to ask "Why are black dragons like this?"; or to conjecture about how many hit points an ogre "ought" to have. The stats are intended as a producer of the fiction; not as a product or record or model of it. If you want different fiction, you change the stats! It's fiction first, mechanics second. (Which I think is fairly close to how Chainmail and OD&D were designed, but different from later AD&D and very different from 3E.)</blockquote>

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