And in 3E, some dragons had magical spells that were not just damage. Invisibility, Shield, Dimension Door.
4E dragons are just another type of brute (not brute role, but brute monster). Nothing special about them. Just another encounter.
I am going to disagree a bit here, (though it starts to reek of a thread jack). I think that 4th Edition Monsters are on the whole, much better than they were in 3rd edition from a straight up utility perspective. I can take a monster I have never read before, look at the statblock and tactics, and run it effectively.
What I am not able to do in 4th edition as easily as I could in 3rd is use a monster statblock for an NPC.
One of the early playtest notes for 4th Edition noted that the spell casting capabilities of Dragons ended up having some less than ideal results.
1) Some spells were nearly always a subpar tactical option in combat, and often forgotten about.
2) It added spells like Mage Armour, or stat buffs that effectively become a pre-calculated stealth stat bump to the dragons
3) It did not fit thematically that the 70 ton lizard with sharp claws and big teeth would be best served to use the same tactics as a 180 pound human mage.
I will grant that outside of combat, it did allow Dragons to be more versatile as NPC's. I dispute that it made them more effective as Monsters.
The Monster Manual in 4th edition does not really provide any monsters at all that are ideal to use as NPC's directly from the page. But one of the philosphies of 4th edition is to try to get away from building monsters the same way you build characters. If you want a given creature to have a particular ability, just give it to him.
Now, if I wanted to enhance a 4th Edition Dragon to make it more serviceable as an NPC, I would probably just add a few things to a given monster entry.
- Ritual casting
- Some skill values for non combat skills like Diplomacy, Insight, and Bluff
- Add some non combat utility powers
- Add or modify a few combat abilities to enhance survivability.
Anyway, getting back on topic, I think that there are more flaws in the monster entires than I would like in 4th edition as far as balance goes. Answering the original question for this thread, the reason that Dragons do less damage is probably because they were developed earlier in the product cycle and did not get revisited before release, which probably meant that later monsters are more likely to have a damage range ideal to their level and role.
If you can get your hands on the Draconomicon book though, it does give plenty of options for customizing the dragons abilities, so you might find something you like there.
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