Acid effects and breath weapons.

[Elhann]

Hello, playgrounders.

A new player in my campaign wants to play a green dragon disciple. And he has brought a point that I'm not entirely sure of how to resolve.

According to "acid effects (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/environment.htm#acidEffects)" in the DMG, a round of exposure to acid causes 1d6 points of acid damage. The thing is, I believe that the green dragon breath weapon has it's own rules, and this refers to stepping into and acid river or something similar, while he says that since it mentions the "spittle from a monster", his breath weapon should be doing an additional d6 of damage.

I don't think 1d6 is really significant, and far from gamebreaking, but I'd rather not open a can of worms with this. I know the other players, and I don't want to start an arms race with this; but I don't want to rule-0 the issue. If I'm right (your breath weapon does 2d8 and that's it), how can I show him?

Thanks in advance

[GolemsVoice]

If it's listed as doing 2d8 of damage, it does 2d8 of damage. Specific trumps general, and in this case, the specific rule for this acid effect is "does 2d8 damage"

[supermonkeyjoe]

Tell him yes, the DMG says it does do 1d6 damage for exposure to acid, but the breath weapon lists more than that, if he reeeeally wants it to only do 1d6 damage instead of 2d8 that's fine, you'll let it slide just this once, he's welcome.

[Feytalist]

Thing is, "real" acid and "magical" acid are two different wings. A dragon's breath is explicitly magical (it's a Su ability), which deals damage exactly as stated.

Weird bit: that "monster's spittle" bit will almost always be overwritten by a more specific rule. Look at the Ankheg: Spit Acid (Ex) deals 4d4 damage, and certainly not the 1d6 mentioned under Environmental effects, even though it is nonmagical (and therefore supposedly "natural").