[3.5] Half Blue Dragon Brown Bear

[Burnerpower]

Size/Type: Large Dragon(Augmented Animal)
Hit Dice: 6d10+30 (60 hp)
Initiative: +1
Speed: 40 ft, fly 80 ft.
Armor Class: 19 (-1 size, +1 Dex, +5 natural, +4 Half Dragon Template), touch 10, flat-footed 18
Base Attack/Grapple: +4/+16
Attack: Claw +11 melee (1d8+12)
Full Attack: 2 claws +11 melee (1d8+12) and bite +6 melee (2d6+6)
Space/Reach: 10 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Improved grab, Lightning Breath 6d8 damage, Reflex save(DC 18) for half damage
Special Qualities: Low-light vision, scent,darkvision, immunity to sleep, paralysis, and electricity
Saves: Fort +10, Ref +6, Will +3
Abilities: Str 35, Dex 13, Con 21, Int 4, Wis 12, Cha 8
Skills: Listen +8, Spot +9, Swim +12 (has 6 bonus skill points from half dragon template, put 4 in listen 2 in spot.)
Feats: Endurance, Run, Track
Challenge Rating: 6
Level Adjustment: —

Hello fellow playgrounders, this is my first attempt at templating a creature after being inspired by Urpriest's Monstrous Guide to Monsters and I hope it went well. I also found it a shame that a 3.5 edition half dragon bear result didn't immediately pop up when I googled it! I mostly have three questions though, is this stat block correct and if so is the CR of 6 really appropriate? I was thinking of throwing this at my group of players at level 4 as a fun little boss battle but I feel like my group which includes a rogue, druid, psion, and ranger might get destroyed so I'm a bit leery of having them fight it. Still I really like the concept so I'd like to try and incorporate it somehow while it still might be a threat. The last question I have is would it be affected by wild empathy? I think the answer is no but I'm not 100% sure.

[Callin]

Yea it seems a tad powerful for a group of lvl 4s. +11 to hit will hit more often than not and at minimum its 13, 13, 12 damage. Enough to seriously put a damper on any lvl 4s Life. Then it grabs you and finishes the job if you still live after the full attack. All this after his Breath Weapon.

Played smart they would be toast. Played dumb and it would just be a wasted encounter.

[pbdr]

That must have been one drunk blue dragon, or one cute bear.....

[TrueJordan]

That must have been one drunk blue dragon, or one cute bear.....

Well, it is Valentine's day; perhaps they were both feeling a tad lonely.

[Asteron]

This might better be served for a 6th level party, or as a minion in a higher level fight... say 10th or so. Of course, that all depends on the optimization level of your group.

Also, keep in mind that the half-dragon template only increases it's HD by one step. They don't automatically get d12s. In this case, it would be d10s.

[Invader]

Yea it seems a tad powerful for a group of lvl 4s. +11 to hit will hit more often than not and at minimum its 13, 13, 12 damage. Enough to seriously put a damper on any lvl 4s Life. Then it grabs you and finishes the job if you still live after the full attack. All this after his Breath Weapon.

Played smart they would be toast. Played dumb and it would just be a wasted encounter.

He has it listed as a CR 6 which seems reasonable enough.

Nevermind, I see his question now.

[nedz]

The Will save is a glaring weakness.
Beguiler sneaks up and hits it with a Colour Spray
But this is an unlikely tactic in itself, however:

It's a tough encounter which could be ended early by a caster who gambles on a Will save. I would expect that a party with a couple of decent casters will try that: Big Dragon type creatures tend to have solid Fort saves, Reflex is normally just for damage, Will for the quick SoS/SoD

Still all monsters have weaknesses.

[Particle_Man]

Int 4?

It could be handled with Create Food and Water. Then the party sneaks away while it eats. :smallsmile:

[Afgncaap5]

Regarding the Wild Empathy question... I think that by the rules, no. Wild Empathy is stated as working against animals, or against magical beasts with a penalty if they have an Int score of 1 or 2.

If not for the Int restriction, I might hand-wave this and say that being an augmented animal makes it still animalian enough for a druid or ranger to use with a penalty similar to the one for magical beasts. (And what is a dragon if not a magical beast? Apart from "a dragon", of course.) However, its Int score suggests that it's too smart (or "detached" or whatever you want to call it) for Wild Empathy to work as it usually does.

You could still let a player get away with it if you wanted, of course, but you'd be doing a big favor to such a player.

(Another way to approach the issue: the dragon-bear may not be affected by Wild Empathy, but it *might* be affected by Diplomacy if you can get through the language barrier.)

[Burnerpower]

Thanks for the replies guys! I fixed his stat block and he now has d10 hit die. The dragon bear certainly seems too strong for a 4th level group (which your responses confirm), but I'm worried at level 6 he might not be much of a challenge at all. I guess I'll just have to shelve the idea for now but I will certainly keep the stat block and maybe when it will be more appropriate they can fight it. I don't like the idea of making it a minion in a bigger fight though. I feel like that would just cheapen the whole concept. Perhaps I'll throw it at them in a town after they level with a couple of NPC's there to even the odds.

[paddyfool]

I think you can use him, just signpost the fact that if they go up against him in a straight fight, there's a high chance of PC death. (Maybe they can find the corpses of another adventuring party he's devoured, after hearing a story about a group of adventurers that seemed of comparable power but not too bright).

However, if you also signpost that this is basically a big dumb beast, and they get clever and, say, go shopping for bear traps, scrolls of save-or-lose, sleeping draughts, tanglefoot bags etc. and put them to good use, then they should be able to handle this.