Shivering Touch and dragons

[Inevitability]

We all know that Shivering Touch is a great spell if you want to off some dragons. However, at least a couple dragons, should have ranks in spellcraft and should therefore know about the spell and the danger it poses to them. Dragons, being not stupid, should realize that they should protect themselves from Shivering Touch if they don't want to die a dexterity-sucking death.

So, if you were a dragon, which spells/tactics/items would you use to protect yourself from this spell?

[Urpriest]

Scintillating Scales is nice for general use, since it also protects against other annoying touch attacks.

[Piggy Knowles]

Scintillating Scales is practically a must-have for any dragon, and makes that touch attack far harder to land. Sheltered Vitality is basically a full stop to Shivering Touch.

EDIT: Urpriest'd.

[Fax Celestis]

Ring of counterspells. I mean, if you're a fantastically wealthy dragon, you might as well use some of your bling.

Or, hell, a level of Barbarian and picking up the Frozen Berserker feat would do it too, since creatures with the Cold subtype are immune to shivering touch. This also means silvers and whites are automatically immune.

Or cast as the frost or something, I guess.

[Fouredged Sword]

Immunity to cold is a stopper, so silver and white dragons can ignore it.

[Shining Wrath]

Anything that boosts your touch AC helps - rings of protection and the like.

Anything that gives miss chance on physical attacks - Blink, Displacement, et cetera.

And give yourself True Seeing somehow, so the Wizard can't just waltz up to you. Because that's the downside to Shivering Touch - the Wizard has to be close to a dragon. And the dragon ought to be able to make the Wizard regret that choice (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0627.html).

[DeAnno]

Immunity to cold is a stopper, so silver and white dragons can ignore it.

Not exactly; you need the actual Cold subtype, so a simple cast of Energy Immunity won't do it. The White Dragons are still safe though.

[Fouredged Sword]

Mantle of the Icy Soul grants permanent non-dispellable immunity, as it grants the cold subtype. Note, it is a no-brainer for a red or gold dragon, as immunity to their elemental weakness is great and they are already immune to fire damage.

[ShurikVch]

Mantle of the Icy Soul was nerfed in Spell Compendium to 1 hour/level

[DeAnno]

Note, it is a no-brainer for a red or gold dragon, as immunity to their elemental weakness is great and they are already immune to fire damage.

It also removes the fire subtype if you have it, and in fact doesn't grant the cold subtype in such cases.

[Fax Celestis]

It also removes the fire subtype if you have it, and in fact doesn't grant the cold subtype in such cases.

Hold up, does it actually say that? Because there's nothing stopping you from having both the Cold and Fire subtypes simultaneously.

[DeAnno]

The SC version does say that.

[Fax Celestis]

The SC version does say that.

Ugh. That is dumb and also stupid.

[Shining Wrath]

BTW, in 5e dragons become Legendary at a certain size (MM not out, but we know Adult Red for certain), and Legendary creatures get special powers.

The Adult Red's Legendary power is: 3/day, if it misses a saving throw, it can choose to make it. Not has to in case it's not a significant SR, but for Shivering Touch, yes, it would.

It complicates things a fair bit if you've got to hit with the spell four times to have the desired effect. Especially when the not-so-desired effect of the first three is the dragon is now very focused on killing YOU. Of course, I don't think Shivering Touch is in the 5e PHB, but still, that's a nice feature for a should-be-boss monster to have.


Hold up, does it actually say that? Because there's nothing stopping you from having both the Cold and Fire subtypes simultaneously.

The SC version of Mantle does say that casting it on a Fire creature removes the Fire subtype but does not add the Cold subtype.

However, a second casting ought to do the trick, since at that point the dragon is no longer a Fire creature. For a Red dragon this is problematic as their lairs tend to be volcanoes and the like, but it's not such a big problem for a Gold.

The SC version is Druid 5 / Cleric 6 so it's not readily accessible to dragons without class levels but one presumes a dragon could commission a ring that casts [I]Mantle[I] four times a day with a CL of 12 or more.

[Urpriest]

BTW, in 5e dragons become Legendary at a certain size (MM not out, but we know Adult Red for certain), and Legendary creatures get special powers.

The Adult Red's Legendary power is: 3/day, if it misses a saving throw, it can choose to make it. Not has to in case it's not a significant SR, but for Shivering Touch, yes, it would.

It complicates things a fair bit if you've got to hit with the spell four times to have the desired effect. Especially when the not-so-desired effect of the first three is the dragon is now very focused on killing YOU. Of course, I don't think Shivering Touch is in the 5e PHB, but still, that's a nice feature for a should-be-boss monster to have.



The SC version of Mantle does say that casting it on a Fire creature removes the Fire subtype but does not add the Cold subtype.

However, a second casting ought to do the trick, since at that point the dragon is no longer a Fire creature. For a Red dragon this is problematic as their lairs tend to be volcanoes and the like, but it's not such a big problem for a Gold.

The SC version is Druid 5 / Cleric 6 so it's not readily accessible to dragons without class levels but one presumes a dragon could commission a ring that casts [I]Mantle[I] four times a day with a CL of 12 or more.

Shivering Touch doesn't offer a save. If it did, it would probably be reasonably balanced, and not very effective against dragons.

[Fouredged Sword]

It really should have a fort save to resist, or AT LEAST a fort save for half. Ether that or be a penalty (and thus unable to reduce the score past 1)

[molten_dragon]

Scintillating Scales is nice for general use, since it also protects against other annoying touch attacks.


Sheltered Vitality is basically a full stop to Shivering Touch.


Ring of counterspells

These three, along with wings of cover, generally make it sufficiently difficult to hit a dragon with shivering touch that most of my players get the hint and try another tactic.