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Corolinth
2007-06-24, 04:55 AM
Since all of this is published in official WoTC products, nothing is technically "homebrew" per se, so I'm posting it here in the general section instead. Although if a mod decides to move it, I won't voice any complaints.

Here's the dragon my PCs just whacked last night. He had abilities that didn't get used, and I figure it'd be a shame to let them go to waste, so if anybody wants a ready-made custom dragon (plus hoard!) have at it.

<Insert Name Here> CR16
Large Mature Adult Shadow Dragon
HD: 22d12+91 (con + toughness) 23str, 10dex, 19con, 20int, 20wis, 21cha
BAB +22, Grapple +32, Attack +27, Fort +19, Reflex +15, Will +21, DC26 frightful presence
AC 34(-1 size, +25 natural) DR 10/magic, SR25, energy drain immunity
Movement: 80ft, fly 150ft (poor)
Breath Weapon (DC26): 4 negative levels, 40ft cone
Shadow Blend (su): total concealment in any condition of illumination other than full daylight
Mirror Image (sp) 3/day
Dimension Door (sp) 2/day

Attacks +27 bite, 2d6+6 damage
Full Attack
bite +27, 2d6+6 damage
tail slap +25, 1d8+9 damage
2 wings, +25, 1d6+3 damage
2 claws, +25, 1d8+3 damage
claw +20, 1d8+3 damage
claw +15, 1d8+3 damage
claw +10, 1d8+3 damage
claw +5, 1d8+3 damage

Feats - from core rulebooks + Draconomicon
Clinging Breath (foes effected by breath weapon take half that amount in the next round, +1 round to breathe again - can be dispelled or wiped off with a reflex save)
Power Attack
Improved Natural Attack (bite - 3d6)
Multiattack
Rapidstrike (claws)
Improved Rapidstrike (add up to 4 additional claw attacks at a -5/-10/-15/-20 attack penalty)
Shock Wave (slap tail against ground, roll a bull rush to knock things down in a 110' radius - didn't use this one)
Toughness
Endure Blows (DR 2/-, which I completely forgot to apply - oops!)

7th level Sorcerer spellcasting (It should be noted, I've been giving sorcerers a bonus spell per level from FR supplements, though I didn't give the dragon the same restriction. One spell per level should, therefore, be knocked off in regular campaigns.)
0
Caltrops
Detect Magic
Ghost Sound
Mage Hand
Mending
Prestidigitation
Read Magic
Silent Portal
1
Alarm
Charm Person
Divine Favor
Ice Gauntlet - could've been a nasty surprise after the paladin received stoneskin, wish I thought of it at the time
Ray of Enfeeblement
Speed Swim
2
Cure Moderate Wounds
Death Armor
Scintillating Scales - natural armor turns into deflection (sorceress was pissed; griped for 20 minutes; worth every second)
Razorfangs - doubles critical threat range on bite
3
False Gravity - didn't use, could've been fun
Skull Watch
Stinking Cloud - hate party for saving

TREASURE!
176,794.63gp hoard
349pp
4,622gp
1,347ep (1 gold piece = 2 electrum pieces - who remembers the old basic D&D boxes?)
7,354 sp
11,542cp
63 gold trade bars (3,150gp)
21 electrum trade bars (1,050ep)
91 silver trade bars (4,550sp)
223 copper trade bars (11,150cp)

Trade Goods
samite cloth (4 sq yards - 1,000gp)
platinum ore (1lb - 500gp)
bronzewood (5lb log - 500gp)
silver cloth (3sq yards - 300gp)
spidersilk cloth (4 sq yards - 250gp)
Gehennan Morghuth-Iron (1lb - 200gp)
Sehanine's Hair (7 sq yards - 175gp)
Kossuth's Finger (16 peppers - 96gp)
silver ore (9lbs - 45gp)
saffron (3 bags - 45gp)
velvet (3 sq yards - 45gp)
drow feywine (4 bottles - 40gp)
wool cloth (17 sq yards - 34gp)
darkwood (3 logs - 30gp)
satin cloth (5 sq yards - 30gp)
cotton (24 sq yards - 24gp)
fine ale (9 casks - 18gp)
salt (3 bags - 15gp)
pepper (6 bags - 12gp)
cinammon (6 jars - 6gp)
rare cooking oil (2 qt - 2gp)
copper ore (4lbs - 2gp)
salted rothe (14lb - 28sp)
tea leaves (7 jars - 14sp)
iron ore (6lb - 6sp)
flour (36 bags - 72cp)
common ale (11 casks - 33cp)
wheat (24 bushels - 24cp)
common wine (4 bottles - 12cp)

Gems
Malachite 7gp
Greenstone 8gp
Lapis Lazuli 9gp
Nelvine 9gp
Moss Agate 10gp
Blue Quartz 11gp
Hyaline 12gp
Azurite 13gp
Violine 14gp
Obdsidian 15gp
Citrine 30gp
Peridot 30gp
Tchazar 30gp
Spudomene 30gp
Oprase 40gp
Bloodstone 40gp
Hydrophane 50gp
Rock Crystal Quartz 50gp
Irtios 50gp
Carnelian 50gp
Zircon 60gp
Phenalope 60gp
Moonstone 60gp
Chrysoprase 60gp
Sardonyx 70gp
Chalcedony 70gp
Deep Green Spinel 70gp
Andar 70gp
Jet 90gp
Violet Garnet 500gp
Aquamarine 600gp
Alexandrite 600gp
Black Pearl 700gp
Sapphire 800gp
Tomb Jade 1,000gp
Red Tears 1,000gp
Blue Corundum 1,100gp
Black Opal 1,200gp

Art
hippopotamus horn brooch set with turqoise 110gp
mahogany cup depicting mountains 800gp
engraved, gold-inlaid silver-plated iron bracelet 1,600gp
velvet vestments trimmed with gold 2,200gp
engraved darkwood dining table 3,000gp
onyx spider tiara inlaid with silver and amethyst 4,000gp
small silver statue inlaid with moonstone depicting Sehanine Moonbow 6,000gp

Magic Items
Arcane Scroll (Enlarge Person, Enlarge Person, Owl's Wisdom) 200gp
Arcane Scroll of Bull's Strength 150gp
Divine Scroll of Diminish Plants 375gp
Wand of Cure Light Wounds 750gp
Wand of Web 4,500gp (32 charges)
+1 Greatclub venomous 8,305gp
+3 Longsword defending icy burst 72,315gp
Ring of Freedom of Movement 40,000gp

PlatinumJester
2007-06-24, 12:08 PM
Shouldn't this go on homebrew stuff. Good dragon though. I can see alot of hardwork went into this one.

Breaon
2007-06-24, 12:28 PM
Can you post the makeup of the party, and the general play-by-play on how they whacked your baby? PM if you'd like - that's a fight I wanna see, 'cause Shadow dragons is mean!

greyhoundpoe
2007-06-24, 12:45 PM
Yeah, I'd be very interested as well. Did the party get lucky? Were they just so overpowered that the dragon wasn't an issue? Did the dragon make a mistake? Did the party come up with something clever to get around him?

I always enjoy hearing how other DMs deal with high-CR creatures, tactically.

Corolinth
2007-06-24, 12:45 PM
Shouldn't this go on homebrew stuff.I addressed that in the first paragraph. Honestly, I'm not sure.

Roland St. Jude
2007-06-24, 12:54 PM
Sheriff: It's not really homebrew, and it seems to be turning into a discussion of how the dragon was defeated, which is a gaming topic. So discuss away without worrying about where this belongs. It's fine here.

Tallis
2007-06-24, 01:10 PM
Nice dragon, thanx for putting it up for us, but I have one question: hippopotamus horn brooch? Do hippoes have horns? Sorry if this comes across as nit-picky, it just struck me as odd.
All in all this is a beautifully statted out dragon and I may eventually use it in my campaign (it's on hold right now due to my players going home for the summer.

PlatinumJester
2007-06-24, 01:14 PM
Talis is right. Hippo's have tusks not horns.

PsyBlade
2007-06-24, 01:19 PM
I would like to hear the Play by Play as well. Pretty Pwease, wit sugar on top?

GoblinJTHM
2007-06-24, 01:42 PM
it's a hippo carved from the material of another animal's horn geniuses

Corolinth
2007-06-24, 02:17 PM
Yes, I'm aware hippopotamuses do not have horns. It's a lot like the griffon mane on Flint's helmet in Dragons of Autumn Twilight. Unfortunately, my PCs didn't notice that hippos don't have horns :( You're all smarter than they are.

And here's the PM I just sent to Breaon concerning the party make-up and play-by-play. I had a CR14 and CR15 versions of the dragon made up for them, depending on what I thought they'd be able to handle. The CR15 was a deep dragon rather than a shadow dragon. Their victory was a combination of luck (both good and bad) and their own tactics. They got lucky with a critical hit right off the bat, and a few opportune failed saves on the dragon's part, but I think their bad luck balanced that out in the end. You'll notice that the paladin missed with his second smite, and with every attack where he spent Divine Might.

I didn't run the dragon as ruthless and lethal as I probably could have, mostly because I was trying to play him the way I thought he'd act. In hindsight, the stinking cloud was a bad idea, but it didn't seem that way at the time. They killed him right before he was going to breathe a second time, which would have really tipped the scales in his favor. Likewise, had their paladin hit him at all, after the first big damage smite, the whole fight would've changed with the dragon moving around to spread the party out and pick them off one by one.

Perhaps the biggest point where luck worked in their favor was in the dragon thinking he had time to let the fight drag out and recover his breath weapon (which was true, given how things were playing out). Then that round where the breath weapon was about to come a second time happened to be the same round where everything just came together and they finally started putting damage up on the dragon. At the same time, the paladin has soulfire armor from Book of Exalted Deeds, so he was immune to the breath weapon. Nowhere in the battle were they ever totally outmatched without a way to win, but there was a sense of dread during the later half of the fight.

Party makeup:
Thalanius, Level 13 dwarf paladin of Moradin
Alexin, Level 6/7 human fighter/ranger
Nasak, Level 10/2/1 dwarf cleric/fighter/battlesmith of Dumathoin
Nara, Level 2/6/5 human bard/sorcerer(ess)/heartwarder
Squeats, Level 1/5/7 goblin rogue/sorcerer/daggerspell mage
Or'Pheion, level 14 tiefling wizard (conjuration specialist - NPC)

With the exception of the effective level 15 NPC, they're a level 13 party. They had some strength damage to deal with from the shadows in the dragons lair. Prior to entering the main lair, they've not encountered a single monster with a CR higher than 8, and several of them have mentioned how sorely out of resources they are. This is patently untrue, as the cleric has yet to cast a spell, the sorceress has cast fewer than 2 spells at any given spell level, and the paladin has a wand of cure moderate wounds with 16 charges left. I'm rather pleased with the fear I seem to have instilled in them at this point, although I suspect it's because I've been way too nice to them about letting them rest up until now.

Squeats is a new player. His backstory is sort of assassin-esque. He got a job to kill this dragon, and went undercover as one of its minions. He was one of the guards - his job was to scream and get killed if any adventurers came.

Pre-fight, Squeats walks in to find out who's casting spells in the dragon's lair. The dragon is scattering caltrops (mostly useless, I just wanted someone to pass a listen check, ID the spell, and figure out he knew they were coming). Squeats starts talking to the dragon, asking him what he's doing. The dragon responds by telling Squeats he's preparing for the adventurers that sadly did not kill the goblin. Dragon picks up wand of web, and blows a charge behind the PCs blocking off their escape (if they haven't figured out he's ready for them by now, that's their fault). Squeats wanders over near the hoard to distract the dragon. The dragon threatens to eat him. Dragon then casts scintillating scales to shore up his defensive weakness.

Dragon wanders over to poke his head in the tunnel the PCs are in. Squeats starts making preparations. Acid sheath, belker claws into one of his daggers, and then sneaky sneakies behind the dragon. Dragon pokes head into visible range. "Hi! What tribute are you willing to pay so that I don't kill and eat you?" Party is still standing around using healing wands and such.

Nasak: "I have this hammer, but I'll have to administer it rectally."
Nara: "Oh ****."
Me: "Roll initiative."

Thalanius rolled 18, Nara rolled 17, dragon rolled 11, Alexin rolled 9, Nasak rolled 8, their NPC wizard rolled 4. I gave Squeats a 20 for his general readiness about the entire affair. He was being proactive, and the dragon didn't suspect he was a threat.

Round 1!
Squeats: "sneak sneak"
Thalanius: "I double-move a few squares southwest, then the rest straight west to get on his south flank."
Nara: "Improved Blink."
Dragon runs up and clinging breaths. Alexin, Nasak, and NPC wizard fail their reflex saves. Nara casts Ruin Delver's Fortune (immediate action) and saves. Nasak learns that negative levels suck as he kisses his three level 5 spells and one of his level 4 spells goodbye. Or'Pheion loses his level 7s and a level 6.
Alexin spring attacks and misses.
Nasak casts mass shield of faith, gets Alexin, Nara, Or'Pheion, and himself
Or'Pheion casts greater dispel magic, gets lucky, and dispels the clinging breath off himself and Nasak, then backs up towards the web.

Round 2!
Squeats: "sneak sneak"
Thalanius: critical hit smite, gets bitten by AOO.
Nara: Orb of Fire, miss. Moves back towards Or'Pheion.
Dragon opens up a can of whoopass on Thalanius.
Nasak: Keen Edge on Thalanius' greatsword.
Alexin: takes 2 more negative levels from clinging breath, becomes useless.
Or'Pheion casts acid storm, hits dragon for not a whole lot.

Round 3!
Squeats: "sneak sneak"
Thalanius: Lay on Hands for 30, drinks potion of cure moderate wounds.
Nara: Daylight (wand) on Thal's sword. I forgot it was touch range, but then I was also going to let her cast it at close range on a point in space as a house rule, so no big deal.
Dragon: Stinking Cloud on Thalanius! Alexin and Thalanius both save. Jerks. Moves back away from the party. Their AOOs miss.
Alexin has dropped his shortsword, and his wielding his longsword in two hands. Moves out of the cloud, keeping distance from the dragon.
Nasak moves in to the cloud and saves (jerk) and casts Stoneskin (granted by an initiate feat) on Thalanius.
Or'Pheion dispels the stinking cloud (jerk).

Round 4!
Squeats: "Vitriolic Sphere the dragon." Dragon saves for half.
Thalanius: "CHARGE/SMITE!" Also using Divine Might. Miss. That's what you get for saving against my dragon's stinking cloud. Dragon smacks him on an AOO. Thal learns stoneskin is spiffy.
Nara: "Fireball!" Placed away from Thal a smidge. Fails to pierce SR.
Dragon: "Treacherous runt!" Moves to bite Squeats. Thal's AOO misses. Dragon bites Squeats, and takes damage from acid sheath. Decides not to bite Squeats again.
Nasak: "Move up. Searing Light." Misses.
Alexin: "Spring attack." Fumbles. Drops sword.
Or'Pheion casts Icelance. Misses.

Round 5!
Squeats: "Vitriolic Sphere again." Dragon doesn't save. Starts taking some serious hurt.
Thalanius: Full attack w/ Divine Might. Misses.
Nara: Orb of Fire. Misses. Much griping ensues about how I've designed this encounter to make her useless. You may have noticed a theme where everybody's been pretty useless.
Dragon five-foots towards Alexin. Targets Alexin with claws and wings (since Thalanius is stoneskinned, and Squeats hurts to bite). Hits Thalanius with bite and tail.
Alexin: Pick up sword. Drink potion of cure moderate (I've been allowing it as a swift action instead of a move, they all bought potion belts - it was a mistake in my understanding of the way the item works, but I didn't notice it until months into the campaign). Swings sword. Misses.
Nasak: Cure Critical Wounds - Thalanius.
Or'Pheion casts Vitriolic Sphere. Dragon saves.

Round 6!
Squeats jumps up to flank with Alexin, and sneak attacks with arcane strike and arcane infusion. Takes off a nice chunk. Rolls round 2 of his Vitriolic Sphere, takes off another nice chunk. Belker Claw fails to pierce SR.
Alexin: "I'm getting out-meleed by a crappy goblin sorcerer."
Thalanius: "Attack!" Misses.
Nara (still griping): "Can I fireball and not hit my companions? 10d6 with a chance to fail due to SR is terrible! I'm useless this whole fight, there's nothing I can do!"
Alexin (who actually has been useless) points out Nara has bardic music (he missed by 1 the round before, if only Squeats had been there a round earlier to provide flanking).
Squeats and Nara proceed to count squares to find where she can drop the fireball. They find one. Nara pierces SR, dragon fails save. Dragon dies.
DM points out that the useless sorceress who couldn't do anything the whole fight killed the dragon with a lousy fireball. Sorceress is not amused by DM's witty commentary.

Talya
2007-06-24, 08:37 PM
This bastard is my DM, too.

Oh well, I'm gonna try to snag the ring of freedom of movement.

Raltar
2007-06-24, 11:05 PM
This bastard is my DM, too.

Oh well, I'm gonna try to snag the ring of freedom of movement.

Well, you are *his* DM too.

Tallis
2007-06-25, 12:48 PM
Yes, I'm aware hippopotamuses do not have horns. It's a lot like the griffon mane on Flint's helmet in Dragons of Autumn Twilight. Unfortunately, my PCs didn't notice that hippos don't have horns :( You're all smarter than they are.

Hehe, that explains it then.
This sounds like a great game. Makes me wish I was in your group.

Talya
2007-06-25, 06:20 PM
Hehe, that explains it then.
This sounds like a great game. Makes me wish I was in your group.

I'd blow your mind!

(edit: Shut up (in advance), Coro.)