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JNAProductions
2019-07-20, 10:16 AM
Young Iridescent Dragon
Large Dragon, Neutral
Armor Class 17 (Shimmering Scales)
Hit Points 126 (12d10+60)
Speed 40', Fly 80'


Strength
Dexterity
Constitution
Intelligence
Wisdom
Charisma


22 (+6)
18 (+4)
20 (+5)
24 (+7)
24 (+7)
24 (+7)


Skills Arcana +11, Athletics +10, Stealth +8, Nature +11, Animal Handling +11, Insight +11, Deception +11, Persuasion +11
Damage Resistances Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, Poison, Thunder
Condition Immunities Blinded
Senses Darkvision 120', Blindsight 30', Passive Perception 17
Languages Common, Draconic, Many Others
Challenge 9
Shimmering Scales
In addition to being a potent natural armor, an Iridescent Dragon's shimmering scales are virtually blinding when in direct light. So long as the dragon is in bright light, attacks made against them have disadvantage. This can be counteracted by simply closing your eyes, or by using specially made goggles designed to minimize the glare. In addition, an Iridescent Dragon has disadvantage on stealth checks made in dim light, and cannot make stealth checks in bright light unless the opponents are blind.

Innate Spellcasting
A young Iridescent Dragon can cast the following spells without requiring any components, using their choice of mental stat as the spellcasting modifier (+11 to-hit, DC 19).
At-Will: Light, Mending, Continual Flame, Thaumaturgy
3/Short Rest: Daylight

Actions
Bite Melee Weapon Attack: +10 to-hit, reach 10', one target. Hit: 2d4+6 piercing damage, and 1d12 Radiant damage.

Claw Melee Weapon Attack: +10 to-hit, reach 5', one target. Hit: 2d4+6 slashing damage.

Multiattack The dragon makes one bite and two claw attacks.

Coruscating Breath (Recharge 6) The dragon breathes out a gout of elemental fury. All creatures in a 30' cone must make a DC 17 Constitution save, taking 15d6 Radiant damage on a failed save, or half ona success.

Bonus Actions
Dramatic Flare[ The dragon casts Thaumaturgy.

Reactions
Sparkle Sparkle As a reaction to being targeted, the Iridescent Dragon may attempt to focus its light on the attacked. The attacker must immediately make a DC 17 Constitution save, becoming blinded on a failed save until the end of the dragon's next turn. For the same time, the dragon's Shimmering Scales no longer provide disadvantage against attacks.

OCR: 105 turn one (two targets failing their saves against breath weapon), 43 turns two and three.
Add up and divide by three gets us ~64.
At +10 to-hit and DC 17 on saves, that's OCR of 11.

DCR: 126 HP is DCR 4. AC 17 ups that by 1, but with all the resistances and shimmering scales, I feel safe increasing it by 2 more. 7 DCR.

Averaged gets us 9.

Sparky McDibben
2019-07-20, 12:31 PM
Hey friend!

So I don't know if you were looking for feedback on this, but I have some! (If you were just posting this for public consumption - sorry).

First off, I really like the concept of a dragon that plays with light. That is a really cool concept that I'm amazed it took someone this long to come up with it! Good job!

I also like most of your implementation - giving it immunity to blinded is a neat perk, although if that's the case I would remove blindsight - doesn't one make the other sort of unnecessary? Moreover, if you drop darkness on a sparkly dragon, it probably shouldn't be able to see you, I think. However, bonus action thaumaturgy is so fun and flavorful! It would be a lot of fun to mess with the party, too, since it doesn't have any other bonus action options. "The dragon rears back at your latest jibe, the opalescent sheen of its scales brightening to near painful brilliance. Its voice rings out, supernaturally loud. 'FOOLS! My kind was born among stars without number. What are you, to me?!' The doors and windows close, sealing you inside. Everybody roll initiative and give me some Con saves!"

The biggest thing I twigged to was the bite damage and the breath weapon attack. Those are a lot of dice to keep track of, and a lot of damage types to keep straight, especially for a CR 9 monster.

If you don't mind, I would suggest replacing that with radiant damage (conceptually, this is the dragon doing damage with coherent light, not holiness). Essentially, this dragon shoots friggin' lasers, man!!!! That is so awesome!

And if you really wanted to give it something unique, what if it had a giant crystal prism in its lair? When it breathes at the party through the prism, the radiant damage fractures, splits, and now it has a PRISMATIC SPRAY!!! It'd need a cooldown or something, but this would be pretty amazing to face as a player!

Ooooh! What if you could use that as a plot hook? What if to reach the next stage of its development, this dragon needs to eat a ton of diamonds? Those diamonds congeal in its throat, forming a prism of its own, and now it has a PRISMATIC SPRAY BREATH WEAPON!!! Also, after you kill it, if you can, you can try to extract a 10,000 gp diamond from the corpse. Maybe its spellcasting grows, too? Prismatic Wall, Wall of Light, Color Spray, and Chromatic Orb all come to mind. Maybe the ancient version has more bonus action spellcasting potential? Layer those on top of legendary actions, and you've got a nasty monster!

So yeah, nice job!

JNAProductions
2019-07-20, 12:36 PM
Thanks. And as with everything I post, critique is appreciated.

You're right that radiant is probably the way to go-I'll adjust.

Sparky McDibben
2019-07-20, 01:05 PM
Cool! If I throw this into the Homebrewery, do you want the link? No publication; strictly for a home game.

JNAProductions
2019-07-20, 02:53 PM
Cool! If I throw this into the Homebrewery, do you want the link? No publication; strictly for a home game.

I’d rather you just not.

Feel free to use it in a home game, though!

BerzerkerUnit
2019-07-21, 09:58 AM
A single use Lair action that consumes the dragon’s breath weapon for a spell that likely does far less damage but might permabanish one or more players and might deal an extra 5d6... that seems fair as an opener. For older dragons I would up the damage or have other prisms that also bounce the spell providing disadvantage.

Alternatively (and this is out there) the Adults and Ancients might get deep into Astrology with their star connection and have the Portent divination school ability.

Add in a few save or suck effects (generally things that require multiple saves, Contagion, Flesh to Stone) and let them use their portents to mess with players.

Great Dragon
2019-07-21, 11:34 AM
This looks nice.
A version of the 2e Crystal Gem Dragon.

Or A lesser version of the Epic 3x Prismatic Dragon.

Just a note, might want to either adjust the CR up or the Breath Weapon damage down. (I'm not an Expert, though)

15d6 is 60 damage average, and the maximum (non Con modified) hit points a 9th level Wizard/Sorcerer gets is 54 (most will likely only have around 40 HP when rolling), so if they fail that Save in Round One, down they go!!

Yes, Dragons are powerful, but not unbeatable.
Most fights last 3-5 rounds (I usually figure at least one failed save per Encounter) and neither side should be powned in Round One!! LoL!!

I'd compaire to other Young Dragons, and see what adjustments might be needed.
(I'll do Math when on my Tablet, and post my results)

JNAProductions
2019-07-21, 01:29 PM
15d6 averages to 52.5.

And most wizards will have a con bonus, so they’re looking at 56 or so HP.

Tiadoppler
2019-07-21, 02:00 PM
My first thoughts/opinions:

This is cool

Wow, stats are too high (ridiculous compared to other young dragons.)
No saving throw proficiencies at all?
Suggestion: Reduce mental stats to the 14-20 range, but give it saving throw proficiencies. Most dragons have proficiency in 4 saving throws.

I'm surprised it doesn't have immunity to Radiant damage
It has too many damage resistances. It's a CR 9, not a CR 15+, so it should be a bit simpler.
Suggestion: Bump the HP up and remove the extraneous resistances. As-is, it's pretty punishing to spellcasters, even spellcasters who have a good variety of damage types available.

Personally, I'd make the breath weapon recharge 5-6, but reduce damage to 14d6. Just my opinion.

Great Dragon
2019-07-21, 06:04 PM
Math

Dragon 12d10+60 = 130 HP Average
AC 17 vs +4 base to hit = need 13 or better.
(40% hit chance, Modified by Abilities.)

DPR
Claws 2d4+6 = 12
Bite 2d4 (6) + 1d12 (7) = 13
Total 25

Breath 15d6 (60) Con Save 17 for half
Still need a 13+ to succeed, but a Sir/Wiz is out if failed.

I agree with Tiadoppler and I would give it Radiant Immunity but, I would also give it Fire and Lightning Resistance.

I think I would change
Claws to 2d6 (7) +6 (13) x 2 = 26
Bite 3d8 (15) +6 +1d12 (7) = 28

DPR = 54
At +10 to hit means 50% chance of hitting AC 20.

Breath (Recharge on 5-6)
I'd go 12d6 (45) Radiant, and keep the DC 17.

So nearly 50 Physical damage or 45 (failed) Breath damage in a round.

This looks like a tough fight, but not instantly putting anyone out on the first failed Save.

Does anyone agree that this looks better as a CR 9?

Compaire to Young Black Dragon CR 7
Immune to Acid damage

AC 18 and 15d10 +45 = 127 HP

Effective Save Proficiency +3

+7 to hit
Bite (15) 2d10 +4 plus (5) 1d8 acid = 20 piercing
Claw (11) 2d6 +4 times 2 = 22
DPR = 42

Breath (recharge 5-6) DC 14 Dex
49 (11d8) Acid

Great Dragon
2019-07-21, 07:26 PM
15d6 averages to 52.5.

And most wizards will have a con bonus, so they’re looking at 56 or so HP.

Ummm... Recalculation...

(Max of 1d6+2) 8 HP + 8 *4 (Average) = 32 + 2 (average of 14 Con) *9 (18) = 58.
Ok, that checks out.

But, 15*4 (D&D's average of 1D6) = 60.
(Sorry, I really don't do x.5 - it's been too long since I had to calculate fractions.
It's nice that your willing to do so. Thanks!)

Failed save = Sor/Wiz is out!! (By 2 HP!!)

Let's get Munchkin!!
Hill Dwarf Draconic Sorcerer with 20 Con and Maximum HP
1d6 (6) +1 Dwarf +1 Sorcerer + 5 Con
= 13 Times 9 = 117!!!

Dragon rolls Max Damage = 90.

Dwarf has 27 HP left, even if failed Save.
(Mommie!!) LoL