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View Full Version : [3.5] My attampt at stating Discworld Swamp Dragons. Please critique.



Pika...
2010-01-13, 04:11 AM
So my player/newly turned DM wants discworld Swamp Dragons for his games. I offered to stat them up for him, and this is the result so far.



http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f173/celestialkin/christmas_dragon_body.jpg



Their most unusual attribute is a truly phenomenal digestive system, which can reconfigure itself to handle almost anything, and use it to generate substantial quantities of flammable gases. They can, literally, breath fire. However, they have to store these gases internally, and they are insanely excitable creatures; as a result, they frequently explode. This seems to constitute a suicidal sort of species defence mechanism.Swamp dragons will explode because of almost any strong emotion, including boredom. In the breeding season, males fight duels that mainly consist of attempts to provoke each other into screaming, detonating rages; sadly, the excitement of victory can also lead to explosion. (Swamp dragons are not gentle victors; if the loser rolled over and acknowledged defeat, the winner would disembowel it.) In this season, it is very easy to make a male dragon explode by showing it its own reflection in a mirror.

Swamp dragons are prey to a huge range of diseases, some beyond the realms of conventional biology, and most of their internal fluids are corrosive, or at best disgusting.

Their stomachs sound like antiquated plumbing. Nonetheless, they are sometimes adopted as pets by rich and/or silly people in Ankh-Morpork. They are not exactly domesticable (the damage they do by dribbling on carpets is too expensive for the word to fit), but they can be induced to adopt the personality of a particularly dim and messy dog. However, too many owners become bored with them, and abandon them on the streets, whence they may be rescued by aristocratic, charitable dragon-lovers, if they are lucky.

Otherwise, they may end up being used as cigarettelighters or paint-strippers. This is considered heartless by some very rich and sentimental people, but the biggest risk is that the dragon will get excited by something. They have also been used as ad hoc weapons, but that runs even more of the same risk. There is at least one case of a dragon being used as a demolition charge (in a box, with a mirror), but trying that will get a lot of rich dragon-lovers very annoyed.



Size/Type: Small/Dragon (Dragonblood Subtype technically, so are treated as Dragons.)
Hit Dice: 6d12+6 (45)
Initiative: +0
Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares), fly 45 ft. (clumsy)
Armor Class: 16 (+1 size, +5 natural), touch 11, flat-footed 16
Base Attack/Grapple: +6/+3
Attack: Bite +8 melee (1d6+1), or Claw +8 melee (1d4+1), or Breath Weapon (20ft Cone of fire.) (2d6) (Reflex Save DC14 for half).
Full Attack: Bite +8 melee (1d6+1), 2x Claw +8 melee (1d4+1), and Breath Weapon (20ft Cone of fire.) (2d6) (Reflex Save DC14 for half).
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Breath Weapon, Blowing up.
Special Qualities: , Critical Hits Suck*, Dangerously Flammable*, darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, scent, track, Vulnerable to Bludgeoning*.
Saves: Fort +6, Ref +5, Will +5
Abilities: Str 13, Dex 10, Con 13, Int 8, Wis 10, Cha 12
Skills: Hide +10, Jump +5, Listen +5, Move Silently +10, Spot +5, Search +5, Survival +5.
Feats: Hover, Lingering BreathB, Multiattack, Track.
Environment: Warm marshes, swamps, occasionally forests and planes, rich peoples houses.
Organization: Solitary, pair, or semi-domesticated herd (3-1000s)
Challenge Rating: 3
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Any
Advancement: 7-16 HD (Medium); 17-18 HD (Large)
Level Adjustment: Small +2, Medium and Large +3.



Grappling
A dragon can always use its breath weapon while grappling, as well as its spells and spell-like or supernatural abilities, provided it succeeds on Concentration check.


Breath Weapon (Su)
Using a breath weapon is a standard action. Once a dragon breathes, it can’t breathe again until 1d4 rounds later. If a dragon has more than one type of breath weapon, it still can breathe only once every 1d4 rounds. A blast from a breath weapon always starts at any intersection adjacent to the dragon and extends in a direction of the dragon’s choice, with an area as noted on the table below. If the breath weapon deals damage, creatures caught in the area can attempt Reflex saves to take half damage; the DC depends on the dragon’s age and variety, and is given in each individual entry. Saves against nondamaging breath weapons use the same DC; the kind of saving throw is noted in the variety descriptions. The save DC against a breath weapon is 10 + ½ dragon’s HD + dragon’s Con modifier.

Breath weapons come in two basic shapes, line and cone, whose areas vary with the dragon’s size.


Blowing Up (Ex)
As explained above Swamp Dragons are basically biological ticking time bombs waiting to happen. When a Swamp Dragon blows up they deal damage equal to 1d4 times their normal breadth weapon damage in a 20ft radius centered on the square where the Swamp Dragon was until a moment ago.

*Vulnerable to Bludgeoning: Ever hit a bag of highly explosive gas with a bat? Try it. I dare you.

A Swamp Dragon killed by a bludgeoning weapon has a 10% chance (1-10 on a 1d100) of literally blowing up. See above for range and damage of this explosion.


*Critical Hits Suck: Sometimes warriors get lucky in combat against their enemies. However, doing so against a Swamp Dragon is not so lucky.

A Swamp Dragon hit by a Critical Hit has a 5% chance (1-5 on a 1d100) of blowing up. See above for range and damage of this explosion.


*Dangerously Flammable: Gas explodes. Fire makes gas explode. Get the picture?

A Swamp Dragon killed by fire has a 25% chance (1-25 on a 1d100) of blowing up. See above for range and damage of this explosion.



Blindsense (Ex)
Dragons can pinpoint creatures within a distance of 60 feet. Opponents the dragon can’t actually see still have total concealment against the dragon.


Keen Senses (Ex)
A dragon sees four times as well as a human in shadowy illumination and twice as well in normal light. It also has darkvision out to 120 feet.


Lingering Breath (Ex)
A Swamp Dragon's breath weapon being nothing more than backed up gas it has a habit of lingering in the air for a while after being vomited out.

Swamp Dragons receive the Lingering Breath feat from Draconomican p.71 as a bonus feat even though they do not meat the prerequisite. Swamp Dragons do not have to wait the additional two rounds to regain their breath weapon; however, they can not repress or otherwise prevent this ability. Therefore all Swamp Dragon breath weapon attacks linger in the air for a bit.




Dragon Type
A dragon is a reptilelike creature, usually winged, with magical or unusual abilities.

Features
A dragon has the following features.

* 12-sided Hit Dice.
* Base attack bonus equal to total Hit Dice (as fighter).
* Good Fortitude, Reflex, and Will saves.
* Skill points equal to (6 + Int modifier, minimum 1) per Hit Die, with quadruple skill points for the first Hit Die.


Traits
A dragon possesses the following traits (unless otherwise noted in the description of a particular kind).

* Darkvision out to 60 feet and low-light vision.
* Immunity to magic sleep effects and paralysis effects.
* Proficient with its natural weapons only unless humanoid in form (or capable of assuming humanoid form), in which case proficient with all simple weapons and any weapons mentioned in its entry.
* Proficient with no armor.

Dragons eat, sleep, and breathe.

Agi Hammerthief
2010-01-13, 06:35 PM
next yout DM will want some Moon Dragons (http://wiki.lspace.org/wiki/Moon_dragons) :smalltongue:

is the level adjustment really required with all the easy ways to get the poor things killed?

Fable Wright
2010-01-13, 06:44 PM
One idea is: Chain reaction! if 1 swamp dragon blows up, all swamp dragons that see it get nervous and blow up, and for each other dragon that blows up, the simultaneous explosions become stronger, increasing the multiplier by 1d4 for each exploding dragon.

DracoDei
2010-01-13, 07:16 PM
You need to de-generize the boiler-plate for the BW. For instance, it only has one type of breathweapon, and it is always a cone, so mention of lines, or stuff about still being only able to breath every 1d4 rounds even it it has more than one type of BW are superfluous.

Siosilvar
2010-01-13, 08:01 PM
Breath Weapon (Su)
A swamp dragon's breath weapon is a 20-foot cone of fire that deals 2d6 fire damage (Reflex DC 14 half) usable once every 1d4 rounds.

Fix'd that for you.

Saintheart
2010-01-13, 08:38 PM
...What about using a swamp dragon as a piece of adventuring equipment? Chance of seducing a dragon nobilis on a natural 20? :smallbiggrin:

Debihuman
2010-01-13, 09:08 PM
It also seems like the explosion really a death throes extraordinary ability.

Debby

Fable Wright
2010-01-13, 09:45 PM
the explosion is death throes, but it can activate randomly. Also, if the campaign in question uses alot of humor, how about a villian that uses them as grenades? (shake them up and chuck 'em at the PCs.) I still think that chain reactions would be hilarious.

Agi Hammerthief
2010-01-14, 02:55 AM
I second the chain reaction

the other dragons always duck in Lady Rankins pens when something happens in the other pens, plus there is a special sick pen

Leeham
2010-01-14, 07:15 AM
Can swamp dragons breath fire? I hought they just had horrid bad breath...
Also, hell yeah to the chain reaction :P