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Thread: Cool New Ideas for Dragon Breath
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2018-04-26, 06:16 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2010
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- Dallas, TX
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Cool New Ideas for Dragon Breath
I’m currently more-or-less re-designing dragons for my game. The primary impetus is because my introduction specifically said, “Dragons are not color-coded for the convenience of the player characters.”
The game is 2e, but that should have no effect on the basic idea, so I'm posting in the general role-playing forum.
My original idea was to just roll color randomly, after deciding which set of mechanic I would use. But it occurred to me that this gave me an opportunity to adjust anything that bothered me.
In another thread, somebody described not being comfortable with lightning breath, and from an aesthetic point of view, I kind of agree.
So – what possibilities make the coolest and most fantastic dragon breath.
I will certainly use fire, and that will always be the breath weapon of the biggest dragons.
I like the idea of cold breath and poison gas breath. [I won’t call it “chlorine”, though, because that’s a science term.]
My preference would be rays or clouds. And I’d really like to come up with something new and different.
So go wild – invent me a cool new dragon breath weapon.
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2018-04-26, 07:21 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jun 2017
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- ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ
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Re: Cool New Ideas for Dragon Breath
Force, as in the dragon breathing in the PCs, attempting to swallow them. Likewise, pushing them might also be an option. Slime could also work, erm...
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2018-04-26, 08:41 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2010
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- Dallas, TX
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2018-04-26, 08:42 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Feb 2014
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Re: Cool New Ideas for Dragon Breath
Instant cement like substance.
A "realistic way" to do a petrification breath.
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2018-04-26, 08:46 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2008
Re: Cool New Ideas for Dragon Breath
I'd just scroll through the spell list and try to imagine ways that a similar effect could work as dragon breath, but some ideas off the top of my head:
- Webs
- Almost any kind of cloud effect is easy to justify
- Neurotoxin that acts exactly like ray of enfeeblement
- Hail of rocks spit from the dragon's gizzard
- A twisted mass of bones and hair from recent meals animated into a golem by the dragon's ambient magic
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2018-04-26, 09:32 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Apr 2015
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- Mid-Rohan
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2018-04-26, 09:42 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2016
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- Canterlot, Equestria
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Re: Cool New Ideas for Dragon Breath
Time breath. Getting hit with it ages you by ten years. Go all Last Crusade on the players and age them to death.
Morphic breath. Anything hit by it randomly mutates in some way.
Distortion breath. Anything hit by it begins to distort the space around them in unpredictable ways. Bonus points if the breath, itself, distorts space to have a non-standard hit box. Oh, you thought you were safe by standing behind a wall? Sorry buddy, not today!
Gender bender breath. Self explanatory.
Pyroclastic breath. Like fire breath, but more magma-y. Hits with both fire and bludgeoning and persists afterwards.
Greed breath. Getting hit with it magically causes wealth to disappear from your pockets and teleport straight to the dragon's hoard. It starts with coins, but if you run out, it'll begin taking any valuable object, including weapons, armor, and magic items
Equestrian breath. The dragon shoots horses at people.
Teleportation breath. What it says on the tin. Alternatively: plane shifting breath.
That's all I can think of at the moment.Princess Celestia's Homebrew Corner
Old classes, new classes, and more!
Thanks to AsteriskAmp for the avatar!
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2018-04-26, 11:13 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Aug 2014
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Re: Cool New Ideas for Dragon Breath
Sonic - The dragon spits out a blue hedgehog curled into a ball, which bounces around between targets
Dream - The dragon's breath causes hallucinatory visions (if you die in the vision, you die in real life)
Memory - The dragon's breath causes you to remember things. Possibly things that happened to you, possibly things that happened to other people, possibly things from ages past when the world was new
Uniqueness - The dragon's breath makes you more unique (as a Splitter)
Purpose - The dragon's breath changes your fundamental goals in lifeCurrent project: Tomb of the Pale Gate, an ongoing series of flavorful encounters and adventure hooks to be adapted for any fantastic RP system
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2018-04-26, 11:49 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Nov 2014
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Re: Cool New Ideas for Dragon Breath
I've always thought that the Orium Dragon in 4e had a neat breath weapon. It was a toxic cloud that coalesced into a gaseous serpent, and killing the serpent let the dragon breathe again.
The stars predict tomorrow you'll wake up, do a bunch of stuff, and then go back to sleep.~ That's your horoscope for today.
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2018-04-27, 12:30 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Jul 2014
Re: Cool New Ideas for Dragon Breath
I think he wants sensible things that are still cool.
One that I used when I was younger was essentially a cloud of thick, soupy fog that straddled the line between liquid and gas. Organic material that it came into contact with caused this liquid to crystalize and become highly corrosive.
What this meant in terms of the fiction was:
Dragon looms over a group of soldiers, gushes forth a rolling cloud of black smoke. In its wake, a set of skeletons coated in black crystal are left behind in poses of agony.
I never thought of a name for it.
Perhaps a long, anteater-like tongue for a "breath" weapon? Straight line, anything on that line gets pulled to the square right in front of the dragon unless they make a hard save. Dragon makes an auto-hit bite attack on caught players. (Just roll damage, not the attack)
Sand Breath. Desert dragon swallows a massive mouthful of sand and spews it out in a thin, massively abrasive jet. Basically it would be Slash Damage: Breath Weapon Edition.
Plague Spores:
Characters in the cone are afflicted with a random disease. (With saves made harder according to the dragon's age)
You can do all kinds of neat things.
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2018-04-27, 03:03 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2007
Re: Cool New Ideas for Dragon Breath
Maybe some cousins of the Reds?
With the most wicked ones on top:
Conflagration: Less damage over more rounds, but spreads to every flammable object within 5 ft., and repeats.
Napalm, or not to be anachronistic, something like Everflame or Blackfire: Does 1d6 or 2d6 damage every round, until removed by a Remove Curse, Dispel, or similar spell. Dousing in water only suppresses the damage for the duration.
Soulfire: Pierces through covers and objects, ignores resistance/immunity, does no damage against "soulless" subtypes like constructs and oozes.
Heatwave: Large area, acts as Heat Metal on all items in the area.
Purgefire: Lower damage, dispel effect.
Steam: Lower fire damage, persists as a mist that blocks view.
Smoke: Lower fire damage, persists as a smoke that blocks view and prevents breathing.
Blastwave: Large area, force damage, pushes everyone back.
Magma: As said somewhere above, creates an area which acts as lava.
Laser/Ray: Line area, higher damage.
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2018-04-27, 03:42 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Aug 2016
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2018-04-27, 05:09 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2009
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- In my library
Re: Cool New Ideas for Dragon Breath
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2018-04-27, 06:02 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Aug 2010
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- Bamako
Re: Cool New Ideas for Dragon Breath
Stench breath: all caught within the AoE are incapacitated with nausea, retching and puking for the duration of the effect (con saves).
Digestive juice (think Brundlefly):
Spoiler: Disgusting
Grease breath, with same effect as the spell of the same name.
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2018-04-27, 06:28 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2012
Re: Cool New Ideas for Dragon Breath
Katla, the great dragon from The Brothers Lionheart, has flame breath, but the flames have an additional property: They paralyze. Not instantly, but enough to mean that after a few hours, anyone touched who isn't already dead need to face a new danger.
Paralysis is what it is, but I think you can do something with the notion of a secondary effect, and a delayed effect.My D&D 5th ed. Druid Handbook
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2018-04-27, 07:35 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Aug 2016
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2018-04-27, 07:52 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2009
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- In my library
Re: Cool New Ideas for Dragon Breath
Hot air. With sufficient force to require a save to keep your balance.
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2018-04-27, 10:30 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Nov 2010
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- Beyond the Ninth Wave
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Re: Cool New Ideas for Dragon Breath
A cylinder of acceleration, clockwise and away from the dragon. Those lucky enough to be caught entirely inside the cylinder are merely hurled back, spinning. The poor souls caught only partly get the unique and unpleasant experience of having part of their body suddenly and rapidly attempting to move in a direction the rest of it is not. For bonus points, the dragon uses its breath weapon for slow tunneling in a day-to-day context.
Originally Posted by KKL
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2018-04-27, 10:48 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2015
Re: Cool New Ideas for Dragon Breath
Why? Why not.
If you want more "biologic" breaths:- Really loud noise from good lung capacity. Thematically I like this one because of the imagery of a dragon's roar echoing across the land as a sonic boom.
- "Spear" of some liquid, compressed and channelled by a controlled vomiting motion. Mixes with the following well.
- Acid, straight from the stomach or from some sort of reserve.
- On that note: an "insulator" (mucus or stomach lining). Probably sticky and also just disgusting.
- Slower burning flammable substance, thematic-elements and explanation are almost exactly same, but effect is different
- Not a breath, but you could give them a poison bite.
- Similarly, biologic explanations for dragon breath often include the tongue as source of ignition. So things with that (from the ant-eater above to a blade like tongue might work.
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2018-04-27, 11:50 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2010
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Re: Cool New Ideas for Dragon Breath
That's true, but there's no reason not to post whatever people get excited by. Other people than me are reading this post for ideas.
Go ahead and post what you like. You don't have to edit your ideas for what I want; that's my job.
I've gotten several excellent ones. And I've laughed at some of the nonsense suggestions.
Keep 'em coming.
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2018-04-27, 12:10 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jul 2012
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Re: Cool New Ideas for Dragon Breath
A spray of the dragon's own noxious/acidic blood from high pressure blood vessels in the mouth to blind and disorient enemies.
Thick stands of ropey mucus that stick things in place or slow them down.Sanity is nice to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.
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2018-04-27, 12:13 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2014
Re: Cool New Ideas for Dragon Breath
Explosive slime: coats part of the battlefield (or characters) before exploding a turn or two later. May or may not be sticky or slippery.
Wasps/Spiders/etc.: the dragon plays host to a hive of parasitic bugs. Whether or not the dragon is still alive is up to you.
Smoke: the dragon expels thick black smoke, completely obscuring the battlefield, it however has a method of sensing that doesn't rely on sight.Last edited by RagingBluMunky; 2018-04-27 at 12:14 PM.
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2018-04-27, 12:21 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Feb 2012
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- Poland
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Re: Cool New Ideas for Dragon Breath
Anti-magic goo - dispells all effects on contact and emits a local anti-magic field until cleaned up.
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2018-04-27, 12:41 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Feb 2005
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Re: Cool New Ideas for Dragon Breath
A cone of sharks with gnome built lasers strapped to their heads.
NOW COMPLETE: Let's Play Starcraft II Trilogy:
Hell, It's About Time: Wings of Liberty
Does This Mutation Make Me Look Fat: Heart of the Swarm
My Life For Aiur? I Barely Know 'Er: Legacy of the Void
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2018-04-27, 01:03 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2016
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- Canterlot, Equestria
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Princess Celestia's Homebrew Corner
Old classes, new classes, and more!
Thanks to AsteriskAmp for the avatar!
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2018-04-27, 01:15 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2017
Re: Cool New Ideas for Dragon Breath
Primordial destruction, taking the following forms (at random, per person):
-Raw damage
-Limb loss
-Ability damage
-Curses
Bad luck: Rather than breathing out, the dragon breathes in, inhaling the good luck of the players and stealing it for itself.
A thought: We normally assume that breath weapons are something that can be flipped on and off. What if dragons always exhale the relevant element, just a little?My one piece of homebrew: The Shaman. A Druid replacement with more powerlevel control.
The bargain bin- malfunctioning, missing, and broken magic items.
Spirit Barbarian: The Barbarian, with heavy elements from the Shaman. Complete up to level 17.
The Priest: A cleric reword which ran out of steam. Still a fun prestige class suitable for E6.
The Coward: Not every hero can fight.
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2018-04-27, 01:16 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Apr 2007
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- Madison, WI
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Re: Cool New Ideas for Dragon Breath
All those coins and gems they can eat? That. Just a massive amount of bludgeoning and slashing damage; the added bonus is if the party can bait the dragon to breath more, they get extra treasure without having to dig through the dragon's stomach.
Once you go blue, nothing else will do. Once you go Quarian...someone will die.
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2018-04-27, 01:17 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2015
Re: Cool New Ideas for Dragon Breath
There is a portal to the ocean in its stomach and a colony of gnomes living in the back of its throat. Makes perfect sense.
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2018-04-27, 01:39 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Feb 2005
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Re: Cool New Ideas for Dragon Breath
NOW COMPLETE: Let's Play Starcraft II Trilogy:
Hell, It's About Time: Wings of Liberty
Does This Mutation Make Me Look Fat: Heart of the Swarm
My Life For Aiur? I Barely Know 'Er: Legacy of the Void
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2018-04-27, 02:22 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2008
Re: Cool New Ideas for Dragon Breath
Light. I don't mean anything so scientific as a laser, just that they breathe in and breathe out light, spending the entire day appearing to swallow the sun, and glowing brightly from the mouth even in the course of normal breathing. If they choose to hyperventilate the light becomes blinding, hot, and capable of causing nasty blistering sunburns.
Plus, you can drop one of these on the party fairly early in a temperate region, then drop one a bit later in a far north/south arctic region after a day that lasted for entire months.I would really like to see a game made by Obryn, Kurald Galain, and Knaight from these forums.
I'm not joking one bit. I would buy the hell out of that. -- ChubbyRain
Current Design Project: Legacy, a game of masters and apprentices for two players and a GM.