[DF] Critique My Western-Style Dragon as a Solo Boss Encounter

[Stripe]

Dragons: perhaps the most dreaded and ominous of all boss encounters. Fangs like glistening daggers; gleaming, knife-like talons; a breath of roaring flames; wings that blot out the sun. Add to all that a nigh-genius intellect wielding arcane spells and who would dare stand against such an awesome and terrifying destructive force?

Murder hobos! That's who!

For a standard Dungeon Fantasy game using the Basic Set, Magic, Dungeon Fantasy 1-3, Dungeon Fantasy Adventure 1 and Dungeon Fantasy Monsters 1, resorting to Powers only when absolutely necessary, I would like to create a dragon for use as a solo enemy boss encounter.

As has been oft discussed, it can be tricky to balance a solo boss that can take on four or five player characters. Make them slightly too powerful, and front-line PC's are going to be slaughtered quickly and unfairly and the others are doomed once they're gone. Make them slightly too weak, and the encounter becomes a breeze.

One thing's certain, bosses as solo encounters need plenty of Damage Resistance and Hit Points. Extra Attacks (p. B53) and Injury Tolerance (Damage Reduction) from Powers, pp. 52-53, can both be highly beneficial.

The Third Edition book, Dragons, divides the fearsome lizards into seven age categories. Let's do the same, using very similar nomenclature, and set their Size Modifier keeping it basically the same, and decide the power level of each age category.

1. Hatchling -- "Worthy" monster for 4-5 beginning (250-point) characters.
2. Young -- "Boss" monster for 4-5 beginning characters.
3. Adolescent -- "Boss" monster for 4-5 experienced (300-point) characters.
4. Young Adult -- "Boss" monster for 4-5 heroic (350-400-point) characters.
5. Mature Adult -- "Boss" monster for 4-5 champion (400-450-point) characters with considerable support (small army).
6. Ancient -- "Boss" monster for 4-5 legendary characters (500+ points).
7. Monstrous -- "Boss" monster for 4-5 epic-level characters.

Note that gear can have a dramatic effect on power levels. It's considered that PC's will have appropriate level of gear for their point class.

Let's say this solo boss dragon is a young adult. The Dragons book gives young adults a meager ST 23 and SM +4, but that seems awfully low compared to more modern books. For instance, DFM1 gives the dragon-like slorn ST 25 at SM +2... The electric jelly gets SM +3 and ST 35 and the giant ape gets SM +4 and ST 43...

A rough baseline for ST of hexes x 5 has been suggested and that's what we'll use:

1. Hatchling -- < 35 years old, SM 0 (5 feet long, 2 hexes, reach C tail), ST 10;
2. Young -- 35 years old, SM +2 (15 feet long, 5 hexes, reach C-2 tail), ST 25;
3. Adolescent -- 75 years old, SM +3 (20 feet long, 6 hexes, reach C-3 tail), ST 30;
4. Young Adult -- 150 years old, SM +4 (25 feet long, 8 hexes, reach C-4 tail), ST 40;
5. Mature Adult -- 300 years old, SM +4(30 feet long, 10 hexes, reach C-4 tail), ST 50;
6. Ancient -- 600 years old, SM +5 (45 feet long, 15 hexes, reach C-5 tail), ST 75;
7. Monstrous -- 1,200+ years old, SM +6 (60 feet long, 20 hexes, reach C-6 tail), ST 100.

In addition to being a flying, fire-breathing physical powerhouse, let's give the dragon several highly-useful spells. First, we need to figure its IQ and Magery:

1. Hatchling -- IQ 10*; Margery 0 (Base Skill 10*);
2. Young -- IQ 12; Magery 2 (Base Skill 12);
3. Adolescent -- IQ 14; Magery 4 (Base Skill 16);
4. Young Adult -- IQ 16; Magery 6 (Base Skill 20, 4-8 Colleges as Wildcard skills with "Rule of 17" perk);
5. Mature Adult -- IQ 18; Magery 8 (Base Skill 24, 9-12 Colleges as Wildcard skills with "Rule of 18" perk);
6. Ancient -- IQ 20; Magery 10 (Base Skill 28, Magic! as a Wildcard skill with "Rule of 19" perk);
7. Monstrous -- IQ 22; Magery 12 (Base Skill 32, Magic! as a Wildcard skill with "Rule of 20" perk).

*Average IQ and base skill for teen-aged hatchlings. Dragons recently hatched, of course, have infantile or child-like IQ.

Clearly, mature adults and older dragons are intended as the most epic encounters fit only for very experienced, extraordinary, high-point player characters. Even then, laying siege to an elder dragon's lair should probably be undertaken with a small army at least. No doubt, with godlike power and intelligence, elder dragons will command legions of their own, if not vast empires.

Regardless if it's the most powerful weapon in its arsenal, a dragon's breath attack is its most infamous -- whether flames, frost, lightning, acidic gas or something equally destructive. Like all of a dragon's powers, its breath weapon grows in strength with age, from a sputter at birth to earth shattering at great age:

1. Hatchling -- 0-2 levels;
2. Young -- 3 levels;
3. Adolescent -- 4 levels;
4. Young Adult -- 6 levels;
5. Mature Adult -- 8 levels;
6. Ancient -- 10 levels, Cosmic (Irresistible*);
7. Monstrous -- 12 levels, Cosmic (Irresistible*).

* DR protects normally, but magic resistance such as "Resist Fire" does not.

More on breath weapons later.

A basic package shared by almost all Western dragons from hatchling to monstrous could look something like this:

Dragon: Per+2 [10]; Claws (Talons) [8]; Combat Reflexes [15]; Enhanced Move 1/2 (Flight) [10]; Flight (Cannot Hover, -15%; Winged, -25%) [26]; High Pain Threshold [10]; Immunity to Disease [10]; Nictitating Membrane 2 [2]; Night Vision 9 [9]; Scales [1]; Striker (Tail; Crushing) [5]; Teeth (Fangs) [2]; Temperature Tolerance 6 (+2´HT at bottom of range, +4´HT at top) [6]; Unaging [15]; Bad Grip 2 [-10]; and Horizontal [-10]. X points.

And, an age lens that adds the following traits:

Hatchling: DX+1; HT+3; DR 1 (Can't Wear Armor, Tough Skin); DR 3 (Can't Wear Armor); Magery 0. Replace Claws (Talons) with Claws (Sharp) and Teeth (Fangs) with Teeth (Sharp). Remove Combat Reflexes and High Pain Threshold.

Young: ST+15; DX+2; IQ+2; HT+4; SM +2; DR 2 (Can't Wear Armor, Tough Skin); DR 6 (Can't Wear Armor); Magery 2. Replace Claws (Talons) with Claws (Sharp) and Teeth (Fangs) with Teeth (Sharp).

Adolescent: ST+20; DX+3; IQ+4; HT+5; SM +3; DR 3 (Can't Wear Armor, Tough Skin); DR 9 (Can't Wear Armor); Magery 4. Replace Claws (Talons) with Claws (Sharp) and Teeth (Fangs) with Teeth (Sharp).

Young Adult: ST+30; DX+4; IQ+4; HT+6; SM +3; DR 18 (Can't Wear Armor, Hardened 1); Extra Attack 1; Injury Tolerance (Unbreakable Bones); Magery 6; Regeneration (Slow).

Mature Adult: ST+40; DX+4; IQ+4; HT+7; SM +4; Compartmentalized Mind 1; DR 20 (Can't Wear Armor, Hardened 2); Extra Attack 1; Injury Tolerance (Unbreakable Bones); Magery 8; Regeneration (Normal).

Ancient: ST+65; DX+4; IQ+4; HT+8; SM +5; Compartmentalized Mind 2; DR 24 (Can't Wear Armor, Hardened 3); Extra Attack 2; Injury Tolerance (Damage Reduction) 1; Magery 10; Regeneration (Fast); Unkillable 1 (Achilles' Heel). Increase Enhanced Move 1/2 (Flight) to Enhanced Move 1 (Flight).

Monstrous: ST+90; DX+4; IQ+4; HT+9; SM +6; Compartmentalized Mind 3; DR 28 (Can't Wear Armor, Hardened 4); Extra Attack 2; Injury Tolerance (Damage Reduction) 2; Injury Tolerance (Unbreakable Bones); Magery 12; Regeneration (Very Fast); Unkillable 2 (Achilles' Heel). Increase Enhanced Move 1/2 (Flight) to Enhanced Move 1 (Flight).

Chinks in armor can be targeted (p. B400) on the dragon's outer layer of DR. Upon reaching adulthood, the dragon's scales fuse together making targeting chinks between them impossible.

All things considered, that leaves us with a base young-adult firedrake looking something like this (some point costs included for ease of reverse engineering):

Firedrake

ST: 40   HP: 40     Speed: 5
DX: 10   Will: 10   Move: 5
IQ: 16   Per: 10
HT: 10   FP: 10     SM: +4
Dodge: 0   Parry: 0   DR: 0

Flame Breath (13): Burning Attack 6d (Cone, 5 yards, +100%; Costs Fatigue 3, -15%; Reduced Range, x1/5, -20%) [-].

Traits:

Skills:

Class: Dragon.

Notes:




To be continued...