Converting True Dragons

[Cleon]

OK, SLAs really should go with a theme, which we don't have in the original monster. The blue is really an illusionist as far as SLAs go, so do we want to stick with that and use a different suite of illusions, or do we want to go "opposite" and choose something like abjuration?

We don't really have anything to justify changing the standard Blue Dragon's abilities, so I'm thinking we ought to leave the SLAs as they are.

That said, I am wondering about making the Azure Dragon's alignment Lawful Good and swapping its Evil cleric domain for Good.

 

[freyar]

We should definitely swap the cleric domain. But I don't recall having any other justification when we swapped the Mystaran amber's SLAs around.

 

[Cleon]

We should definitely swap the cleric domain. But I don't recall having any other justification when we swapped the Mystaran amber's SLAs around.

In the case of the Amber, it seemed pretty clear the Gold Dragon's bless and sunburst SLAs weren't terribly appropriate for a BECMI Chaos-aligned monster, so we gave them SLAs that were more in keeping with that ethos. For example, rather than a glorious radiance that annihilates undead (sunburst) it produced a radiance that destroys matter in general (disintegrate). I'd have been OK keeping the Gold's quest/geas, since you can see that being used in service of malevolent Chaos.

Also, we don't have the clear alignment inversion the Amber & Gold dragon's had, since Golds are Lawful and benevolent in both versions. The Blue Dragon is already Lawful in AD&D and 3E, albeit Evilly lawful, while it's Neutral in BECMI.

Anyhow, what alternative spells would you fancy?

The Blue Dragon's ventriloquism, hallucinatory terrain, veil and mirage arcana SLAs all have a clear Illusionary theme that doesn't seemed tied to the concepts of Chaos and Law as BECMI represents them.

The AD&D/3E Blue Dragon has a Lawful Evil alignment, so if our Azure Dragon is a "good" inversion of that it could have SLAs that are benevolent mirrors of the Blue's spells - maybe something that reveals the truth rather than cloaking it in illusion?

 

[freyar]

What about a divination kind of theme? We could go for spells like see invisibility, invisibility purge, true seeing, etc, or more broadly with things like augury, commune, locate object (popular for dragons), etc. Sound appealing? EDIT: even stone tell might be interesting.

 

[Cleon]

Hold on, I haven't added the finalized Breath Weapon to the Azure Dragon Working Draft. Better do that first...

What about a divination kind of theme? We could go for spells like see invisibility, invisibility purge, true seeing, etc, or more broadly with things like augury, commune, locate object (popular for dragons), etc. Sound appealing? EDIT: even stone tell might be interesting.

That's what I had in mind with my proposal for a "reveals the truth" theme.

Let's see, the spell levels are:

ventriloquism - 1st level
hallucinatory terrain - 4th level
mirage arcana - 5th level
veil - 6th level

How about we keep one or two of them and change the others?

Maybe true seeing instead of veil and detect scrying instead of hallucinatory terrain?

That'd make it:

Other Spell-Like Abilities: 3/day—ventriloquism (adult or older), 1/day—detect scrying (old or older), true seeing (ancient or older), mirage arcana (great wyrm).

 

[freyar]

That's somehow not a strong theme, though, since it mixes deception with truth-telling. What about swapping identify for ventriloquism and maybe scrying (or even the greater version) for mirage arcana?

 

[Cleon]

That's somehow not a strong theme, though, since it mixes deception with truth-telling. What about swapping identify for ventriloquism and maybe scrying (or even the greater version) for mirage arcana?

I was fancying keeping a couple of the Blue's SLAs, and ventriloquism plus mirage arcana tickled my fancy.

Furthermore, I was trying to keep the spell levels the same - mirage arcana is 5th level, and the SRD 5th level wizard/sorcerer divination spells of contact other plane, prying eyes and telepathic bond didn't feel very appropriate.

 

[freyar]

On the other hand, the average level for true seeing is a bit less than that for veil, so substituting greater scrying for mirage arcana would counterbalance that a bit. It doesn't matter a whole lot, but I do like the strong theme and the "anti-blue-dragon" nature of the divination spells.

 

[Cleon]

On the other hand, the average level for true seeing is a bit less than that for veil, so substituting greater scrying for mirage arcana would counterbalance that a bit. It doesn't matter a whole lot, but I do like the strong theme and the "anti-blue-dragon" nature of the divination spells.

Hold on a moment. It can cast cleric spells as sorcerer spells right, so it can use the 5th level version of true seeing to replace the 5th level mirage arcana, so we can aim for a 6th level divination like analyze dweomer or legend lore.

Of those, I prefer analyze dweomer.

For our 4th level spell we can use standard scrying instead of hallucinatory terrain. Remember that analyze dweomer can detect if a creature is the subject of a scrying spell, so we don't need the detect scrying.

I still fancy keeping the ventriloquism.

That'd make it:

Other Spell-Like Abilities: 3/day—ventriloquism (adult or older), 1/day—scrying (old or older), analyze dweomer (ancient or older), true seeing (great wyrm).

 

[freyar]

Hmmm, I still don't like ventriloquism, and I guess you don't like identify. What about alarm, true strike, faerie fire or maybe color spray if you want an Illusion?