Dracohydra

BOZ

Creature Cataloguer
i'm in the process of converting the dracohydra; tell me what you think. :)


DRACOHYDRA
Dragon (Water)
Climate/Terrain: Temperate and cold mountains
Organization: (Needs to be fixed) (1-4)
Challenge Ratings: (Needs to be fixed)
Treasure: Double Standard
Alignment: Always chaotic evil
Advancement: (Needs to be fixed)

Dracohydras are hideous creatures that combine the worst aspects of hydrae and evil dragons. Their origin is clouded in mystery, and it is not believed that they are a result of the two species mating. Some sages consider them an evolutionary throwback, while others consider them a next step in dragon evolution. Another theory with much credence suggests that they are actually the result of experiments by evil deities, or even Tiamat herself.
Dracohydras have muddy brown scales, with a nearly cream-colored brown on their underbellies. They have draconic wings, and have from two to five heads. Their eyes glow red.
Dracohydras lair fair from civilization, usually in inaccessible mountain passes covered in snow, or in similarly barren areas. Like white dragons, they are avaricious, selfish, and vicious, avoiding plans and acting in a direct manner. They often kill for sport, and act as sadistic bullies in their territory, though they are truly cowards against superior foes. Dracohydras hate all other dragon types and will kill any they encounter if they think they can get away with it. They tend to enslave humanoids for a brief time before eating them. Their main enemies are storm giants and stone giants, though they hate red dragons who eat their young. These voracious monsters can eat nearly anything, including rocks and gems.
Dracohydras only speak Draconic.

COMBAT
Dracohydras, as expected, combine the best fighting capabilities of dragons and hydras. Each head can use its breath weapon independently each round. It can attack with any head that does not use its breath weapon at no penalty, even if the monsters moves or charges during the round.
A dracohydra can be killed either by severing all of its heads or by slaying its body. To sever a head, an opponent must hit the monster’s neck with a slashing weapon and deal damage equal to the hydra’s original hit point total, divided by its original number of heads, in one blow. (See the entry for hydras in the Monster Manual for more information.)
Breath Weapon (Su): A dracohydra has one type of breath weapon, a line of acid.
Other Spell-Like Abilities: 3/day - darkness; 2/day – stinking cloud, wall of fog; 1/day – cloudkill.
Immunities (Ex): Dracohydras are immune to acid.
Skills: Dracohydras receive a +2 racial bonus to Listen and Spot checks, thanks to their multiple heads.
Feats: A dracohydra with the Combat Reflexes feat is capable of using all its heads for attacks of opportunity each round.


The dracohydra first appeared in FOR1 Draconomicon, 1990.
 

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Nice, very, very nice. Can't hardly wait until I see the finished dragon.

Are you doing it with age categories, or just as a one off monster (as the hellfire wyrm in MM2)?
 

nope, it's definitely an age-category monster. :) everything else is done except that - which is the part that always takes me the damned longest. ;) note though; it does not cast any spells (though it does have spell-like abilities). besides the original Draconomicon, it also appeared in Cult of the Dragon if you have that.
 


cool krish, that should help a lot actually. :)

OK, this shouldn’t be too hard or take too long if I ask for help. ;)

Let’s work with the original stats to make this dragon more 3E compatible. I’ll give you the base stats, and you tell me what you think we should do with it. Typically, a 2E dragon had a set of “base” stats, which reflected age category 4 (Juvenile). Thus, when converting a dragon, I tend to more or less match up a Juvenile dragon with the old stats. I fudge it a bit to make it make more sense.

Thus, a Juvenile 2E dracohydra (using Draconomicon, as I don’t have Cult of the Dragon with me) would have these stats:
Intelligence: Low (5-7) – mental stats should likely be modeled after white dragons as suggested in text
AC: 2 (so natural armor should be +8, plus the size adjustment?)
Movement: 6, Fl 21 (D) – this would make the dracohydra a lot slower and clumsier than most 3E counterparts. This would become roughly 20 ft, fly 50-60 ft (poor)
Hit Dice: 12 base – see no reason to change this.

Trends indicate that both Hit Dice and Natural Armor step by 3, so we will do that based on what we set the Juvy’s values at.

Breath weapon damage is listed as 1d2+1 for Wyrmlings, and stepping by +1 for each age category; thus Great Wyrms have 12d2+12. how about dropping the plus, and changing the d2 to a d4?

MR/SR is listed at 5% for age 5 dragons (which would be like 11 in 3E terms), stepping by +5%/+1 for the next three categories, and staying at 20% (?!?!?!) for age 8-12. I don’t think it works like that anymore though.

The only other entry in the book worth noting is the length category. This makes some pretty huge dragons though, so we might consider reducing them by a bit. Here is how it works out:

Age | Body Length/Tail Length (in feet)
1 | 5-14/2-6
2 | 14-23/6-12
3 | 23-32/12-20
4 | 32-42/20-30
5 | 42-52/30-40
6 | 52-63/40-50
7 | 63-74/50-60
8 | 74-85/60-70
9 | 85-96/70-80
10 | 96-108/80-90
11 | 108-120/90-100
12 | 120-125/100-105
 
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Hmm...

Int: Give it the same int, wis, and cha advancement as the white dragon, that seems the best option.

AC: Natural armor is usually HD-1 with dragons in 3E.

Movement: I think it should have a land speed of at least 30', it's flight speed should start at 100' and slowly increase as the dragon ages, to perhaps 150' or so as wyrm and great wyrm. Poor manouverability sounds good. I would also consider giving it a burrow speed.

HD: 12 is good.

Breathweapon: d4 is the same as with the black dragon, go with it. :D

SR: for lesser dragons are equal 10+dragons CR. This is what I think you should go with.

Hope that helps :D

Later,
 


Increase the breathweapon damage to 8d4 at the juvenile age. Additionally I suggest you increase the mental stats by at least 4.

Also, last time I checked there is no Wall of Fog spell in 3E. I suggest you replace it with either Obscuring Mist or Fog Cloud.

I would also suggest you start it learning spells as a sorcerer from the adult age category.

Later,
 

Krishnath said:
Increase the breathweapon damage to 8d4 at the juvenile age. Additionally I suggest you increase the mental stats by at least 4.

why? they're supposed to be on par with white dragons, which is where they're at. i have them set at white dragon -1, but i can make them white dragon +1 instead.
as for the breathweapon, i can make it step by 2 instead of 1 (which seems to be more in line with 3E dragons anyway).

Also, last time I checked there is no Wall of Fog spell in 3E. I suggest you replace it with either Obscuring Mist or Fog Cloud.

will do. :) which do you suggest, i don't remember what level wall of fog is.

I would also suggest you start it learning spells as a sorcerer from the adult age category.

no spells! :D
 

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