Draconomicon Excerpt: Frostforged Wyrm

[Fallen Seraph]

Draconomicon Excerpts: Frostforged Wyrm

Frostforged Wyrm

Demons sometimes capture white dragons from the natural world to “improve” in the forges of the Abyss. The frostforged wyrm is the result: a tortured beast, outfitted with heavy plates of cold-forged iron fixed in place with cruel nails. No matter how hard the dragon struggles to free itself, minuscule demons scramble over its back to secure the armor plates.
The dragon’s original nature is barely recognizable under the mass of spiked metal. Plumes of mist rise from its head plate, and a rime of frost accumulates around it. Such tormented creatures rarely live long—they are either killed by the demons or driven to death by their harsh masters, who see them only as expendable tools designed to spread carnage.
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Anyone else get a semi-Cloverfield feel of this, I could see Demons falling off this Dragon like those creatures from Cloverfield. I am thinking of adding as part of an encounter some manner of dice-throw where after a PC hits the Dragon, I roll to see if any Demons fall of and become a threat.

 

[chaotix42]

That'd be cool! Upgrade to elite/solo status, and every time it gets hit minions fall off of it!

 

[doctorhook]

Hey, cool! A derivative dragon-monster that doesn't suck/lame-ify the game (like Dragonspawn do ). I imagine the best way to use such a creature is after the players have already faced (and lived to fear) a white dragon. This way, when they meet the vile forces of the Abyss and see how they've subjugated such mighty beasts, they'll know they're dealing with some real scary-bad apples.

Also, it's neat to have a sneak-peak of what Planar Dragons will look like in 4E. Most of 3E's "Planar Dragons" came from places which are now Astral Dominions, rather than unique planes, and the 4E MM refers to "Planar Dragons", not "Astral Dominion Dragons" (although I'm sure these exist, in some form).

 

[Phaezen]

Nice, the Draconomicon 1 looks like it will be solid!

As a side note, I didn't recieve the rss feeds from wotc this morning, am I alone in this?

Phaezen

 

[wedgeski]

About 65 adventure hooks popped into my head just reading this. Good show!

 

[Shroomy]

I really like this monster and its nice to see a dragon that is not a solo creature. Other than the fluff, my two favorite aspects of the dragon are its vulnerability to charm effects (nice possibilties there) and the spikes of pain ability. All in all, the mechanics synch up quite well with the fluff, creating a real portrait of pain, misery, and servitude; it almost makes me feel sorry for an evil dragon.

 

[Derren]

I'm not really impressed. This dragon is very limiting (must be used with demons in the same encounter) and besides the breath weapon there is nothing "dragony" about it (but that is also a general 4E dragon problem).
The fluff is well meant, but having a creature where (invulnerable, nontargetable) creatures crawl on its body to fix armour is just laughable. It would be nice if there were a AC reducing effect when you kill the little demons on it as the armour gradually falls off, but I guess that is too complex for 4E.
And its ability scores are the best. Because the dragon was tortured by demons it becomes wiser and more charismatic, but looses its fear aura.....

Not as bad as the Hoard excerpt (Non of the sample hords contain enough coins to even fill one square. And that is praised as "cool feature"...) but the Draconomicon doesn't sound interesting to me (also because of its limited focus to chromatic dragons. It probably contains just more monsters, items and powers and no fluff at all). And that means something as I normally buy nearly everything with dragons in it.

 

[mattdm]

The fluff is well meant, but having a creature where (invulnerable, nontargetable) creatures crawl on its body to fix armour is just laughable.

Yeah, that was my first reaction too. The first thing my players are going to do on hearing that description is think "cool, a weak spot" and try to devise a way to kill 'em.

 

[questing gm]

My only question is, can it use its Spike of Pain once per encounter or each demon adjacent to it can use it once per encounter.

Also, do the PCs get XP for the Frostforged Wyrm if it dies from Spike of Pain?

 

[Imban]

The fluff is well meant, but having a creature where (invulnerable, nontargetable) creatures crawl on its body to fix armour is just laughable. It would be nice if there were a AC reducing effect when you kill the little demons on it as the armour gradually falls off, but I guess that is too complex for 4E.

On one hand, the DMG has rules for "stunt" attacks, but basically just has those listed as dealing damage, when something other than damage seems appropriate here.

On the other hand, "it has little demons crawling on it!" -> "So I shoot them off!" seems like a totally obvious leap of player logic that should just be in the monster writeup.

My only question is, can it use its Spike of Pain once per encounter or each demon adjacent to it can use it once per encounter.

As written, it can use it once per encounter.

Also, do the PCs get XP for the Frostforged Wyrm if it dies from Spike of Pain?

I'd assume yes, since Spike of Pain can do at most 7% of its HP in damage. That means the PCs still did 93% of its HP in damage.