as far as nuanced takes go though, "the desire to become a superhero/human cannot be separated from supremacist ideals" is one that i do appreciate that they've voiced in the mcu. though it rings hollow coming from a villain against the backdrop of "hey, look at this interconnected universe full off all these cool superheroes", i can sorta appreciate that it's at least there
but also yes, you're basically giving a dragon worse versions of features it already has, but you've got an opportunity to give a dragon additional breath weapons that way and make it tougher.
@BESW "Well, kid, if things kept getting better, the audience wouldn't recognize our world as being like theirs." threepanelsoul.com/comic/superheroics
@Glazius for real though i missed that, and 4e design's sensible enough i'd take that as a serious guideline... but still, breaking the rules here seems very tempting........
@Glazius Aye. I would like to see a version of superheroes which admits that the real problem is not just that the notion of superheroes is kinda fashy, but that it relies on a Great Man view of history. No matter how awesome Superman is or how much he uses his power to genuinely change the world for the better, the greatest work he can ever do, both as Kal-El and Clark Kent, is to change human hearts and empower communities.
Powerful individuals don't do jack, in terms of long-term sustainable betterment. It's empowering communities with the tools and praxis to identify and enact change, that makes sustainable betterment happen.
@doppelgreener But again, the other thing is that it creates an elite from a regular monster, and all dragons are already solos. You'd have to make, like, a level 17 regular-monster version of a young dragon and then put the template on.
I dunno. It was moderately common among higher-difficulty enemies in 4e, and I used "recharge on trigger" and "effect on trigger" powers a lot in my custom builds.
A pretty common one was "when you are bloodied, PSYDUCK."
"Change the game when you reduce the enemy to half health" might feel too much like a video game boss for some peoples' tastes but it works really well to keep fights from dragging and being repetitive.
Hm, I suppose I was thinking how in many turn-based combat games, enemies are just as potent at max HP versus when they're at low HP, so the default strategy is to take them out one at a time. So if there are enemies who get weaker/stronger at low HP, then the players would strategize differently.
I want to create a necromancer in the Forgotten Realms setting. One that gets some kind of consent for their necromancy when it comes to using other creatures' corpses, be it from each creature that once inhabited their respective vessel, or be it from the deities and forces of the multiverse tha...
@doppelgreener Oh, there are some lesser templates in here for multiheritage dragons. Some of them basically trade out frightful presence for a more controllery breath attack.
@MikeQ but for Irontooth specifically he was just kinda broken to begin with, and he got stronger (except for the use of one ability) after getting bloodied
Yeah, Irontooth was set up in an environment where the party was likely to already be at a disadvantage, swarmed by other creatures and running out of resources.
And then they went and made him a brute, which means his HP and damage were both already maxed out.
Every circle is an enemy kobold. The I is Irontooth.
And then there's the left side of the map...
They're designed so the two maps can be separate encounters with an opportunity to rest between, and if you do that then they're both difficult but probably not lethal.
But if any kobold manages to escape the first encounter to warn the second, or the party ducks into the waterfall during the first encounter... well. Irontooth was infamous in the early days of 4e as the first TPK of the new edition.
@MikeQ I also liked using splats: enemies whose death changed the tactical situation. Often by leaving some kind of specialized terrain in the square where they die, but alternately by exploding, or empowering another enemy, etc.
Like a boss who summons little fire elementals, and when they die their square is filled with fire for the rest of the encounter. But the boss resists their fire damage.
Had another boss who summed 1d4+1 minions, and the summon power recharged whenever all the minions were dead. So the party grabbed one minion and locked it up in a corner.
Just thinking: fire elementals are usually made of fire and thus immune or resistant to fire, but what if it's not a fire elemental? What if it's an on-fire elemental? It's burning wood, and too much fire makes it burn out.
Also, speaking of "resistance to the same element", I could absolutely definitely be taken out by a whole bunch of meat and bones, such as found in the shape of a fist.
Basically the NPC stood in the back and threw minions forward at the PCs. Killing minions hurt him, but not as much as direct attacks, and the minions could deal a lot more damage than he could, especially in groups.
There were other standard gnolls in the fight too, with keep-away abilities to try and prevent the PCs from swarming their leader.
@NautArch You familiar with the Antikythera mechanism? Watching a video about it's discovery and workings, looks like something from your younger days, a wreck in the Eastern Med.
In D&D 4th Edition, one can only get to a state of Dying after getting Bloodied first.
If - for example - I have a Feat which gives me the ability A to do something as a Minor/Move/Standard action while I'm Bloodied, while at the same time I'm currently in a Dying state and I have another Feat th...
