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The orium dragon preview. Am I the only one who is scared by a dragon who's breath weapon also generates it's own minions?
Conceptually, it is kinda neat. Basically has the "Animate Breath Weapon" effect from 3.5 built-in standard, but when the minion dies, it recharges the breath weapon, which is also nasty.
My main question is, what exactly is "orium"? I'm not familiar with it, and plugging it into dictionary.com yields nothing. Is this some fantasy metal, and if so, is it new to 4e or have I just missed it in previous editions?
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The only thing I could find is this. It is a glowing green crystal in the Space Quest game. Beyond that I wasn't able to find anything searching Bing.com.
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Conceptually, it is kinda neat. Basically has the "Animate Breath Weapon" effect from 3.5 built-in standard, but when the minion dies, it recharges the breath weapon, which is also nasty.
To me that is the scariest part about it. Although the DM in me is drooling over the prospect of using it in one of my games.
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Conceptually, it is kinda neat. Basically has the "Animate Breath Weapon" effect from 3.5 built-in standard, but when the minion dies, it recharges the breath weapon, which is also nasty.
My main question is, what exactly is "orium"? I'm not familiar with it, and plugging it into dictionary.com yields nothing. Is this some fantasy metal, and if so, is it new to 4e or have I just missed it in previous editions?
They were orignally going for Orichalum, which is a real world mythic metal . They decided to re-name the dragon and produce a fantasy world metal instead. According to Logan Bonner the name was changed due to pronunciation issues and concerns that the term is not well known enough to be useful.
I don't actually have an opinion on that either way, so I don't want my statement to be misconstrued as a negative mark against the dragon. Please. :) Just trying to provide the progression of ideas that led to orium. I get kind of nervous posting here some times, so forgive me for being a sniveling pool of jelly. :)
Here is where Logan Bonner explains the change.
Fixed the Link for you.
How many varieties of dragon do you need? Create a base template of 'Dragon' and then add on abilities and powers as you see fit, no need to have write ups on 30+ dragons when they are all basically the same stats.
Which splat book was "Animate Breath Weapon" in? was it Races of the Dragon or Dragon Magic?
It was in the Draconomicon.
Fixed the Link for you.
How many varieties of dragon do you need? Create a base template of 'Dragon' and then add on abilities and powers as you see fit, no need to have write ups on 30+ dragons when they are all basically the same stats.
That's how they did it in Arcana Evolved. There was a single Dragon in their monster write-ups with a few tables that you could roll on to determine breath weapon energy type and whether it was a line a cone or something else. They got some other abilities as well if I remember correctly.
Fixed the Link for you.
How many varieties of dragon do you need? Create a base template of 'Dragon' and then add on abilities and powers as you see fit, no need to have write ups on 30+ dragons when they are all basically the same stats.
They don't all basically have the same stats.
They don't all basically have the same stats.Fixed the Link for you.
How many varieties of dragon do you need? Create a base template of 'Dragon' and then add on abilities and powers as you see fit, no need to have write ups on 30+ dragons when they are all basically the same stats.
They all fly. They all have breath weapons. They all have an aura attack. They all have bite, two claws and a tail attack. They all have HPs within 80% of each other.
The only real differance is coloration and personality.
How many varieties of dragon do you need? Create a base template of 'Dragon' and then add on abilities and powers as you see fit, no need to have write ups on 30+ dragons when they are all basically the same stats.
Does not really work mainly because there is no base template Dragon and no base types of attacks that Dragons have. While a 4E dragon will have attacks created around the concept of claw attacks, wing buffets and types of breath weapons there is no real commonality between a claw attack of one Dragon and the claw attack of another Dragon. One might, for example be hooked into grabbing an enemy while another might involve flinging (forced move) an enemy away. Since each type of attack is created for the specific monster the commonality exists only in that the attacks write up will be inspired by the physiology of the creature encountered (creatures whose fluff says they have claws generally have some kind of a claw attack for example). The only constraints after this are the ones meant to keep the monster challenging for a certain level party.
This is especially true because the 4E dragons are generally given different meta types so one might be classed as a Soldier monster (high hps, great defenses, generally includes 'sticky' powers to keep enemies from breaking contact, average damage) while another might be classed as Artillery (wants to stay out of melee, fantastic range attacks, lower hps and defenses). So at their very core you get some Dragons that want to close and get in the thick of it while others want to pull back and blast from range, some want to ambush you and run away (Lurkers) in hit and run strikes while others are meant to come stocked with flunky's that they will support (Controllers).
They don't all basically have the same stats.Fixed the Link for you.
How many varieties of dragon do you need? Create a base template of 'Dragon' and then add on abilities and powers as you see fit, no need to have write ups on 30+ dragons when they are all basically the same stats.
They all fly. They all have breath weapons. They all have an aura attack. They all have bite, two claws and a tail attack. They all have HPs within 80% of each other.
The only real differance is coloration and personality.
Again, that's not true. You don't even need to look further than the Ancient Red and Ancient Gold dragons to see the differences in action. The gold dragon has no tail attacks, gets three claw attacks, and the HP spread is outside the 80% range even though they're both the same level.
Creating a base template would only make the dragons bland, when that's exactly the opposite of what they should be. Each color and type of dragon should pose a unique challenge, which is what the current setup allows them to do.
I see it as making the dragon less unique. If there are rainbows of flavors of dragons my characters fist reaction upon seeing one isn’t "Oh crap a dragon." it's "What kind of dragon is that?”
I see it as making the dragon less unique. If there are rainbows of flavors of dragons my characters fist reaction upon seeing one isn’t "Oh crap a dragon." it's "What kind of dragon is that?”
Yeah, but if the suddenly see a dragon they're probably going to think "oh-no-a-dragon" first and "It's red, don't use fire." second. Still, if dragons are nothing more than the same creature with different types of breath weapon and resistance, then they're automatically just pallet swaps of one basic dragon, and where's the fun in that?
I see it as making the dragon less unique. If there are rainbows of flavors of dragons my characters fist reaction upon seeing one isn’t "Oh crap a dragon." it's "What kind of dragon is that?”Yeah, but if the suddenly see a dragon they're probably going to think "oh-no-a-dragon" first and "It's red, don't use fire." second. Still, if dragons are nothing more than the same creature with different types of breath weapon and resistance, then they're automatically just pallet swaps of one basic dragon, and where's the fun in that?
That just brings me back to my main point, how many dragon types do you need. There are more types of dragon than any other monster type. If every dragon where unique to itself that would be great and the way to create a one of a kind dragon for every dragon is to start with a template and add on a bit here and there makeing each dragon a one of a kind.
I just want to know if I am the only one who refuses to use the core Metallic and Chromatic Dragons? Prefering rather to use unique ones so that my players never know if they can just bully thier way through a fight or not.
I'm pretty much the opposite - I almost never use anything but the core dragons just too keep them focused on their iconic nature - also its easy to write the core dragons into the world mytho's while the other dragons often feel like square pegs from a 'history of the multiverse' perspective.
Generally if my PCs are up against a dragon (which is not that uncommon - I really like Dragons) I try and forshadow that so they get the name of the Dragon and some of its exploits. I don't bother with the really little ones but if the Dragon has been around for 450 years then its probably was at some point using the elven woods as an endless supply of tasty hors d'oevres, maybe it once served as a mount to some ancient arch villain and during some epic war in the past is attributed with cooking some small city. In the end I guess I'm usually not really trying to surprise my players with this encounter but make them feel as if they are part of something bigger and that they will make history one way or the other just for facing this dragon. Not to say I don't love to surprise my players - just not with this monster, it easily slots into an embodiment of history and the campaign setting role which you can't do with very many other monsters.
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Yeah I have often thought of, and should have long since done so, making part of the history of a specific region tied to a specific Dragon. "See this ruined tower Old bright eyes burnt it to cinders, they say that the ghosts of his victims still haunt the area and the dungeons below." "Oh that clearing in the woods, thats called halflings sorrow where the dragon malixer once killed an entire tribe of halflings looking for the adventurers who killed her youngling." Ect...
Yeah I have often thought of, and should have long since done so, making part of the history of a specific region tied to a specific Dragon. "See this ruined tower Old bright eyes burnt it to cinders, they say that the ghosts of his victims still haunt the area and the dungeons below." "Oh that clearing in the woods, thats called halflings sorrow where the dragon malixer once killed an entire tribe of halflings looking for the adventurers who killed her youngling." Ect...
Precisely. For example all my Dragons have nick names, actually 'Halfling's Sorrow' or maybe just 'Sorrow' would be a pretty good nickname - I'll have to keep that one in mind.
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Yeah I have often thought of, and should have long since done so, making part of the history of a specific region tied to a specific Dragon. "See this ruined tower Old bright eyes burnt it to cinders, they say that the ghosts of his victims still haunt the area and the dungeons below." "Oh that clearing in the woods, thats called halflings sorrow where the dragon malixer once killed an entire tribe of halflings looking for the adventurers who killed her youngling." Ect...Precisely. For example all my Dragons have nick names, actually 'Halfling's Sorrow' or maybe just 'Sorrow' would be a pretty good nickname - I'll have to keep that one in mind.
Feel free to use it. Halflings Sorrow is actually a place in my home brew which I have all but transfered to Andorran. Malixer is a female Black Dragon with a few Sorcerer Levels. Her Young Black Dragon child was killed and Skinned by the adventuring party years ago and his skin has now been passed around as enchanted wizard robes (fitted for a Halfling) for a couple of genrerations in game time. After she found out about her "spawns" death she then went on a rampage and afterwords turned around and shape shifted to a Human whore and suduced the halfling wizard in question. I have my own sort of dragonkin/halflings in the game world all of whom (read a new breed of tough koblods with breath weapons) are trained from birth in ways to kill halflings.
One of two different unique races in my home game that have come about due to PC activities.
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That takes you to a wiki article on orichalcum.
Here is where Logan Bonner explains the change.
Oops...sorry.
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I know the conversation has moved past this point, but here is the forum entry that Logan Bonner posted to explain why they shifted from Orichalum to Orium.
This is not the entry describing the dragon, just a small thought about the naming process. Not a huge bit of info or anything. I just find that kind of thought process interesting. I like to get snippets of why designers take certain paths. The creative process is interesting in any form.
When I first read the topic title, I thought it said "Opium Dragon" and thought, well, I bet they don't get out of the lair much. Then I thought, "Wouldn't it be awful to run into a dragon that needs a fix?"