| 2 people marked this as FAQ candidate. |
First, let me say that I have seen the errata for the copper dragon which adds the Power Attack feat to the young version. My concern is not for young copper dragons, but for wyrmlings.
My deconstruction below makes two assumptions that I think are correct. 1. A young dragon starts out as a wyrmling and ages 16 years until it eventually becomes a young dragon. 2. When a dragon increases an age category it does not throw away the feats that it already had, and select new ones.
Based on those two assumptions, it would make sense that a wyrmling copper dragon would have three of the five feats of a young copper dragon. Indeed, I can deconstruct other dragon types in this way. Unfortunately, this deconstruction doesn't work for copper dragons.
A young copper dragon has the following feats: Combat Expertise, Improved Critical (Bite), Improved Initiative, Improved Trip, and Power Attack. The first four come from the bestiary, and the last one from the errata. So which of these feats does the wyrmling have?
Combat Expertise requires an int of 13 -- wyrmling copper dragons have a 12
Improved Critical requires a base attack bonus of 8 -- wyrmling copper dragons have a 5
Improved Initiative has no prrerequisites -- wyrmling copper dragons can have this one
Improved Trip requires an int of 13 and Combat Expertise -- wyrmling copper dragons have an int of 12 and don't qualify for Combat Expertise
Power Attack requires a str of 13 -- wyrmling copper dragons have a str of 11
My suggestion for solving this would be to increase int by +1 at all age categories. You could reduce wis, str, or con by 1 point, if desired. This would allow wyrmling copper dragons to qualify for Combat Expertise and Improved Trip. A very young copper dragon would qualify for Power Attack with its str increase, allowing the young copper dragon to take Improved Critical.
Those are good solutions. My solution would be to just run the monster as is. In my metaphorical book, feat prereqs are hard, fast rules for players, not DMs, especially when dealing with monsters.
If a monster has a feat but doesn't meet the prereqs for the feat, don't think of it as a feat, but rather as an innate extraordinary ability.
Mark L. Chance | Spes Magna Games
My solution would be to just run the monster as is. In my metaphorical book, feat prereqs are hard, fast rules for players, not DMs, especially when dealing with monsters.
A fine idea to be sure, but the lawful side of me wants NPCs and monsters to conform to the same rules that the PCs do. It keeps me as the DM from getting accused of being unfair when a PC passes into the great beyond.
A fine idea to be sure, but the lawful side of me wants NPCs and monsters to conform to the same rules that the PCs do. It keeps me as the DM from getting accused of being unfair when a PC passes into the great beyond.
Embrace the dark side. There's nothing in the rules that says NPCs and monsters must conform to the same rules as PCs. In fact, the rules include clear examples to contrary. To wit, PCs get maximum hit points for their first hit die; monsters and NPCs do not. PCs get to select traits. Monsters and NPCs have to burn a feat to select traits. PCs have higher expectations for wealth per level than NPCs.
Et cetera, et cetera.
:)
Mark L. Chance | Spes Magna Games
There's nothing in the rules that says NPCs and monsters must conform to the same rules as PCs. In fact, the rules include clear examples to contrary. To wit, PCs get maximum hit points for their first hit die; monsters and NPCs do not. PCs get to select traits. Monsters and NPCs have to burn a feat to select traits. PCs have higher expectations for wealth per level than NPCs.
That road goes both ways. I like to be fair to my PCs, but I also give some love to my NPCs and monsters. I give maximum hit points at 1st level to any character/creature that takes a PC class for its first hit die. I don't use traits. I look at the PC wealth table for any character/creature with a PC class. If that character/creature is a monster, I also look at monster treasure listing when determining a suitable wealth amount.
