| 2 people marked this as FAQ candidate. |
Maybe asked before -- I can't find anything in search.
Why does the clockwork dragon entry state that its reach is 15 feet, but then puts reach with its bite attack in parentheses as... 15 feet?
Usually, in these cases, parentheses are used to denote when some weapon of the creature's is different from the normal reach, not when it is the same.
Is this a typo? Should it be a 20 foot reach with the bite attack?
That might make sense, if what I was talking about were a rule specifically used only for dragons' bite attacks, but it's not. It's a general rule of formatting in the Bestiaries, and going back to the Monster Manual in 3.x, that when a creature (or character, for that matter) has a different reach with a specific weapon - different from his or its other weapons' reach - it is listed in parentheses.
Being a dragon has nothing to do with it, so I can't imagine that this was inserted to somehow demarcate the line between dragon and construct, or cross that line, or whatever it is you're trying to get across here. If that's the case, why not just leave the bite part out, and allow us to assume that all weapons for this creature have the same reach?
Point is, I want to run the encounter fairly and as it was meant to be run, per design. So I want to know for sure what the reach with the bite weapon is. The way it's written does not make sense to me, based on precedent.
So let me refine my question. Has anybody seen any errata or asked this question about this creature before?
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The clockwork dragon has the right reach. He can only reach with his bite at 15 ft, all his other body parts don't have 15 ft reach. But not like it matters much, unless you make the clockwork dragon sentient which is a possible option, it isn't going to take advantage of his single attack of opportunity every rounds. Like they even say in the clockwork dragon entry, what it can do really depend on the creator and its programming.
A huge dragon normally has reach 10 ft (15 ft with bite).
Based on this, if I were to guess which part of the clockwork dragon is in error, it would be the regular reach, not the bite reach.
Eltacolibre, the clockwork dragon DOES have 15-ft. reach with its other body parts, according to its entry in Bestiary 4. That's why I'm asking the question. Because it already HAS 15-ft. reach, so why is the bite listed separately with the same reach? As to AoO, that isn't the only time reach matters. So it does matter. Anytime a character could get bitten to death, it matters to play it fairly.
HaraldKlak, I think you're confirming what I suspected. That is that this is a typo, and either the regular reach is wrong, or the bite reach is wrong. I think you're onto it with the Huge dragon thing. I'll treat it as if it has 10-foot reach, 15 with bite.
Thanks!