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As their designer, I am excited and terrified to announce the official playtest release of Dreamscarred Press's psionic dragons! Any and all feedback is appreciated.
For those of you who have been following this particular project since before I became part of it, here's the breakdown:
The Lorican dragon possesses an affinity for the Astral plane and channels the powers of the Aegis class.
The Cypher dragon contemplates the deep mysteries of the border planes; its powers resemble the Cryptic class.
The fearsome Scourge dragon is an apex predator of terror; it preys only on those that are feared and dreaded. Its shadowy powers resemble the Dread.
Imagos dragons hail from the deep, alien reaches of the Ethereal plane, far removed from anything even remotely resembling morality. Their power from, and over, dreams gives them manifesting similar to the Wilder.
The bubbly, enthusiastic Keris dragons are born in the Positive Energy plane as living fonts of psionically-charged energy. They channel that energy like a Kineticist, crushing their enemies beneath their glory and majesty.
And finally, the base, animalistic Ksarite dragons are a scourge on civilization. Lacking in true thought, they cut swathes of devastation through civilized lands in their neverending quest for food and metal to hoard in their scrapheap lairs.
Thank you for your time and feedback!
- Jade Ripley
Freelancer, Dreamscarred Press
Not necessarily dumped, there are always room for more dragons. But for the Bestiary we wanted the dragon themes to align with the classes.
I am loving the write-ups for these dragons. It's too bad they weren't available last year, as several of them would have been perfect for a planar travelling arc that I ran.
I particularly like the background and attitudes on the scourge and imagos dragons. They sound like they would be fun to run (as a GM).
Comments:
- Why does the Lorican's breath weapon have a save the 'halves damage (minimum 1)' when the damage is always 1? Was the damage supposed to scale?
- Cypher's Pattern Adaptation is usable only once per day, and lasts a number of minutes equal to the Int mod. Why are there concessions for using the ability multiple times before it runs out? It just makes the whole ability unnecessarily wordy.
- What prevents a great wyrm Cypher from hitting himself (or having an ally hit him) to boost up his DR to 25 and make himself immune to several powers when he sees the party coming?
- I love how the scourge dragon is sometimes good for people, as it feeds on the things that people are afraid of. Can they also feed on fear by making people afraid of them, or do they only feed on other things that people are afraid of?
- Imagos oneiromancy doesn't have a saving throw for Nightmare or Traumatize, but it does for Demand. Is that intentional? They gain those powers at 'very young', which seems too early for an unseen creature to kill players in their sleep from a mile away.
- Does the keris HAVE TO influence slashing/bludgeoning/piercing once it reaches adult? Kinetic Influence as written is not optional when using Influence Energy. I can think of situations where it would be advantageous to push one type up, and the other down, or just only affect one.
- Ksarite dragons are really interesting, but they seem to be incredibly vulnerable to a little bit of Int damage taking them out of a fight immediately, even as great wyrms. Would it be better to either have no Int (like an undead, but not undead) or have an Int score, but some kind of 'animal intelligence' special property?
I am loving the write-ups for these dragons. It's too bad they weren't available last year, as several of them would have been perfect for a planar travelling arc that I ran.
I particularly like the background and attitudes on the scourge and imagos dragons. They sound like they would be fun to run (as a GM).
Yay!
Comments:
- Why does the Lorican's breath weapon have a save the 'halves damage (minimum 1)' when the damage is always 1? Was the damage supposed to scale?
True Dragons, of which Lorican is an example, have a breath weapon whose damage scales by age. Though it deals only 1 point of ability damage as a wyrmling, that damage will go up as it grows older.
- Cypher's Pattern Adaptation is usable only once per day, and lasts a number of minutes equal to the Int mod. Why are there concessions for using the ability multiple times before it runs out? It just makes the whole ability unnecessarily wordy.
I knew I had it worded the way I did originally for a reason >.< This will be fixed; the dragon is supposed to be able to adapt its pattern multiple times within the same use of the ability, then have to cool down.
- What prevents a great wyrm Cypher from hitting himself (or having an ally hit him) to boost up his DR to 25 and make himself immune to several powers when he sees the party coming?
Absolutely nothing, just like there's nothing stopping the party from hitting it with buffs and then dismissing those buffs to prevent the dragon from benefiting from them ^_^
- I love how the scourge dragon is sometimes good for people, as it feeds on the things that people are afraid of. Can they also feed on fear by making people afraid of them, or do they only feed on other things that people are afraid of?
Being feared isn't a great place to be for Scourge Dragons. Imagine for a moment that you can smell food - not any food, but the most amazing, appetizing food you have ever smelled. Nothing you have ever smelled could possibly be so delicious. It makes your mouth water all of the time, it distracts you from doing other things and interrupts your train of thought all the time. Now imagine realizing that the delicious smell is your own natural scent. That's what it's like for a Scourge Dragon that has the fear of mortals.
- Imagos oneiromancy doesn't have a saving throw for Nightmare or Traumatize, but it does for Demand. Is that intentional? They gain those powers at 'very young', which seems too early for an unseen creature to kill players in their sleep from a mile away.
Do keep in mind that any given PC can only be hit by one dream every 24 hours, and that's if the dragon's using its oneiromancy when the PCs are sleeping. Once they figure it out, varying their sleep schedules, using restorative magic, etc are all very possible.
- Does the keris HAVE TO influence slashing/bludgeoning/piercing once it reaches adult? Kinetic Influence as written is not optional when using Influence Energy. I can think of situations where it would be advantageous to push one type up, and the other down, or just only affect one.
The Keris dragon's ability lacks that finesse; they amplify all energy, hinder all energy, or do nothing. It's sort of a side effect of being a walking source of positive energy, it doesn't really allow for fine-tuning.
- Ksarite dragons are really interesting, but they seem to be incredibly vulnerable to a little bit of Int damage taking them out of a fight immediately, even as great wyrms. Would it be better to either have no Int (like an undead, but not undead) or have an Int score, but some kind of 'animal intelligence' special property?
Nothing I can really do about this one; Ksarite dragon had some special requirements because of its role in another DSP product. I suppose I could make them immune to mental ability score damage, maybe as the result of the psionic energies bolstering their scarred bodies. I'll discuss it with the team for the other project.
The following has been added to Ksarite Dragons of all stripes:
Body of Will (Su) A ksarite dragon's body is at least partially composed of psionic energy, which helps to shield its bestial mind. If the ksarite dragon would be dealt Intelligence damage, it is instead dealt an equal amount of Constitution damage.
Oh man. I can't begin to tell you what I'm going to do all over my PCs' with these. 'Cuz at least one of them reads this forum. Let's just assume it's nasty.
Otherwise, question... I'm losing track of things. These are going to be part of the Psionic Bestiary, yes? I'm convinced so, but I don't know what's what anymore.
Never mind. Found the latest Kickstarter update in the special folder that naughty e-mail with URLs goes to fester. So yeah, part of the Bestiary. Very, very chuffed.
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Alright folks, we're getting some sample dragons prepared! Each true dragon presented here will have a sample stat block at 3 ages - Young, Adult, and Ancient - to give an idea of what an 'average' dragon of its type is like. There's no need for you to obey these stat blocks! They're there for convenience, inspiration, and, if we're being honest, because that's the format Paizo used and we wanna stick with the familiar method of presenting something as classic and iconic as true dragons.
You can find the document here; I'll also edit the link into the opening post. Right now, only Lorican Dragon is up and ready to go. I deeply appreciate any and all feedback given, but especially going over my numbers to make sure I didn't mess up one of the moving parts. Thank you very much, and I hope you enjoy!
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And sample Cypher dragons have been added! The format has also been edited to be bestiary-compliant (which means no explanations of the special abilities, I'm sad to say - you'll have to reference back to the core document).
Nice. Can always use more dragons. Always.
Sample scourge dragons will be next ^_^ Definitely accepting feedback or proofreading on these guys, I'm kinda racked out on work/school so I may have missed a detail or overlooked something VITALLY IMPORTANT.
It'll happen, rest assured. Just got a zillion other Bestiary statblocks to reverse-engineer first. I'm very impressed by the art and layout tease Jeremy send everyone this week.