Arkrhyst the Ancient White Dragon

[icantfallasleep]

Hi, I need advice on running this creature and understanding all of it's abilities. I'd like to list a few of them and prompt you to clarify how it's used and why to use it and how to use it. Thanks!

• Blizzard (Su): Does this only hinder on the ground movement, or does this hinder flight as well? Does this make it more difficult to get struct with ranged ammunition? Does this hinder sight as per fog? Can you please clarify what this does?
• Ice Shape (Su): This only shapes 31 cubic feet of ice. What combat uses would this have? Would you make use of this ability?
• Is 41 AC (37AC + Shield (4AC)) unreasonable for a CR 15 creature?
• Frightful Presence (Ex): How long does the shaken condition stick around for? Is it for the encounter and the PC has to reroll a save again for another encounter if it is within 24 hours of the first or is the same failed save appropriate for the following encounter if it's still within 24 hours of the first?

Thank you everyone for your insight!

[darrenan]

Blizzard:
Effects of rain, snow and heavy snow:

Spoiler:

Rain: Rain reduces visibility ranges by half, resulting in a –4 penalty on Perception checks. It has the same effect on flames, ranged weapon attacks, and Perception checks as severe wind.

Snow: Falling snow has the same effects on visibility, ranged weapon attacks, and skill checks as rain, and it costs 2 squares of movement to enter a snow-covered square. A day of snowfall leaves 1d6 inches of snow on the ground.

Heavy Snow: Heavy snow has the same effects as normal snowfall but also restricts visibility as fog does (see Fog). A day of heavy snow leaves 1d4 feet of snow on the ground, and it costs 4 squares of movement to enter a square covered with heavy snow. Heavy snow accompanied by strong or severe winds might result in snowdrifts 1d4 × 5 feet deep, especially in and around objects big enough to deflect the wind—a cabin or a large tent, for instance. There is a 10% chance that a heavy snowfall is accompanied by lightning (see Thunderstorm). Snow has the same effect on flames as moderate wind.

I think flying movement would be your call. Blizzard doesn't say anything about causing wind, which to me would be the only thing slowing down flying movement.

It does say it acts as fog so I gives everyone within concealment, treat it as obscuring mist.

Ice Shape
Use it to entomb or otherwise split up the party. Create walls, igloos, etc.

Frightful Presence
From the general information about true dragons (applies to all chromatic and metallic dragons I believe, maybe more):

Spoiler:

Frightful Presence (Ex): A dragon's frightful presence has a range equal to 30 feet × the dragon's age category, but otherwise functions as detailed in the Universal Monster Rules.

So the answer is 5d6 rounds.

[CampinCarl9127]

Blizzard has always been a weird ability. Fear aura is as well, luckily most of my dragon fights end in a few rounds so I've never had to worry about that.

Do not use ice shape in combat, it's more of a "Shaping my lair" kind of ability. Unless he sees a really good opportunity to split the party or needs to trap a particularly dangerous party member.

The AC is nothing to sneeze at, but certainly not unreasonable.

[Mathius]

I big worry at this level of play is dex damage and touch attacks. I would give him a way to resist that kind of stuff. Mirror image works.

[Douglas Muir 406]

Ice shape is not a combat ability -- it's how the dragon builds and shapes his lair. If you want to get fancy with the lair (you don't have to), this is how you justify it. Interesting architecture carved out of the ice; statues; pits, deadfalls and other traps; small tunnels through which tiny creatures can fly to attack the party; whatever.

AC 41 is most definitely NOT too high an AC. Consider a 12th level barbarian. He'll attack with +12 BAB +6 Str +3 rage +2 magical weapon and then at least a couple of buffs -- say +1 haste +2 Inspire Courage, though there are many other possibilities. He'll hit AC 41 on a 15, or a 13 if he's charging or flanking. And that's a pretty conservative build -- there are lots of level 12 specialized melee types who can get over +30 on an attack.

Furthermore, as Mathius notes above, the big concern is not AC but touch and ranged touch attacks. Dragons are huge+ creatures with crap Dex; their touch ACs are usually horrible. You need to give the dragon some defense against this or he may go down fast in Round One.

Also-also, if the dragon is a boss, for goodness' sake do something about action economy. Otherwise the PCs will dogpile him and it'll all be over quickly.

Doug M.

[Douglas Muir 406]

If you're giving the dragon henchmen or allies, consider a stormborn sorceror. As discussed in this thread, a stormborn can see through fog and mist, while the dragon can spam Fog Cloud at will. So the sorceror makes an excellent ally (and a nasty surprise for PCs who have gotten a little cocky about darkvision overcoming everything).

A sorceror who casts buffs can also dramatically increase the dragon's survivability -- Resist Energy(Fire) alone is going to make PCs' lives more interesting.

Doug M.

[Gilarius]

When we fought Arkhryst, it was truly epic.

The GM had boosted it by at least one age category and it had full surprise on us.

It opened up with a high level fog bank that none of us noticed wasn't natural. Plunged down with Greater Invisibility (and a whole host of other buffs we didn't detect at first) and strafed us with it's breath weapon. We had Protection from Cold up, but that was used up by a couple of runs.

It had Stoneskin, Protection from Fire, Mage Armour, Shield, Haste, and quite a few other defence spells up. And True Seeing.

It stayed out of range of our melee and gunslinger so only the Paladin could hit it's AC (due to Smite Evil). We mostly only got readied actions to respond with (plus a round or 2 to heal or buff between strafes). We didn't dare split up too much or the weaker party members would be grabbed and carried off to be killed. Our Fly spells were too slow and it hid in it's cloud after each attack, and only my Wizard had fogcutting lenses.
Eventually, I got a Greater Dispel Magic to stick and we killed it by the paladin being dimension doored onto it (if I remember correctly) along with the synthesis summoner and beating it down.