I loved the Magic of Incarnum from 3.5 and was thinking of putting my players up against an Incarnum Dragon in their current campaign (not until late for sure). Here's what I've come up with using the Adult Gold Dragon as a template. I'm sure it's not a great conversion but that's why I'd like any constructive feedback on how I could improve it.
So defenses seems... roughly equivalent. As a CR17, we can expect our adventurers to be lv13 at least, which means a +5 proficiency bonus, and probably a +5 in their main stat as well, for as least a +10 to it. Having CA19 means a 60% chance to hit, a CA21 mean a 50% chance to hit, so it should balance out, on average.
Offense:
Multiattack: all three have the same, frightful presence, one bite, two claws.
Frightful Presence: yours & red is DC19, gold is DC21.
Bite: yours deal the same damage as gold, and red's is better. You have a lower significantly lower to-hit chance (+10 vs +14 for both others)
Claw: same as bite, except damage is the same for all 3.
tail: same as claw
Breaths: your soulflame breath is on par with the Gold and the Red's damage, but your DC is significantly lower (18 VS 21)
The Souldrain breath also have a reduced DC, and the DC lets you evade the entire thing. Damage is not that much, and the bonus effect only works upon killing... A nice finishing move, for a creature whose health points are precious.
Legendary actions are the same.
So I would say your dragon is slightly below both the Gold and the Red. Higher AC but lower health means that if a paladin or a rogue crits, they will pretty much instantly be at death's door. Attacks have less chance to hit, and breath are easier to save against (although the dual element makes it harder to have resistance to both). Your dragon's lair actions are pretty powerful though, and might really swing the balance of the fight, so that's something it's got going on for him. A charisma saving throw to resist that banishment effect could effectively shut down a barbarian or rogue quite efficiently.
Is there anything I should do to improve? Increase the DC for the breaths? I was doing the DC calculation based on it's stats and was just spit balling the damage types and any cool effects.
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I loved the Magic of Incarnum from 3.5 and was thinking of putting my players up against an Incarnum Dragon in their current campaign (not until late for sure). Here's what I've come up with using the Adult Gold Dragon as a template. I'm sure it's not a great conversion but that's why I'd like any constructive feedback on how I could improve it.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/444377-adult-incarnum-dragon
We actually have two dragons of similar CR to compare with, Adult Gold Dragon and Adult Red Dragon. Let's compare side-by-side:
HP: 199 for your dragon, 256 for both gold & red.
CA: 21 for your dragon, 19 for both gold & red.
Saving Throws: 4 proficiencies each
So defenses seems... roughly equivalent. As a CR17, we can expect our adventurers to be lv13 at least, which means a +5 proficiency bonus, and probably a +5 in their main stat as well, for as least a +10 to it. Having CA19 means a 60% chance to hit, a CA21 mean a 50% chance to hit, so it should balance out, on average.
Offense:
Multiattack: all three have the same, frightful presence, one bite, two claws.
Frightful Presence: yours & red is DC19, gold is DC21.
Bite: yours deal the same damage as gold, and red's is better. You have a lower significantly lower to-hit chance (+10 vs +14 for both others)
Claw: same as bite, except damage is the same for all 3.
tail: same as claw
Breaths: your soulflame breath is on par with the Gold and the Red's damage, but your DC is significantly lower (18 VS 21)
The Souldrain breath also have a reduced DC, and the DC lets you evade the entire thing. Damage is not that much, and the bonus effect only works upon killing... A nice finishing move, for a creature whose health points are precious.
Legendary actions are the same.
So I would say your dragon is slightly below both the Gold and the Red. Higher AC but lower health means that if a paladin or a rogue crits, they will pretty much instantly be at death's door. Attacks have less chance to hit, and breath are easier to save against (although the dual element makes it harder to have resistance to both). Your dragon's lair actions are pretty powerful though, and might really swing the balance of the fight, so that's something it's got going on for him. A charisma saving throw to resist that banishment effect could effectively shut down a barbarian or rogue quite efficiently.
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Is there anything I should do to improve? Increase the DC for the breaths? I was doing the DC calculation based on it's stats and was just spit balling the damage types and any cool effects.