Aquatomagmatic. The Caldera Tyrant can breath air, water, and magma/lava.
Volcanic Domain. The Caldera Tyrant's flight and swimming (including through lava or magma) does not provoke opportunity attacks if it is within its lair.
Tectonic Glider. The Caldera Tyrant can move through lava or magma as if it were air.
Legendary Resistance (4/Day). If the Caldera Tyrant fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead.
Magic Weapons. The Caldera Tyrant's Bite, Claw, and Tail attacks are considered magical.
Siege Monster. The Caldera Tyrant deals triple damage to objects and buildings.
Smokescreen. As it perpetually emits smoke and gasses, the Caldera Tyrant has disadvantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks when it is outside of its lair.
Multiattack. The Caldera Tyrant can use its Frightful Presence. It then makes three attacks: one with its bite and two with its claws, or it makes two attacks: a Volcanic Bombs attack and a tail attack.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack. +18 to hit, reach 15 feet, Up to two adjacent targets. Hit: 17 (2d6 + 10) piercing damage and 7 (2d6) fire damage.
Claw. Melee Weapon Attack. +18 to hit, reach 15 feet, one target. Hit: 15 (2d4 +10) piercing damage and 5 (2d4) fire damage.
Tail. Melee Weapon Attack. +18 to hit, reach 20 feet, one target. Hit: 21 (2d10 + 10) bludgeoning damage and 5 (2d4) fire damage.
Volcanic Bombs. Ranged Weapon Attack: +18 to hit, range 120/360 feet, up to two targets. Hit: 16 (2d10 + 5) bludgeoning damage and 16 (2d10) fire damage. The Caldera Tyrant launches up to two superheated balls of magma up in the air in an arcing trajectory (like a mortar). The volcanic bombs are small sized balls of magma whose exteriors cool and harden in flight, while the interior remains scorching-hot. If a volcanic bomb misses its target, roll a d8 with each number corresponding to a cardinal (North, South, East, West) or ordinal (Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, Southwest) direction. The volcanic bomb lands 10 feet away from the target in the rolled direction. After a volcanic bomb lands (whether they hit their target or not) it rests on the ground, hissing from the trapped heat within. At the start of the Caldera Tyrant's next turn, the volcanic bombs explode, each creature within 10 feet of a volcanic bomb must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw or take 11 (2d10) fire damage and 11 (2d10) thunder damage. On a successful save a creature takes no damage.
Frightful Presence. Each creature of the Caldera Tyrant's choice that is within 250 feet of the Caldera Tyrant and aware of it must succeed on a DC 19 Wisdom saving throw or become frightened for 1 minute. A creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. If a creature's saving throw is successful or the effect ends for it, the creature is immune to the Caldera Tyrant's Frightful Presence for the next 24 hours.
Devastation Attacks (Recharge 5–6). The Caldera Tyrant uses one of the following volcanic attacks.
Sulfatara. Jets of superheated toxic fumes emit from gaps in the Caldera Tyrant's craggy hide. Each creature within a 40 foot radius of the Caldera Tyrant must succeed on a DC 26 Constitution saving throw or take 54 (12d8) poison damage and 42 (12d6) fire damage and be poisoned until the start of the Caldera Tyrant's next turn. On a successful saving throw, the creature takes half damage and is not poisoned. The fumes last until the start of the Caldera Tyrant's next turn, unless a wind or current of 10 miles per hour or stronger disperses them. The area is heavily obscured and creatures in the affected area (including the Caldera Tyrant if it doesn't leave the area) have three-quarters cover until the fumes disperse.
Pyroclasm. The Caldera Tyrant opens its mouth and unleashes a cacophonous explosion of magma in a 90 foot cone. Each creature in the cone must make a DC 26 Dexterity saving throw or take 54 (12d8) thunder damage and 42 (12d6) fire damage and be pushed 25 feet. On a successful save, a creature takes half the damage and is not pushed. Creatures in or near the area will notice static electricity buildup in themselves and electric crackling in the area of the cone. Any creature other than the Caldera Tyrant in the area of the cone at the start of the Caldera Tyrant's next turn takes 42 (12d6) lightning damage as the static buildup discharges in a veritable (and possibly horizontal) tornado of electricity. This ability can only be used if the Caldera Tyrant is in contact with the ground and is not underwater (or undermagma/lava).
Phreatic Eruption. The Caldera Tyrant calls up a blast of superheated water from a rift in the ground. Each creature in a 120 foot long, 20 foot wide line originating from the Caldera Tyrant must make a DC 26 Strength saving throw or take 49 (14d6) fire damage and 49 (14d6) bludgeoning damage and be thrown 20 feet upwards. A creature that makes its save takes half damage and is not thrown. The Caldera Tyrant can only use this ability if it is in contact with water and if the entire area of the line is in water.
The Caldera Tyrant can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action option can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature's turn. The Caldera Tyrant regains spent legendary actions at the start of its turn.
Detect. The Caldera Tyrant makes a Wisdom (Perception) check.
Volcanic Bomb. The Caldera Tyrant makes one Volcanic Bomb attack.
Tail Attack. The Caldera Tyrant makes a tail attack.
Harmonic Tremer (Costs 2 Actions). The ground around the Caldera Tyrant shudders and shifts. Each creature within 40 feet of the Caldera Tyrant must succeed on a DC 19 Dexterity Saving throw or be pulled 20 feet closer to the Caldera Tyrant, take 23 (3d8 + 10) bludgeoning damage, and be knocked prone. On a successful save, a creature takes half damage and is neither pulled or knocked prone. The Caldera Tyrant can use this action only if it is in contact with the ground.
Description
A great primordial wyrm. Craggy, molten, mighty, and sulfurous. It was once a metallic or chromatic or perhaps even a gem dragon egg, but aeons spent slumbering in a volcanic caldera, even after it hatched, allowed the essence of elemental earth and fire to seep into it, gradually changing the dragon into a creature that could swim through lava like others fly through the sky. This is not to say that the Caldera Tyrant can no longer fly, merely that it no longer needs to and rarely chooses the sky.
So rare is the Caldera Tyrant that little is known about its wants and needs. Rumor has it that it emerges from slumber when the pressure under its caldera forces it to seek comfort in a new home, but this is merely speculation.
When traveling, the Caldera Tyrant will sometimes raid the lairs of other dragons, melting their hoards and scattering them as a show of dominance and contempt for the other dragon's compulsion to avarice, an impulse the Caldera Tyrant neither shares nor understands.
The Caldera Tyrant's lair tends to form a gigantic volcanic mountain dome that eventually collapses under its own weight. The Caldera Tyrant then travels to another area, where a new mountain forms as a result of its presence. Many mountain ranges and archipelagos may have been formed this way.
A Caldera Tyrant that is active on the Material Plane for an extended period of time (typically from a few to several months) runs the risk of throwing the planet into a volcanic winter, with the likelihood of a volcanic winter increasing the longer the Caldera Tyrant is active. A volcanic winter is when volcanic ash cools global temperatures, often resulting in unseasonably cool temperatures year round (to the point of frosts and cold snaps in summer in the most severe circumstances), causing crop failures, famines, defoliation/deforestation, weather anomalies, and changes in migration.
When defeated, the Caldera Tyrant may or may not actually be dead, instead burrowing through the planet's crust and returning to its ages-long slumber.
Lair and Lair Actions
The Caldera Tyrant will make its lair anywhere, as its presence changes the region to suit its needs. A Caldera Tyrant's presence pulls the magma underground towards the surface, slowly at first but at a faster pace as the days press on. The ground becomes warm, drying out the roots of any plants for miles around, quickly killing those that hadn't already been poisoned by the fumes emitting from the Caldera Tyrant or the sulfurous vents that open around the area or defoliated by the acid rain that occasionally falls within the region. Within 2 or 3 days of the Caldera Tyrant establishing a new lair, the magma pressure from below will cause a mound to emerge from the earth. Over the course of 3 to 4 weeks this mound will grow to a full-fledged, thousands of feet tall mountain. Rivers of lava run down its foyadas ("fire river" the valleys and vales through which lava runs, which are typically formed by this process), and steam vents and geysers dot the region. The ground for miles around has melted and hardened into black volcanic glass. Earthquakes occur multiple times a day in varying intensity.
If the Caldera Tyrant establishes its lair in a lake or oceanic environment, rather than the ground becoming warm, the surrounding water does. Hydrothermal vents forming on the lake- or sea-bed is the first clue that the Caldera Tyrant's lair is forming. The magma pressure forms a mountain underwater much the same way it does on dry land, and in the course of 2 or 3 weeks the underwater volcano will break the surface of the water, at this point the seamount will sync with a terrestrial lair's timeline, becoming a full, thousands of feet tall (meaning above the water's surface) mountain over the course of 3 to 4 weeks.
Somewhere between 30-60 days after the Caldera Tyrant establishes its lair, the great volcanic dome collapses under its own weight, and the Caldera Tyrant takes off for (metaphorically) greener pastures. The Caldera Tyrant tends to move in arcs, and many mountain ranges and archipelagos have been formed this way.
Lair Actions
On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), the Caldera Tyrant takes a lair action to cause one of the following effects; the Caldera Tyrant can’t use the same effect two rounds in a row:
- The Caldera Tyrant summons a Fire Elemental Myrmidon or a Fire Elemental and a trio of Mephits (two Magma Mephits and a Smoke Mephit) that fight on its side.
- All the Caldera Tyrant's allies within the lair become enraged: their attack rolls and attack rolls against them are made with advantage until the next initiative count 20.
- Fumarole Field: 1d4 vents open in the ground, acrid smoke and steam poison and acid damage from the vent(s). Each creature within a 10 foot radius, 30 foot high cylinder above the vents must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw or take 3 (1d6) poison damage, 3 (1d6) fire damage, and 3 (1d6) acid damage. A strong wind (10 miles per hour or stronger) disperses the smoke and steam, otherwise the vents stop at the start of the next initiative count 20.
- Volcanic Cloud: A 30 foot radius area fills with hot black smog, impairing vision. Anything in the area is completely obscured. A creature that starts or ends its turn in the fog takes 3d6 fire damage. The smog can be dispersed by a strong wind (10 miles per hour or stronger), otherwise it disperses at the start of the next initiative count 20.
- Foyada: small river of lava appears--5 feet wide, 5 feet deep, and 50 feet long--any creature in the river's area must make a DC15 Dexterity saving throw to avoid touching the lava as it flows. A creature that fails its saving throw takes 14 (4d6) fire damage; a creature that succeeds takes no damage. Terrain in area lowers as lava flow carves into ground. At the start of the next initiative count 20, the lava runs back into the ground, leaving behind the trench it carved.
Regional Effects
The region containing a Caldera Tyrant’s lair is accelerated towards its primordial ideal by the Caldera Tyrant's presence and will, which create one or more of the following effects:
- The climate becomes hot and arid. Living plants are scarce at best.
- Earthquakes of varying intensity riddle the area, typically multiple times per day.
- The ground has been glassed, reflective obsidian coats the terrain, though in places it has been shattered by earthquakes and lies in shards.
- Steam vents, geysers, and sulfataras dot the landscape.
- Any standing water is likely constantly near boiling temperature.
- Acid rain falls in lieu of typical rainfall, anything that hasn't been glassed is likely to be acid-bleached.
If the Caldera Tyrant dies or spends more than 24 hours over 20 miles away from its lair, these effects fade over the course of 1-3 days. Also, when the Caldera Tyrant dies or when it leaves an area after establishing its lair there, its lava dome erupts, and then the volcano goes dormant over the course of the ensuing days or weeks.
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