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Showing posts with label sea dragon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sea dragon. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Fantasy AGE Homebrew monster: The Sea Dragon

I've written about the Sea Dragon in BX before, but here's a version for Fantasy AGE:


Sea Dragons are an aquatic variant of their more famous cousins. While flightless and somewhat smaller on average than normal wyrms, sea dragons are still formidable opponents, especially in their element.


Sea dragons can breathe water or air. They suffer no ill effects from being on land, but they prefer the open water for maneuverability. They are intelligent and most speak at least one land-dweller language. Their cruelty and hunger makes conversations unlikely, though.


Sea dragons hoard treasure. While some will travel onto land to acquire it, most prefer to sink ships and take from the cargo once it slips beneath the waves. Many sea dragons make their lairs inside the hulls of sunken vessels. Sea dragons tend to prefer stretches of coastline instead of the open water. Perhaps the great ocean wyrms are too much of a risk.

A common tactic is for the beast to lie in wait below the surface until a ship passes overhead, then it bursts upward, destroying the rudder before clambering up onto the decks. Once aboard, the dragon smashes the masts and rigging as it breathes its poison on the crew. When the ship is helpless, the creature dives back into the water and shoves the ship onto the rocks. There it smashes the hull or lets the waves do it. 

ACC 2 (Bite)
COM 0
CON 8 (Stamina)
DEX 2
FTG 4 (Claws, Tail Bash)
INT 0
PER 1 (Seeing, Hearing)
STR 7 (Intimidation, Might)
WIL 4 (Courage)

SPEED HEALTH DEFENSE AR

6(15 swim) 120 12 7


Weapon Attack Roll Damage
Bite +4 2d6+7
Claw +6 1d6+7
Tail Bash +6 1d6+7


FAVORED STUNTS:
Mighty Blow (1SP), Tail Bash (2SP), Lethal Blow (4SP), Pierce Armor (1SP)


  • Large & in Charge
  • Buffet (minor)
  • Deadly (-1 SP Lethal Blow, Mighty Blow, and Pierce Armor)
  • Tough Hide (7 AR)
  • Aquatic
  • Breath Weapon: Twice a day, the sea dragon can breathe a toxic mist in a cloud 8 yards long and 4 yards wide. Anyone caught within the cloud must make a CON (Stamina) TN 15 roll to hold their breath or the poison slows and partially paralyzes them. Victims suffers a –3 penalty to Dexterity, Fighting, and Accuracy until the end of the encounter. The poison works underwater as well, but only on creatures breathing the water. For instance, a submerged PC using magic to breathe is affected, but one using a hollow reed is not.

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

RMA: Sea Dragons


Seriously, has anyone ever used this monster? If not, we're all doing a TERRIBLE job as DMs!

What's more classic than a sea monster? 

...Just don't, okay?

Anyone who has read my RMAs has seen me comment on aquatic encounters and their relative rarity, so I have been kind of avoiding doing more of that theme. This fella deserves a mention, though. So let's get started:

Sea Dragon (from Cook)
No. App: 0 (1d4)
AC: 1
HD: 8
AL: N
Move: 180' (60')
  (Swimming or Flying)
Attacks: 1 (bite or spit)
Damage: 3d8
Save: F8
Morale: 9
Treasure: H

For starters, it doesn't look all that impressive. 8HD is okay,  but not awesome. A decent armor class as well, and the damage from its bite isn't really terrifying, either. So what's so cool about Sea Dragons?

  • All the usual reasons fighting at sea is challenging.
  • They are intelligent, hence the so-so morale (live to fight another day, etc.). There is a 20% chance they speak. If so, that means they are automatically packing SIX spells (3 @ 1st, 3 @ 2nd level MU/Elf). That's a bit scary.
  • Their "breath" attack is a poisonous gob of spit TWENTY FEET in diameter with a range of 100'! (eww!) Don't forget, kids; that's 100 YARDS in the wilderness (p.X19), which is precisely where these fellas are likely to show up! The poison loses effectiveness after 1 round, but it's save or die. By the way, that's a save vs. Dragon Breath, not Poison, which means characters are MORE likely to fail.
  • They can pull a "flying fish." They leap out of the water and glide for up to six rounds. They can cover a lot of distance in that time, possibly getting an air-to-surface poison loogy off in the process. 
  • They can breathe underwater, so no sense waiting for them to come up for air. Their lairs are underwater too (often at the sea's bottom in a shipwreck or a cave), so even if you beat the thing, finding and getting that sweet, sweet Type H loot is its own challenge.
  • I don't even want to talk about the whole "1d4" appearing thing!


Keep in mind also that these are the AVERAGE stats for the Sea Dragon. The book allows for ± up to 3 HD depending on age. 

So give it up for the dragon's wet behind the ears cousin!