Broken Bits: Black Dragons

A Black Dragon was responsible for the first TPK (Total Party Kill) I saw in D&D 4E. Granted, it was a 4th level solo encounter against 5 pregenerated PCs of level 1 - the players were expected to die. This was in the days before Player's Handbook had been released, and our knowledge of the game was very limited - a few pages worth of rules overview, a couple of character sheets, and a bunch of monster stat blocks from convention delves, or from miniature cards. And yet, even though we had no idea of how characters above level 1 looked like, this monster felt wrong. Fast forward a couple of years to the present time, and we can confirm, after many solo battles and a with couple of monster manuals in hand, that the Black Dragon is, indeed, broken.

Rawwwr!

If you have never faced one or DM'd it, here is how it goes: the dragon has a rechargable power, called Cloud of Darkness, whose Effect line reads "until the end of the encounter, make everyone miserable". No, really:

Cloud of Darkness (standard; sustain minor, recharge ) Zone

Close burst 2; this power creates a zone of darkness that remains in place until the end of the dragon’s next turn. The zone blocks line of sight for all creatures except the dragon. Any creature entirely within the area (except the dragon) is blinded.

In practice, these dragons lose their first standard action to become nigh unkillable for as long as they want. PCs are as good as blinded, for the whole encounter. Anything other than area attacks will have hideous accuracy because of the total concealment, and keep in mind that, since this is an old-school (i.e. pre MM2) dragon, its defenses and HP are pretty high to begin with. And, since the monster doesn't hit particularly hard, you're in for a looong fight. At this point, the best tactic for PCs is probably to retreat away from the cloud (and from the dragon's reach), wearing it down with (blind) ranged attacks and readying actions in case it gets out. If the dragon plays along, it will eventually go after the PCs, take a round of non-concealed attacks, and summon the cloud again. Or it could get bored and return to the lair, where it's warm and safe. Yawn. Definitely not what I would call an engaging Dragon encounter.

Driving the darkness away

Something has to change in the Cloud of Darkness power. Several things, in fact... I have found each of the following points problematic:

- Automatic blinding: leaves no option but to get out.

- Area too large: it just covers too much of an standard encounter map.

- Blocking Line of Sight: annoying because of the previous point, and particularly when used in the middle of a room.

- Takes up a standard action: your Big Bad Dragon 'does nothing' for a turn.

Quite a long list. The last point is appropiate to balance out all the previous ones, but it only adds to the boredom. So, to look at it from a different perspective, which features of the power should we keep? I think it should be a sustainable area, that can be moved every couple of turns, protects the dragon through some sort of concealment, and hinders PCs who stay in it. With that in mind, I would make the following revision:

Cloud of Darkness (minor; sustain minor, recharge ) Zone

Close burst 1; this power creates a zone of darkness that remains in place until the end of the dragon’s next turn. The zone grants concealment to the dragon. Any creature entirely within the area at the end of his turn (except the dragon) is blinded until the end of his next turn. If the dragon is inside the zone, the power can not be sustained.

This version of the power provides a much needed effect in any Solo battle: a reason (and means) for tactical movement. Ever seen a huge boss pinned down by a fighter, forced to remain in place turn after turn? It's good for the fighter, but makes for lousy game sessions. Likewise, once a party has managed to flank and position themselves in appropiate places, they tend to remain static when fighting single enemies. With this Cloud of Darkness, a DM can force a party to retreat - but the dragon then faces the dilemma of remaining in place, or sustaining the zone. Generally, having such a zone of PC-hostile terrain is so useful that the dragon will find it worthwhile to sustain it and move elsewhere - maybe to return to it every other turn.

The key here is bothering PCs without crippling them. There are enough workarounds against the effect of this cloud that I can have it activate as a minor action without destroying the balance of an encounter, but it remains powerful enough that the dragon will change its tactics just to be able to sustain it. Note that I reduced the chance of recharging to minimize the possibility of a dragon activating the power several turns in a row instead of sustaining it, without needing to move.

So far, I have playtested this once, and been very satisfied with the results: the encounter was varied and full of movement, with the battlefield suffering drastic changes every couple of turns.

Cleaning up the stats

Once we have started tweaking our dragon, why stop there? Black Dragons, like all chromatic dragons from the first Monster Manual, suffer from the early (and now obsolete) desing philosophy of Solo monsters with high defenses and relatively low damage output. More recent material, like Monster Manual 2 has a different mentality: bosses hit harder, and don't last as long. So I think changing the Black Dragon's stats into something like the Iron Dragon from MM2 (also a lurker Solo), we'll end up with something more appropiate for play. Roughly, these are the changes from a MM dragon to a MM2 one:

Heroic monsters

- Reduce AC by 2 points. Sometimes reduce the next highest defense by 2 points, too. As a rule of thumb, if a defense is higher than the reduced AC, reduce that, too.

- Increase damage by 10-15%

Paragon monsters and beyond

- Reduce HP by 20%

- Reduce AC by 2 points. Sometimes reduce the next highest defense by 2 points, too. As a rule of thumb, if a defense is higher than the reduced AC, reduce that, too.

- Increase damage by 20-30%

With this in mind, I ended up with the following stats for a level 11 Black Dragon:

Adult Black Dragon - Level 11 Solo Lurker (XP 3000)

Initiative +15 Senses Perception +13; darkvision

HP 448; Bloodied 224
AC 26; Fortitude 24, Reflex 24, Will 23
Resist 20 acid
Saving Throws +5
Speed 8, fly 8 (hover), overland flight 10, swim 8
Action Points 2

Bite (standard, at-will) Acid

Reach 2; +16 vs AC; 2d6+6 damage, and ongoing 5 acid damage (save ends).

Claw (standard, at-will)

Reach 2; +16 vs AC; 1d10+5 damage.

Double Attack (standard, at-will)

Nightshade makes two claw attacks..

Tail Slash (immediate reaction 1/round, the first time a melee attack misses the dragon, at-will)

Nightshade attacks the enemy that missed her; reach 2; +16 vs AC; 1d10+7 damage, and the target is pushed 1 square.

Breath Weapon (standard, recharge ) Acid

Close blast 5; +13 vs Reflex; 2d8+5 acid damage, and the target takes ongoing 5 acid damage and takes a -4 penalty to AC (save ends both).

Bloodied Breath (free, when first bloodied, encounter) Acid

Nightshade’s breath weapon recharges, and the dragon uses it immediately..

Cloud of Darkness (standard; sustain minor, recharge ) Zone

Close burst 1; this power creates a zone of darkness that remains in place until the end of Nightshade’s next turn. The zone grants concealment to the dragon. Any creature entirely within the area at the end of his turn (except the dragon) is blinded until the end of his next turn. If the dragon is inside the zone, the power can not be sustained

Frightful Presence (standard, encounter) Fear

Close burst 5; targets enemies; +13 vs Will; the target is stunned until the end of Nightshade's next turn. Aftereffect: The target takes a -2 penalty to attack rolls (save ends)