Common Blue Dragon
Common Blue Dragon (Threat; CR 14)
| Pure Evil - Huge - Dragon |
|---|
| Lore: | Know (Arcana) | ||
| 27 | 44 | ||
| Basic DC | Full DC | ||
| Initiative |
29 |
| Perception: | |
| 36 | +26 |
| Passive | Active |
| Ambush: |
| 10+ |
| on a d20 |
Senses:
Movement Types:
- Walk 40 ft.
- Greater Flight 120 ft.
- SPECIAL: See 'Ride the Lightning' power, below.
Defense
| AC |
37 |
| Man Def |
|
35 |
| Monster Health | ||
| 1,146 | 573 | 27 |
| Hit Points | Bloodied | Hit Dice |
| Saving Throws | |
| Fort: | +16 |
| Refl: | +16 |
| Will: | +16 |
Strong Against:
- (Threat Role) Immunity (partial 5): Threats are immune to the first five conditions applied to them during an encounter. If a sixth condition is applied to a threat, it is resolved normally. A 'condition' is defined as any non-instantaneous harmful effect applied to the monster, other than damage, but is most commonly one of the defined Status Conditions (but it doesn't have to be). Statuses related to damage (such as injured, bloodied, staggered, dying, or dead) are not 'conditions', and cannot be negated or avoided with this ability.
- (Dragon 1) Immune (no effect): magical sleep (drowsy, sluggish, asleep), paralyzed, stunned
- (Dragon 2) Immune (no effect): sonic (energy, common)
- (Dragon 3) Immune (no effect): fear
- Immune (no effect): lightning (energy, common) and sonic (energy, common)
Offense
| Size: | Huge | ||
| 15 ft. | 5 ft. | ||
| Space | Reach | ||
| To-Hit |
+21 
|
| Man Off |
+25
|
| Action |
| 3 |
| Points |
Standard Attack (Melee):
Full Attack (Melee):
- 1x Galvanic Bite +21 (4d10+32/x2)
as crushing (physical, common) - 2x Etched Claws +21 (4d6+13/x2)
as slashing (physical, common) - 1x Buffeting Wings +21 (4d10+32/x2)
as buffeting (physical, uncommon)
10' x 10' area of effect (each) - 2x Lashing Tail +21 (4d6+13/x2)
as bludgeoning (physical, common)
15' x 15' area of effect
Standard Attack (Ranged):
Full Attack (Ranged):
Siege Damage: Not siege capable
Statistics
| 33 |
| STR |
| 23 |
| DEX |
| 25 |
| CON |
| 19 |
| INT |
| 16 |
| WIS |
| 25 |
| CHA |
Skills:
- Bailiwick (Spellcraft): 23
- Bluff: 23
- Perception: 26
- Sense Motive: 24
- All other skills: 18 (no ranks)
Languages: Common, Draconic, Erebral, High Draconic
Special Abilities
| Addling Roar (Ex) Standard Action |
|
As a standard action, the dragon may emit an ear-shattering howl of unimaginable power. This is a sonic-based attack that affects all creatures within 100 feet of the dragon's space. The dragon must have line of effect for this power to operate, but does not require line of sight. This power inflicts 4d8+23 of sonic (energy, common) damage, with a Fort save, DC 24, for half damage. |
| Lightning Breath Weapon (Su) Standard Action |
|
As a standard action, the common blue dragon can breathe a beam of lightning in a line 60 feet long, dealing 4d8+23 points of lightning (energy, common) damage and inflicting the Blind condition on anyone in the path. Targeted creatures which succeed on a Reflex save, DC 24, are Dazzled instead of being blinded, and take only half damage. The line is 5 feet wide, and can only travel in straight lines, though it may begin from any one square of the dragon's space, and extends for 120 feet.
To determine which creatures are struck by a line attack, choose the origin square (any square adjacent to the dragon) and trace a path of squares until a total of 12 squares (60 feet) have been selected. The path can turn, go diagonally, and even come back toward the dragon. However, the path can never pass through the same square more than once, nor can the path skip any squares — it must be contiguous. Any creature whose space is included in the path (or any portion of their space, if they are size large or larger) is affected by the attack and must make a saving throw. In addition, the beam of lightning lingers for the remainder of the encounter, effectively creating a wall of lightning. This wall is so bright that it grants total concealment (automatically miss on a natural result of a 12 or less on the d20, and you must be attacking the square your target actually occupies) to any creature attempting to target a creature on the other side of the wall using a visual-based sense. Creatures can target anyone standing in the wall without penalty. Blue dragons are unaffected by the concealment provided by the wall's brightness, and suffer no penalties for targeting creatures on the other side of a wall. Any creature entering a space containing the wall of lightning takes 4d8+23 points of lightning (energy, common) damage for each square they enter (the blue dragon is immune to this effect, since they are immune to lightning damage). |
| Terrible Majesty (Su, Fear) Standard Action 1/Day |
|
Once per day as a free action, the dragon can exude its Terrible Majesty upon all enemy creatures within 100 feet of the dragon's space, causing the space beneath those enemies to become temporarily charged with galvanic electricity. Terrible Majesty requires line of sight, but does not require line of effect. The patches of galvanized ground persist until the start of the dragon's next turn, and may be used as destination spaces for the dragon's Ride the Lightning power. Affected enemy creatures must make a Will save, DC 24, or they gain the Trembling condition for the rest of the encounter, and they suffer 4d8+23 points of lightning (energy, common) damage from the galvanized ground. Creatures that succeed on the saving throw instead gain the Nervous condition until the end of their next turn, and take only half damage from the galvanized terrain. Neither the Trembling nor Nervous conditions can be prematurely ended by moving further away from the dragon; they must either be allowed to expire as described above, or cured through some other means. |
| Thunderstorm (Sp) Free Action at Beginning of Encounter |
|
As a free action, at the beginning of the encounter, the blue dragon conjures a tumultuous thunderstorm to the area in which the battle is taking place. While the rain, whipping winds, flashes of lightning and pounding thunder primarily just add a descriptive intensity to the battle, the storm does disperse any obscuring spells which are disrupted by strong winds. The dragon doesn't even need to be outdoors to conjure this effect. The effect is subject to Dispel Magic, with a dispel DC of 35. |
| Ride the Lightning (Su) Swift Action |
|
As a swift action, the common blue dragon can instantly teleport to any space which contains a lightning or electricity effect (such as the blue dragon's breath weapon, or the Living Breath Weapon's Ball Lightning attacks). The space they teleport to must be unoccupied enough for the dragon's entire space to fit without overlapping an obstacle or creature. As long as any single square within their destination space contains a lightning effect, the dragon can use this power to move there. Furthermore, the dragon's arrival at the destination square triggers a powerful thunderclap, dealing 4d6+14 points of sonic (energy, common) damage to any creature within 20 feet of the dragon's space, and knocking those creatures Prone. Affected creatures who succeed on a Fort save, DC 24, take only half damage and are not knocked prone. |
| Torrent (Su; Threat Role) Auto On Death |
|
The first time a blue dragon is reduced to 0 or fewer hit points in a fight, it explodes into a massive torrent of water. This torrent of water inundates the battlefield with several inches of water in all directions, affecting a 20 x 20 x 20 square area (100 feet on a side and high). The dragon is removed from the battlefield when this occurs. The water from torrent persists until the end of the encounter, and all creatures within the area of effect (even if flying) when Torrent occurs becomes Vulnerable (taking 50 percent more damage) to any Lightning damage they suffer. On the dragon's next initiative, it reappears in any unobstructed space on the battlefield affected by torrent, and is immediately restored to half its total health (573 hit points). Any conditions (good or bad) that the dragon was afflicted with immediately end, and their immunity to status conditions is completely reset. They do not recover any action points, though if they have any remaining they can still spend them as normal. This takes no time, and the dragon may spend its full round of actions immediately upon returning to the battlefield. |
Common Blue Dragon
This creature possesses the Threat role, and therefore counts as 4 monsters for purposes of encounter size, XP award, and treasure.This monster frequently has the Threat role, but may be set to other roles if desired.Dragons are so different from every other creature that they have their own unique classification. They have four legs, although the front 'feet' are dexterous enough to serve quite well as hands. They also have two or more completely functional wings, and they are powerful and speedy fliers. They have a large and dexterous prehensile tail, and seeing a monster as big as a dragon hanging from a branch is a sight you will remember for the rest of your life, however long that might be.
Dragons are intelligent and terribly alien. What a dragon considers important is not what other races consider important. They are also frequently, but not always, intensely malign. Some rare dragons may be allies with lesser races (all races are lesser to a dragon, as they see it) or even genuine friends to others. Most dragons, even those traditionally considered "good," are vain and jealous things, consumed with petty grievances and cruel enough to punish every slight, no matter how small or imaginary.
Dragons will hunt at great distances. Due to their powerful and magically enhanced metabolisms, dragons need to eat far less than would seem 'natural' for a beast their size. Rather than a blessing, this is a terrible curse upon the world, because things as awful as dragons should be rare, and, as the name "common red" might imply, they are not. Even worse, since dragons need far less food than is natural, they tend to be horrifically picky eaters, and have been known to kill an entire herd of cows to find the tastiest one, or rampage through an entire town looking for the prettiest maiden.
Dragons also have a tendency to 'play' with their food in most terrible ways. If you want to rescue that prettiest maiden, best to be quick about it. It is often speculated that dragons are deliberately wretched in their behavior, in order to force would-be dragon-slayers into action 'before they're ready', and so increase the dragon's long-term safety. Indeed, many dragons are far too intelligent and clever for their own good. There are hundreds of stories of adventurers taunting dragons into foolish actions, and it is true that, in a battle, it is hard for a dragon to take any 'lesser' race seriously. In a dragon's mind, the only creatures worthy of consideration, much less respect, are other dragons.
The world belongs to the dragons. The rest of us just live here.
Dragons tend to be categorized into loose species-groups based upon their physical appearance and traits. Most common among these are the white, black, blue, green, red chromatic dragons, followed closely by the bronze, copper, silver, gold and platinum metallic dragons. Other species groups exist, such as the earth dragons (brown, gray, yellow, and ocher), the spirit dragons (force, prismatic, empyrean, and tellurian) the gem dragons (crystal, onyx, jade, sapphire, ruby and amber), the drifting dragons (cloud, mist, shadow, sand, and dust), and the tempered dragons (iron, steel, mithril and adamant), to name the most common. In addition there are many odd dragons which defy categorization, such as coiled dragons, nested dragons, radiant dragons, sea dragons, celestial dragons, star dragons, moon dragons, sun dragons, fairy dragons, and many, many more besides.
While the physical appearance of the dragon is the easiest means of distinguishing them from one another, a dragon's coloration isn't a drab monochrome. Blue dragons, for example, have vivid yellow abdomens, and frequently have stripes of yellow, outlined in black on their backs. In all cases, they are strongly associated with the powers of electricity. Blue dragons can be found nearly anywhere, though they seem to favor lakes, deserts, glaciers, high mountains, and the occasional active volcano.
Blue dragons are like forces of nature, summoning storms and lightning whenever they engage in conflict. They are highly volatile creatures, fiercely defending territory, even if they've only recently moved into it, and taking umbrage at the least of slights. Blue dragons rarely occupy territory near civilization, either because they happen to settle in an uninhabited area or because any civilization unfortunate enough to be nearby when a blue dragon settles doesn't remain intact for long.
Combat Tactics
Blue dragons are combative by nature, because they are extremely dangerous foes. They are smart, they are foul-tempered, and they play to win.
A favored tactic of blue dragons is to spend an action point at the start of their turn to use their Breath Weapon, spend a swift action to use Ride the Lightning to put themselves adjacent to a character that looks delicate (dealing sonic damage and potentially knocking them prone), and then using their standard and move actions to make a full attack action. This chain of attacks will almost certainly reduce a wizard or rogue from fresh to dead in one round. Yikes! Luckily, characters at this level probably have access to some quality resurrection abilities, so they'll get over it. Assuming the rest of them survive the encounter.
Blue dragons may also have one or more Living Breath Weapons nearby, as henchmen (depending on the size of the party, or how much the GM wants to ramp up the encounter's difficulty). Blue dragons can use their living breath weapons to give them even more options for their Ride the Lightning ability, making it very difficult to predict where a blue dragon will be on the battlefield at any give moment.
Blue dragons rarely run from an encounter with bad odds. Where all dragons are generally arrogant about their status as the top of the food chain, blue dragons take this to a whole new level, believing that they can turn any situation to their favor by sticking it out.
Out of Combat
Rewards
XP: 153,600 (Threat role included.)
Treasure: Sellable Goods worth 118,125 gp. (Threat role and Dragon bonus included, which is 5 greater than normal for this CR.)
- Weight: 560 lbs. Volume: 22.4 cu. ft.
Optional Treasure Rules: Roll a d20 on Table 1 below once per encounter (NOT per creature). Any items discovered are in addition to the normal treasure for the encounter.
| Table 1: Remnant(s) Found | |
|---|---|
| 1 - 5 | Nothing Found |
| 6 - 10 | 1 Languid Remnant (tier 1) |
| 11 - 14 | 1 Pale Remnant (tier 2) |
| 15 - 17 | 1 Bright Remnant (tier 3) |
| 18 - 20 | Roll on Table 2 |
| ### | Nothing to see here! |
| ### | Or here. Move along. |
| Table 2: Remnant(s) Found | |
|---|---|
| 1 | 5 Languid Remnants (tier 1) |
| 2 - 5 | 5 Pale Remnants (tier 2) |
| 6 - 10 | 1 Intense Remnant (tier 4) |
| 11 - 14 | 1 Blazing Remnant (tier 5) |
| 15 - 17 | 1 Vital Remnant (tier 6) |
| 18 - 20 | Roll on Table 3 |
| ### | Or here. Move along. |
| Table 3: Remnant(s) Found | |
|---|---|
| 1 | 5 Bright Remnants (tier 3) |
| 2 | 5 Intense Remnants (tier 4) |
| 3 - 6 | 5 Blazing Remnants (tier 5) |
| 7 - 10 | 5 Vital Remnants (tier 6) |
| 11 - 14 | 1 Prime Remnant (tier 7) |
| 15 - 17 | 1 Mythic Remnant (tier 8) |
| 18 - 20 | 1 Empyrean Remnant (tier 9) |