Dragon: rED/rPD 20

[massey]

My D&D roots are showing here.  I'd suggest making the dragon tough enough that only high level heroes can fight it.  Dragons aren't worried about armies of low level peasants.  

 

High level heroes are likely to have things like Find Weakness, Deadly Blow, magic armor piercing weapons, etc.  In addition to that, you could also give the dragon a Vulnerability (x2 Body) to certain types of attacks.  Now your dragon laughs at siege weapons and groups of archers, but when the big name hero comes riding in with his magic sword, it's a different story.

 

Or you could knock the dragon super unconscious, and then hold his head underwater.  Just drown him.

[pawsplay]

10 hours ago, LoneWolf said:

Did you even read my post?  

 

The very first sentence is pointing out that on a critical hit to the head the dragon is in fact taking 6 Body.   Once the dragon is knocked out he takes x2 stun which means he is not waking up for a long time.  That gives the players plenty of time to make attacks.  When the dragon is knocked out his DCV drops to 0 and the penalty for a called shot is halved.  That means getting a critical it is not that hard considering the players can keep rolling as often as they need.   After 10 critical hits the dragon is DEAD.   On each hit the dragon also takes 240 Stun.  Even on an attack that does minimum damage the dragon is going to be taking 4 Stun. That means the dragon is not waking up as long as the players keep attacking it once in a while.

 

If the players keep attacking they are eventually going to kill the dragon.  It may take a ridiculously long time, and hopefully the GM is not going to insist on rolling every hit.   
 

 

Of course I read it, I just didn't find that it addressed my dissatisfaction. In movies, you slay dragons. You don't beat them unconscious, then slowly bludgeon them to death.

[Duke Bushido]

21 minutes ago, pawsplay said:

 

Of course I read it, I just didn't find that it addressed my dissatisfaction. In movies, you slay dragons. You don't beat them unconscious, then slowly bludgeon them to death.

 

 

Hmmm....

 

have to keep that handy for Urban Fantasy HERO:

 

"That's right!  Bring your scaly ass 'round here again, and we will straight-up curb-stomp it!"

 

 

 

 

[bluesguy]

Here are some ways players could kill a dragon:

1. High strength + magic weapon (which doesn't have real weapon as a limitation) + martial arts + PSL vs hit location
2. Mind Scan + ego based killing attack so they can attack from very far away (which is part of the history in my campaign world)
3. Spell to transform it into something small and squishy
4. Something like the scorpion weapon used in GOT vs. the dragons
5. Powerful entangle spell that is EGO based - wait to cast it while it is flying high and then watch it plummet to the ground, hopefully on something really hard and pointy

In my campaign world everyone leaves dragons alone.  They have their own society and after many of them were killed using a spell combination like the one in bullet #2, there was a huge war between the dragons and everyone else.  The war destroyed some national govt.  Cities, towns, villages and fields were utterly destroyed.  Many dragons were killed.  If you look at it from who caused the most damage, the dragons won.  If you look at who has recovered faster, the dragons lost.  Slow reproductive cycle compared to everyone else.  My players are universally afraid of dragons. 

[archer]

Extradimensional movement usable against others to move it to a hostile environment or just out of the way.

 

Teleport useable against others to move it into an already solid object. Or megascale to move it out of the atmosphere or into a rival's territory.

 

54 minutes ago, bluesguy said:

 

1. Powerful entangle spell that is EGO based - wait to cast it while it is flying high and then watch it plummet to the ground, hopefully on something really hard and pointy

 

 

Suppress Flight would probably work as well. And maybe better, depending on the dragon's power set.

 

Along the same lines, with Tunneling and a little patience, you could probably bring down the whole mountain on the dragon's head if it's in its lair (and maybe without the dragon even knowing that it's happening before it does).

 

[shuddemell]

On 10/9/2020 at 12:29 PM, Lord Liaden said:

Personally, I favor Hit Locations. The Hero System Bestiary has a suggested "Draconic Hit Location" table, with x2 Body for a head shot, and x3 for "Vital Spot" (traditionally the underbelly). While those locations carry major "To Hit" penalties, the DCV penalty for the frequently great size of dragons substantially offsets that. And of course, if you can manage to Stun or Knock Out the dragon, those spots become much easier to hit.

Correct me if wrong, but hit location multipliers are applied AFTER armor is subtracted, so it wouldn't really help you breach the armor in the first place, it would only help with whatever damage actually got through.

[mallet]

On 11/16/2020 at 4:28 AM, pawsplay said:

 Let's say it is now knocked out. How do you kill it?

 

Somewhere in the book(s) there is a rule that if the Players want to kill an unconscious opponent they can automatically do it (with GM permission).

In this case it would just be a matter of saying they are stabbing the Dragon through one or both eyes, driving their swords into its brain. No extra rolls needed or anything. Just logic, storytelling and keeping the adventure moving at that point. 

 

EDIT: Found it. Hero System 6th Ed. Vol2, Pg.106 "A character in this state of unconsciousness can be killed automatically as a Full Phase Action by any character with the means to do so (a Killing Attack or other powerful attack) who makes a successful Attack Roll against the unconscious character." And given that the opponent is at 0 DCV it won't be hard to just hit him with a killing attack. In fact I remembered it wrong. It is not a special rule that needs GM Permission, it is a RAW rule, that the GM would have to disallow if he/she didn't want you to automatically kill the knocked out opponent. 

[bluesguy]

22 hours ago, shuddemell said:

Correct me if wrong, but hit location multipliers are applied AFTER armor is subtracted, so it wouldn't really help you breach the armor in the first place, it would only help with whatever damage actually got through.

The Body is applied after armor is subtracted.  The stun is before!  Head shots are wicked.

[pawsplay]

On 11/22/2020 at 11:44 AM, mallet said:

 

Somewhere in the book(s) there is a rule that if the Players want to kill an unconscious opponent they can automatically do it (with GM permission).

In this case it would just be a matter of saying they are stabbing the Dragon through one or both eyes, driving their swords into its brain. No extra rolls needed or anything. Just logic, storytelling and keeping the adventure moving at that point. 

 

EDIT: Found it. Hero System 6th Ed. Vol2, Pg.106 "A character in this state of unconsciousness can be killed automatically as a Full Phase Action by any character with the means to do so (a Killing Attack or other powerful attack) who makes a successful Attack Roll against the unconscious character." And given that the opponent is at 0 DCV it won't be hard to just hit him with a killing attack. In fact I remembered it wrong. It is not a special rule that needs GM Permission, it is a RAW rule, that the GM would have to disallow if he/she didn't want you to automatically kill the knocked out opponent. 

 

That is an interesting observation, although I'm not sure I would automatically consider an ordinary sword blow "the means to do so" if they aren't capable of penetrating the hide at all in the first place