RACE: Deathwyrm Dragon
CLIMATE/TERRAIN: Any ruins, mountains, Plane of Shadow,
Negative Material Plane and quasi-planes.
FREQUENCY: Very rare
ORGANIZATION: Solitary
ACTIVITY CYCLE: Night
DIET: Special
INTELLIGENCE: Supra-genius (19-20)
TREASURE: Special
ALIGNMENT: Neutral evil
NO. APPEARING: 1
ARMOR CLASS: -5 (base)
MOVEMENT: 18, Fl 30
HIT DICE: 16 (base)
THAC0: 7 (base)
NO. ATTACKS: 3 + special
DAMAGE/ATTACK: 1-10/1-10/3-30
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Energy drain, breath weapon
SPECIAL DEFENCES: Special
MAGIC RESISTANCE: Special
SIZE: H
MORALE: Fanatic (18)
XP VALUE: See below
BODY
TAIL BREATH
SPELLS AS A TREASURE
XP
AGE LENGTH LENGTH
AC WEAPON WIZARD/PRIEST MR TYPE
VALUE
1 2-8
2-6 -2 1d6+1
Nil 15% Nil
8,000
2 8-22
6-16 -3 2d6+1
Nil 20% Nil
12,000
3 22-36
16-26 -4 3d6+1
Nil 25% Nil
16,000
4 36-46
26-36 -5 4d6+2 2nd
/ Nil 30% H/2
20,000
5 46-58
36-46 -6 5d6+2 3rd
/ Nil 35% H
22,000
6 58-72
46-56 -7 6d6+2 4th
/ Nil 40% Hx2
25,000
7 72-84
56-66 -8 7d6+3 6th
/ 2nd 45% Hx3
32,000
8 84-96
66-76 -9 8d6+3 8th
/ 3rd 50% Hx4
40,000
9 96-110
76-86 -10 9d6+3 10th / 4th
55% Hx5 44,000
10 110-122 86-96
-11 10d6+4 12th / 6th 60%
Hx6 50,000
11 122-134 96-106
-12 11d6+4 14th / 8th 65%
Hx7 60,000
12 134-148 106-116
-13 12d6+4 16th / 10th 75%
Hx8 70,000 |
The dreaded deathwyrm is one of the most powerful
evil dragons in existance. It is a more powerful
cousin of the shadow dragon, as it is larger and
contains a far greater percentage of negative
matter in its essance. Deathwyrms speak the
tongue of shadow dragons, and the language of
all evil dragons. In addition, 25% of all
hatchlings can speak with any intelligent
creature, an ability that increases by 5%
per age level.
COMBAT: Deathwyrms are terrifying in combat, as
their breath weapon and physical attacks are far
more insidious than those of the shadow dragon.
Older deathwyrms command armies of undead, and
nearly all great wyrms eventually become
dracoliches.
BREATH WEAPON: A deathwyrm's breath weapon is a
cone of negative energy 20 feet per age level long,
and 5 feet wide per age level inflicting 1d6 per
age level of damage, and draining 1 level per
three age levels from all affected. A successful
save vs. breath weapons halves the damage and level
loss.
A deathwyrm's vampiric bite, aside from physical
damage, drains as many levels from its victim as
the breath weapon, except that no save is permitted
against the drain.
Both the deathwyrm's bite and claw attacks are
vampiric (the claw is not strong enough to drain
levels). If the dragon has sustained damage, half
the damage inflicted by bites, and a quarter by
claws is transfered to the dragon as healing. All
creatures killed by the dragons breath, bite or
claws become undead of half their original level
(or first level).
Deathwyrms of adult age and older radiate a
powerful aura of negative energy that is harmful
to living things in the long run. When a mature
deathwyrm lairs in an area for more than 6 months,
changes start to take place in the environment.
For a radius of 2 miles per age level, plant life
starts to die. The sky becomes unnaturaly dark,
even on the brightest day. Normal animals become
hard to find, and the territory becomes a bleak
landscape of twisted, dead trees, hardy weeds, and
undead, mutated or otherwise unnatural animals. It
becomes obvious that something is horribly wrong,
much like one finds in the terrritory of a banshee.
All plant life within a deathwyrm's fear aura withers
as the beast passes.
Negative matter attacks heal deathwyrms, and they
are immune to cold based attacks. Deathwyrms suffer
double damage from light based attacks and save
versus fire at -2. Deathwyrms receive the following
abilities as they age:
Young: Darkness 3/day.
Juvinile: Mirror image 3/day.
Young Adult: Dimension door, 3/day.
Adult: Create shadows 3/day.
Mature Adult: Plane shift, 3/day.
Old: Death spell, 3/day.
Very Old: Animate dead, level at hit dice, 3/day.
Venerable: Monster summoning VII, undead, 3/day.
Wyrm: Control undead at will.
Great Wyrm: Control weather 1/day as 24th level druid.
HABITAT: Deathwyrms hate light; they thrive in the
deep, inky and unnatural darkness of their lairs
and the negative material plane. They can function
normally in their territories, but can only
venture further under cover of night or clouds.
Sunlight inflicts 1d8 hp per round.
ECOLOGY: Deathwyrms are a scourge to the lands
they inhabit, despoiling all they touch. When a
deathwyrm flies low to the ground, all plant life
under its foul wings withers. Needless to say,
alchemists and necromancers can find many uses for
a deathwyrm carcass.
Max Becherer (becherer@suna0.cs.uiuc.edu)
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