Dragons – The Speer-Head Lounge

D&D Homebrew Monster of the Week: Ancient Leviathan

“The battle had raged on for days and I guess that amount of noise and blood would have woken anything up. Still, didn’t make it any less concerning see the mountains begin rising out of the earth. With but a breath, it bellowed out a roar strong enough to deafen the gods.”

– Excerpt from The Death of our Heroes: Tall Tales of Mythology.

Welcome back everyone! I apologize for the delay on these posts. Life has been a bit crazy lately (and likely will still be for some time as I settle into a new job and begin moving preparations for later this year). I am going to try and get back into a routine schedule for these blog posts as well as finally begin diversifying the content that has been provided as this was never intended on being a D&D exclusive board and will be bringing new discussions and posts into the fold hopefully soon!

Now, on to the actual post. The Ancient Leviathan is exactly that, an apex monster of myth and legend though it resides in a place many would not expect at first. Often laying dormant for decades if not centuries at a time within the craggy peaks of rugged mountain ranges, Ancient Leviathans are a rather slothful creature when comparing the majority of their lives. However should one awaken, the mountains will crumble as this titan frees itself from under the earth and the very heavens will shake and bow to its earthshaking roars.

Ancient Leviathan: The Overview

While not the absolute pinnacle of dragon kind within the D&D universe, Ancient Leviathans come pretty close to reaching that peak. Clocking in at CR 20, these dragons are viewed with the same reverence and fear as the other top-dogs of the realms. While incredibly intelligent and capable of speech, Ancient Leviathans care little for discussion and playing protector to weaker creatures as they follow firmly to the ideas of “might-makes-right.” Not evil inherently but far from being a benevolent figure, Ancient Leviathans often spend most of their waking time hunting and feeding, keeping close to the towering mountain spires they claim (or as close as you can be when you are several thousand feet above sea level).

Stats and Abilities

Absolute physical powerhouses, Ancient Leviathans do not mince words and mince their combat strategies even less. Relying on their titanic size and strength over any magical capabilities, these dragons soar through the air biting and slamming anything that dares in their territory. Due to being a CR 20, to say the Ancient Leviathan is lacking in any department would be lying as there is little aside from being out-sped and harassed at a range that could be problematic for the dragon, though a DEX of 14 does leave it vulnerable and prone to possibly fail the more heavy hitting spells at this level of combat like Firestorm or Disintegrate.

Stats and Skills: Aside from their lackluster 14 DEX and a respectable 18 INT, there is next to nothing this dragon lacks stat wise. And thanks to gaining a +6 to any saving throws its proficient in, even its meager +2 to DEX saves increases to a respectable +8 which on top of Magic Resistance makes it much easier for the dragon to take those heavy-hitting spells. With a 26 STR and a 22 CON, there is little that is going to be able to go toe-to-toe against the dragon without major assistance and next to nothing will be able to overpower the dragon with raw magic, though it isn’t immune to being shoved knocked Prone, Grappled, or Restrained (in retrospect, it should likely be immune to being knocked prone as it has a hovering flying speed). Surprisingly, all of the Ancient Leviathan’s proficient skills are social skills (History, Insight, and Perception, though calling Perception a social skill is a large stretch). I do think these skills would be applicable for a creature who would be less aggressive and territorial than the Ancient Leviathan as I cannot see this creature bothering to discern someone else’s intentions as opposed to just crushing them under claw and tail or bothering to study ancient ruins or recall some long forgotten memory. In truth, I don’t really know aside from Perception if there would be any applicable skills to add aside from maybe Athletics or Acrobatics, though this dragon isn’t getting into feats of strength typically and isn’t designed to be a nimble or agile flyer. With a 22 AC and over 300 hit points, this titanic dragon is not going down easily.
Resistances, Immunities, and Senses: Just like many of the end-game tier monsters within D&D, mundane weapons are ill-equipped to handle this creature though in this case the Ancient Leviathan is outright immune to damage from nonmagical weapons. Alongside that, the Ancient Leviathan is also immune to Cold and Lighting damage due to its den and lair being at the absolute highest peaks. Lighting damage is a bit of a stretch but I wanted to make this creature a sort of “storm-caller” if you will, able to channel and focus the surrounding air into either frigid blizzards or sudden storms. Unsurprisingly, a creature of this caliber is immune to the Frightened condition as it has no natural predators and really only has to worry about the gods, other world ending powers, or extremely capable adventurers, though as mentioned earlier this creature likely should be immune to being knocked prone due to having a hovering speed. Like most Dragons within D&D, the Ancient Leviathan also boasts 60 feet of Blindsight and 120 feet of Darkvision, allowing it to see through illusions and attack even in the dead of night. That said, the Ancient Leviathan is not a creature that would go out of its way to attack or hunt under nightfall. Sure, it would benefit greatly, but this is also a prideful and assertive creature who cares little for tactics aside from overwhelming strength.

Passive Abilities and Actions:

Legendary Resistance (3/Day). If the leviathan fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead.

Just like just about any of the higher tier monsters, the Ancient Leviathan boasts legendary actions and with that come Legendary Resistances. Staple feature, no notes to add.

Magic Resistance. The leviathan has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.

Another staple feature for a monster of this level. Again, just about every creature of CR 14 or higher should be coming packaged with this unless they are literally just a strong animal. No notes needed.

Siege Monster. The leviathan deals double damage to objects and structures.

Another staple feature for a creature of this size, though it isn’t one that has come up yet so lets dive into it a little bit. This trait is typically reserved for one of two different monsters. Either A, they are a creature designed to break down objects and structures like a siege weapon (or a creature using a siege weapon), or B, the creature is so large that even their stray strikes can level buildings. The Ancient Leviathan is of course the latter, and frankly why wouldn’t it be. To any of you who have seen the Godzilla: King of Monsters movies, Rodan simply gliding down from its volcanic lair leveled a majority of the city. Again, just by gliding. With a singular beat of its wings it went supersonic so you can imagine the untold destruction it could do if it actually went about attacking the city.

Multiattack. The leviathan can use its Frightful Presence. It then makes two attacks: one with its Bite and one with its Tail.

Another staple feature, and like all other major Dragons within D&D, it also allows the usage of the Ancient Leviathan’s Frightful Presence feature before actually attacking.

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +14 to hit, reach 15ft., one target. Hit: 30 (4d10 + 8) piercing damage.

In all honesty, despite the impressive damage on a hit, this attack feels as though it needs some tweaking. Between both of its attacks (which are all Piercing and Bludgeoning damage), it deals an average of 52 points of damage on a turn. For comparison sakes, an Ancient White Dragon (another CR 20) deals an average of 53 damage (most Slashing and Piercing, but it also has some Cold damage mixed in), The Nightwalker deals an average of 56 points of Necrotic damage with its basic attack that can also outright kill a creature if they are reduced to 0 hit points, and then finally the Pit Fiend on top of having at will Fireball spells available for free whenever it wants, its Multiattack allows it to make FOUR SEPARATE ATTACKS for a total of 78 points of damage and that’s only if the creature passes the save on the bite attack, other wise that’s an additional 21 points of Poison damage EACH TURN until they pass the save and remove the Poisoned condition. 30 Piercing damage and nothing else is not going to cut for a creature of this size. If we want to stick to the idea of the Ancient Leviathan being a creature that doesn’t have any gimmicks or tactics aside from hit hard, then yeah we would just bump up the damage but I have a different idea.

We are going to be adding a Swallow mechanic to this creature, similar to a Froghemtoh’s or Behir’s Swallow features. Typically for this to function, a creature needs to be Grappled first, so the Ancient Levithan’s Bite attack will do just that, Grappling and Restraining a target hit by the attack (with a DC 21 Strength (Athletics) to free themselves). While the Ancient Leviathan has a creature Grappled in this way it cannot use it’s Bite attack against another creature and if it successfully hits the Grappled creature with another Bite attack it can swallow them. Once swallowed, a creature becomes Blinded, Restrained, and gains cover from any sources originating outside of the Ancient Leviathan, and will take 28 (8d6) acid damage at the start of each of the Ancient Leviathan’s turns. In order to escape, a swallowed creature must deal 50 points of damage in a single turn and the Ancient Leviathan must make a DC 17 Constitution saving throw. On a failure, the Ancient Leviathan regurgitates all swallowed creatures. Due to its size, the Ancient Leviathan can have up to 10 Medium or smaller creatures, 3 Large or smaller, or 2 Huge or smaller creatures swallowed at once.

Tail. Melee Weapon Attack: +14 to hit, reach 20ft., one target. Hit: 22 (4d6 + 8) bludgeoning damage.

So, after all the work and revamping we did to the bite attack, what is the plan for this one? Honestly, just increasing the damage from using d6s to d8s, increasing the damage from 22 to 26. Honestly, increasing the damage even more by going from 4d8s to 5d8s would probably be a safe bet to do as the damage would increase up to 30 damage, making the dragons turnly damage 60 even. This is higher than the majority of CR 20s within D&D, but without a myriad of other features or effects that come with these attacks and with the fact this is supposed to be a a much physically stronger creature, I’m ok with that.

Frightful Presence. Each creature of the leviathan’s choice within 120ft. of it and aware of it must succeed on a DC 18 Wisdom saving throw or become frightened for 1 minute.

A creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. If a creature’s saving throw is successful or the effect ends for it, the creature is immune to the leviathan’s Frightful Presence for the next 24 hours.

This is a staple feature of just about any stronger “true” dragon. Any Adult Dragon and higher will have a Frightful Presence feature or something akin to i, so I have no notes for this feature.

Thunderous Roar (Recharge 5-6). The leviathan lets out a deafening roar. Each creature in a 90ft. cone that can hear the leviathan must succeed on a DC 22 Constitution saving throw, taking 65 (18d6) thunder damage on a failed save or half as much on a successful one.

Creatures that fail the save by 5 or more are deafened for 1 minute, repeating the saving throw at the end of each of their turns and ending the effect on a success.

Just like Frightful Presence, all dragons have some sort of breath-weapon feature. However, keeping true to the idea of a creature using nothing but its own strength to attack, instead of having some sort of frost breath, the Ancient Leviathan simply roars instead, creating a concussive shockwave that levels anything directly in front of it. Initially, I thought the Ancient Dragons that also dealt cone breath-weapons only had a 60 foot cone, so I figured the trade off of slightly less damage with an extra 30 foot range would be perfectly fine, but as it turns out Ancient White Dragons also have a 90 foot cone Cold Breath attack. Increasing the damage from 18d6 to 20d6 would bump the average damage to 70 and make it more in line with other Ancient Dragon breath weapons, so easy-peasy. The added line of “if a creature fails the save by 5 or more is deafened for 1 minute,” surprisingly isn’t as dangerous as one might assume.

Deafened – A deafened creature can’t hear and automatically fails any ability check that requires hearing.

Alongside being able to remake the save at the end of each of their turns, this is more for flavor than actual danger within the combat encounter so there is no reason to change or remove it as of now.

Legendary Actions: The leviathan can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action option can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature’s turn. The Leviathan regains spent legendary actions at the start of its turn.

Very normal for a creature of this level to have this feature, so lets see what we are working with.

Tail Attack (1 Action). The leviathan makes one attack with its tail.

A staple Legendary Action, just a simple attack that the Ancient Leviathan can do in between other creatures turns. With how dangerous the Bite attack has turned, it stands to reason that the Tail attack should remain the default attack for this feature.

Clawed Swipe (1 Action). The leviathan sweeps a wide arc with one of its massive clawed limbs. Each creature in a 30ft. cone in front of the leviathan must make a DC 22 Dexterity saving throw, taking 27 (6d8) slashing damage on a failed save or half as much on a successful one.

The first of the unique Legendary Actions, this is making use of the Ancient Leviathan’s massive claws as it drags them through the earth, cleaving a path through anything right in front of it. The issue arises that a 30 foot cone is awkward for a creature that is larger than 1 space, especially if its designed to hit everything in front of itself.

As seen in the templates (The one in the middle of the image), the 30 foot cone actually leaves blind spots right at the front of the cone, so it doesn’t quite mesh with the idea that the Ancient Leviathan is making a sweeping strike in front of itself. To remedy this and keep true to the original idea of the feature, here’s a simple change.

Titanic Claw (2 Actions). Melee Weapon Attack: +14 to hit, reach 20ft., 3 creatures. Hit: 34 (4d12+8) slashing damage.

With a singular attack roll, this means that the Ancient Leviathan isn’t guaranteed to hit each creature in front of it (though with a +14 to hit, it isn’t exactly hard either). With this being so much more damage than its basic attacks, possibly dealing over 90 damage with a singular attack on top of its multiattack during its turn, This kind of has to cost multiple Legendary Actions as to not overpower the party immediately. This prevents it from using it multiple times within a round as well as prevents it from using it with the following ability.

Earth Tremor (2 Actions). The leviathan slams its tail into the ground creating massive tremor. Each creature within a 60ft. radius of the leviathan must make a DC 22 Dexterity saving throw, taking 22 (4d10) bludgeoning damage and being knocked prone on a failed save or half as much on a successful one and not being knocked prone.

This feature almost feels redundant with the rest of the kit if I can be perfectly honest, but I am unsure what replace it with. The Tail attack already knocks creatures prone, the Titanic Claw feature now deals massive damage to multiple creatures at once, so where does that leave Earth Tremor? Honestly, thrown out to be honest. This is a redundant feature that brings nothing new to the table and is simply there to fill a slot. I think a better option would be to replace this with the common Detect Legendary Action typical dragons get in their statblocks

Detect. The leviathan makes a Wisdom (Perception) check.

Not the most interesting of features, but it allows the Ancient Leviathan to quickly adjust if a player is trying something sneaky. Reminder, this is not some simple minded beast, this is an apex creature that is rivaled by next to none.

Lair Actions: On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), the Leviathan takes a lair action to cause one of the following effects:

Icy Gusts. The leviathan summons freezing winds around its lair. Each creature within 120ft. must make a DC 22 Constitution saving throw, taking 16 (3d10) cold damage on a failed save, or half as much on a successful one. Additionally, affected creatures’ movement is reduced by half until the end of their next turn.

Wind Tunnel. The leviathan beats its colossal “wings”, creating a powerful surge of wind in a 60ft. cone in front of it. Each creature in that area must succeed on a DC 22 Strength saving throw or be pushed back 30 feet and knocked prone. Flying creatures that fail the saving throw fall to the ground, taking the appropriate fall damage.

Storm Surge. Until the end of its next turn, the leviathan’s flying speed is increased to 120ft. as strong winds encircle around the leviathan

Regional Effects. The region surrounding the leviathan’s lair is warped by its presence, creating the following effects:

Frigid Winds. The air in the region grows colder and harsher, with biting winds and swirling snow. Creatures not native to such cold conditions suffer disadvantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks made to navigate and endure in this environment.

Echoing Roars. Distant echoes of the leviathan’s powerful roars can be heard intermittently throughout the region. These echoes have an eerie effect on creatures, causing unease and occasional nervousness. Roll 1d8 at the start of each creature’s turn: on a roll of 1, the creature becomes briefly startled, losing its reaction until the start of its next turn.

Aura of Dominance. A Dragon creature of CR 10 or lower must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw the first time it makes an attack roll against the leviathan. On a failed save, it is frightened and must use its full turn fleeing as much as it can for 1 minute, repeating the save at the end of each of its turns and ending the effect on a success.

If the leviathan dies, these effects disappear after 1d10 days.

You might have noticed I skipped talking about the Lair actions before jumping to the regional effects. In truth, I do not find any merit or interest with the current list of these features.

Icy Gusts does a wide patch of chip damage, but it is more speed control which isn’t bad but its not something I can imagine a creature like this carrying for.
Wind Tunnel is another feature that can inflict the prone status, which just isn’t needed. If I really do want to keep the ability to inflict a wide spread instance of knocking creatures Prone, I could very easily tack that on to the Thunderous Roar feature alongside the deafened condition.
Storm Surge just just doesn’t fit. This creature sleeps for years, decades, maybe even centuries at a time before awakening up with all the subtlety of an erupting volcano. It is not agile, it is not nimble, and doesn’t care about moving quickly. So while a 120ft. flying speed is nothing to scoff at, this isn’t the statblock for it.

The Regional Effects I actually do quite like, but these can easily be woven into the setting behind the scenes by a DM as opposed to being tied to the Ancient Leviathan’s statblock. I will likely move Aura of Dominance from the Regional Effects to the passive features as I do quite like the mechanic and will likely expand it to encompass Beasts and Monstrosities as well as Dragons.

Revisions:

We had some pretty substantial changes in this statblock, from changing how the bite works, reworking the Clawed Strike Legendary Action into the Titanic Claw feature, and even removing the entire Lair Action and Regional Effect features. While I am not 100% happy with where this statblock is, I feel it is in a much better spot now as it was definitely bloated before this.

Thank you all for reading! I know its been way too long since I put out my last post. I’m on the tail ends of my major video project and am a bit overwhelmed with everything else, but I refuse to be beaten! I will continue making these posts as well as adding more in the future I promise!

D&D Homebrew Monster of the Week: Abyssal Dragons

*Dragon Captuveri – Luminous Ages* by John Silva

“Everyone warns ya to look to the skies when searching for dragons. No one ever mentions the ones that come from below.”
– An old townsfolk’s warning.

Well it wouldn’t be Dungeons and Dragons without some Dragons populating the monster compendiums would it? Before diving into the Abyssal Dragons, a few guidelines on how this post is going to go as Dragons in D&D are a special kind of monster. Most “true” dragons have multiple statblocks depending on the stage of their life they’re at when encountered. This starts at the lowest with Wyrmlings, progressing to Young Dragons, then Adult Dragons, and after that to Ancient Dragons, and then to the oldest level called Greatwyrms. Wyrmlings sit in the lower CRs (3-5), Young Dragons just above that (6-9), Adults are the first real challenge and a suitable boss monster (13-17), Ancients are campaign ending challenges (19-22), and Greatwyrms are for only the highest echelon of combat encounters (25+). As dragons age and grow in power, they gain new abilities and their prior ones enhance, growing more dangerous the larger and older they get. To prevent this blogpost from being a hour long read, i will be marking * to display which level of dragon has which feature using the key below:

* – Wyrmlings
** – Young
*** – Adult/Ancient
**** – Greatwyrm

Not perfect, but it helps a bit. Now, without further delay, lets get to it!

Abyssal Dragons: The Overview

The first of the mighty Dragon Compendium, Abyssal Dragons make their nests and lairs deep under the ocean’s surface, using their aquatic prowess to hunt and defend their homes with terrifying prowess. While not one of the “Big Three” dragon types (Chromatic (Evil), Gemstone (Neutral), or Metallic (Good)), Abyssal Dragons are temperamental and somewhat aloof as a result of their isolationist natures. While residing deep underwater, these dragons are just as quick in the air as they are underwater so they have no qualms leaving the safety of the ocean floor and soaring into the sky if provoked or needing to make a hasty exit. As apex predators of the seas, Abyssal Dragons often feed on other massive sea creatures such as whales, Storm Giants, or even Krakens once strong enough.

Stats and Abilities:

While vastly different in strength between all the different ages, each of the Abyssal Dragon’s statblocks all point to it being a bruiser with its high STR and CON, yet unlike a decent chunk of bruiser type monsters, all of the Abyssal Dragon’s mental stats are above board and can lead to diplomatic solutions. Afterall, if there is one thing dragons love more than fighting, its tributes and adoration. Even if its secluded from the rest of the world and is a bit more “savage” than its other kin, a dragon is still a dragon.

Dragons scarcely have weaknesses that are obvious in a statblock. More often than not, a dragon’s weakness is something in its personality. It’s vain and easily snaps when its character is questioned, they love gold and are easily swayed with monetary incentive, they were previously wounded severely in earlier events of the story so they avoid combat, etc. The weakest section in the statblock is the dragons still good DEX and WIS, as it is more often not relying on brute force due to its “feral” nature (when compared to other true dragons), yet thanks to its proficiency in those saving throws, along side CON and CHA, every level of this dragon is not going down without a fight or some good diplomacy (and probably groveling).

Stats and Skills: As mentioned, having proficiency in four saving throws allows the dragon to act in a much more aggressive and sure manner during combat, not fearing offensive or utility spells. With a decent AC and fair hit points (especially in the weaker levels) it does fairly well in close quarters, but as a Wyrmling, it can be easily overwhelmed. Proficient in both Perception and Stealth allow the Abyssal Dragon to be somewhat of an ambusher, though even with that bonus because of its lower DEX/WIS scores it would still focus more on brute force rather than hit and run tactics in a fight.
Resistances, immunities, and Senses: Being resistant to lightning initially and later gaining more while shifting to a lightning immunity, the older it gets the more resilient the dragon’s hide gets. In the upper tiers, being immune to lightning and resistant to cold, poison, and all nonmagical weapon attacks, the Adults, Ancients, and Greatwyrms have little to fear aside from the other CR 15-20+ creatures of the sea. Capable of taking on entire ships with little more than scratches unless said ship is specifically designed to fight them, in which they can slink away deep under the surface. Intelligent to boot, these dragons know when to abandon a fight or when to stop toying with their prey. Not having condition immunities such as frightened, poisoned, or charmed seems… odd? Already a revision that should happen, other Greatwyrms are immune to these conditions and I don’t think the Abyssal Dragons should be an exception to this.

Passive Abilities and Actions:

Amphibious. The dragon can breathe air and water.*

It’s kind of important to have an aquatic undersea dragon be able to breathe while underwater, and with its equally fast flying speed, there is no reason it wouldn’t have to also be able to breathe air.

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack. [ ] to hit, reach [ ]ft., one target. Hit. [ ] ([]) piercing damage.*

Obviously a Wyrmling’s bite isn’t going to hit nearly as hard as a Greatwyrms, so the to hit bonus, reach, and damage will all vary between the levels. Every dragon has a face full of sharp and pointy teeth, why not use it?

Paralytic Tentacles. Melee Weapon Attack. [ ] to hit, reach [ ]., one target. Hit. The target is restrained (escape DC [ ]). The dragon can only have one Large creature, or two Medium size or smaller creatures restrained in this way at a time.

As an action, the dragon can attempt to afflict a creature restrained by its tentacles with a paralytic poison. The restrained creature must succeed on a DC [ ] Constitution saving throw, becoming paralyzed for 1 minute on a failed save. On a successful save, the creature is immune to the dragons Paralytic Tentacles for 24 hours.*

The big gimmick of the Abyssal Dragon line, using the myriad of jellyfish-like tentacles across its body to grab, restrain, and paralyze their targets. As they grow larger, the difficult of escaping grows, the range they can attack at increases, and with Greatwyrms the size of creatures they can restrain also increases. This is an incredibly dangerous ability with how debilitating the paralyzed condition in D&D is (Incapacitated (cannot take actions or bonus actions, cannot speak, or concentrate on spells), movement drops to 0ft., automatically fail on STR and DEX saving throws, all attack rolls roll at advantage, and creatures that hit a paralyzed creature within 5ft. automatically critically hit), that is why once a creature saves, it is immune to the effects of Paralytic Tentacles for 24 hours. Otherwise, a whole party is gonna go down paralyzed and slowly get crit to death by the dragon, and that’s no fun.

Lightning Breath (Recharge 5–6). The dragon exhales lightning in a [ ]-foot line that is 5 feet wide. Each creature in that line must make a DC [ ] Dexterity saving throw, taking [ ] ([ ]) lightning damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.*

It wouldn’t be a dragon statblock if it didn’t have a breath weapon now would it? With the main focus on Abyssal Dragons being their jellyfish tentacles and their tendency to reside in stormy seas, lightning felt like the best selection for a breath weapon attack. While poison might have also worked since that’s what a jellyfish toxin is, in fantasy settings it feels more appropriate that a jellyfish’s sting “shocks” you instead and thus would deal lightning damage

Multiattack. The dragon can make three attacks: one with its bite and two with its claws.**

Aside from the Wyrmling, every other level of the Abyssal Dragon gains the Multiattack feature as it is a necessity to compete with adventuring parties the higher and higher level you go.

Claw. Melee Weapon Attack. [ ] to hit, reach [ ]ft., one target. Hit: [ ] ([ ]) slashing damage.**

Similar to bite, if you have razor sharp claws, why not use them? Dragons are prideful creatures and while they could spend the entire combat flying and raining fire, acid, poison, or whatever else from their maws, its more fun to strike your enemies with your own hands, at least if you’re a building sized lizard with swords for claws.

Legendary Resistance ([ ] /Day). If the dragon fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead.***

Surprise surprise, the all powerful dragon is a legendary creature in its older age. Like the last legendary creature mentioned a couple weeks ago, the celestial Absolution, Abyssal Dragons have such good stats and saving throws that if they fail one, they’re going to just expend a usage of one of their Legendary Resistances to pass.

Frightful Presence. Each creature of the dragon’s choice within 120 feet of it and aware of it must succeed on a DC [ ] Wisdom saving throw or become frightened for 1 minute. A creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.***

Frightful Presence is a staple ability for any dragon once they reach adulthood and just about every “true dragon” has this feature (though for some reason, the Greatwyrms form Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons doesn’t). This is the first thing a dragon will do in combat as the frightened condition prevents creatures from approaching any closer than they already are and they suffer disadvantage on ability checks and attack rolls while the source of the frightened condition is within line-of-sight. For this reason, an Abyssal Dragon’s main arena is likely to be a spacious cavern with minimal hiding spots, thus its always within line of sight. Additionally, this arena style allows the dragon’s Lightning Breath to meet its maximum range without being blocked by stray pillars or walls.

Legendary Actions: The dragon can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature’s turn. The dragon regains spent legendary actions at the start of its turn.***

Just like Absolution, Abyssal Dragons gain three Legendary Actions per round they can use after another creatures turn. The Abyssal Dragon gets the following Legendary Actions:

Bite. The dragon makes one attack with its Bite.***

A standard Legendary Action. No notes.

Move. The dragon moves up to half of its swim or fly speed without provoking attacks of opportunity.***

Most other dragons have their Wing Attack that deals damage to everything around them and then allows them to move freely, but with the design and aesthetic of the Abyssal Dragons I just don’t get that. While not super dexterous, I feel as though the dragon has no difficulty to slip out without provoking attacks of opportunity.

Stinging Tentacles (2 Actions). The dragon targets one creature restrained by its Paralytic Tentacles and forces them to make a DC 18 Constitution saving throw, becoming poisoned for 1 hour on a failed save.

A poisoned creature can repeat the save at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on a success. A creature paralyzed by Paralytic Tentacles has disadvantage on this save.***

So remember that brief blurb earlier about how when a jellyfish “shocks” you its actually a toxin? Well the Abyssal Dragon can do something similar. The poisoned condition in D&D is more of a nuisance than a threatening debilitation like the paralyzed condition. It’s still bad as it forces disadvantage on ability checks and attack rolls, and if you have a low CON, that hour long timer could lead to multiple combats suffering under its effects (if the DM is mean enough to throw more combat encounters after an Adult Dragon that is). This can technically be a nasty feature as if the dragon successfully grapples a creature, it can wait until the end of the next turn in the initiative and immediately try and poison the creature it restrained, but thankfully poisoned creatures can repeat the save at the end of each of their turns, so chances are they will get out of it in time.

Whirlpool (2 Actions). The Abyssal Dragon Greatwyrm creates a massive whirlpool in a 45ft. radius centered on a point it can see within 120ft. This whirlpool remains for 1 minute or until the dragon uses this action again.

The area becomes difficult terrain, and any creature that starts its turn in the whirlpool or enters it for the first time on a turn must make a DC 20 Strength saving throw or be pulled 30 feet toward the center of the whirlpool and take 27 (6d8) bludgeoning damage on a failed save, or half as much damage and isn’t pulled on a successful one. Additionally, any creature in the whirlpool’s area has disadvantage on Strength (Athletics) checks made to swim against the whirlpool’s current.****

This legendary action is exclusive to the Greatwyrm statblock and is definitely something that needs some tweaking. Currently, it’s best used in a strictly underwater location so the open cavern idea from earlier doesn’t make this too applicable unless the whirlpool actively replaces terrain. So for example, it creates a 45ft. radius and any creatures in that area fall into a turbulent whirlpool, suffering the effects as normal. Another revision that might need to be made is that a 45ft. radius is massive AoE and unless you’re in an absolutely gargantuan combat map, there is nowhere this won’t cover. Limiting the AoE down to even 30ft. or 25ft would drastically help balance this so its not guaranteed to immediately get everybody in the whirlpool.

Lair Actions: On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), the dragon takes a lair action to cause one of the following effects; the dragon can’t use the same effect two rounds in a row: ***

The dragon conjures grasping spectral jellyfish-like tentacles around each creature it can see within 30ft. of itself. Each creature must succeed on a DC 18 Dexterity saving throw, becoming restrained on a failed save. Restrained creatures take 2 (1d4) lightning damage and 5 (2d4) poison damage at the start of each of their turns. Restrained creatures can make a DC 15 Strength (Athletics) check to break free as an action on each of their turns.
Rushing waters suddenly surge and flood part of the lair. The dragon targets three creatures within 120ft. of itself and forces them to make a DC 18 Strength saving throw, being knocked prone on a failed save.
Geysers of frigid water erupt from underground. The dragon targets 3 creatures within 60ft. of itself and forces them to make a DC 18 Dexterity saving throw, becoming doused in the frigid water on a failed save. A creature doused in this way suffers from powerful and can only use an action or a bonus action on it’s next turn, but not both.

Sound the victory bells, we got the first our first monster with Lair Actions! Unsurprisingly, creatures of world famous renown and myth have entire dungeons and areas they’ve claimed which aid them with bonuses and additional actions/effects. More often than not, these effects originate from the environment itself and not the creature who owns the lair, however they still choose the effect. Lair Actions happen on initiative count 20 (or more often, top of initiative) and the creature who owns the lair can choose one of the three actions each turn, rarely able to use the same one multiple rounds in a row. Nothing across these abilities is meant to be nearly as detrimental as the main features of the Abyss Dragon, but they still need to support the dragon in some way so that’s why there’s no “big damage” option and all are geared for support usage.

Regional Effects: The region surrounding the Abyssal Dragon’s lair is warped by its presence, creating the following effects:

Both the waters and the weather around are abnormally chilly, going as cold as 39 degrees F in the deep waters.
Stormy weather and turbulent seas manifest within a mile of the dragon’s lair, doubling the amount of time it takes to travel by sea within the area.
Bodies of water within 1 mile of the dragon’s lair become charged with elemental energy. Lightning-based spells cast within this area have their damage increased by 1d6.
If the dragon dies, changed weather reverts to normal, as described in the spell, and the other effects fade in 1d10 days.

And with Lair Actions come another perk, after all if you’re some master of the area, powerful enough to literally carve a place out for yourself and bend the realm to your whim, why not right? Regional Effects are specifically for high end monsters that have a lair, but not every creature that has a lair gets Regional Effects. Usually it’s only if said creature has the power to warp the environment due to its sheer existence, and dragons fit that mold to the letter. No Regional Effect should have a tremendous impact on the party or be particularly threatening/dangerous, but they should at least have an impact and change how the party approaches either just passing through the lair’s area, or marching up to the front door.

Revisions:

All in all, I’m much happier with this statblock than with a couple of the others in the prior weeks as despite their majesty and roll in a story, dragons are actually relatively simple creatures to formulate a statblock for. The biggest change I have is for the Greatwyrm’s Whirlpool Legendary Action as with the current wording, it seems only applicable for underwater application and I would like it to be applicable everywhere it can be. Whether this is creating more of a tornado as it fills a cylindrical area or it replaces the ground underneath, I have yet to decide. Regardless, I am much happier with this after some editing before making this post as the initial statblock was a bit of a mess, but hey, you live and you learn right?

Well that wraps up this week’s D&D Homebrew Monster of the Week, stay tuned next time when we discuss a golden elemental of myth! In regards to other content and the D&D Intro to the character sheet, they are still a WIP. I do have other plans outside the D&D sphere, but it will not be as consistent as this content currently, so please be patient and thank you again for any and all support!