I doubt you’ll find much helpful. I’ve been rereading dark sun material for a while now, and there’s not a whole lot of cosmic/mystical elements that feel thematic for a draconic transformation. In fact, I’m pretty sure every possible one has been mentioned somewhere above. About the only thing 4e adds that is backwards compatible is the possibility of gates leading to Ral and Guthay, but that’s getting into astrological themes again.
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Personally, I would use the astral plane. But then, in my home games I use a cosmology for most worlds that is somewhat more simplified, based a bit more on 4e’s planar structure. So my version of the astral plane is basically a nesting spot holding the outer planes (and the ethereal nests the inner planes, which are also more merged), and I use 4e dark sun’s long dead or departed deities and separated inner and outer planes for athas from the rest of the cosmos. I never liked dark sun having different inner planes, but somehow the same outer planes. To me, the grey permeates and surrounds everything athasian, plane-wise and physically, and is a nearly perfect seal. (but not completely perfect, see my crossover game discussed on another thread)
Anyway, the long and short of it is I’m curious to see what you come up with, but would probably mod it in my home game.
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Yeah. My Athas is a separate cosmology. In my conception of the Athas multiverse, Athas multiverse is the previous iteration of the mainstream multiverse (containing the Planescape Setting, Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk etc). There are no outer planes in my Athas cosmology, because those outer planes fell into the Gray. Athasian souls still seek the outer planes when they die. That’s why they end up in the Gray instead.
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I don’t use true outer planes in athas, per say, but sections of the astral plane have the remnants of outer planes. Anyway, I could discuss this a lot more but souls still go to the Gray and there are elemental conduits and everything in my version. Pretty much nobody except for the Order and the Sorcerer Kings have even heard of the astral plane, much less been there, but It does hold lingering power.
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What is your idea for stage 10? Or is it a surprise?
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Here is something I did for the Athasian cosmology a few years ago. Since then my views have changed because the linked version assumes that Athas was still part of the regular multiverse, only cut off.
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Same as 2E, more or less, with a twist.
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The suspense…
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If you need any assistance with this, I can start poking around at my dark sun books some more and see if anything catches my eye. That said, I stand by my point above that I think most of the options have already been mentioned in this thread.
Related: There are some known mistakes in the math, specifically what level certain pile-of-metamagicked-spells are at, but my Athasian dragon test case for your rules, based on the Athasian dragon character I DM’d for at the height of their power, is ready to be posted here once I know the benefits of the last two spells.
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I’ve just realized that there are further implications for elemental subtypes. Fire subtype is immune to fire and has +50% vulnerability to cold. Water subtype need not make swim checks and can breath in water. Earth subtypes can burrow through solid rock if they have burrow. Air subtypes… Air has perfect flight maneuverability - unless its a dragon in which case it doesn’t - lol.
There is something for everyone except the air subtype. Generally a dragon is capped at good maneuverability for its flight. I might uncap it for air subtype dragons. But this metamorphosis will cap out at good maneuverability.
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good to know that information.
Proper subtyping added in VIII.
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Sweet. Have you got any ideas about the mitigating factor for 9 yet?
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Defiler Metamorphosis IX
Transmutation (psionic enchantment)
Spellcraft DC: 92 DC
Components: V, S, F
Casting Time: 1 minute
Target, effect or area: Personal
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: N/A
Spell Resistance: No
To develop: 828,000 Cp, 17 days, 33,120 XP. Seed: metamorphosis (28 DC). Factors: Natural Armor bonus +5 (+150 DC). 20 points of resistance to cold, fire, acid, and electrictity (+285 DC). Mitigating factors: psionic enchantment via expenditure of epic power slot (-19 DC). Change range to personal (-2 DC). Sacrifice 2000 HD of living creatures (-100 DC). 80d6 backlash damage (-80DC). Assistance of a Defiler Saint (-120 DC ad hoc). Burn 5000XP (-50 DC).
An undead wraith, a Defiler Saint of ancient times has sought you out. After millennia of anguish, the Defiler Saint helps you accomplish what it could not.
This spell may only be cast after the defiler metamorphosis VIII spell has been cast, and you must be of dragon type. Additionally, this spell must be cast as a psionic enchantment, meaning an epic psionic power slot must be expended in the casting.
At this, the ninth stage of your metamorphosis, a focus structure is detrimental your continuing metamorphosis, and you are so powerful you have no need of a focus structure anyway. Instead of a focus structure, you have encountered an undead creature, a great defiler from ancient times that undertook the same path you are undertaking now but failed. In helping you accomplish your metamorphosis the undead Defiler Saint may finally rest.
Your scales continue to condense, giving you an additional +5 Natural Armor bonus. You develop energy resistances as follows: Fire 20, Cold 20, Electricity 20, and Acid 20.
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Awesome. Just really cool.
2 questions.
Will dragons get wing attacks?
Will dragons grow to colossal size?
applying benefits now
Done!
Defiler Metamorphosis X
Transmutation (psionic enchantment)
Spellcraft DC: 92 DC
Components: V, S, F
Casting Time: 1 minute
Target, effect or area: Personal
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: N/A
Spell Resistance: No
To develop: 828,000 Cp, 17 days, 33,120 XP. Seed: metamorphosis (28 DC). Factors: Natural Armor bonus +4 (+120 DC). size alteration increase by one size category (+95 DC). Improve flight maneuverability by 1 category (+80 DC). +3 Dex (+135 DC). Mitigating factors: psionic enchantment via expenditure of epic power slot (-19 DC). Change range to personal (-2 DC). World spike obelisk (-10 DC). 80d6 backlash damage (-80DC). Victory in single combat with the eldest of the pyreen (-220 DC ad hoc). Burn 3500XP (-35 DC).
Since your last metamorphosis, you became aware of your hidden adversary, and it became aware of you. You cast your spell, and the eldest of the pyreen has come to face you in single combat.
This spell may only be cast after the defiler metamorphosis IX spell has been cast, and you must be of dragon type. Additionally, this spell must be cast as a psionic enchantment, meaning an epic psionic power slot must be expended in the casting.
At this, the tenth stage of your metamorphosis, a focus structure is detrimental your continuing metamorphosis, and you are so powerful you have no need of a focus structure anyway. Instead of a focus structure, you must face the eldest of the pyreen in single combat and kill it.
To cast this spell, you must first magically or psionically fashion an obelisk made of obsidian equal to your own height. This obelisk, called the World Spike, must be pounded into the ground so that half of the World Spike is beneath the earth. You then cast your spell, but do not roll a Spellcraft check for success. Instead, you take 80d6 of backlash damage, and the eldest of the pyreen, who has detected your attempt at metamorphosis, appears to stop you. If you are not alone, the pyreen does not appear, and the spell fails.
The eldest of the pyreen is the eldest and greatest of his kind (see Legends of Athas for details on Pyreen). The eldest is an advanced pyreen with +15 to all ability scores. The eldest has the same character level as you (with levels in psion and druid in addition to its racial HD), and carries an artifact (possibly one of the artifacts from Legends of Athas) into battle with you. Should you kill the eldest, you then roll your spellcraft check to determine success.
This spell transforms you into the tenth stage of the Athasian dragon species. Your size increases by 1 category, gaining all the inherent features thereof. If your size increases from Gargantuan to Colossal for instance, you would gain +8 Str, +4 Con, +5 Natural Armor, and -2 on attack/AC. In additional to the Natural Armor increase from your size, your skin and scales become denser, giving you an additional +4 Natural Armor bonus (at this stage your Natural Armor bonuses from all size and additional bonuses is +40).
Your flight speed changes with your size increase, as follows: Medium to Huge – 150 ft. Gargantuan – 200 ft. Colossal 250 ft. Your winged flight is magically assisted further, giving you a maneuverability of Good. Lastly, you become slightly more dexterous, giving you a +3 Dexterity bonus.
As the body of the eldest of the pyreen falls dead, you can psychically hear the scream of the planet of Athas itself. You are now the apex predator on Athas.
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An oversight that I will correct in the spell that grants flight.
Yes.
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awesome, just awesome.
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Stage 7 updated with wing attack.
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Here’s what I’ve been working on, I can post it on a separate post as well.
Amouranyx, The Queen of Black Sands
Female stage X athasian dragon defiler 5/psion (telepath) 5/athasian cerebremancer 10/mind mage 10/evolved paragon 20
LE Colossal dragon (advanced being, augmented humanoid, fire, psionic, shapechanger)
Init +10 Senses darkvision 60ft., low light vision., scent; Listen +60 Spot +60 (Blindsight 1250 ft.)
Languages All; polyglot, (Telepathy 1250 ft.)
AC 52, touch 12, flat-footed 42
(-8 size, +10 Dex, +40 natural)
hp 1820 (50 HD, 30d4+540 plus 20d10+360 plus 600, possesses maximum hit points +12 additional per hit die); fast healing 10; DR 15/magic
Immune fire, disease, poison, stunning, sleep, paralysis, death effects, disintegration, energy drain, ability drain, ability damage, polymorphing, petrification, or any other attack that alters her form.
Resist acid 20, cold 20, electricity 20; PR 61, SR 61
Vulnerable cold
Fort +45, Ref +37, Will +37
Speed 30ft. (6 squares), burrow 30 ft., fly 250 feet. (good)
Space 30 ft.; Reach 20 ft. (30 ft. with bite)
Melee bite +70 (4d8+28) and 2 claws +65 each (4d6+14) and tail +65 (4d6+42) and 2 wings +65 each (2d8+14)
Base Atk +50; Grp +94
Atk Options Breath Weapon, Compensation, Concussive Blast, Dragon Magic, Empower Power, Extended Dragon Metamagic, Far Reach, Force Touch, Frightful Presence, Harden Energy, Magical Reinforcement, Maximize Power, Metamixture (Unconditional Power), Metapotency (Empower Spell), Multispell, Painful Premonition, Power Attack, Quicken Power, Raze Feats (Agonizing Radius, Destructive Raze, Efficient Raze, Sickening Radius), Widen Power
Special Actions Epic Psionic Focus, Epic Psionic Meditation, Focus of Discipline, Focused Components, Hover, Psionic Components, Twin Wells Same Source
Combat Gear Crown of Unspun Dreams , _ ,
Psionic Enchantments Known (Require expenditure of both an epic spell slot and an epic power slot. CL 32. 50 for overcoming SR):
Amouranyx’s army of shadows, Amouranyx’s psionic awakening, extradimensional vault ( can call using correspond), impenetrable inertial barrier, mass quintessence, shadow true creation,
Epic Spells/Day 5; Epic Spells Known (CL 32. 50 for overcoming SR):
cone of coins (DC 40) , epic mage armor, momento mori (DC 50) , nailed to the sky (DC 40) , rain of fire, seeking sandstorm (DC 40), storm of icy death, soul dominion (DC 40) , superb dispelling
Wizard Spells Prepared (CL 32. 50 for overcoming SR): DC 30+spell level 4/9/9/8/8/8/8/7/7/7/4/3/3/3/3/2/2/2/2
18th— intensified widened meteor swarm (2) (DC 39)
17th— enhanced intensified quickened cone of cold (DC 35) , intensified quickened delayed blast fireball (DC 37)
16th— enhanced intensified chain lightning (DC 36) , quickened intensified chain lightning (DC 36)
15th— intensified energy drain, intensified meteor swarm (DC 39) ,
14th— enhanced quickened widened greater dispel magic, enhanced empowered widened horrid wilting (2) (DC 38) ,
13th— enhanced maximized delayed blast fireball (DC 37) , enhanced intensified vampiric touch, quickened empowered energy drain
12th— enhanced quickened greater dispel magic, quickened time stop, quickened wish,
11th— empowered maximized horrid wilting (DC 38) , maximized time stop, quickened maze,
10th— intensified enervation, quickened delayed blast fireball (DC 37) , quickened limited wish, enhanced maximized cone of cold (DC 35)
9th— disjunction, empowered horrid wilting (DC 38), energy drain, quickened greater dispel magic, time stop (2) , wish
8th— create greater undead, empowered delayed blast fireball (DC 37) , maze, mind blank, moment of prescience, polymorph any object, quickened feeblemind (DC 35)
7th— delayed blast fireball (DC 37) , finger of death (DC 37) , greater scrying (DC 37) , limited wish, quickened empowered fireball (DC 33) , quickened dimension door, vision
6th— empowered cone of cold (DC 35), greater dispel magic (2) , greater heroism, quickened lightning bolt (DC 33), quickened vampiric touch, mage’s lucubration, wall of iron
5th— cone of cold (DC 35) , dream, feeblemind (DC 35) , mind fog (DC 35) , persistent image (DC 35), quickened mirror image, quickened resist energy, wall of force
4th— empowered fireball (DC 33) , greater invisibility (2) , phantasmal killer (DC 34) , remove curse, scrying (DC 34) , solid fog, touch the black (DC 34)
3rd— blink, dispel magic, fireball (DC 33) , haste, protection from energy (2) , vampiric touch, slow (DC 33)
2nd— glitterdust (2)(DC 32), invisibility, locate object, mirror image (2) , resist energy (2), scorching ray
1st— alarm, identify (2) , magic missile (2) , ray of enfeeblement, shield (2) , unseen servant
0th— detect magic (2), read magic (2)
Epic Powers/Day 5; Epic Powers Known (ML 31. 50 for overcoming PR):
beast mastery (DC 38) , epic schism, order’s scry (DC 38) , psionic kinetic control
Power Points/Day 670; Psion Powers Known (ML 31. 50 for overcoming PR): DC 28+Power Level
9th— microcosm (DC 37) , psychic chirurgery, timeless body
8th— bend reality, psionic greater teleport, true metabolism
7th— decerebrate (DC 35) , incorporeality, insanity (DC 35) , mindflame (DC 35) , ultrablast (DC 35)
6th— mass cloud mind (DC 34) , psionic disintegrate (DC 34) , psionic contingency
5th— mind probe (DC 33) , psionic plane shift, psionic true seeing, psychic crush (DC 29)
4th— aura sight, correspond, hallucination (DC 32) , psionic divination, psionic dominate (DC 32) , psychic reformation
3rd— dispel psionics, hostile empathetic transfer (DC 31) , telekinetic force, telekinetic thrust (DC 31)
2nd— concussion blast, mass missive, energy stun (DC 30) , read thoughts (DC 30) ,
1st— mind thrust (DC 29) , offensive prescience, psionic charm (DC 29) , vigor
Abilities Str 66 (+28), Dex 30 (+10), Con 46 (+18), Int 46 (+18), Wis 30 (+10), Cha 34 (+12)
SQ ageless, assisted flight, change shape (small, medium, or large humanoid), elemental affinity (fire), meta-crafting, meta-mastery, perfectly focused, psionic reinforcement, self-sustaining,
Salient Feats Advanced Being Apotheosis, Advanced Being Exaltation, Advanced Being Prowess (caster and manifester level cannot exceed hit dice after benefit of feat), Advanced Being Skill Affinity (half level bonus to all skills), Advanced Being Spell Capacity, Bolster Mystical Reservoir (2)b, Floating Feats (not applied below, usually used for item creation feats), Mystical Reservoir (10,000 XP), Psi-Spell Artisan Rank 1, Psi-Spell Artisan Rank 2, Psi-Spell Artisan Rank 3, Recuperation
Epic Feats Arcane Memoryb, Dragon Metamagic, Enhance Spellb, Epic Crafter, Epic Manifesting, Epic Psionic Focusb, Epic Psionic Meditationb, Epic Skill Focus (Psicraft)b, Epic Skill Focus (Spellcraft), Epic Spellcasting, Extended Dragon Metamagic, Improved Spell Capacity (10th), Far Reach, Improved Metamagicb Intensify Spellb, Metamixture (Unconditional Power), Metapotency (Empower Spell/Power)b, Multispellb, Polyglotb, Psiotheurgy,
Feats Agonizing Radius, Concussive Blast, Craft Universal Itemb, Craft Wondrous Itemb, Destructive Raze, Dragon Magicb, Efficient Raze, Empower Powerb, Empower Spellb, Eschew Materialsb, Harden Energy, Hoverb, Maximize Powerb, Maximize Spell, Power Attack, Psionic Meditationb, Quicken Spellb, Quicken Powerb, Scribe Scrollb, Sickening Radius, Unconditional Power, Widen Spellb, Widen Powerb,
Skills Autohypnosis 53(+90), Bluff 25(+64), Craft (2 at 12 ranks +55 each), Concentration 53(+98), Diplomacy 25(+64), Intimidate 25(+62), Knowledge [Arcana 53(+98), History 53(+96), Local 20(+63), Psionics 53(+98), Psiotheurgy 53(no check), Religion 20(+63), The Planes 25(+68)], Listen 25(+60), Perform (dance) 12(+45), Profession (artist) 12(+45), Psicraft 53(+108), Search 25(+60), Sense Motive 25(+60), Sleight of hand 9(+42), Spellcraft 53(+108, +161 for casting psionic enchantments), Spot 25(+60), Use Magic Device 5(+42), Use Psionic Device 5(+42)
Advanced Being Skill Affinity makes all skills class skills and gives a +25 Advanced Being bonus to all skills. Combined with psychic reformation to rearrange skill points as desired.
Possessions combat gear plus _,
Spellbook spells prepared plus all common or uncommon spells known to the Tyr Region of Athas and the Sword Coast Region of Toril (generally not rare or unique ones, however).
Breath Weapon (Su) As a standard action, Amouranyx can breathe a 70 foot cone of searing sand. Each creature in the cone must make a Reflex save (DC 53) or take 25d12 points of damage (half fire, half piercing). A successful save reduces the damage by half. Once she has used her breath weapon, she cannot use it again for 1d4 rounds.
Metamorphoses Dragon 1-X. In addition, modifications to the metamorphosis process made with the aid of Kaishgara in Yaramuke, the Crown of Unspun Dreams, and Rajaat’s research at Troll Grave Chasm, have given her the following additional abilities from her metamorphosis: cerebral expansion 1-V, telepathic awareness (Called Telepathy and Blindsight under revised seed) .
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