Gelidus Dragon (3.5e Monster)

= Gelidus Dragon =

Full article: Gelidus Dragon (3.5e Monster)

''No creature that exists today can match the bone-rending cold of a gelidus dragon. Their roar sprouts flowers of expanding ice in its wake, and their very presence siphons the climate of entire nations. It is thought that they sleep the ages away in their lairs on the highest peaks of the world, undisturbed by the mortals that dwell leagues below, until the time comes for them to fulfill their roles as harbingers of the next Ice Age.''

Gelidus dragons are powerful elemental dragons, intertwined with the elements of air and water, the magical basis of cold and ice. Their thick, resilient scales bear the faded blue-gray color of glacial deposits, and are often covered with a mixture of jagged ice plates and blooming hoarfrost, bespeckled with persistent rime. While they are relatively slow and ponderous flyers, gelidus dragons are capable swimmers that float through arctic waters with the grace of an albatross in flight.

The gelidus dragons' psychology has been coloured by their connection with frost and cold. Ice symbolizes the eternal, unchanging state, the end of all motion, and as such gelidus dragons are incredibly conservative and unbending in their ways. They value things that persist and endure without change, and as such have a profound love for sculptures and architecture. Many gelidus dragons are master sculptors, and build entire palaces out of permanent ice to contain their living form. This also reflects in their taste of treasure and riches, preferring form and dimension over explicit value.

Gelidus dragons are very patient, willing to wait many lifetimes for a certain event or opportunity to come to pass. They are, however, equally apathetic and lazy, and an ancient proverb tells that it is easier to stop the sun from rising in the morning than it is to encourage a gelidus dragon to take action. Regardless, they will happily forget their slothful natures if provoked into violence.

Combat
A gelidus dragon's natural weapons and any weapons it wields are treated as cold iron and magic (wyrmling – adult) or epic (mature adult – great wyrm) for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.

A gelidus dragon's damage reduction is overcome only by weapons that carry the essence of powerful fire. Examples of this are meteoric steel, and natural attacks from powerful monsters with the fire subtype.

Due to the intense cold it emits, the ice formations on a gelidus dragon's hide are constantly and rapidly growing and shifting. Frost endlessly seeps into wounds and the gaps between scales to become part of their body, granting them fast healing equal to five times their effective age category.

Older gelidus dragons abhor being forced into flight while in combat, and unlike most other types of dragons, they chiefly fight on the ground, often without even moving from their spot. As such, they have taught themselves to use their move actions for defensive abilities or spells. While maintaining contact with the ground would render other dragons vulnerable, a gelidus dragon's great resilience, magical defenses, high damage reduction, and intense fast healing makes it as hard to approach and destroy as any other dragon in the air.

 : A gelidus dragon's breath weapon consists of uttercold, dealing cold damage as per the above table. Any creature without cold immunity hit by a gelidus dragon's breath also incurs Dexterity damage as per the below table (Fortitude half).

Any object within the range of the gelidus dragon's influence is robbed of its vitality and movement. Half of the cold damage a gelidus dragon deals bypasses immunity to cold. Furthermore, any non-immune creature that takes cold damage from a gelidus dragon's spells or its uttercold wreath also takes Dexterity damage as per the below table (maximally once per round). Any creature whose Dexterity score is lowered to 0 by a gelidus dragon's cold effects freezes solid and must make a Fortitude save at the beginning of each round or die, until dead or freed. A creature so freed retains 1 point of Dexterity. Save DCs are Constitution-based.

 : A gelidus dragon of very young age or older can project fierce winds that cut straight to the soul. As a move-equivalent action, it may project this ability in the following ways:


 * Icythorn Barrier: The gelidus dragon creates a protective shell of icy wind around its body that deflects projectiles in the same way as a wind wall spell and doubles the damage per round of its uttercold wreath while active. The wall lasts until the start of its next turn.


 * Icythorn Blast: The gelidus dragon projects a cone of wind and ice that muffles and extinguishes fire and heat. This functions as a combined gust of wind, quench, and cone of cold effect, both at their effective caster level (uncapped). The dispelling effect of the icythorn blast is at a +4 circumstance bonus to caster level checks.

This ability is equivalent to a spell with a level of 3 plus half the dragon's age category (rounded down). Save DCs are Charisma based.

For as long as any creature remains within the gelidus dragon's natural reach, it suffers 1d6 points of cold damage per age category the dragon has. Any creature without cold immunity within 5 feet per age category of the gelidus dragon is also slowed without save.

Any creature with cold protection (see Protection against Cold, pgX) is dealt damage as if the gelidus dragon's age category is one lower for every point of cold protection they have (minimum wyrmling; 1d6 damage). Spells like endure elements confer protection against heat or cold.

A gelidus dragon's cold aura extends beyond its reach, creating an area of unearthly cold (see Cold Dangers, pg12) out to a certain distance depending on their age category. In this area, temperatures can be lower than -60°F and are almost intense enough to snap-freeze a creature's eyes and skin. A character inside a gelidus dragon's cold aura takes 1d6 lethal damage and 1d4 nonlethal damage every round unless adequately protected.

Any spell with the Fire descriptor cast within a gelidus dragon's uttercold wreath immediately fizzles upon casting unless the spellcaster that cast the spell succeeds on a caster level check against the gelidus dragon's spell resistance, even if such a spell normally wouldn't allow spell resistance. If the fire spell also targets or is cast in a way as to affect the gelidus dragon personally, the caster must check against the dragon's spell resistance a second time (if the spell allows spell resistance) before the spell takes any effect on the dragon.