Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Arturius1 04-06-07, 08:48 PM	The BBEG of a game I'm in is a shadow dragon of unknown age category. We're currently level 20 and we're only just meeting him now (game started at level 15). My character is a paladin/platinum knight/vassal of bahamut, so I'm more than prepared to fight evil dragons. I could potentially take down a standard great wyrm red dragon solo if I had the right spells going, and my DM is aware of that. Taking that into account, I know this thing can't be a standard great wyrm shadow; he's got to have some virtual age categories. Unfortunately, I can only determine he's got at least 2 since he's colossal-sized when I asked. The only fact I have that might be useful is that he's at least 10,000 years old. Can a virtual age category be determined based on years or is it simply a matter of HD?
rob_douglas 04-06-07, 11:44 PM	No, you can't tell its age category directly from knowing it is 10,000 years old, but it could be a clue. I think your DM wants it to be a clue. I believe that Great Wyrm is 1201+, and each category lasts 200 years up to that. I think that it would be insane to conclude that it has 10000-1400/200 = 43 virtual age categories, so he probably slowed the advancement. Maybe 1000 years each, which would still mean it has 8 or so. But it could also have class levels, making its spellcasting more potent. Sorcerer stacks with Dragon casting, and there are some other classes that might support a Shadow Dragon, Shadow Adept for instance. Not a lot, but it does work. See if Gather Information won't learn you some more information. ROB