Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Sword_of_Spirit Nov 15, 2014 16:02:00	Bronze dragons are my favorite variety of dragon. But as I was reading through the dragons and came to them I found their lair actions and regional effects rather lackluster in comparison to most dragons.   I'm really not sure how you are supposed to make effective use of their lair actions. The fog cloud only lasts for one round. They don't have the limitation that they can't use the same action again the next round, so they can essentially keep a fog cloud up indefinitely and simulate it moving around. Okay, that's not horrible. But when you compare it to the white dragon's freezing cloud or the black dragon's darkness, it seems really weak. Then look at their thunderclap. Puny damage and very, very temporary deafness in a 20' radius sphere. Deafness? Seems pretty useless by itself in 5e. Compare that to silver dragons who get equally puny damage, but it covers a massive 120' radius area. Silver dragons are probably the second weakest in this area.   For regional effects, bronze and silver seem to have the weakest ones, being about on on par with each other if you count the clouds and bright coral as mostly cosmetic, and the feather fall and illusionary sounds as close enough to equivalent. Control weather can be a strong effect, but it requires concentration, unlike some of the other dragons who just get their favored weather automatically surrounding them with no need to concentrate. Gold dragons have fairly weak regional effects also, but really good lair actions.   Now, compare the lair and regional effects of a bronze dragon to a black dragon. The black dragon has a much better area affect damage and area effect vision blocker--and they are persistent--while a bronze dragon has to keep using his each turn. Or just compare it with someone random like a white dragon, who also seems to blow the bronze dragon out of the water.   So, the question is, how is the bronze dragon supposed to make effective use of their lair actions? You can't both blind and deafen someone at the same time (which would be pretty useful), and you can't even keep someone deaf for an entire round. You can keep spamming small amounts of damage, which might be worthwhile if it had the same area that the silver dragon's action has, instead of just the standard 20' radius sphere.
#2 UngeheuerLich Nov 16, 2014 7:30:32	Deafness + fog sounds like a mean combo:   The bronze dragon is unseen and unheard, effectively being hidden without making any skill checks at all.
#3 autolycus Nov 17, 2014 8:39:23	The cool thing about regional effects and lair actions is that the ones provided are merely serving suggestions.   Feel free to make your own and share with us how it worked out.
#4 Theros Nov 17, 2014 8:50:56	I agree with AutoLycus, just amp it up.
#5 Sword_of_Spirit Nov 17, 2014 15:15:08	UngeheuerLich wrote:
#6 UngeheuerLich Nov 18, 2014 8:48:53	Oh, ok... thought it was deaf (save ends)
#7 Sword_of_Spirit Nov 18, 2014 16:06:29	UngeheuerLich wrote: