where&when of the shadow-reduction of Dragon breath weapons!

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Tor
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where&when of the shadow-reduction of Dragon breath weapons!

Unread post by Tor »

I only thought to go check for this when I was surprised reading a later book... but so far as I can tell...

1988 5fthPrintingPRPGp204 "a dragon can breath its breath weapon as many times per melee as indicated by number of attacks". Dragons didn't have many attacks back then, but the main 4 all knew Fleet Feet and could double them to get a lot of breath weapon attacks. Back then Nightstalkers also had fire breath although theirs had a savings throw for some reason (Fire/Horned didn't). A FF'dGHD could get 8 breath attacks.

1996 5thPrintingConversionBook
*Pg121 Adult Fires limited to 4/melee, presumably a tradeoff for getting added range and width (something hatchlings didn't get in Rifts) to the blast since they didn't get any other boost
*Pg122 Adult Horned also limited to 4/melee, about the thing keeping them below Fires now is the reduced range, since they have equal width/damage
*Pg125 Adult Ice also limited to 4/melee
*Pg128 Adult Thunder also limited to 4/melee, typo in combat section says 'four fire breath' but poison correctly given under 'damage'

1997 10thPrintingRiftsPg100-101 the fire/ice/poison breath states no limitations as to frequency and presumably operates the same way as PRPG. As this later printing of RMB does not reflect the per-melee limitations introduced for adults in CB1, it is assumed that the limitations only apply to adults since their blasts are more intense.

1998 2ndPrintingDragonsAndGods (adjusts stats but doesn't distinguish different breath abilities for adults or hatchlings)
*Pg27 Adult Fire still 4/melee like in CB1, same range, better width and damage, no range reduction mentioned for Hatchlings, Hatchlings only get 2 breaths/melee
*Pg29 Adult Horned reduced to 3/melee, same range+width as CB1, damage is reduced to 2/3 of FireDragon's FireBreath, which is nice. Hatchlings only get 2 breaths/melee.
*Pg30's conversion notes for Horned in Rifts notably says 'stats unchanged' and gives no MD for Fire Breath. MD for Fire Breath IS mentioned for the Fire Dragon on page 27 though. This could be interpreted as reducing the fire breath damage for Horneds in Rifts to mere SDC instead of the former low MD attack they had. Not really opposed to this, but a notable change if omission is seen as alteration
*Pg 34 basically the same as CB1, maintaining the 4/melee for adults, puts a similar 2/melee cap on hatchlings.

2003 1stPrintingFiretownPg25 We finally get a guideline for the width of a hatchling's blast, which is half that of an adult's. Pretty decent since the range is less than half. While damage and range are the same as in RMB, the Ice Dragon Hatchling (and presumably other 3 RMB species due to similar function) is limited to 1 shot per melee, even worse than Dragons and Gods.

It seems like progressively (CB1/D+G/Firetown) steps have been taken to reduce the frequency in which dragons can use their breath weapons. Why is this being done? This is a major chance, especially for higher-level dragons who have many attacks.

Even going with RMB prior to that whole '2 attacks for living' thing, a first level dragon could use their breath weapon THREE times, and this could be a major determinant of their effectiveness in ranged combat since they're not likely to start with ranged weapons. A scenario might've been run where in a single melee, a dragon took out 3 unarmored psi-stalkers who were about to stack a friendly mage or something.

Now, with the progressive 4/melee and 2/melee and 1/melee caps that have been put on the frequency of usage, all these situations are nullified?

This is basically why the 'separate dimensions theory' is about the only way to make sense of this...

Or is there some kind of dragon-specific virus spread on Rifts Earth which has been hampering their breathing to explain this?

I actually would love changes like this so long as they were actually pointed out by the author and explained by situations. Breathweapon-hampering viruses would rock much harder than this simply 'oh yeah, this limit always existed even though we never stated it before and it contrasts with all dragon-based precidents that existed from their RPG of origin").
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Re: where&when of the shadow-reduction of Dragon breath weap

Unread post by gaby »

Well I changed Canon with the Breath weapons of Dragons and some of ther natural abilities,to add diversity.
do you have any ideas for New Breath attack for Dragons?
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Re: where&when of the shadow-reduction of Dragon breath weap

Unread post by The Ruiner »

I was always confused as to why a Thunder Lizard didn't breath lightning as an attack.
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Tor
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Re: where&when of the shadow-reduction of Dragon breath weap

Unread post by Tor »

or sound-waves
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Re: where&when of the shadow-reduction of Dragon breath weap

Unread post by Alrik Vas »

I thought thunder lizard was because it makes a thunderous sound when it moves, due to its mass. :P
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Tor
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Re: where&when of the shadow-reduction of Dragon breath weap

Unread post by Tor »

Do they weigh more than others? Or maybe because they're non-fliers and would be forced to lumber about.
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