Cold-Blooded and Elemental Heritage (Ice)

[Krensky]

I thought cold-blooded was weird for Drakes, period. As flying hunters, they seem a lot more similar to me to birds or pterosaurs than reptiles. Dinosaurs were warm-blooded. Thematically, it's weird to me that drakes would not able to tolerate frozen peaks or chilly caverns. That's doubly true for arctic drakes. It gets even weirder when you realize that drakes have an innate ability to generate fire; talk about warm-blooded!

Not really.

Generating 'fire' isn't that biologically impressive (in terms of pure theory anyway). Plants and animals are quite capable of producing flammable hydrocarbons like oils or alcohols, not to mention methane. Discovery did a speculative biology bit a while back positing hydrogen (helps with flight too) and a platinum ore catalyst. It hasn't evolved, but there's loads of stuff that has that could go in that direction. Look at bombardier beetles and pistol shrimps.

The impressive one is breathing electricity. It takes a lot of volts to do that effectively over distance, especially if you want to not shock yourself.

Although it's slightly more plausible then 'cold'. I suppose some form of saline in an arctic environment might be interpreted that way, but it feels a little dodgy.

[Antilles]

Or, y'know, a wizard did it.

[Herodarwin]

Although it's slightly more plausible then 'cold'. I suppose some form of saline in an arctic environment might be interpreted that way, but it feels a little dodgy.

As a chemist I have to say cold is easy too, with the right type of salt. ammonium chloride if a good bet for living things "side affect of getting rid of waste products score" though it'll need a way of spraying dryish salt "http://www.jstor.org/pss/1365449" and spit.

[Sletchman]

Or, y'know, a wizard did it.

Testify!

I support not bring too much logic into the game, because that way madness lies.  I'm currently pondering making Drakes medium sized (like a more animalistic saurian), not sure how much of the existing block to change.

[pawsplay]

If a drake is trapped in a chilly cave, can they use their fire breath to warm it up?

[ArawnNox]

Or, y'know, a wizard did it.

Testify!

I support not bring too much logic into the game, because that way madness lies.  I'm currently pondering making Drakes medium sized (like a more animalistic saurian), not sure how much of the existing block to change.

Actually, what got me thinking about this was the fact that I've been working on a setting and wanting to marry juuuust enough science with juuuust enough magic. So, Furry Arctic Dragons were born. >.>

[Goodlun]

Or, y'know, a wizard did it.

Testify!

I support not bring too much logic into the game, because that way madness lies.  I'm currently pondering making Drakes medium sized (like a more animalistic saurian), not sure how much of the existing block to change.

Actually, what got me thinking about this was the fact that I've been working on a setting and wanting to marry juuuust enough science with juuuust enough magic. So, Furry Arctic Dragons were born. >.>

In that case please don't have their breath weapon be an Ice blast then, it just doesn't make evolutionary sense really.  I mean most of its prey would be well insulated against the cold.

[ArawnNox]

Or, y'know, a wizard did it.

Testify!

I support not bring too much logic into the game, because that way madness lies.  I'm currently pondering making Drakes medium sized (like a more animalistic saurian), not sure how much of the existing block to change.

Actually, what got me thinking about this was the fact that I've been working on a setting and wanting to marry juuuust enough science with juuuust enough magic. So, Furry Arctic Dragons were born. >.>

In that case please don't have their breath weapon be an Ice blast then, it just doesn't make evolutionary sense really.  I mean most of its prey would be well insulated against the cold.

Well, the breath weapon is the magic half of the whole "Personifying the elements" thing.

[pawsplay]

In that case please don't have their breath weapon be an Ice blast then, it just doesn't make evolutionary sense really.  I mean most of its prey would be well insulated against the cold.

Unless they live in a weird fantasy world where lots of creatures have elemental powers, a frozen breath would still be potent even in arctic climes.

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

I'm currently pondering making Drakes medium sized (like a more animalistic saurian), not sure how much of the existing block to change.

I don't entirely know your thought-process regarding this, but you could make them a 1x2 Large creature akin to a lion or a horse.  Smaller than the current model, but the stat block doesn't change.

[Sletchman]

I'm currently pondering making Drakes medium sized (like a more animalistic saurian), not sure how much of the existing block to change.

I don't entirely know your thought-process regarding this, but you could make them a 1x2 Large creature akin to a lion or a horse.  Smaller than the current model, but the stat block doesn't change.

That's actually something I hadn't considered, so cheers - more food for thought.

[Fiendbasher]

A 1x2 Large would probably lose Reach +1... unless it's neck was really long (as the pictures in the book seem to suggest, anyway). But then only its bite attack would benefit from +1 Reach.

Though I suppose if they lost the reach they could gain sharper senses, or thicker scales, to make up for it.  

As for the whole cold-blooded bit, I went with flip-flopping cold in cold-blooded with heat... sure it means the creature in question suffers when exposed to both heat and fire damage, but that rather makes sense for something which is essentially part ice elemental.

Also I consider heat and fire damage seperately. While fire can generate heat, fire damage tends to be relatively instantaneous while heat damage is usually a slower, more over-time thing.

Personally I think there should be a difference between cold damage and freezing damage as well... think of it like the difference between being caught out in a blizzard and having liquid nitrogen thrown on you.

Cold damage can usually be found in mundane sources. Freezing damage would come mainly from magic and elemental attacks. 

[Morgenstern]

Cold-blooded is one of those things that just makes me twitch still.  Drakes are a hard row to hoe for developers since 'dragons' are so very very iconic and very very disparate in people's minds.  Personally, coldblooded is weird. But that doesn't drive me nutters nearly like them being quadruped frames instead of hexaped frames.  Seeing dragons depicted as such has driven my batty since I was a wee child.  So we just play mine with a hexaped config and let the rest ride.  Forelimbs that can rend a man in twain, but still can't operate a door for a damn.

Um... that's exactly what the racial art for them in the book shows - that's a left fore-leg and a left-hind leg in the image - look at the way they overlap near the ground .