Copyright 2008 Wizards of the Coast

This is part of a series! Go here to see the other entries.

Black dragons are the sneakiest, and gothiest, of the chromatics. Their favorite environment is a dismal dark swamp beneath whose fetid waters they can hide to ambush their victims. Gloomy forests, acidic lakes under dank mountain dungeons and places that touch the Shadowfell are also good lair material.

Every chromatic dragon seems to have some signature personality trait in addition to greed. For black dragons, that trait is cruelty. These sadistic creatures will hunt even when they’re not hungry just for the pleasure of torturing and killing a victim. For minions, they typically enlist tribes of lizardfolk and other swamp-dwellers. They’re also the first dragons in the chromatic power ladder that might engage in complex plots to acquire more treasure and power over their surroundings.

Black dragons breathe sprays of acid, and can envelop themselves in a shroud of darkness. So even if a black dragon’s lair isn’t naturally gloomy and caustic, they’ll make it so. They’re also amphibious, which is particularly annoying to adventurers since it means their hoards will often be hidden underwater.

Like all dragons, they’re Natural Magical Beasts with the Dragon keyword. Unlike other dragons, they also have the Aquatic keyword, which allows them to breathe underwater and enjoy a +2 attack bonus against non-aquatic opponents while in there.

All black dragon age categories in each book represent increasingly powerful versions of the same monster, with the main differences being between the MM and MV representations, so we’ll discuss the stats by book and not by age category.

Black Dragon (Monster Manual)

The MM black dragon has trained Perception, Nature and Stealth, along with Darkvision and Acid Resistance that varies with age. It can move equally fast on land, water and in the air, with a further increased overland flight speed.

In every age category it has two basic attacks: a bite that does physical damage and ongoing acid damage (save ends), and a weak claw. Its Double Attack ability allows it to make 2 claw attacks as a standard action. The breath weapon is the usual Reflex-targeting Close Blast 5 that recharges on a 5-6. It does acid damage, ongoing acid damage, and gives a -4 penalty to AC (save ends both). Its final standard-action abilities are our familiar Frightful Presence and Cloud of Darkness.

The Cloud of Darkness ability creates a zone of darkness on a Close Burst 2, which blocks line of sight for all creatures except the dragon. Anyone fully inside it (except the dragon!) is also blinded, so darkvision won’t save you here. The zone lasts a turn but can be sustained with a minor action, and the power recharges on a 3-6. I’m guessing this is more of an inky chemical smoke thing than simple darkness.

For triggered abilities, it can count on the traditional Bloodied Breath, and on a Tail Slash that triggers as a reaction when someone misses the dragon with a melee attack. This is attack does a bit more damage than a claw and pushes the target 1 square.

Young black dragons are Large Level 4 Solo Lurkers with 208 HP, Acid Resistance 15, speed 7, and Reach 2 on their melee attacks. They’re clumsy fliers, but have an overland flight speed of 10.

Adult black dragons are Large Level 11 Solo Lurkers with 560 HP, Acid Resistance 20, speed 8, overland flight 10, and Reach 2 on their melee attacks. Their flight is no longer clumsy and gains the “hover” keyword.

Elder black dragons are Huge Level 18 Solo Lurkers with 860 HP, Acid Resistance 25, Speed 9, overland flight 12, and Reach 3 on their melee attacks. They also gain a new ability: Vitriolic Spray, an encounter power that’s basically a new breath weapon. It does a bit less damage than the standard breath, but blinds on a hit (save ends). Obviously, the dragon retains its normal breath weapon attack as well.

Ancient black dragons are Gargantuan Level 26 Solo Lurkers with 1190 HP, Acid Resistance 30, Speed 10, Overland Flight 15, and Reach 4 on their melee attacks. They replace the standard Cloud of Darkness with Acid Gloom, which works the same but also deals acid damage to any creature that enters or starts its turn within. While the dragon itself would technically take this damage, its resistance makes it immune to it.

Black Dragon (Monster Vault)

The MV black dragons have the same senses, trained skills and movement modes as the MM versions. Their acid resistance is a bit smaller, and it seems their speed is a bit lower at the higher ages. Oh, and they gain Swamp Walk, allowing them to ignore swampy difficult terrain. I only now realize the MM dragons didn’t have this, which is a glaring oversight.

At all age categories, their basic attack is a bite that does physical damage plus ongoing acid damage on a hit, and a little bit of acid damage on a miss. They can instead make two slightly weaker claw attacks, which end up stronger than the bite if both hit the same target. The breath weapon does acid damage and ongoing acid damage, without the AC penalty from the MM version.

Cloud of Darkness is replaced with Shroud of Gloom, a Close Burst 5 that automatically gives everyone caught in it acid vulnerability and a -2 penalty to attacks until the end of the encounter. A PC can spend a standard action to make a Heal check and clear this condition from an ally. The DC of this test is age-based, but not very hard - clearly the cost here is wasting a standard action on it. Think of it as a thin layer of caustic gunk that must be scraped off. I suppose a generous GM might allow a healing power to be used instead, but this is purely a personal decision. This power is Recharge 6, too, so it’s going to be a problem more than once per battle.

For passive traits, they have the already-familiar Aquatic and Action Recovery, plus Acid Blood and Instinctive Devouring. Acid Blood deals acid damage to everyone adjacent to the dragon every time it takes damage while bloodied. Instinctive Devouring allows the dragon to bite or charge someone as its 10+rolled initiative action, or to end any stunning or dominating effect that would prevent it from doing so.

Its triggered actions are Bloodied Breath and Tail Sweep. That last one is triggers when someone misses the dragon with a melee attack. It has a Reach 1 greater than standard for the age category, and targets Reflex. On a hit the target takes damage, falls prone, and everyone adjacent to it takes some automatic physical damage.

Young Black Dragons in the MV are Large Level 4 Solo Lurkers with 208 HP. Their acid resistance is 10, their speed 7, their melee Reach 2 (3 for the tail), and their ongoing/incidental damage for the acid powers and the tail is 5.

Elder Black Dragons are Huge Level 18 Solo Lurkers with 676 HP. Their acid resistance is 15, their speed 8, their melee reach 3 (4 for the tail) and their ongoing/incidental damage 10. They also gain a new ability, Acid Gob, a Ranged 10 attack that targets Reflex. On a hit, the target is blinded and takes 30 ongoing acid damage (save ends both).

You should be able to easily interpolate the other age categories based on this.

Sample Encounters

The two sample encounters in the MM are:

  • Level 5, a young black dragon and 2 dark creepers. This is that Shadowfell flavor at work.

  • Level 13, an adult black dragon, 2 trolls and a bog hag. Swamp dwellers unite!

Final Impressions

In my experience, black dragons are the second most popular variant, being the go-to choice for when you think a white is too weak and a red too strong. I note that both versions of black dragons lack powers that would do increased damage when it attacks from hiding, though I think that’s actually OK here. This is a solo lurker, so it needs to be able to do something effective every turn or the fight will take twice as long. Still, this is a dragon that benefits even more from being a part of an encounter group than the others.

The second sample encounter above is the more effective of the two, since the trolls would be good at occupying the party’s attention while the dragon strikes from ambush. For added Fun(TM), you can say the dragon or the hag have used a ritual to give them acid resistance and/or eliminate their weakness against acid. If Pathfinder: Kingmaker can do it, so can you!

Elder black dragons sound like they could hang out with aboleths, since their lairs could conceivably reach into the depths of the Underdark. The question then becomes, who is using who? Clever GMs can find a way to make the answer be “Both”.