Dragon (Other), Prism DragonThe facets of this crystalline dragon’s body reflect fascinating and sparkling patterns.Prism Dragon CR 17Source Occult Bestiary pg. 42
XP 102,400
CN Huge dragon (extraplanar)
Init +5; Senses blindsight 30 ft., darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +28DefenseAC 35, touch 9, flat-footed 34 (+1 Dex, +26 natural, –2 size)
hp 283 (21d12+147)
Fort +21, Ref +15, Will +17; +4 vs. psychic spells
Defensive Abilities all-around vision, psychic resilience, ray reflection; DR 15/magic; Immune acid, electricity, paralysis, sleep; SR 28
Weaknesses vulnerable to sonicOffenseSpeed 60 ft., climb 30 ft., fly 200 ft. (poor)
Melee bite +30 (2d6+10/19–20), 2 claws +29 (1d8+10), tail slap +27 (2d6+5), 2 wings +27 (1d8+5)
Space 15 ft., Reach 15 ft.
Special Attacks breath weapon (100-ft. line, 20d6 fire, Reflex DC 27 half, usable every 1d4 rounds)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 21st; concentration +29)
At will—analyze auraOA, color spray (DC 19), glitterdust (DC 20), mirror image (DC 19)
3/day—invisibility (DC 20), major image (DC 21), rainbow pattern (DC 22)
1/day—phantasmal killer (DC 22), prismatic spray (DC 25)
Psychic Magic (CL 21st; concentration +29)
20 PE—aura alterationOA (3 PE, DC 21), emotive blockOA (3 PE, DC 21), greater possessionOA (8 PE, DC 26), id insinuation VOA (6 PE, DC 24), instigate psychic duelOA (2 PE, DC 20), mass synesthesiaOA (6 PE, DC 24), psychic surgeryOA (5 PE, DC 25), suggestion (3 PE, DC 21), synaptic scrambleOA (4 PE, DC 22)StatisticsStr 31, Dex 12, Con 25, Int 20, Wis 21, Cha 26
Base Atk +21; CMB +33; CMD 44
Feats Deceitful, Great Fortitude, Improved Critical (bite), Improved Initiative, Improved Vital Strike, Lightning Reflexes, Multiattack, Power Attack, Psychic CombatantOA, Vital Strike, Weapon Focus (bite)
Skills Bluff +35, Climb +31, Diplomacy +22, Disguise +22, Fly +16, Intimidate +31, Knowledge (dungeoneering, history, nobility) +28, Perception +28, Sense Motive +28, Stealth +16, Survival +28
Languages Aklo, Auran, Common, Draconic, Elven, Terran
SQ dazzling presence, razor sharpEcologyEnvironment any mountain or underground
Organization solitary
Treasure tripleSpecial AbilitiesBreath Weapon (Su) Once every 1d4 rounds as a standard action, a prism dragon can fire a beam of scintillating light in a 100-foot line. Creatures caught in this line take 20d6 points of fire damage and are blinded for 2d6 rounds. A successful DC 27 Reflex save halves the damage and negates the blindness. As a full-round action, a prism dragon can instead fire a prismatic beam; every creature within the line of effect who fails its Reflex save is also affected as if targeted by a prismatic spray spell. Using this ability expends the prismatic dragon’s daily use of its prismatic spray spell-like ability.
Dazzling Presence (Su) In areas of dim or brighter light, a prism dragon’s body catches and refracts light into brilliant patterns and colors within 100 feet around its body. This effect renders illusions more potent, increasing the save DC of all illusion spells cast within the area of effect by 2. In addition, as a swift action, the prism dragon may move any dancing lights, daylight, light, or visual illusion spells within the area of its dazzling presence to any other point within 100 feet.
Razor Sharp (Ex) All of a prism dragon’s natural attacks deal slashing damage.
Ray Reflection (Ex) A prism dragon’s scales reflect ray spells back on the ray’s source if the ray fails to overcome the dragon’s spell resistance.DescriptionHailing from an unknown location in the Great Beyond, prism dragons delight in manipulation for its own sake, shaping mortal societies and the world around them for little more than the fun doing so offers, distracting themselves from the tedium of ageless existence. Most prism dragons view humanoid creatures as parts of their hoard, as treasured and precious as any gem or goblet. Gifted with potent psychic abilities and the power to generate and warp illusions, prism dragons gravitate toward mastermind roles, and prefer to claim territories that overlap with complicated cultures—large cities, trade routes, and monster-infested ruins—where they can scheme and coax other intelligent creatures to dance to a particular tune. Prism dragons adore overelaborate schemes—not because they expect victory, but because complication gives so many things a chance to go wrong, allowing the dragons to test their quick wits and adaptability in addition to their planning skills. They detest physical confrontation, and only engage in it when left with no other recourse or when troublesome humanoids spoil their games. Chaos and change keep eternity exciting, but prismatic dragons are sore losers.
Prism dragons dislike undisguised truths, as they consider relating unvarnished facts to be boring and beneath them. As such, they rarely reveal themselves for what they are, even among cultures such as kobolds that revere dragons. For a prism dragon to reveal its true self is a sign of respect, but even then, the dragon is unlikely to communicate in a straightforward manner, feeling that doing so would be insulting the intelligence of its conversational partner. Prism dragons are fond of using illusions to appear as powerful visitors, or possessing long-standing members of the community and using their hosts’ resources to begin shaping their new homes to their liking. Their sense of fair play compels them to get permission from a host before possessing it, but a host who has answered an innocuous-seeming question from a stranger in the affirmative or nodded in agreement with a statement made by another patron at the local tavern is often unaware that she has consented. Indeed, whether permission has been received via the means many prism dragons employ is often a distinction without a difference to anyone else. Prism dragons view their inability to shapeshift as a special challenge, and no two members of their kind deal with this handicap the same way—a rare few use polymorph magic, but more commonly they rely on invisibility or subterfuge, or hide in plain sight by posing as exotic statuary while using their psychic abilities to coax their playthings to action. Eventually, they reshape alliances between groups of monsters or stir up courtly intrigue, leading to squabbling, infighting, and even war. Many prismatic dragons lair in the rubble of cities they claim to have ruined in ages long past.
As solitary creatures, prism dragons avoid one another. Though conflicts over territory are common, the haughty beasts never deign to battle each other in vulgar combat. Instead, the dragons wage intricate proxy wars against each other to settle bizarre wagers—betting that one of the dragons can get a certain nation to invade another, or that the other dragon can convince a king to willingly throw away his crown—or else concoct elaborate schemes to expose each other as impostors. Whatever the outlandish victory conditions of the contest, one rule is always in force: the draconic opponents can’t take a direct hand in the events, and can act only through proxies and agents. This leads to complicated webs of intrigue that develop over years or even decades as the dragons’ plots gradually come to fruition. The dragons, who are as fascinated by the behavioral patterns of intelligent creatures as they are by the scintillating patterns of light on treasure, find these contests immensely enjoyable, even despite the high (and sometimes deadly) stakes. They are not completely without the capacity for sympathy, however, and may make recompense to one who argues eloquently enough.
A prism dragon maintains its hoard carefully, though its system might not seem apparent to others at first. The puzzle-loving dragons invariably catalog their hoards (and any associated traps hidden therein) in some clever way, and looting a defeated prism dragon’s hoard without this master document can be as dangerous as facing the dragon itself. For example, traps in a prism dragon’s lair might deactivate only when the dragon stands in a certain spot and refracts the light in just the right way. Other prism dragons might organize their treasure by color, but lay traps based on aura, rather than physical hues, fooling selfcongratulatory adventurers who have no way of detecting the pattern.
Planar travelers report prism dragons on the Material Plane, the Astral Plane, the Ethereal Plane, and in lesser numbers across the Outer Planes, but to date none have reported young or infant versions of these shimmering beasts. Prism dragons themselves claim to be immortal— primeval dragons spawned at the dawn of the multiverse and serving as Apsu’s template to create the other, “lesser” draconic races. True dragons dispute this origin, and given prism dragons’ grandiose claims in all other affairs, this story likely bears little more than a grain of truth. Prism dragons share no apparent family connection to the crystal dragons of the Elemental Plane of Earth, despite their outward resemblance to them.
A fully grown prism dragon is 25 feet long and weighs more than 13,000 pounds.Creatures in "Dragon (Other)" Category
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