Sutherland Dragon mini from Wizkids

 

As part of the 50th anniversary of the publication of D&D occurring this month*, WizKids has announced a Red Dragon mini based on David Sutherland's cover for the Holmes Basic Set, which is available for pre-order now and will be released later this year.

Pre-order it from Amazon here:

WizKids Classic Red Dragon

The full text from the product page reads:

"A fiery peril to adventurers of editions, new and old, the red dragon has remained a mainstay of fantasy villainy. Celebrate this classic D&D threat with our new D&D Icons of the Realms: 50th Anniversary - Classic Red Dragon Boxed Miniature (Set 31)! 

This set includes the red dragon as depicted on the cover of the 1977 Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set. The beast among monsters. The tyrant among kings. The dragon among dragons."

Thanks to Josh and Leroyd20 on Twitter for a heads up on this release.

*Specifically, this upcoming weekend per the Playing at the World blog.

Update:

The Amazon pre-order page indicates that this will be shipping in early August of this year.

Dice Dragon: Breath Weapon further research

Based on further reports from adventurers collected by the Portown Sage, it is apparent that the Dice Dragon does not only breath faerie fire; rather, that is just one possible effect. The revised bestiary shall now read:

Dice dragons defend themselves with a sharp bite or, three times a day, a small puff of weird fire at a single target, which does no damage but causes a random effect (unless a save versus breath weapon is made) that lasts for 3d4 turns, as determined by rolling a d12:

1. Aged Equipment. All of the target’s non-magical equipment ages such that the next use causes it to break.

2. Berserk Grappler. The target immediately attempts to grapple the nearest creature other than the dragon, and continues to do so for the duration. 

3. Cloud of Darkness. Emanates from the target in a 30 foot radius, and moves with them.

4. Contagious De-evolution. The target, but not their equipment, polymorphs into a small lemur, and anyone who touches the lemur must save or suffer the same.

5. Enforced Pacifism. Any attack made by the target is followed by a round of incapacitating pain and suffering of 1d4 points of damage.

6. Faerie Fire. Outlines the target (+2 to be hit), and then in the next round spreads to all in a 30 foot radius.

7. Intermittent Beacon. Target emits a flash of light that blinds all in a 30 foot radius for 1 turn unless a save is made. This repeats once per turn for the duration.

8. Magic Absorption. The power of one spell or magic item, determined randomly, possessed by the target is transferred to the dragon to use. A spell or charged item so affected is lost, but a permanent item will be restored after the duration.

9. Noxious Stench. Emits from the target and is so strong that all within 60 feet must save each round to take any action.

10. Ravenous Hunger. For the duration, the target can do nothing but eat; after eating all their own rations, they will go after that of any others within sight.

11. Screaming Fear. Target flees, screaming maniacally, until at least 1000 feet from the dragon, and then screams again for one entire round each turn thereafter.

12. Visible Gaseous Form. Target assumes the form of a highly visible purple gas; all items drop to the ground.

Note: This is a revision of a new monster published previously on this blog. I decided that a monster with "Dice" in the title should produce a dice-based random effect. Also, the revised dragon employs all of the polyhedrals of the TSR Dragon Dice Set: d4 for breath weapon duration, d6 for bite damage; d8 for hit dice; d10 for percentile-based alignment; d12 for breath weapon effect; and d20 for attacks/saves.