The KQ Forum has been pretty lively lately, and I wanted to promote this particular brainstorm because it’s just a lot of fun. Nothing says D&D more than a dragon’s breath weapon, so here are 100 different ways to tweak that iconic moment. [More…]

(1) A glob of molten steel.
(2) A cone of wooden splinters.
(3) Boiling water.
(4) River slime infested with disease and insects.
(5) Splinters of bone charged with negative energy.
(6) Gas that melts organic materials.
(7) Boiling blood.
(8) A gas that transforms victims into statues of silver or gold.
(9) A plague of flesh eating flies.
(10) Intoxicating gas.
(11) Stream of contact poison.
(12) Flaming plasma.
(13) Wave of necrotic energy that turns its victims into zombies.
(14) A cone of rocks.
(15) A swarm of scorpions.
(16) A healing breath.
(17) Boiling vomit.
(18) Giant bubbles that trap victims and then cause them to float away.
(19) A chocolate sauce that is actually a magical laxative…
(20) Glue or sticky webs.
(21) The angry ghosts of prior victims.
(22) Horny monkeys…
(23) A vortex of air that sucks victims into dragon’s gullet.
(24) Political rhetoric.
(25) Yo mamas…
(26) Boiling pitch, tar, or lead.
(27) Elemental earth, similar to concrete, that encases victims.
(28) Befouled blood.
(29) The sickeningly undigested remains of earlier victims.
(30) Pure phlogiston.
(31) Pure negative energy.
(32) Pepper spray.
(33) Lasers.
(34) A cloud of cyanide causing paralysis and possibly intestinal disorders.
(35) A spray of coralline algae which hardens over the victims.
(36) A stream of sharpened oyster shells.
(37) A jet of phosphyre.
(38) A line of enervation.
(39) A cone of blinding white light.
(40) A sphere of cacophonous sound.
(41) A ray of enervation and enfeebling.
(42) A swarm of locusts, wasps, or bees.
(43) Superheated sand or pebbles.
(44) Poisonous spittle.
(45) A cloud of disintegration foam.
(46) A flaming sphere with a time delayed explosion effect.
(47) Vampiric bats.
(48) An invisible psionic blast.
(49) A petrifying blast of sand.
(50) A windstorm or whirlwind.
(51) A blast of hot, armor piercing, sand.
(52) A crippling wave of indifference.
(53) A hailstorm of frozen unholy water.
(54) Webs of constricting razorwire.
(55) A black cloud that grants fast healing except that the “healed” flesh bubbles with cancers and jerks with a life of its own.
(56) The life draining shadows of departed loved ones who pass through you in soul-numbing swoops.
(57) A cloud of spores that germinate, network, and constrict just below the surface of the victim’s skin.
(58) Motes of sticky darkness.
(59) A wave of rust that only destroys metal.
(60) Caustic fire that burns paper and other consumables but leaves flesh intact.
(61) A green blast that causes plants to grow and constrict victims.
(62) Desiccating heat that scorches hair and dries out creatures with bodies formed from liquids.
(63) Radioactive mutation breath that causes cancers and uncontrolled growth of hair, skin, and pustules.
(64) A sonic boom, shattering glass for miles and summoning allies.
(65) Time shifting breath, victims lose an action.
(66) A cone of localized vacuum, doing cold and suffocation damage.
(67) A blast of glass shards which imbed and do continuing damage until removed.
(68) A blast of magnetism which immobilizes foes in metal armor and disarms those with metal weapons.
(69) The dragon’s own stomach which engulfs victims and then drags them inside of it once it sucks its innards back inside.
(70) A cone of stirges.
(71) Effervescing and admixing potions.
(72) Mirror surfaced shards.
(73) Light, pure and white.
(74) Denatured magic which manifests as three different, randomly selected, spell effects.
(75) Globs of pasty tissue which swiftly form into hostile duplicates of the victims.
(76) Crackling motes of elemental energy which make victims a deadly threat to anyone they touch.
(77) Holy breath, which causes double damage to chaotic evil creatures, and none to lawful good ones.
(78) Unholy breath, which does the opposite
(79) Blinding and silencing breath; victims cannot see or speak if they fail two saves.
(80) Purple fire that burns the victims every round until extinguished.
(81) Searing acid that burns the victims every round until washed away.
(82) Disenchanting breath (True terror!)
(83) Spell stealing breath, by which the dragon gains spells from the memories of arcane or divine casters. While it inhales them, the casters lose them.
(84) Spirit breath: dominating or possessing spirits.
(85) Ravenous hunger: affected creatures lose the will to fight and seek food instead.
(86) Immobility: creatures legs are trapped and they cannot move.
(87) Bubbles like soap, but when they pop, they explode.
(88) Graverobbing breath: Animates the dead
(89) Fearful roar, turning those who hear it into cowards
(90) Enchanting breath, making targets into friends who are on good terms with the dragon until hours or days later
(91) A cone of uncontrollable rage
(92) A vacuum centered on a target that draws everything not nailed down (including allies) to him/her at hurricane speed
(93) A breath-stealing mist which drowns its victims as if they have already held their breath for twice their Con score
(94) A wave of hunger so intense that it fatigues its victims, causes them to feast upon the fallen, and rise as ghouls under the dragon’s control
(95) A clear gas like rippled glass that renders all living things invisible to the afflicted
(96) A barrage of howler spines
(97) A ground-hugging fog from which rotting arms burst upward and whose claws grab, tear, and hobble legs
(98) Suffocating charcoal dust
(99) A tree of splayed tongues that wrap targets and snap them back into the dragon’s gullet
(100) Were-doom (causing lycanthropy in the targets).