Community

Smaug the Magnificent:
Well in honor the Hobbit (book and movie) I decided to finally make a stat block for my favorite red-god dragon.  I decided to make Smaug and Epic level threat despite the fact the books are more heroic or paragon tier.  I wanted him to be a true end of campaign threat – so in 4e that would be EPIC!  Besides, Smaug I generally think of Smaug as being somewhere north of 100’ long, so it just fit.

Anyway, the damage math is based off the DMG 42 blog damage analysis ( dmg42.blogspot.com/2012/02/boot-on-face-... ) as are all my Epic monsters these days.  I used solo Brute HP (Brutex4), not the official solo HP method.  I also tried to include all of the iconic Smaug traits (armor like tenfold shields, tail a thunderbolt, wings a hurricane, breath-death, etc.) and included the Vulnerable Belly trait to account for that pesky hole in his armor.

Just realized Terrible Presence might be a bit much.  I can see why WotC removed from their updated dragons.  I might have to change that.   

Anyway, let me know what you think!

SMAUG'S HORDE

The Value of Smaug's Treasure Horde according to FORBS MAGAZINE

"But, obviously, the mound isn’t solid gold and silver. We know it has a “great two-handled cups” in it – one of which Bilbo steals – and probably human remains, not to mention the air space between the coins. Let’s assume that the mound is 30% air and bones. That makes the volume of the hoard that is pure gold and silver coins 472.9 cubic feet.

We know that Bilbo eventually takes his cut of the treasure in two small-chests, one filled with gold and the other filled with silver, so it seems safe to assume that the hoard is approximately ½ gold and ½ silver, or 236.4 cubic feet of each metal."

So that Horde is (not including artefacts and art):

236.4 cubic feet of Gold (1205lb/cubic foot) = 284,862lb (BECMI: 2,848,620gp)
236.4 Cubic Feet of Silver (655lb/cubic foot) = 154,842lb (BECMI: 1,548,420sp (154,842gp))

"Smaug is encrusted with 38,900 diamonds" of 5.99 carates each.

1 x 10,000gp BECMI Diamond = 1/10th of a pound

Diamond is 1/142 ounces/carat

233,011 carates x 1/142 ounce = 1640.92 ounces
1 ounce = 0.0625 lb
=102.5575lb
10.25575 becmi Diamonds = 102,557gp

subtotal (3,106,019gp)

"The Arkenstone is explicitly valued at exactly 1/14th of the entire treasure."
That puts the Arkenstone of Thrain at a value of: 238,924gp

TOTAL HORDE (3,344,943gp)

Thank you for adding that info Yellowdingo; however, I must say that the author underestimates the size of Smaug.  If the size of his horde was based on Smaug's size then he has really udnervalued the horde as well.


In "Inside Information"  Smaug tries to chase after the fleeing Bilbo who is running up the secret dwarven tunnel.  The tunnel is aprox. 5' high and wide enough for 2 dwarves to walk side by side.  However, Smaug's head is to big to fit into the tunnel, thus he blows fire through his nostrils at Bilbo.  That makes Smaug much bigger 64' long red dragon in the article.

That is assuming that smaugs head is a perfect rectangle. f he has horns, as often depicted, the total width of his head could be much wider than the tunnel entrance. I do not recall the book saying that his nostrils are the sizeof the tunnel, just that he blows fire from his nostrils. Also, the scale of his head compared to his body is always debatable. The size they use might be incorect, but it sounds like a reasonable estimate to me, considering real world amounts of gold. In D&D the gold that is used as currency is much greater in volume than anyhting in reality. Every old dragons hord is like a small fort knox.

Dec 24, 2012 -- 1:31AM, vitamin_q wrote:

That is assuming that smaugs head is a perfect rectangle. f he has horns, as often depicted, the total width of his head could be much wider than the tunnel entrance. I do not recall the book saying that his nostrils are the sizeof the tunnel, just that he blows fire from his nostrils. Also, the scale of his head compared to his body is always debatable. The size they use might be incorect, but it sounds like a reasonable estimate to me, considering real world amounts of gold. In D&D the gold that is used as currency is much greater in volume than anyhting in reality. Every old dragons hord is like a small fort knox.

"...,and fast though he sped up the slope, he had not gone nearly far enough to be comfortable before the ghastly head of Smaug was thrust agaisnt the opening behind.  Luckily, the whole head and jaws could not squeeze in, but the nostrils sent forth fire and vapour to pursue him,..." J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit


He couldn't even get his jaws all the way in the tunnel, that is why he couldn't open them to breath fire normally and had to use his nostrils instead.  In addition, Tolkien never depicted Smaug with horns.  He did indicated large ears usually though.

My point is that by using the description in the book and Tolkien's own illustrations you could develop a good estimate for Smaug's size (not if you go just by the most detailed illustation I think you would get a different size than using both) and it would be much larger than the size he used.  Why he used a D&D dragon I do not know.