D&D 5E Dragon Riding...

[Herosmith14]

So, I'm currently DMing LMoP for a group of brand new DnD players, and, since I have told them I'm planning on doing homebrew stuff after this is over, our warlock has been asking questions about things that she could do (I've mainly been answering in vague terms or with "I'll look into it") so I can mold the adventure to the characters, as well as for future reference in other campaigns. The latest of these questions is if she could eventually be a dragon (not wyvern) rider...

I thought it was an interesting question, but unlikely, considering DnD dragons are VERY SENTIENT, VERY ISOLATED, AND VERY WILLFUL. Other than the moral issues, having a full dragon pet would BREAK. THE. GAME! Right now, they can barely take on a wyrmling, and good luck raising one. Then you would have the fact that she would be OP compared to the other characters, prompting me to try and give them a crazy magic item or broken ability so the party is equal.

From a narrative standpoint, I really can only see gold as a possible willing mount that won't try manipulate you into being it's slave, and even that's a long shot.

I do think this is a fun, if impractical, idea that might want to be explored. I will probably say no this for my campaign, but it's a concept to look into nonetheless.

 

[Oofta]

If I did this I would treat the dragon as an NPC, following all the normal rules as spelled out in the DMG (tracking loyalty and so on). The difficulty is going to be that normally dragons only grow more powerful as they age. Unless your characters are a longer lived race and your adventures are years apart, the dragon is going to be either over or under powered. I suppose you could say that they don't actually join the party until they're almost the next age category.

In our home campaign you can have an animal companion for certain classes, but they always 4 levels (as measured by hit die) lower than the PC. After their hit die match the base creature they advance as a generic class - gaining extra HD and feats or ability score increases at every 4th level and so on. But if you allow something like that, expect a menagerie.

Or set up a friendship with a dragon. Near the end of the campaign, the dragon agrees to "partner" with the PC. So she can be a dragon rider for a least a couple of levels, but the dragon is never a "pet".

 

[Nevvur]

You've already identified many valid reasons for saying no, you don't need us to give you more. I think you should trust your instinct. But if for some reason you still want to try to make it work?

I think it's a stretch of the imagination that any dragon would serve as someone's pet (supervillains excluded, but I tend to think of that more as slavery). However, it would only be game breaking if you allowed her to treat it like a magic item she can pull out to fight her battles and fly her wherever she wants to go. She could still have a "pet" dragon as long as it's not following her around and/or waiting on her beck and call. Treat it as one of your plot devices, not a series of stats appended to her character sheet. Want the party to travel 500 miles without worrying about overland travel issues? Bring in the dragon. Want a wise, magical creature to impart a bit of lore to progress the story? Dragon time! If you do want to worry about overland travel issues, or you want to make the party work for that esoteric lore, don't bring the dragon and freely invent narrative reasons why.

As Oofta suggested, she should probably approach the relationship more as an alliance or friendship than pet/owner, given the whole sentience thing, but there are narrative workarounds for the aging issue if you want the dragon to grow with her. It could spend most of its time on another another plane where time passes more rapidly, for instance.

To restate though, I would just say no. "Yes, and..." gets tossed around a lot, but IMO it's overrated.

 

[77IM]

Have you read Dragonlance? Riding dragons is a pretty big deal. It only happens when the world is threatened, etc.

That said, the dragon only needs to be Large-sized in order for a Medium-sized creature to ride it. Young metallic dragons are in the CR 6-10 range and have no legendary actions, so they should be roughly balanced as NPC companions. And the can be as young as 6 years old! Dragons develop rather quickly so a 6-year-old dragon is probably wiser and better spoken than most adult humans; but, they might still be very curious about the world, and enjoy traveling with mortals, and even willing to take direction in combat. Personally, I'm partial to silver and bronze dragons, who are also frequently allies of the smaller people. A young bronze is CR 8, which means it's the equivalent of a whole PARTY of level 8 PCs, and looking at the stats, I can believe it. According to the encounter-building guidelines, the young bronze won't even be a threat to a 12-level party of 4. So, I think that's also a good level at which it would be appropriate for an NPC bronze dragon to tag along with the party and serve as a mount. That's the answer I'd give the warlock player: level 10-14, depending on the type of dragon. This will give the warlock something to work towards.