How do you like your dragons?

In my setting I treat them as the oldest and most powerful creation of the Immortals. Now that the Immortals are nearly all gone, the dragons are slowly beginning to replace them as the caretakers of the universe.

Long since lost track of numbers...

In my campaign, dragons have been around for all of history (and in fact date back fifty million years before that). Their civilisation works on a different time scale to ours, and because dragons are fiercely individualistic, they normally live out their lives without interacting with their peers. And their lives are long... the one dragon you can see on my website proclaims he was ancient when the Pyramids were built, and he was probably around when humans first crawled out of the trees. (Who do you think burned down the forest in the first place?)

Dragons as mortals percieve them are pretty much straight D&D. A dragon rules what it surveys with an iron fist, but rarely uses that fist because it has the patience to wait. Dragons are overlords, and anyone who knows a dragon knows that they're not to be trifled with. Even metallic dragons are so far beyond humans that they would probably crush you if you got uppity. (It's like dogs. A nice guy will put a dog down if it starts biting people. A nasty guy will see a dog in his yard and check to see if his shotgun is loaded.)

Then again, nobody has ever seen enough dragons to classify them by colour. Case in point: There have been precisely 4 dragons in this campaign so far, and they all look completely different, AND they've only been seen collectively by a small group of world-trotting adventurers.

Dragons are powerful magic-users and fiercely intelligent. They have doubtless done everything humans have, and done it better, millions of years ago... and that's dragons without classes! A draconian hero is something I haven't even considered using... yet.

I personally love dragons. LOVE them. And I think this approach reflects some of that...

Dragons in my campaign are pretty much big ole' Croks waiting on the bank. They sleep a whole lot and every once in a while they gorge on some tasty humans or other races. They are only concerned with politics between their own kind, and regard the politics of humans as arguments of who will lead the cattle line.

I have IO as the original creator of the Universe and the dragons were his favored creations so the worlds he created were meant to be playgrounds for them his favored children.....since then he moved on to bigger and better things only checking in on them time to time to see how they fare,but in his absence other gods came about and used the already created universe full of worlds to be a container for their children. Most of the lesser gods pooled their resources to make the first sentient humanoid race called the first. The First were just as powerful as dragons but they had a penchant for organization and advacement. At that time there were no divisions between arcane and divine magic and no limits to how powerful a mge could become. The first marshalled their forces and attacked the gods in a full out assault only the dragons were the deciding factor....they helped the gods and turned the tide wiping out the First. Since that time the gods grew fearful and limited the power mortals could attain true dweomers were sealed away caps were put on how far mortals could advance and magic was divided between arcane and divine, but those rules do not apply to dragons to show gratitude for their help in the godswar...that is why they can grow so powerful and cast from arcane and divine with out restriction. There are some dragons who cast at around 40th level in my campaign.

i like to use dragons as guardians of the world's largest treasure piles. they are the materials used for the worlds finest hats,boots and gloves as well as a nifty quarterstaff or dagger on occasion. ever had dragon jerky? who hasn't, that's so level 5! the heart basted in the creature's own blood while it roasts in a wood burning oven. that's how dragon is cooked friend.

Old, senile with lots of treasure, or romantic and in love,