Blue Dragons: Sand or Sea

[Janaxstrus]

What I've been saying. Can't +1 you though.

I like the bulky look and feel of the sand-blues. I like the sleek airy look of blues too (that might be PF not 4e I forget). I'm voting the third option because I want none of the above. I don't mind categorizing the dragons by color for their breath weapons and things but I find it silly to make ALL dragons of a type have illusions or whatever. Plus I like having my red dragons in the mountains, or on the coast or wherever I feel like.

However, a lot of us do like the idea that white dragons, (being, you know..white and all) don't live in forests, because of their complete lack of camouflage for that environment.
I know this is contrary to how some people feel, but I prefer some semblance of rationality behind monster habitats and the monster itself.

White dragons in the snow, green dragons in the forest, black dragons in the swamps, blue dragons in the deserts (the cloudless skies of the desert are their camouflage, to me, less of a stretch than a stormy coast lacking blue skies) and red dragons where ever the heck they want, because they are bigger and stronger than everyone else, but also mostly in volcanic regions.

That's my preference for some semblance of "natural selection" type coloration and environment crossing. White alligators don't live long in the swamps.

 

[slobster]

That's my preference for some semblance of "natural selection" type coloration and environment crossing. White alligators don't live long in the swamps.

For most monsters, I agree. Dragons are different, I think. A dragon doesn't need to blend in. It's a collossal mound of scales and teeth. What is it going to hide behind? Who is going to be fooled?

Why would they need to blend in? They might as well be gods compared to the "natural" prey that they go after. If you can't catch all the deer (or mammoths, or commoners) you can eat when you can fly at 90 mph and have a breath weapon that can wipe out an acre of forest, then I'm not sure the ability to vaguely resemble the color of your environment will help.

Again, for most monsters, I like to see thought given to their interaction with their ecology. But dragons are apex predators. They are so powerful that natural selection hasn't acted on them for a while. Blue dragons might be blue as a sexual display, or to help signal in territorial disputes, or because the goddess Tiamat called them forth at the beginning of time with that color. But it's not because they need to camouflage with blue skies to sneak up on wild pigeons.

With all that said, I voted to make them water enemies. It's because of a feeling of general appropriateness and coolness, though, not evolution.

And I agree with most people, it's a very very small issue. Blue dragons will be coast dwellers in my game regardless, and I don't much care what they are in the monster manual (unless I see a cool new idea that I decide to crib).

 

[Janaxstrus]

Dragons have to survive to be apex predators. They get tossed into the world and left to fend for themselves. I daresay it's easier for a white hatchling to catch what it needs to kill to survive and avoid being killed, while in some snowy wasteland.

ADULT dragons can live where they want, but by that time, I would think they'd be established in the area that suited their natural coloration.
Why would they want to move by then?

I like the idea that in general, you encounter green dragons in forests, but there are always room for interesting exceptions.

 

[lutecius]

Changing lore was tried in 4th Edition. Which was abandoned after just 3 years.

I skipped 4e but actually liked a lot of the new lore (some artistic choices are another story though). and even if I hated it but liked the mechanics I would probably have played the game because this kind of fluff is very easy to change.

as for the original question I voted sea. to me, a big blue dragon always seemed out of place in the desert (and the "color of the sky" thing, a bit far-fetched). and the ocean is such an obvious habitat for one of the main evil dragon types.

 

[slobster]

Dragons have to survive to be apex predators. They get tossed into the world and left to fend for themselves. I daresay it's easier for a white hatchling to catch what it needs to kill to survive and avoid being killed, while in some snowy wasteland.

ADULT dragons can live where they want, but by that time, I would think they'd be established in the area that suited their natural coloration.
Why would they want to move by then?

I like the idea that in general, you encounter green dragons in forests, but there are always room for interesting exceptions.

It's my own personal bit of fanon that dragons start life with muted colors, and truly prismatic pigmentation comes out as they grow into their adult size. Young dragons are also reared by their parents for the first century or so, in my games.

Not all games are like that, though, and a lot of games have dragons as more natural creatures and less magical and intelligent. Whatever works for you.

 

[Jacob Marley]

Is there any reason that people can't ignore the fluff? I mean, if you like blue dragons gliding through the hot desert air - play it that way. If you like blue dragons sailing down over coastal bluffs - play it that way. If you don't like blue dragons at all - well, ignore that monster entry or refluff it to whatever you want.

It makes absolutely no difference to me what WotC puts as fluff in their books; I can change that. For me, halflings will always be chubby farmers with hairy feet, Nerull will always be the god of death (suck it, Raven Queen), and blue dragons will always live in the desert.

 

[CleverNickName]

I stopped using "colors" for my dragons years ago. In my games, all dragons have the chameleon-like ability to change their scales to fit their surroundings. This translates to a racial bonus to Hide checks (in 3rd Edition) or Surprise checks (in BECM).

But I didn't do this simply for the sake of change; I did it to discourage certain metagame tactics like scry-buff-teleport. In my games, dragons are always the color of the clouds, soil, rocks, foliage, water, or whatever else they are hiding in. No more knowing a dragon's strengths and weaknesses at a glance.

 

[Agamon]

Yeah, but not all the ideas were terrible. Some of the fluff that 4e added was good. I'd hate to lose those gems in the process of tossing out the rest.

To point: most of the dragons can be found in a terrain that is common to temperate areas: reds in the mountains, whites on the frost-tipped peaks, greens the forests, blacks in the swamp. However, blue requires a certain climate and terrain (warm deserts) that aren't all that common. I guarantee there are more coastlines than deserts. Putting blue on the seas makes them closer to their brethren and allows them to be use anywhere there is large areas of water.

This is just one of those areas I think a break from tradition is a good change.

I live in a temperate area that is the next thing to desert. If blacks can live in swamps, bogs and marshes, red dragons in wind-swept peaks, foothills and broken crags, then maybe blues can be in hot deserts, warm grasslands, and yes, sandy beaches.

The ocean is an inhospitable as a desert, probably more so (for land-dwellers, obv). As long as they don't actually live in the water (leave that to dragon turtles and asian-style dragons), I have no problem with allowing for both.

 

[Derren]

It is interesting how many people think that a dragon should hide by burrowing into the ground (face it, there are not many other options of hiding in a desert) or stalk their prey on their ground instead of flying high in the sky.

 

[Blackwarder]

I never liked the idea of blue dragons living in a desert, my first encounter with blue dragons was in the dragonlance trilogy when I was a kid and since then I always associated them with storms, wind swept plains, winter and cragy coasts...

And also, my group never advantured around deserts, and blue dragons are my favorite chromatic dragons (silver being my favorite metallic dragons), so I'm voting on coasts , although I have no problem with the definition being barren/arid so both a desert and a cragy wind swept coasts are fine.

Warder