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<blockquote data-quote="see" data-source="post: 8436448" data-attributes="member: 10531"><p>That was an accident of game evolution.</p><p></p><p>In the beginning, there were six colors of dragon, one being golden, rather than a chromatic/metallic split. And when that was the case, the golden dragon, rather than have a single breath weapon of its own, had the breath weapons of both the red and green dragons.</p><p></p><p>Then came the very first-ever D&D supplement, and four new dragons were added, named after metals, and the golden dragon was retconned into the gold. Following the pattern of the now-designated gold, all the metallics had two breath weapons, though one was a non-damaging effect; the weakest (Brass) having both sleep and fear gasses rather than a damaging breath weapon. In 1st edition AD&D, this pattern remained; the gold had both poison gas and fire, while the brass had sleep and fear gasses.</p><p></p><p>Then came AD&D 2nd edition, and in the general upgrade of dragons in the new edition, it was noticed fear gas was rather duplicative with the fear aura that had been added to dragons in AD&D 1st and enhanced in the new edition. So the desert-dwelling brass dragon got a damaging breath weapon of "blistering desert heat". Gold dragons remained with their since-the-beginning fire and poison (chlorine) combination.</p><p></p><p>Then in D&D 3rd edition, damage types were standardized and poison wasn't one of them, so now green dragons had an acid breath weapon (doubling the black, and sensible enough since chlorine is as much corrosive as it was poisonous), and the gold lost poison gas in favor of weakening gas (now matching the other metallics with a non-damaging "secondary" breath weapon). At the same time, the brass dragon breath was changed from "heat" to the standardized 3rd edition "fire" damage type (doubling the gold).</p><p></p><p>Come 5th edition, poison was adopted as a standard damage type, so the green dragon's breath was retyped as poison breath (avoiding duplication with the black), the brass kept the 5th edition standardized damage type of fire (consistent with 3rd edition and in obvious continuity with AD&D 2nd's heat), but the gold dragon kept a non-damaging secondary breath weapon (matching all the other metallics) rather than reverting to poison gas.</p><p></p><p>If, of course, the design had all been done together at the beginning, the obvious move would have been to give the brass poison as a damaging weapon (matching the chromatic and metallic damaging breath weapons five-for-five), while giving the gold a non-damaging secondary breath weapon (matching all the other metallics).</p><p></p><p>Alternatively, if one feels particularly retro for 5th edition dragons, one could reach back to the OD&D/1st edition AD&D "fear" breath weapon and given the brass's breath weapon the <em>psychic</em> damage type, and give the gold its pre-3rd poison breath as its alternate breath weapon.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="see, post: 8436448, member: 10531"] That was an accident of game evolution. In the beginning, there were six colors of dragon, one being golden, rather than a chromatic/metallic split. And when that was the case, the golden dragon, rather than have a single breath weapon of its own, had the breath weapons of both the red and green dragons. Then came the very first-ever D&D supplement, and four new dragons were added, named after metals, and the golden dragon was retconned into the gold. Following the pattern of the now-designated gold, all the metallics had two breath weapons, though one was a non-damaging effect; the weakest (Brass) having both sleep and fear gasses rather than a damaging breath weapon. In 1st edition AD&D, this pattern remained; the gold had both poison gas and fire, while the brass had sleep and fear gasses. Then came AD&D 2nd edition, and in the general upgrade of dragons in the new edition, it was noticed fear gas was rather duplicative with the fear aura that had been added to dragons in AD&D 1st and enhanced in the new edition. So the desert-dwelling brass dragon got a damaging breath weapon of "blistering desert heat". Gold dragons remained with their since-the-beginning fire and poison (chlorine) combination. Then in D&D 3rd edition, damage types were standardized and poison wasn't one of them, so now green dragons had an acid breath weapon (doubling the black, and sensible enough since chlorine is as much corrosive as it was poisonous), and the gold lost poison gas in favor of weakening gas (now matching the other metallics with a non-damaging "secondary" breath weapon). At the same time, the brass dragon breath was changed from "heat" to the standardized 3rd edition "fire" damage type (doubling the gold). Come 5th edition, poison was adopted as a standard damage type, so the green dragon's breath was retyped as poison breath (avoiding duplication with the black), the brass kept the 5th edition standardized damage type of fire (consistent with 3rd edition and in obvious continuity with AD&D 2nd's heat), but the gold dragon kept a non-damaging secondary breath weapon (matching all the other metallics) rather than reverting to poison gas. If, of course, the design had all been done together at the beginning, the obvious move would have been to give the brass poison as a damaging weapon (matching the chromatic and metallic damaging breath weapons five-for-five), while giving the gold a non-damaging secondary breath weapon (matching all the other metallics). Alternatively, if one feels particularly retro for 5th edition dragons, one could reach back to the OD&D/1st edition AD&D "fear" breath weapon and given the brass's breath weapon the [I]psychic[/I] damage type, and give the gold its pre-3rd poison breath as its alternate breath weapon. [/QUOTE]
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