D&D 5E The Role of Dragons in Your Game

[n0nym]

I always use dragons sparingly.

In my world they're :

_Named NPCs with mostly basic motivations (think Smaug) but sometimes more intricate ones.
_They all breath fire, with some of them having an alternate breath weapon (poison gaz, acid)
_They're all somewhat evil, including metallics (which are almost non-existent)
_There are two kinds of dragons : land and aerial.

Dragons to me are the ultimate goal for adventurers. Their treasures are legendary and often way above what PCs should get level-wise.

Young dragons live in remote places, far-away from civilisation ("here be dragons") and would-be dragonslayers.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Wait, so you're claiming that they're all liars?

I'm not in the habit of calling anyone a liar, especially here, where it's a CoC violation, even when proven beyond the shadow of a doubt. And I'm certainly making no claims about any specific statement that I'd never heard before.

I'm just expressing my personal cynicism & scepticism of a marketing stunt.

 

[pdzoch]

In my campaign, Dragons are the apex monster. Rare and feared. They are the ultimate utility villain as they can be destroyers, ravagers, hoarders, and manipulators. The good dragons are the counterbalance. However, as the characters are heroes, their encounters with dragons are inevitable. The pucker factor is always at its highest with a dragon encounter as it always has a potential for a TPK. At higher levels, dragons might serve as patrons to the heroes. They are the reason we play the game.

 

[Demorgus]

In my home campaign, the party has encountered two dragons so far. One, an adult black dragon, was a villain that they defeated to liberate a lizardfolk tribe from his control. The other, an adult green dragon, they negotiated with and formed a business relationship with.

 

[Derren]

I would want to run something differently in the future. The Temeraire books look interesting with dragons being used as mounts for the aerial branch of the army (but unlike Eragon and similar fantasy settings with that theme you do not simply put one single champion on them but, if size permits, 30 gunners) and while being perfectly intelligent are treated more as beast of burden with the annoying tendency to talk which have to be constantly supervised to not go on rampage (which means people serving on dragons have a low social reputation as they have to live far away from the cities as dragons are not wanted there). And the dragons are for the most part OK with how they are treated (although that changes over time in the books).

But D&D is the wrong setting for this I think, even when you ignore that the Temeraire books are set during the Napoleonic Wars.

 

[dropbear8mybaby]

I love dragons. Shortly after I started playing AD&D, I read the Dragonlance books so the whole, "Dragons are awesome, epic and cool," thing stuck with me. Since my players tend to want generic fantasy, a.k.a. Forgotten Realms, dragons aren't as legendary as I have them in my homebrew setting, but I still make the effort to make them interesting, memorable and personalities that are larger than life.

A for instance would be a shadow dragon that the group encountered in a mirror-verse situation. A tower had been built up around a Moonwell, and Ordalf had used a Mythal to distort the magic of the Moonwell to divert to the Shadowfell instead of the Feywild (certain Moonwells are portals to the Feywild).

The tower was a trap that led people into it and through the portal where shadow demons, or simply exposure to the Shadowfell, killed the people on the other side. This fed the corruption of the Moonwell, which in turn fed the corruption of the Moonshaes. A coven of hags tricked people into going through the portal. On the other side is a mirrored version of the tower and the Moonshaes. One of the beings tricked into going through was a young red dragon by the name of Angevordin. His innate nature made him strong enough not to die but corrupted him into becoming a shadow dragon. And he has been trapped here ever since, growing in size and power and tormenting any beings that came through and collecting their treasure for himself.

Enter the PC's. I played him up as a bit cat-like, cunning, manipulative but very charming and even through his arrogance, having a sly sort of wit. The players loved him so much that they made a deal with him that if he didn't eat them and helped them get out, that they would come back with magic to free him (he was simply too large and didn't have the magic required to open the portal himself). So even after they got the McGuffin that helped them get out before dying to the Shadowfell's corruption, they came back of their own volition and freed him, knowing that he was inherently evil and would probably do evil things once freed.

He's essentially now a friend to the party. The kind of guy who you know is probably not a good person, but he's been good to you and you like him, so you hang out every so often, have some laughs, and part ways until next time.

So yeah, that's how I like to play dragons. Big personalities, a bit over the top, imposing, impressive, powerful and yet always interesting and a step removed from the every day. Something that leaves an impression. The players themselves might not remember the aboleth they fought, but if they ever encounter a dragon, they'll always remember it.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Evidence? Like a leaked "let's stage a fake contest" memo or something? Heavens no, that'd've been quite the scandal. I'm just cynical. I see a 'contest' and, in the end, the winner is the professional game designer who submitted a setting that he'd been running for the guys judging the contest for years...

Wait, so you're claiming that they're all liars? Keith is lying when he talks about only having the basic elements worked out before the contest as ideas, about the whole process of building the world based on their feedback. You're accusing him of lying about all of that?

I generally respect you, Tony, but that...I really hope that isn't what you mean.

I shared the cynicism regarding that particular event. I don't think anyone is lying, and I doubt they were trying to trick us with a fake contest. But when they reach out and get responses from thousands of fans, and then hire a professional they are already working with, well it definitely leaves you feeling like you wasted your time writing up your entry. Yes, they should go with the proposal they thought was best for the game, and yes they (hopefully) expected to pick some awesome idea from someone they'd never heard of; but if there was a chance they were going to go "in house" (perhaps not literally, but it felt that way), they should have just exhausted those resources first and asked their professional connections for suggestions, and only had the contest after they decided they didn't want to go with any of those.

They way it worked out, it felt like "just kidding, we're going to hire our buddy."

 

[Ganymede81]

Aside from the baby white dragon in the Sunless Citadel, I have amazingly never used a single dragon in my games, and that's nearly two decades.

 

[GMMichael]

Dragons? Dragons? We don't need no stinking dragons!

Dragons, like most beasts, are smart enough to stay away from meddling humans. But they're big and strong, so it really takes a daredevil to confront one. They're also smarter than they look, so woe betide the "hero" who sets out to slay one without properly preparing himself.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Forgot the original post I was going to make responding to the side comments. So, back to that...

I really love D&D dragons. I pretty much do them exactly by the books (in 5e I definitely use the spellcaster option, because I see D&D dragons as casters), because of how much I like it. Whenever I hear a DM talking about how they change dragons in their campaign, it actually puts me off from wanting to play in it. It's taking out one of the best things about the game for me. I tolerate it in say Birthright, and I'm okay with it in Dark Sun (because it's variant D&D), but anything beyond that is a really hard sell for me. You're up against one of my favorites, and you'll have to do something incredible to make me interested.

So, what do I do with my quintessential D&D dragons in the adventures I run? I think the one thing I do that I haven't really heard from anyone else is that I play each dragon as if it were my personal PC. This means they are in it to win. This means they will use as much intelligence as I and the statblock can muster. It means that if the party is a threat, they will carefully plan how to face them. They will judge their power level, and they will probably be accurate (unlike most monsters, which, given that the PCs usually win in D&D, apparently chronically underestimate PCs).

As far as their role in the world, I don't tend to have them take too much of an interest in the lesser races (and to a dragon, everyone else is a lesser race, even their ancient enemies the giants). So while some dragons get involved in influencing humanoid society, most just claim their territory and devote themselves to dragon things. The specifics depend on individuals and species, but that generally involves creating the best hoard they can, according to their tastes. Some might supplement that with claiming dominion over easily bullied humanoids like goblinoids or kobolds, pursuing knowledge, shapeshifting and exploring the world incognito, or forming personal alliances with or watchful protection over favored lesser beings or their descendants. I'd just have to get into the dragon's head, think dragon thoughts, and decide how and what they would do, keeping in mind that laying around in a well protected and comfortable lair with a hoard of treasure and no one to bother them is generally considered the gold standard of successful dragonness.