What makes a Gold dragon GOLDl?

[tuxgeo]

Some ideas about how to make Gold Dragons more awesome:

• "Odor of Sanctity": Gold Dragons seem to bestow virtue and health by their mere presence. Being near one of them improves a good-aligned creature's morale; and taking a short rest within 25' of one of them bestows 5 temporary hit points on any good-aligned creature, even if the Gold Dragon happens to be asleep or otherwise occupied at the time.

• "Holy Damage": Typical divine attack spells deal "radiant damage," but Gold Dragons can deal "holy damage" instead of radiant if they so choose. (Holy damage is much the same as radiant damage, but it only affects evil-aligned creatures. Area-of-Effect spells just got better, but only for Gold Dragons.)

• "Mind Meld": At-will telepathy with friends and allies, subject to restrictions that make sense within the game. (I don't know what those would be.)

• "Beacon of Blessing": Anyone who is good-aligned and has ever met any particular Gold Dragon can sense the shortest direction toward that same dragon at need; but this effect weakens with distance and disappears entirely when the two beings are on different planes. In this same connection, the Gold Dragon in question can feel when this happens. (Their minds are vast enough that their other actions and thoughts are not interrupted by this effect; but they can store the information for later reference.)

 

[Stormonu]

I usually deal with silver dragons in the game, but I have used a gold dragon twice.

The first time, the gold dragon was posing as a human wizard and had created a mapster's guild. The guild didn't just keep official maps and records (including demarcations of various lands), they actively paid individuals (read: adventurers) to bring them maps of the areas they explored. The more rare or mystical the area, the more the map was worth - it encouraged seeking out dangerous places and clearing out the former inhabitants. Of course, the gold dragon was using this to send out adventurous souls to clear out areas of evil it found out about. It also used the mundane side of it business to shore up the local township through the manipulation of land grants and funding building projects and other social programs. Finally, the dragon also covertly used its influences to strengthen the rule of law further and firmly over the local area. I used this gold dragon over several campaigns and only one group ever pierced the dragon's secret - when the unfortunate band decided to find the wizard's secret cache of gems and gold. It turned out rather poorly for them...

The second time I introduced a gold dragon, she was covertly the head of the local monastery (and overtly a monk). She not only trained the other monks, but offered open classes to teach reading and writing to the locals. Somewhat surprisingly, she often railed against local church leaders, taking them to task in logical and philosophical debates that often left the church leaders exasperated. Rather than preach adherence to any particular god, the monastic order promoted a sort of "holy introspection" and a finding of the divinity in one's self. I had players who ended up being on both sides of this philosophical debate, with one party's cleric getting into and losing a debate (that devolved into a brawl) and another character playing a monk who was tasked to send off a squad of paladins sent to seek recompance for tithes they felt the wiley monastic leader had talked the faithful out of paying. When the monks weren't engaging in debate or driving off church or local leaders they'd inflamed, the monks of the order were tasked with defending against any of a host of villainous rabble or sent on quests of enlightenment in the outer world. Those monks who neared enlightenment were placed through secret tests in the catacombs beneath the order - never to be seen again (often transformed into half-dragons and/or sent off on important quests to the outer planes). Though none of the players ever found out, the dragoness had several young children among the monks of the order - known as "golden children", who were often sent on quests to help others in far-away lands where the dragoness sought to expand both her teachings and perform good wherever it could be passed on.

 

[Tonguez]

Bishnagar was the name of the largest city imc a sprawling cventer of trade and banking set at the center of World commerce. The city was founded by a dragon (also named Bishnagar) who had established the worlds first bank. Adventurers, nobles and merchants would bring their valuable gold and other treasures to Bishnagar who would store them as part of his hoard and in return he would issue them with enchanted Marks (originally ivory, now paper) which have become legal tender in the setting.

Bishnagar gets to have his hoard and merchants have a lightweight guaranteed money supply, since no theif wants to deal with an angry elder dragon.
Plus we get to explain the combination of Gold dragon goodness and greed.

BTW Dragons imc aren't colour coded but Silvers and Golds exist as Radiant dragons (ie they literally glow with energy)

 

[Warbringer]

Like many here, chromatic dragons since 1e in my campaign world spend most of their time in human form and kind of filling that Greek god role of walking amongst men. I played that monetary systems derive from the reverence of dragons in order (gold, silver, copper)m and yes that raised the whole question of platinum dragons ... This is early 80s.

In addition, the concept of pure gold, pure silver and pure copper (platonic ideals of the metals) came directly from dragon scales and where required for making permanent magical items, increased casting (think meta magic pre 3e), and for saving the fallen dragons.

The colored dragons represented chromatic dragons that had fallen from grace based on the cardinal sins .... Worked for the campaign.

 

[Umbran]

I think you are in general on the right track. One thing to help make gold dragons great is to remember the scope of the things, and *use* it.

In 3.x, a gold great wyrm is CR 27. This is a thing that eats balors and pit fiends for breakfast without breaking a sweat. If you have one on your world, it is quite possibly (even probably) the single most powerful mortal entity on the planet.

And it is not alone.

Think about it for a moment. This is a creature that lives for centuries. Your PC has built up friends and contacts over time. So has such a dragon, but the dragon has more of them, as it has been around longer than any PC. It could field an army of former contacts alone.

The thing could very easily be the king of several different nations at the same time, and nobody would know! It might well be *all* the kings on the planet - if all the kings were a little quirky about when they are around to be seen...

 

[steeldragons]

• "Odor of Sanctity":

Ima gonna go out on a limb here and assume you meant to type "Aura"...though I suppose Sanctity could have an aroma all its own....prolly smells like frankincense...or maybe bacon.

Sorry, just had to call that out. Seriously though, all really good suggestions/ideas. Thanks.

 

[Marshall Gatten]

Heh. I saw "odor" and thought it was a very imaginative idea. Didn't even occur to me that it might have been intended as aura, though you're probably right. I thought of it as a metaphorical odor, but even thought of mentioning bacon.

 

[sabrinathecat]

OK, there was one campaign where a gold dragon parked himself at a crossroads and set up shop. In order to promote art and talent, he demanded a toll fee. In order to pass, you had to have a poem or song he hadn't heard before. This made Bards highly sought after and well paid. Caravans frequently commissioned acting troupes so that they could pass.
I had a gold dragon rescue a spelljamming ship from Neogi.
And I had the party rescue a gold dragon from Illithid spelljammers who were using them as slave power sources (this is when psionics were totally over-powered game-breakers).
Have had players want their Deva to be former Gold Dragons on their way to becoming Demi Gods as their epic destiny.
Gold dragon "RumbleRoar" as a head instructor at the wizard academy.

Why do dragons hoard gold? One novel had an interesting answer: gold metal reflects the dragon's soul back at itself, and adds to their power. Thus they know when even a single coin is out of place.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Re: odor vs aura

Some christian saints and holy personages of other faiths are described as having a floral scent or some other pleasant smell associated with their presence.

 

[Umbran]

Ima gonna go out on a limb here and assume you meant to type "Aura"...though I suppose Sanctity could have an aroma all its own....prolly smells like frankincense...or maybe bacon.

Gold dragons are LG. Bacon is a CG smell. LG smells like fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies.