D&D 5E Wandering Monsters: Dragons Revisited

[Plaguescarred]

Wandering Monster
Dragons Revisited
By James Wyatt

Let's circle back around to dragons this week. James gives you a glimpse at two dragons and wants to see what you think about them.

Your thoughts?.

 

[Plaguescarred]

I found both the green and black dragon's description to be pretty good and can definitly imagine using them in this way in my game. I found they were sufficiently differentiated and the black design transpired well in Ghost Dragonspear Castle.​ I also really like the direction of Legendary dragons template is taking, one of my favorite feature of D&D Next so far!

 

[MortalPlague]

In my 5th Edition campaign, I made a decision not to put a dragon in the local area. It just didn't fit with the lore of the place. Now, beginning tomorrow, my PCs will be heading out and trekking through a swamp and a forest in search of an ancient, overgrown temple.

This article makes me want to include both dragons. I'm now trying to think of a way to include one without de-railing the game. But perhaps it's best if I instead hint at one that lives off to the north and leave it as an option for the PCs to avoid or pursue at the leisure.

 

[I'm A Banana]

These two pass muster for me. I'm pretty critical of D&D dragons -- they generally fall into the camp of "too complex to efficiently use" or "too narrow to be awesome without some work." I really like their stories (at least circa 2e-3e), but their mechanics have not lived up to that promise. These dragons seem like they could have everything in one big monster entry, and be well-equipped to hit the ground running. I'm into that. And both of their vibes mesh just fine with the rich story tradition. So these get at being very solid versions of D&D dragons.

 

[Rune]

In my 5th Edition campaign, I made a decision not to put a dragon in the local area. It just didn't fit with the lore of the place. Now, beginning tomorrow, my PCs will be heading out and trekking through a swamp and a forest in search of an ancient, overgrown temple.

This article makes me want to include both dragons. I'm now trying to think of a way to include one without de-railing the game. But perhaps it's best if I instead hint at one that lives off to the north and leave it as an option for the PCs to avoid or pursue at the leisure.

Well, if it's not a native, a dragon's gotta move in sometime. It could be that that's just happened. If you want to include both of them, why not make them rivals? If one shows up, the other is not far behind!

 

[dbm]

They sound interesting, but it is sad to return to the two-dimensional characterisation of all dragons of a particular colour having the same motivation and basic personality. As the likely centre-pieces of a campaign dragons should be more nuanced in my opinion.

How will you make the idea of the green dragon as master-manipulator work when all the players will know this is their MO? No PC will ever be fooled!

 

[variant]

In past editions, I've been disappointed with dragons as a whole, but these dragons sound awesome.

 

[gyor]

They sound interesting, but it is sad to return to the two-dimensional characterisation of all dragons of a particular colour having the same motivation and basic personality. As the likely centre-pieces of a campaign dragons should be more nuanced in my opinion.

How will you make the idea of the green dragon as master-manipulator work when all the players will know this is their MO? No PC will ever be fooled!

The just because the PC know doesn't mean they can't be fooled. That's the difference between a manipulator and and a manster manipulator, you see it coming, but some how he still fools. Mostly the PCs don't know the dragons goals, doesn't know all the ways the dragons may try to manipulate you, and even when they do know the dragon van still come out on top by gaining control of the variables, or by utilizing principles of Psychology that work weather you see them coming or not or even just do it the brute way and use magic.

I also note that a Green Dragon may realize that people are familiar with they're culture and traditions and use those people's knowledge against them by acting in a way that is unexpected and not traditional.

Like one Green Dragon who finds out he's expected to kill and eat all non elf fey may see an opportunity and spare the life of a Satyr or Dyrad or Nymph or Pixie to act as a servant or spy knowing no one would believe it.

So in the stereo types thier is an opportunity to throw players for a loop.

 

[WhatGravitas]

Definitely like the material. It's very evocative and I like how the Green Dragon has some association/opinions on fey creatures and elves and its focus on misdirection and illusions, gives it a more "primal nature" feel than just being a jungle beast. Kind of a savage fey dragon - I really dig that direction.

Not so sure about the Black Dragon - right now it's mostly "evil swamp", feels like it needs a bit of a tweak to represent that predatory nature of it. Perhaps bringing back the darkness and night theme it had in the last edition.

All in all, a good read and very game-able (and, of course, subvert-able). I like it, hope the mechanics manage to capture that feel.

 

[MarkB]

I loved the description of the Legendary Black Dragon when it was published, and with the green dragon description in this article, they're keeping up the good work. Excellent stuff!

What I would like to see in the finished product is more information on younger dragons. The environment the article describes is clearly the well-established lair of a mature dragon in possession of its full range of powers - but how do those powers develop? Which features would be missing from the lair of a young dragon, and how would it compensate?

How will you make the idea of the green dragon as master-manipulator work when all the players will know this is their MO? No PC will ever be fooled!

As mentioned, simply knowing that somebody is trying to manipulate you does not equate to being immune to their manipulations - it just means that they'll need to be more cunning.

And that's only if the PCs know there's a green dragon involved. In many cases, a party's interactions with a green dragon might be carried out through layers of intermediaries, with the PCs never knowing their sponsor's true identity until they're inextricably tied to him by the consequences of the actions they've taken on his behalf.