D&D 5E Shapeshifting dragons - only metallic?

[Xaspian]

FWIW, the Princes of the Apocalypse (OFFICIAL!) adventure has a black dragon shapeshifted as a drow lady-of-the-manor the PC's must negotiate with. I take this as license, as a DM, to give evil dragons whatever powers I need to make them bad- NPC's.

As mentioned upthread, the adventure says she hides in the shadows and uses a Major Illusion spell to project the drow to talk to outsiders.

 

[dave2008]

FWIW, the Princes of the Apocalypse (OFFICIAL!) adventure has a black dragon shapeshifted as a drow lady-of-the-manor the PC's must negotiate with. I take this as license, as a DM, to give evil dragons whatever powers I need to make them bad- NPC's.

This was already discussed - it is an illusion, not actual shapechanging.

So regarding shape changing chromatics what we have so far is:

AD&D: dragon #50, pg 12, any dragon over 401 yrs old can shapechange
AD&D: Ember the red dragon could shapechange (dragonlance), - polymorph self per DL2, pg 25

3e/3.5e: Any dragon in Eberon can shapechange (with the right training), Dragons of Eberon, pg 15
3e/3.5: Black dragons can cast shapehange on Krynn (per the Black Dragon Codex)
3e/3.5: Monster Manual half dragons occur when a dragon changes its shape and mates with another creature, includes offspring info for all chromatics, pg 165?
3e/3.5: War of the Lance, pg 251 - Embers 3.5 stats: "Ember has the ability to polymorph himself into human form" Interestingly polymorph is not listed as one of his spells in this edition, so this must be an innate ability.

4e: Draconomicon II, reference to chromatics having the ability to shapechange.

5e: Shadow dragon - not chromatic, but could be evil
5e: Shadow black dragon - cast illusions, but doesn't shape change
5e: Half dragons are created from polymorphed dragons mating with other creatures (one 3 possible origins). It specifaclly mentions half-white and half-green offspring, and provides an example of a half-red

Did I miss anything?

 

[Al2O3]

3e/3.5: Monster Manual half dragons occur when a dragon changes its shape and mates with another creature, includes offspring info for all chromatics

This is 5e MM.

 

[dave2008]

This is 5e MM.

I missed that, I will add it to the list (after I verify of course . FYI, it is true in 3.5e as well - that was where i got it from.

 

[dave2008]

This is 5e MM.

Yep, it is there too - I updated the list. Thanks!

 

[Al2O3]

I missed that, I will add it to the list (after I verify of course . FYI, it is true in 3.5e as well - that was where i got it from.

I think I mentioned it before in this thread (or someone else did before I could). Page 180 I think.

 

[Ilbranteloth]

There's a decent discussion here as well that pretty much summarizes a lot of what's been discussed here:
http://rpg.stackexchange.com/questi...make-it-so-chromatic-dragons-cant-shapechange

Ilbranteloth

 

[Ilbranteloth]

Also, Dragon #50,page 12 "Finally, at age 401 or more the dragon can shapechange, as the ninth-level magic user spell."

This was refer to all dragons, not just chromatics.

Nope. This article is about 'True Dragons,' a new type of dragon:

"The dragon of fantasy is always always rare, each one unique, each with a distinctive personality. Too often, D&D and AD&D dragons are faceless monsters from the assembly line, sometimes found in amazingly large numbers
There’s nothing for it but to keep the old dragon as is, for it is a useful monster, and make up a new type of monster which is the equal of demons and devils, as dragons ought to be. One such version of “true dragons” follows."

So this article kept the original metallic and chromatic dragons, and added a new type of dragon with a host of new abilities. Many of these abilities were folded into the 2nd edition dragons, but the ability to shape change remained with the metallic dragons.

Ilbranteloth

 

[dave2008]

Nope. This article is about 'True Dragons,' a new type of dragon:

"The dragon of fantasy is always always rare, each one unique, each with a distinctive personality. Too often, D&D and AD&D dragons are faceless monsters from the assembly line, sometimes found in amazingly large numbers
There’s nothing for it but to keep the old dragon as is, for it is a useful monster, and make up a new type of monster which is the equal of demons and devils, as dragons ought to be. One such version of “true dragons” follows."

So this article kept the original metallic and chromatic dragons, and added a new type of dragon with a host of new abilities. Many of these abilities were folded into the 2nd edition dragons, but the ability to shape change remained with the metallic dragons.

Ilbranteloth

I missed that the true dragons where a different type, thanks for catching that. Still doesnt change the fact that there are polymorphing / shapechanging chromatic dragons in ad&d (ember), and that they existed in 3e, 4e, and now 5e per my other references. Though they are rare, the have existed thoughot the editions with 3e seeing a big increase in frequency.

 

[Sunseeker]

Nope. This article is about 'True Dragons,' a new type of dragon:

"The dragon of fantasy is always always rare, each one unique, each with a distinctive personality. Too often, D&D and AD&D dragons are faceless monsters from the assembly line, sometimes found in amazingly large numbers
There’s nothing for it but to keep the old dragon as is, for it is a useful monster, and make up a new type of monster which is the equal of demons and devils, as dragons ought to be. One such version of “true dragons” follows."

So this article kept the original metallic and chromatic dragons, and added a new type of dragon with a host of new abilities. Many of these abilities were folded into the 2nd edition dragons, but the ability to shape change remained with the metallic dragons.

Ilbranteloth

I've often resolved the issue in much this manner. "Low dragons" and "high dragons". Or something along those lines. Basically adding some fluff that there's a lot more that goes into making a dragon baby than the usual procedure. The ones that don't get proper treatment before hatching are "low dragons", the savage monsters with little magic who are normally the targets for adventuring parties. The ones that do are "true dragons", smarter, more magically inclined creatures who, while sometimes the targets for an adventuring party, are more likely to have complex defenses, long-term plans and even the ones that come to rule whole kingdoms in a manner the people can at least tolerate as much as any human king.

Unfortunately, such distinctions require a lot of homebrewing. But they're totally worth it.