D&D General why brass and bronze dragons?

[Mind of tempest]

why do the metallic dragons have alloys amongst them is seems super odd as you think dragons would only be from pure metals?

am I just be odd or what?

also, what's with the lack of the other colours for chromatics?

and do not get me started on how odd the gem dragons are.

 

[Steampunkette]

Think of it from an in-narrative perspective.

The Metallic Dragons are just animals like the rest of us that happen to have shiny scales that are yellow, white, brown, rusty red...

And someone went "Let's name them after Metals of similar color!" and got Gold/Silver/Copper right away from the coins in their pocket.

And then were like "Uhhh...? What're some other metals, guys?" and someone in the back yelled "Tin!" and everyone was like "Piss off, Andrew, they're not Tin-Colored!"

And someone else piped up "Red-Gold!" and got smacked in the back of the head for trying to cross the Evil and Good dragons. But someone went "Wait a sec He's right! It's got reddish tints under a gold kind of thing... Brass?"

And everyone shrugged and went "Yeah, okay."

Once -that- was on the table, Bronze was -super- easy!

 

[Alzrius]

None of those categories are definitive. The chromatics got the yellow, orange, and purple dragons in Dragon #65 for AD&D 1E, and then Dragon #248 updated them for 2E.

The ferrous dragons (chromium, cobalt, iron, nickel, and tungsten) premiered in Dragon #170 for 2E, and then in Dragon #356 for 3.5E.

The gem dragons used to have obsidian dragons among their numbers, before their god Sardior effectively exiled them all.

And there are plenty more where those come from. Mystara has its own collection of (non-psionic) gem dragons, for instance, in the Monster Compendium - Mystara Appendix for 2E, and there are brown dragons in FR10 Old Empires for 2E and in Monster Compendium: Monsters of Faerûn for 3E.

The whole "three groupings of five" is an oversimplification, probably made up by human sages who don't know any better. Heck, even the stats for Tiamat's avatar in Powers & Pantheons for 2E notes that her five heads can be any combination of chromatic dragons, and lists how her stats would vary if she had a yellow and/or brown head replacing some of the usual colors.

Please note my use of affiliate links in this post.

 

[aco175]

I mean, does anyone even use these dragons. Certainly not when a silver dragon will do.

 

[Mecheon]

I mean, does anyone even use these dragons. Certainly not when a silver dragon will do.

Bronzes are sea associated and have a few mercenary-esque tendencies, while Brasses are gossipmongers, so they do tend to have their own niches

 

[Minigiant]

why do the metallic dragons have alloys amongst them is seems super odd as you think dragons would only be from pure metals?

Lack of color in popular metals. It's gold, copper, bismuth, and a bunch of silvery metals.

 

[Lycurgon]

The reason is because those are the colours and metals that Gygax chose when creating them. Originally he created the 5 evil (at the time, chaotic) dragons and the gold. He later added the 4 other metallics to balance the evil dragons.

In game - because the Dragon Gods created them that way.

It is odd that they would be created that way before there were humans or other races to create such alloys.

I guess it is mostly because they are more interesting colours than other metals and they are important metals to early humans.

Personally I think Bronze and Brass are too similar and Iron would have been a better choice than Brass.

I am also kind of surprised Gygax didn't use Electrum since he used them for coins.

There have been numerous attempts to add new colours and metals to the roster of D&D dragons but none have gained much popularity and stuck.

 

[not-so-newguy]

Just pulling this out of nowhere, but perhaps the alloy dragons are from latter evolutionary species. Perhaps more involved in the affairs of the "younger" species like elves, dwarves and humans.

 

[Maxperson]

None of those categories are definitive. The chromatics got the yellow, orange, and purple dragons in Dragon #65 for AD&D 1E, and then Dragon #248 updated them for 2E.

The ferrous dragons (chromium, cobalt, iron, nickel, and tungsten) premiered in Dragon #170 for 2E, and then in Dragon #256 for 3.5E.

The gem dragons used to have obsidian dragons among their numbers, before their god Sardior effectively exiled them all.

And there are plenty more where those come from. Mystara has its own collection of (non-psionic) gem dragons, for instance, in the Monster Compendium - Mystara Appendix for 2E, and there are brown dragons in FR10 Old Empires for 2E and in Monster Compendium: Monsters of Faerûn for 3E.

The whole "three groupings of five" is an oversimplification, probably made up by human sages who don't know any better. Heck, even the stats for Tiamat's avatar in Powers & Pantheons for 2E notes that her five heads can be any combination of chromatic dragons, and lists how her stats would vary if she had a yellow and/or brown head replacing some of the usual colors.

Please note my use of affiliate links in this post.

And of course Steel/Waterdeep dragons.

 

[Mecheon]

And of course Steel/Waterdeep dragons.

Who are the most annoying to find anything on

Y'know I made some of the lesser-known Chromatics and Metallics for NWN and it was an absolute chore to get any consistant appearance for the Steels? I ended up settling on the 3E Greyhawk dragon, which could only be found in a single issue of Dragon despite these being the most player-ready dragon for 3E

Not that scoping through back issues of Dragon was an issue on that one, I had to fish up the original article that gave us Tiamat and Bahamut after a tip-off someone gave me there was an original Orange Dragon in there that was unrelated to any later ones. When the Pinks were the only one of these obscure early dragons to get a consistant appearance on, y'know there's a problem

(even if I think having the pink as a reference to a certain Monster Hunter creature kind of saves it)