D&D General Let's Talk About Dragons

[James Gasik]

Back when any creature with the Dragon type could procreate with anything, there was this ancient Green Dragon of unusually high Intelligence who lived in the forests of the South of the main continent, who was known as The Forestmaster. Intrigued by the properties of his own blood he sired a great many Half-Dragons of different species, and then forced his progeny to mate, creating strange hybrid creatures.

Eventually some of these monsters started to wreak havoc in the human lands as well. However, the Forestmaster made a mistake and captured a Nymph, who managed to escape with her Half-Dragon child to the northwest, to the great Feywood, ruled by the Faerie Queen, Ti'ianna. Enraged, she sent emissaries to the humans, pledging her support to deal with the Forestmaster once and for all.

Eventually the Forestmaster's progeny were destroyed or scattered, and his domain surrounded by an army of humans and Fey. Seeing no point in continuing to fight, the dragon ceded a large portion of his forest to the humans, and what land he retained has been decreed off limits.

No monsters have appeared (though some weird creatures with dragon blood still exist beyond the borders of the human nations, and the most common Sorcerer Bloodline is Green Dragon to this very day in the southern lands), but it is very likely the Forestmaster is still alive.

Alive, and no doubt plotting...

 

[RoughCoronet0]

I am going to run a short LevelUp adventure as a test and want to make it a dragon hunt. The (young) dragon is going to have been raiding the barrows of ancient kings and heroes in order to amass it's hoard and the ruler of the region will hire the PCs to killthe dragon and return some specific items of cultural significance, but be allowed to keep anything else as payment.

What kind of dragon would be good for such a plot? It doesn't have to be a traditional chromatic or metallic.

There are a couple of different angles you can work from the determine the type of dragon.

The first is simply the location of the barrows and what dragons would be in the region. Are the barrows near or surrounded by a lush and temperate forest? A green dragon would be fitting. Has the lands around the barrows become flooded and marsh-like after long periods of flooding or possibly redirection of waterways for agriculture? A black dragon might see an opportunity to expand its hoard and create a lair in the already excavated cavern of the barrow. Are the barrows in a land that experiences year round winter? White dragon would see that as an easy score.

The second angle you can work with is with a dragon’s preferred treasure, as each dragon species tends to lean towards certain types of items to hoard and each individual often has specific preferences. A Red dragon may find a barrow that is filled with ancient gold to be enticing, while a more militant dragon like a Blue or Bronze might be enticed by ancient weapons and armors, especially if they have a history. Black Dragons love artifacts of civilizations that have risen and fallen, relishing in the decay and death of humanoid civilizations while it lives on. If the kings in the barrows were known for their magical capabilities and items, a Gold or Green dragon might find the treasure worth the risk of upsetting the locals to get, especially if those items can help them in their overarching quests.

Another possible angle that could open the door to any dragon type is the potential of some of the treasure having originally belonged to the young dragons’s parent, grandparent, or mentor before the kings in the barrow acquired it. Dragons have long lives and long memories after all. Maybe the elder dragon was slain and his hoard taken as a trophy, and this younger dragon has come to claim the inheritance they believe is rightfully theirs. Maybe the treasure was stolen from a far off land only to be sold or gifted to another kingdom (this kingdom) as a means of brokering trade negotiations or peace. Maybe the kingdom the barrows belong to don’t even know that these treasures and artifacts once belonged to a still living dragon or a slain dragon with vengeful offspring.

 

[Ixal]

Problems with dragons (and many other monsters).
They are still just monsters placed into the world for the PCs to kill them and have no agency, motivation (besides being BBEG so the PCs can kill them), society, self preservation (so they don't retreat from the climatic fight) and must generally behave in a stupid way to let the PCs level up enough to finally win.

Apart from that they have no role in most settings or connection to it other than "Here be dragons, go kill it/work for it". At best there are small exceptions like this small paragraph in some 3E FR product about a dragon instead of killing a band of dragonslayers delivering them to the next city and want them tried for attempted murder and the city trying to wiggle their way out of that. But that is never followed up.

 

[Reynard]

Problems with dragons (and many other monsters).
They are still just monsters placed into the world for the PCs to kill them and have no agency, motivation (besides being BBEG so the PCs can kill them), society, self preservation (so they don't retreat from the climatic fight) and must generally behave in a stupid way to let the PCs level up enough to finally win.

That is entirely up to the GM, independently per dragon. Some dragons are there to slay, some are movers and shakers. And if any monster or villain has no agency or motivation (that needs one), then that is a failure of GMing.

 

[RoughCoronet0]

I’ve found that the best D&D book for inspiration on dragons as more then just monsters to kill would be the 3rd edition book “Dragons of Eberron”. It goes into detail on the history of dragons in that world, their cultures and beliefs, and their factions and organizations. They also give detail on how they influence four of the main continents of the plane and many of the goals of the different factions.

Honestly even if you aren’t a fan of Eberron, it’s great!

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

While I love those iconic encounters like a white dragon on a glacier, or a black dragon in the murky depths of a swamp, I get most excited when you take them some place different and unexpected. The PCs might not expect a red dragon in a city, or a white dragon in a library. Fear of the unknown is a useful tool, and it also immediately starts them wondering what they're doing there.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I haven't used dragons as anything other than the way they're used in the published D&D adventure books since 2008, but before that I played in my own setting, where Dragons were the true first people of the world and Chromatic/Metallic was a political affiliation.

A red or gold dragon (for example) was the same dragon - a Mountain Dragon - just the former was loyal to the dragon god Spectrus (essentially Tiamat, but without all the heads) and the latter to Smelt (kinda Bahamut, I guess, but not as nice). All mountain dragons were red, but "gold" ones had gold horns and claws. Ditto for the other types. (Forest Dragons, Swamp Dragons, etc...)

Both groups thought that Dragons were superior to other creatures, but the metallics were slightly "nicer" in that they generally felt that inferior creatures should be protected (or at least ignored) while the chromatics felt that they should be exploited (or destroyed). Though that changed by individual dragons.

 

[Reynard]

I am thinking about dragons again and rather than start a new thread I'll ask here:

How do you feel about the different takes on dragons in the different editions?

My favorite are the 2E dragons. They got such an awesome power boost, they went from the Basic/1E St George's Dragon to the city busting Smaug/Lodoss War type. I remember liking 3.x/PF dragons because they were big complex beasties, but 5E dragons left me cold until Fizban's came out. I am not familiar with how 4E handled dragons.

 

[jmartkdr2]

Fizban’s take is the best of dnd dragons in my opinion, but frankly it’s really eady to find much better takes in outside media.

The best dms I’ve played with just say “all dragons are unique, don’t count on color to tell you much.”

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I don't use good dragons very often and when I do it is usually as a patron of the party in the fight against the BBED.

How do you like your dragons in D&D?

my two or three favorite dragon stories were good/neutral aligned dragons...

I use the color codeing because I have given up on not, but I used to make all dragons brow or grey or black... and they all had cone BWs... but the element changed. So you would be in a swamp find a dark grey dragon and have no idea if it is fire cold acid or what ever about to hit you.

I also like them to be inteligent and the idea that they CAN be casters, but not all of them being casters..

I love the new great wyrm fluff