D&D General What if every dragon was unique?

[Seramus]

It's usually pretty simple to take a monster and add or tweak one or two abilities and away you go.

I personally think this is the best approach. You take something familiar and add a twist or tweak, some unique elements. You still have the base involved in some manner, but you've made it yours. This always feels like the best compromise between the two extremes of "Mass Produced Identical Monsters" and "What It Is Doesn't Matter".

 

[Maxperson]

I think that's probably a better system, but hard to pull off for all DMs.

I tried it, but my group, all longtime D&D players, had a really hard time with it. Even with me telling them before the campaign began, they still thought in D&D terms with the dragons. Old habits die hard. Ultimately, they didn't like the change.

With a group of players new to the game, it would be an easy change to make, though.

 

[Reynard]

I personally think this is the best approach. You take something familiar and add a twist or tweak, some unique elements. You still have the base involved in some manner, but you've made it yours. This always feels like the best compromise between the two extremes of "Mass Produced Identical Monsters" and "What It Is Doesn't Matter".

Tweak the stats and reskin everything. Best of both worlds.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I tried it, but my group, all longtime D&D players, had a really hard time with it. Even with me telling them before the campaign began, they still thought in D&D terms with the dragons. Old habits die hard. Ultimately, they didn't like the change.

With a group of players new to the game, it would be an easy change to make, though.

It might also require using something than a D&D-branded RPG, to sever those expectations. Both the Shadowdark core book and especially The Monster Overhaul made me really excited about having figures like dragons, liches and vampires all be unique.

 

[Reynard]

It might also require using something than a D&D-branded RPG, to sever those expectations. Both the Shadowdark core book and especially The Monster Overhaul made me really excited about having figures like dragons, liches and vampires all be unique.

Nothing in 5E stops you from doing that. There are literally hundreds of resources out there for making 5E monsters unique. That's not even to mention that 5E doesn't even rely on particularly tight math, so just vibing unique traits is completely acceptable.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Nothing in 5E stops you from doing that. There are literally hundreds of resources out there for making 5E monsters unique. That's not even to mention that 5E doesn't even rely on particularly tight math, so just vibing unique traits is completely acceptable.

As alluded to upthread, there are players who view the dragon types as a core element of the D&D experience, like beholders and mind flayers.

When you aren't playing Dungeons & Dragons, you aren't faced with those same expectations.

 

[Reynard]

As alluded to upthread, there are players who view the dragon types as a core element of the D&D experience, like beholders and mind flayers.

When you aren't playing Dungeons & Dragons, you aren't faced with those same expectations.

I understand your point but we really, really should not be beholden to player expectations.

 

[GrimCo]

In homebrew setting we use, there are total of 5 dragons. Each one is unique. There is no species "dragon". And i prefer them that way. They are iconic creatures in this game, so why not make them special?

When it comes to customizing, i'm doing it fairly regularly. Reflufing, reskining, modifying. By virtue of playing for years, 3 out of 5 of us rotating as a DM in same shared homebrew setting, MM monsters are known quantity. Personally, i like to use stat block, sometimes modified, sometimes not, of one creature for another, specially for common monsters. Not all orcs have orc statblock.

 

[Celebrim]

I guess I'm suggesting an approach to dragons similar to Ghostfire's Arora species rules, where no one is a mere human (elf, whatever), but a unique blend of abilities and personalities.

I was just at half-price books. They had a big stack of "The Game Masters Book of Legendary Dragons" which is basically a bunch of unique dragons with backstories and unique abilities. Sounds like your sort of thing.

 

[kermit4karate]

I tried it, but my group, all longtime D&D players, had a really hard time with it. Even with me telling them before the campaign began, they still thought in D&D terms with the dragons. Old habits die hard. Ultimately, they didn't like the change.

With a group of players new to the game, it would be an easy change to make, though.

Did you ask them, "Why would an illiterate 25-year-old resident of a fictitious Medieval village know the detailed biology and ethology of a rare monster that you, nor anyone you know, have never seen before?"