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I was looking at the 1st-3rd level lists too; given the propensity for mischief :], I see your point. I'd veer more to Artifice than Creation then to allow that side of the drake's personality to show itself. :) And yes you're right, there's no domain in the SRD that's slanted strongly to illusion.

Yes for the first two, qualified yes for Artifice. Maybe swap that for Creation?

Yes, that sounds much better. And shadow evocation shouldn't up the CR by much if at all, as even it's maximum age category (12) which surpasses its spellcasting level still isn't high enough to allow it really strong effects.

Point considered on the illusory breath. I was just thinking of something different to do with it. ;) With the breath weapon and its plethora of SLA's, I do agree that it is formidable enough, so a modest caster projection should be enough to go with the CR.

If it's illusory, then either it deals much less energy/cold damage than expected, or maybe it can be nonlethal damage (either by itself or in part). Few dragons deal nonlethal energy breath weapons without taking feats (amethyst force breath can be nonlethal).

So can it choose among the five classic acid, cold, electricity, fire and sonic? What about force?

I really love that breath weapon! It ties the drake more closely to its shadow nature, and makes the breath more versatile. Caster level progression is also good. Shadow Drakes and Tome of Magic If you are using Tome of Magic in your campaign, shadow drakes can learn and cast mysteries as...

Yep, feels like shadow blend to me. Make it stronger than the black dragon's darkness and different from the shadow dragon's create shadows (this isn't solid black right)? What about deeper darkness? Let's tweak project image, which is fittingly an illusion (shadow) spell. Shadow conjuration...

Why not consider the real-world gold-copper allow tumbaga for the mythological orichalcum? Then we can get the gold-silver alloy electrum and the silver-copper alloy billon. B-)

We can also merge it with the gold dragon's detect gems ability: Detect Gems (Sp): An old or older gold dragon can use this ability three times per day. This is a divination effect similar to a detect magic spell, except that it finds only gems. The dragon can scan a 60-degree arc each round...

Now to find some nice Su's to go with those ages…

Electricty is another descriptor we can include. Incidentally, force and light are the two energy types that the two epic dragons, force and prismatic, have.

I'm all for giving it this unusual diet for the AC, just like the beljuril dragon has that seismic metabolism. For the light effects reflection, do you want to still use that 25% cumulative chance of not reflecting by rolling a d% or d20 (though if its SR succeeds, it becomes immune to the...

We might make it mechanically similar to potions, because it involves ingesting something. (BTW for the purposes of psionics-magic transparency, potions are equivalent to psionic tattoos.) Assuming that the drake already has the said gems in its cheek pouches, would it really take a standard...

I believe Steve Winter added the Fire Resistance 30 (later reduced to 15) in Monster Manual II to enable all gem dragons of any variety to travel to Fire, even topaz. If we restrict the crystal drake to just Earth then it wouldn't need the resistance.

Amethyst and sapphire dragons have the Earth subtype. Planar Travel at ancient then. If they can freely go to the Plane of Fire they must have an adaptation like the Fire Resistance 15 of gem dragons.

Cha for deflection looks good.

Just saw this thread. There's also an earthquake-themed monster in an issue of Dragon with an article about monsters from Aztec mythology. I'll look it up.

Late comment on the scintillating effect from the wings; it's reminiscent of the 2e mercury dragon's blinding wings and the scintillating scales of many neutral dragons.

Hmmm, if it's an innate 1st-level psion at young and juvenile ages it needs a minimum Int of 11 to manifest its 1st-level powers, so adding +1 Int per age (making all scores odd) is needed I think.