Anyone here ever made a Generic Dragon?

[LoneWolf23]

By Generic Dragon, I mean a more classical, default type of Dragon, as opposed to the current selections of Dragons in D&D as it stands. Just an ordinary reptilian winged dragon with a fire breath attack that could be of any possible alignment, depending on it's own existance?

Heck, you wouldn't even have to get rid of the existing Dragons, just make them all sub-species of the basic Core type of Dragon.

 

[Ace32]

It sounds like you just want a Red Dragon with a different description.. I would go with that. Alignment and color are DM-based anyways, if I wanted a big neutral good green dragon that breathed fire and knew how to tango, that's my perogative.

 

[demiurge1138]

It's not really a generic dragon, but I did make something closer to a traditional medieval dragon (no spells or strange abilities, just fire, poison and malice). It's towards the bottom of this thread,
http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=64823
which was my personal tribute to Beowulf. Plenty of old-fashioned, low magic, high pain monsters.
And now, I'll stop shamelessly promoting myself.

Demiurge out.

 

[LoneWolf23]

Figured I'd stop just talking about making a generic dragon, and that I'd actually try making one. Let's start with the basic True Dragon concept from the Monster Manual and start from there.

The Generic True Dragon should have the basic Dragon shape: cat-like body with a long tail and neck, a bird/dino-like head with either horns or a crest, and two wings. I, personally, would also give it opposable thumbs. It would grow from A Tiny Wormling to a Gargantuan Size Great Wyrm, and could be of any color and or have any body-markings.

The Generic Dragon's basic special abilities would be a Breath Weapon attuned to a certain element (Fire being most common, but also Cold, Electricity, Acid or Sonic), Damage Reduction to anything except magic weapons or another Dragon's claws, and Resistance to the same type of Energy it's Breath Weapon would use.

Each Dragon would be different from the next, and as such could select a certain number of salient abilities, such as movement rates in addition to their running and flying speed (such as Swimming, Wall-Crawling or Burrowing), increased maximum size (from Gargantuan to Colossal), and certain spell-like abilities. Other salient abilities could alter the Dragon's very physical shape, such as making it more snake-like or giving it extra legs or extra heads (although that could be done by giving them the Multi-Headed creature from Savage Species).

And such Dragons could be of any alignment, though all of them would share common attributes, such as a sense of smug superiority vs lesser humanoids and a strong sense of covetousness. And, of course a Dragon's varied appearance would be no garantee of it's Alignment.

So, anyone wanna help me stat such a Generic Dragon?

 

[Wolf72]

don't know about helpin ya stat it, but it sounds like a wonderful idea.

what limit on HD? ... I'd want to keep the max CR around 15 or so ...

 

[Cassiopea]

Just use the crossbreed template from the Dracomonicon and you can have hundreds of different dragons with all sorts of abilities, that will keep your PC's terrified and unsure of how to defend against or attack any wyrm they meet.

 

[LoneWolf23]

Just use the crossbreed template from the Dracomonicon and you can have hundreds of different dragons with all sorts of abilities, that will keep your PC's terrified and unsure of how to defend against or attack any wyrm they meet.

Just bought Draconomicon today (was planning to anyway). What page is the crossbreed template located?

 

[LoneWolf23]

Hi guys, decided to bring this topic back up again because I had some new ideas today, after reading the Draconomicon. Making a dragon that's less of a silly concept as the basic Red = Evil/Metallic = Good dichotomy.

My primary concerns in this idea are the following:
1 - Removing alignment restrictions so that any dragon can be of any alignment, and perhaps change alignment over time.

2 - Adding greater variety in appearances, so that each dragon looks different from the next, whether the differences be great or small. Things like head structure, wing placement, and color should vary a bit more.

Now, I'm considering one of two approaches: One is making a generic Dragon body type of all age types, with elemental subtype being a custom choice, and possibly by adding prestige race levels to allow greater variation.

Another option is to keep the basic Dragon types listed in Draconomicon, but steal a page from Warcraft and making the subtypes the "Broods" of Elder Dragons, each Brood Mother having her own goals: One, the mother of all Red Dragons, could be into acquisition of power, while the mother of all Copper Dragons could be a cunning trickster.

Here, however, there would be some variation in appearances even within a Brood, and definite variation in alignments: not all Reds would be Evil, nor would all Golds be Good. I could definetly see a Lawful Evil Mature Gold Dragon set himself up as a warlord, imposing an iron-fisted, but somewhat equalitarian empire, in the Dr Doom style, and still rationalize it as "being in the best interests of the populace"

Any thoughts?

 

[Tonguez]

I took a few ideas from "The Flight of Dragons" to create generic dragons IMC

Dragons are Huge Theraspid (proto-mammal) predators who have a special organ that allows them to use the digestive acids to generate a lighter-than-air gas within their bodies which provides them with lift. This gas is poisonous and can be made to explode on contact with air. Dragons wings are extensions of their ribs and designed for gliding rather than flight

All Dragons have the choice of spitting acid, breathing poisonous gas or causing the gas to explode as a fireball. All other effects are created through magic (eg a blue dragon breaths gas, fire or acid and can cast lightning bolt)

Dragons are an intelligent race and so can be of any alignment, their colors tend to be enviromental - so greens are forest dwelling, blacks swamp dwelling and bronzes desert dwelling. Dragons have crest (hard boney plates like the Ceratops dinosaurs) with each crest being different - the number of points and size determines dominance in primitive drakes. Each Dragon also have different body markings (spots, stripes etc) from others.

Silvers (who are powerful psychics) are the 'oriental'/cloud dragons of my world, they have a chameleon ability to change their colors and markings (more like a cuttlefish than a chameleon - and the colors can be used to communicate). Gold Dragons are 'cosmic dragons' who travel the astral planes on a regular basis.

IMC I also have primitive wurms (gargantuan creatures who the True dragons despise), Sea Dragons (huge eel like creatures with wing-fins who breath an acidic spray)