[BADD] How would a Dragon MOVE its hoard?

[Henry]

Re: Re: Re: Re: [BADD] How would a Dragon MOVE its hoard?

I believe he's talking about the feat Arcane Preparation. It's in the FRCS and T&B, I think.

However, Arcane Preparation doesn't allow you to prepare any spell you can find - only those spells in your "spells known" list. Its use is for preparing spells with metamagic feats for no loss in casting time.

A spell that allowed a spontaneous caster (like a sorcerer or bard) to have any spell they wanted prepared from a spellbook would be afr too unbalancing in my opinion, and would blow balance for that caster type out the window.

 

[Tom Cashel]

Re: Re: [BADD] How would a Dragon MOVE its hoard?

I would assume that any dragon of sufficient age could, if it wanted to, have access to pretty much every spell in the Player's Handbook - not to mention a few no human has ever heard of.

Which [market/bookstore/arcane academy/city] did the dragon [fly into/send its monstrous minions to] to buy the big spellbook?

I don't usually have dragons interact with human and non-human civilizations in that way. Which means the dragon would have access to the spellbooks of adventurers killed over the years trying to get at the hoard.

Which means the proper magics might not be available.

And even if they were, would a dragon really teleport its riches somewhere else, leaving them unattended for even a short time? Not IMC.

 

[Tom Cashel]

In fact, because he's so catlike, he could have caverns all over a glacier but regard the entire glacier as his "lair". In no case would my great white wyrm only have one bedroom containing his entire hoard.

That's great...really cool thought (no pun intended!). I'd add that all of the treasure should be frozen in blocks of clear ice, like a "hoard museum."

 

[Tortoise]

That's great...really cool thought (no pun intended!). I'd add that all of the treasure should be frozen in blocks of clear ice, like a "hoard museum."

I was just thinking this same thing. Imagine the flash flood one could create by trying to unfreeze the block rapidly ... and digging through it should take a long time.

Sure you defeated or drove off the wyrm, now how do you get to all his frozen goodies?

 

[Fade]

According to PC, you gate the entire blocks to the beastlands, then let them thaw out there.

 

[Tewligan]

4. "Gizzard" it. Assume that dragons possess some kind of gizzard in their gullet that would allow them to swallow, then regurgitate, the entire hoard.

I remember that when I was playing Basic D&D, I "knew" that dragons swallowed their treasure as a matter of course to keep it safe. I told this to the guys I was DMing for, and they slashed open the ridiculously docile dragon I had set in their path, withdrew its ridiculously enormous hoard , and went on to terrorize the castle over the hill. (Hey, I was like 9 or 10 years old.) Anyway, I think that I must have read this draconic storage method somewhere, but I have no idea where. I just checked the book, with no luck. (On the up side, I did come across that crazy-ass Erol Otus picture of the three wizards fighting over treasure - oh, you kooky wizards always make me laugh!)
So, does this ring a bell with anyone else? I don't think I made it up, but I could be wrong - it was a really long time ago. It would have been before I got any AD&D stuff, and probably around '81 or so. Anyone?

 

[reapersaurus]

A gizzard? Hmmm...I find that idea hard to swallow.

/me stands up and applauds THAT one!

 

[Tom Cashel]

I can't remember where I got the idea either, Tewligan...but I'm going with that option.

Despite Wolfspider's (very) clever pun...the "gizzard" (for lack of a better term) is the only idea that looks at the logistical problems of moving of a hoard from a dragon's point of view, rather than that of a PC wizard.

Granted, dragons don't like having to move their hoard, but what if one dragon kills another one? It must have some way of claiming the new hoard to add to its own. I've had PCs who got a (randomly-encountered) dragon to leave them alone by pointing in the direction of an unguarded hoard...from which they'd already taken the magic.

I thought you BADD people were supposed to be creative?!?

 

[Furn_Darkside]

Salutations,

I am not a member of the silly-named BADD, but:

I would suppose it would depend on the dragon.

Some may dump it on another plane with guardians while the dragons goes to
its new lair and just opens the portal to get it all back.

Another method, variation of your tarpaulin, may be that they fly out to
the ocean and find a large gallion. Once they find it, they vacate/kill the
occupants and steal the boat. When it gets back to its lair, it rips the
decks out of the boat and fills it with the treasure. They then carry it
where they want it to go.

Summon a slaad- to summon that many more and have them carry it.

Animate all those pesky dead adventurers and have them convoy it.

Lots of teleport spells or just one teleportation circle, or whatever it is
called.

FD

 

[Caliban]

It would depend on the size of the hoard and the capabilities of the dragon.

It might have a horde of hirelings haul the hoard home.

It might teleport itself and as much treasure as it can effect, making as many trips as necessary.

It might use tensers floating disk, leomund's secret chest, or a Portable Hole to transport it.

It might Polymorph Self into a PC race, box it all up, and hire a gnomish moving company to transport it.

If it's old enough, it might open a gate, push the hoard thorugh, travel to the new lair, open another gate to the same location, and pull the hoard out.

It might even trick the PC's into moving the hoard for it. (Chaotic Lazy dragon)