Cleon
Legend
Oops! That comma, I'll grant you.
Updating the Azure Dragon Working Draft.
Not at the moment. It'd have to be something rather generic since there's virtually no description or background info in the original sources.
Converting True Dragons
- Thread starter Shade
- Start date
Oops! That comma, I'll grant you.
Updating the Azure Dragon Working Draft.
Not at the moment. It'd have to be something rather generic since there's virtually no description or background info in the original sources.
freyar
Extradimensional Explorer
Well, I guess one question is if we want to require a Spot or Know (arcana) check to distinguish them from blue dragons, like we did for the Mystaran amber? I think it's a good idea. And since, unlike golds, blue dragon scales don't change color with age but do have quite a bit of individual variation, I'd say to let azure dragon scale colors vary like the blue's (though tilted toward the lighter shades) but with a different characteristic shape or texture or something.
Cleon
Legend
Yes, we should definitely have a Spot/Know check to detect the difference. The BECMI original mentions "shimmering color differences", so I suppose we should refer to that in some way.
freyar
Extradimensional Explorer
Hmmm, how about something like this?
Like blue dragons, azure dragons range in color from a bright turquoise to a dark navy, though they tend toward lighter hues. As they age, azure dragon scales grow a multitude of small facets, lending a shimmer to their appearance, a slight distinction from the blue dragon. A DC 20 Spot or Knowledge (arcana) check is required to notice the difference.
Like blue dragons, azure dragons range in color from a bright turquoise to a dark navy, though they tend toward lighter hues. As they age, azure dragon scales grow a multitude of small facets, lending a shimmer to their appearance, a slight distinction from the blue dragon. A DC 20 Spot or Knowledge (arcana) check is required to notice the difference.
Cleon
Legend
I'm not keen on the "grow a multitude of small facets" bit. Firstly, there isn't any indication of facets in the original text. Secondly, we've already got a blue-hued dragon with faceted scales - the Psionic Sapphire Gem Dragon. At least the Psionic Sapphire's MC illustrations show it with faceted scales. I feel we should avoid having two "faceted sapphire" dragons, so it seems better to focus on the "shimmering" as being what differentiates the two dragons.
How's this:
An azure dragon appears very much like a blue dragon. Like blue dragons, their scales range in color from bright turquoise to dark navy, though azure dragons tend towards the lighter hues. An expert eye can distinguish an azure dragon from a blue by a curious shimmering quality in the light reflecting from an azure's scales. A DC 20 Spot or Knowledge (arcana) check is required to notice the difference.
freyar
Extradimensional Explorer
That'll work; I was just trying to come up with a physiological reason for the shimmering.
Are these done with that and ready for de-redding? I guess the alignment is still a small question. I think I'd go with always LG, just to make them more "opposite" to the Blue.
Are these done with that and ready for de-redding? I guess the alignment is still a small question. I think I'd go with always LG, just to make them more "opposite" to the Blue.
Cleon
Legend
Updating the Azure Dragon Working Draft.
Yes, I prefer Lawful Good for them too. If you're similarly OK with the proposed Air Subtype I can go ahead and de-red the stats.
Oh, except for the spell line - they oughtn't to have the Evil domain like the blue dragon. The opposite solution would be to substitute the Good domain, but we could give them the Knowledge domain instead since that's full of divinations.
I guess we could do with a little bit more background information, which maybe should mention they're separate from the psionic Sapphire Gem dragons.
Cleon
Legend
Cleon
Legend
I updated the description by adding the following:
An azure dragon appears very much like a blue dragon. Like blue dragons, their scales range in color from bright turquoise to dark navy, though azure dragons tend towards the lighter hues. An expert eye can distinguish an azure dragon from a blue by a curious shimmering quality in the light reflecting from an azure's scales. A DC 20 Spot or Knowledge (arcana) check is required to notice the difference.
If you meant the "Description" that comes before it, that's pretty much a placeholder for any additional background info we might decide to add.
We don't normally have italicizes descriptions in true dragon entries.
How's this:
Azure dragons are close relatives of blue dragons. They are benevolent creatures, very different in temperament to the voracious and arrogant blue dragons. These dragons are sometimes called sapphire dragons, but they are not the same as the psionic sapphire dragon.
An azure dragon appears very much like a blue dragon. Like blue dragons, their scales range in color from bright turquoise to dark navy, though azure dragons tend towards the lighter hues.
An expert eye can distinguish an azure dragon from a blue by a curious shimmering quality in the light reflecting from an azure's scales. A DC 20 Spot or Knowledge (arcana) check is required to notice the difference.
* * *
In Mystaran
The peoples of Mystara know the azure dragon as the sapphire dragon and consider it one of the "gemstone dragons", a family that also includes the Mystaran amber dragon, Mystaran crystalline dragon, Mystaran jade dragon, Mystaran onyx dragon and Mystaran ruby dragon. Despite being called "gemstone" dragons, this family of dragons is quite separate from the family of psionic-powered neutral "gem" dragons, many of whom are named after the same precious stones.
Cleon
Legend
Hmm, you know every other dragon in the "gemstones" family has a name in the format "Mystaran [gemstone] dragon", which strongly suggests we should rename this beastie the Mystaran sapphire dragon.
If we do that, apart from the obvious name changes in the entry, we'd change the description and In Mystara text to something like:
Mystaran sapphire dragons, or azure dragons as they are sometimes called, are close relatives of the blue dragon. They are benevolent creatures, very different in temperament to the voracious and arrogant blue dragons. These dragons are not the same as the psionic sapphire dragon.
A Mystaran sapphire dragon appears very much like a blue dragon. Like blue dragons, their scales range in color from bright turquoise to dark navy, though Mystaran sapphire dragons tend towards the lighter hues.
An expert eye can distinguish a Mystaran sapphire dragon from a blue by a curious shimmering quality in the light reflecting from an azure's scales. A DC 20 Spot or Knowledge (arcana) check is required to notice the difference.
* * *
In Mystaran
The peoples of Mystara consider this dragon one of the "gemstone dragons", a family that includes the Mystaran amber dragon, Mystaran crystalline dragon, Mystaran jade dragon, Mystaran onyx dragon, Mystaran ruby dragon and Mystaran sapphire dragon. Despite being called "gemstone" dragons, these dragons are quite separate from the family of psionic-powered neutral "gem" dragons, despite many of the latter being named after the same precious stones.
freyar
Extradimensional Explorer
That'd be fine, but you need to change the underbar title to "In Mystara" rather than "In Mystaran."
I actually agree with your idea on the name, as infrequent as agreement sometimes seems. Did you want to change all the instances of "azure" to "Mystaran sapphire" in the flavor text? You missed one in the last paragraph.
I actually agree with your idea on the name, as infrequent as agreement sometimes seems.
Did you want to change all the instances of "azure" to "Mystaran sapphire" in the flavor text? You missed one in the last paragraph.
Cleon
Legend
That'd be fine, but you need to change the underbar title to "In Mystara" rather than "In Mystaran."
Oh if I didn't leave in an error here or there you wouldn't feel useful.
I actually agree with your idea on the name, as infrequent as agreement sometimes seems.
I'm happy to leave in a few mentions of "Azure" being an alternative name for this dragon.
Cleon
Legend
Cleon
Legend
We did have a list somewhere, didn't we? I'll just backtrack through this thread a bit…
Cleon
Legend
Ah here we are, the post in question was Will The Dragons Rise Again? The "new dragons" were the Dune Dragon, BECMI Amber/Brown Dragon and BECMI Sapphire Dragon, which we've just finished.
After that, I posted some Dragon Update issues regarding the breath weapons of the Jade Dragon, Ruby Dragon, Faerûnian Yellow Dragon.
We've already "figured out" the potential updates for the Jade and Ruby Dragons' breath weapons when we did the Amber Dragon since the latter has both the Jade's disease breath and the Ruby's melting breath.
That leaves the Faerûnian Yellow's blinding breath plus its "sinkhole" attack. Do you fancy figuring that out? If you're not bothered about that, we appear to only have five unique dragons on our list - the four Mystaran Dragon Rulers plus Ahi the Steel Dragon.
Oh, and in the post following Will The Dragons Rise Again I questioned the naming of the "Tourmaline Dragon". We can't call it the "Prismatic Dragon" like it was originally called since that name's already claimed by the Epic Level Handbook, but I'm not sure it's that appropriate. I suggested Quartz Dragon, Rainbow Dragon or Spectral Dragon as possible alternatives. 'Course, we could mention a number of alternative names this dragon is known by, including Tourmaline, like we did with "Mystaran sapphire dragons, or azure dragons as they are sometimes called".
freyar
Extradimensional Explorer
I'd like to keep Tourmaline as the name for that dragon, since Shade chose it, and it's sort of a gem dragon. Apparently there is also a different rainbow dragon, so I'd stay away from that. However, I don't mind listing quartz or spectral as other nicknames if you want to add that to the entry.
Let's deal with the Faerunian yellow next.
Let's deal with the Faerunian yellow next.
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