D&D General cooler dragon themes?

[Mind of tempest]

look we all agree different breath weapons are great but the core two groups of dragons are boring past that and feel dull beyond good and evil which they do not do very well.
past some cool horn/crest and wing designs they also feel too similar the metallic colours suck and the chromatics have too little in the way of feeling unique.

I propose we consider how to do cooler dragons from both collective themes, personality and even looks,

I do ever lack knowledge of the mythical background of the western dragon beyond the earliest were just giant snakes so if any of you know that it might help bring them more into focus.

 

[Aldarc]

I like what Paizo is doing now in Pathfinder 2 with dragons. They are creating dragon themes based around their primary four spell lists: Primal, Arcane, Divine, and Occult. IMHO, that is so cool! I would say that is far cooler and more grounded in lore-building for something like D&D than simply dragon themes around color-themed dragons are evil and metal-themed dragons are good.

Arcane Dragon: Mirage Dragon

Divine Dragon: Diabolical Dragon

 

[Quickleaf]

I’m running a Halloween one shot of Freebooters on the Frontier (Dungeon World + OSR), where my “dragon” called The Caterwauler is a leech-like creature that shrieks at night. It has bat-like wings but isn’t an agile flyer, and only two hindquarters claws like a wyvern. It has a breath weapon that spews acidic bile and infects those struck with a disease. It has vulnerabilities to salt like a leech does.

 

[BookTenTiger]

I like what Paizo is doing now in Pathfinder 2 with dragons. They are creating dragon themes based around their primary four spell lists: Primal, Arcane, Divine, and Occult. IMHO, that is so cool! I would say that is far cooler and more grounded in lore-building for something like D&D than simply dragon themes around color-themed dragons are evil and metal-themed dragons are good.

Arcane Dragon: Mirage Dragon

Divine Dragon: Diabolical Dragon

This would be a fun project with the D&D spell schools...

An abjuration-themed dragon that has super thick armor.

An evocation-themed dragon that can do amazing things with its breath weapon.

An illusion-themed dragon that is a master of trickery...

And so on!

 

[jgsugden]

Beyond the breath weapons, they have their resistances, the high perception, and for older dragons the legendary actions and lair actions. Additionally, they have the rules for spellcasting dragons which I always use.

In addition, I allow a dragon to apply one metamagic effect to each spell they get to cast. This amps up their spellcasting into a serious contributor to their style and techniques. For example, a quickened Fog Cloud casrt at 4th level for a huge area is an amazing gamechanger for a dragon with Blindsight.

I also add to their iconic nature by having them capitalize upon their elemental immunity and features, especially when it comes to lair design. Black dragons that have half submerged lairs, red dragons that have a lair that can be entered only by passing through molten lava, etc...

Beyond that, I historically have distinguished dragons with personalities. Even if they have similar abilities - different motivations can result in very different feeling encounters. Chaotic Evil isn't a personality - it is an umbrella over thousands of personalities. The first thing I always do when placing a new dragon is ask the W questions: Why would it be there? What does it want? What bothers it? Who does it interact with - and how? These get me the starting answers for a personality.

 

[Tonguez]

I like when Dragons are embodiments of natural disasters - the Pyroclastic Red, the Blue Hurricane , the Black Swamp, the White Blizzard, the Green Toxic Jungle, the Yellow Sand Storm. Paraelemental affinity but not elementals themselves, still powerful and worshipped as diety though.

Build abilities and personalities from there

 

[Vaalingrade]

Dragons are immortal parasites that don't make anything on their own, but watch cultures and societies rise up around them that produce all sorts of stuff that they want to consume and will possibly become fixated on mimicking.

So I'd see dragons divided based on their cultural fixations.

Crafter Dragons are like giant dwarves; obsessed with Making things that last; excellent workmanship that is both beautiful and functional and Done Right. They cultivate forest just to get a white oak with just the right grain and spend weeks planing the same piece of stone to create a countertop whose level is measured in microns.

Husbandry Dragons are fixated on domestication and animal breeding. Their lairs are surrounded by vast lush preserves where they breed the greatest, most powerful dire animals and drakes and maybe the kind of drake which is a male duck as well. A thousand years of selective breeding: that how we got owlbears.

Entertainer Dragons are obsessed with the mortal forms of music, dance and storytelling. They write plays and songs unique to instruments of their own creation and capture or coerce bands and troupes to play out their creations, even swooping down upon a town to use as a captive audience.

Culinary Dragons are perplexed by the complex pallet of creatures who cannot simply be sated by eating rocks and gems and live livestock. Cooking is new and novel to them and they try every combination--edible by mortals or not. Some seek only to sate themselves while others pick a species and seek to create the perfect meal both in taste, presentation and nutrition for them.

Comfort Dragons eschew sleeping on hard gold or stone floors. They've seen the wonders of interior decoration and their desire is for tasteful chambers furnished and lavish with fabrics and art. They cultivate caverns full of giant silk worms and sheep and rocs to stuff their cushions, and employ armies of mortal experts to create for them.

 

[Aldarc]

This would be a fun project with the D&D spell schools...

An abjuration-themed dragon that has super thick armor.

An evocation-themed dragon that can do amazing things with its breath weapon.

An illusion-themed dragon that is a master of trickery...

And so on!

We may see something like this with the Arcane dragons in PF2. See the Mirage Dragon:

The next dragon we’re showcasing is the mirage dragon, an arcane dragon with a mastery of illusion magic.

So it's meant to be the Illusion school dragon.

 

[cbwjm]

I merged the various dragons to create dragons based on an element so instead of gold and red dragons there are dragons of flame, white and silver dragons become dragons of frost, etc. I also ended up using single stat blocks making things like hit dice all the same so that an ancient frost dragon is as powerful as an ancient flame dragon, allows for easy use of templates. I also did the same for giants.

 

[Incenjucar]

Cataclysmic dragons are a fun group.