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D&D Gem Dragons Are Officially Back
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<blockquote data-quote="Cleon" data-source="post: 7853465" data-attributes="member: 57383"><p>The Gem dragons under discussion first appeared in <em>Dragon Magazine #37</em> (“That’s not in the Monster Manual! - Neutral Dragons” by Arthur W. Collins, May 1980).</p><p></p><p>But that's not all! There are two other types of Gem Dragon in D&D besides the Psionic Gem Dragons.</p><p></p><p>Firstly, there are Gem Dragons in the Basic/Expert/Companion/Master/Immortal D&D rule series, also called "Gemstone Dragons" (like the Ruby Dragon), which debuted in the <em>D&D Master Set</em> (1985).</p><p></p><p>Secondly, there are additional dragons named after precious stones (like the Amber, Jacinth, Jade, Moonstone, Pearl) in various 2E AD&D sources. The earliest of these are the Jacinth Dragon, Jade Dragon and Pearl Dragon, which debuted in <em>Dragon Magazine #158</em> (“That’s Not in the Monstrous Compendium! - More Neutral Dragons” by Aaron McGruder, June 1990) as additions to the gem dragon "family" with optional psionics. However, their Monstrous Compendium versions are indexed as "Dragon, Neutral" not "Dragon, Gem" and have lost the psionic powers, so stopped being true Gem Dragons. The Moonstone and Pearl Dragons first appeared in Monstrous Compendia as Neutral Dragons without psionic abilities.</p><p></p><p>Just to make it more confusing, some of these "gem" dragons share the same name while being different monsters - the BECMI system's "Gemstone" Sapphire Dragon is pretty much a powered-up lawful aligned palette-swap of a Blue Dragon, not the psychically adept "Gem" Sapphire Dragon.</p><p></p><p>There are quite a few dragons in D&D…</p><p></p><p>EDIT: Thought of something else worth mentioning. There are also Unique Dragons with gem names, most notable Sardior the Ruby Dragon, the Psionic Gem Dragon equivalent of Bahamut and Tiamat. He also debuted in Collins' <em>Dragon Magazine #37</em> AD&D article and has official 3E stats in a WotC website article.</p><p></p><p>There are also D&D dragons with <em>personal</em> names that happen to be those of gemstones, but they're not called "A [Gem] Dragon", such as three aligned BECMI Dragon Rulers Diamond, Opal and Pearl. i.e. Pearl is the "the Moon Dragon" who rules Chaos-aligned dragons in that version of D&D. Naturally there is a Ruby Mystaran Gemstone Dragon and a Pearl Psionic Gem Dragon to further confuse the taxonomy. As far as I know there aren't Diamond Dragon and Opal Dragon types of Dragon. (At least so far…)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Cleon, post: 7853465, member: 57383"] The Gem dragons under discussion first appeared in [I]Dragon Magazine #37[/I] (“That’s not in the Monster Manual! - Neutral Dragons” by Arthur W. Collins, May 1980). But that's not all! There are two other types of Gem Dragon in D&D besides the Psionic Gem Dragons. Firstly, there are Gem Dragons in the Basic/Expert/Companion/Master/Immortal D&D rule series, also called "Gemstone Dragons" (like the Ruby Dragon), which debuted in the [I]D&D Master Set[/I] (1985). Secondly, there are additional dragons named after precious stones (like the Amber, Jacinth, Jade, Moonstone, Pearl) in various 2E AD&D sources. The earliest of these are the Jacinth Dragon, Jade Dragon and Pearl Dragon, which debuted in [I]Dragon Magazine #158[/I] (“That’s Not in the Monstrous Compendium! - More Neutral Dragons” by Aaron McGruder, June 1990) as additions to the gem dragon "family" with optional psionics. However, their Monstrous Compendium versions are indexed as "Dragon, Neutral" not "Dragon, Gem" and have lost the psionic powers, so stopped being true Gem Dragons. The Moonstone and Pearl Dragons first appeared in Monstrous Compendia as Neutral Dragons without psionic abilities. Just to make it more confusing, some of these "gem" dragons share the same name while being different monsters - the BECMI system's "Gemstone" Sapphire Dragon is pretty much a powered-up lawful aligned palette-swap of a Blue Dragon, not the psychically adept "Gem" Sapphire Dragon. There are quite a few dragons in D&D… EDIT: Thought of something else worth mentioning. There are also Unique Dragons with gem names, most notable Sardior the Ruby Dragon, the Psionic Gem Dragon equivalent of Bahamut and Tiamat. He also debuted in Collins' [I]Dragon Magazine #37[/I] AD&D article and has official 3E stats in a WotC website article. There are also D&D dragons with [I]personal[/I] names that happen to be those of gemstones, but they're not called "A [Gem] Dragon", such as three aligned BECMI Dragon Rulers Diamond, Opal and Pearl. i.e. Pearl is the "the Moon Dragon" who rules Chaos-aligned dragons in that version of D&D. Naturally there is a Ruby Mystaran Gemstone Dragon and a Pearl Psionic Gem Dragon to further confuse the taxonomy. As far as I know there aren't Diamond Dragon and Opal Dragon types of Dragon. (At least so far…) [/QUOTE]
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