DM experience with dragons

[Zaphling]

Dragons are supposedly the epitome of monsters. Period.

The reason why you sparingly use dragons is because they're supposed to be majestic and meeting them must be breathtaking.

The experience in meeting a dragon is still present in my campaigns, but the reason I rarely use them because my PCs see them as one big pile of gold, or money.

Seriously, i compare dragons to pigs because of this experience. In fact pigs are a bit better off. My explanation is this, pigs, when killed, are totally used up for their meet (kidneys, heart, brain, eyeballs, tongue, muscles, blood, ). Maybe the only thing that is not eaten from a pig is its nails and teeth.

My PCs on the other hand, kills the dragon. Good. But then, they use their bag of holdings to butcher the dragon to sell in arcane schools, alchemists, weapon shops, armor shops, and even museums. seriously, no part, literraly, no part of a dragon will be left. The pig is better off since the teeth and nails are left out, but with dragons every last bit of it is sold for gold.

This has happened like 10 times already, since i only used dragons 10 times. They sell its heart for like 200 gold. Eyeballs for 10 gold. Dragon scales for armor, dragon hide for armor, dragon teeth for weapons and pendants, dragon claws for weapons, dragon bones for weapons, skull for helmet.

But I do reward them with their creativity. If they want to have a dragonbone bastard sword, basically I just give them a normal bastard sword but with an extra benefit like high crit, brutal, reach, etc.

What are your experiences with dragons? and to some lesser extent, monsters that are majestic?

 

[Ryujin]

If you allow them to create a market, then they'll bleed it dry. The need for dragon parts would be extremely small. You might find one or two Wizards, in the entire world, who would be looking for something like that. The more rare and dangerous a thing is, the fewer people are capable of exploiting it.

I try to make a fight with a dragon a memorable battle. It's got to hurt and leave a sense of accomplishment. At most my players might take a trophy, like a tooth, or perhaps some skin, to make armour with. It's not like being turned loose in a department store.

*EDIT* The most recent memorable battle was actually with a Remorhaz. It didn't hurt that I had decided to attack the trailing party member first who, uncharacteristically, turned out to be the Pacifist Cleric. He quietly languished in the beast's innards, healing himself from time to time, while the rest of the party was getting trashed.

 

[interwyrm]

Dragons are supposedly the epitome of monsters. Period.

The reason why you sparingly use dragons is because they're supposed to be majestic and meeting them must be breathtaking.

The experience in meeting a dragon is still present in my campaigns, but the reason I rarely use them because my PCs see them as one big pile of gold, or money.

Seriously, i compare dragons to pigs because of this experience. In fact pigs are a bit better off. My explanation is this, pigs, when killed, are totally used up for their meet (kidneys, heart, brain, eyeballs, tongue, muscles, blood, ). Maybe the only thing that is not eaten from a pig is its nails and teeth.

My PCs on the other hand, kills the dragon. Good. But then, they use their bag of holdings to butcher the dragon to sell in arcane schools, alchemists, weapon shops, armor shops, and even museums. seriously, no part, literraly, no part of a dragon will be left. The pig is better off since the teeth and nails are left out, but with dragons every last bit of it is sold for gold.

This has happened like 10 times already, since i only used dragons 10 times. They sell its heart for like 200 gold. Eyeballs for 10 gold. Dragon scales for armor, dragon hide for armor, dragon teeth for weapons and pendants, dragon claws for weapons, dragon bones for weapons, skull for helmet.

But I do reward them with their creativity. If they want to have a dragonbone bastard sword, basically I just give them a normal bastard sword but with an extra benefit like high crit, brutal, reach, etc.

What are your experiences with dragons? and to some lesser extent, monsters that are majestic?

This sounds like a great setup for a dragonslayers campaign. Your PCs are basically poachers - bad guys. Maybe groups of hippie elves try to stop them? Maybe an ancient dragon takes exception to their activities?

 

[Ryujin]

Or < GASP! > a Dracolich.

 

[aco175]

My group mostly just takes the head to mount on the wall of their local inn. A few have taken skin for armor or such. I never ran a follow on adventure with the head on the wall being stolen for teeth or such. The stuffing process could have swapped fakes for the real ones and now nobody is the wiser, except when the spell component calls for a tooth.

 

[Dice4Hire]

Sounds like the OP's group is seriously taking the mystique out of dragons. Time to thow them for a loop.

BTW, I assume they do this wi\th other monsters, also?

 

[Ketjak]

So many questions, and I am so lazy. Sounds like the OP is doing it wrong - unless the players are attacking low-threat dragons, in which case the OP is doing something else wrong (namely, letting the parents or elder dragons let their youth be slain...). Next time, make sure the dragon has a tribe of worshippers and lairs in a place it can fly into, thereby trapping the floor or the ceiling (to collapse).

Oh, and update the dragons to MM3/MV sensibilities.

- Ket

 

[Riastlin]

From the poaching side of it, as was said earlier, if you create the market, then yeah the PCs will exploit it. For me, I tend to let them harvest a little bit of beast that they slay if they want to use the hide for armor or some such, but if they are merely trying to bilk every last cp out of the beast, then sure, maybe they argue with you over it "surely somebody must want a dragon tongue!" but this is again easily taken care of.

Start with "Okay, you may be right. There probably is somebody who wants a dragon tongue. Sounds like a quest to find that one particular person who needs it." Or alternatively, just make the dragon parts become the treasure parcel. Fight the dragon away from its lair and now the PCs can't find the lair. My guess is at the end of the day, they'd much rather have the dragon's hoard than its testicles.

And if all else fails, just ram Calaystrx down their throats. She wiped the floor with my party.

 

[Zaukrie]

Put a disease in the next dragon blood they splatter all over all of their clothing and whatever else is in their bag of holding.

Make the dragon blood acidic.

Change the economy of your world.

How is using every last bit of an animal worse than wasting some of it?

Make the act of cutting up an animal really boring in real life...have it take two hours, so they never want to do it again.

Are you and they having fun? If so, what does it matter?

Why are dragons supposed to be the epitome of all monsters?

See the posts above mine for other good ideas.

 

[Infiniti2000]

Pigs taste great. Dragons, however, taste terrible. There's not a single edible portion of a dragon's body. Their high metabolism/innate magic/etc. make their meat horrible tasting and not just bad nutritionally, but actually harmful to humanoids. Also, they don't dissolve into residuum, thus no help in terms of magical item creation.

There, how's that for solving the problem?

But, like Zaukrie says, if y'all are having fun, then what's the problem?

From my perspective, I hold no punches for dragons and it is always a major event, with the PCs barely surviving each time. My players crap bricks when they hear about a nearby dragon, let alone see one.