Dragon stuff

[alsih2o]

Dragons are big and smart. This leaves me wandering a lot of things. Fill us in on what oyu think and ask your own questions.

Magic items:
Are dragon Wands staff sized? Can a humanoid find a way to wear a dragon ring?

Mundane stuff:
How do they move all their stuff around? Are there dragon backpacks? Is there dragon furniture? (Surely hyperintelligent quadrapeds have some version fo the chair?) Do they ever construct their own layers?(rather than excavate or claim) Does that eman there are bog ol' dragon hammers and dragon adzes someplace?

Biology:
Do they have herds they maintain to eat? Do they eat less or more frequently? Hibernate/estivate? What is dragon gestation? Eggs or live birth? Does it "Take two to tango"?

Realtions:
Do they keep track of the whole vrother.sister/grandpa thing? Do they hang out together?

Opinions?

Bizarre:
There are chromatic dragons, does this means there can be albino chromatic dragons? What is the metallic equivalent of an albino chromatic dragon?

 

[kirinke]

Take a look at the Dragonnomicon. That'll answer most of your questions. Good stuff.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

I have to second the Draconomicon. That's one kick-ass book!

About items: Their staves and wands might be larger than normal, but often they'd just have stuff made by humanoids, so they are normal-sized. And, as far as I know, rings will resize to fit the wearer.

They usually don't move their stuff about, since they leave it in their lair. If they move, they probably use everything you can imagine, and then some. It depends on the dragon, I think. Some use magic, some magic items (bags of holding, and the like), others move it in large bags, or carriages, or they use their minions/slaves.

Dragons don't have chairs, they have what I call the Dragon Couch. This consists of a gigantic mound of coins, gems, and other valuables, which they just lie on.

Dragons usually just take over a lair, but some have something constructed (like the silver or gold dragon in draconomicon that has a huge mansion with a sizable library in it).

Dragon Diet: They have a very efficient digestive system which is basically an elemental blast furnace. They could literally live on rocks. Dragons need surprisingly little, but unfortunately, the difference between what they must eat and what they can eat is enormous. They do need greater amounts of food when their growth spurts set in. They can also get by a very long time on what they eat, so they could gorge themselves and then feast for long times.

Dragons do need a mate to procreate. They mate and then the female lays eggs. They take care of the eggs together, afaik. Later, when they reach a certain age, they have to go out and make their own life. Dragons are too territorial to have family bounds.

I don't know about albino dragons. In D&D, more or less everything is possible.


Again, If you really want to know all about dragons, get the Draconomicon. It's easily the most classy D&D book I have seen. Beside explaining their pysiology, psychology, outlook, life cicle, and so on, it has DM tactics how to use a dragon, new spells and feats, and PrC's for Dragons (all 12-level). It also has a chapter for characters, with spells/feats/PrC's and advice, so you know how you fight dragons, how you serve dragons, and how you adventure alongside them (as familiars or mounts, or even PC's). And of course, new monsters, both true dragons and lesser dragons (and some dragon-related gritters), new templates (dracolich, vampiric dragon, zombie dragon, dragon skeleton), and one sample dragon of each of the 5 metallic and 5 chromatic variants, in each age category. Also, it has a sample hoard for a dragon from each CR between 2-or-so untill 27. And a listing of all dragons that have been released so far (at the time when the book was released), including the stats for half-dragons of these forms.

 

[Red Viper]

There is a Dragon issue from a couple years ago that has dragon items in it. I am not sure what issue it is, cuz i don't have it with me. If no one tells what it is before I check next I will post the issue number for you.
later.

 

[Evilhalfling]

If Dragons want a constructed home they can hire/coerce/enchant humanoids to do it for them. A dragon in my campain was looking for a druid who would make a few changes to his forest Lair-

Many of your other questions are answered in the Draconomicon, although IMC I altered the dragons to a single species, with only some colors being fertile. This reduced the number of dragon families, so that each dragon knows its place, and relationship to the others. This doesn't stop infighting, it really increases it.

I have always wondered about a dragon moving its horde. Not every dragon will have a bag of holding, and fitting their entire bed anywhere would be very difficult.

I can see a dragon flying over a mob of humanoids, each carrying sacks of loot. moving th e whole lair somewhere. I wonder if a dragon could arrange a lair sitter - a young adult dragon of course.

 

[Jdvn1]

Magic items:
Are dragon Wands staff sized? Can a humanoid find a way to wear a dragon ring?

Wouldn't they resize?

Mundane stuff:
How do they move all their stuff around? Are there dragon backpacks? Is there dragon furniture? (Surely hyperintelligent quadrapeds have some version fo the chair?) Do they ever construct their own layers?(rather than excavate or claim) Does that eman there are bog ol' dragon hammers and dragon adzes someplace?

I think they avoid moving stuff around. They probably have access to more than enough bags of holding, though. I don't think they use furniture either. The burrowing dragons more than likely construct their own lairs. And the ones that can't burrow probably use spells.

Biology:
Do they have herds they maintain to eat? Do they eat less or more frequently? Hibernate/estivate? What is dragon gestation? Eggs or live birth? Does it "Take two to tango"?

I think they fly around, eating randomly. I guess they could use spells for food, though. And they can eat gold (there's a PrC that requires it, in fact). The Draconomicon does answer this sort of stuff, though.

Realtions:
Do they keep track of the whole vrother.sister/grandpa thing? Do they hang out together?

Um, I don't think so. I think they tend to be more loners. Each has his own lair and horde. They don't have houses for the whole family either. The ones that don't hate each other probably meet every once in a while, but they tend not to make a habit of forming a flock.

Bizarre:
There are chromatic dragons, does this means there can be albino chromatic dragons? What is the metallic equivalent of an albino chromatic dragon?

They'd probably be all white (white dragons aren't pure white, mind you), and more importantly, their horns and eyes would be white as well. Like, polar bears are white. Albino polar bears can be differentiated by their eyes.

 

[Jesus_marley]

Polar bears are actually black. Their fur is transparent. They look white because of the way the fur reflects visible light.

As for albino dragons, I remember reading a short story once (in a D&D novel) about a knight or paladin who is charged with caring for a young wyrmling by its mother after mistakenly slaying an albino silver dragon thinking it to be an evil white dragon.

Most dragons I imagine who display albinism would not be true white IMO unless they had leucism. Using alligators as the closest known "relative" to a dragon, I have taken the liberty of swiping some info detailing the differences in colour between albino and leucistic alligators. You can see the entire thing Here.

[swipe]...Of the 67 known white alligators, 40 of them are albino and the other 27 are leucistic. This rare genetic mutation causes an animal to be paper-white in color with a complete lack of pattern. White alligators do not have a good survival rate and seldom reach maturity in the wild (and therefore are unable to pass on their genetic makeup.)

Albinos have a lack of black pigment cells, known as melanophores, which produce the body chemical known as melanin. Since melanin causes the color variations in an animal's skin, retinas and hair, the lack of this chemical results in the yellowish or off-white skin color and pinkish eyes often associated with an albino. (The irises are colorless and therefore the blood flowing through them is visible.)
Leucism is a less common form of albinism. Leucistic animals do not have pigment cells with the exception of their eyes, which are usually blue or black. There
are albino specimens from nearly every animal group: mammals, birds, fish, reptiles
and amphibians.[/swipe]

 

[Jdvn1]

Polar bears are actually black. Their fur is transparent. They look white because of the way the fur reflects visible light.

Fine. Spirit bears are white. Albino black bears are also white. They're most easily distinguished by their eyes. I was only illustrating a point, but maybe polar bears were a bad example.

 

[mythusmage]

1. Dwarfs have tools, dragons have staff.

2. Dragons have furniture, you have to store linens etc. someplace. (Yes, my dragons use linens. They also have cleaning supplies.)

3. Dragons sleep on a raised platform covered in cotton or linen sheets. For some reason silk tends to irritate their skin. Dragons do not sleep on their treasure because the treasure is too valuable to sleep on, and it's usually in a vault or on display in an art gallery or museum somewhere.

4. Some dragons do keep herds. Other dragons send the servants grocery shopping when they need to restock. Legend has it that dragons started little ol' Australopithecus afarensis on the road to Homo sapiens so they'd have someone to keep track of the cattle and sheep.

5. Eggs or live birth? Depends on the species.

6. They are into genealogy. And they're proud of the fact all dragons are descended from a gray dragon that survived the coming of the Ice Age.

7. Albino dragons? Course. But the heads make it easy to tell species apart, if you pay attention to such things.

Hope this helps.

 

[Nifft]

Dragons obviously sleep on piles of gold to aid their heat dissipation. Hoard? More like a giant heat sink.

-- N