Dragons and spells burning XP...

[Dark Dragon]

I'm just a bit curious about the rules here: What happens if a monster like a great wyrm dragon (without any classes) casts a spell like Gate, Permanency, Wish or Miracle (or any other spell that needs XP as a component)?

Will it become younger? Or must it contribute a costly material component instead of XP? Or are XP using spells denied to monstrous casters?

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

A good question, there are no hard and fast rules for it.
I would suggest assuming he uses his HD as "effective class levels" to determine the minimum XP he has, and than find an abritary number between this and the XP for the next level (say half-way), and that determines the maximum of XP he can spend on these spells before he advances to the next HD or age category ...

 

[Derren]

A dragon typically has a cushuon of 100 to 600XP per spellcasting level (from the Draconomicon)

So the dragon has and gains XP, even while not taking classes

 

[Dark Dragon]

A dragon typically has a cushuon of 100 to 600XP per spellcasting level (from the Draconomicon)

So the dragon has and gains XP, even while not taking classes

But it will not "lose" an age category if it spends all its XP? Hm, on the basis of the Draconomicon rules, it is quite unlikely that a dragon (who casts spells as a sorcerer) ever choses Wish or Permanency as spells...

Ok, Wish is it not really worth to be taken, IMHO...Gate on the other hand still has the option to use it as a XP free travel spell...

 

[Derren]

Well a great gold wyrm could have between 1900 or 11400XP free to spend.

And no, they don't loose an age category. You can't loose a level when using XP for spells. When you would you simply cast the spell.

On a complete unrelated note, don't forget that dragons don't need material components (even costly ones) for spells. That should compensate enough for it.