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Message: <blockquote data-quote="bret" data-source="post: 136272" data-attributes="member: 713">There are ways to find some of this out.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Maximum number of spells per day. A wizard isn't going to have as high a spells per day as a sorcerer, it usually isn't even close. If a dragon is known to have cast 8 fireballs during a single day while attacking a town, it is probably a sorcerer (with a 22 Cha or better). If you have reliable reports of the dragon using a much larger selection of spells than a Sorcerer could know, the dragon probably knows some wizardry.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Dragon hordes. If dragons need to use spellbooks, you would find those spellbooks in dragon hordes. This is more in the way of circumstantial evidence. People would find a book that doesn't look like it was written by a human hand (forgery check) and all the spells cast by the dragon appear in it (spellcraft checks). This would not indicate that a particular living dragon is a wizard, but it would indicate that some dragons in the past studied wizardry.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Big attacks will leave a few witnesses. At some stage in the dragon's life, it would have ran into something where it had to run away or die. If it is still a problem, that means it ran away leaving witnesses. If there has never been a witness, then you should be able to do a single hit and get into defensive position. The dragon will come after you and refuse to retreat, because if it acted any other way that would leave witnesses.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Some adventurers are also willing to retreat. It is not valid to say that no adventurer has ever attacked a dragon and then retreated. If nothing else, a spell caster could use Word of Recall (cleric) or Teleport (wizard/sorcerer) to flee in terror after seeing the dragon eat their big fighter in one round. The dragon would have a hard time hunting down that adventurer.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Most dragons are territorial. Except possibly in the case of a mated pair, you aren't going to have multiple adult dragons of the same age category in the same area. If the white dragon that is repeatedly attacking SubZeroVille uses a particular spell, it is a good bet it can use it again.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Legend Lore, or I don't want to hunt down that library book. Some of this information could be obtained via Legend Lore.</li> </ul>I'm not saying that the adventurers will always know what the heck they are going against.What I am saying is that if they spend time running down leads, a group should get a hint if it is possible for a dragon to pick up Wizard levels. They should also get a hint as to what the Dragon's most popular spells have historically been. Spells that the dragon has only cast a few times would still be surprises, but not the ones they have been using for a century or more.</blockquote>

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