Yeah. I didn't understand the belittling comment, either. My feeling with dragons, though, is that you play them with the understanding that they really aren't going to be balanced against other PCs, but rather the DM has to figure out a way to challenge them in the game.
Well. To incorporate them as PCs you can always use scaling; it's Fantasy after all, we do have demi-gods and demi-demons and such. Just make it up, that is what's being done with everything in the game. Shrug.
Yeh I see you were wanting to encourage. I think however you under-estimate the difficulty of making something that works well. The vast majority of those gamer hacked together stuff have been historically really poorly done for instance splattered all across a certain wiki is huge amounts of material that I wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole (now you can say I am belittling if you want). It may well be that people now have better foundations to work off of than they did in the past because designers are presenting an easier to read clearer model than they used to though.
Design either works or it doesn't. Most of it is numerics, what we call balance is more often connected to that as the base-line, so it really comes down to scale in this (current topic) instance. Understanding (intuitively, even) through engagement with the system of how the numeric weights are applied within it becomes the most paramount measure for affecting add-ons and such. Once you conquer the system's numerical balance points then the application of it within abutting streams should become much easier and less hack-worthy.
Well. Just do an RPG, or sculpt the current one based on a magical demi-dragon race. Heck, we've included all forms of sub-humans and demi-humans. Or have some sustaining ritual that the PC must reapply at a certain place or time, a rare alchemical mixture perhaps. Not to trivialize historicity within Game Worlds, of course, to each their own, but in Fantasy (and design) my route is to expand the possibilities and not contract them, so I see myriad "methods" in PC-driven "dragon whatever". Thus good ole Nedlog.
This could be turned on it’s head - mortals age. But what of “immortal” beings. Perhaps humans have it wrong because they don’t understand the magicallity of dragons. They don’t age, they molt. Molting for a dragon is dependent on hoarding - treasure, knowledge, what have you. Dragons get more powerful when they absorb or bind with their hoard. A lucky dragon may molt into a Ancient Wyrm overnight if it happens upon a large enough hoard at once, or a “poor” dragon may remain a baby wyrmling for centuries due to lack of a bound hoard.
