I agree with the people saying dragons are a essential part of d&d. I´ve used them as mean brutes or just to scare my players at the end of a dungeon crawl. They are supposed to be scary and will most likely kill one of the PC´s. The treasure and XP they bring must make up for this loss. Most resantly I used one in the role of an immortal being walking amoung the mortals highlander style. I houseruled their polymorph into a human ability from ad&d back into my 3.5 game so every npc can be an evil dragon. I think ony the good dragons still have this abilty in 3.5 which is a shame. This green dragon was a duke controlling the province who gave parties during the day and went hunting at night. It seems like a modern thing to do for a dragon. Human domination has become more effective by political inovation so they are giving it a go. For these modernday imortal dragons rulling by brute force is so out of date.
Zanticor
Zanticor