D&D General Dragons: What role do they play in your campaigns?
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EzekielRaiden
Follower of the Way
There are exactly three dragons present in the game I run. Dragons are extremely rare in the region where the players live, which is inspired by Al Qadim and thus favors genies over dragons. This region, the Tarrakhuna, is far away from the mortal-world continent where dragons natively live, Yuxia.
The first of these dragons is Tenryu Shen, a gold dragon masquerading as a dragonborn priest. More or less the personality you'd expect for a gold dragon: serious, driven, wise, cautious. The party counts him as one of their closest allies, and the feeling is mutual. He has come from Yuxia on request of the local priesthood to hunt down...
A black dragon. Shen has not specified the dragon's actual name, but he knows that it's come to Al-Rakkah (largest/richest city-state of the Tarrakhuna) in order to eventually take it over as its "hoard." He's confident the black dragon is masquearding as one of the rich people in the city, but the hunt is proving very difficult.
A ruby-colored origami dragon. This is actually a spiritual dragon (the distinction between regular and spirit dragons has not been examined closely in-game), bonded to this paper dragon statue (as explained by Shen). The party has yet to determine the dragon's name, which will be necessary to awaken the dragon; it can grant each person one wish. It's not unlimited in power, but a spirit-dragon can achieve a lot. Shen seems reasonably confident that the spirit-dragon is of good alignment.
No other dragon has appeared in-game, and it is unlikely that any ever will. I love dragons immensely, but keeping things restricted to these three makes sure that these dragons are special. The black dragon is a serious mastermind, and the party will secure a major victory if they can learn who the dragon is. Shen is a powerful ally with a friendly but personal agenda, and the party has more than once depended on his aid to overcome adversity. The origami dragon is a resource kept in the party's back pocket for a rainy day. These things are major touchstones, rather than dime-a-dozen events, and that's how I like my dragons.
The first of these dragons is Tenryu Shen, a gold dragon masquerading as a dragonborn priest. More or less the personality you'd expect for a gold dragon: serious, driven, wise, cautious. The party counts him as one of their closest allies, and the feeling is mutual. He has come from Yuxia on request of the local priesthood to hunt down...
A black dragon. Shen has not specified the dragon's actual name, but he knows that it's come to Al-Rakkah (largest/richest city-state of the Tarrakhuna) in order to eventually take it over as its "hoard." He's confident the black dragon is masquearding as one of the rich people in the city, but the hunt is proving very difficult.
A ruby-colored origami dragon. This is actually a spiritual dragon (the distinction between regular and spirit dragons has not been examined closely in-game), bonded to this paper dragon statue (as explained by Shen). The party has yet to determine the dragon's name, which will be necessary to awaken the dragon; it can grant each person one wish. It's not unlimited in power, but a spirit-dragon can achieve a lot. Shen seems reasonably confident that the spirit-dragon is of good alignment.
No other dragon has appeared in-game, and it is unlikely that any ever will. I love dragons immensely, but keeping things restricted to these three makes sure that these dragons are special. The black dragon is a serious mastermind, and the party will secure a major victory if they can learn who the dragon is. Shen is a powerful ally with a friendly but personal agenda, and the party has more than once depended on his aid to overcome adversity. The origami dragon is a resource kept in the party's back pocket for a rainy day. These things are major touchstones, rather than dime-a-dozen events, and that's how I like my dragons.
In my son's last campaign, my nephew's PC (an elven monk) gained the tenryutsume ("Sky Dragon's Claw" in Japanese), a glove-like weapon he wore on his right hand. "Tenryu Shen" is "Sky Dragon God" or something similar, isn't it? Very cool.
Johnathan
hopeless
Adventurer
So far I've been trying to work out a background for the Chroma Conclave.
My idea is that a group of chromatic dragons were raised from newly hatchlings to serve as mounts for an order of Knights named the Draconic Knights.
They eventually grew up rebelled becoming the first of many versions of the Chroma Conclave.
The survivors began again, but some actually learned from their mistake creating the Draconic Knights which actually meant the dragons and not their riders.
By the time of my game this group had dispersed again as a result of one of their number betraying them causing the assassination of their leader.
This group of Draconic Knights consisted of the Acolyte and Gold Dragon Matthau, their leader the Bronze Dragon named Brass Horn, two mercenary chromatic dragons (the blue dragon Cyanswrath and his wife the red dragon Ruby From the Sea) and finally the Green Dragon Raishan.
Raishan's betrayal shattered the group who have only recently met up again although Matthau fled carrying the missing Crown Prince Gilieam to safety as Cyanswrath and Ruby finished their task without interferring with each other.
Ruby From the Sea is so named for her love of bathing, the pair have the habit of assuming a humanoid form when they want to feed as neither want to cause a famine because of their true dragon nature.
Naturally their preferred humanoid form is a tiefling of the same shade as their true form.
My idea is that a group of chromatic dragons were raised from newly hatchlings to serve as mounts for an order of Knights named the Draconic Knights.
They eventually grew up rebelled becoming the first of many versions of the Chroma Conclave.
The survivors began again, but some actually learned from their mistake creating the Draconic Knights which actually meant the dragons and not their riders.
By the time of my game this group had dispersed again as a result of one of their number betraying them causing the assassination of their leader.
This group of Draconic Knights consisted of the Acolyte and Gold Dragon Matthau, their leader the Bronze Dragon named Brass Horn, two mercenary chromatic dragons (the blue dragon Cyanswrath and his wife the red dragon Ruby From the Sea) and finally the Green Dragon Raishan.
Raishan's betrayal shattered the group who have only recently met up again although Matthau fled carrying the missing Crown Prince Gilieam to safety as Cyanswrath and Ruby finished their task without interferring with each other.
Ruby From the Sea is so named for her love of bathing, the pair have the habit of assuming a humanoid form when they want to feed as neither want to cause a famine because of their true dragon nature.
Naturally their preferred humanoid form is a tiefling of the same shade as their true form.
EzekielRaiden
Follower of the Way
That's correct, yes (though I favor the more flowery/poetic "heavenly" rather than "sky.") He's not actually a god, but dragons (and some other, innately-magical beings) are in some sense a step closer to celestial/divine than ordinary mortals are. You could think of it as dragons being physical creatures that contain manifestations of the power inherent in creation itself, charged to act as custodians and caretakers. Good dragons are thus wise, gracious, and noble, but often inscrutable. Sometimes, they do things that don't look gracious to mortal eyes because dragons can literally observe more of the world than mortals can (magic/supernatural senses beyond what training can achieve for humanoids), and because they're nigh-immortal and thus have a much bigger time-horizon.
For Shen and others like him, this is focused in part by him (apparently; the party hasn't directly asked) revering the same monotheistic deity as the priests of the land they live in, which binds Shen by certain rules of what he can and can't do and sets the goals he pursues. Evil dragons, by contrast, are...sort of somewhere between fallen clerics and "corrupted" aasimar, beings who have taken the power given to them and bent it toward wicked ends. (For this purpose, I lump "neutral" dragons with "good" ones, "neutral" meaning they lean rather harder into the "inscrutable goals" side of things, probably focused on parts of the "divine plan" that only tangentially intersect with mortal concerns.) So this black dragon is, in some meaningful sense, a "traitor," which is part of why Shen is on his hunt.
Being perfectly honest, I had actually been really concerned my players would not like him, seeing him as a powerful DMPC or an annoying questgiver or the like. I am most fortunate that they instead think he's great, and are super jazzed to eventually attend his marriage to his (human) fiancée, Hafsa el-Alam, who is a respected wizard and talented artificer. Both she and her fiancé have helped out the party with various things over the years we've played, which I'm sure helped the "will they like him?" stuff.
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The-Magic-Sword
Small Ball Archmage
Immortal Spirit Souls summoned by Gods with the Wyrmkin domain and members of their divine household (mortals they can empower), the ritual to do so involves the use of an egg specially carved out of special gemstones. They are among the ultimate weapons of the Gods, summoned for a variety of purposes-- to ravage nations or to guard vital artifacts, or even to act as teachers. Their immortal spirits have been summoned many times throughout history so they feature in the history and legends of many lands, with specific dragons cropping up more in certain cultures.
When the ritual is completed it creates a baby dragon that already knows its mission, and must devour magic to grow in size-- by default this will be a long process of absorbing the ambient magic in the air, but offerings of objects imbued with magic can sharply accelerate this process depending on the quantity and strength of the items. Dragons can be unsummoned by the being that called them, they can be banished by being slain, or the ritual can (probably this is unclear) be done in such a way that they naturally dissipate when conditions are met (like their service no longer being required.)
Dragons generally hoard magic items because they represent their fuel source, allowing them to grow closer to their full potential and offers them greater power to complete their missions, many also enjoy the feeling of incredible power so will seek it out even if they don't strictly need to. Draconic arrogance is heavily linked to being weapons of the gods, and their immortal memories, as well as their historic reputations and legends, they love to collect names and titles as much as treasure, adding to their prestige. Some can end up serving mortal masters, such as the Imperial Dragons of Shoga who served the Imperial Family of Vahako, if a covenant is made with the divine keepers of the Dragon Souls.
When the ritual is completed it creates a baby dragon that already knows its mission, and must devour magic to grow in size-- by default this will be a long process of absorbing the ambient magic in the air, but offerings of objects imbued with magic can sharply accelerate this process depending on the quantity and strength of the items. Dragons can be unsummoned by the being that called them, they can be banished by being slain, or the ritual can (probably this is unclear) be done in such a way that they naturally dissipate when conditions are met (like their service no longer being required.)
Dragons generally hoard magic items because they represent their fuel source, allowing them to grow closer to their full potential and offers them greater power to complete their missions, many also enjoy the feeling of incredible power so will seek it out even if they don't strictly need to. Draconic arrogance is heavily linked to being weapons of the gods, and their immortal memories, as well as their historic reputations and legends, they love to collect names and titles as much as treasure, adding to their prestige. Some can end up serving mortal masters, such as the Imperial Dragons of Shoga who served the Imperial Family of Vahako, if a covenant is made with the divine keepers of the Dragon Souls.
Normally, dragons in my campaign are unique monsters. There are only a handful (one of each type that exists) and they are ancient and powerful (but not as powerful as an Arch-devil or Demon Prince(ss).
I have long had ideas for a campaign in which the dragons are not the standard metallic or chromatic dragons, but are wingless powerful spirits in a world where a few played a game for control using humans as pawns. Oh, and half-dragons are nothing like dragonborn or 3e half-dragons
I have long had ideas for a campaign in which the dragons are not the standard metallic or chromatic dragons, but are wingless powerful spirits in a world where a few played a game for control using humans as pawns. Oh, and half-dragons are nothing like dragonborn or 3e half-dragons
cbwjm
Legend
Dragons are somewhat important in my homebrew setting as they formed a third of the great elemental war. They were also the creator of Dragonborn who were created to swell their armies. Currently in game, the party is trying to stop a warlock from harnessing the power of a sleeping dragon elder which, if successful, will grant him the power of a god (dragon elders are on the same level as the gods).
The party hasn't encountered any dragons other than the dragonborn so, other than stopping the harnessing of power mentioned above, dragons themselves aren't super important to the current campaign. I have plans though, depends on what the party decides to do later on.
The party hasn't encountered any dragons other than the dragonborn so, other than stopping the harnessing of power mentioned above, dragons themselves aren't super important to the current campaign. I have plans though, depends on what the party decides to do later on.
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