Generic Dragon: Help with CR/LA!

[RangerWickett]

Again I suggest, for the sake of providing the most flexibility for the most people, that you have wyrmling Dragons no stronger than CR 1, preferably CR 1/2. That would mean tiny wyrmlings, as opposed to the rather large 'Medium' wyrmlings of CRGreathouse.

If you consider that even eggs lain by brachiosaurs (colossal creatures) were only about six inches across, the idea that a hatchling dragon would be 5 or 6 feet long is kinda silly. Hell, to even lay an egg that big, you'd have to be bigger than colossal. I would accept Tiny or even Small wyrmlings, but Medium is kinda pushing it.

CR 5 for a baby? I'd prefer not.

 

[CRGreathouse]

[T]he idea that a hatchling dragon would be 5 or 6 feet long is kinda silly. Hell, to even lay an egg that big, you'd have to be bigger than colossal. I would accept Tiny or even Small wyrmlings, but Medium is kinda pushing it.

CR 5 for a baby? I'd prefer not.

Dragons must be at least Young Adult to lay eggs, at which point they're midway through Huge. A typical dragon egg (in my campaign, of course) is 4 feet long and about 300 pounds -- this would be similar to a human having a 5 pound baby. (It's hard to compare length directly, since the wyrmling is curled up inside the egg.)

Wyrmling dragons in my campaign are generally above CR 5, actually -- CR 5 is only for unaligned (untemplated) dragons, which are rare. Dragons generally choose an elemental alignment within their first few years.