Metallic Dragons Need Not Apply?

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

This is a nice idea, because it would provide a reason for the metallic dragons to want to help the human resistance. Perhaps there are only metallic dragons, but when enthralled by mind flayers, their colors dull. Silver-->White, Copper-->Green, Bronze-->Black, Brass-->White, Gold-->Red.

My homebrew has a concept like this (though I don't think it's original. I'm almost certain I lifted it from somewhere). The metallic dragons were created by the departing gods to serve as caretakers of the world. Naturally, some mortals came to worship these dragons, which gave some of them big heads. Somewhat more than half of them fell to evil. Their metallic hides began to tarnish. Eventually (and I won't detail the history here) there was a Great War between the dragons and their assorted mortal allies and worshippers. This nearly destroyed the world, but ultimately, the conflict was resolved by the greatest spell ever cast. The more numerous evil dragons were on the verge of destroying the remaining good ones. But an immense ritual with wizards, clerics, bards, and druids of many races, cast a powerful curse on them, stripping them of their metallic armor and some of their powers. The few remaining metallic dragons were then able to kill or scatter the evil army. NOTE: In my game, chromatic dragons are always weaker than their metallic counterparts to one degree or another, and I've made some changes to the breath weapons and powers to make sure there are correspondences for everything.

 

[Impeesa]

Darn, too slow. I was going to suggest that they be throwbacks to some noble dragon ancestor - the 'modern' dragon bloodline was contaminated by the magical detonation, and these rare specimens are actively hunted as they mature and their nature becomes apparent.

--Impeesa--