D&D 5E Slumbering dragons - how would you do this?

[Quickleaf]

I'm starting to convert my old home-brew setting to 5e (it has seen versions in AD&D2e and 4e), and could use some help with how to implement an idea.

Some relevant information about dragons in my setting:

• The campaign setting has a Celtic and Arthurian vibe to it.
• In a distant age dragons ruled over humans.
• Dragons have mostly been asleep for nearly 500 years, and the land has grown over them. Even more so than before, they have a strong connection to the land because of this.
• Dragons spawned the wyverns from eggs that were not fertilized/incubated.
• The royal family has diluted dragon blood in their veins. Dragon blood has power.
• The magical seal which put the dragons into their long sleep is losing power, so dragons are waking up.
• Dragons are all ancient but in a weakened state, and must rebuild their power (e.g. speech, flight, spellcasting, human-form) thru time, ritual, and sacrifices.
• There are not many dragons at this point, maybe 6-12, and each is an individual. Should the draconic awakening enter full swing, however, that number could triple or quadruple.

How would you represent these dragons mechanically in 5e?

I've been contemplating a couple options...

Converting linnorms from Pathfinder and 2e. Linnorms are more primeval dragons with a connection to the land, and have a more savage feel than the chromatic dragons. Plus linnorms kind of resemble wyverns which these dragons spawned in the setting.

Keep each dragon's size as Gargantuan, but for its stat block use the Young version, then the Adult version, then the Ancient version as they regain power. Some modification would be needed to account for needing to regain speech, flight, spellcasting, human-form, etc.

Make the dragons unique monsters from scratch using the 5e monster building guidelines in the DMG.

...but would love to get some fresh thoughts!

 

[MonkeezOnFire]

A simple way to do it would be to start with the ancient statistics and restrict various parts. In its weakest state you can take everything away until the only thing it can do is make a single weapon attack with one part of its body. Then as it begins to recover grant it some of its abilities like multiattack, frightful presence, its fly and alternate move speeds, breath weapons etc. The dragon is weak but its still gigantic and its basic attacks will reflect that.

You could also throw on the poisoned condition to represent how the magic's lasting effects make the dragon sluggish.

 

[Dausuul]

I like Monkeez's approach. Start with an ancient dragon. Strip away speech, flight, breath weapon, spellcasting, and legendary status. Then restore those piece by piece.

Question: Do you intend to have your PCs fighting dragons in their weakened state? If so, what level are they?

 

[bedir than]

You may want to have your nobles be half-dragonborn. Using the dragonborn as a framework, but getting rid of some of the more overt dragony things (wings, breath weapon)

 

[miniaturehoarder]

I'd say rebuild, MM dragons are kinda glass cannony, and I'd go with gargantuan critters lower levels PCs fighting being more of Mighty Glacier archtype with regen so PCs might have time to figure out they've bit off more than they can chew.

 

[TarionzCousin]

Start the ancient dragons as level zero kobolds and build them up over centuries.

/mechanics aren't really my thing.

 

[DJCupboard]

It may be cool to just start them as only having access to ancient lair effects. No stats or HP. This is them waking up.

After that I like the idea as starting them using the young stats but at ancient size (maybe with higher hp to make them stickier). I'd take away flight or breath weapon (probably a couple dragons missing one, and a number missing the other) to sort of balance the hp, and to model the undeveloped power.

Then go up the progression as the story dictates, till you get full on ancients.

 

[Sunseeker]

Pathfinder has a template for "Feral Dragon" which is basically a dragon stripped of most of its intelligence and spellcasting abilities, I'm planning to use it in a dragon-centric game I'm running. It's pretty potent, slap-on-top powerup when you need a not-so-intelligent bestial powerhouse of a dragon.

 

[Quickleaf]

Question: Do you intend to have your PCs fighting dragons in their weakened state?

Possibly, depends on PCs course of action.

If so, what level are they?

Our game group has changed and (fingers crossed) we'll be getting back together next month with some some of the same PCs. We left off in 4e (with its 30 character levels) at around 12th/13th level, so I am thinking of starting them around 8th or 9th level in 5e.

 

[Quickleaf]

An idea I'm playing with is that the longer the PCs put off dealing with a particular dragon, the more powerful it grows. This allows the dragons to always be a threat, sort of leveling along with the PCs. To make it more interesting there would be certain milestones the PCs could achieve to setback a particular dragon's awakening, so that when they did confront it, the dragon would be weaker than it would otherwise have been. Also playing with the idea of being able to put a dragon back into the slumber thru adventures, so that they don't have to fight it at all.

A simple way to do it would be to start with the ancient statistics and restrict various parts. In its weakest state you can take everything away until the only thing it can do is make a single weapon attack with one part of its body. Then as it begins to recover grant it some of its abilities like multiattack, frightful presence, its fly and alternate move speeds, breath weapons etc. The dragon is weak but its still gigantic and its basic attacks will reflect that.

That would require the least work, just some sort of progression track describing when/in which order it gets back which abilities.

You could also throw on the poisoned condition to represent how the magic's lasting effects make the dragon sluggish.

Great idea! I hadn't though of that!

You may want to have your nobles be half-dragonborn. Using the dragonborn as a framework, but getting rid of some of the more overt dragony things (wings, breath weapon)

So, what does that leave, resistance to a certain kind of damage? That could work.

The basic story with the royalty is imagine an ancient king like King Arthur being in a situation like in Dragonheart where to survive the dragon gives him some of its blood (though its coerced into doing so), which has the side effect of making the king an incredible warrior but also a bit mad. This blood curse passes down thru his lineage. The current king is 13th in the line, and the blood has become very diluted. A secret society wants to "reawaken" the power in the royal dragon blood.

There are no PHB dragonborn in the setting. Dragon's blood has tons of mystical properties that I've only hinted at. If someone were imbued with it like the first high king, they would gain crazy power probably comparable with a legendary magic item or artifact.

I'd say rebuild, MM dragons are kinda glass cannony, and I'd go with gargantuan critters lower levels PCs fighting being more of Mighty Glacier archtype with regen so PCs might have time to figure out they've bit off more than they can chew.

That's an interesting idea. I haven't run any dragons in 5e yet, so good to know about them being glass cannons in advance. That "mighty glacier" phrase makes a lot of sense in the way I've described dragons in the setting. If I were to rebuild I'd probably look to the linnorms for inspiration.

It may be cool to just start them as only having access to ancient lair effects. No stats or HP. This is them waking up.

After that I like the idea as starting them using the young stats but at ancient size (maybe with higher hp to make them stickier). I'd take away flight or breath weapon (probably a couple dragons missing one, and a number missing the other) to sort of balance the hp, and to model the undeveloped power.

Then go up the progression as the story dictates, till you get full on ancients.

Totally I think it was in the movie Excalibur where the "Dragon" was like a force of nature that was mostly or entirely invisible. That is definitely the vibe I'm going for.

I'm actually thinking the dragons' Regional Effects will expand as they awaken as well. As a guideline I'm using the DMG note about 1 apex predator like a dragon per no more than 50 square miles. So perhaps 50 miles could be the upper limit of their Regional Effects. So as the dragons work to reestablish their ancient territories, they also exert a magical effect on those territories.

Pathfinder has a template for "Feral Dragon" which is basically a dragon stripped of most of its intelligence and spellcasting abilities, I'm planning to use it in a dragon-centric game I'm running. It's pretty potent, slap-on-top powerup when you need a not-so-intelligent bestial powerhouse of a dragon.

I will check it out, thanks!