D&D 5E The Role of Dragons in Your Game

[Reynard]

In my current campaign, there is just one dragon: Zaskettr, an ancient red wyrm. It is a long story, but 50 years before the campaign begins, one of the land's many warring barons sought out the (sleeping) dragon and slayed it. The combination of the treasure from the dragon's hoard and the prestige for killing it allowed him to become High King. He reigned for 40 years until inexplicably* the dragon returned. It not only killed the High King but leveled the capital city and took up residence in the smoldering ruins. For the 10 years since, it has raided other cities, attacked herds and overall made a destructive nuisance of itself. It is a force of chaos, causing civlization itself (this is an island nation) to collapse.

So Zaskettr is not really a villain or even an enemy (except possibly in an end-game kind of way, given that it is such a powerful foe). It does not present adventures -- those all happen in the ancient ruins of the island, in the courts of the mercurial elves, or in the machinations between the barons fighting over a melted crown. It's role is to create the world in which the PCs adventure and represent entropy -- both slow degredation and sudden, violent calamity. It does not possess special knowledge. it can't be engaged in politics or riddle contests. It is a hurricane or volcano in scaled form.

How do you use dragons in your campaign? Do they have a special place, or are they "just another monster"?

 

[The_Gneech]

In my game they seem to be great "area denial" monsters. If my players know there's a dragon somewhere, they won't go near it!

-TG

 

[Gilladian]

In the last 2 campaigns I ran (3.5 and 5 e), my Pcs had hard run-ins with dragons as monsters. They've indicated that they don't want a dragon foe in the next campaign, but since I intend to push it to (for us) higher levels, I may hold off until >10th and then hint them towards the Great Plains to the east, which are dominated by several competing dragons. My dragons are definitely top-tier predators, not political meddlers.

 

[Tony Vargas]

How do you use dragons in your campaign? Do they have a special place, or are they "just another monster"?

My current campaign, just another monster (I keep thinking I'll do something with the ambiguity of their being 'natural' creatures with elemental powers created by Io, and how that ties into the God/Primordial Dawn War, but it's never quite gelled).

In a short-lived 3.0 campaign I ran, though, they had a central role in the setting's backstory, as the eldest first sentient race on the world ("We are the First-Born Children of the Earth"), credited with creating most other life, and all other sentient life native to that world (Outsiders were another matter, of course). Though it was never revealed the Draconic race was actually originally hive-like, the Dragons were the queens, and the kobolds the workers & drones. The Dragons gained the ability to magically control their own biology, and interbreed with anything or even just willfully have hatchlings radically different from themselves, so the kobolds became superfluous, and the individual Dragons and their 'elder race' creations, increasingly individualistic and paranoid, leading to a mythic war period that had since been largely forgotten. Humans and most other PC races were 'young races' (elves were the youngest 'elder race') dating from the end of the conflict, and adopting Gods instead of following/worshiping the Dragons that created them. The few remaining dragons are paranoid, megalomaniacal individuals plotting endlessly against eachother, pursuing odd obsessions (like amassing hordes) or just fading into madness or merely sleeping for centuries at a time - or their recent offspring with no knowledge of their race's true nature. There are also many dragon hybrids (half-dragon template!), including some that think of themselves as dragons but aren't really, or are taken for dragons, but aren't sentient, and of course, all the various 'drakes' that were in 3e.

Actually, I submitted that world to WotC for that setting 'contest' they used to promote Eberron. So technically WotC owns it or something.

 

[aco175]

I use them to make story points and transitions. We played LMoP and the characters fought the green dragon in the ruins to a draw and it escaped. A few levels later it came back when the group was involved in a war against Westbridge and it sided with the hobgoblins and goblins in attacking the town, but went straight for the PCs once they were spotted. There was the threat of the ancient green in the woods, but it never showed up.

There was another dragon in the mountains guarding a gem lair, but the PCs did not want to tangle with it, even with the lure of a gem mine.

 

[Charles Rampant]

Actually, I submitted that world to WotC for that setting 'contest' they used to promote Eberron.

Out of curiosity, what do you mean by this? Was there evidence that the contest was pre-decided? I was under the impression that it was all above board, but I wasn't really in the loop at the time, so you've caught my interesting.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I wouldn't say that I give dragons a special place, but I definitely try to never use them as just another monster encounter. A fight with a dragon has to be something epic, something that pushes the PCs to their limits, requiring smart play, teamwork, and no small amount of luck. When they win, it has to feel like a real accomplishment.

I did do a campaign where the dragons were the secret movers and shakers behind the setting, but the PCs never got to unravel that mystery, alas.

 

[UnknownDyson]

In my campaigns dragons are special, and they should be. They are generally smarter, more powerful, older, and a lot bigger than all of the humanoid races. I try to convey to the player characters that ultimately, dragons are just better than you, many of them (the chromatics) see you as cattle. And others (the metallics) see you as children. However, dragons are generally supremely arrogant and a great deal of them have incredibly exploitable character flaws. If you encounter any dragons, respect them and what they can do if you want to walk away alive.

 

[iserith]

The role of dragons in my campaign is to sit on a treasure hoard and wait to be killed by adventurers!

 

[Tony Vargas]

Out of curiosity, what do you mean by this? Was there evidence that the contest was pre-decided?

Evidence? Like a leaked "let's stage a fake contest" memo or something? Heavens no, that'd've been quite the scandal. I'm just cynical. I see a 'contest' and, in the end, the winner is the professional game designer who submitted a setting that he'd been running for the guys judging the contest for years...