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Wandering Monsters: Not-Dragons
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<blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 6193716" data-attributes="member: 2067"><p>The Dragonspawn: One of the few D&D Monsters that could <em>ice skate</em>. </p><p></p><p>I think the way to telegraph dragons in the world is not to just slap scales and a breath weapon into everything. That's dumb. Equally dumb is dressing up a guard dog in scales and teeth. If there is a scales-and-teeth critter in the world, it should do something more than just <em>be a guard dog</em>, because guard dogs are guard dogs. Also dumb: the word "felldrake." ("It's like that Canadian rapper tripped and broke his hip.")</p><p></p><p>So my hope would be to see dragons telegraphed more by their relationship with various <em>humanoids</em>. Black dragons and lizardfolk. White dragons and giants. Red dragons and dwarves/orcs. Green dragons and goblins/elves. Blue dragons and undead. This embedds them deeper into the world and makes them part of the story of creatures you use en masse, and at low levels, without dressing them up in funny suits. </p><p></p><p>That's not to say "get rid of the drakes/dragonspawn," though. I pretty much think that there's a nest of a good idea buried in most creatures. What the drakes need is a tighter connection to the world than "a wild dragon-like-thing appears!", and what dragonspawn need is coherence and a bit more seriousness. </p><p></p><p>Maybe the hobgoblins are kind of the answer here, eh? What if their breeding focused on <em>dragon-things</em>. Or at least the breeding of one tribe of hobgoblins, perhaps. </p><p></p><p>Or, if you can tether it to a setting or a class or something, that might help anchor them a bit. But a good anchor is what they need (Spawn of Tiamat isn't bad, but it's a little niche, and "I belch fire and skate on ice! Now fight me to the death!" isn't gonna win very many fans), and that can happen.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="I'm A Banana, post: 6193716, member: 2067"] The Dragonspawn: One of the few D&D Monsters that could [I]ice skate[/I]. I think the way to telegraph dragons in the world is not to just slap scales and a breath weapon into everything. That's dumb. Equally dumb is dressing up a guard dog in scales and teeth. If there is a scales-and-teeth critter in the world, it should do something more than just [I]be a guard dog[/I], because guard dogs are guard dogs. Also dumb: the word "felldrake." ("It's like that Canadian rapper tripped and broke his hip.") So my hope would be to see dragons telegraphed more by their relationship with various [I]humanoids[/I]. Black dragons and lizardfolk. White dragons and giants. Red dragons and dwarves/orcs. Green dragons and goblins/elves. Blue dragons and undead. This embedds them deeper into the world and makes them part of the story of creatures you use en masse, and at low levels, without dressing them up in funny suits. That's not to say "get rid of the drakes/dragonspawn," though. I pretty much think that there's a nest of a good idea buried in most creatures. What the drakes need is a tighter connection to the world than "a wild dragon-like-thing appears!", and what dragonspawn need is coherence and a bit more seriousness. Maybe the hobgoblins are kind of the answer here, eh? What if their breeding focused on [I]dragon-things[/I]. Or at least the breeding of one tribe of hobgoblins, perhaps. Or, if you can tether it to a setting or a class or something, that might help anchor them a bit. But a good anchor is what they need (Spawn of Tiamat isn't bad, but it's a little niche, and "I belch fire and skate on ice! Now fight me to the death!" isn't gonna win very many fans), and that can happen. [/QUOTE]
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