What spells would you choose if you were playing a dragon?

[Vrecknidj]

If the dragon is powerful enough to get these, these are great ones: greater invisibility and haste. I've always found that protection from energy is a no-brainer, because the dragon in question is almost certainly going to get attacked with spells of some energy type other than his own. If you've got a very powerful dragon, greater dispel magic wreaks havoc with a party that just finished buffing up. Given the range of a fireball (or similar spell), if you've already got an invisible flying dragon, then spells of this sort make for a wonderful way to soften up a party from a distance, and it also gives the dragon clues about what sorts of protections the party has. Finally, if you're talking about a dragon that frequently gets into melee, stoneskin is hard to beat (unless you're in a very high magic world).

Dave

 

[Plane Sailing]

IIRC some good advice from the draconomicon is that a dragons spells are inferior to its breath weapon and physical attacks when it comes to offense, so concentrate on spells for buffing and defence (and possibly divination).

Of course, truestrike can give a devastating power attack from a dragon (especially the dragons tail), iron body and righteous might and tensers transformation might make an interesting combination for a dragon which really wanted to mix things up physically.

 

[sdt]

How about a nice cheep Alter Self or Polymorph. You may need to get smaller or look like a different type of dragon.

 

[Chimera]

All of those are very nice for the few tough combats you can expect to face, though I'd be happy with some "Hold still until I get around to eating you" spells for the rest of the time.

 

[kigmatzomat]

I totally second Alter Self as one of the most useful spells to a dragon. Changing color can completely unsettle your enemy's choice of weapons, and the size shift is enough to make guessing your age difficult.
Plus, you can use it to become a wyvern, which is far and away less of a threat than a full dragon in most cases.

 

[Aesmael]

I totally second Alter Self as one of the most useful spells to a dragon. Changing color can completely unsettle your enemy's choice of weapons, and the size shift is enough to make guessing your age difficult.
Plus, you can use it to become a wyvern, which is far and away less of a threat than a full dragon in most cases.

Fond of that one. But would it be more effective to increase or decrease size?

 

[Liminal Syzygy]

Depends on if the dragon is actively looking for a fight or just wants to send any potential challengers screaming into the hills.

 

[Brekki]

Dragons with antimagic field are so extremely scary

 

[kigmatzomat]

It was my understanding that creatures larger than an emanation didn't receive the benefit for the parts that hung outside. Did that get *finally* fixed in 3.5? Or was I hallucinating?

 

[Plane Sailing]

Methinks Gate and Wish might be popular for the older ones,

For those with access to spells from the divine list I think Miracle is likely to be far more popular, since there is a heck of a lot of things you can miracle without any xp cost!