D&D General why brass and bronze dragons?

[Maxperson]

Who are the most annoying to find anything on

Y'know I made some of the lesser-known Chromatics and Metallics for NWN and it was an absolute chore to get any consistant appearance for the Steels? I ended up settling on the 3E Greyhawk dragon, which could only be found in a single issue of Dragon despite these being the most player-ready dragon for 3E

Not that scoping through back issues of Dragon was an issue on that one, I had to fish up the original article that gave us Tiamat and Bahamut after a tip-off someone gave me there was an original Orange Dragon in there that was unrelated to any later ones. When the Pinks were the only one of these obscure early dragons to get a consistant appearance on, y'know there's a problem

(even if I think having the pink as a reference to a certain Monster Hunter creature kind of saves it)

I'm a big believer in dragons not having to have a consistent appearance, other than color/metal/gem. For a while I removed the set alignments from dragons, as as set breath weapons in order to add variety to them, but it threw the players off too much, so I restored the color, alignment and breath weapon links.

 

[Tonguez]

True Dragons arent colour coded for the convinience of adventurers, thats a silly notion which has arisen for the tendency of humanoids to try and categorise things.
Dragons are however highly magical and have the ability to change both the colours and texture of their skins at will across both chromatic and metallic spectrums. This can be purely decorative or it can be utilised as camouflage, in display or in communication.
Dragons being intelligent and charismatic will often present themselves to confirm Human expectations of their granduer and magnificence.

Gem Dragons are of course an entirely different set of creatures with only superficial smilarity to true dragons

 

[Alzrius]

I ended up settling on the 3E Greyhawk dragon, which could only be found in a single issue of Dragon despite these being the most player-ready dragon for 3E

Well, while the Greyhawk dragon did appear in Dragon #339 (2006), it made an earlier debut for 3E in Living Greyhawk Journal Volume 1 #1 (2000). But at the time, you only got that particular newsletter if you were a member of the RPGA.

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[Ixal]

Probably because other metals look even more similar or are either too modern for a fantasy game (at least in the mind of the players) or too unknown.

Iron could have been used for a red metallic dragon, but most people today do not associate iron with its natural color as ore, but with its color of refined iron which is similar to silver (which applies to pretty much all remaining natural refined metals). Same with steel which is also is no natural product (apart from very tiny quantities as far as I know) so would have the same downside as alloys).

 

[DEFCON 1]

I'm a particular fan of Helium, Neon, Argon, Krypton, and Xenon, the five Noble Dragons.

 

[AnotherGuy]

I mean, does anyone even use these dragons. Certainly not when a silver dragon will do.

In 5e the Rise of Tiamat uses them in the Draconic Council and the SKT AP has Felgolos.
And if I recall correctly one of the faction missions within Waterdeep: Dragon Heist deals with a bronze dragon.
So for those using the material, I guess yes.

 

[Mind of tempest]

None of those categories are definitive. The chromatics got the yellow, orange, and purple dragons in Dragon #65 for AD&D 1E, and then Dragon #248 updated them for 2E.

The ferrous dragons (chromium, cobalt, iron, nickel, and tungsten) premiered in Dragon #170 for 2E, and then in Dragon #256 for 3.5E.

The gem dragons used to have obsidian dragons among their numbers, before their god Sardior effectively exiled them all.

And there are plenty more where those come from. Mystara has its own collection of (non-psionic) gem dragons, for instance, in the Monster Compendium - Mystara Appendix for 2E, and there are brown dragons in FR10 Old Empires for 2E and in Monster Compendium: Monsters of Faerûn for 3E.

The whole "three groupings of five" is an oversimplification, probably made up by human sages who don't know any better. Heck, even the stats for Tiamat's avatar in Powers & Pantheons for 2E notes that her five heads can be any combination of chromatic dragons, and lists how her stats would vary if she had a yellow and/or brown head replacing some of the usual colors.

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we are aware of this, but several things there can't be a brown dragon as brown turns out to be a literal shade of orange and we are not getting a scarlet dragon it would be crazy.

sardior has the problem of being made of the same thing as sapphires thus I would rather the neutral dragons just have more colours but based on the same material also he is kinda a joke he lacks a grand place in the dragon pantheon or and goals thus the gems suck as the lack real setting hooks.

I did know about those dragons but brass and bronze are dumb they should have used a pure metal like iron or mercury.

 

[Ixal]

I did know about those dragons but brass and bronze are dumb they should have used a pure metal like iron or mercury.

Then you would have 3 silver looking dragons.

 

[Rob Kuntz]

Because anything's fair game in Fantasy?

 

[Mind of tempest]

Then you would have 3 silver looking dragons.

as opposed to one silver two yellow and two metallic orange ones?