D&D General Why Did They Change Gold Dragons?

[oreofox]

If you can dig up the official dragon family tree that was once on the WotC website you'll find the golds to be most closely related to the oriental side of the draconic family.

The small "beards" they have is the most striking physical evidence

https://i.imgur.com/5BUePnn.jpg

Is this the one you are talking about?

As for the topic at hand, I think some of the others gave the best reasons we can come up with since none of us truly know for certain.

 

[ParanoydStyle]

I dunno, to me, they still look pretty Asian, going right up through the illustration on page 113 of the 5th Edition Monster Manual. I think it's mainly the whiskers that does it for me.