Would you have been upset if Gold Dragons WERE LG?

[GMforPowergamers]

I would be.

I really do not like 'good' dragons.


Let me explain why now. In the early 3.5 days I had an entire adventure/mini arch in my campaign where a LG exalted Golddragon/paliden helped the party against a group of evil dragons and there kin (Whole lot of half dragon going on). The first thing the PCs asked was for money ad equipment fromt eh hord...when I said know they threw book of exalted deeds at me about not being greedy...

how can the dragon not be greedy???

In a later campaign I used this as a going joke, as the two gold dragon's polymorphed into twin sisters use to tell the PCs to go do things, offer them no money, but tell them they could keep everything but the MCguffen, becuse after all "We aren't greedy by nature" then giggle.

my parthy hated that giggle...but not as much as I hated the fight over what a good dragon will or wont do...

 

[Fanaelialae]

I like the concept of them being unaligned, but I wouldn't care if they weren't. Even in 3.x, dragons in my campaigns were "unaligned".

 

[Jhaelen]

I wouldn't have been 'upset' but I prefer them to be unaligned. Though, to be honest, I'd like pretty much all monsters to be unaligned.

 

[Klaus]

While this is a really cool idea, it is also a very specific concept. Thus it limits where I can use golden dragons in my game; the background snippets given in the MM aim to be as open as possible. I think you could use this as a seed for a Dungeon article, though.

An unrelated question would be if strict adherence to the tenets of honor an justice would result necessarily in LG behavior. By old alignments, such a behavior could also be considered LN, which would map to unaligned in 4th ed.

It isn't more limiting than, say, the Shadar-Kai being a tribe of humans who devoted themselves to the Raven Queen and relocated to the Shadowfell, where they take up extreme emotions as a way of offsetting the Shadowfell's malaise (this is straight out of the MM2).

 

[frankthedm]

Having seen the MM2, it seems Gold dragons have the same motives as before BUT Draconian greed no longer gets a hand wave on alignment. For all the good they do, their covetousness lands them in neutral territory. Either that or whoever wrote the entry flat up ignored thier new alignment and wrote as if golds were still lawful good.

To me it is a lot like how Erathis might at first sound like Lawful Good, but once her entire portfolio is examined Unaligned becomes a very good fit for the new alignment standard. She is the patron of the city, and thus also the patron of the angry mob, galvanized in it's goal for good or ill.

She tolerates the people at the bottom of social order have their lives used to grease the gears of civilization and turns a blind eye to tyrants' implementation of order until their excesses lead to successful revolutions.

Erathis is probably on fairly decent terms with Bane given just how expansionist She is. She only says conquer the wilderness, though if Bane inspired Leader is planning to wipe out a elven settlement which has stood in the way of 'The Empire' for centuries, don't color me surprised if She inspires a Bane follower to devise a new siege engine for the task.

 

[Harlekin]

It isn't more limiting than, say, the Shadar-Kai being a tribe of humans who devoted themselves to the Raven Queen and relocated to the Shadowfell, where they take up extreme emotions as a way of offsetting the Shadowfell's malaise (this is straight out of the MM2).

The Shadar-Kai blurb only provides general cultural stereotypes. They still allow me for relatively large groups of them to have broken off and do whatever I want them too.

Based on your backstory for golden dragons, even a single golden dragon not being strictly adhered to the tenets of honor and justice would require rewriting the background.

 

[Harlekin]

Having seen the MM2, it seems Gold dragons have the same motives as before BUT Draconian greed no longer gets a hand wave on alignment. For all the good they do, their covetousness lands them in neutral territory.

Exactly. And Draconian pride is possible, too. Now PCs insulting a golden dragon can expect to be eaten, as they should be.

 

[Klaus]

The Shadar-Kai blurb only provides general cultural stereotypes. They still allow me for relatively large groups of them to have broken off and do whatever I want them too.

Based on your backstory for golden dragons, even a single golden dragon not being strictly adhered to the tenets of honor and justice would require rewriting the background.

Not really. Like I said in an earlier post, a non-LG gold dragon would be that much more of a shock to the PCs, akin to finding a LG red dragon cleric of Bahamut.