Yeah that's right, I killed a DRAGON single handed

[Sarellion]

Food for the dragons is probably a concern if you have a higher population.
IMC I said that dragons gain most from thier nourishment tapping ambient magical energy. They eat cattle and what else to supplement their diet with needd minerals and stuff like this.

 

[Patman21967]

I have been tossing the idea of a "dragon hunter" campaign around. I would allow, and even encourage the PC's to take a variety of classes, to get the best bennies. I normally, as most of you have read in my other posts, hate this, but it fits the campaign. I would introduce NPC hunters, and the PC's would have to seek them out for training, no auto-leveling. I was thinking of having each PC tied to a different color dragon, sort of a "spidey sense" that they could tell if a dragon was around. It would be a fantasy setting, but sorta post-apocolyptic, where most civilization was destroyed by a proliferation of dragons and kin. I am shooting for 6 pc's. That is a large group, but I think there will be lots of deaths.

 

[A'koss]

You know... I wish that D&D never made the Dragons out to be so intelligent and wise. Here you have a perfectly capable engine of destruction and then you give it an Int & Wis so high that it practically begs to be run in a way contrary to it's design. If I had my way Dragons would only be just smart enough to be cunning adversaries, and not... living think-tanks. Then I can run mindless dragon rampages with a clear conscience!

Of course, this brings us to a whole other issue about how one runs uber-high-intelligent / wise critters and characters. But that's probably best left as fodder for another thread...

Cheers!

 

[Brother MacLaren]

You know... I wish that D&D never made the Dragons out to be so intelligent and wise. Here you have a perfectly capable engine of destruction and then you give it an Int & Wis so high that it practically begs to be run in a way contrary to it's design. If I had my way Dragons would only be just smart enough to be cunning adversaries, and not... living think-tanks. Then I can run mindless dragon rampages with a clear conscience!

Just bring back Basic D&D rules where dragons of a given species had a percent chance to be capable of speech and spellcasting. Under those rules, most dragons were beasts. I think all golds, half of all reds, and less than half of the other chromatics (only 10% of whites IIRC) could speak and cast.

 

[A'koss]

Just bring back Basic D&D rules where dragons of a given species had a percent chance to be capable of speech and spellcasting. Under those rules, most dragons were beasts. I think all golds, half of all reds, and less than half of the other chromatics (only 10% of whites IIRC) could speak and cast.

Actually, that is not too far off from the way I handle them in my homebrew. I don't run standard dragons per se, linnorms and my own linnorm variants generally occupy that space. They don't have spellcaster levels, but instead each dragon has it's own unique magical abilities - one might have a basilisk-like gaze and a poisonous bite, another might have phantasmal killer-like cloud-breath, etc.

Cunning - definitely, speaking - some (just don't mistake lack of speech for lack of understanding it ), dragon rampages - absolutely.

Cheers!

 

[Aust Diamondew]

Smaug's in The Hobbit. I don't remember the name of the one in Beowulf, but I do remember that the dragon killed Beowulf, so you might not want to have a battle like that one.

Doesn't matter that Beowulf died he fought a heroic battle. I'd love to have one of my PCs (well at least the more heroic ones not my sniveling greddy rogue PC) die that honorably.

 

[Evilhalfling]

I use a type of fearl dragons that have a bit less brains and far less magic.
they still control the surface of the land. They don't polymorph and they dont breed with lesser lifeforms. They can lend power to servants, producing halfdragons, and dragonthralls.
They are the apex predator - numbering close to 25 adults.
In the low level campaign a medium juvinile showed up, and drove off the party. In another the party was forced into a fight with a YA, and is holding it off, for now.

I tried making a 16th lvl PC fighter/monk to take on dragons solo.
his items include +1 holy/dragonbane bow and ring of free action. His chances look poor vs an adult green. But then again I am much better at running dragons than making high lvl PCs.

 

[ThirdWizard]

You know... I wish that D&D never made the Dragons out to be so intelligent and wise. Here you have a perfectly capable engine of destruction and then you give it an Int & Wis so high that it practically begs to be run in a way contrary to it's design. If I had my way Dragons would only be just smart enough to be cunning adversaries, and not... living think-tanks. Then I can run mindless dragon rampages with a clear conscience!

Did you see the Animal Planet "documentary" on dragons? They were around canine level intelligence probably, ferocious beasts. They understood that taking livestock from humans would probably make them mad, but that was about the limit to their reasoning. It was quite the fun show.

 

[Patman21967]

If you are playing Dragons as intelligent and spellcasting, then the powerful ones would learn AntiMagic Field, and no 1 person could stand against it...I had a Red fighting a high level party, he antimagicked, snatched the Paladin and breathed...then flung him about 300 feet. Goodbye Mr. Paladin, the next words uttered were " I teleport", "I planeshift" and the rogue burnt a wish to run away.

 

[A'koss]

I use a type of fearl dragons that have a bit less brains and far less magic.
they still control the surface of the land. They don't polymorph and they dont breed with lesser lifeforms. They can lend power to servants, producing halfdragons, and dragonthralls.
They are the apex predator - numbering close to 25 adults.

Heh, yeah I've never really been on board with the whole draconic compulsion to polymorph and then procreate with anything that's not nailed down either... I think you're idea is certainly, uh, more palatable.

Did you see the Animal Planet "documentary" on dragons? They were around canine level intelligence probably, ferocious beasts. They understood that taking livestock from humans would probably make them mad, but that was about the limit to their reasoning. It was quite the fun show.

Hmmm... I've never even heard of this one before but I get Animal Planet so I'll keep an eye out for it in re-runs.

Cheers!