Dragon, 2nd Variant (5e Race)
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This page is of questionable balance. Reason: 1d8 natural attacks, large size, etc.
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Dragon[edit]
Physical Description[edit]
Dragons are winged reptilians of ancient lineage and terrifying powers. They are known and feared for their predatory behavior, cunning, wit, and greed. The oldest dragons are regarded as some of the most powerful creatures in the world. Dragons are magical creatures whose innate power gives them many preternatural abilities. Many creatures, including wyverns and dragon turtles, have draconic blood, however, true dragons are made up of two categories: chromatic and metallic dragons. Blue, white, black, green and red dragons are selfish, evil and feared by everyone and everything. Bronze, copper, brass, gold, and silver are noble, benign and highly respected by the wise people of their race. Although their goals and ideals vary tremendously, all dragons covet riches and strive to accumulate piles of coins, gems, jewelry and magical items. Dragons with great mountains of treasure hate to leave them for a long time, only venturing out of their dens to patrol and feed themselves. They can live for thousands of years, and while aging, they grow ever stronger and their treasure hoards grow ever larger.
Chromatic Dragons[edit]
- Black Dragons
Black dragons are the most vile-tempered and cruel of all chromatic dragons and are very likely to avoid talking to others if there isn't a bargain to be made. These dragons are easily distinguished by their horns, which protrude from the sides of their heads, wrap around it, then protrude forward. A large frill adorns the upper part of their neck. They smell of rotting vegetation, foul water, or powerful acid which they can breathe. Considered ambush predators, these jungle or forest dragons revel in the decay and death of civilizations, often residing in the ruins of old cities, smugly relishing the fact that these individuals who lived here before died, and itself survived. Black dragons can control water which they use to grapple and tug the prey to their doom. Ambush predators by nature, it is unlikely for black dragons to engage in direct combat, so even when ambushing others, there is also no guarantee that the dragon is close by, as they can use their abilities to ensnarl its targets.
- Blue Dragons
Blue dragons have a single large horn protruding from their heads and large, frilled ears. Their tails are thick and bumpy, their wings are more pronounced than other dragon species wings, and they smell like ozone and sand. Blue dragons usually enjoy mocking and manipulative more than outwardly cruel actions, though they do like torturing and murdering lesser creatures, aided by their natural talents for hallucination. They are able to trick desert travelers into drinking sand or going miles away from their original path. Tactically obsessed and possessing the ability to fly for days on end, an adventure or group of adventurers who will find themselves facing a blue dragon will likely be pushed to their limits, seeing if they would manage to survive its pursuits for days on end. Shooting lightning bolts at a great distance and always keeping away, it isn't an easy target. If an ambushed and severely damage, a blue dragon will simply fly way and plan a different trap or ambush. Sudden encounters with a blue dragon are one of the most incessant and endless tactics, likely of the kind of being more fun to it than just outright attacking the party.
- Green Dragons
Green dragons posses a large, waving crest or fin that starts at their nose and runs the length of their body, as well as long, slender forked tongues. They have an unusual taste for treasure and love collecting individuals to enslave. Otherwise, these dragons love to corrupt powerful or influential individuals. They are also highly adept at scheming. For example: A green dragon may fly down, kill half of a group and leave the other half confused or frightened, wondering what happened. "Anyone can take something by force, but few have the cunning to take by wit" is the fundamental nature of these dragons.
Though they are nasty bunch, one of a green dragon’s redeeming qualities is that they love their family immensely. A male and a female mate until death, and if their children are ever threatened, both parents will do their upmost to protect them or in the worst case avenge them. However, don’t be fooled by a green dragon’s familial love, the parents will train their children to be manipulative, treacherous, and teach them how to use humanoids to get whatever they want.
- Red Dragons
Red dragons have two swept-back horns on their heads and smell of smoke and sulfur. The biggest, mightiest, and the quickest to anger out of all dragons, these guys are not to be messed with. Being bulky, red dragons prefer to fight on the ground. There will be no dialogue with a red dragon and those it comes across, it will see you, and it will pounce on you. Arrogant, believing its kind to be the pinnacle of all creation, a fight with a red dragon is a fight to the death. Red dragons also believe that those who can't protect what they have do not deserve to have it, and those with the power to take something deserve to have it. Red dragons are typically considered tyrants and the only thing a red dragon cares about is reputation. They will tell other dragons of its feats and downplay the feats of others. It will try to never be outdone and if another dragon’s feats surpass their own, they will do everything in their power to outdo them. If a red dragon cannot outdo its competitor’s fame, it will go into an uncontrolled rage, lasting for days.
The mating of red dragons is quite unique in that around every hundred years, females lay four to six unfertile or fertile eggs. During the period before the eggs are laid, male red dragons go into a frenzy to earn prestige among their kind. When a female is ready to lay her eggs, whichever male red dragon has the most reputation will get the change to reproduce with the female red dragon. After fertile eggs are laid, females will often have help from other female red dragons, often ones too old to be fertile, and they will raise the wyrmlings for hundreds of years or until the babies old enough to become rivals.
Red dragons typically choose to live on tall mountains where everything nearby to the mountain is considered its territory. Even snow-covered mountains work as the bigger the mountain, the larger the territory of a red dragon.
- White Dragons
White dragons are the most feral of the classic chromatic dragons. Their heads and necks blend seamlessly into one another, and their wings are frayed along the edges. They have a flap of skin (dewlap) lined with spines beneath their chin and have a high crest atop a streamlined head and have a crisp, blue odor. Though less intelligent than other dragons, they are still smarter than most of sentient creatures and powerful enough to overwhelm most humanoids. White dragons prefer to not interact with others of its kind except during mating, and will actively go out of their way to avoid dragons of other types.
Metallic Dragons[edit]
- Brass Dragons
Brass dragons are known to be quite sociable for dragons and tend to have a strong mercenary streak, often agreeing to serve as guardians or battle champions for anyone willing to pay suitably well. Although they usually don't kill adventures or travelers who come upon them, they often will try to force them to stay with them for some time and regale the dragon in their adventures and life's story. Those the dragon isn't interested in or those who don't mean well are likely get buried up until their head in sand.
Brass dragons tend to not like being anywhere near other copper or brass dragons. This is because brass dragons are particullary prideful. They might not think they are the best at everything, but each brass dragon usually has a few things it believes it is the best at. In addition, when forced to talk to copper dragons, brass dragons tend to be aggravated at the way copper dragons tend to joke and not take things seriously.
- Bronze Dragons
Duty-bound and honorable to a fault, bronze dragons commit themselves to order and are among the most devout champions of that ideal. As order's sworn servants, bronze dragons can seem arrogant and haughty with an inflated sense of self. A tendency that can put them at odds with those they meet. In rare cases, this self-righteousness grows into something far more sinister, and the bronze dragon takes over what it sees as lesser races, ruling as a cruel tyrant to its subjects. Bronze dragons claim coastlines, inlets, and islands as their own, constructing lairs in coastal caves that have access to the sea. More aggressive bronze dragons purposely choose lairs near shipping lanes so they can claim tribute from merchant vessels as those craft pass by. All bronze dragons share a deep and abiding hatred for blue dragons, and they are vigilant in protecting their homes from these interlopers.
- Copper Dragons
Copper dragons are born tricksters and jokesters. They tend to be quite devious and clever, but their intent is purely benign. They do not seek to harm others, but merely wish to impress or fool others with clever pranks. A copper dragon will take interest in those who can provide intrigue, interesting information, or the few who manage to trick a copper dragon itself.
Copper dragons tend to live in places with rocky hills, often nearby to other settlements (to a dragon), but never close by. Like all dragons, copper dragons accumulate a number of riches in their hoards, however, copper dragons also tend to collect items that may not contain a lot of value. Often things like artwork, books, and other strange and curious objects can also be found in their hoard.
- Gold Dragons
Of all the metallic dragons, gold dragons are the most dedicated to defeating evil. They spend most of their lives shapeshifted as humanoids, and will often travel outside of their lair for periods of time, where their shapeshifting comes in particularly handy when interacting with others. While traveling, gold dragons enjoy learning new knowledge and teaching others on their travels. While often gone from their lairs, gold dragons do not neglect its upkeep. They will often have magical traps, righteous and trustworthy guards, or other measures in place to prevent looting.
- Silver Dragons
Silver dragons are true friends to all. Silver dragons enjoy the company of humanoids so much that it will often take the form of one and live among them for the majority of its life. In fact, it is said that silver dragons love humanoids because they believe they are lesser creatures. Silver dragons also love the diversity of human cooking and culture, and are especially interested in items created through human ingenuity such as watches.
Unlike some other metallic dragons, silver dragons believe that just being evil doesn't mean that evil creatures don't have a right to live. They believe that as long a creature does not commit or plan to do evil, they will overlook the fact that a creature is evil.
For periods of time, silver dragons may transform into their true dragon form and purposely be seen by other humanoids in order to attract the attention of other silver dragons to mate.
Creature Features[edit]
Dragons are majestic creatures, however most believe they are superior to other intelligent creatures. This isn't without some truth to it as dragons are typically stronger and smarter than other creatures.
- Diet
A dragon's diet is more of a sign of the lifestyle it wants, as in reality, there really isn't much a dragon can not eat. Dragons can gain substance from almost anything they eat, even things like rocks. Anything that can be broken down, gets digested in the stomach of a dragon, leaving no undigested matter in a dragon's stool. Though they may not have the most powerful digestive acid, at least in terms of speed of digestion, their digestive systems are basically only second to the tarasque.
- Body
Physically, dragons are extremely strong, agile, and hardy for their size. Given that dragons are large creatures that can fly, it is astounding that dragons possess such absurd physical abilities. Almost no other creature can do the things dragons can do. For example, while dragons are extremely strong, a dragon can also precisely control their strength to accomplish mundane tasks and not break delicate objects or hurt much smaller creatures.
Besides the dragon's physicality, a dragon's other defining bodily trait is their breath weapon. While it is known that the key abilities that allow a dragon to use its breath weapons are physical in nature, the speed and frequency at which dragons can release breath attacks have led many to speculate that the breath attacks may be in some part magic. Regardless, when released, these breath weapons can have devastating impacts on the creatures and environment around the dragon.
- Aging
Dragons live for an extremely long period of time, and certain age groups will mark a growth in their development. With their growth from one age group to another dragon's typically increase in size. Below is a list of age categories dragons could belong to.
| Detailed Recording[1][2][3] | Simplified Recording[4] | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stage | Category | Years | Category | Years |
| 1 | Wyrmling / Hatchling | 0‒5 | Wyrmling | 0‒5 |
| 2 | Very Young | 6‒15 | Young | 6‒100 |
| 3 | Young | 16‒25 | ||
| 4 | Juvenile | 26‒50 | ||
| 5 | Young Adult | 51‒100 | ||
| 6 | Adult | 101‒200 | Adult | 101‒800 |
| 7 | Mature Adult | 201‒400 | ||
| 8 | Old | 401‒600 | ||
| 9 | Very Old | 601‒800 | ||
| 10 | Ancient / Venerable | 801‒1,000 | Ancient | 801+ |
| 11 | Wyrm | 1,001‒1,200 | ||
| 12 | Great Wyrm | 1,201+ | ||
Note that chromatic dragons usually don't live as long as metallic dragons.
Society[edit]
In general, dragons tend to be solitary creatures that stay in their lairs and guard their hordes. However, the stories of dragons are a frequent tale among most humanoid societies. These tales may describe the past deeds of some dragon long slayed or the might of the currently living dragons. Despite the frequency of these tales, dragons are an incredibly rare site. The few that see a dragon and live to spread the tale only serve to spread more stories of these legendary creatures that bring both fear and awe.
Despite typically being solitary creatures, when a dragon decides to not live a solitary life, they are a notable exception. For example, to further their own goals, dragons may form complex organizations. Most of the time, these organizations consist of numerous less powerful humanoid underlings with a dragon leader, but if dragons can put away their pride, a union between several different dragons may be formed. Regardless of the type of organization, these organizations usually control the trade of some sort of commodity, own large swaths of land, and are formed of a large number of individuals.
Most dragons of the same type will seemingly ignore one another except when given a reason not to. However, not all dragons are the same. Although there might be reasons for discourse between dragons of the same type, that discourse pales in comparison to the more frequent disputes between chromatic dragons and metallic dragons. The rivalry between the two different types of dragons has led to chromatic dragons and metallic dragons detesting one another. Encounters between these two types of dragons are heated and often leads to either fights or grudges forming between the dragons.
Dragon Names[edit]
Male: Gahlmal, Dalagh, Othim, Bahor, Quirin, Tezar, Vorekag, Kholek, Mezar, Arag
Female: Galad, Othor, Palax, Othim, Alaerth, Angkar, Nyth, Zundae, Vaeros
Dragon Racial Traits[edit]
Large, winged, reptilian creatures with a lust for treasure.
Ability Score Increase. Your Strength, Constitution, and Charisma scores each increase by 2.
Age. Dragons reach adulthood around 100 and it is said that they can live up to an unknown amount of years.
Alignment. Metallic dragons tend to be good and chromatic dragons tend to be evil. However, like most creatures, they can deviate from those alignments.
Size. Your size is large. (7-32 ft)
Speed. Your base walking speed is 40 feet.
Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
Dragon. Your creature type is considered dragon. and your natural armor is equal to 10 + Str modifier + Con modifier when not wearing any armor.
Lair. Most dragons have a lair where, due to your accumulation of treasures, you take everything that has value. Sleeping in your lair and under your treasure reduces your rest time to half the time required. Anyone who approaches up to 60 feet from your lair alerts you to possible invaders but does not give the exact location of them. The lair should typically be built in a terrain that fits your ancestry. Having a lair is optional.
Dragon Body. Although you are a powerful dragon, being a dragon also has some detriments. You can not wield normal weapons or use normal armor. You must find creative ways to use gear.
Dragon Type. You may choose a dragon type. Your choice grants you resistance to the damage type associated with your Dragon Type and determines the damage type of your Dragon Breath and Breath Attack.
Shapechange. Starting at 5th level, as an action, you may polymorph yourself into a commoner[5] with no concentration required. This trait lasts until you use it again, are dropped to 0 hit points, die, or if you drop the transformation with no action required. After you use this trait, you can not use it again until you finish a long rest.
Claws. Your claws are a natural weapon, which you can use to make unarmed strikes. If you hit with it, you deal piercing damage equal to 1d8 + your Strength modifier, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike.
Breath Attack. You can use your action to exhale destructive energy. Your draconic type determines the size, shape, and damage type of the exhalation.
When you use your breath attack, each creature in the area of the exhalation must make a saving throw, the type of which is determined by your draconic ancestry. The DC for this saving throw equals 8 + your Constitution modifier + your proficiency bonus. A creature takes 1d10 damage on a failed save, and half as much damage on a successful one. The damage increases to 2d10 at 6th level, 3d10 at 11th level, and 4d10 at 16th level.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common, Draconic, and one extra language of your choice.
| Dragon | Damage Type | Breath Weapon |
|---|---|---|
| Black | Acid | 5 by 30 ft. line (Dex. save) |
| Blue | Lightning | 5 by 30 ft. line (Dex. save) |
| Brass | Fire | 5 by 30 ft. line (Dex. save) |
| Bronze | Lightning | 5 by 30 ft. line (Dex. save) |
| Copper | Acid | 5 by 30 ft. line (Dex. save) |
| Gold | Fire | 15 ft. cone (Dex. save) |
| Green | Poison | 15 ft. cone (Con. save) |
| Red | Fire | 15 ft. cone (Dex. save) |
| Silver | Cold | 15 ft. cone (Con. save) |
| White | Cold | 15 ft. cone (Con. save) |
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