Plains Dragon (Keran Creature)

Type:	Dragon (Air)
Environment:	North Karma (Warm and Temperate Plains)
Organization:	Wyrmling, very young, young, juvenile, and young adult: solitary, or clutch (2–5); adult, mature adult, old, very old, ancient, wyrm, or great wyrm: solitary, pair, or family (2-5).
Challenge Rating:	Wyrmling 3; very young 4; young 5; juvenile 8; young adult 11; adult 13; mature adult 15; old 17; very old 18; ancient 19; wyrm 20; great wyrm 22
Treasure:	Triple standard
Alignment:	Always chaotic (usually neutral)
Advancement:	Wyrmling 6-7 HD; very young 9=10 HD; young 12-13 HD; juvenile 15-16 HD; young adult 18-20 HD; adult 21-22 HD; mature adult 24-25 HD; old 27-28 HD; very old 30-31 HD; ancient 33-34 HD; wyrm 36-37 HD; great wyrm 39-40 HD
Level Adjustment:	-

Dragons by Age
Age	Size	Hit Dice (hp)	Str	Dex	Con	Int	Wis	Cha	Base Attack/ Grapple	Attack	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Breath Weapon (DC)	Frightful Presence DC
Wyrmling	S	5d12+5 (37)	13	10	13	8	11	8	+5/+2	+7	+5	+4	+4	2d8 (13)	-
Very young	M	8d12+16 (66)	17	10	15	8	11	8	+8/+10	+11	+8	+6	+6	4d8 (16)	-
Young	M	11d12+22 (93)	19	10	15	10	11	10	+11/+14	+15	+9	+7	+7	6d8 (17)	-
Juvenile	L	14d12+42 (133)	23	10	17	10	13	10	+14/+23	+19	+12	+9	+10	8d8 (20)	-
Young adult	L	17d12+68 (178)	25	10	19	12	13	12	+17/+28	+23	+13	+10	+11	10d8 (22)	19
Adult	H	20d12+80 (210)	29	10	19	12	13	12	+20/+37	+27	+16	+12	+13	12d8 (24)	21
Mature adult	H	23d12+115 (264)	31	10	21	14	15	14	+23/+41	+31	+17	+13	+15	14d8 (26)	23
Old	H	26d12+130 (299)	33	10	21	14	15	14	+26/+45	+35	+20	+15	+17	16d8 (28)	25
Very old	H	29d12+174 (362)	35	10	23	16	17	16	+29/+49	+39	+21	+16	+19	118d8 (33)	27
Ancient	G	32d12+224 (432)	39	10	25	16	17	16	+32/+58	+42	+24	+18	+21	20d8 (33)	29
Wyrm	G	35d12+281 (508)	41	10	27	18	19	18	+35/+60	+46	+25	+19	+23	22d8 (35)	31
Great wyrm	G	38d12+343 (590)	39	10	19	18	19	18	+38/+64	+50	+28	+21	+25	24d8 (38)	33

Dragon Abilities by Age
Age	Speed	Initiative	AC	Special Abilities	Caster Level	SR
Wyrmling	50-ft, fly 100-ft (average)	+0	15 (+1 size, +4 natural), touch 11, flat-footed 14	Immunity to blinding and light effects	-	-
Very young	50-ft, fly 150-ft (poor)	+0	17 (+7 natural), touch 10, flat-footed 17	-	-	-
Young	50-ft, fly 150-ft (poor)	+0	20 (+10 natural), touch , flat-footed 20	Moonscale Hide	-	-
Juvenile	50-ft, fly 150-ft (poor)	+0	22 (-1 size, +13 natural), touch 9, flat-footed 22	See Invisibility	-	-
Young adult	50-ft, fly 150-ft (poor)	+0	25 (-1 size, +16 natural), touch 9, flat-footed 25	DR 5/silver	-	26
Adult	50-ft, fly 150-ft (poor)	+0	27 (-2 size, +19 natural), touch 8, flat-footed 27	Arrow-blocking Hide	-	28
Mature adult	50-ft, fly 150-ft (poor)	+0	30 (-2 size, +22 natural), touch 8, flat-footed 30	DR 10/magic	-	30
Old	50-ft, fly 150-ft (poor)	+0	33 (-2 size, +25 natural), touch 8, flat-footed 33	DR 10/silver	-	32
Very old	50-ft, fly 150-ft (poor)	+0	36 (-2 size, +28 natural), touch 8, flat-footed 36	True Seeing	-	33
Ancient	50-ft, fly 200-ft (clumsy)	+0	37 (-4 size, +31 natural), touch 6, flat-footed 37	Sunscale Hide	-	34
Wyrm	50-ft, fly 200-ft (clumsy)	+0	40 (-4 size, +34 natural), touch 6, flat-footed 40	DR 20/silver and 5/non-magic	-	35
Great wyrm	50-ft, fly 200-ft (clumsy)	+0	43 (-4 size, +37 natural), touch 6, flat-footed 43	Death Ward	-	37

Returning, assaulted by demonic Apes but unhurt, I have seen to Sillana’s treatment. My mind at ease, it turned towards another dragon I encountered on this world. These dragons lived in the northern plains, making rudimentary lairs but living a primarily nomadic lifestyle. We arrived as The Blight was ending and what seemed to be the start of the mating season. Two males were participating in some type of ritualistic battle. They clashed with teeth and fangs, clashing for some time teeth and claws trying to find purchase before finally the battle ended. The victor seeing me seemed to take me a rival for the female’s affections and attacked, charging forward. I contemplated ending it with a simple spell, but instead performed a spell of transformation to find a physical form to adequately fight back. Emerging the victor I was attacked by the female, either because of some secret love for the defeated male or because I had assumed the form of a dragon unknown on this world and apparently hostile.

After that battle I began to research these dragons, and find myself approached aggressively by several young males who seemed eager to claim some type of bragging rights by defeating me. Finally, pushed too far, I chose to simply charm one of the dragons and interrogate it for a spell. It turns out that the dragons did see me as an oddity, taking the form of an unknown dragon and flying about in a strange ship, and I had become some sort of special trophy that they each wanted to fetch. I learned more than just their interest in me, of course, such as notes about their abilities.

First I will describe their physical characteristics as they have impact upon their non-superficial qualities. These dragons glow faintly, although they can suppress this glow, like the silvery light of the moon, Davia. They have what natives call manes, a series of long downward facing horns made of some light, flexible natural material that run across the bottom of their lower jaw and the front of their necks; like a lion’s this is more noticeable on a male, but unlike among lions it is present in the females as well. Their eyes are flat, and long, giving a dragged out and pointed impression, and tend towards orange colors, while their scales range from pale blue to bone white to a silvery gray. I could not tell a certain pattern based on age in these latter except that as they age they tend more towards a medium hue and brightness.

I wonder if these dragons share some spiritual connection to Davia, in part because of their coloring and faint glow, but also because they show themselves to be resistant to steel weapons suffering full wounds only from silver blades. In addition they are in fact more resistant to a magical blade than a mundane one, sometimes enough to make it better to use an unenchanted blade than one wrought by a wizard’s art. Both their glow and this resistant seem to develop together around their 16th or so year, when full resistance to non-magic steel does not even begin to be shown until decades later. Resistance to magical silver does not develop till late in life and even then it is minor to any blade that befits such a hero.

This is not the only power they have related to light, as their breath weapon is a searing burst of light, similar to the divine spell called Searing Light, or a cone shaped blinding burst. The first is unlike most draconic breath weapons a relatively small, but intense, beam. Another oddity seen in both is that, for dragons, they have quite a short range comparable to that of a dragon about half their size; why even the largest I observed (a seven hundred and twenty three year old specimen) could only project the former some span less than thirty yards, and the latter about forty feet. Another trait that seems to tie them to the moon is their eyes. They can see through invisibility and, with age, see through any illusion or even transformational magic.

The dragons themselves are not particularly unfriendly, although as they took me as a rival male in their mating season, which seems to come but once in five years, my reception was not the friendliest. From what I can tell they run the gamut from friendly, and even helpful, to despicably violent. Regardless none likes to stay in one place for long and prefer to move from lair to lair regularly, either keeping multiple lairs which the occupy for anywhere from a month to half a year at a time or moving constantly. The only time they seem to remain stationary for an extended period is after mating the mother, and occasionally the father as well, will typically stay with her eggs until they hatch and for their first year before returning to her nomadic lifestyle. Whether they take their wyrmling with them when they return to their normal lifestyle does not seem to be a constant. I would not rank these amongst the best of the dragons I have encountered, nor would I rank them amongst the worst. They have many admirable qualities, although they place too much faith and honor in physical prowess. --Zasper the Dragon Sage

Combat[edit]

Breath Weapon (Su): A plains dragon has two breath weapons, but is considered one size category smaller for determining the length of its breath weapons. The first is a ray of searing light which requires a ranged touch attack, and can be used against 1 target within range (use the Line breath weapon to determine maximum range); a struck target takes the listed untyped damage (this is light based for cases where that is important) with no save. The second is a cone of blinding light which blinds all creatures within for 1d4 minutes +1 minute per age category. A successful Will save reduces this to the dazzled condition, and the duration to rounds instead of minutes.

Moonscale Hide (Su): A young or older plains dragon continuously produces light as per the Light spell, although they may suppress this ability or resume it at will as a move action. In addition they are considered two age categories older for determining their damage reduction when struck by magical weapons (a wyrm or older plains dragon instead gains DR 5/- when struck by a magical weapon).

See Invisibility (Su): A juvenile or older plains dragon can see invisible creatures as per the See Invisibility spell.

Arrow Blocking Hide (Su): An adult or older plains dragon’s DR is increased by 5 against ranged, but not thrown, weapons and it gains DR 5/- against such weapons (this of course does not stack with its increased DR X/silver).

True Seeing (Su): An old or older plains dragon continuously benefits from a (arcane version) True Seeing spell. As a supernatural effect this cannot be dispelled.

Sunscale Hide (Su): An ancient or older plains dragon’s body now radiates light as per a Daylight spell, although it may still suppress this ability or reduce it to the equivalent of a light spell as a move action. In addition they gain universal energy resistance 10, and ignore the first 10 points of damage from other supernatural non-weapon damage sources (such as force, hellfire, negative energy, or untyped magical effects such as a warlock’s eldritch blast).

Death Ward (Su): A great wyrm plains dragon is continuously protected by a supernatural Death Ward effect.

Skills:Gather Information, Swim, and Survival are class skills for a plague dragon in addition to those standard for all true dragons.

Plains Dragon (Keran Creature)

Combat[edit]

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