If it goes against type, please remember their personality types. Gold: Aloof long arching plans mortals don't understand. i.e. The short lived mortals have no comprehension of such things. Sauron Silver: Interest in humans and their cultures i.e. Think of a polymorped dragon who sees the humans as useful in conquering lands to his benefit, but he would make them think their Kingdom would reap the gains. Wyrmtongue Copper: Tricksters and lovers of lore i.e. Any malicious trickster from myth and lore. Loki Bronze: Watchers over small communities and curious i.e. Think Warlord over a small region that he sees is his and everything in it. Prince John Brass: Militaristic and lover of battles i.e. Think any General or military dictator. Napoleon If not, just make all Dragons clear.
The first thing I think of with a villain from a race that's typically good is that it's doing something it really considers right. It's conquering a nation because it feels it can rule more fairly than the current rulers or something to that effect.
I did this to a party years ago when I was first getting into AD&D 1st Ed. The gold dragon was using the party to run errands for him to collect the things he needed to save his dying girlfriend. Some of the things he had the party do started to get kind of sketchy, and then eventually, were just plain wrong and were causing suffering and destruction in the world. The gold dragon was desperate, though, and placed a higher value on the dragon he loved than he did on the piddly affairs of mortals and their silly little kingdoms. It took a long time before the players finally stood up to him. He felt he was justified. Remember, that is the key to writing a good villain. They always think they are right. In their mind, they are the protagonist.
I actually ran a campaign about 18 years ago, where the antagonist was an evil ancient silver dragon who ruled as king after killing the true king. It took his place using its natural shape changing ability, the heroes were called to aid the people after the king started behavig uncharacteristicly horrible to his subjects. This dragon was driven mad with power, but was already evil with no known reason, at least none that my players could figure out.
My players learned long ago not to stero type creatures, good black dragons can exist as much as evil golden ones. Also....I enjoy using their meta gaming against them, I still wonder to this day why they continue to do it out loud in my presence when they know I dislike it greatly.
Nerdarchy ***** What if the dragon has been flying over the yearly over the period of 4 years, roaring loudly, and now with the 5th flight over is razing the town? Maybe the townsfolk noticed the natural resources are dwindling (soil exhaustion, excessive forestry/masonry/hunting/fishing) but don't realize that the first flight was him announcing in Draconic "You have overstayed my hospitality in my domain! You exhaust my forests, you exhaust my waters, you exhaust my Hunting grounds... you have 5 years to GTFO!" Second flight: "You have overstayed my hospitality in my domain. You exhaust my forests, you exhaust my waters, you exhaust my Hunting grounds, and you exhaust my patience: you have 4 years to GTFO!" Third, Forth as above, then the Fifth flight: "You continued to overstay your welcome! You have finally exhausted my patience! If you won't leave these lands, your ashes will Renew Them!" before he started to raze the town.
Yea but I'd think the dragon would give it's warning in language understood by the humans. They are super intelligent after all. But natural resources is a way for their to be a conflict between a good dragon and the humans. -Nerdarchist Dave
Nerdarchy Imagine the Dragon, being an Elder of it's race, having almost certainly been hibernating for several hundred years. The mining activities awoke him, the miners try to attack it in panic. The dragon slays them. Flying To the mountain peak, he lights the signal fires to summon the pact-bound Kobolds to his lair. The Kobold elders inform the dragon that the 'squatters' have killed their members on sight, and any attempts to learn/overhear their languages has cost too many lives. The dragon tries to overhear/ learn the language, but is attacked by the settlements on sight . The Dragon is still bound by his oaths to defend and preserve his domains , and that he must give the interlopers notice of his displeasure, and the opportunity to leave without further bloodshed. When the party finally meet the dragon, he say to the party in Draconic 'Are we to Parley?' He would remark that he hasn't hadn't been able to learn much of their language in between the hail of arrows. and how he found it rude that the elves/dwarves/humans refused to learn the languages carved in the landscape and ruins. (the party will have learned that the carvings and signs are all in a draconic scratch/etching language). the party will be offered a bounty of 25000 pp, so then you have the dilemma of upholding the dragon's claim, and spare the dragon, or risk it all by trying to kill him. extra points If the party kills the dragon, they won't be paid, and the king refusing to pay murderers after his scholars 'just discovered' /deciphered the stone carvings were indicating that the dragon owned the domain. If they don't kill the dragon, and try to negotiate a peace, the king will threaten the party with either leaving (to killi the dragon) or be declared traitors to the realm and executed . The point becomes 'is acting 'lawful good' an ideal that the group chases, or merely a PR stunt ?
I had the idea for the opposite. A blue dragon that helps and protects her subjects and loves that they worship her as a hero and collects a 05% tax on all prophets. She lives in a desert and uses her storm powers to bring water to a land that has none and keeps trade routes safe from raiders.
You forgot the simple reason - it had a bump on the head and went bad. I had a villian - Originally an LG silver dragon, which when it was a young dragon, joined its LG father in a great battle to defend a city. It got hit right in the pre frontal cortext by a huge rock from a catapault during the battle and gradually turned LE over the next 317 years, and became the main villian of that story arc.
It is entirely possible for a good dragon still be good since most dragons besides silver and steel don't have humanoid mindsets. They could be doing something that will save millions of lives in the long run but right now is killing hundreds. A copper dragon may find pranks that hurt people to be just fine if they survive and can eventually laugh again.
My first thought was the difference of perspective option - the dragon and the adventuring party are simply at cross purposes because the dragon is working with long-term goals while the adventurers only see the current unsavoury actions (like destroying a village that may have a world-destroyer born in it).
I like to think of the monsters and other NPC's as antagonist's vs villians. This frees me up to provide conflict to the PC's in a variety of way; sometimes expected ways, beyond good vs evil style of play.
Metallic vs chromatic is just a matter of morals, for all intents and purposes. I'd just prefer dragons who can be good OR evil. I like the idea of a variety of Dragon intelligences and personalities. You never know if that big guy is going to be Draco (intelligent and good), Toothless (dumb and good) , Vermithrax (dumb and evil), or Smaug (intelligent and evil)
Make the dragons personality like Raz al ghoul from Batman begins and the humans are like a cancer that has to be cleansed every couple hundred years once it becomes corrupt from too much decadence
That is one route to go for sure. They may see what they are doing as an unpleasant yet necessary evil for the betterment of the world. -Nerdarchist Dave
I don't have a hard time seeing how even metallic dragons couldn't be villains or at least enemies in a campaign. Wyrmlings and young dragons are probably especially prone to getting into conflict with civilization, because of their big hunger coupled with their lack of development, especially mentally and magically. I could totally see them getting into conflict with farmers and frontiersmen as they eat all the cattle & wildlife, which might lead the locals to send adventurers after the dragons to deal with the problem, and a threatened dragon, even if good, might easily turn very dangerous!
What I am going to do in my game is to have a crossbreed dragon that is part Silver, but mostly Copper. he will be chaotic good as copper dragons are. Copper dragons like humor, jokes and wit. He is going to be kidnapping people and forcing them to entertain him. He has every intention of letting them go, but he is ancient and doesn't really take into account that humans have very short lifetimes (compared to dragons). He is feeding and taking care of the people that he kidnaps. He is just bored. The PCs will have to try to do something to entertain the dragon and try to get him to let the people go. It should be fun for all!
Hmm what about it's lair is connected to the Shadowfell just enough that the transformation into a Shadow Gold Dragon has only happened internally, and hasn't externalized?
As yoon as you mentioned professies, I knew how that story goes: "the evil overloard will be born in this village" "Let's just destroy the entire village" - there is one survivor: "I swear eternal vengeance!"
Something open for everyone, The main villain in my world was once the Silver Dracon Lord that was the hero between the ancient Dracon Lords, but has been corrupted by the Shadowlands (Since I can never remember what the shadow plane with Strahd on it is called) due to centuries there attempting to fight off this huge evil that it percieves as trying to break into the Prime Plane and just eradicate all life and bring forth an age of shadow and death. Any suggestions on what he saw that changed him from the champion of good to the champion of war?
Gold dragon Barbarian, kills a whole bunch of it's young in a rage and that guilt causes it to go temporarily mad. In it's madness the rage causes it to kill even more innocents until it's madness is healed or shrugged off, but by that point it's lost touch with it's morality, or desire to live and starts attacking villages and kingdoms out of boredom or a desire to find an honorable death in combat...
One of the first things I have done in my campaign is that I said: "Look, dragons in my world have all kinds of colors, shape and level of intelligence. There is nothing like "All blue dragons are evil" or anything similiar to that. They are good, neutral, or evil, and some of them stupid enough to be unaligned." So, if metagaming or "these guys are supposed to be good" is really an issue for you, tweaking lore in this way and notifying your players can be a way to go. Now, if you want to stick to the D&D lore, there are many good ideas out here, I've got to give you that. Players often make mistakes and its not that hard to get them into situation in which they do something terrible, what is perceived by dragon as wery evil. Maybe they stumble upon an ancient tomb, search it, wipe kobolds there and find some sort of artifact. They get it out of tomb and suddenly, an evil spirit leaves that artifact, spirit of long dead lich tyrant who was bound to artifact in tomb to ensure he never gets back to the world. Metallic dragon finds this out, finds his loyal servant dead and group of pesky humans with that artifact. Selfish, power-hungry, greedy humans... Raaaawr!
possession? pool of radiance, the entity Tyranthraxus is perfect. I think he took control over a bronze dragon and later a zhent cleric. He appeared later in the sequel curse of the azure bonds.
The party is given a quest by a local lord to serve some sort imminent domain paperwork to a gold dragon(relying on it's lawful nature) or deal with the issue if that doesn't work. Lord may or may not be evil, probably not good though. Dragon is worshipped and served by a tribe of kobolds, which is used to turn public opinion against the dragon. Heck, people may not even know he is a dragon, just know there is some shadowy long lived land owner that doesn't really pay taxes and has a bunch of traditionally evil humanoids serving them. What do you think?
what about if the dragon in question, is in conflict with the local human population because someone the town/village/city is harbouring murdered his/her mate. And the locals hired the party to take the dragon down,because they refuse to hand over the guilty party for draconic justice?
Okay, I'm sure it was destroyed, but wasn't there an Artifact or something called the Dracorage Mythal in Forgotten realms that once activated made Dragons all go insane? (just something I remember from scanning the FR wiki)
forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Dracorage_mythal I think there was a little more about it in the Tiamat page, but yeah, I can see out and out chaos with all Dragons going nuts.
I have an idea for a fun video, fun ways to use standard adventuring gear with each other in dire situations and also in planned out situations with time to do stuff
What about 2 factions of good guys and the party is one side and the dragon is on the other. Like the king died and the gold dragon supports his older idiot, strong, paladin heir over the sneaky, roguish, but smart younger heir. Boom. Civil war. And the gold dragon and his servants are on the other side. He's not evil but the dragon is your enemy.
Great video! I just don't agree that presuming that a metallic dragon is good is metagaming. Gold dragons in particular are widely known as the one being that will destroy evil on sight, without a second though. And they are very intelligent and wise, so they can easily tell evil from good. They will avoid killing anyone if they don't absolutely have to. Metallic dragons are famed for helping people out. Their reputation does precede them Its pretty common knowledge that metallic dragons are good and chromatic are evil. I'd say unless you specify that your character is for some reason ignorant of dragons and their nature, they'll know at least the basic info on them.
Thanks we do what we can. as to your points here is my take on it. It really depends on how common dragons are in a given world. Let's not forget there isn't monster manuals for the players to read up on dragon lore. Matter of fact information in a fantasy setting isn't going to be wide spread, easily accessible, and/or accurate. You have to consider how people would convey information to each other. Mostly by word of mouth. Every book has to be hand written making them more rare and valuable. Thanks for weighing in. -Nerdarchist Dave
Nerdarchy I actually like points from both of you. I don't think it's going too far for there to be stories of Golden Dragons of good and law and Evil Black Dragons of corruption and hate. But then to have the other dragons be less well known. Maybe the players don't know the difference between a white dragon and a silver dragon, or that the "common" lore doesn't go into chromatic vs metallic. So, to recap, I think it's reasonable for SOME lore to be floating around (both false and correct) about certain dragons, but also for there to not be wide-spread information for others.
badguy5 The first thing is to look at things through the lens of the campaign world. For example Dragons have been banished from our GrypghonGaff campaign setting for centuries perhaps a half of millennia or more. They are just coming back into the world now. So what would the people know of dragons? The legends they've heard would of been told and retold. Just play a quick game of whispers down the lane to see what that looks like. But someplace like Forgotten Realms or Dragonlance it would be different. I kind of hate the normalization of the fantastic that is done in a setting like FR. A good example might be to look our modern day dragons. What can you tell me about all the different terrorist organizations out there? What of Muslim based groups that work towards positive goals? Just some food for thought about I feel people a modern view of information a medieval based fantasy game. People in a fantasy game probably have never even been more than a couple miles from home. -Nerdarchist Dave
Nerdarchy I was indeed talking about forgotten realms - by now the default D&D setting. Dragons were and remain a staple of D&D based fantasy in almost every setting. They are these fantastical beings who maintain contact with mortals, Some actively seek out humans to talk to. Some take on students to teach. Others protect towns near which they grew up. They aren't that secretive, especially when they're young. That's why I think many people know basic Dragon lore. And then there's the widespread worship of Dragons - Bahamut, Tiamat, Io and other minor dragon gods ... People actually preach the difference between chromatic and metallic dragons. That's why I think, at least in Forgotten Realms, basic dragon lore is pretty widespread.
Even if most people seldom went far from their homes there are exceptions to that. Merchants, tax collectors, criers and others that travel spread news. In D&D you have the bards that do nothing but travel, tell stories and preserve legends. People would know things and people in a D&D world would know more or at least have an idea who to ask that might know or they in turn know someone and so on.
What the dragon considers good is protecting their friends and property... The party has been out there harming their friends... the dragons is "upset."
One shot rpg has a post up for a game, and its received a lot of attention for a level 7 githyanki mission. If your doing videos, toss some ideas into the pot.
That is an awesome sounding game. Andrew Knapp is great when it comes running interesting and creative adventures can't wait to see where it goes. Schedule got a little crazy this past week perhaps next filming session we can weigh in on it. -Nerdarchist Dave
awesome, I'd especially like to know what you think of death cleric or paladin re-skin concepts, given that gith are not allowed a deity, also what would you do about "innate" psionic powers that the monster manual give them, how would you handle it with a pc?
*Facepalm* ryan rhino DRAGONS are MYTHOLOGICAL CREATURES OK NO EXCUSE THIS FROM THE 3 MOVIES and the GAMES DIDN'T NOT APPEAR ANY of THEM and DON'T ASK ME UGH show some respect if you don't like it shhhh or why you comment that is very negative I like Dragons.
Speaking on Dragonlance, there was a short story they put out once in one of their novels about a party who sought out a white dragon and killed it. It didn't want to fight them, and as it was dying she revealed that she was a silver dragon but she was albino. Wonderful story.
Sucks to be her. I've either read it and forgotten it or missed it some how. I've read a ton of DragonLance. We can add mistaken identity to the list. -Nerdarchist Dave
If it goes against type, please remember their personality types.
Gold: Aloof long arching plans mortals don't understand. i.e. The short lived mortals have no comprehension of such things. Sauron
Silver: Interest in humans and their cultures i.e. Think of a polymorped dragon who sees the humans as useful in conquering lands to his benefit, but he would make them think their Kingdom would reap the gains. Wyrmtongue
Copper: Tricksters and lovers of lore i.e. Any malicious trickster from myth and lore. Loki
Bronze: Watchers over small communities and curious i.e. Think Warlord over a small region that he sees is his and everything in it. Prince John
Brass: Militaristic and lover of battles i.e. Think any General or military dictator. Napoleon
If not, just make all Dragons clear.
The first thing I think of with a villain from a race that's typically good is that it's doing something it really considers right. It's conquering a nation because it feels it can rule more fairly than the current rulers or something to that effect.
Evil done for the right reasons always makes for such a better villain.
-Nerdarchist Dave
"The path to Hell is paved with good intentions" or so they say.
I did this to a party years ago when I was first getting into AD&D 1st Ed. The gold dragon was using the party to run errands for him to collect the things he needed to save his dying girlfriend. Some of the things he had the party do started to get kind of sketchy, and then eventually, were just plain wrong and were causing suffering and destruction in the world. The gold dragon was desperate, though, and placed a higher value on the dragon he loved than he did on the piddly affairs of mortals and their silly little kingdoms. It took a long time before the players finally stood up to him. He felt he was justified. Remember, that is the key to writing a good villain. They always think they are right. In their mind, they are the protagonist.
I actually ran a campaign about 18 years ago, where the antagonist was an evil ancient silver dragon who ruled as king after killing the true king. It took his place using its natural shape changing ability, the heroes were called to aid the people after the king started behavig uncharacteristicly horrible to his subjects. This dragon was driven mad with power, but was already evil with no known reason, at least none that my players could figure out.
My players learned long ago not to stero type creatures, good black dragons can exist as much as evil golden ones. Also....I enjoy using their meta gaming against them, I still wonder to this day why they continue to do it out loud in my presence when they know I dislike it greatly.
Gamers they just can't help themselves.
-Nerdarchist Dave
Nerdarchy ***** What if the dragon has been flying over the yearly over the period of 4 years, roaring loudly, and now with the 5th flight over is razing the town?
Maybe the townsfolk noticed the natural resources are dwindling (soil exhaustion, excessive forestry/masonry/hunting/fishing) but don't realize that the first flight was him announcing in Draconic "You have overstayed my hospitality in my domain! You exhaust my forests, you exhaust my waters, you exhaust my Hunting grounds... you have 5 years to GTFO!"
Second flight: "You have overstayed my hospitality in my domain. You exhaust my forests, you exhaust my waters, you exhaust my Hunting grounds, and you exhaust my patience: you have 4 years to GTFO!"
Third, Forth as above, then the Fifth flight: "You continued to overstay your welcome! You have finally exhausted my patience! If you won't leave these lands, your ashes will Renew Them!" before he started to raze the town.
Yea but I'd think the dragon would give it's warning in language understood by the humans. They are super intelligent after all. But natural resources is a way for their to be a conflict between a good dragon and the humans.
-Nerdarchist Dave
Nerdarchy
Imagine the Dragon, being an Elder of it's race, having almost certainly been hibernating for several hundred years.
The mining activities awoke him, the miners try to attack it in panic. The dragon slays them.
Flying To the mountain peak, he lights the signal fires to summon the pact-bound Kobolds to his lair.
The Kobold elders inform the dragon that the 'squatters' have killed their members on sight, and any attempts to learn/overhear their languages has cost too many lives.
The dragon tries to overhear/ learn the language, but is attacked by the settlements on sight .
The Dragon is still bound by his oaths to defend and preserve his domains , and that he must give the interlopers notice of his displeasure, and the opportunity to leave without further bloodshed.
When the party finally meet the dragon, he say to the party in Draconic 'Are we to Parley?'
He would remark that he hasn't hadn't been able to learn much of their language in between the hail of arrows. and how he found it rude that the elves/dwarves/humans refused to learn the languages carved in the landscape and ruins. (the party will have learned that the carvings and signs are all in a draconic scratch/etching language).
the party will be offered a bounty of 25000 pp, so then you have the dilemma of upholding the dragon's claim, and spare the dragon, or risk it all by trying to kill him.
extra points If the party kills the dragon, they won't be paid, and the king refusing to pay murderers after his scholars 'just discovered' /deciphered the stone carvings were indicating that the dragon owned the domain.
If they don't kill the dragon, and try to negotiate a peace, the king will threaten the party with either leaving (to killi the dragon) or be declared traitors to the realm and executed .
The point becomes 'is acting 'lawful good' an ideal that the group chases, or merely a PR stunt ?
I had the idea for the opposite. A blue dragon that helps and protects her subjects and loves that they worship her as a hero and collects a 05% tax on all prophets. She lives in a desert and uses her storm powers to bring water to a land that has none and keeps trade routes safe from raiders.
You forgot the simple reason - it had a bump on the head and went bad. I had a villian - Originally an LG silver dragon, which when it was a young dragon, joined its LG father in a great battle to defend a city. It got hit right in the pre frontal cortext by a huge rock from a catapault during the battle and gradually turned LE over the next 317 years, and became the main villian of that story arc.
It is entirely possible for a good dragon still be good since most dragons besides silver and steel don't have humanoid mindsets. They could be doing something that will save millions of lives in the long run but right now is killing hundreds. A copper dragon may find pranks that hurt people to be just fine if they survive and can eventually laugh again.
My first thought was the difference of perspective option - the dragon and the adventuring party are simply at cross purposes because the dragon is working with long-term goals while the adventurers only see the current unsavoury actions (like destroying a village that may have a world-destroyer born in it).
I like to think of the monsters and other NPC's as antagonist's vs villians. This frees me up to provide conflict to the PC's in a variety of way; sometimes expected ways, beyond good vs evil style of play.
Possession reminds me of Pool of Radiance where a bronze dragon was possessed by an infernal of some kind
Metallic vs chromatic is just a matter of morals, for all intents and purposes. I'd just prefer dragons who can be good OR evil. I like the idea of a variety of Dragon intelligences and personalities. You never know if that big guy is going to be Draco (intelligent and good), Toothless (dumb and good) , Vermithrax (dumb and evil), or Smaug (intelligent and evil)
Make the dragons personality like Raz al ghoul from Batman begins and the humans are like a cancer that has to be cleansed every couple hundred years once it becomes corrupt from too much decadence
That is one route to go for sure. They may see what they are doing as an unpleasant yet necessary evil for the betterment of the world.
-Nerdarchist Dave
One way to have a dragon go against type would be to exaggerate a flaw of their personality to the extreme, so they move more towards evil.
I don't have a hard time seeing how even metallic dragons couldn't be villains or at least enemies in a campaign.
Wyrmlings and young dragons are probably especially prone to getting into conflict with civilization, because of their big hunger coupled with their lack of development, especially mentally and magically.
I could totally see them getting into conflict with farmers and frontiersmen as they eat all the cattle & wildlife, which might lead the locals to send adventurers after the dragons to deal with the problem, and a threatened dragon, even if good, might easily turn very dangerous!
What I am going to do in my game is to have a crossbreed dragon that is part Silver, but mostly Copper. he will be chaotic good as copper dragons are. Copper dragons like humor, jokes and wit. He is going to be kidnapping people and forcing them to entertain him. He has every intention of letting them go, but he is ancient and doesn't really take into account that humans have very short lifetimes (compared to dragons). He is feeding and taking care of the people that he kidnaps. He is just bored. The PCs will have to try to do something to entertain the dragon and try to get him to let the people go. It should be fun for all!
Hmm what about it's lair is connected to the Shadowfell just enough that the transformation into a Shadow Gold Dragon has only happened internally, and hasn't externalized?
As yoon as you mentioned professies, I knew how that story goes: "the evil overloard will be born in this village" "Let's just destroy the entire village" - there is one survivor: "I swear eternal vengeance!"
Something open for everyone, The main villain in my world was once the Silver Dracon Lord that was the hero between the ancient Dracon Lords, but has been corrupted by the Shadowlands (Since I can never remember what the shadow plane with Strahd on it is called) due to centuries there attempting to fight off this huge evil that it percieves as trying to break into the Prime Plane and just eradicate all life and bring forth an age of shadow and death. Any suggestions on what he saw that changed him from the champion of good to the champion of war?
Gold dragon Barbarian, kills a whole bunch of it's young in a rage and that guilt causes it to go temporarily mad. In it's madness the rage causes it to kill even more innocents until it's madness is healed or shrugged off, but by that point it's lost touch with it's morality, or desire to live and starts attacking villages and kingdoms out of boredom or a desire to find an honorable death in combat...
having the dragon be young and still rash and uncaring can also be a cool idea.
One of the first things I have done in my campaign is that I said: "Look, dragons in my world have all kinds of colors, shape and level of intelligence. There is nothing like "All blue dragons are evil" or anything similiar to that. They are good, neutral, or evil, and some of them stupid enough to be unaligned."
So, if metagaming or "these guys are supposed to be good" is really an issue for you, tweaking lore in this way and notifying your players can be a way to go.
Now, if you want to stick to the D&D lore, there are many good ideas out here, I've got to give you that. Players often make mistakes and its not that hard to get them into situation in which they do something terrible, what is perceived by dragon as wery evil. Maybe they stumble upon an ancient tomb, search it, wipe kobolds there and find some sort of artifact. They get it out of tomb and suddenly, an evil spirit leaves that artifact, spirit of long dead lich tyrant who was bound to artifact in tomb to ensure he never gets back to the world. Metallic dragon finds this out, finds his loyal servant dead and group of pesky humans with that artifact. Selfish, power-hungry, greedy humans... Raaaawr!
As a DM/GM I allow all dragons to have touch of "greed"....
possession? pool of radiance, the entity Tyranthraxus is perfect. I think he took control over a bronze dragon and later a zhent cleric. He appeared later in the sequel curse of the azure bonds.
The party is given a quest by a local lord to serve some sort imminent domain paperwork to a gold dragon(relying on it's lawful nature) or deal with the issue if that doesn't work. Lord may or may not be evil, probably not good though. Dragon is worshipped and served by a tribe of kobolds, which is used to turn public opinion against the dragon. Heck, people may not even know he is a dragon, just know there is some shadowy long lived land owner that doesn't really pay taxes and has a bunch of traditionally evil humanoids serving them.
What do you think?
what about if the dragon in question, is in conflict with the local human population because someone the town/village/city is harbouring murdered his/her mate. And the locals hired the party to take the dragon down,because they refuse to hand over the guilty party for draconic justice?
Okay, I'm sure it was destroyed, but wasn't there an Artifact or something called the Dracorage Mythal in Forgotten realms that once activated made Dragons all go insane? (just something I remember from scanning the FR wiki)
I'm afraid I'm not familiar with that, but dragons driven insane is diffidently a way to turn good dragons bad.
-Nerdarchist Dave
forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Dracorage_mythal
I think there was a little more about it in the Tiamat page, but yeah, I can see out and out chaos with all Dragons going nuts.
I have an idea for a fun video, fun ways to use standard adventuring gear with each other in dire situations and also in planned out situations with time to do stuff
Thanks guys! Great ideas.
You are quite welcome. Glad you liked them.
-Nerdarchist Dave
Is that a Dresden Files shirt? Awesome.
What about 2 factions of good guys and the party is one side and the dragon is on the other. Like the king died and the gold dragon supports his older idiot, strong, paladin heir over the sneaky, roguish, but smart younger heir. Boom. Civil war. And the gold dragon and his servants are on the other side. He's not evil but the dragon is your enemy.
Yup that works, good one. I believe that one falls into one of the categories we made up. We just used a different kind of example.
-Nerdarchist Dave
By rights of being firstborn the paladin would take over.
Great video! I just don't agree that presuming that a metallic dragon is good is metagaming. Gold dragons in particular are widely known as the one being that will destroy evil on sight, without a second though. And they are very intelligent and wise, so they can easily tell evil from good. They will avoid killing anyone if they don't absolutely have to. Metallic dragons are famed for helping people out. Their reputation does precede them Its pretty common knowledge that metallic dragons are good and chromatic are evil.
I'd say unless you specify that your character is for some reason ignorant of dragons and their nature, they'll know at least the basic info on them.
Thanks we do what we can. as to your points here is my take on it.
It really depends on how common dragons are in a given world. Let's not forget there isn't monster manuals for the players to read up on dragon lore. Matter of fact information in a fantasy setting isn't going to be wide spread, easily accessible, and/or accurate. You have to consider how people would convey information to each other. Mostly by word of mouth. Every book has to be hand written making them more rare and valuable. Thanks for weighing in.
-Nerdarchist Dave
Nerdarchy
I actually like points from both of you. I don't think it's going too far for there to be stories of Golden Dragons of good and law and Evil Black Dragons of corruption and hate.
But then to have the other dragons be less well known. Maybe the players don't know the difference between a white dragon and a silver dragon, or that the "common" lore doesn't go into chromatic vs metallic.
So, to recap, I think it's reasonable for SOME lore to be floating around (both false and correct) about certain dragons, but also for there to not be wide-spread information for others.
badguy5
The first thing is to look at things through the lens of the campaign world. For example Dragons have been banished from our GrypghonGaff campaign setting for centuries perhaps a half of millennia or more. They are just coming back into the world now. So what would the people know of dragons? The legends they've heard would of been told and retold. Just play a quick game of whispers down the lane to see what that looks like. But someplace like Forgotten Realms or Dragonlance it would be different. I kind of hate the normalization of the fantastic that is done in a setting like FR. A good example might be to look our modern day dragons.
What can you tell me about all the different terrorist organizations out there? What of Muslim based groups that work towards positive goals?
Just some food for thought about I feel people a modern view of information a medieval based fantasy game. People in a fantasy game probably have never even been more than a couple miles from home.
-Nerdarchist Dave
Nerdarchy
I was indeed talking about forgotten realms - by now the default D&D setting. Dragons were and remain a staple of D&D based fantasy in almost every setting. They are these fantastical beings who maintain contact with mortals, Some actively seek out humans to talk to. Some take on students to teach. Others protect towns near which they grew up. They aren't that secretive, especially when they're young. That's why I think many people know basic Dragon lore. And then there's the widespread worship of Dragons - Bahamut, Tiamat, Io and other minor dragon gods ... People actually preach the difference between chromatic and metallic dragons. That's why I think, at least in Forgotten Realms, basic dragon lore is pretty widespread.
Even if most people seldom went far from their homes there are exceptions to that. Merchants, tax collectors, criers and others that travel spread news. In D&D you have the bards that do nothing but travel, tell stories and preserve legends. People would know things and people in a D&D world would know more or at least have an idea who to ask that might know or they in turn know someone and so on.
why not a dragon that has become a tyrant and it believes its in the right and doing whats good for his domain thats the way id go
Tiamat: “I make them good dragons go bad.”
Hell yeah first view! Thanks for adding my suggestion guys!
No problem we like doing requests. It means one less thing we have to think about.
-Nerdarchist Dave
What about Shadowfell radiation, now Quite enough to turn them into a full on Shadow Dragon?
Pool of Radiance--Tyranthraxus.
What the dragon considers good is protecting their friends and property...
The party has been out there harming their friends... the dragons is "upset."
Giant/Titan arcana user?
Secret titan city on another plane?
I dislike good dragons in general, which is why I make them at least neutral if not evil.
Well Evil dragons also can become good though
Great now do it backwards for chromatics.
One shot rpg has a post up for a game, and its received a lot of attention for a level 7 githyanki mission. If your doing videos, toss some ideas into the pot.
That is an awesome sounding game. Andrew Knapp is great when it comes running interesting and creative adventures can't wait to see where it goes. Schedule got a little crazy this past week perhaps next filming session we can weigh in on it.
-Nerdarchist Dave
awesome, I'd especially like to know what you think of death cleric or paladin re-skin concepts, given that gith are not allowed a deity, also what would you do about "innate" psionic powers that the monster manual give them, how would you handle it with a pc?
Alexander Maxwell
They have the Lich queen what's her face. I'd just have cleric and paladin powers coming from her.
-Nerdarchist Dave
The 5 evil Dragons are
The Red Dragon,
The Blue Dragon,
The Green Dragon,
The White Dragon
&
The Black Dragon
This is The Evil Dragons that's all
what about a purple dragon?
ryan rhino there is no mention about purple dragon in the universe of Dungeons & Dragons in that video.
Doesn't mean they don't exist
*Facepalm* ryan rhino DRAGONS are MYTHOLOGICAL CREATURES OK NO EXCUSE THIS FROM THE 3 MOVIES and the GAMES DIDN'T NOT APPEAR ANY of THEM and DON'T ASK ME UGH show some respect if you don't like it shhhh or why you comment that is very negative I like Dragons.
A purple dragon sounds cool tbh . I'll make it happen
8:45 Did one of them fart?
what about a dragon with a substance abuse problem
Well I would have watched the video but the fukking ADD is ALL that plays!
Speaking on Dragonlance, there was a short story they put out once in one of their novels about a party who sought out a white dragon and killed it. It didn't want to fight them, and as it was dying she revealed that she was a silver dragon but she was albino. Wonderful story.
Sucks to be her. I've either read it and forgotten it or missed it some how. I've read a ton of DragonLance. We can add mistaken identity to the list.
-Nerdarchist Dave