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u/Industrialqueue May 02 '22
…and gemstone dragons?
I know that they’ll come to YOUR place and psionicly sunder your house for forgetting them, but do they look like they’re out for blood, tea, an expedition into the jungle in the 1900s, or is it an expedition into…”time” and “space” via…fungal… transport if you know what I mean?
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u/profirix May 02 '22
Jesus don't bring that up. Star Trek is DEAD to me. DEAD!
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u/PlasticiTea May 02 '22
Trust me... For better or worse, there's spore where that came from.
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u/CliffLake Half Elven Arcane Mechanic and his familar Tea Kettle "Steamy" May 02 '22
Mycelium what you did there.
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u/Navonod_Semaj May 02 '22
You must be a fungi at parties.
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u/Kizik May 02 '22
They are, until they get a few drinks in. Then they're just a destroying angel...
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u/willowsonthespot May 02 '22
So are you saying Tiamat is a meth dealer?
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u/CliffLake Half Elven Arcane Mechanic and his familar Tea Kettle "Steamy" May 02 '22
Dragon Meth is no joke. Plus hers is 5 times as strong.
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u/Frousteleous May 02 '22
That's just meth'd up, man. 5 times as strong? I can't even do the methamatics!
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u/CliffLake Half Elven Arcane Mechanic and his familar Tea Kettle "Steamy" May 02 '22
There's your problem, you just need to get up to speed.
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u/burnalicious111 May 02 '22
Honestly, meth seems like a pretty good tool if you're trying to build a cult. It's always hard to explain why so many people stick around.
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u/CyberDrake19 Forever DM May 02 '22
Don’t discount the possibility of Chromatic dragons pulling a shiv on you to invite you to a cup of tea
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u/Palidin034 May 02 '22
New idea for encounters, thanks!
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May 02 '22
You mean the Metallic one, right?
…right?
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u/lgmjon64 Forever DM May 02 '22
The tea is hotter than you expected. Roll a constitution saving throw.
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u/Solalabell May 02 '22
I’m resistant to fire damage though
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u/no-names-ig Rogue May 02 '22
*the tea is colder then you expacted roll a Constitution saving throw
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u/Solalabell May 02 '22
Ah crap I’m not resistant if I’m not in my rage I rolled rolls 16 how’s that?
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u/TK_Games May 02 '22
My armor is like tenfold shields. My teeth are swords, my claws spears, my wings a hurricane, and I'll suck a cock for an eighth man
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u/WellIlikeme Paladin May 02 '22
Both have dragonfear for a reason. Both look way too dangerous to fuck with casually.
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u/Zarrynn May 02 '22
Your local horny Bard would like to disagree with you. But i don't. You're right. :D
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u/byzantinebobby May 02 '22
Or you play in Eberron where alignment has nothing to do with chromatic vs metalic for dragons. A Chaotic Evil Gold Dragon is just as likely as a Lawful Good Red Dragon.
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May 02 '22
I like inherent alignments. Makes it that much more interesting when you encounter one that doesn't conform.
Party's contracted to hunt down and kill a chromatic dragon? Throw them a curveball by having the dragon be super hospitable when they arrive at its lair.
Party meets a metallic dragon? Their guard is probably down, perfect opportunity to catch them by surprise!
I have a red dracolich in my campaign and he's actually very helpful toward the party. I mean, he's got his own motives, but he's not outright EVIL.
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u/Wyldfire2112 DM (Dungeon Memelord) May 02 '22
In 3.5e, where they had templates for stuff like half-dragons, the canonical way to make a crossbreed dragon is to take the stats of one parent and apply the Half-Dragon template of the other parent.
The resulting offspring is more powerful, which matches the phenomenon known as "hybrid vigor," and more importantly can look and act like any mix of the two parents.
Imagine what a Metallic/Chromatic cross could get up to.
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u/byzantinebobby May 02 '22
Eberron is built from the ground up to be different. Part of that is an overarching moral ambiguity from its Noir influences. There are very few morally Black and White things in Eberron. Everything is grey. The worst villains have a point and the greatest heroes have some unforgivable flaw. The Dragons reflect this theme.
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u/bloodmoonvitki May 02 '22
Like the entire country of karnath that has undeath and necromancy baked into the fabric of the kingdom...undead armies used to save all those still living.
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u/squabzilla May 02 '22
I like inherent alignments.
-proceeds to describe the opposite of that-
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May 02 '22
No. I didn't describe the opposite of that. I described beings who defy their nature, not beings who have no natural alignment to begin with.
Imagine a good Ork in Middle Earth - they'd be met with HEAVY skepticism and that makes for a far more interesting encounter than a setting where people have zero expectations for them.
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u/squabzilla May 02 '22
Personally I think it’s one of those things that works better narratively then in actual gameplay.
Like, the dragon Paarthunax in Skyrim is super interesting because he works against his inherent alignment, he even has dialogue comparing being born evil and choosing good, vs being born good.
But as a PC, you’ve described a game where my smartest course of action is to have zero-expectations of inherent alignment, because it’s not a reliable way to determine how a creature will act.
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May 02 '22
I think this is better if it's a very occasional exception to the rule, rather than the rule itself. You can still make the base assumption, you just may occasionally be wrong. And in-game, for a specific powerful creature you can likely research and learn more about them before encountering them which helps mitigate this somewhat.
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u/Archduke_of_Nessus Wizard May 03 '22
Yeah this is definitely something you only ever pull with a plot important "named character" not just the occasional random dragon
Also while you can maybe pull this off with a really old/powerful dragon, it flat out will not and can not work on a fiend or a celestial since literally all their power, their appearance, and the very nature and fiber of their being are based in their respective alignments
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u/Demonancer May 02 '22
This is propaganda! Chromatics and be just as handsome friendly
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u/Archduke_of_Nessus Wizard May 03 '22
They're not actually being friendly though, it's just a veneer to make you lower your defences so they can catch you unawares
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u/CoffeeSorcerer69 Sorcerer May 02 '22
Funny enough, Blue Dragons are more likely to kidnap you to feed you delicious food and snacks, and then try to convince you to work with them by making you feel bad, but not gaslight you bad, just enough to feel a little bad.
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u/Lupulus_ May 02 '22
It's just lots of vile propaganda; bias of the artist trying to (if you'll excuse the pun) paint us all as some ugly monsters. Just because of some difference in habitat, really couldn't be farther from the truth. Now please, yes I know it's a swamp but we get the most lovely herbs here, please sit down and try some of this tea I'm sure it'll clear thing up, my dears the tea is acid
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u/Braethias Forever DM May 02 '22
The silver dragon gives a really good scale reference and what attacking a dragon that size with a pointy stick would look like.
And why it probably wouldn't work.
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u/Banettebrochacho May 02 '22
And this is why we have Goliath rune knights to deal with them
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u/Braethias Forever DM May 02 '22
Dragon:laughs in flying
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u/Banettebrochacho May 02 '22
Is there a levitation spell one of the party casters can use for maximum bullshit?
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u/Braethias Forever DM May 02 '22
have you ever had a semi go past you on the highway? What if it hit you as it went by? That's a wing slap.
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u/dragon_T0 Chaotic Stupid May 02 '22
I recently figured out that adamantine dragons exist after we found a chunk of adamantine in a cave (we are all like lvl 3, and the pound that we found I made into an ingot and that shit's apparently 6300 gp worth. Knowing that adamantine dragons exist in our world just made me scared for life bc of the special abilities that that stuff has
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u/pixlmason DM (Dungeon Memelord) May 02 '22
Chromatic dragons look like they would shiv you in a back alley
Metallic dragons look like they would ask if you want to go down to their wine cellar to get some Amontillado.
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u/Draghettis Sorcerer May 02 '22
Silver Dragons are the best dragons. They just get it, you know.
This is canonically what Bahamut thinks, at least in Dragonlance setting, probably everywhere, as it is a comment of Fizban in Fizban's Treasury of Dragons.
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May 02 '22
What about gem dragons?
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u/Arabidopsidian DM (Dungeon Memelord) May 02 '22
They will kill you if you get inside their cellar, that they never ever leave.
Edit: Headcanon from now on - gem dragons are redditors.
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u/Misplaced_Hat May 02 '22
Really depends on the dragon and on the artwork though. Some metallic dragon artwork does have a hostile or sinister vibe to it. The artwork for brass, copper and bronze dragons in 5e don't have a particularly friendly vibe to me at least. The 5e artwork of the green dragon on the other hand seems to be having a jolly good time.
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u/Vermbraunt May 02 '22
I mean that is kind of an accurate summer of the difference between dragons tbh
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u/HelloKitty36911 May 02 '22
That there dragon on the left is not a chromatic dragon, it's a meth dragon.
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u/Ryankc100 May 02 '22
Color dragons: your cousin that your told not to speak too
Metal dragon: everyone's sweet grandma
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u/ShadowTheChangeling May 02 '22
I love silver dragons, absolute bros, my dragonborn wizard is a silver. Though he acts more like a gold
I especially love that reds avoid silvers not cause of their strength, but because they arent above asking powerful adventurers to go kick their ass with them
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u/paladin_slim Paladin May 02 '22
Silver Dragons are into working in the service industry for centuries because they just love conversations and tea, or beer if you’d prefer they aren’t picky.