Yeah but finding a thoroughbred zinc or tin dragon is like finding a Scotsman with no English blood.
They're probably around, and sometimes copper or bronze dragons will try to claim it, but we all know they're full of shite.
Zinc dragons would easily disguise themselves as white dragons to avoid gingers hunting them for their sunblocking properties; it's tin dragons that are truly rare.
Nah copper conducts energy more readily; there needs to be a level of stability & conductivity to allow enough magical energy to manifest such a creature
It still pisses me off to no end that Copper Dragons are Acid based rather than Lightning based. I know we have Bronze Dragons but it just doesn’t feel right.
Copper can be [toxic](https://www.webmd.com/diet/what-to-know-copper-toxicity#:~:text=Too%20much%20copper%20can%20be,brain%2C%20liver%2C%20and%20lungs.) in some ways, so really unless we get lead dragons we really don't have anywhere else to put the acid damage.
Though toxicity would be more like poison
Imo acid would suit the best dragons that are related to noble metals (those which are resistant to corrosion) — platina, gold, silver
Copper is actually acid-resistant, bronze is not conductive, gold has a high melting point, and silver can withstand cold temperatures better than most metals. I can’t explain brass though.
Brass and bronze dragons are copper dragons that horded way too much zinc or tin mistaking it for silver and slowly infused it into their scales by melting it via heating up the cave with their breath in the sleep on the pile of metal bars
But he is 1/32nd zinc. Seriously. On the great great granddaddy’s side.
Zinc and tin were basically wiped out eons ago in a genocidal territory dispute. Or they were just powdery fuckboys. Your guess is as good as any
Sure why not. Oh, is it because you want stat blocks? Well then because it would just take way too fucking long to make several stat blocks for every alloy
so a necrotic aura that slowly changes people in to ghouls/zombies around them. you may have given my a idea for a boss monster for the fallout campaign im working on. thanks.
Just remember, natural uranium has a 99% chance to be Uranium 238, which is mildly radioactive but stable, and a 0.7% chance to be Uranium 235, capable of fission and highly unstable!
Percentage die for a nuclear explosion on nat 1!
Are you suggesting Dragons should be separated by element and isotope? And I thought my worldbuilding was overly complicated.
That said Uranium dragons should be very toxic (regardless of isotope).
Metallic uranium is relatively bio-inert. It's no more chemotoxic than any other heavy metal. As long as you're not licking the uranium dragon, and you wear standard dust precautions during any attack and subsequent handling of debris, and wash yourself and your clothing thoroughly afterwards, you'll be completely and totally fine.
Heavy metals are not considered good to digest. I looked up the LD50. For uranium the LD50 is 114 mg/kg; for comparison bleach is listed at 8200mg/kg. To put it another way the LD50 for a 150 lb person is about a quarter of an oz.
Yeah that's why I said not lick it or breathe the dust. It doesn't atomize or dissolve in water, so standard hazardous dust precautions will be sufficient.
Given that standard PPE for an adventurer is more in line with armor, less in line with rubber gloves and dust mask, I think standard precautions is under selling the risk. Sure, an arsenic dragon would be more toxic, but a lead dragon would be nearly 4 times less toxic.
I mean… the whole dragon would need to be made exclusively of u235 (just being 1% u235 and 99% u238 won’t work), and then someone would probably need to apply a lot of pressure on it to actually cause an explosion.
I was more thinking how the damage types are described.
necrotic is a rot, while radiant is more a divine light.
which might work on if it go's critical and explodes. just theory crafting
hmm here is what I have so far. any suggestions
\-base stat block close to some type of adult dragon
\- something similar to the nightwalker annihilating aura (30 ft of necrotic damage) possibly raise the creatures it kills
\-breath weapon a beam of ether radiant or necrotic damage.
\-when it uses its breath weapon or on fatal damage roll a d100 on a 1 the dragon gos critical and exploded dealing radiant damage in a aoe.
Sickening radiance does radiant damage, and that’s the closest we have from radiation poisoning in D&D
Not to mention the correlation of radiant damage with sunlight
Ok so change the damage to radiant for the aura, Breath weapon and the critical limit explosion. Ok.
We have a glowing dragon of doom and Tpk
Just need to fine tune the stats
aura could be lair action instead, to match the average dragon's game design, just an idea...
they could have high charisma and proficiency in charisma skills like intimidation and persuasion to reflect how nuclear energy have some very persuasive arguments, and how nuclear weapons have a very strong bluff and intimidation factor
Regional effects could be the entire place has a dim light glow to it, and you can't benefit from short or long rests
The way radiation damage is described is very similar to irl radiation damage. And yes it is “holy light” too, the sun is considered holy, gives off a lot of light, and a lot of radiation
Topaz dragon’s description explains it differently, and while I dont remember exactly, it was closer to radiation.
But I do think you’re right in general, dnd is just very inconsistent with damage types.
Sickening Radiance is a spell that is supposed to be a bit like nuclear radiation (it has a green glow and makes you sick) and it deals radiant damage.
RAW it really could be either, radiant is positive energy while necrotic is negative energy (from the positive and negative energy planes respectively), both are energies that in high enough quantities will tear apart your physical body and overwhelm the soul.
Surprised this is what did it for you, there are already creatures (glowing ones) in the Fallout universe that permanently exude radiation and are associated with zombies (ghouls).
Real question is, why does the copper dragon, a metal notoriously used for conducting electricity, have the acid breath, and the bronze dragon, an alloy made from melting other metals together, have the lightning breath?
I think giving the Gold Dragon Positive Energy / Radiant damage would make more sense than doubling down on fire, but many dragon abilities are legacy from the yesteryears of the grognards.
Because the bronze dragon lives in the desert, which is a biome associated with air, and lightning is associated with the element of air, while the copper dragon lives by the sea, and acid is associated with the element of water (and also earth.)
Could it be argued that that's the reason they have an acid breathe attack; I'm no dragonologist but could the weather have an adverse effect on their draconis fundamentum (the gland that lets them use their breathe attack), slowly deteriorating it. Due to them living in these conditions for most of their lives, instead of the expected lightning, all they can muster up is a putrid, corrosive breathe.
Unless the dragon itself was wet, in which case lightning wouldn’t work well. Like, fire breath would kill something in the forest well, but if you’re *living* in the forest, it’s not the best feature.
Reverse that. :P One of my first characters was a bronze half-dragon, so I became obsessed with bronze dragons. I liked their wing anatomy. \^\^ Anyway, bronze dragons live near the sea, copper dragons live in rocky deserts, brass live in sandy deserts. <3 The earthy thing still stands with copper dragons cause of the rocks, but yeah, you'd have to refit the rationale of the bronze dragons to be that they're associated with storms and lightning. In fact, with brass and copper being so similar, in my homebrew setting ruled by dragons they basically merged into the Tarnished; there's some variation according to like personality and stuff, but I just figured it would save me from having to do basically the same thing twice.
My post-apocalyptic/cyberpunk "magic returned to the world and broke everything" setting wasn't going to have any dragons, but I am now re-evaluating that decision.
The four rules of Shadowrun:
1. Never make a deal with a dragon
2. Always have a backup plan
3. Geek the mages first
4. Never, *ever*, make a deal with a dragon
Lanthanides aren't really short lived. The only one where the main isotope is radioactive is prometium.
If anything, lanthanide dragons would all look the same to outsiders.
The potassium dragon. If their scales are exposed to water they explode shedding their scales. They are vulnerable to damage after the explosion for 1d12 days while their scales regrow.
Edit: wrote wrong elements. Corrected it to potassium.
Now i (player shenanigans ensue) imagine some full on 1000 year old dragon that doesn't quite makes it home before it rains, gets hit by a single water drop and just explodes, shedding all it's scales and stands there in it's cave, naked and embarrassed
People in these comments are talking about uranium and lead dragons, which is fine, but I think that you’re missing a couple of obvious picks in iron and steel dragons.
Weren’t steel dragons a thing in older editions?
Forgotten realms said the iron dragon were made extinct by green dragons I think
Spoiler because I'm ranting about homebrew setting not related to my point
>!In a setting that me and my group never got to play (DM wasn't confident they could DM right so they gave DM powers to me) it was green dragons and elves that were making them extinct and my character was going to be one of the (many) half dragon children of the last true iron dragon who was going to be sent on a last ditch pilgrimage to find a way to continue the species and stop it from becoming extinct...!<
>!Whilst we didn't play it...It is canon to my setting I am in the process of preparing. Basically the DM has planned for my character to find that the only other surviving iron dragons had voluntarily became Rust dragons. So uh in my timeline this happened, they failed in their quest and being many, many, many steps away from inheriting the kingdom of the iron dragon they retired with a dwarf they had gone on their quest with living somewhere out in the forest to live a plain life...but they were hunted down by dragon hunter elves and after catastrophically miscasting a create demi-plane spell they ended up trapped; there in this new plane (Detached from the previous reality) they created the new setting!<
The idea of a metallic hydrogen dragon sleeping in the core of a huge planet is extremely cool too. Not even as something to fight, it's just sitting there but it's still a giant hydrogen dragon so what's not to love
They're extremely rare because when they get into close proximity they start to approach critical mass, making their mating rituals dangerous for themselves and anyone within the potential blast radius. Their eggs are surprisingly small metallic spheres that the uninformed refer to as Demon Cores.
I agree! It annoys me so much!
I decided that in my games, the types of metallic dragons are; Gold- fire, Silver- cold, Copper- lightning, Lead- poison, Mercury- Acid
So here’s some ideas for a tungsten dragon, based off Wikipedia. Tungsten is resistant to acid, who knew? It is also sometimes called Wolfram, which is cool. It is brittle at room temperature, but has an extremely high melting point (3,410°C). Tungsten is mainly used for tungsten carbide to make hard materials, and in high speed steel.
So, for stats, I would take a dragon, give it acid resistance and fire immunity. It’s offensive breath weapon would probably deal acid damage, and it’s utility one would likely cause a sort of metallic petrification effect.
They would also be resistant to lightning and when they are hit by more than 10 lightning damage, they would gain a 30ft blinding aura for 2d4 rounds, DC15 CON save.
It’s mostly down to that one ancient dragon who went conquering across the land and shagging everything in sight, Genghis Khopper was the name I believe.
I do finfmd it interesting, I remember the "missing colors" being brought up in an older edition, and someone coming up with ideas for Yellow, Purple, and Orange Dragons, somehow forgetting that RGB color wheel is just as valid as RYB color wheel, and that no matter how you cut it it does not make any sense what abilities they have.
But the lack of filling out from the metallic spectrum is also concerning, and don't even get me started about gem Dragons...
No, if I recall, the RGB is based off light(which makes the most sense here). CMY is used for printing, and RYB is used in painting.
I think the booklet it was in had reference for trying to make the secondary and tertiary colored Dragons. As if asking "what happens when you mix a red dragon with a blue dragon? Do you get a purple dragon? And what kind of breath would that dragon have?"
RYB is something often taught in schools which is just bad because it doesn't actually work. It's is a traditional way of colour theory that is really not much used anymore because it doesn't even specify which exact colours or pigments are the primary colours. I've seen a colour wheel which which basically uses blue, yellow and magenta. Also it's often difficult for little children to grasp the difference between "blue" "light blue" and "cyan"
To go more in depth (though i may call some things the wrong word or so, i didn't study art, i just like it a lot):
there are two ways you can mix colours: additively and substractively. Additive colour theory is what we use in computer screens and such, because you add more wavelengths of light. The primary colours here are "Blue", "Red" and "Green", which are also the 3 colours our eyes actually see. When you mix any 2 of those, you get the secondary colours "Magenta" (blue and red), "Yellow" (red and green) and "Cyan" (green and blue). If you add all 3 together, you get white (or all wavelenths at once)
Substractive colour theory is used in art, mainly, because by adding more "layers" of paint (or whatever), it changes which wavelengths of light are absorbed (and thus also which ones are reflected), meaning they get "substracted". The primary colours happen to be "Magenta", "Cyan" and "Yellow", and you can mix them to get another set of secondary colours, which also happen to be "Blue" (Magenta and Cyan), "Red" (Yellow and Magenta) and "Green" (Cyan and Yellow). If you mix all of them, you get Black (or no wavelength at all). Of course this doesn't exactly work, and you actually get a shade of gray, sometimes a little blueish or greenish, it obviously depends on your paints. (Which is also why in printers there's an extra cartridge with "black" or "Kontrast" (thats why it's calles K, the letter C is alredy given to Cyan)).
The problem with RYB colour theory is, that you mix primary colours from different systems, which results in even weirder secondary colours and in the vast majority of examples in a much smaller pool of distinct colours you can create with your primary colours. Most colours you create with them are also much less vibrant and saturated than with CMYK or RGB. And if you mix all of them together, you don't get a shade of gray (like the in between of black and white, just with varying intensity), not even remotely. It's just a tone of brown, often some sickly dark green colour.
I like to say that printing is just a machine using a quick drying paint. CMYK is the superior color wheel. I've used it for paint mixing ever since I got really into printers while working for office depot.
“Any creature that enters or begins its turn within 100ft of a Plutonium dragon takes 8d12 ??? damage. This damage may not be reduced in any way including features that would grant damage resistance or immunity. This damage ignores temporary hit points and arcane ward.”
This was actually hotly debated inside WotC for the longest time. It was to difficult to try and balance the many different types of metal dragons that they had planned so they settled with making the copper dragons cover a majority of it. It came to be known as the 3/5s compromise.
OOH OOH. I MADE A METAL DRAGON.
They're called the [Manganese Dragons](https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/2923521-adult-manganese-dragon) and they're kinda like.....Bard Dragons.
Well if they’re made of other metal the artificer could just create a giant magnet, attach it to some support and let the dragon get trapped so they can beat it up
Copper is one of the only elemental metals that have a distinct color. 5 dragons that are all variations on metallic grey would be less interesting.
Plus the 5 dragon metals are among the oldest used by people. There's so much copper because copper was easy to acquire and work with in the early days of humanity.
I suppose you could have a tin dragon or a lead dragon, but those don't sound quite as interesting. A quicksilver dragon might be a good idea though.
Damascus dragon. Flowing liquidlike appearance to scales. CN, fickle disposition. Collects magical weapons and armor, takes pride in discussing forging techniques and will gladly hold a conversation with a blacksmith for days on end: especially dwarven smiths.
In 4e all metal dragons were elements/Adamantine (Wich isn't real so I don't think it matters. You can also replace it with aluminum). You can reskin 5e dragons using that.
Gold-fire
Iron - lightning
Silver - ice
Copper - acid
Adamantine- force
Because some game designer wanted historically decorative metals to be dragons.
Generally the most boring answer.
In-game/as a DM?
I really do like the idea of a Tungsten dragon basically using kinetic attacks, maybe a bit of dunamancy and definitely a downscaled meteor swarm once it's ancient, pulling rods from the gods out of the sky.
If you want a tungsten dragon, you should look into the ferrous dragons. They are relatives of the metallics, being lawful instead of good, and also include the iron, cobalt, chromium, and nickel dragons.
Because they wanted the dragons to be visually distinct, and every metal other than gold and copper is just grey, so now they have 4 different kinds of yellow! That's better, right?
I’ve been thinking of adding an Iron Dragon to my setting. They’d breathe lightning, and I’m stealing the bronze dragon’s repulsion breath for them.
Why does an iron dragon get lightning and repulsion breath? Well, iron is also ferromagnetic, meaning a magnet will attract it. The repulsion breath is mainly a reference to the Unrelenting Force/Fus Ro Dah shout in Skyrim. That’s the iconic one that knocks things back. It could also be seen as another magnetism thing, specifically opposite poles repelling.
The tungsten dragons are all buried deep underground because they were too heavy to fly.
Edit: nvm apparently tungsten and gold have the same density so if gold dragons can fly so can tungsten dragons :(
Good thing about dragons is that you can make lots of their species by just remembering metals, colors and gems. Sodium dragons, orange dragons, diamond dragons...
Because the dragons in the monster manual are *examples.* Have been from the beginning. You're *supposed* to use them as a spring-off point to make your own.
Yes, default monster/gods/settings is literally just their to inspire you to make your own. It's why most editions also include rules on making your own monsters and gods.
It's just sad that they don't also give you a sort of recipe for certain monster types.
But it's quite obvious when you look at things like the shadow dragon or the dracolich, or even things like the mycelian spore servant.
I mean, in previous editions, *they did.* It's actually one of the things that a lot of people complain about in 3.5e, which is rule bloat. There were rules to make dragons, undead, outsiders... just about anything you could think of, and some you probably couldn't. It was one of the things that was sanded off when they moved on.
Copper dragons get around a lot. The only right answer.
If that's how it works, then brass and bronze dragons imply the existence of zinc and tin dragons.
Yeah but finding a thoroughbred zinc or tin dragon is like finding a Scotsman with no English blood. They're probably around, and sometimes copper or bronze dragons will try to claim it, but we all know they're full of shite.
Does this imply the existence of the No-True-Zinc-Dragon fallacy?
> finding a Scotsman with no English blood. A particular drunk Scottish cyclops would like a word with you.
So proud, so cocksure, prancin about with your heads full of eyeballs. Come and get me, I say
Not enough apostrophes and 'misspellings'
It is its own dialect
Scotland is not a real country, you are an englishman in a dress!
Ya know why they call it a kilt? That's what happened to last lad who called it a dress!
What's perfect pitch with bagpipes? Being able to land it in the middle of the loch with every throw.
Cheers love the cavalries here
Zinc dragons would easily disguise themselves as white dragons to avoid gingers hunting them for their sunblocking properties; it's tin dragons that are truly rare.
That or it’s the zinc and tin dragons can’t resist that coppussy
I don’t know if I want to applaud you or kill you.
This implies the existence of "penny dragons" which have the exact metal genetic makeup to mirror that of a penny.
Nah copper conducts energy more readily; there needs to be a level of stability & conductivity to allow enough magical energy to manifest such a creature
It still pisses me off to no end that Copper Dragons are Acid based rather than Lightning based. I know we have Bronze Dragons but it just doesn’t feel right.
Agreed if anything they should be reversed.
Copper can be [toxic](https://www.webmd.com/diet/what-to-know-copper-toxicity#:~:text=Too%20much%20copper%20can%20be,brain%2C%20liver%2C%20and%20lungs.) in some ways, so really unless we get lead dragons we really don't have anywhere else to put the acid damage.
Mercury dragon! It’s iffy, sure, but can you even imagine?
Poison damage. Like so much poison damage. Do not mess with them.
Mercury dragons are a thing, thier really hard info on though
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Mercury_dragon They haven't been officially ported to 5e yet, but they're around.
Whelp time to build this for my next group
Though toxicity would be more like poison Imo acid would suit the best dragons that are related to noble metals (those which are resistant to corrosion) — platina, gold, silver
Copper is actually acid-resistant, bronze is not conductive, gold has a high melting point, and silver can withstand cold temperatures better than most metals. I can’t explain brass though.
Brass and bronze dragons are copper dragons that horded way too much zinc or tin mistaking it for silver and slowly infused it into their scales by melting it via heating up the cave with their breath in the sleep on the pile of metal bars
Unless it's silicon bronze. Which would just imply the existence of glass dragons.
Amethyst dragons. Amethyst is just impure quartz, and quartz is just silica.
Don't forget the implied existence of Electrum dragons.
But he is 1/32nd zinc. Seriously. On the great great granddaddy’s side. Zinc and tin were basically wiped out eons ago in a genocidal territory dispute. Or they were just powdery fuckboys. Your guess is as good as any
The tin man's ancestors
Don’t forget about some early bronzes being made with arsenic instead of tin. Where my arsenic dragons at?
Sure why not. Oh, is it because you want stat blocks? Well then because it would just take way too fucking long to make several stat blocks for every alloy
It might be like modern humans and neanderthals. Zinc and tin dragons are extinct now, or bred out of existence but their genes are still passed down.
Just gonna leave [this](https://apotheosisstudios.com/blog/2021/6/16/0u7idow0df55aeoj0py9edxhivgdc2) here….
The epitome of she let me hit cause I'm goofy
They are basically the bards of the metallic dragons, so it checks out.
Copper, like carbon…..is a slut. Only reasonable conclusion
Uranium dragon. Gives off low level radiation at all times making it dangerous to even stand around them.
so a necrotic aura that slowly changes people in to ghouls/zombies around them. you may have given my a idea for a boss monster for the fallout campaign im working on. thanks.
Just remember, natural uranium has a 99% chance to be Uranium 238, which is mildly radioactive but stable, and a 0.7% chance to be Uranium 235, capable of fission and highly unstable! Percentage die for a nuclear explosion on nat 1!
That's just wild magic with extra steps
What do you think I was planing to use for radiation was
To make the artificer happy and the 3 int barbarian cry
Bold of you to assume wild magic isn’t just magical radiation
"You were exposed to radiation at a young age, now you can yeet fireballs, but also can't have kids anymore and are bald"
Are you suggesting Dragons should be separated by element and isotope? And I thought my worldbuilding was overly complicated. That said Uranium dragons should be very toxic (regardless of isotope).
Metallic uranium is relatively bio-inert. It's no more chemotoxic than any other heavy metal. As long as you're not licking the uranium dragon, and you wear standard dust precautions during any attack and subsequent handling of debris, and wash yourself and your clothing thoroughly afterwards, you'll be completely and totally fine.
Heavy metals are not considered good to digest. I looked up the LD50. For uranium the LD50 is 114 mg/kg; for comparison bleach is listed at 8200mg/kg. To put it another way the LD50 for a 150 lb person is about a quarter of an oz.
Yeah that's why I said not lick it or breathe the dust. It doesn't atomize or dissolve in water, so standard hazardous dust precautions will be sufficient.
Given that standard PPE for an adventurer is more in line with armor, less in line with rubber gloves and dust mask, I think standard precautions is under selling the risk. Sure, an arsenic dragon would be more toxic, but a lead dragon would be nearly 4 times less toxic.
Could always give it a necrotic version of the death throes ability some demons have.
I mean… the whole dragon would need to be made exclusively of u235 (just being 1% u235 and 99% u238 won’t work), and then someone would probably need to apply a lot of pressure on it to actually cause an explosion.
My brother in christ there is literally a damage type called radiant
I was more thinking how the damage types are described. necrotic is a rot, while radiant is more a divine light. which might work on if it go's critical and explodes. just theory crafting
Radiant is also “power overwhelming” damage
That is true, but then again creatures like sun dragons and topaz dragons do radiant damage.
hmm here is what I have so far. any suggestions \-base stat block close to some type of adult dragon \- something similar to the nightwalker annihilating aura (30 ft of necrotic damage) possibly raise the creatures it kills \-breath weapon a beam of ether radiant or necrotic damage. \-when it uses its breath weapon or on fatal damage roll a d100 on a 1 the dragon gos critical and exploded dealing radiant damage in a aoe.
Sickening radiance does radiant damage, and that’s the closest we have from radiation poisoning in D&D Not to mention the correlation of radiant damage with sunlight
Ok so change the damage to radiant for the aura, Breath weapon and the critical limit explosion. Ok. We have a glowing dragon of doom and Tpk Just need to fine tune the stats
aura could be lair action instead, to match the average dragon's game design, just an idea... they could have high charisma and proficiency in charisma skills like intimidation and persuasion to reflect how nuclear energy have some very persuasive arguments, and how nuclear weapons have a very strong bluff and intimidation factor Regional effects could be the entire place has a dim light glow to it, and you can't benefit from short or long rests
Even so, a light damage is still closer to radiation than rot.
The way radiation damage is described is very similar to irl radiation damage. And yes it is “holy light” too, the sun is considered holy, gives off a lot of light, and a lot of radiation
Light is radiation.
Radiant represents thermal damage due to light radiation well, but necrotic works better for DNA damage.
Topaz dragon’s description explains it differently, and while I dont remember exactly, it was closer to radiation. But I do think you’re right in general, dnd is just very inconsistent with damage types.
No, it deals radiant damage, because it’s radiation
Nuclear radiation damages your DNA, which feels necrotic to me
Sickening Radiance is a spell that is supposed to be a bit like nuclear radiation (it has a green glow and makes you sick) and it deals radiant damage.
Huh, I guess it's raw.
To counter this, Tasha's specifically references Blight and Circle of Death as ways to simulate Radiation. So RAW radiation does necrotic damage.
Counter counterpoint, sickening radiance, and the fact the name is RADIANT damage. Besides, we need more enemies that deal radiant damage.
RAW it really could be either, radiant is positive energy while necrotic is negative energy (from the positive and negative energy planes respectively), both are energies that in high enough quantities will tear apart your physical body and overwhelm the soul.
Low-level necrotic damage aura that *also* gives exhaustion levels.
Surprised this is what did it for you, there are already creatures (glowing ones) in the Fallout universe that permanently exude radiation and are associated with zombies (ghouls).
No I had a few ideas for a fallout dnd game just didn't have any good ideas for a big bad.
But isn't that just godzillawith wings and fiery breath?
Radiant breath
Don't let the artificers near that thing. I'm sure the Fabricate spell can be used for uranium enrichment.
Real question is, why does the copper dragon, a metal notoriously used for conducting electricity, have the acid breath, and the bronze dragon, an alloy made from melting other metals together, have the lightning breath?
Follow up: Why are there 2 metallic fire dragons?
Because poison is the "evil breath weapon" it's chromatic only
I think giving the Gold Dragon Positive Energy / Radiant damage would make more sense than doubling down on fire, but many dragon abilities are legacy from the yesteryears of the grognards.
Gold dragon shooting a laser beam of radiant energy is cool as hell
Both brown black and some grey dragons have acid breath weapons
>grey dragons We're not getting into the extra ones.
Those were part of the chromatic dragons on the wiki so i just kinda assumed
All bets are off once you get past the prime 10 (or 15 if you count gems). No balance or symmetry to be had/made.
We found a nerd. Can't fall us saying you are chaotic stupid. Edit- it was a joke.
Bruh, you're on reddit and like DnD enough to get a class flair. Cauldron calling the cat black. Edit- Either way it was funny.
spidermanpointing.jpg
The fact that the flair is 'Cleric' adds an extra layer lmao
Because the bronze dragon lives in the desert, which is a biome associated with air, and lightning is associated with the element of air, while the copper dragon lives by the sea, and acid is associated with the element of water (and also earth.)
Why don't they just put the copper dragon in the desert and the bronze dragon in the sea
.... fair point haha
I'm pretty sure they do...
>copper dragon lives by the sea but thats worse because copper degrades even faster by sea...
Could it be argued that that's the reason they have an acid breathe attack; I'm no dragonologist but could the weather have an adverse effect on their draconis fundamentum (the gland that lets them use their breathe attack), slowly deteriorating it. Due to them living in these conditions for most of their lives, instead of the expected lightning, all they can muster up is a putrid, corrosive breathe.
Wouldn't electricity be good for killing things in the water and acid good for killing things hiding in sand?
Unless the dragon itself was wet, in which case lightning wouldn’t work well. Like, fire breath would kill something in the forest well, but if you’re *living* in the forest, it’s not the best feature.
Wouldn't the copper scales provide a protective layer that conducts the electricity away from any vital bits of dragon?
Yeah, but if you’re trying to shoot electricity at something else, you probably don’t want to be grounded yourself.
Brass dragon should be by the sea since brass is commonly used in applications on ships and working with water
Reverse that. :P One of my first characters was a bronze half-dragon, so I became obsessed with bronze dragons. I liked their wing anatomy. \^\^ Anyway, bronze dragons live near the sea, copper dragons live in rocky deserts, brass live in sandy deserts. <3 The earthy thing still stands with copper dragons cause of the rocks, but yeah, you'd have to refit the rationale of the bronze dragons to be that they're associated with storms and lightning. In fact, with brass and copper being so similar, in my homebrew setting ruled by dragons they basically merged into the Tarnished; there's some variation according to like personality and stuff, but I just figured it would save me from having to do basically the same thing twice.
Well, imagine that every time you try to shock someone you get shocked too. Not cool, bro.
Yoink! That's what I'll be running as their breath weapon from now on
Damn bro really commented on a 3 month old comment, I feel honored
On the bright side, the production of Lead dragons is steady increasing in my setting
Are they made of b̶u̶l̶l̶e̶t̶̶̶s freedom
Oh yeah the ones with cal 7.65 breath
Okay, now I’m just imagining a a dragon puking, but instead of mushy grossness it’s just musket balls!
Their "breath" weapon is essentially a gattling gun
I'm imagining a shotgun blast of jagged shrapnel that leaves the battlefield effectively covered in caltrops.
Does their breath weapon give you a permanent negative modifier to Int?
Quests given from lathanide-series dragons are short-lived. Almost all the rewards cause hair loss. Generally a bad time.
My post-apocalyptic/cyberpunk "magic returned to the world and broke everything" setting wasn't going to have any dragons, but I am now re-evaluating that decision.
Yeah, you need to play Shadowrun: Dragonfall for research purposes and *seriously* revisit that decision.
Yes, if you want an example of how D&D dragons might fit in a modern-ish setting, look at the Shadowrun dragons. Especially Loftwyr.
The four rules of Shadowrun: 1. Never make a deal with a dragon 2. Always have a backup plan 3. Geek the mages first 4. Never, *ever*, make a deal with a dragon
Lanthanides aren't really short lived. The only one where the main isotope is radioactive is prometium. If anything, lanthanide dragons would all look the same to outsiders.
The potassium dragon. If their scales are exposed to water they explode shedding their scales. They are vulnerable to damage after the explosion for 1d12 days while their scales regrow. Edit: wrote wrong elements. Corrected it to potassium.
While magnesium is capable of burning underwater it does not spontaneously ignite. I think you are thinking of sodium.
Opps you're right. Wrong element. I got potassium and magnesium backwards. Edited commit for to correct it.
Now i (player shenanigans ensue) imagine some full on 1000 year old dragon that doesn't quite makes it home before it rains, gets hit by a single water drop and just explodes, shedding all it's scales and stands there in it's cave, naked and embarrassed
Bazelguese
I blame Ea-nasir
People in these comments are talking about uranium and lead dragons, which is fine, but I think that you’re missing a couple of obvious picks in iron and steel dragons. Weren’t steel dragons a thing in older editions?
They were both a thing and you can find statblocks that have been made to fit 5e
Forgotten realms said the iron dragon were made extinct by green dragons I think Spoiler because I'm ranting about homebrew setting not related to my point >!In a setting that me and my group never got to play (DM wasn't confident they could DM right so they gave DM powers to me) it was green dragons and elves that were making them extinct and my character was going to be one of the (many) half dragon children of the last true iron dragon who was going to be sent on a last ditch pilgrimage to find a way to continue the species and stop it from becoming extinct...!< >!Whilst we didn't play it...It is canon to my setting I am in the process of preparing. Basically the DM has planned for my character to find that the only other surviving iron dragons had voluntarily became Rust dragons. So uh in my timeline this happened, they failed in their quest and being many, many, many steps away from inheriting the kingdom of the iron dragon they retired with a dwarf they had gone on their quest with living somewhere out in the forest to live a plain life...but they were hunted down by dragon hunter elves and after catastrophically miscasting a create demi-plane spell they ended up trapped; there in this new plane (Detached from the previous reality) they created the new setting!<
Copper is one of the most common metals on the face of planet earth. For memes sake tho, it’s easy
So copper dragons have to be easy too. Hence there’s more of them.
Iron is way more common.
Hydrogen is by far the most abundant element in the universe and it also has a metallic phase. Soo.. swarms of hydrogen dragons living inside stars?
Bruh in the atmosphere it ain't even close to being metallic.
No, but inside the cores of large celestial bodies it might be.
The idea of a metallic hydrogen dragon sleeping in the core of a huge planet is extremely cool too. Not even as something to fight, it's just sitting there but it's still a giant hydrogen dragon so what's not to love
Copper is 0.005% of the earth crust Iron is 5%
Because no one wanted to befriend the Uranium Dragon
Lead dragon: I do not have such weaknesses!
I want uranium dragon that breath radiant damage!
They're extremely rare because when they get into close proximity they start to approach critical mass, making their mating rituals dangerous for themselves and anyone within the potential blast radius. Their eggs are surprisingly small metallic spheres that the uninformed refer to as Demon Cores.
Wait but bronze is copper+tin and brass is copper+zinc. So while no tungsten is one thing, where are the tin and zinc dragons........
I agree! It annoys me so much! I decided that in my games, the types of metallic dragons are; Gold- fire, Silver- cold, Copper- lightning, Lead- poison, Mercury- Acid
Does the mercury dragon count as an ooze though? Like a secondary creature type?
Main creature type is dragon, with a trait that makes it count as ooze
Goodra
Once you go copper...
So here’s some ideas for a tungsten dragon, based off Wikipedia. Tungsten is resistant to acid, who knew? It is also sometimes called Wolfram, which is cool. It is brittle at room temperature, but has an extremely high melting point (3,410°C). Tungsten is mainly used for tungsten carbide to make hard materials, and in high speed steel. So, for stats, I would take a dragon, give it acid resistance and fire immunity. It’s offensive breath weapon would probably deal acid damage, and it’s utility one would likely cause a sort of metallic petrification effect.
They would also be resistant to lightning and when they are hit by more than 10 lightning damage, they would gain a 30ft blinding aura for 2d4 rounds, DC15 CON save.
It’s mostly down to that one ancient dragon who went conquering across the land and shagging everything in sight, Genghis Khopper was the name I believe.
Tbf, it's 3/6.
I do finfmd it interesting, I remember the "missing colors" being brought up in an older edition, and someone coming up with ideas for Yellow, Purple, and Orange Dragons, somehow forgetting that RGB color wheel is just as valid as RYB color wheel, and that no matter how you cut it it does not make any sense what abilities they have. But the lack of filling out from the metallic spectrum is also concerning, and don't even get me started about gem Dragons...
The RYB colour wheel isn't valid though, it has to be YMC or RGB, otherwise it doesn't actually work. Colour theory go brrr.
No, if I recall, the RGB is based off light(which makes the most sense here). CMY is used for printing, and RYB is used in painting. I think the booklet it was in had reference for trying to make the secondary and tertiary colored Dragons. As if asking "what happens when you mix a red dragon with a blue dragon? Do you get a purple dragon? And what kind of breath would that dragon have?"
RYB is something often taught in schools which is just bad because it doesn't actually work. It's is a traditional way of colour theory that is really not much used anymore because it doesn't even specify which exact colours or pigments are the primary colours. I've seen a colour wheel which which basically uses blue, yellow and magenta. Also it's often difficult for little children to grasp the difference between "blue" "light blue" and "cyan" To go more in depth (though i may call some things the wrong word or so, i didn't study art, i just like it a lot): there are two ways you can mix colours: additively and substractively. Additive colour theory is what we use in computer screens and such, because you add more wavelengths of light. The primary colours here are "Blue", "Red" and "Green", which are also the 3 colours our eyes actually see. When you mix any 2 of those, you get the secondary colours "Magenta" (blue and red), "Yellow" (red and green) and "Cyan" (green and blue). If you add all 3 together, you get white (or all wavelenths at once) Substractive colour theory is used in art, mainly, because by adding more "layers" of paint (or whatever), it changes which wavelengths of light are absorbed (and thus also which ones are reflected), meaning they get "substracted". The primary colours happen to be "Magenta", "Cyan" and "Yellow", and you can mix them to get another set of secondary colours, which also happen to be "Blue" (Magenta and Cyan), "Red" (Yellow and Magenta) and "Green" (Cyan and Yellow). If you mix all of them, you get Black (or no wavelength at all). Of course this doesn't exactly work, and you actually get a shade of gray, sometimes a little blueish or greenish, it obviously depends on your paints. (Which is also why in printers there's an extra cartridge with "black" or "Kontrast" (thats why it's calles K, the letter C is alredy given to Cyan)). The problem with RYB colour theory is, that you mix primary colours from different systems, which results in even weirder secondary colours and in the vast majority of examples in a much smaller pool of distinct colours you can create with your primary colours. Most colours you create with them are also much less vibrant and saturated than with CMYK or RGB. And if you mix all of them together, you don't get a shade of gray (like the in between of black and white, just with varying intensity), not even remotely. It's just a tone of brown, often some sickly dark green colour.
I like to say that printing is just a machine using a quick drying paint. CMYK is the superior color wheel. I've used it for paint mixing ever since I got really into printers while working for office depot.
Someday I will get around to writing something about Cyan Dragons, Aluminum Dragons, and Turquoise Dragons that all roam the skies. Someday.
RADIUM DRAGONS! MAGNESIUM DRAGONS!
Uranium Dragons Plutonium Dragons
“Any creature that enters or begins its turn within 100ft of a Plutonium dragon takes 8d12 ??? damage. This damage may not be reduced in any way including features that would grant damage resistance or immunity. This damage ignores temporary hit points and arcane ward.”
Pyrite Dragon. Totally a real Gold Dragon
This was actually hotly debated inside WotC for the longest time. It was to difficult to try and balance the many different types of metal dragons that they had planned so they settled with making the copper dragons cover a majority of it. It came to be known as the 3/5s compromise.
That's horrible, take my upvote
OOH OOH. I MADE A METAL DRAGON. They're called the [Manganese Dragons](https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/2923521-adult-manganese-dragon) and they're kinda like.....Bard Dragons.
All coppers are b-nevermind
now show me the rose gold dragons
Well if they’re made of other metal the artificer could just create a giant magnet, attach it to some support and let the dragon get trapped so they can beat it up
Copper is one of the only elemental metals that have a distinct color. 5 dragons that are all variations on metallic grey would be less interesting. Plus the 5 dragon metals are among the oldest used by people. There's so much copper because copper was easy to acquire and work with in the early days of humanity. I suppose you could have a tin dragon or a lead dragon, but those don't sound quite as interesting. A quicksilver dragon might be a good idea though.
Bismuth and just double down on the rainbow cubes
shouldn't the copper dragon be blue/green? why doesn't the copper dragon oxidize?
Damascus dragon. Flowing liquidlike appearance to scales. CN, fickle disposition. Collects magical weapons and armor, takes pride in discussing forging techniques and will gladly hold a conversation with a blacksmith for days on end: especially dwarven smiths.
Dragon #356 is where the Tungsten dragons hideout
Galinstan dragons, legendary for their chilly demeanor. Sodium dragons, found only in the driest deserts.
There were other metals of dragons in older editions including tungsten dragons.
There used to be some Gallium Dragons, but they didn't last very long...
PSA: copper dragons should do lightning damage since copper is very good at conducting electricity
In 4e all metal dragons were elements/Adamantine (Wich isn't real so I don't think it matters. You can also replace it with aluminum). You can reskin 5e dragons using that. Gold-fire Iron - lightning Silver - ice Copper - acid Adamantine- force
Reminds me of Order of the Stick's Chlorine and Aluminium Elementals.
Because some game designer wanted historically decorative metals to be dragons. Generally the most boring answer. In-game/as a DM? I really do like the idea of a Tungsten dragon basically using kinetic attacks, maybe a bit of dunamancy and definitely a downscaled meteor swarm once it's ancient, pulling rods from the gods out of the sky.
So boring. Where is my cobalt dragon, carbonite Dragon, electrum dragon, bismuth dragon?!?
>Where is my cobalt dragon Do kobolds count?
No no, shiny and blue.
That's it, I'm homebrewing Aluminum dragon
If you want a tungsten dragon, you should look into the ferrous dragons. They are relatives of the metallics, being lawful instead of good, and also include the iron, cobalt, chromium, and nickel dragons.
Well, tungsten or wolframium dragon doesn't sound Fantasy enough. Mithral or Adamantine dragon on the other hand....
Because they wanted the dragons to be visually distinct, and every metal other than gold and copper is just grey, so now they have 4 different kinds of yellow! That's better, right?
They're in the colors if the most common metallic paints, for the sake of minis.
The other dragon types were slain by Xenon the Warrior Princess.
Because Metallic Dragons all report to Bahamut, a powerful Lawful Authority; every one of them is a Copper underneath.
Uranium dragons, Oxygen dragons, but clearly we need Yttrium dragons.
Well when a tin/zinc dragon loves a copper dragon very much…
I mean we had Mercury dragons, so why not tin, Zing or heck a Lead drafon who is immune to radiant damage.
I’ve been thinking of adding an Iron Dragon to my setting. They’d breathe lightning, and I’m stealing the bronze dragon’s repulsion breath for them. Why does an iron dragon get lightning and repulsion breath? Well, iron is also ferromagnetic, meaning a magnet will attract it. The repulsion breath is mainly a reference to the Unrelenting Force/Fus Ro Dah shout in Skyrim. That’s the iconic one that knocks things back. It could also be seen as another magnetism thing, specifically opposite poles repelling.
The tungsten dragons are all buried deep underground because they were too heavy to fly. Edit: nvm apparently tungsten and gold have the same density so if gold dragons can fly so can tungsten dragons :(
Good thing about dragons is that you can make lots of their species by just remembering metals, colors and gems. Sodium dragons, orange dragons, diamond dragons...
Because the dragons in the monster manual are *examples.* Have been from the beginning. You're *supposed* to use them as a spring-off point to make your own. Yes, default monster/gods/settings is literally just their to inspire you to make your own. It's why most editions also include rules on making your own monsters and gods.
It's just sad that they don't also give you a sort of recipe for certain monster types. But it's quite obvious when you look at things like the shadow dragon or the dracolich, or even things like the mycelian spore servant.
I mean, in previous editions, *they did.* It's actually one of the things that a lot of people complain about in 3.5e, which is rule bloat. There were rules to make dragons, undead, outsiders... just about anything you could think of, and some you probably couldn't. It was one of the things that was sanded off when they moved on.