Convincing Good-Aligned Blue Dragon

[HobgoblinLiker13]

I don't know what it is, but there's something about me that really, really genuinely loves creating good aligned characters from traditionally evil races.

I don't know whether it's my political leanings (which I will not talk about cos I don't want to start an argument), my naive desire to see good in everyone, or my general love of subversion, inversion, and deconstruction of widely held societal ideas, but I just love taking a traditionally evil creature and making a good version of it.

Now, this brings me to the actual point of this post. Blue dragons are my favorite Chromatic dragon, and I wanted to share this love with my players by having them potentially run into a Benevolent blue dragon who could potentially be an invaluable ally (I'm more of an open world sandbox DM).

Now, I've got her character mostly figured out, however I still think it'd be good to ask the internet for tips on how to portray a blue dragon who is also a genuinely good person. Like what are some ways we could recontextualize her blue dragon nature with a Lawful Good alignment or have her blue dragon-ness slip through? What kind of events would even lead to a blue dragon reconsidering her life choices and deciding to become good?

I'd love to hear your suggestions.

[YuriP]

Despite having a system of alignments. PF2 is not very restricted to it even in APs.
An evil dragon could either end up with a benign alignment due to creation, divine intervention, or simply realizing that the evil path is hopeless. It's nothing that difficult to do.

If you want to know more about dragons that don't strictly follow their alignment, I recommend you to read the AP AoA, there are some interesting cases with dragons that can give you some ideas and inspirations (I won't detail so as not to spoil).

[lemeres]

Still make it completely condescending and arrogant.

Have her care deeply about the well being of those below her. But she is just looking out for the "lessers" under her charge, and she has a poor opinion of human ability and intelligence.

Of course, you can also give her a core retinue that, for generations, have carefully preened and cultivated her attitude in order to take advantage of her ability to create water.

[Kaspyr2077]

What if the dragon was badly injured and caught when still quite young. She was waiting to die, when adventurers found her. She waited to die, but instead, she ended up silently... listening, while the adventurers argued amongst themselves what the right thing to do was. Eventually, they decided to cautiously free her, even treat her wounds.

She would immediately have killed the fools when free, of course, but they stood ready to defend one another, even as they cared for her. So she quietly accepted their aid, and while waiting for her chance, she had nothing to do but examine their moral arguments between each other, observe how convenient it was to have someone take care of her when she needed it, and witness how the bonds between these people made them much more formidable and accomplished than any of them would be alone.

She went on to visit them regularly for further conversation after this, as she wrestled with the ideas. Eventually, she hired them to resolve some problem for her. Then, they began exchanging gifts. She saw them retire, raise families, grow old, and was introduced to the next generation of adventurers. She had enjoyed the previous relationships, so she had to learn to befriend these new people for further conversation. Eventually, she learned to protect and enrich herself by becoming a patron of a fairly large town, where she owns several successful businesses. Bandits never remain a problem for long, she has all the support she likes if a challenger comes along, and her horde is growing quite a bit faster than any rival she's heard of.

Maybe she's considering founding an institute for wizards, so that they will gather there, and they'll happily gather knowledge to teach her, giving her a shortcut to power that most of her kind would never dream. Yes, this "mutually beneficial cooperation" business is an approach to life is just so... useful.

[Alchemic_Genius]

I mean, I've done away with "always x alignment" in my games long ago, and only the foolish assume an alignment based on species and ancestry alone, so for me, the only thing you really need to do to make a good aligned chromatic dragon is simply making the dragon good aligned; no need to jank or overthink it.

If you want to play into the blue dragon's typical nefarious scheming, just make her an actual upstanding noble or something who aims her plots at tearing down the corrupt and unjust members of political systems within her domain. We DO have a LG empyreal lord of spies and espionage, so it's not even a stretch that a character could be like that in pf 2e and still be good aligned by the setting's sense of morality.

[Ashbourne]

I like to use any type of dragon can be any color or at least not limited to one color, so you can't just tell its alignment and breath weapon on sight.

[QuidEst]

Could be a matter of challenge. Spend enough centuries scheming, and you start to see that getting more money, causing pain, all these are just breaking a system down. Getting something to work? That's a real challenge. Could also provide some useful bounds and limitations. "If the dragon is good, why doesn't it just go solve the campaign's problem?" Because throwing copious treasure at a problem is an easy, short-sighted solution, and throwing "I'm a dragon" at a problem isn't proving anything to anybody. She has a budget for whatever the current little problem is, and getting personally involved is admitting defeat. Whatever help she provides the party comes with strings attached- the party needs to use their resulting positive reputation to help push agricultural reforms that would cut into the profits of some wealthy farms but substantially improve quality of life for the lower classes in two nations.

Another possibility (or supplemental add-on), if you want to have a very long-sighted and self-interested dragon- dragons aren't immortal and have souls. She's studied the afterlife, and determined self-interested morality can still get you into the good afterlives, so she is doing that in a way she can still enjoy her hobbies while obtaining a favorable afterlife. "I discovered that of all the thousand-thousands of dragons that have ever lived, in this world or many others, only seventeen are currently employed working in the treasure vaults of Hell. I've personally met at least half that many dragons who were confident that's what would happen to them after their deaths. Stupid, arrogant sons of salamanders think they're better than the odds."

[The Raven Black]

Evil is too easy. A true master of the art of plans and schemes obtains success laboring under the more demanding strictures of Good.

Also it is so exhilarating to best the most devious and conniving BBEGs for the cause of Good. To pull the smallest wooden pin and see their whole castle coming down. To witness their carefully guided hubris causing their downfall.

All the PCs were carefully chosen and cultivated by the dragon to become the exact persons they needed to foil the plans of Evil. A small act of kindness here, the proper encouraging words at the proper time there. All subtle moves to ensure the gathering of the heroes and the final victory of Good.

[HobgoblinLiker13]

The Raven Black wrote:

Evil is too easy. A true master of the art of plans and schemes obtains success laboring under the more demanding strictures of Good.

Also it is so exhilarating to best the most devious and conniving BBEGs for the cause of Good. To pull the smallest wooden pin and see their whole castle coming down. To witness their carefully guided hubris causing their downfall.

All the PCs were carefully chosen and cultivated by the dragon to become the exact persons they needed to foil the plans of Evil. A small act of kindness here, the proper encouraging words at the proper time there. All subtle moves to ensure the gathering of the heroes and the final victory of Good.

I love all of these replies but this one is my favorite

[Fumarole]

You may be able to take some inspiration from Age of Ashes.

Spoiler:

Kyrion is a young red dragon the party encounters around level 8 in Cult of Cinders (AP #146). Kyrion is being held captive by the big bad of the book, and is about to be sacrificed by the big bad to further their plot. While not good (Kyrion is CN), Kyrion will assist the PCs if freed, and will assist them later on in the adventure if he develops a rapport with them. Kyrion retains most of his kind's personality traits, minus the malevolence towards most living things.

[Karmagator]

In my opinion, the core of what constitutes a blue dragon's personality is not only their affinity for schemes, but also being incredibly smug about those schemes. Especially if they succeed. As long as she is given space to do that, I'd doubt that your players would mistake her for anything else :D