I've never much cared for the 10 different dragons and plus a whole bunch of others possibly convention of DnD and its continuation into pathfinder. For my campaign setting I'm going to go with the idea that there is only one race of true dragons. Each dragons appearance can vary greatly as well as varied magical abilities.
Otherwise these dragons will function as most of the true dragons presented in the Bestiary.
I'm planning to have each dragons breath weapon be dragon fire. Dragon fire will be a green flame that is both hot and corrosive and will deal half fire and acid damage. All dragons will have fire immunity and some level of resistance to acid based on age.
Has anyone else done anything similar? Or see any problems with my plan?
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The only problem I can see is that players will know, basically from their 1st encounter with dragons, or knowledge thereof, what to prepare for. The different kinds of dragons keep players guessing as to what elements they need to be resistant to. As this wouldn't be the case, Fire and Acid resistance would become a basic necessity for the players, and they would (and should) actively seek it out to the deprival of other resistances.
But, then again, this may be exactly what you're going for. I don't know.
I've never much cared for the 10 different dragons and plus a whole bunch of others possibly convention of DnD and its continuation into pathfinder. For my campaign setting I'm going to go with the idea that there is only one race of true dragons. Each dragons appearance can vary greatly as well as varied magical abilities.
Otherwise these dragons will function as most of the true dragons presented in the Bestiary.
I'm planning to have each dragons breath weapon be dragon fire. Dragon fire will be a green flame that is both hot and corrosive and will deal half fire and acid damage. All dragons will have fire immunity and some level of resistance to acid based on age.
Has anyone else done anything similar? Or see any problems with my plan?
It could work. What davor says could happen, however, so I would make dragonfire be its own thing with its own resistances (if possible).
d20 modern dragons were like this, if i remember correctly.
i feel it can work if you use dragons few and far between, and make these mothers absolutely terrifying.
i feel it can work if you use dragons few and far between, and make these mothers absolutely terrifying.
This.
My thinking is that fighting a dragon should be very unique and even if the vast majority have certain things in common each should also be highly unique. I'll likely steal some of the abilities of the various colored dragons. Plus with spell casting ability and various feats that breath weapon could change energy types still.
Even if you know that dragons share some common traits the one you should be very worried about is just how much they can destroy. I always liked the adage that if your players fight a dragon of there challenge level and it was not a TPK you did it wrong. Mind you I'm not going for that but I see dragons as masterminds and challenges of the highest order.
Has anyone else done anything similar? Or see any problems with my plan?
I have done something similar for years. In an attempt to breath a little mystery and unpredictability back into my dragons, I basically started mixing and matching their stat-blocks and energy damages/resistances (with a slight preference toward the classic fire-breather).
Sometimes I would make other tweaks, like plucking off their wings, describing all of their scales in earthtones, etc. In all cases, I stopped referring to them by colors and started referring to them in "Harry Potter Terms" like, Phylurian Finback, and Crested Crag Dragon...
The players responded so well to it, that some of the other DMs in the group have started to do the same thing - so for the last 5 years or so dragons have been interesting again.
I have done something similar for years. In an attempt to breath a little mystery and unpredictability back into my dragons, I basically started mixing and matching their stat-blocks and energy damages/resistances (with a slight preference toward the classic fire-breather).Sometimes I would make other tweaks, like plucking off their wings, describing all of their scales in earthtones, etc. In all cases, I stopped referring to them by colors and started referring to them in "Harry Potter Terms" like, Phylurian Finback, and Crested Crag Dragon...
The players responded so well to it, that some of the other DMs in the group have started to do the same thing - so for the last 5 years or so dragons have been interesting again.
This is good to hear and sounds a lot like what I'm planning as well.
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I chopped it down to five-ish dragon types, and had the few known to exist be thought to be the sole examples of their species.
One fire-breathing red, who had his own kingdom way up in a volcanic mountain range (the Hellfurnaces, in Greyhawk), with fire giants, hobgoblin slave-soldiers and kobolds. His Ashen Empire had mostly kept to itself for decades, and surrounding kingdoms more or less forgot about them, until they began their move to conquer...
One blue, who travelled on the wings of a storm that followed her around, and terrorized shipping lanes, along with a flight of urds that helped themselves to the plunder on the ships she blasted.
One black, who had delved into necromancy and shadow-magic, and had corrupted and blighted the lands where it settled, served by undead, shadow monsters and dark scaled stronger-than-normal lizardfolk.
One white, who was in an uneasy alliance with a kingdom of frost giants, who mutally regarded each other as subordinate to the other, due to the mutally assured deep hurting that would result if they ever truly attempted to 'settle' the matter of who was really in charge. Wracked with endless hunger, it would spend long days away from the kingdom, flying over the arctic seas, looking for pods of whales to devour.
One green, that nobody knew existed, because she spent all of her time in human(oid) form, as the elven queen of the Singing Woods. Instead of breathing poison (or acid), she had a sonic breath weapon, and her Sorcerer levels were instead replaced with Bardic levels. Her decadent drugged-out elven followers lived in an endless high court, playing games and intrigues for her amusement and favor, served by an enslaved race of kobolds that had more to do with keeping their society functioning than they did...
Any of these five chromatics would be the sort of encounter that ends a campaign (the fight against the Ashen Emperor, for example, I would write up as a six part adventure path), as they have their own kingdoms to back them up, and the sort of power, secular, physical and magical, that would come with their natures and their circumstances.
No metallic dragons at all, although there were elusive dragons tied to the sun, the moon and the clouds who may have been less malicious / destructive than the five 'chromatics.'
Each of the dragons had lesser creatures reminiscent of dragons as servants (the red has half-dragon fire giant 'sons' as his mightiest champions, for instance, the Singing Woods are the hunting grounds of medium to large sized reptilians with a sonic attack, etc.) and if one of the true dragons ever died, the most powerful surviving creature of their bloodline, even if it was a lowly kobold, would spend the next years or decades growing and molting and transforming to take their place. The world would always have a 'red dragon,' an elemental aspect of fire and destruction, even if the Ashen Emperor falls...
I will admit to being very cheap in this regard and basing the 'generic' or 'mud' Dragons as they were dismissively called by the 'true' Dragons on a Blue Dragon's size and physical abilities, starting off as a Small sized, 6d12 hit-diced Dragon without any elemental sub-types. I based them quite heavily upon the Dragonheart 'Dragons', as a sentient race in their own right whose magic was not expressed externally, but internally.
They had the same base speed, 40 feet per round, burrow speed of 20, Fly 120 and a swim speed of 40.
Breathed fire every 1d4 rounds in a line, but it was a natural abilities, not supernatural, and required them to feed regularly to fuel the organs that produced the chemicals.
Started off with Flight at Average, then reached Good at Young, then Perfect at Young Adult, then dropped back down to Average at Very Old.
Following the 'Internal Magic' theme, their scales were roughly maleable, allowing them to alter their colour and adopt spines, horns, sleek finishes or mirror brightness, depending upon their needs, and hold that form even while asleep, giving them a Hide Bonus equal to 10+their Intelligence Bonus. This also gave them +1 to Natural Armor Bonus per Age Category.
They had Bardic Knowledge, Uncanny Dodge (Very Young) and Improved Uncanny Dodge (Adult), and Appraise, Bluff, Diplomacy, Fly, Intimidate, Knowledge (All), Perception, Sense Motive, Steath, Survial and Swim were always Class Skills.
They didn't have Spell Resistance or Spells per se, but by drawing upon their mystical heritage, the 'Generic' Dragon could maintain contact with a target for an hour, and cast one Divine Spell of their choice at the end of the ritual (often singing in Ancient Draconic) at a caster level of their HD, with the Level of the Spell limited only by their Age Category, being as Very Young Dragons could cast Orisions or 1st level Spells, going up one spell-level for each age category.
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Breathed fire every 1d4 rounds in a line, but it was a natural abilities, not supernatural, and required them to feed regularly to fuel the organs that produced the chemicals.
For a non-supernatural breath weapon, I'd be even harsher, and limit it to a number of breaths per day. Instead of 1st editions' blanket 3 shots / day, I'd probably make it based on the dragon's Con modifier, so that an older dragon with a Con 30 could get off 10 breaths during a day before exhausting whatever reserves of energy / acid / whatever it had managed to build up.
Breathed fire every 1d4 rounds in a line, but it was a natural abilities, not supernatural, and required them to feed regularly to fuel the organs that produced the chemicals.
For a non-supernatural breath weapon, I'd be even harsher, and limit it to a number of breaths per day. Instead of 1st editions' blanket 3 shots / day, I'd probably make it based on the dragon's Con modifier, so that an older dragon with a Con 30 could get off 10 breaths during a day before exhausting whatever reserves of energy / acid / whatever it had managed to build up.
If the Generic Dragons were the only breed around, yes. In the campaign I made these guys, they were the 'Original' Dragons, tied to the land, the air and the water and were it's guardians, shepherds of the mortal races and protectors of the Fae. The Metallic Dragons were all transmuted to Asian-themed shapes and lived across the sea as living Gods for the people over there, who were attempting to invade the Original's lands after severe natural disasters had ravaged their continent, and the Metallic were the stereotypical 'Villain' Dragons whom had sold themselves to Alien Powers for their abilities and were the scourge of the regions to the North and East, which were now forming an army to kill all Dragons, not just the Chromatics.
I gave the Generic Dragons unlimited Breath Weapons to help compensate for the fact that, while much more physically orientated than their rivals, lacked defences against magical or supernatural assaults, giving them the ability to breath fire nearly constantly game them some sort of counter. YMMV, but that is a damn good point Set.