The ecology entry for gold dragons says they live in warm plains. So where exactly do they keep their hoards? There aren't really a lot of convenient caves around in that kind of terrain so I wonder do they build cellars or buildings to keep their hoards in? I know the classic image is of the dragon sleeping on its horde but for a gold dragon that would imply that its hoard is just sitting in an open field exposed to the elements. While that might work for coins and gems even though they'd be prone to get lost less hardy valuables such as tomes or art objects would get ruined. So that leads back to the main question. Where would a gold dragon keep these kinds of valuables?
We can't tell you.
Warm plains doesn't mean featureless. Many areas considered plains are very rolling, or have sudden drops, random cliff areas (edge of plateau, or escarpment) or extensive cave networks under them. For instance the Nullarbor Plain in Australia is a very hot and dry climate yet still a karst terrain type and full of caves.
For younger golds caves or just burying the treasure is probably the most common. Older golds are goodly beings that can work with other humanoids so can easily have their own strongholds. Heck that nice lord could actually be a gold dragon with his treasury being his horde.
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I bet they clear out a random prairie dog compound and stash their stuff there. Also, how 'bout an abandoned stone structure? That might be nice. What about deep within a box canyon? Just because they like the plains, that doesn't mean there is a lack of geographic features.
You could have a cave system wherever you would like, perhaps its not a system of caves but more a hovel dug into a hill. I've always pictured golds and reds due to their fire immunity claiming realistate in or around volcanoes but I can see how the warm plains would be attractive. Perhaps the dragon has a castle or tower in a small town and through the use of polymorph and illusion spells has created the guise of a rich family that travels, every few decades he changes the form of human he appears as and becomes the child of the one he was before. Or guises as an elf so he need not change his appearance as often. Just because he likes the plains doesn't mean he is completely out in the open 24/7. He'll have a place to call his own and simply wander those warm plains more frequently than anywhere else. He could have his own castle far out in the middle of a field 100 miles from the nearest road and a simple silent image cast over the whole place to make it look like just more empty fields
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I bet they clear out a random prairie dog compound and stash their stuff there.
I was totally going to say that. Gold dragons are good aligned, so they could in some form or another convince a town of gophers to hide their horde in a chamber deep in the ground, dropping stuff near an entrance and having the gophers keep it hidden. If the dragon wants to get something back (say, reward some adventurers for ridding it of unwanted attention from some goblins), all it would have to do is ask the gophers to get something out.
Terrain is a funny thing. We have a wide area of rolling plains a hundred miles or so from here called the "Pawnee Grasslands". While it is by and large a flat and featureless area of grasslands (thus the name) it is punctuated with sudden towering buttes and mesas which are the roosting places for thousands of hawks and eagles who feast on the rodents living in the grasslands.
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Terrain is a funny thing. We have a wide area of rolling plains a hundred miles or so from here called the "Pawnee Grasslands". While it is by and large a flat and featureless area of grasslands (thus the name) it is punctuated with sudden towering buttes and mesas which are the roosting places for thousands of hawks and eagles who feast on the rodents living in the grasslands.
Bonus points if your dragon lives in a hollowed out stone butte and makes a strange whistling noise when he flies.
Golds are the most civilized so i dont think they are beyond building or using buildings to create a home.
abandoned keeps and castles, caves dug into hills or gullies. At high enough levels they may have created an extra dimensional space that they simply pass through two trees to enter.
under their scales, that's why they are golden!
One of the golds in my campaign invested all of his hoard into creating a grand opera house in a nation's capital. He makes regular visits to the opera in human guise to nurture new talent and to see to it that certain plays are kept in the public eye. Those plays are all morality plays that advance the ethics of Lawful Good society, of course. His riches are the advancement of civilization and the spread of good throughout society!
(Other dragons think he's kind of weird, but he likes it...)
My gold dragon character wore most of his wealth in the form of custom magic items and gear to increase his effectiveness. His liquid assets he kept in a pair of handy saddlebags; spreading out their contents in the evening so as to have a place to rest his head. Being an active adventurer, he had no permanent lair.
Where do gold dragons keep their hoards?Invested in local good and lawful human and demihuman communities, earning a tidy return, and helping foster and sustain the dragons ethical and moral agenda.
I'm picturing a gold dragon with the master of the ledger and leadership feats just laying back while his fortune accumulates.
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Races of the Dragon contains a great spell that, at least, answers where they put their treasure when they need to relocate it. Hoard Gullet (Level 1 Wiz/Sor) allows a creature to use its own stomach as an extradimensional space. Dragons developed the spell so they could swallow piles of treasure and safely and easily transport it without the use of bags, slaves or just trying to desperately cling to it while soaring through the sky or diving into the sea. Later, they would regurgitate the loot upon finding a suitable new lair.
At the bottom of a deep pool/lake, covered in a persistent image (65' from the surface - no detecting magic at the bottom!)
Perhaps he owns a bag of holding?
Gold Dragons keep their treasure in Hermea.
Perhaps he owns a bag of holding?Indeed, and the dragon swallows them so that it leaves nothing behind. When it passes them, it cleans them off (with prestidigitation) and repeats. If drug mules can pull it off, so too can gold dragons!
Till his stomach acid eats through the bag and he explodes like a Saudi Prince's Pinata.
so you compare a wealthy, powerful, good being with a drug mule ...
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I'm picturing a gold dragon with the master of the ledger and leadership feats just laying back while his fortune accumulates.Where do gold dragons keep their hoards?Invested in local good and lawful human and demihuman communities, earning a tidy return, and helping foster and sustain the dragons ethical and moral agenda.
I was picturing him posing as an extremely wealthy noble with far reaching business interests.
No need to kidnap the princess either, he's courting her as a proper gentleman.
WOTC published a book called Draconomicon way back in the 3.0 days. If you can find it, you should definetly get it. If nothing else than because it has some of the best artwork I've ever seen in a gaming book, a rich, velvety, almost oil painting feel to the pictures. It also has really, almost ridiculously, extensive info on dragons of all types and ages.
In the book it showed a gold dragon lair that was actually next to river, in fact the entrance to the cave was underwater. Then it rose up under a slight hill nearby. The book also said that Gold dragons, as they mature, shift focus from gathering wealth to obtaining knowledge. So a goldies hoard might consist of a vast library of rare books (like a WHOLE lot) scrolls, magical knowledge stuff, artifacts, and the like.
I feel that the plains thing is a generalization, nothing more. I live in the great plains of USA and we have the occasional river, or even decent size hill, or canyon. But hey you are the GM, you can put his hoard on the astral plane if you want!
Hope this helps...
WOTC published a book called Draconomicon way back in the 3.0 days. If you can find it, you should definetly get it. If nothing else than because it has some of the best artwork I've ever seen in a gaming book, a rich, velvety, almost oil painting feel to the pictures. It also has really, almost ridiculously, extensive info on dragons of all types and ages.
In the book it showed a gold dragon lair that was actually next to river, in fact the entrance to the cave was underwater. Then it rose up under a slight hill nearby. The book also said that Gold dragons, as they mature, shift focus from gathering wealth to obtaining knowledge. So a goldies hoard might consist of a vast library of rare books (like a WHOLE lot) scrolls, magical knowledge stuff, artifacts, and the like.
I feel that the plains thing is a generalization, nothing more. I live in the great plains of USA and we have the occasional river, or even decent size hill, or canyon. But hey you are the GM, you can put his hoard on the astral plane if you want!
Hope this helps...
Draconomicon was the prettiest most useless book I have ever purchased, I am so glad I only payed 5$ for that useless bit of tinder.
Draconomicon was the prettiest most useless book I have ever purchased, I am so glad I only payed 5$ for that useless bit of tinder.WOTC published a book called Draconomicon way back in the 3.0 days. If you can find it, you should definetly get it. If nothing else than because it has some of the best artwork I've ever seen in a gaming book, a rich, velvety, almost oil painting feel to the pictures. It also has really, almost ridiculously, extensive info on dragons of all types and ages.
In the book it showed a gold dragon lair that was actually next to river, in fact the entrance to the cave was underwater. Then it rose up under a slight hill nearby. The book also said that Gold dragons, as they mature, shift focus from gathering wealth to obtaining knowledge. So a goldies hoard might consist of a vast library of rare books (like a WHOLE lot) scrolls, magical knowledge stuff, artifacts, and the like.
I feel that the plains thing is a generalization, nothing more. I live in the great plains of USA and we have the occasional river, or even decent size hill, or canyon. But hey you are the GM, you can put his hoard on the astral plane if you want!
Hope this helps...
They just leave it right there, out in the open and sit on it taunting everyone who passes by with it.
I met a gold dragon once, by accident. I was looking for a red dragon in a volcano and past a metal door was his hoard that he kept. I didn't like that dragon, he gave me a dirty look...
They just leave it right there, out in the open and sit on it taunting everyone who passes by with it.
Because most would be unlikely to touch it knowing who owns it? I like it.
Pfft. I went their first.
Indeed you did. I will admit when I have been beaten.
Offshore numbered accounts.
Hmmm. I think I'm going to have bluff with a cave & underground storage room contructed into it. The top of the bluff is where the dragon likes to sun itself and survey the land. The PCs might discover this unatended cave and storage room full of treasure and decide to help themselves to some. Wonder how the dragon would react to coming back home after a nice day of flying only to discover a bunch of miscreants pilfering its valuables.
Hmmm. I think I'm going to have bluff with a cave & underground storage room contructed into it. The top of the bluff is where the dragon likes to sun itself and survey the land. The PCs might discover this unatended cave and storage room full of treasure and decide to help themselves to some. Wonder how the dragon would react to coming back home after a nice day of flying only to discover a bunch of miscreants pilfering its valuables.
Gold Dragon: "You have precisely two minutes to return my belongings to where I had them. All of them. Ignore this request at your own peril, thieves."
Party: "Gulp. We were only admiring the craftsmanship, o great golden wyrm. Whispering, put it back; put it all back."
Gold Dragon: "Thank you. You are still guilty of the crime of breaking and entering and then plundering my lair; how did you bypass my wards? But perhaps we work that sin of yours out in trade. Or would you prefer I teleport the lot of you to the nearest city and file a formal complaint?"
Master Arminas
Hmmm. I think I'm going to have bluff with a cave & underground storage room contructed into it. The top of the bluff is where the dragon likes to sun itself and survey the land. The PCs might discover this unatended cave and storage room full of treasure and decide to help themselves to some. Wonder how the dragon would react to coming back home after a nice day of flying only to discover a bunch of miscreants pilfering its valuables.Gold Dragon: "You have precisely two minutes to return my belongings to where I had them. All of them. Ignore this request at your own peril, thieves."
Party: "Gulp. We were only admiring the craftsmanship, o great golden wyrm. Whispering, put it back; put it all back."
Gold Dragon: "Thank you. You are still guilty of the crime of breaking and entering and then plundering my lair; how did you bypass my wards? But perhaps we work that sin of yours out in trade. Or would you prefer I teleport the lot of you to the nearest city and file a formal complaint?"
Master Arminas
Hmmm... I just noticed that gold dragons can polymorph at will. I wonder if, when confronting the PCs, the dragon would appear in a humanoid form just to "test" the PCs' reaction, so to speak...
Draconomicon was the prettiest most useless book I have ever purchased, I am so glad I only payed 5$ for that useless bit of tinder.WOTC published a book called Draconomicon way back in the 3.0 days. If you can find it, you should definetly get it. If nothing else than because it has some of the best artwork I've ever seen in a gaming book, a rich, velvety, almost oil painting feel to the pictures. It also has really, almost ridiculously, extensive info on dragons of all types and ages.
In the book it showed a gold dragon lair that was actually next to river, in fact the entrance to the cave was underwater. Then it rose up under a slight hill nearby. The book also said that Gold dragons, as they mature, shift focus from gathering wealth to obtaining knowledge. So a goldies hoard might consist of a vast library of rare books (like a WHOLE lot) scrolls, magical knowledge stuff, artifacts, and the like.
I feel that the plains thing is a generalization, nothing more. I live in the great plains of USA and we have the occasional river, or even decent size hill, or canyon. But hey you are the GM, you can put his hoard on the astral plane if you want!
Hope this helps...
The Draconomicon was lacking in certain areas... It didn't have a lot of new spells or prestige classes or feats. It didn't add a lot of game rules or even locales. It did what it said though, it talked about dragons, how they might think, what might by good tactics for them to use in combat so on and so forth..