I'm working on an idea for an upcoming campaign that is going to be pirate-ish. One of the main NPC's is going to be a pirate captain that is some sort of dragon (in disguise most of the time). I haven't figured out exactly if this is the main BBEG of the story or if the PCs will be on the dragon's side yet (I'm leaning toward the same team).
The idea so far is that this dragon is "in charge" of all the pirates in this area and the captains all pay tribute to her to be allowed to sail the seas.
Evil Silver
'Long-jaw' Silver?
Right? All kinds of puns available, plus, silvers can shapechange without bothering with spells! :D
Turtle
Silvers aren't usualy known for their pirate-ish behavior, being generally good and pirates being generally, well, not good. A silver dragon seems a poor choice for a BBEG (since the "E" stands for "evil", but it might make for a decent BNGG (Big Nice Good Guy).
I was thinking black. They are evil, they're sneaky and deceitful (disguising as a person, a vicious powerful person, to build up its hoard is quite sneaky and deceitful). And it can breathe water, never a bad thing when you're always at sea (imagine the pirate going overboard, swimming below the water to an enemy ship, using acid to put a hole in the enemy ship, watching it sink, swimming down and looting it, then coming back up to resume pirating - it's not even fair...).
All you need to do is figure out the shapeshifting part and it's perfect.
Blacks, green, and bronze dragons have water breathing which makes them suitable for aquatic campaign.
Sea dragon would work well for a pirate. Brine or river dragon could also work for certain pirate concepts.
Have a cross-bred Black/Silver dragon perhaps? You could mix and match the various special abilities from the silver and black dragons and slap them onto whichever base-dragon chassis you prefer?
For instance, make a silver dragon that loses Cloudwalking and gains waterbreathing and swap its paralytic breath weapon for the acid breath of a black dragon.
I'd go blue, due to their conniving nature not their abilities.
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Have his name be red related, and occasionally he has shown his red majesty and burned through ships.
In reality he is a fallen silver who has betrayed his oaths. He uses illusions and other trickery to appear as red. Assassination attempts using cold damage don't go well.
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I think honestly, having a chromatic dragon that started to like being a pirate more than being evil for evil's sake to be an interesting character. still pretty damn evil, but has some of the code and conduct of the brethren of the coast.
I'd go blue, due to their conniving nature not their abilities.
Is he stranded on a warm desert island?
I'd go blue, due to their conniving nature not their abilities.Is he stranded on a warm desert island?
notice how i said "not their abilities" :P
the ocean is a desert of kinds though. I was expecting him from his description that he's always disguised, so his abilities wouldn't be needed much.
though, i do think greens would fit just as well given a fresh read.
Personally, I'm a fan of Brine Dragons for this sort of thing. Not only are they sea themed, they are just really cool.
I'd go blue, due to their conniving nature not their abilities.Is he stranded on a warm desert island?notice how i said "not their abilities" :P
the ocean is a desert of kinds though.
After nine days I let the horse run free
'Cause the desert had turned to seaThere were plants and birds and rocks and things
there was sand and hills and rings
The ocean is a desert with it's life underground
And a perfect disguise above
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I'd go with Green. Greens are conniving, sneaky backstabbers who are also very caring and friendly towards 'their' family. So it would fit for a pirate lord who was an absolute jerk, but still compelled loyalty in his (somewhat expendable) men.
Greens also get water breathing, and sufficient spell casting to hide in human form.
I'd go blue, due to their conniving nature not their abilities.Is he stranded on a warm desert island?notice how i said "not their abilities" :P
the ocean is a desert of kinds though.
After nine days I let the horse run free
'Cause the desert had turned to sea
There were plants and birds and rocks and things
there was sand and hills and rings
The ocean is a desert with it's life underground
And a perfect disguise above
actually it'd be cool if the ocean area used to be a desert, like the Mediterranean, and then it flooded up a few centuries ago and so he lost his home, but wanted to keep his territory and so eventually became a pirate.
I'm sticking with Silver. It's cool, and if you look closely, you can apply whatever alignment you want to whatever race you want...
Especially as GM.
Slap a half-black dragon +2 CR template on him. Gets pretty gross.
Also, if I"m not mistaken, silvers can cast as sorcerer but choose spells from sorcerer AND cleric list... or is that just golds?
(look at their spell lists, take a clooooose look).
Also, they can detect evil at will... makes recruiting powerful henchman that much easier! (They walk into a bar, anyone who registers as evil is either decent level, evil outsider or evil cleric/antipaladin! Or one of the other non-commoner things, you get the idea).
Yeah... I'm thinking about this concept, gonna steal it for my next game whether you use it or not.
The spell list is the least concern as it can be completed with any sorcerer (and even cleric for some dragons) spell of appropriate level
Bronze turned neutral or evil.
to be honest pirates can be almost any alignment.
to be honest pirates can be almost any alignment.
It depends wheter they are actual pirates or only in name like some One Piece crews.
to be honest pirates can be almost any alignment.It depends wheter they are actual pirates or only in name like some One Piece crews.
no, it's just you can be lawful by having a code, you can be good by only attacking trade ships of tyrants, you can be chaotic by simply attacking anything and you can be evil by slaughtering ships for the hell of it.
historically, most pirates were pirates because they hated spain, and so wanted to steal from them. they didn't steal just to steal(these specific pirates) but to cause harm to a specific nation's government.
Female Dragon Pirate Queen: Pearl Black
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First Choice Is Black- Swamps and oceans might be different but they are still a water environment. All the typical abilities really fit a pirate. I liked the example above that had them diving in the water, morphing into dragon form, breathing acid on the bottom of the boat, looting it while on the bottom of the ocean. Then transforming back as he comes up. perhaps give him a portable black hole or a bag of holding to fit all the loot in. No one would be the wiser to his true identity and would probably think he is some kind of spellcaster and leave it at that.
Next Choice is Red...Due to them be the greediest of all the chromatics. they can take the heat of the ocean and can burn ships.
3rd would be Green- These can actually be reasoned with from time to time. They are smart and cunning. Traded his forest in for a Ship.
4th would be Blue- They can handle the heat of the Ocean but typically they are desert dwellers...tho being a desert Pirate would be pretty cool with burrow.
5th would be white- Due to how feral they typically are and that they prefer solitude and the cold.
Bronze, Brine, and Sea Dragons have the best ability set for oceans, perhaps unsurprisingly.
Bronze dragons with the good dragon 'Alter Self' trick, fighting for a cause they believe in, this time as a supposedly human privateer. Seems plausible.
Black dragons have the best thematic abilities for an evil pirate dragon, though. And as for their swamp-themed abilities, tidal estuaries can have a lot of swamp-like properties while being wonderful places for pirates to hide in and operate from.
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it should be a pseudodragon with dreams of showing those big ones some day.
The character I'm envisioning is not really evil, but more likely neutral. She enjoys manipulating & tricking people to see what they do. She is not outright cruel, unless provoked. She has a cause, fighting against oppression, but it could be that she is just using this cause to manipulate people (depending on the PCs' actions). The player characters could end up being her champions or her dethroners.
I do like her having strong ties to her crew.
I like the stuff about the blue dragon having claims to his flooded desert, but not for this character.
that probably means chaotic something, or at the least non-lawful.
Anyone else reminded of The Liveship Traders trilogy?
Also, as far as alignment goes, alignment is defined by actions, not birthright, so pick whichever type of dragon you want.
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I'm with alexd1976 and JamZilla, I think the fallen Silver would make a great pirate captain. You said that he's the pirate king (or w/e you want to call him), so maybe he took on that role to curtail the worst of the pirates and weed out the really horrible behaviors. Slowly he's allowed so much bad to happen in the name of the greater good that he's on the edge of becoming a true villain. It's up to the PCs to determine if they push him over the edge or redeem him. Sounds like a game I'd love to play/run.