According to Bestiary (both Pathfinder 1e and 2e), Dragons Revisited, Kobolds of Golarion, Dragons Unleashed, and various other books, chromatic dragons commonly have ventral scales whose color differs from the rest of their body scales, whereas metallic dragons typically have a single, uniform scale color. To be explicit: for example, a red dragon's overall scales are red, but its ventral scales — meaning the entire underside from the chin through the belly to the underside of the tail (that is, the parts that would touch the ground if the dragon were crouched or lying down) — are clearly not red. Note that the legs are an exception: leg scales do not show a contrasting underside color and remain the main body color (for example, on a red dragon, the legs are fully red). Other chromatic dragons show the same kind of contrast between dorsal/lateral scales and ventral scales. White dragons, however, appear to be uniformly colored (their belly scales match their other scales). Metallic dragons are usually a single color across both dorsal and ventral surfaces, but copper dragons are a notable exception among metallics in that their ventral scales often differ in color, much like chromatic dragons.
So I would like to ask:
For each of the following dragon types — red, blue, black, green, and copper — how do you perceive the color of the belly (ventral) scales? For instance, in some artwork red dragons have yellow ventral scales, while in others they appear orange or even white. Similarly, I cannot determine whether black dragons should be depicted with white or gray ventral scales. I have checked many Pathfinder books but found no explicit mention of a dragon's ventral scale coloration. Please answer separately for each dragon (red, blue, black, green, copper).
Yeah, I know chromatic and metallic dragons don't exist in Lost Omens anymore, but since I prefer traditional dragons, I really wish to resolve this question.
1. Though bumped into the background, Chromatic & Metallic dragons do exist in Lost Omens. Mengkare for example remains a Gold Dragon and other unique ones may (re-)appear too (according to a dev), albeit dropping references to their heritage even if obvious to veterans. Generic ones though, yeah, not in any Lost Omens material, but they too exist, only unused. (Unlike Drow which were retconned out of existence as fabrications of storytellers.)
2. What would resolve this for you? Who are you asking? You're obviously more informed on this than most everyone, including freelance artists and devs. It seems your research has already provided the answer. Are you wondering if there's a secret canon answer? Ultimately such a canonical answer re: traditional dragons would lie under a different company's umbrella. They've published several dragon books, at least one with detailed drawings of their physiology (back in 3rd ed or earlier). They likely had pre-Paizo contributors to those too. And old Dragon Magazine articles went into depth on most classic monsters so I'd expect each would have had special treatment. (Heck, I remember an early article covering hybrid dragons like orange and purple.)
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But the color difference is interesting. That kind of shading mirrors how animals camouflage themselves with the difference in shading, so the lower part w/o sun is lighter so it matches better. Or underwater bellies are lighter to look like sky from below, which resembles how dragons stalk from above, though that would be from before they dominated so much. Meanwhile the Metallic ones perhaps have more mystical origins or essence-driven development. Perhaps.
Well, what I meant was, in some illustrations the red dragon's belly looks closer to yellow, in others it looks more whitish, and in others it looks more orange—and the same goes for black, blue, and green dragons. It really varies a lot. So I'm not sure if it's just my eyes playing tricks on me or if the artists actually painted them differently. What color does it look like to you guys?
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Each dragon is an individual.
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Each dragon is an individual.I wonder if dragons paint their scales, like humans color hair?
Now you make me wonder if a cunningly brutal dragon would ever pose as a dragon of another color, to use knowledge of elemental weaknesses and resistance of dragons against adventurers.
Creative Director
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Each dragon is an individual.
This is a great way to sum it up.
That said, we don't micromanage our artists to this extent. When we order art of a monster, such as a dragon, we'll include a reference illustration, which is typically the illustration from the Monster Core or Bestiary or wherever the monster was first illustrated well enough to serve as reference, and often ask the artist NOT to paint an exact duplicate of that specific creature (this is more common when sending reference for humanoid creatures, though). The belly scales of a creature, such as a dragon, are generally presented as a lighter color than the rest of the scales, in large part because that's how animals work and it looks right and it gives some depth and variety to the illustration.
The exact hue of colors is variable. Even more so in remastered dragons, but the same goes for dragons from the OGL era. Not illustrating every dragon of the same kind identically is 100% intentional.
Illusory Disguise
I didn't ask if it was possible, more if dragons would "sink so low as to disguise their true self" so to speak?
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Illusory DisguiseI didn't ask if it was possible, more if dragons would "sink so low as to disguise their true self" so to speak?
Yes. I designed such a dragon years ago. I believe it was a Blue Dragon (known for their cunning) though I've also considered Red/White for the obvious "Aha!" moment, but that ruse felt implausible at the scale of developing a reputation where PCs prep for them.
But yeah, pride could dissuade this tactic, so it'd probably only be the types that enjoy trickery that'd pursue this. I could imagine a desperate dragon attempting it or one trying to piggyback off the reputation of a missing dragon of a different type.
Now that fewer dragons have vast spell arsenals where you kinda need to pick some oddball spells so why not a ruse, I imagine it'd have to suit both their nature and circumstances to pull it off with any oomph (beyond some 1st round reveal).
I wonder if they could feign taking greater damage somehow? Then the "damage" disappears to the party's chagrin.