On Dragons

"My armor is like tenfold shields, my teeth are swords, my claws spears, the shock of my tail a thunderbolt, my wings a hurricane, and my breath death!"
   -Smaug, J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

Suddenly, Alias sensed the deadly quiet. The stream spattered on, but the dragon's reagular breathing and the crows' occasional caws had stopped. The halfling's eyes widened, transfixed by something behind and above Alias. Something horrible cleared its throat with a cough like a bag of lead coins dropped off a tower.

With a sigh of resignation, Alias turned around slowly.

"Looking for something in particular?" asked the dragon. "Or are we just browsing?"
   -Kate Novak and Jeff Grubb, Azure Bonds

The name of the game is Dungeons and Dragons. Since the last two columns focused on dungeons, I thought it fitting that this column tackled dragons, those fearsome beasts lurking on the other side of the ampersand.

Dragons have been icons of fantasy ever since the dawn of literature. They come from many different cultures and times. St. George had his, and Beowulf met his heroic end fighting one. Modern fantasy has featured hundreds of different takes on dragons and their nature, from Smaug in "The Hobbit" to Anne McCaffrey's thread-flaming beasts. There is something about them that resonates deep in the subconscious.

When Gary Gygax created D&D, dragons were thus a natural for the title role. That and the fact that they are alliterative with "Dungeon", of course. Other alliterative choices just don't sound as good. "Dungeons and Driders" or "Dungeons and Duergar" just doesn't cut it, and "Dungeons and Demons" would have just created endless public relations problems. The name didn't have to be alliterative, I suppose, but alliteration quickly became a tradition, with "Tunnels and Trolls" "Bunnies and Burrows", and others. Alliterative or not, though, dragons are the exemplars of fantasy, and deserved top billing.

Dragons generate a fear and respect among players that few other monsters are accorded. Liches, beholders, mind flayers, and a handful of other monsters have this aura, but dragons have, I think, the greatest mystique. In the early days of the game, though, there was one problem: they really weren't all that tough. The dragons of the 1st Edition were respectable opponents, but not terrifying ones. Groups in the Elcea campaign fought them fairly frequently, and the dragons seldom accounted for many casualties. There was one exception, back in the MSU days, when a red dragon annihilated the first two ranks of fighters, six characters in all, with one breath, but the group was caught flat-footed and everyone failed their saving throws. And the dragon died anyway. This exceptions aside, the players got to where they looked forward to fighting dragons, because they always had such good treasure.

This situation wasn't unique to the Elcea campaign. This is why, while most monsters were left unchanged in the transition from 1st to 2nd edition, dragons were upgraded dramatically. The new dragons were bigger, better, and tougher in every way. They quickly reasserted themselves, becoming once again opponents worthy of respect and fear. Groups began avoiding them, rather than seeking them out. The table below shows why. It contrasts an ancient 1st edition red dragon with its 2nd edition counterpart:

The upgraded version is obviously far more dangerous. And this is, I think, as it should be. Dragons should not be hunted for their treasure. They should be the hunters, inspiring awe and fear in the PCs. This is their proper role in the game. Anyone who wins a fight against a dragon should feel a real sense of pride and accomplishment.

The best example of such a battle in the modern era of the campaign is the Bloodhawk's battle against the red dragon Pyromaulius Rendus. Pyromaulius was an adult dragon (level 5 on a scale of 1 to 12), which actually made him roughly equivalent to an ancient 1st edition red dragon. The group suffered 5 casualties, but the dragon was defeated and driven off, though not killed. The Bloodhawks held the field and gained the dragon's considerable treasure, but Pyromaulius is still out there - and dragons never, ever forget.

It was an epic battle, and there is no question that the group earned their victory. Interestingly, their retreat from Rampart Caves was covered by another dragon, the bronze dragon Coptinarius Calamides. This brings up one of the really interesting things about dragons: they can be any alignment, and they come in a wide variety of sizes. A baby dragon is an interesting challenge for a very low-level group. In Mark Cook's Barr al-Fadi campaign last year, in fact, our very low-level group had to capture a baby white dragon. The task was accomplished, but not easily. Pyromaulius, not quite mid-sized, was a good challenge for the much higher-level Bloodhawks. A really big dragon could challenge anyone.

Dragons not only come in a wide variety of sizes, they come in a wide variety of hues. In addition to the classic dragons (white, black, green, blue, red, copper, brass, bronze, silver, and gold) there are gem dragons, oriental dragons, and others. Variety, as they say, is the spice of death. From a hard-working GMs point of view, this means that there is a dragon for almost every role. They can be protagonists, antagonists, or NPCs whose role can go either way, depending on the actions of the player characters.

That I used the term "NPC" instead of "monster" is actually kind of interesting. Up until about a few years ago, I would have classified them as monsters without thinking about it. More recently, though, aided by some articles I have read, I have come to view dragons as NPCs. This means that, rather than being a collection of statistics with large teeth, they have individual characters and histories. Since the advent of 2nd edition dragons, especially, this makes sense. They are highly intelligent, they have speech, they have a wide variety of magical powers, and they live a long, long time. This not only makes them a lot more fun to play from my point of view, but it helps give them the status and mystique with the players that dragons deserve.

This allows dragons to fulfill long-running roles in the campaign, and even to help shape things behind the scenes. Dragons, given their power and lifespan, are no longer always content to sleep in their caves and count their treasure. Many of them seek power and influence, and can work though minions and intermediaries in addition to taking direct action themselves. Though the Bloodhawks are unaware of it, one of their previous adventures matched them against a dragon, an antagonist who never revealed herself, and one who (queue the sinister background music) may even now be plotting further mischief.

One thing that I have a lot of fun with is Dragon names. As dragons have evolved in my campaign, I have settled on sort of a standardized naming scheme for them. Their names have two parts, each as polysyllabic as possible. Dragons, you see, like their names to be as grand as they are, especially since one thing that almost all dragons have in common, whatever their color or alignment, is a towering ego. Thus we have Coptinarius Calamides, the copper dragon, and Pyromaulius Rendus, the red dragon. The "Rendus" is a little short, but makes up for it with punch and ferocity. The Bloodhawks also recently met (and escaped from) another red dragon, named Naphtatar Combustomal. I have to resist the impulse to throw dragons willy-nilly into the campaign just so I can name them.

While dragons have a growing and evolving role in the Elcea campaign, though, I still limit their appearances in everyday campaigning. One reason is that I don't want to dim their awe factor by overusing them. The other reason is that they are simply too dangerous to be used carelessly. They're out there, though. Waiting.

They are not out there in quite the same way in my two main campaign settings, though. The "dragon situation" is not the same in Xenthus as it is in the Notar Republic. Xenthus is surrounded by wilderness, and a lot of different terrain types. To the north is an arctic environment (white dragons), to the west is forest (green dragons), to the southwest are swamps and mountains (black dragons, red dragons), and to the south is desert (blue dragons). There is a small but real chance of a dragon attack anywhere a group goes, and all the major kinds of evil (and good) dragons are represented.

In the Notar Republic it's a little different. Only to the north and east is there wilderness, and that's all mountain terrain, at least initially. On the other hand, across the Greybones to the east is Tallanmoor, a human kingdom destroyed by dragons only about 100 years ago. Lots of dragons, and most of them are still out there. The dreaded Wyrmvale, from which most of them emerged, is really not all that far from the Republic, and that area features a concentration of dragons the like of which is not found within a thousand miles of Xenthus. Most of these, because of the mountainous terrain, are red dragons, but green dragons and maybe the occasional black dragon are possible, as well as other, rarer types.

Red dragons are, of course, the strongest of all evil dragons. They are also the classic dragons of faerie tale and legend, breathing fire, kidnapping princesses, and that sort of thing. I tend to favor them for that reason, and, of course, for their power and abilities. Their main weakness, from a GMs point of view, is that spells such as protection from fire are low-level and commonly carried. White dragons face the same sort of problem with regards to defensive spells. Blue dragons are nearly as strong as red dragons, and magic that defends against lightning is harder to come by. Black dragons, with their acid breath, are even harder to defend against. Green dragons are really nasty; there is little defense against their breath, and you get poison on top of it all. Some of the more esoteric kinds of dragons have really bizarre breath weapons, which makes using them rather tempting for me. I don't think that most of my players would know offhand what kind of breath weapon a crystal dragon, a yellow dragon, or a t'ien lung dragon might have. And surprises are so much fun, don't you think?

On the good dragon side, while silver and gold dragons get most of the press, the bronze, brass, and copper dragons are the ones that always seem to turn up in my campaign. The Bloodhawks group has a friend and ally in Coptinarius Calamides, the copper dragon, while the Heroes of Telemarch were acquainted with Bracon (note the old style short name), the brass dragon. I don't know why I've avoided using gold and silver dragons. Maybe it's because having them masquerade as human has become a gaming cliché, or maybe because they're just too noble. At least with copper dragons there is a chance they might eat you, if their greed gets the better of them.

Whatever their color or hue, though, there are dragons out there, winging majestically in the skies high over Elcea. No longer merely dangerous opponents or useful friends, they are assuming more and more of a role in the power politics of the campaign. And they make superb politicians, have no doubt. After all, they are ruthless, intelligent, and have almost limitless wealth, which puts them one up on most current American politicians.

While dragons may be assuming a more important and sophisticated role in the campaign, that doesn't mean that adventuring groups should expect to find them under every rock. They remain very rare as random encounters, and their planned appearances will be carefully considered. They are still the icons of fantasy, after all, and should remain relatively remote. Right up until the moment that one appears, devastates a group with its breath weapon, and then leaps among them, an armored behemoth with wings and teeth.

Have fun!

Do you have any comments, questions, or responses to this article? Send them in! I'd like to hear them, and if there are enough interesting ones I'll add them to this page.

Ideas and contributions to future editions of "Mere Chronicles" are also being accepted.

Check out previous columns:

On Death and Dying

On Treasure

On Monsters

On Chronicling

On NPCs

On Combat

On Roots

On Dungeons, Part 1

On Dungeons, Part 2

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