Reviewing D&D Monsters - 5E Monster Manual, Dragons to Driders
Written on: 10月 07, 2019
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Title : Reviewing D&D Monsters - 5E Monster Manual, Dragons to Driders
link : Reviewing D&D Monsters - 5E Monster Manual, Dragons to Driders
Technically this should be "Displacer Beasts to X", but you gotta start off with Dragons, y'know? It's like half of the franchise's name. I shuffled around the order of the monsters as they appeared in the Monster Manual because I wanted to lump all the dragons together. I had originally set this up as "Dragons to Flumps"... but it turns out I underestimated how much there is to talk about dragons!
Click here for the previous part, covering Demons and Devils.
Click here for the next part, covering Dryads to Flumphs.
Click here for the index.
Anyway... dragons! There are a lot of "draconic" creatures in D&D. Dragonborn, drakes, wyverns, dragon-spawn, pseudo-drgaons, dragonnes, dracotaurs, fairie dragons, dragon turtles, land-wyrms (linnorms?), dracoliches, dracolisks, shadow dragons, gem dragons, planar dragons, catastrophe dragons, gem dragons, one-thirds-of-a-chimera... and those are the ones I can think up of spontaneously. Not to mention the ones that you just put a template on, like zombie/vampire/skeletal dragons! But the creatures filtered under 'dragon' in the Monster Manuals are the True Dragons, where every other one of these draconic creatures are derived from. True dragons are basically giant sentient lizards with immense power, based on traditional European dragons. They have breath weapons, they're intelligent, they're huge, they have a very extensive lifespan (near-immortal in some settings), they can fly, and they can breathe underwater, older ones have a predisposition to tap into magic, and each dragon have a specific 'breath weapon'.
The lore of dragons is vast, and the various Draconomicons over the years really love to expand on the lore of the two main families of dragons, the Chromatic Dragons and the Metallic Dragons. Basically, chromatic dragons (red, blue, black, green and white) are almost always evil. They're the greedy, spiteful giant lizards who live in caves and dungeons, hoard stolen treasure, and go around burning down villages and whatnot, the Smaugs and Deathwings and Alduins of your setting. Metallic dragons (brass, gold, silver, bronze and copper) are more predisposed towards good, tending to either behave as some sort of super-powerful ally for an adventuring party, a quest-giver or, if met as villains, will tend to use negotiations, parley or political maneuvering before resorting to the whole burn-and-rampage way. In most D&D settings, the Chromatic Dragons are spawned off of the five-headed dragon goddess Tiamat, while the Metallic Dragons revere the platinum dragon god Bahamut. That tends to be the most that Monster Manuals give about dragons, with most of the dragons' specific backstory tending to tie into the specific setting of your campaign, like Eberron or Faerun or whichever D&D setting you prefer.
In the 5E Monster Manual, each dragon variant has four different stat blocks: Wyrmling, Young, Adult and Ancient. Every single dragon subtype has this, and it's basically there to allow the GM to pick a level-appropriate dragon to throw at your party, as each successive dragon age group gets progressively stronger and scarier. It does raise some uncomfortable questions as this means that dragons are the only sentient monsters in D&D that you can willingly fight and murder the newly-hatched babies of, and, no, "they're already sentient when they pop out of the egg" isn't a good justification.
Chromatic Dragon: Black Dragon
We're going with full alphabetic order, and unless mentioned, I'm going to be featuring artwork from 5E, 4E and 1E. And... I debated putting the 1E artworks in, because even in 1E art standards, they look pretty dang goofy. But I've done so for all other monsters that have 1E artworks, so... eh? I really do like the 4E artworks in general, which shows the dragons lurking and prowling around their actual preferred habitats, which makes for such a more dynamic art-piece than the cool-but-ultimately-static 5E artwork. All the dragon designs tend to follow the same standard European dragon body, anyway. Four-legged giant dinosaurian reptile, fangs, mouth, sometimes you throw in some head-spikes and spine-ridges and modify those. For D&D's credit, though, all the artworks for each sub-type of dragon tended to remain relatively consistent as far as details go. Sure, the weirdly straight horns in 1E has been swapped out for a more demonic pair of ram horns, but the spirit is still preserved.
Anyway, the black dragons are noted to be the most cruel of the five chromatic dragons, being massive dicks that love plundering the treasures of fallen empires and sitting privately in their own home and mocking how weak and unworthy these fallen empires are. Sometimes, they go around causing these empires to fall themselves. They're nasty and are the exact type of assholes who will go for the weakest members of the party, or to 'toy' with their wounded prey to make the torment last a bit longer. Since 3E the black dragons have even been noted to also be called "Skull Dragons" because as black dragons age, the flesh around their head deteriorates (just to be extra evil), leaving behind a pretty skully head. The 4E artwork really do emphasize this amazingly! And, well, just to hammer home the sinister, evil theme even further, the black dragons also have a snake/serpent theme going on. They live in swamps, their breath weapon is poisonous acid, they have a snakey forked tongue, and their tail have a slight scorpion-stinger-like growth.
Each of the dragons have a unique locale they prefer to nest in, and the 5E Monster Manual gives details on the preferred habitat of each dragon type, as well as the changes that befoul the land around them when a sufficiently powerful dragon decides to nest there, and we have list of minions that are often employed by the chromatic kin. Oh, and the adult and ancient members of the dragons tend to have a special trick or two. That's a lot of lists and I'm not going to go through all of these for all ten dragons, but to take the black dragon as an example, the land around the swamps or ruins they inhabit in end up being covered with think brambles, the water sources are fouled, and sufficiently powerful black dragons can even manipulate the acidic pools of water around them. Overall, the black dragon's honestly a bit basic, just a typical asshole 'final boss' of a dungeon.
Chromatic Dragon: Blue Dragon
Blue dragons now! We're hopefully going to go faster as we've covered a lot of the basics with that first entry, and a lot of the generalizations between the chromatic dragons do apply across all five of the primary specimens. The chromatic dragons all have different enough operating methods that they're classified as different sorts of evil, and the blues are lawful evil. Visually, I do like the very prideful-looking poses that the 4E and 5E artwork gives the blue dragons, from the way that head is just dismissively looking down at everything below them, to the way the wings are spread wide, in contrast to the black or white dragons skulking around. Again, their head remains consistent from edition-to-edition. One horn on the nose, and a lot of spikes jutting out from the side... which used to be weird elf-ears in 1E and 2E. And while I do like my sillier creatures, this is definitely a detail I'm happy to see they do away with. Blue dragons hang out in deserts, coasts and wastelands, plundering any roaming caravans that are foolish enough to enter their territory. They breathe lightning. In contrast to the black dragons, blue dragons will kidnap and basically force talented people to serve it.
And out of the chromatic dragonkin, I feel like the blues and greens get the most interesting flavour to them. They canonically eat cacti if they're bored! The Monster Manual goes into detail about how blue dragons can apparently "turn combat into an extended affair of hours or even days", happily swooping in and out of reach to prolong a combat into a matter of days instead of hours, which honestly sounds like a pretty interesting sequence of events as the dragon just merrily flies around and causes the party to slowly get exhausted. In addition, blue dragons sometimes employ some ambush tactics, burrowing its massive airplane-sized body under the sand before bursting out like that giant worm from Dune, which is just hilarious! They are also apparently are big enough dicks to put less valuable gemstones over sinkholes to trap any would-be looters. And if the looters make it all the way into the caverns... the blue dragon just collapses the whole cave to suffocate them underground, presumably with the dragon equivalent of a shit-eating grin on its face. From all of the Monster Manual's descriptions of the basic dragons, I honestly do think that the blue dragon might be me favourite chromatic one. It just has so much bizarre random details that give the creature such a neat amount of personality!
Chromatic Dragon: Green Dragon
Green dragons are characterized as the most treacherous and cunning of the chromatic kin... and somehow is classified as 'lawful' evil? Okay? Basically, the green dragons live to manipulate, trick and misdirect. Even in gathering of treasures, one of the things it desires is information and manpower as 'living treasures'... although being a chromatic dragon, it's as likely to kill off its 'treasured' bard for the slightest insult or simply out of boredom. Be it other dragons or the lesser races that live near its forest habitats, green dragons are adept at switching strategies from intimidation to flattery or temptation as required. And... well, as an actual character and not as a pile of stats to toss at your players, that's far, far more interesting than the black, white or red dragons. Hilariously, the Monster Manual notes that when manipulating other creatures, the green dragons are honey-tongued and sophisticated, but when among its own kin, they'll be "loud, crass and rude". So basically like most young adults out there! Imagine these giant green dragons congregating and basically saying loud, crass and rude things like "hey, fuckheads, you won't believe the little shitbag elves that tried to raid my lair last week, god damn!"
Ultimately, that's all I have to say about green dragons. Those are certainly great artworks, but honestly, the green dragon looks pretty dang basic with only a single spine ridge running down its back. Hell, it even has to share its breath with the black dragon, breathing out poisonous gas (explicitly chlorine in earlier versions). Perhaps the most interesting thing about green dragons outside of their personality is the fact that apparently instead of generic "the land is fouled!" terrain changes, the green dragon's presence warps the forest into a literal maze; birds and rodents become the dragon's eyes-and-ears; and, pretty Warcraft-y is the fact that the green dragon can expel an insanity-inducing fog across the forest that reflects the green dragons' minions' nightmares. Okay!
Chromatic Dragon: Red Dragon
Here are the red boys, the most iconic among the chromatic kin. And... the reds basically embody every one of the negative stereotype in the first writeup of 'chromatic dragons'. They're evil, vain, destructive, easy to offend, mighty, and generally super-angry egomaniacs that perch atop mountains where they lord over everything else they view beneath them. Unlike the White's instinct, the Black's cruelty, the Green's manipulation and the Blue's cunning, the Red dragons are the physically mightiest among the dragons, being a straight-up force of nature. Hell, they even compete with their fellow red dragons for territory! And... that's about it, really. It does make the red dragons feel kinda boring, but so much of its entry is just repeating what the first part of the 'chromatic dragons' segment of the Monster Manual has established. Practically the only thing unique to reds is their fire-breath (because of course, they're the ur-dragon) and the fact that they're apparently able to "judge the worth of a bauble to within a copper piece at a glance", and probably suffer from some insane control freak tendencies since it memorizes the value and exact location of every single item in its massive hoard. They're basically the Smaug equivalent, really. I don't find the Reds as interesting as the other three we've covered on this page, but sometimes you just need a simple, super-powerful force of evil as an antagonist. And that's okay.
Chromatic Dragon: White Dragon
And here we have the last of the chromatic dragns, the white dragons... and I do particularly like the 4th edition artwork that gives it a somewhat beak-like face. The white dragons are basically established to be the most bestial and animalistic of all the chromatic dragons, lurking in icy regions and basically living their entire lives as lone wolves. The Monster Manual notes that the Whites are a lot more animalistic so it's less likely to do anything more complex than "unleash blizzards upon these mortals, repeat until they're dead", but on the other hand, it's nigh-impossible to try and trick the dragon with baubles and pretend servitude. They're still smart, they're just quiet and really don't give two shits about other people, like the ultimate introvert. It's at least an attempt to make the whites distinct, and, again, I do understand that as antagonists, the five primary chromatic dragons needed to have their evil-ness sort of emphasized. White dragons end up being kinda boring, though, with perhaps the only real interesting thing from its writeup being a description of the rivalry they have against frost giants, and the fact that weaker white dragons might actually be beaten in trials of combat and accept submission willingly.
So... to recap, we've got the cruel sadistic black dragons, the cunning desert-hermit blue dragons, the socialite manipulator green dragons, the wrathful force-of-nature red dragons, and the bestial white dragons. A pretty all-right set of villains, honestly. I do understand why they didn't want to drop too much random dragon lore in the basic Monster Manual, to keep the basic fantasy of a fantasy dragon intact. Again, there's a lot of custom settings and additional stuff published by WOTC that add a lot more to these dragons. Hell, even in 3E, we get the revelation that there are even more types of chromatics, like the brown or purple dragon.
Onwards to the metallic!
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METALLIC DRAGONS
Metallic Dragons now! Instead of colourful lizard scales, they have metallic lizard scales! They're the good guys, but as I mentioned above, depending on your GM's creativity, they can very well serve as antagonists in any D&D setting. Not just in a 'evil party' campaign either, but as a force that's convinced that how they're doing things is the right way in direct opposition to your heroes. I'm not going to get too wordy about the couple of times I've seen one of these used as an antagonist. Maybe we'll save that for later on down the line if/when I ever talk about something that's more along the lines of 'how to creatively use this monster in your campaign".
A lot of the features that the chromatic dragons have are shared by their metallic kin, honestly. Even the chromatics' greed for treasure is changed into them wanting to attain treasure without harming others, or to claim powerful magical artifacts that the little mortals can't be trusted with. The main difference is their alignment, and in combat, the metallic dragons tend to have two breath weapons to choose from, and the adult and ancient metallic dragons have the ability to shapeshift and polymorph into humanoid forms to walk among us lesser folk. Presumably, the chromatic dragons are too proud to do so, but I've seen a lot of suggestions in both official and homebrew stuff about how chromatic dragons should by rights also have self-polymorph abilities. Also, like the chromatics, metallic dragons also warp the area around their lair, although their reality-warping is less ominous "the water are fouled, the land are blighted, earthquakes and volcanoes erupt" and more about illusions or hints that something's not quite natural in this location, meant to hide the dragon's lair more than to actually murder-kill everyone who comes by.
They revere the Platinum Dragon Bahamut (named after an alternate spelling for the Hebrew Behemoth, but shares very little with the mythological figure), and the Monster Manual goes into even less detail about Bahamut than it does into Tiamat. They're basically dragon gods, all right? We do get a couple of justification on why Bahamut doesn't intervene directly into the affairs of mortals. And it's something that sort of extends to Bahamut's children as well, who tend to play more of the roles of investigators and guides until they decide that, yeah, this is the sort of crisis that mortals cannot handle without the intervention of a 10-ton firebreathing metallic flying lizard. Not all dragons do this, though, and some are content to just hang out in their lairs and mind their own business. The Monster Manual gives a neat potential encounter, noting that some metallic dragons have been slumbering in their lair as extreme hihikomoris for so long that they might not even know what happened in the outside world for the past couple thousand of years.
Another fun encounter example is the little detail that most metallics are able to sniff out bloodlines, which is problematic when you're an upstanding adventurer... whose great-great-grandmother was a wicked sorcerer who did battle with the dragon centuries ago. Whoops, misunderstandings!
And let's go on with the specific subtypes!
Metallic Dragon: Brass Dragon
I do like that the metallic dragons tend to look somewhat different, with the modern-day depictions of the brass, copper and gold dragons having this pretty neat looking wings that act more like a weird tapering kite, with the leathery wings going down from the tip of their wings all the way to the tip of the tails. In 1E, this was originally portrayed as Dimetrodon-esque sails. It's a pretty awesome visual, even if it does lose some of its novelty once you realize more than half of the metallics use the same body time. Like the chromatics, the artwork for the metallics try to keep a consistent set of head-horns and the like, but honestly, I've always sort of found that all the metallic dragon heads (other than gold) look pretty samey.
Brass dragons in particular are sandstorm-manipulating desert-dwellers, and in addition to regular fire-breath, they can breathe sleeping gas. Okay, that's going to be unexpected for sure. They're nice to mortals, and, shit, are probably the most likable of the bunch for me personally. Despite living in remote deserts, they are very sociable, they 'crave conversation' and will gladly trade information for treasure. Apparently, these giant metallic dragons will straight-up slowly follow any intelligent creature that leaves its presence without engaging in conversation, like the most hilariously passive-aggressive cartoon character ever. Hell, they have a passive perception ability to know that ah-ha, someone who is intelligent to share stories has arrived! Sometimes it buries mortals in sand up to their neck until they satisfy him with small talk! Honestly, this depiction of brass dragons more as the kooky weird neighbour who is really over-friendly and intent on making a whole lot of small talk is pretty damn charming. Y'know, D&D dragons are probably one of the few exceptions where the good-aligned guys are actually significantly far more interesting and creative than the bad guys. Depending on how serious you want your brass dragon character to be, they could either be a very interesting information broker, or just the giant lizard equivalent of that strange harmless old lady that hangs out in the park and gets a bit too friendly with everyone. God, the brass dragons are hilarious. I love them.
Metallic Dragon: Bronze Dragon
Where the brass dragons are more kooky-but-ultimately-good, the bronze dragons are a lot more just straight-up lawful good. And... yeah, it's pretty necessary for there to be some that truly embody the protector-of-the-weaker-folk that the introductory 'metallic dragons' page hyped up, yeah? Bronze dragons are inquisitive and will try and observe the mortals that live in their territory, and are noted to have a bad habit of landing on ships and sort of aggressively-barter for a treasure on board the ship. Like, it won't actually lose its temper, but being a freaking dragon, that display tends to sometimes come off as attempted extortion. Other than that, though, they like warfare, and will eagerly join armies that have a just-and-right cause. Which means that in a gray-and-gray morality world, it's a matter of whichever side has a more persuasive argument for the bronze dragon. Sort of like your typical adventurer! They're sort of quasi-noble mercenaries with a bit of a compulsion to collect objects. Okay! They live in coasts, decorate their lairs with sunken ships, and they have access to lightning breath and what's essentially Skyrim's Fus Ro Dah. Not the most interesting metallic dragon, but like the red and white examples above, we do kind of need a couple that just exemplify what metallics are supposed to be all about.
Metallic Dragon: Copper Dragon
And here we go with the copper dragon. They kind of look mundane, but thank goodness the copper dragons have the personality to compensate for its somewhat repetitive design at this point, because they're fucking clowns. No, even better, they're fucking bards. They're joke-tellers, riddle-makers and pranksters, appreciating any sort of story, riddle or joke, and they literally view good stories and laughter as the real treasure, often converting part of their lair to accommodate a good bard friend. Just... y'know, try not to be unimpressed with its stories. It's still a good dragon, but it's still pretty rude, y'know? This even translates to its combat abilities. A copper dragon's breath weapons are an acid blast, as well as a muscle-cramping nerve gas of those it hits. Like, those are basically the Joker's weapons, yeah? Acid flower and nerve laughing gas? I bet if the copper dragon could manage to fit in a third weapon, it'd be a joy-buzzer. And even its lair is tied into the theme of a prankster, with fake lairs and fake walls, and the ability to set off quicksand traps. A copper dragon can even cause random magic carvings of the dragon's smiling face on random objects near its lair, or to make random small critters suddenly be able to talk, or to just straight up cause people to uncontrollably go into fits of giggling. Shit, that's hilarious! Honestly when you take a look at that majestic 5E art, you really don't realize that this dragon sub-type's species-wide personality is essentially "haha, pranked 'ya!"
Like, shit, it's pretty fun! I still think I overall like the brass dragons a bit more, but I do have such a huge fondness for these copper wackos.
Metallic Dragon: Silver Dragon
We'll go with silver first before going to gold, because I'm saving that 'boss' for the last. I really do like the 4th edition artwork, which actually makes the silver dragon look a lot more unique with different-coloured hair-like head-finds, and a far more sleek and slender body. And while the 5E art is sure good, it ultimately feels a lot too similar with basically every other dragon on this page. The silver dragon is... cheerful, social and the most willing to help out mortal races as opposed to the more detached curiousity and interest that its other kin has. This does make the silver dragon the most likely dragon to actually give PC parties a quest for the greater good of humanity, or to actively swoop in and save you when you bit off more than you could chew. The 5E Monster Manual characterizes them as less concerned about the wider ramifications of war (like the bronze would be) but rather acts more like the protector-of-the-little-people. They're good peeps! Their breath weapons are cold breaths and paralyzing gas, which I guess are the two most non-lethal options. Kinda boring, honestly, but the silver dragon does feel like a race that is built to take advantage of a good GM crafting a character of an ancient entity who really wants to help out shorter-lived races but sometimes either gets carried away with emotions or with the fact that it is an near-immortal creature dealing with far mortals.
Metallic Dragon: Gold Dragon
And here's the boss of the metallic dragons, the Gold Dragon, the most powerful, majestic and regal of the metallic dragons... and look at how bizarrely they decided to change it. The original concept of the gold dragons in 1E and 2E was straight-up a less-cluttered version of the serpentine oriental dragon, right up to the beard and deer-like horns. And considering that it's in Asian myths that these dragons tended to be portrayed as guardians of mankind as opposed to the more antagonistic nature they often have in Western mythology, it would've been a pretty nice homage to have one of the five dragons to look like the oriental serpentine dragons, yeah? And, shit, it'd at least make the metallic dragons have some visual difference to them. But instead, from 3E onwards, the gold dragons just share the same sort of body layout as the other metallic dragons, just with a bunch of tentacle-beards tacked on. That ends up turning what could've been a pretty unique-looking creature into just one of a set, which honestly is pretty disappointing.
And it's kind of a shame, since personality-wise, gold dragons are just kinda there. They're good, they like treasure, they're wise and fair, but particularly grim and aloof, sort of not really wanting to fraternize or interfere if it's not absolutely need. They're distant is all, and just like how the reds are all of the chromatics' defining traits ramped up, the gold dragon also has a lot of the metallics' defining traits ramped up. Which, again, is something that I understand is necessary for the 'boss' metallic dragon, but at the same time it also makes reading through his entry feel like I'm re-reading the introduction-to-metallic-dragons, and I really kinda wished they had given the gold dragon more of its own identity.
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And that's it for the main chromatic and metallic dragons! I still want to talk a fair bit, and click after the break to go through a bunch of errant dragons -- the undead dracolich and the plane-warped shadow dragons -- as well as a bunch of monsters up to the elementals. This is by no means the only types of chromatic and metallic dragons, by the way. Particularly in 3E and 4E, we've got four additional versions of each types of dragons that hasn't shown up in 5th edition yet at the time of writing, but in a 3.5E campaign I've been through, a mercury dragon was a major recurring ally, while a purple dragon was the surprise final boss for a segment through the Underdark. Again, if/when we're done with 5th Edition's Monster Manuals, I might actually go and break open my old 3.5E sourcebooks and cover some of these. For now, though... other monsters!
Dracolich
What happens when you combine two of the most fearsome monsters in D&D? The dragon and the lich? After all, liches are human sorcerers who turn themselves into immensely powerful undead sorcerers. What happens, then, if instead of a silly two-legged fleshbag mortal, it's an ancient, magic-empowered dragon that goes through the ritual? Dragons are long-lived but not immortal, and some dragons will go through a similar dark ritual to become undead dracoliches. It's noted that this is particularly heretical for dragons, because a dracolich will sever all ties to their kin and even their gods. Visually, a dracolich is basically the bones of a dragon reanimated with dark energy, with the flesh all sloughing off and the wings becoming tattered versions of themselves. Depending on your D&D version of choice, they may have spooky glowing energy within their skulls. It's your choice on whether the hollowed-out skull or the glowing-with-eldritch-energy is spookier. And the dracoliches are basically far worse than how they were when they are alive, being as fiendish and egotistical as before... but will tend to keep its existence a secret and act from the shadows, using minions to do its dirty work. Also, since 'lich' is a template, the dragon keeps almost all of its powers and stats that it had when it was a living creature.
Like liches, a dracolich has an equivalent of a lich's phylactery, a powerful gemstone that essentially contains the dragon's soul and serves as the 'core' of the dracolich's being. If the physical bones are destroyed, the dragon's soul can use the phylactery to regenerate, although it'll need to be in contact with another dragon corpse to take over, which is such a random deatil and I love it. It's also explicitly noted that only adult and ancient dragons can actually become a dracolich, and silly younger specimens or not-true-dragons will just flat-out die if they attempt the ritual. Overall, what's not to love? It combines two of my favourite monsters in the game, after all!
Shadow Dragon
Meanwhile, Shadow Dragons are another direction that dragons can transform into. Like dracoliches, they used to be true dragons, but they are transformed by the energies of the Shadowfell (a parallel dimension of shadow; basically what Stranger Things' Upside Down is based on) into... well, a dragon made out of shadow. Sometimes this is done willingly by curious dragons, sometimes they are just born in the Shadowfell when their eggs are taken there, sometimes they just fell asleep and get sucked into a portal that opened in their lair. Regardless, the shadow dragons get mutated by the energies and end up becoming living shadows, weakened by sunlight and being more powerful in the dark. The transformation is permanent, but depending on the individual dragon, they'll either attempt to abduct other creatures to keep it company in the Shadowfell, or brave the original material plane and use their newfound power to gain treasure and power. Like the dracolich, the shadow dragon basically retains whatever powers it has when it's alive, but gets additional properties like the ability to meld into living shadow and all that jazz. A pretty neat little variant, and that 5E artwork is sure cool, but it's a creature I've never really been all that taken by.
Dragon Turtle
Despite just looking like a particularly gigantic and monstrous creature, the dragon turtles are actually considered draconic creatures instead of beasts, so instead of just a giant turtle, it's more like a dragon which has evolved to have mot of it body look like a sea turtle. Or something. I've spent the longest time just dismissing them as basically the fantasy equivalent of the real-life prehistoric giant sea turtle Archelon that it didn't sink in until I saw the 5th edition artwork that showed a dragon turtle underneath a massive ship just how big these things are meant to be. The original 1E artwork is significantly more sea-serpent-like, barely showing the turtle shell, but basically everything from 2E onwards just depicts a particularly nasty giant turtle monster with some draconic qualities here and there. The Dragon Turtles are actually sentient and are true neutral, and they almost live exclusively in the ocean as opposed to the amphibious, but more land-based dragons. Dragon Turtles basically collect treasures by sinking ships and then sifting through the ruins for coins and jewels, making it sort of like a kleptomaniac kraken. While mostly destructive, it's smart enough to be bribed, and will allow ships to pass through its territory if they will offer a tribute of treasure willingly... all very dragon-esque qualities. Overall, while not quite as impressive as their true dragon cousins, I definitely now have a newfound respect for the dragon turtles, which I've always thought of as just some giant turtle beast. Dragon Turtles, too, are actually from mythology -- an obscure mythical creature from Chinese legend. That's neat!
Dinosaurs
Dinosaurs have their own stat block, because if there's anything we've learned from Jurassic Park it's that these awesome prehistoric creatures are pretty damn badass and definitely deserves a place in the pantheon of D&D monsters. And I'm not sure -- for the longest time, despite being included in the original 1E manual, it's like the game designers were super-duper iffy about showing these creatures and calling them "dinosaurs". Like, 3.5E called them Thunderers, 4E called them Behemoths, and I'm genuinely confused on why dinosaurs of all things are treated as this weird no-touch segment, when the D&D world is filled with creatures from all sorts of origins, from myths to a D&D brainstorming session to just taking a random bug and making it giant. But actual giant reptiles who lived in real-life prehistory has some sort of weird stigma attached to it, for some reason. Whatever the case, though, this does mean that dinosaurs are fair game for things like polymorph spells or general druidic fun! Sure, you could tame (or transform into) a wolf or a bear, but why do so when you can tame a god-damn Allosaurus? Or transform into a Plesiosaurus to really wreck some shit up? Why ride a boring old horse when you can breed and make a cavalry full of Triceratops riders? The 5E edition gives statlines for a couple of the more interesting ones (although certainly not all of them). Two massive carnivorous theropods in the Allosaurus and Tyrannosaurus, two huge lumbering tanky herbivores in Ankylosaurus and Triceratops, an aquatic titan in Plesiosaurus and an airborne one in Pteranodon. Subsequent supplementary material would definitely go through the gauntlet of other common dinosaurs we see in popular culture.
And because dinosaurs have such a variety of forms, we go through only six specific ones in the Monster Manual, although honestly, there's nothing stopping you from taking your favourite dinosaur (or their relatives, since pteranodons and plesiosaurs aren't technically dinosaurs). I really don't have a whole ton to say here, other than the fact that I really love dinosaurs and I love that you can fight and loot them in D&D.
Displacer Beast
Oh man, I love this thing. It's a six-legged panther with two massive barbed squid-tentacles acting as whips that grow out of its shoulder blades! And it constantly receives some quality artwork in modern D&D! Another one of the D&D-original creatures, the Displacer Beast is another one of my favourites. It just looks so goddamn cool, and while it might be kind of an obvious 'mainstream' choice, it's still popular for a good reason. The Displacer Beast is able to weaponize the phenomenon of refraction, able to displace light so it appears to be several feet away from where it actually is, and unless you're familiar with the creature, you'd be hacking at thin air while this ravenous kitty just rips you apart with its barbed tentacles. The different editions flip back and forth on whether these fey-originated beasts are actually straight-up maliciously lawful evil, or if they're just neutral-leaning predators. The 5E version gave them an origin story where they were bred as hunting beasts by a group of fey, but they end up using their malevolent intelligence to escape their masters, but are eventually driven out of the Feywild into the material plane.
Displacer beasts will apparently enter the service of intelligent evil creatures as pets or guards, but most of the time they're pack animals that like to hunt for sport. Without getting into too many details, my GM loved Displacer Beasts and made liberal usage of domesticated ones as basically the setting's equivalent to doberman dogs. They're definitely a creature that look particularly awesome thanks to their appearance, and just take a look at that utterly fucked-up gangly skin-and-bones 3rd edition displacer beast!
Doppelganger
Doppelgangers are a bit of an interesting ghostly being in more modern myths, where you meet a possibly-ghostly 'evil twin' that is an omen of bad luck. In D&D, doppelgangers are basically just shapeshifters that can take the form of other humanoids, Mystique-style, and they're pretty damn mysterious. I absolutely love 3E and 5E's versions that are just these mouthless, gangly beings in their base state, with a face that's almost inspired by Grey aliens. Comparing it to the weird gremlin creature from 1E, the generic demon man of 2E or the pale elves of 4E, I am a big fan of the portrayal of the base form of these shapeshifters as being something that looks humanoid but also is so different that it just looks wrong. Be paranoid if your GM's setting involves doppelgangers! They're not always-evil malicious like many D&D creatures, but the description of their race does admittedly not that they lure "victims" to their doom, and they apparently work to amass riches in huge cons. They will take on the guise of individuals (particularly rich nobles and merchants), and perhaps their biggest weakness is that they can't steal any of their victim's memories other than surface emotions, so they have to stalk their 'mark' and slowly learn everything there is to know about them. Some doppelgangers even keep the originals stashed in a basement somewhere to continually draw the bits and pieces of surface memory to make their impersonation go well. It's... it's actually pretty neat. Apparently the way they reproduce involves trickery and seduction, assuming attractive male forms, impregnating women, buggering off like a deadbeat parent, and the resulting child will discover its true nature at adolescence and be driven by a need to join its kin. Honestly, uncovering a Doppelganger infiltration process might actually be a pretty great campaign hook!
Drider
Speaking of iconic enemies, the Drow and their monstrous cousins, the Driders, are another one of D&D's iconic enemies. The drows are evil elves that we'll cover in the next part, but a specific sub-set of the drows are the Driders. See, the drows worship this evil demon-goddess Lolth, who also happens to be a spider demon. When a drow warrior devoted to Lolth shows particular promise, Lolth will summon the drow and test its faith and strength, and those that are fail but survive end up transformed into Driders, which are essentially these massive spider-centaurs. And if you find spiders creepy, the sight of a giant one with a torso of a person growing out of where its head should be is definitely extra-creepy. It's simultaneously cool and also unsettling. They're not the most dangerous enemies one-on-one, but they have a whole ton of abilities that make me respect them a fair bit. Spider-web abilities, greater senses than the drow, the ability to retain whatever ability they had when they were still drow... Honestly, other than the whole monstrosity thing, it's definitely an advantage in combat terms.
Anyway, after being transformed into Driders by Lolth, they are twisted and driven by insanity, and tend to disappear through the tunnels of the Underdark and basically just live as nomadic hunters, sometimes with giant spiders as their buddies. While there certainly are exceptions in some modules, most Drow shun the Driders, holding them in lower esteem than slaves, but don't harm them since they are still touched by their goddess. They'll cooperate on rare occasions, although the drow shun the driders and the driders will always suspect the drow of trying to betray them. (4E is different in that the Driders are described there to be a blessing as opposed to be a curse, since they are one step closer to being like their goddess) They're pretty cool looking, pretty awesome to fight, and adds a lot of unique flavour to the twisted culture of the Drow. Definitely a classic design for D&D, and it's just so much cooler changing the general concept of a centaur from a boring old horse to a far more sinister-looking and cooler-looking arachnid, yeah?
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A quick list of the creatures that are covered in the 5E Monster Manual here. I'm actually surprised how low the CR for the dinosaurs are, but I suppose in fantasy-land they're just particularly big, non-magical lizards. For the dracolich and shadow dragon, they are templates that you could put onto any other dragon stat block, and the Monster Manual gives us examples.
We can also see that there's a distinct power level among the dragons too, with the chromatics going from Red > Blue > Green > Black > White, while the chromatics go from gold > silver > bronze > copper > brass.
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Title : Reviewing D&D Monsters - 5E Monster Manual, Dragons to Driders
link : Reviewing D&D Monsters - 5E Monster Manual, Dragons to Driders
Reviewing D&D Monsters - 5E Monster Manual, Dragons to Driders
Technically this should be "Displacer Beasts to X", but you gotta start off with Dragons, y'know? It's like half of the franchise's name. I shuffled around the order of the monsters as they appeared in the Monster Manual because I wanted to lump all the dragons together. I had originally set this up as "Dragons to Flumps"... but it turns out I underestimated how much there is to talk about dragons!Click here for the previous part, covering Demons and Devils.
Click here for the next part, covering Dryads to Flumphs.
Click here for the index.
Anyway... dragons! There are a lot of "draconic" creatures in D&D. Dragonborn, drakes, wyverns, dragon-spawn, pseudo-drgaons, dragonnes, dracotaurs, fairie dragons, dragon turtles, land-wyrms (linnorms?), dracoliches, dracolisks, shadow dragons, gem dragons, planar dragons, catastrophe dragons, gem dragons, one-thirds-of-a-chimera... and those are the ones I can think up of spontaneously. Not to mention the ones that you just put a template on, like zombie/vampire/skeletal dragons! But the creatures filtered under 'dragon' in the Monster Manuals are the True Dragons, where every other one of these draconic creatures are derived from. True dragons are basically giant sentient lizards with immense power, based on traditional European dragons. They have breath weapons, they're intelligent, they're huge, they have a very extensive lifespan (near-immortal in some settings), they can fly, and they can breathe underwater, older ones have a predisposition to tap into magic, and each dragon have a specific 'breath weapon'.
The lore of dragons is vast, and the various Draconomicons over the years really love to expand on the lore of the two main families of dragons, the Chromatic Dragons and the Metallic Dragons. Basically, chromatic dragons (red, blue, black, green and white) are almost always evil. They're the greedy, spiteful giant lizards who live in caves and dungeons, hoard stolen treasure, and go around burning down villages and whatnot, the Smaugs and Deathwings and Alduins of your setting. Metallic dragons (brass, gold, silver, bronze and copper) are more predisposed towards good, tending to either behave as some sort of super-powerful ally for an adventuring party, a quest-giver or, if met as villains, will tend to use negotiations, parley or political maneuvering before resorting to the whole burn-and-rampage way. In most D&D settings, the Chromatic Dragons are spawned off of the five-headed dragon goddess Tiamat, while the Metallic Dragons revere the platinum dragon god Bahamut. That tends to be the most that Monster Manuals give about dragons, with most of the dragons' specific backstory tending to tie into the specific setting of your campaign, like Eberron or Faerun or whichever D&D setting you prefer.And just like most sentient races in the D&D setting like your humans and orcs, the DM has the complete freedom to portray dragons as a simple, one-time enemy that shows up in a cave or some ruins or something as a powerful boss to make your players feel like badasses when they slay the mighty beast; or even as accessories for other antagonists -- like the dragons that serve as mounts to the Githyanki; or to make these dragons be like the god-kings of the setting, either being the ultimate forces of good that stave off evil (think the good-aligned dragonflights in World of Warcraft), or to be said ultimate evil (think the dragons from Skyrim).
In the 5E Monster Manual, each dragon variant has four different stat blocks: Wyrmling, Young, Adult and Ancient. Every single dragon subtype has this, and it's basically there to allow the GM to pick a level-appropriate dragon to throw at your party, as each successive dragon age group gets progressively stronger and scarier. It does raise some uncomfortable questions as this means that dragons are the only sentient monsters in D&D that you can willingly fight and murder the newly-hatched babies of, and, no, "they're already sentient when they pop out of the egg" isn't a good justification.CHROMATIC DRAGONS
We're going with the Chromatic Dragons first, and... they're evil fuckers! They look colourful and all, but they're huge, massive lizard-shaped balls of greed, cunning and power. Their behaviour draws more from the Tolkien roots of 1E D&D, with all the chromatic dragons having a predisposition towards making lairs where they pile up all the treasure they've collected and guard their hoard jealously, and as a dragon grows older, they tend to basically lurk in their homes to guard their homes and come out only to feed or to add more treasures to their pile. And having a huge base means that they have minions. Usually this means kobolds or lesser dragon-kin, but chromatic dragons are egomaniacal enough that they'll accept (or even force) whatever nearby race around them to serve them and protect their base. After all, ultimately, the chromatic dragons have the mentality that everything in the world belongs to them, from treasure to the right to rule, so yeah. It's an interesting role-play hook for adventures, too -- just how willing and how ethically acceptable it is to slay the poor bugbears or ogres that are cowed and bullied into submitting under the dragons?
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| Tiamat |
And there's good ol' five-face herself, Tiamat, the Dragon Queen. A pretty simple depiction of the queen of chromatic dragonkind, she's got a head of each chromatic dragon, and apparently hangs out in Avernus, the first layer of the devils' nine hells. Like the archdevils and demon lords, we'll actually meet her in some of the supplementary material, with the Monster Manual just sort of showing her as a little teaser that all of these ancient dragons still revere this ultimate chromatic dragon as a god.
While most of the descriptions in the Monster Manual do describe the dragons as always-chaotic egomaniacal beasts that really end up pigeonholing them into the roles of self-centered tyrants, there are many, many ways that a creative GM can do to make them into a more interesting antagonist. The most common one, of course, is that the adult dragon you slew at the swamp early in your adventure turns out to actually be a member of a mighty dragon coven, or even an organized nation of dragons. Maybe you encounter a conclave of dragons that somehow got past their greed and are working together for the collective good of chromatic dragonkind. Maybe there's politics going on, with a continent divided up in territories, each controlled by an ancient wyrm of a certain colour. Hell, those metallic dragons can polymorph into humanoids and live among humans, there's nothing to say that your GM couldn't give the chromatic dragons the polymorph ability, and maybe you meet a dragon that's far more cunning and manipulative.
Anyway, let's move into the five primary chromatic dragons -- we'll talk about the chromatic dragon race as a whole as we move on with this.
Chromatic Dragon: Black Dragon
We're going with full alphabetic order, and unless mentioned, I'm going to be featuring artwork from 5E, 4E and 1E. And... I debated putting the 1E artworks in, because even in 1E art standards, they look pretty dang goofy. But I've done so for all other monsters that have 1E artworks, so... eh? I really do like the 4E artworks in general, which shows the dragons lurking and prowling around their actual preferred habitats, which makes for such a more dynamic art-piece than the cool-but-ultimately-static 5E artwork. All the dragon designs tend to follow the same standard European dragon body, anyway. Four-legged giant dinosaurian reptile, fangs, mouth, sometimes you throw in some head-spikes and spine-ridges and modify those. For D&D's credit, though, all the artworks for each sub-type of dragon tended to remain relatively consistent as far as details go. Sure, the weirdly straight horns in 1E has been swapped out for a more demonic pair of ram horns, but the spirit is still preserved.
Anyway, the black dragons are noted to be the most cruel of the five chromatic dragons, being massive dicks that love plundering the treasures of fallen empires and sitting privately in their own home and mocking how weak and unworthy these fallen empires are. Sometimes, they go around causing these empires to fall themselves. They're nasty and are the exact type of assholes who will go for the weakest members of the party, or to 'toy' with their wounded prey to make the torment last a bit longer. Since 3E the black dragons have even been noted to also be called "Skull Dragons" because as black dragons age, the flesh around their head deteriorates (just to be extra evil), leaving behind a pretty skully head. The 4E artwork really do emphasize this amazingly! And, well, just to hammer home the sinister, evil theme even further, the black dragons also have a snake/serpent theme going on. They live in swamps, their breath weapon is poisonous acid, they have a snakey forked tongue, and their tail have a slight scorpion-stinger-like growth.Each of the dragons have a unique locale they prefer to nest in, and the 5E Monster Manual gives details on the preferred habitat of each dragon type, as well as the changes that befoul the land around them when a sufficiently powerful dragon decides to nest there, and we have list of minions that are often employed by the chromatic kin. Oh, and the adult and ancient members of the dragons tend to have a special trick or two. That's a lot of lists and I'm not going to go through all of these for all ten dragons, but to take the black dragon as an example, the land around the swamps or ruins they inhabit in end up being covered with think brambles, the water sources are fouled, and sufficiently powerful black dragons can even manipulate the acidic pools of water around them. Overall, the black dragon's honestly a bit basic, just a typical asshole 'final boss' of a dungeon.
Chromatic Dragon: Blue Dragon
Blue dragons now! We're hopefully going to go faster as we've covered a lot of the basics with that first entry, and a lot of the generalizations between the chromatic dragons do apply across all five of the primary specimens. The chromatic dragons all have different enough operating methods that they're classified as different sorts of evil, and the blues are lawful evil. Visually, I do like the very prideful-looking poses that the 4E and 5E artwork gives the blue dragons, from the way that head is just dismissively looking down at everything below them, to the way the wings are spread wide, in contrast to the black or white dragons skulking around. Again, their head remains consistent from edition-to-edition. One horn on the nose, and a lot of spikes jutting out from the side... which used to be weird elf-ears in 1E and 2E. And while I do like my sillier creatures, this is definitely a detail I'm happy to see they do away with. Blue dragons hang out in deserts, coasts and wastelands, plundering any roaming caravans that are foolish enough to enter their territory. They breathe lightning. In contrast to the black dragons, blue dragons will kidnap and basically force talented people to serve it.And out of the chromatic dragonkin, I feel like the blues and greens get the most interesting flavour to them. They canonically eat cacti if they're bored! The Monster Manual goes into detail about how blue dragons can apparently "turn combat into an extended affair of hours or even days", happily swooping in and out of reach to prolong a combat into a matter of days instead of hours, which honestly sounds like a pretty interesting sequence of events as the dragon just merrily flies around and causes the party to slowly get exhausted. In addition, blue dragons sometimes employ some ambush tactics, burrowing its massive airplane-sized body under the sand before bursting out like that giant worm from Dune, which is just hilarious! They are also apparently are big enough dicks to put less valuable gemstones over sinkholes to trap any would-be looters. And if the looters make it all the way into the caverns... the blue dragon just collapses the whole cave to suffocate them underground, presumably with the dragon equivalent of a shit-eating grin on its face. From all of the Monster Manual's descriptions of the basic dragons, I honestly do think that the blue dragon might be me favourite chromatic one. It just has so much bizarre random details that give the creature such a neat amount of personality!
Chromatic Dragon: Green Dragon
Green dragons are characterized as the most treacherous and cunning of the chromatic kin... and somehow is classified as 'lawful' evil? Okay? Basically, the green dragons live to manipulate, trick and misdirect. Even in gathering of treasures, one of the things it desires is information and manpower as 'living treasures'... although being a chromatic dragon, it's as likely to kill off its 'treasured' bard for the slightest insult or simply out of boredom. Be it other dragons or the lesser races that live near its forest habitats, green dragons are adept at switching strategies from intimidation to flattery or temptation as required. And... well, as an actual character and not as a pile of stats to toss at your players, that's far, far more interesting than the black, white or red dragons. Hilariously, the Monster Manual notes that when manipulating other creatures, the green dragons are honey-tongued and sophisticated, but when among its own kin, they'll be "loud, crass and rude". So basically like most young adults out there! Imagine these giant green dragons congregating and basically saying loud, crass and rude things like "hey, fuckheads, you won't believe the little shitbag elves that tried to raid my lair last week, god damn!"Ultimately, that's all I have to say about green dragons. Those are certainly great artworks, but honestly, the green dragon looks pretty dang basic with only a single spine ridge running down its back. Hell, it even has to share its breath with the black dragon, breathing out poisonous gas (explicitly chlorine in earlier versions). Perhaps the most interesting thing about green dragons outside of their personality is the fact that apparently instead of generic "the land is fouled!" terrain changes, the green dragon's presence warps the forest into a literal maze; birds and rodents become the dragon's eyes-and-ears; and, pretty Warcraft-y is the fact that the green dragon can expel an insanity-inducing fog across the forest that reflects the green dragons' minions' nightmares. Okay!
Chromatic Dragon: Red Dragon
Here are the red boys, the most iconic among the chromatic kin. And... the reds basically embody every one of the negative stereotype in the first writeup of 'chromatic dragons'. They're evil, vain, destructive, easy to offend, mighty, and generally super-angry egomaniacs that perch atop mountains where they lord over everything else they view beneath them. Unlike the White's instinct, the Black's cruelty, the Green's manipulation and the Blue's cunning, the Red dragons are the physically mightiest among the dragons, being a straight-up force of nature. Hell, they even compete with their fellow red dragons for territory! And... that's about it, really. It does make the red dragons feel kinda boring, but so much of its entry is just repeating what the first part of the 'chromatic dragons' segment of the Monster Manual has established. Practically the only thing unique to reds is their fire-breath (because of course, they're the ur-dragon) and the fact that they're apparently able to "judge the worth of a bauble to within a copper piece at a glance", and probably suffer from some insane control freak tendencies since it memorizes the value and exact location of every single item in its massive hoard. They're basically the Smaug equivalent, really. I don't find the Reds as interesting as the other three we've covered on this page, but sometimes you just need a simple, super-powerful force of evil as an antagonist. And that's okay.Chromatic Dragon: White Dragon
And here we have the last of the chromatic dragns, the white dragons... and I do particularly like the 4th edition artwork that gives it a somewhat beak-like face. The white dragons are basically established to be the most bestial and animalistic of all the chromatic dragons, lurking in icy regions and basically living their entire lives as lone wolves. The Monster Manual notes that the Whites are a lot more animalistic so it's less likely to do anything more complex than "unleash blizzards upon these mortals, repeat until they're dead", but on the other hand, it's nigh-impossible to try and trick the dragon with baubles and pretend servitude. They're still smart, they're just quiet and really don't give two shits about other people, like the ultimate introvert. It's at least an attempt to make the whites distinct, and, again, I do understand that as antagonists, the five primary chromatic dragons needed to have their evil-ness sort of emphasized. White dragons end up being kinda boring, though, with perhaps the only real interesting thing from its writeup being a description of the rivalry they have against frost giants, and the fact that weaker white dragons might actually be beaten in trials of combat and accept submission willingly.So... to recap, we've got the cruel sadistic black dragons, the cunning desert-hermit blue dragons, the socialite manipulator green dragons, the wrathful force-of-nature red dragons, and the bestial white dragons. A pretty all-right set of villains, honestly. I do understand why they didn't want to drop too much random dragon lore in the basic Monster Manual, to keep the basic fantasy of a fantasy dragon intact. Again, there's a lot of custom settings and additional stuff published by WOTC that add a lot more to these dragons. Hell, even in 3E, we get the revelation that there are even more types of chromatics, like the brown or purple dragon.
Onwards to the metallic!
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METALLIC DRAGONS
Metallic Dragons now! Instead of colourful lizard scales, they have metallic lizard scales! They're the good guys, but as I mentioned above, depending on your GM's creativity, they can very well serve as antagonists in any D&D setting. Not just in a 'evil party' campaign either, but as a force that's convinced that how they're doing things is the right way in direct opposition to your heroes. I'm not going to get too wordy about the couple of times I've seen one of these used as an antagonist. Maybe we'll save that for later on down the line if/when I ever talk about something that's more along the lines of 'how to creatively use this monster in your campaign".A lot of the features that the chromatic dragons have are shared by their metallic kin, honestly. Even the chromatics' greed for treasure is changed into them wanting to attain treasure without harming others, or to claim powerful magical artifacts that the little mortals can't be trusted with. The main difference is their alignment, and in combat, the metallic dragons tend to have two breath weapons to choose from, and the adult and ancient metallic dragons have the ability to shapeshift and polymorph into humanoid forms to walk among us lesser folk. Presumably, the chromatic dragons are too proud to do so, but I've seen a lot of suggestions in both official and homebrew stuff about how chromatic dragons should by rights also have self-polymorph abilities. Also, like the chromatics, metallic dragons also warp the area around their lair, although their reality-warping is less ominous "the water are fouled, the land are blighted, earthquakes and volcanoes erupt" and more about illusions or hints that something's not quite natural in this location, meant to hide the dragon's lair more than to actually murder-kill everyone who comes by.
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| Bahamut |
Another fun encounter example is the little detail that most metallics are able to sniff out bloodlines, which is problematic when you're an upstanding adventurer... whose great-great-grandmother was a wicked sorcerer who did battle with the dragon centuries ago. Whoops, misunderstandings!
And let's go on with the specific subtypes!
Metallic Dragon: Brass Dragon
I do like that the metallic dragons tend to look somewhat different, with the modern-day depictions of the brass, copper and gold dragons having this pretty neat looking wings that act more like a weird tapering kite, with the leathery wings going down from the tip of their wings all the way to the tip of the tails. In 1E, this was originally portrayed as Dimetrodon-esque sails. It's a pretty awesome visual, even if it does lose some of its novelty once you realize more than half of the metallics use the same body time. Like the chromatics, the artwork for the metallics try to keep a consistent set of head-horns and the like, but honestly, I've always sort of found that all the metallic dragon heads (other than gold) look pretty samey.
Brass dragons in particular are sandstorm-manipulating desert-dwellers, and in addition to regular fire-breath, they can breathe sleeping gas. Okay, that's going to be unexpected for sure. They're nice to mortals, and, shit, are probably the most likable of the bunch for me personally. Despite living in remote deserts, they are very sociable, they 'crave conversation' and will gladly trade information for treasure. Apparently, these giant metallic dragons will straight-up slowly follow any intelligent creature that leaves its presence without engaging in conversation, like the most hilariously passive-aggressive cartoon character ever. Hell, they have a passive perception ability to know that ah-ha, someone who is intelligent to share stories has arrived! Sometimes it buries mortals in sand up to their neck until they satisfy him with small talk! Honestly, this depiction of brass dragons more as the kooky weird neighbour who is really over-friendly and intent on making a whole lot of small talk is pretty damn charming. Y'know, D&D dragons are probably one of the few exceptions where the good-aligned guys are actually significantly far more interesting and creative than the bad guys. Depending on how serious you want your brass dragon character to be, they could either be a very interesting information broker, or just the giant lizard equivalent of that strange harmless old lady that hangs out in the park and gets a bit too friendly with everyone. God, the brass dragons are hilarious. I love them.
Metallic Dragon: Bronze Dragon
Where the brass dragons are more kooky-but-ultimately-good, the bronze dragons are a lot more just straight-up lawful good. And... yeah, it's pretty necessary for there to be some that truly embody the protector-of-the-weaker-folk that the introductory 'metallic dragons' page hyped up, yeah? Bronze dragons are inquisitive and will try and observe the mortals that live in their territory, and are noted to have a bad habit of landing on ships and sort of aggressively-barter for a treasure on board the ship. Like, it won't actually lose its temper, but being a freaking dragon, that display tends to sometimes come off as attempted extortion. Other than that, though, they like warfare, and will eagerly join armies that have a just-and-right cause. Which means that in a gray-and-gray morality world, it's a matter of whichever side has a more persuasive argument for the bronze dragon. Sort of like your typical adventurer! They're sort of quasi-noble mercenaries with a bit of a compulsion to collect objects. Okay! They live in coasts, decorate their lairs with sunken ships, and they have access to lightning breath and what's essentially Skyrim's Fus Ro Dah. Not the most interesting metallic dragon, but like the red and white examples above, we do kind of need a couple that just exemplify what metallics are supposed to be all about.Metallic Dragon: Copper DragonAnd here we go with the copper dragon. They kind of look mundane, but thank goodness the copper dragons have the personality to compensate for its somewhat repetitive design at this point, because they're fucking clowns. No, even better, they're fucking bards. They're joke-tellers, riddle-makers and pranksters, appreciating any sort of story, riddle or joke, and they literally view good stories and laughter as the real treasure, often converting part of their lair to accommodate a good bard friend. Just... y'know, try not to be unimpressed with its stories. It's still a good dragon, but it's still pretty rude, y'know? This even translates to its combat abilities. A copper dragon's breath weapons are an acid blast, as well as a muscle-cramping nerve gas of those it hits. Like, those are basically the Joker's weapons, yeah? Acid flower and nerve laughing gas? I bet if the copper dragon could manage to fit in a third weapon, it'd be a joy-buzzer. And even its lair is tied into the theme of a prankster, with fake lairs and fake walls, and the ability to set off quicksand traps. A copper dragon can even cause random magic carvings of the dragon's smiling face on random objects near its lair, or to make random small critters suddenly be able to talk, or to just straight up cause people to uncontrollably go into fits of giggling. Shit, that's hilarious! Honestly when you take a look at that majestic 5E art, you really don't realize that this dragon sub-type's species-wide personality is essentially "haha, pranked 'ya!"
Like, shit, it's pretty fun! I still think I overall like the brass dragons a bit more, but I do have such a huge fondness for these copper wackos.
Metallic Dragon: Silver Dragon
We'll go with silver first before going to gold, because I'm saving that 'boss' for the last. I really do like the 4th edition artwork, which actually makes the silver dragon look a lot more unique with different-coloured hair-like head-finds, and a far more sleek and slender body. And while the 5E art is sure good, it ultimately feels a lot too similar with basically every other dragon on this page. The silver dragon is... cheerful, social and the most willing to help out mortal races as opposed to the more detached curiousity and interest that its other kin has. This does make the silver dragon the most likely dragon to actually give PC parties a quest for the greater good of humanity, or to actively swoop in and save you when you bit off more than you could chew. The 5E Monster Manual characterizes them as less concerned about the wider ramifications of war (like the bronze would be) but rather acts more like the protector-of-the-little-people. They're good peeps! Their breath weapons are cold breaths and paralyzing gas, which I guess are the two most non-lethal options. Kinda boring, honestly, but the silver dragon does feel like a race that is built to take advantage of a good GM crafting a character of an ancient entity who really wants to help out shorter-lived races but sometimes either gets carried away with emotions or with the fact that it is an near-immortal creature dealing with far mortals.
Metallic Dragon: Gold Dragon
And here's the boss of the metallic dragons, the Gold Dragon, the most powerful, majestic and regal of the metallic dragons... and look at how bizarrely they decided to change it. The original concept of the gold dragons in 1E and 2E was straight-up a less-cluttered version of the serpentine oriental dragon, right up to the beard and deer-like horns. And considering that it's in Asian myths that these dragons tended to be portrayed as guardians of mankind as opposed to the more antagonistic nature they often have in Western mythology, it would've been a pretty nice homage to have one of the five dragons to look like the oriental serpentine dragons, yeah? And, shit, it'd at least make the metallic dragons have some visual difference to them. But instead, from 3E onwards, the gold dragons just share the same sort of body layout as the other metallic dragons, just with a bunch of tentacle-beards tacked on. That ends up turning what could've been a pretty unique-looking creature into just one of a set, which honestly is pretty disappointing.And it's kind of a shame, since personality-wise, gold dragons are just kinda there. They're good, they like treasure, they're wise and fair, but particularly grim and aloof, sort of not really wanting to fraternize or interfere if it's not absolutely need. They're distant is all, and just like how the reds are all of the chromatics' defining traits ramped up, the gold dragon also has a lot of the metallics' defining traits ramped up. Which, again, is something that I understand is necessary for the 'boss' metallic dragon, but at the same time it also makes reading through his entry feel like I'm re-reading the introduction-to-metallic-dragons, and I really kinda wished they had given the gold dragon more of its own identity.
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And that's it for the main chromatic and metallic dragons! I still want to talk a fair bit, and click after the break to go through a bunch of errant dragons -- the undead dracolich and the plane-warped shadow dragons -- as well as a bunch of monsters up to the elementals. This is by no means the only types of chromatic and metallic dragons, by the way. Particularly in 3E and 4E, we've got four additional versions of each types of dragons that hasn't shown up in 5th edition yet at the time of writing, but in a 3.5E campaign I've been through, a mercury dragon was a major recurring ally, while a purple dragon was the surprise final boss for a segment through the Underdark. Again, if/when we're done with 5th Edition's Monster Manuals, I might actually go and break open my old 3.5E sourcebooks and cover some of these. For now, though... other monsters!
Dracolich
What happens when you combine two of the most fearsome monsters in D&D? The dragon and the lich? After all, liches are human sorcerers who turn themselves into immensely powerful undead sorcerers. What happens, then, if instead of a silly two-legged fleshbag mortal, it's an ancient, magic-empowered dragon that goes through the ritual? Dragons are long-lived but not immortal, and some dragons will go through a similar dark ritual to become undead dracoliches. It's noted that this is particularly heretical for dragons, because a dracolich will sever all ties to their kin and even their gods. Visually, a dracolich is basically the bones of a dragon reanimated with dark energy, with the flesh all sloughing off and the wings becoming tattered versions of themselves. Depending on your D&D version of choice, they may have spooky glowing energy within their skulls. It's your choice on whether the hollowed-out skull or the glowing-with-eldritch-energy is spookier. And the dracoliches are basically far worse than how they were when they are alive, being as fiendish and egotistical as before... but will tend to keep its existence a secret and act from the shadows, using minions to do its dirty work. Also, since 'lich' is a template, the dragon keeps almost all of its powers and stats that it had when it was a living creature.Like liches, a dracolich has an equivalent of a lich's phylactery, a powerful gemstone that essentially contains the dragon's soul and serves as the 'core' of the dracolich's being. If the physical bones are destroyed, the dragon's soul can use the phylactery to regenerate, although it'll need to be in contact with another dragon corpse to take over, which is such a random deatil and I love it. It's also explicitly noted that only adult and ancient dragons can actually become a dracolich, and silly younger specimens or not-true-dragons will just flat-out die if they attempt the ritual. Overall, what's not to love? It combines two of my favourite monsters in the game, after all!
Shadow Dragon
Meanwhile, Shadow Dragons are another direction that dragons can transform into. Like dracoliches, they used to be true dragons, but they are transformed by the energies of the Shadowfell (a parallel dimension of shadow; basically what Stranger Things' Upside Down is based on) into... well, a dragon made out of shadow. Sometimes this is done willingly by curious dragons, sometimes they are just born in the Shadowfell when their eggs are taken there, sometimes they just fell asleep and get sucked into a portal that opened in their lair. Regardless, the shadow dragons get mutated by the energies and end up becoming living shadows, weakened by sunlight and being more powerful in the dark. The transformation is permanent, but depending on the individual dragon, they'll either attempt to abduct other creatures to keep it company in the Shadowfell, or brave the original material plane and use their newfound power to gain treasure and power. Like the dracolich, the shadow dragon basically retains whatever powers it has when it's alive, but gets additional properties like the ability to meld into living shadow and all that jazz. A pretty neat little variant, and that 5E artwork is sure cool, but it's a creature I've never really been all that taken by.
Dragon Turtle
Despite just looking like a particularly gigantic and monstrous creature, the dragon turtles are actually considered draconic creatures instead of beasts, so instead of just a giant turtle, it's more like a dragon which has evolved to have mot of it body look like a sea turtle. Or something. I've spent the longest time just dismissing them as basically the fantasy equivalent of the real-life prehistoric giant sea turtle Archelon that it didn't sink in until I saw the 5th edition artwork that showed a dragon turtle underneath a massive ship just how big these things are meant to be. The original 1E artwork is significantly more sea-serpent-like, barely showing the turtle shell, but basically everything from 2E onwards just depicts a particularly nasty giant turtle monster with some draconic qualities here and there. The Dragon Turtles are actually sentient and are true neutral, and they almost live exclusively in the ocean as opposed to the amphibious, but more land-based dragons. Dragon Turtles basically collect treasures by sinking ships and then sifting through the ruins for coins and jewels, making it sort of like a kleptomaniac kraken. While mostly destructive, it's smart enough to be bribed, and will allow ships to pass through its territory if they will offer a tribute of treasure willingly... all very dragon-esque qualities. Overall, while not quite as impressive as their true dragon cousins, I definitely now have a newfound respect for the dragon turtles, which I've always thought of as just some giant turtle beast. Dragon Turtles, too, are actually from mythology -- an obscure mythical creature from Chinese legend. That's neat!
Dinosaurs
Dinosaurs have their own stat block, because if there's anything we've learned from Jurassic Park it's that these awesome prehistoric creatures are pretty damn badass and definitely deserves a place in the pantheon of D&D monsters. And I'm not sure -- for the longest time, despite being included in the original 1E manual, it's like the game designers were super-duper iffy about showing these creatures and calling them "dinosaurs". Like, 3.5E called them Thunderers, 4E called them Behemoths, and I'm genuinely confused on why dinosaurs of all things are treated as this weird no-touch segment, when the D&D world is filled with creatures from all sorts of origins, from myths to a D&D brainstorming session to just taking a random bug and making it giant. But actual giant reptiles who lived in real-life prehistory has some sort of weird stigma attached to it, for some reason. Whatever the case, though, this does mean that dinosaurs are fair game for things like polymorph spells or general druidic fun! Sure, you could tame (or transform into) a wolf or a bear, but why do so when you can tame a god-damn Allosaurus? Or transform into a Plesiosaurus to really wreck some shit up? Why ride a boring old horse when you can breed and make a cavalry full of Triceratops riders? The 5E edition gives statlines for a couple of the more interesting ones (although certainly not all of them). Two massive carnivorous theropods in the Allosaurus and Tyrannosaurus, two huge lumbering tanky herbivores in Ankylosaurus and Triceratops, an aquatic titan in Plesiosaurus and an airborne one in Pteranodon. Subsequent supplementary material would definitely go through the gauntlet of other common dinosaurs we see in popular culture.And because dinosaurs have such a variety of forms, we go through only six specific ones in the Monster Manual, although honestly, there's nothing stopping you from taking your favourite dinosaur (or their relatives, since pteranodons and plesiosaurs aren't technically dinosaurs). I really don't have a whole ton to say here, other than the fact that I really love dinosaurs and I love that you can fight and loot them in D&D.
Displacer Beast
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| 3E Displacer Beast |
Displacer beasts will apparently enter the service of intelligent evil creatures as pets or guards, but most of the time they're pack animals that like to hunt for sport. Without getting into too many details, my GM loved Displacer Beasts and made liberal usage of domesticated ones as basically the setting's equivalent to doberman dogs. They're definitely a creature that look particularly awesome thanks to their appearance, and just take a look at that utterly fucked-up gangly skin-and-bones 3rd edition displacer beast!
Doppelganger
Doppelgangers are a bit of an interesting ghostly being in more modern myths, where you meet a possibly-ghostly 'evil twin' that is an omen of bad luck. In D&D, doppelgangers are basically just shapeshifters that can take the form of other humanoids, Mystique-style, and they're pretty damn mysterious. I absolutely love 3E and 5E's versions that are just these mouthless, gangly beings in their base state, with a face that's almost inspired by Grey aliens. Comparing it to the weird gremlin creature from 1E, the generic demon man of 2E or the pale elves of 4E, I am a big fan of the portrayal of the base form of these shapeshifters as being something that looks humanoid but also is so different that it just looks wrong. Be paranoid if your GM's setting involves doppelgangers! They're not always-evil malicious like many D&D creatures, but the description of their race does admittedly not that they lure "victims" to their doom, and they apparently work to amass riches in huge cons. They will take on the guise of individuals (particularly rich nobles and merchants), and perhaps their biggest weakness is that they can't steal any of their victim's memories other than surface emotions, so they have to stalk their 'mark' and slowly learn everything there is to know about them. Some doppelgangers even keep the originals stashed in a basement somewhere to continually draw the bits and pieces of surface memory to make their impersonation go well. It's... it's actually pretty neat. Apparently the way they reproduce involves trickery and seduction, assuming attractive male forms, impregnating women, buggering off like a deadbeat parent, and the resulting child will discover its true nature at adolescence and be driven by a need to join its kin. Honestly, uncovering a Doppelganger infiltration process might actually be a pretty great campaign hook!
Drider
Speaking of iconic enemies, the Drow and their monstrous cousins, the Driders, are another one of D&D's iconic enemies. The drows are evil elves that we'll cover in the next part, but a specific sub-set of the drows are the Driders. See, the drows worship this evil demon-goddess Lolth, who also happens to be a spider demon. When a drow warrior devoted to Lolth shows particular promise, Lolth will summon the drow and test its faith and strength, and those that are fail but survive end up transformed into Driders, which are essentially these massive spider-centaurs. And if you find spiders creepy, the sight of a giant one with a torso of a person growing out of where its head should be is definitely extra-creepy. It's simultaneously cool and also unsettling. They're not the most dangerous enemies one-on-one, but they have a whole ton of abilities that make me respect them a fair bit. Spider-web abilities, greater senses than the drow, the ability to retain whatever ability they had when they were still drow... Honestly, other than the whole monstrosity thing, it's definitely an advantage in combat terms.
Anyway, after being transformed into Driders by Lolth, they are twisted and driven by insanity, and tend to disappear through the tunnels of the Underdark and basically just live as nomadic hunters, sometimes with giant spiders as their buddies. While there certainly are exceptions in some modules, most Drow shun the Driders, holding them in lower esteem than slaves, but don't harm them since they are still touched by their goddess. They'll cooperate on rare occasions, although the drow shun the driders and the driders will always suspect the drow of trying to betray them. (4E is different in that the Driders are described there to be a blessing as opposed to be a curse, since they are one step closer to being like their goddess) They're pretty cool looking, pretty awesome to fight, and adds a lot of unique flavour to the twisted culture of the Drow. Definitely a classic design for D&D, and it's just so much cooler changing the general concept of a centaur from a boring old horse to a far more sinister-looking and cooler-looking arachnid, yeah?
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| 1E Displacer Beast |
We can also see that there's a distinct power level among the dragons too, with the chromatics going from Red > Blue > Green > Black > White, while the chromatics go from gold > silver > bronze > copper > brass.
- Allosaurus: Large beast, unaligned; CR 2
- Ankylosaurus: Huge beast; unaligned; CR 3
- Plesiosaurus: Large beast; unaligned; CR 2
- Triceratops: Huge beast; unaligned; CR 5
- Pteranodon: Medium beast; unaligned; CR 1/4
- Tyrannosaurus rex: Huge beast; unaligned; CR 8
- Displacer Beast: Large monstrosity; lawful evil; CR 3
- Doppelganger: Medium monstrosity - shapechanger; neutral; CR 3
- Adult Blue Dracolich: Huge undead; lawful evil; CR 17
- Young Red Shadow Dragon: Large dragon; chaotic evil; CR 13
- Ancient Black Dragon: Gargantuan dragon; chaotic evil; CR 21
- Adult Black Dragon: Huge dragon; chaotic evil; CR 14
- Young Black Dragon: Large dragon; chaotic evil; CR 7
- Black Dragon Wyrmling: Medium dragon; chaotic evil; CR 2
- Ancient Blue Dragon: Gargantuan dragon; lawful evil; CR 23
- Adult Blue Dragon: Huge dragon; lawful evil; CR 16
- Young Blue Dragon: Large dragon; lawful evil; CR 9
- Blue Dragon Wyrmling: Medium dragon; lawful evil; CR 3
- Ancient Green Dragon: Gargantuan dragon; lawful evil; CR 22
- Adult Green Dragon: Huge dragon; lawful evil; CR 15
- Young Green Dragon: Large dragon; lawful evil; CR 8
- Green Dragon Wyrmling: Medium dragon; lawful evil; CR 2
- Ancient Red Dragon: Gargantuan dragon; chaotic evil; CR 24
- Adult Red Dragon: Huge dragon; chaotic evil; CR 17
- Young Red Dragon: Large dragon; chaotic evil; CR 10
- Red Dragon Wyrmling: Medium dragon; chaotic evil; CR 4
- Ancient White Dragon: Gargantuan dragon; chaotic evil; CR 20
- Adult White Dragon: Huge dragon; chaotic evil; CR 13
- Young White Dragon: Large dragon; chaotic evil; CR 6
- White Dragon Wyrmling: Medium dragon; chaotic evil; CR 2
- Ancient Brass Dragon: Gargantuan dragon; chaotic good; CR 20
- Adult Brass Dragon: Huge dragon; chaotic good; CR 13
- Young Brass Dragon: Large dragon; chaotic good; CR 6
- Brass Dragon Wyrmling: Medium dragon; chaotic good; CR 1
- Ancient Bronze Dragon: Gargantuan dragon; lawful good; CR 22
- Adult Bronze Dragon: Huge dragon; lawful good; CR 15
- Young Bronze Dragon: Large dragon; lawful good; CR 8
- Bronze Dragon Wyrmling: Medium dragon; lawful good; CR 2
- Ancient Copper Dragon: Gargantuan dragon; chaotic good; CR 21
- Adult Copper Dragon: Huge dragon; chaotic good; CR 14
- Young Copper Dragon: Large dragon; chaotic good; CR 7
- Copper Dragon Wyrmling: Medium dragon; chaotic good; CR 1
- Ancient Gold Dragon: Gargantuan dragon; lawful good; CR 24
- Adult Gold Dragon: Huge dragon; lawful good; CR 17
- Young Gold Dragon: Large dragon; lawful good; CR 10
- Gold Dragon Wyrmling: Medium dragon; lawful good; CR 3
- Ancient Silver Dragon: Gargantuan dragon; lawful good; CR 23
- Adult Silver Dragon: Huge dragon; lawful good; CR 16
- Young Silver Dragon: Large dragon; lawful good; CR 9
- Silver Dragon Wyrmling: Medium dragon; lawful good; CR 2
- Dragon Turtle: Gargantuan dragon; neutral; CR 17
- Drider: Large monstrosity; chaotic evil; CR 6
That's the article Reviewing D&D Monsters - 5E Monster Manual, Dragons to Driders
That's it for the article Reviewing D&D Monsters - 5E Monster Manual, Dragons to Driders this time, hopefully can be useful for all of you. okay, see you in another article post.
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