Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
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Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
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Do people like black/blue/green/red/white dragons
"Life is Cast by Random Dice"
Burn my candle twice.
I have done my life justice
Against random dice.
Green Dragons, and here's why.
Cyan Bloodbane.
The Dragonlance universe was my entry into fantasy fiction, and I was reading it when I was 9 or 10. I hadn't heard of anything as crafty as Cyan Bloodbane's corruption of the Silvanesti King Lorac. Cyan was generally thought of as physically weak and was therefore underestimated by his dragon peers. However, what he lacked in brute strength, he made up for in intellect. Basically, the Raistlin Majere of dragons. As you may imagine, this held great appeal for a non-athletic middle child with a sports-minded older brother.
I'm older now. I know that other characters in other stories did the same thing but better. But, for me, Cyan Bloodbane was the first truly cunning, evil dragon that I read about, and, for that, the green dragons have my respect.
"Ma'am, you do not need to yell at me. This is my first day with your 7th grader and I am also upset that they cannot read." - me, teaching.
Balls to you that is awesome!
I also selected Green Dragon because I've always wanted to face one but never have. I've contested wills against a Black Dragon, and I hatched a Red Dragon in two different campaigns. White dragons seem cool but Green Dragons appear to me to be employ the most mind games which I think would be fun as a player to go through.
However, my true favorite dragon of all is actual Purple Dragons, not the Purple Dragon of Cormyr, but legit Purple Dragons from the Underdark. I played a 3.5e into Pathfinder 2e MUD that featured a Purple Dragon named Arkhon Bloodscale who was a trap room that would auto-kill players who entered it. My dwarf, then Undelhorn of the Longarm clan and Keeper of the Forge - now King Undelhorn of Ugrar Mordin, ran across the Purple Dragon in the Underdark while on patrol. I had only a few months prior forsaken my deity to worship the Platinum Dragon on the way back north to the Dwarven village of Kinaro from my adventures in the southern Empire. A platinum crest to the Platinum Dragon fell from the sky onto my head knocking my character out. When I awoke, I took it as a sign, but the game did not have Bahmut or anything like that programmed in as a deity that I could worship so I became 'godless' and I was the first player to have done so. When I did so unknown to myself or the staff of the MUD this created a bug and my character melded with the game like a dwarf into stone. So, when the party and I walked into this trap room they all died but Arkhon Bloodscale left me alive. In character we had a discussion about the deities that Dragons worship and he let me go. Then the staff had me repeat the process to confirm it was a bug and after the Sundering they programmed in a Dragon deity, but I don't worship it. Having learned I was actually godless for all those years my character resolved to trust in his axe, armor, and shield rather than some mystical nonsense or magical hand junk.
I didn't include Purple Dragons in the poll because they are one of the off shoots of the Chromatic Dragons and someone else posted this same poll but for Metallic Dragons. I figured someone else will post a poll asking about all our other favorites.
"Life is Cast by Random Dice"
Burn my candle twice.
I have done my life justice
Against random dice.
Black dragons just look sick (Mostly the horns) but white dragons are the highest CR for shapechange
Yes, i like these Dragons and use them, often with adjustments to make them special. The red dragon in the south is not going to be the same as the one that threatens the capital.
He/Him. Loooooooooong time Player.
The Dark days of the THAC0 system are behind us.
"Hope is a fire that burns in us all If only an ember, awaiting your call
To rise up in triumph should we all unite
The spark for change is yours to ignite."
Kalandra - The State of the World
I find it annoying that different dragon types are just pallet swaps, they should have distinctive mechanics, but otherwise I'm fine with the chromatics, they all have pretty clear themes.
Depends on what I am in the D&D game. If I'm a DM, blue are my favorite. They are thematically the one that would most likely be amassing armies and be powerful spellcasters themselves, extremely intelligent and detail oriented, as well as the most likely to be rulers. Their lawful nature allows legitimate opportunity for some degree of tyrannical order and economy.
While you can play any chromatic dragon like that, thematically and 'in general' red are chaotic brutes that want to set the world on fire. White are solitary hunters; rarely if ever would they be 'rulers' over anything but frozen wastelands. If you play a green dragon correctly the PC's *shouldn't* even know there is a green dragon until the very last boss fight of the last session of the entire campaign...their entire schtick is intricate manipulation and psychological warfare...all done behind a dozen different disguises or through a dozen different servants who themselves don't even know the true nature of their master. All of that is actually great and super fun as a DM to build a campaign around that but, really, you won't actually play the green dragon until the very bitter end. Black dragons, in my opinion, are better for side quests and fun than a full campaign. They are the most vile and cruel and do not care to rule over others; they want to see them suffer, rot, and decay.
As a player, I still think blue is my favorite.
As just a fan of D&D lore...it might be white. The absolute primal, bestial nature of the dragon is intimidating and fun to consider. It may be the smallest and weakest but D&D lore has some pretty dope ancient white dragons that were absolute killers.
That actually is something they've worked to address more in the 2024 MM with the various inherent spellcasting added to all the standard dragons.