There are metallic dragons for each chromatic dragon, following that elemental type, with the notable exception of Poison, for the green dragon. Is there an in lore reason for this? Or is it just a weird coincidence?
Poison Damage was introduced in 5e (unless it was introduced in 4e, I didn't really get to play that edition). That's why there is currently no Poison Metallic Dragon. Originally Green Dragons did Acid Damage. It should also be noted that not all Dragons in DnD have had something put out for them yet. Purple Dragons don't have any statistics yet despite being in the name of "Purple Dragon Knight", not a single Gem Dragon has been mentioned, nor Chromium Dragons.
I don't know the actual answer, but it was probably because they wanted a weaker acid dragon, they wanted to use common colors, and or they wanted to fill the different terrains they lair in.
The answer is because d&d was built around themes and not balance, so having two similar creatures wasn't really a problem. Originally both the Brass and the Gold Dragons had Cones of Fire as well, they didn't really care about overlap.
Poison Damage was introduced in 5e (unless it was introduced in 4e, I didn't really get to play that edition). That's why there is currently no Poison Metallic Dragon. Originally Green Dragons did Acid Damage.
Their breath weapon was poisonous - specifically "poisonous chlorine gas" - in 2nd edition and probably earlier editions as well. Also worth pointing out that while 3.5 didn't have a poison damage type per se, it did have rules for poisons that allowed them to inflict damage, so they could've gone that route if they had wanted to.
The reason there's no poisonous metallic dragons is likely just the fact that poison use was considered villainous and metallic dragons are good. For instance, 1st edition had rules for who could use poison; paladins and non-evil clerics were forbidden from using it, while assassins could unconditionally use it. Other classes relied on the DM's approval. Those rules (along with references to playable assassins and half-orcs) were removed in 2nd edition to clean up the game's image, but it's clear there was a moral dimension to poison use.
If I remember right, in the original Red Box game Gold Dragons (the only metallic dragon at the time) could choose between fire and poison gas (then used by Green Dragons). Not sure why they changed it.
If I remember right, in the original Red Box game Gold Dragons (the only metallic dragon at the time) could choose between fire and poison gas (then used by Green Dragons). Not sure why they changed it.
RE: Gold Dragons in 1st edition, that is correct. They probably changed it to allow Gold Dragons a way to subdue rude NPCs and PCs that were not obviously capital E Evil. To play up the "good" part of the alignment more starkly.
The bit about gold dragons got me curious so I looked up green and gold dragons in both AD&D 1e's and 2e's Monster Manuals. In both cases the green dragon's breath weapon is described as poisonous chlorine gas while the gold dragon's second breath weapon is also chlorine gas but it makes no mention of poison. Also, the 1e Monster Manual had a table of modifiers that certain types of attacks would have against dragons, based on the dragon's type of breath weapon. There's no entry in that table for poison, but there is one for gas. That suggests the gold dragon's breath wasn't intended to be poisonous even back then. But yeah, clearly the gold dragon's chlorine breath was updated from dealing damage to weakening the target starting from 3rd edition onwards.
I can't find any sources for purple dragons but 2e has a gem dragon category that includes purple-colored amethyst dragons. They have psionic abilities and their breath weapon is a "faceted, violet lozenge" which "explodes with concussive force" and can possibly knock prone and/or unconscious.
Poison Damage was introduced in 5e (unless it was introduced in 4e, I didn't really get to play that edition). That's why there is currently no Poison Metallic Dragon.
Gold is the metallic 'counterpart' of Green dragons.
Green dragons had poison breath in 1e, 2e, 4e & 5e (I have no idea why they called it "acid" in 3e).
Gold dragons had poison breath in 1e & 2e, but changed it to a weakening gas in 3e, 4e and 5e (possibly because "poison" use was viewed as evil)
Comparing the 5 metallic versus the 5 chromatic dragons in 5e:
Silver and White have cold breath
Bronze and Blue have electric breath
Copper and Black have acid breath
Brass and Red have Fire breath
Green has a poison gas breath , and Gold has a weakening gas breath
Green dragons are known for ruling behind the scenes so what if the metallic version was still in hiding secretly ruling everything where the PC aren’t looking
I agree that a Mercury Dragon would be a suitable poison-type metallic contender.
Granted, the mercury dragon has appeared previously in D&D, I never understood why its breath weapon would be a laser beam that deals fire damage. Seriously. A laser beam? What is this, Dungeons & Dragons or Serpents & Spaceships???
Mercury is a poisonous metal. The Mad Hatter can attest to that! But mercury is only poisonous if you touch it. So maybe the mercury dragon has to feed on ore deposits of cinnabar or some other sulfide in order to charge it's breath weapon. As the sulfides are melted inside the seething furnace inside the dragon's body, the sulfides bond with the mercury of the dragon's blood and generate a breath weapon of powdered or even vaporized mercury sulfide. A poison gas cloud made of very fine-grained deep dark red particulate matter.
Also, since mercury is poisonous to the touch, anyone who deals melee damage to a mercury dragon might have to make a saving throw to avoid similar poison damage.
Also! Since mercury can build up in the bloodstream and cause long term mental damage, perhaps each time someone fails a saving throw after dealing melee damage to a mercury dragon, they may have an increasingly-likely chance to have to roll for a temporary or even a permanent insanity.
Just look at the Mad Hatter. He failed his saving throws and got a permanent insanity.
Tayn of Darkwood. Lvl 10 human Life Cleric of Lathander. Retired.
Ikram Sahir ibn Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad, Second Son of the House of Ra'ad, Defender of the Burning Sands. Lvl 9 Brass Dragonborn Sorcerer + Greater Fire Elemental Devil.
Viktor Gavriil. Lvl 20 White Dragonborn Grave Cleric, of Kurgan the God of Death.
The bit about gold dragons got me curious so I looked up green and gold dragons in both AD&D 1e's and 2e's Monster Manuals. In both cases the green dragon's breath weapon is described as poisonous chlorine gas while the gold dragon's second breath weapon is also chlorine gas but it makes no mention of poison. Also, the 1e Monster Manual had a table of modifiers that certain types of attacks would have against dragons, based on the dragon's type of breath weapon. There's no entry in that table for poison, but there is one for gas. That suggests the gold dragon's breath wasn't intended to be poisonous even back then. But yeah, clearly the gold dragon's chlorine breath was updated from dealing damage to weakening the target starting from 3rd edition onwards.
I can't find any sources for purple dragons but 2e has a gem dragon category that includes purple-colored amethyst dragons. They have psionic abilities and their breath weapon is a "faceted, violet lozenge" which "explodes with concussive force" and can possibly knock prone and/or unconscious.
I think it is also worth noting that dragons are not really defined by their elemental nature but instead by the environment they tend to inhabit. It's easy to see their breath weapon and decide there is a correlation but I think the different dragons were created so a player (or DM) might have an idea of what to expect when going to certain places on the map. Especially back in the day when traveling from point A to point B often meant dozens of rolls on random encounter tables. A type of play that is not really a part of modern D&D.
Another point is that energy types were not really a thing back in 1st edition. Sure they had fire, lightening, acid, etc but they were not codified like you see now a days. Even the saves were specifically against Dragon Breath and not versus Poison (which were two different saves back in the day). And there was not a spell that provided protection against every energy type. Protection from fire was a 3rd level druid spell and protection from lightening was 4th level. Cleric's had resist fire for 2nd level and magic users (wizards for you new kids) didn't have a way to protect from anything. Some things you could not gain protection versus but in turn they didn't do as much damage. The reason a black dragon rolled d4's for its acid breath weapon while a red rolled d8s for fire breath.
My point is that dragon breath weapons were more about game mechanics than anything else. At least originally. Coming up with more dragons is just a way to challenge players with something new. If you are looking to associate different dragon types with elemental categories then just homebrew it. Not a reason why a blue dragon couldn't be a 'storm' dragon instead of a desert dweller. Or why a brass dragon can't breath poison to match the green (leaving the gold and red with fire breath).
There are metallic dragons for each chromatic dragon, following that elemental type, with the notable exception of Poison, for the green dragon. Is there an in lore reason for this? Or is it just a weird coincidence?
Poison Damage was introduced in 5e (unless it was introduced in 4e, I didn't really get to play that edition). That's why there is currently no Poison Metallic Dragon. Originally Green Dragons did Acid Damage. It should also be noted that not all Dragons in DnD have had something put out for them yet. Purple Dragons don't have any statistics yet despite being in the name of "Purple Dragon Knight", not a single Gem Dragon has been mentioned, nor Chromium Dragons.
Wait then what did black dragons do?
Also Acid.
wait why did they both do acid?
I don't know the actual answer, but it was probably because they wanted a weaker acid dragon, they wanted to use common colors, and or they wanted to fill the different terrains they lair in.
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The answer is because d&d was built around themes and not balance, so having two similar creatures wasn't really a problem. Originally both the Brass and the Gold Dragons had Cones of Fire as well, they didn't really care about overlap.
Their breath weapon was poisonous - specifically "poisonous chlorine gas" - in 2nd edition and probably earlier editions as well. Also worth pointing out that while 3.5 didn't have a poison damage type per se, it did have rules for poisons that allowed them to inflict damage, so they could've gone that route if they had wanted to.
The reason there's no poisonous metallic dragons is likely just the fact that poison use was considered villainous and metallic dragons are good. For instance, 1st edition had rules for who could use poison; paladins and non-evil clerics were forbidden from using it, while assassins could unconditionally use it. Other classes relied on the DM's approval. Those rules (along with references to playable assassins and half-orcs) were removed in 2nd edition to clean up the game's image, but it's clear there was a moral dimension to poison use.
The Forum Infestation (TM)
What would Purple Dragon do? Sparkly Fire?
thunder probably
I hope they add a poison metallic dragon eventually. If acid can be good, so can poison
If I remember right, in the original Red Box game Gold Dragons (the only metallic dragon at the time) could choose between fire and poison gas (then used by Green Dragons). Not sure why they changed it.
Wizard (Gandalf) of the Tolkien Club
Purple Dragons used Force last I checked.
I was thinking Mercury would be a Metallic Dragon that would use Poison, but then I remembered that they breathe lasers.
RE: Gold Dragons in 1st edition, that is correct. They probably changed it to allow Gold Dragons a way to subdue rude NPCs and PCs that were not obviously capital E Evil. To play up the "good" part of the alignment more starkly.
The bit about gold dragons got me curious so I looked up green and gold dragons in both AD&D 1e's and 2e's Monster Manuals. In both cases the green dragon's breath weapon is described as poisonous chlorine gas while the gold dragon's second breath weapon is also chlorine gas but it makes no mention of poison. Also, the 1e Monster Manual had a table of modifiers that certain types of attacks would have against dragons, based on the dragon's type of breath weapon. There's no entry in that table for poison, but there is one for gas. That suggests the gold dragon's breath wasn't intended to be poisonous even back then. But yeah, clearly the gold dragon's chlorine breath was updated from dealing damage to weakening the target starting from 3rd edition onwards.
I can't find any sources for purple dragons but 2e has a gem dragon category that includes purple-colored amethyst dragons. They have psionic abilities and their breath weapon is a "faceted, violet lozenge" which "explodes with concussive force" and can possibly knock prone and/or unconscious.
The Forum Infestation (TM)
That's funny. I always thought it was the knight who was associated with purple and not the dragon :)
"Not all those who wander are lost"
Gold is the metallic 'counterpart' of Green dragons.
Comparing the 5 metallic versus the 5 chromatic dragons in 5e:
Green dragons are known for ruling behind the scenes so what if the metallic version was still in hiding secretly ruling everything where the PC aren’t looking
Mostly nocturnal
help build a world here
I agree that a Mercury Dragon would be a suitable poison-type metallic contender.
Granted, the mercury dragon has appeared previously in D&D, I never understood why its breath weapon would be a laser beam that deals fire damage. Seriously. A laser beam? What is this, Dungeons & Dragons or Serpents & Spaceships???
Mercury is a poisonous metal. The Mad Hatter can attest to that! But mercury is only poisonous if you touch it. So maybe the mercury dragon has to feed on ore deposits of cinnabar or some other sulfide in order to charge it's breath weapon. As the sulfides are melted inside the seething furnace inside the dragon's body, the sulfides bond with the mercury of the dragon's blood and generate a breath weapon of powdered or even vaporized mercury sulfide. A poison gas cloud made of very fine-grained deep dark red particulate matter.
Also, since mercury is poisonous to the touch, anyone who deals melee damage to a mercury dragon might have to make a saving throw to avoid similar poison damage.
Also! Since mercury can build up in the bloodstream and cause long term mental damage, perhaps each time someone fails a saving throw after dealing melee damage to a mercury dragon, they may have an increasingly-likely chance to have to roll for a temporary or even a permanent insanity.
Just look at the Mad Hatter. He failed his saving throws and got a permanent insanity.
Tayn of Darkwood. Lvl 10 human Life Cleric of Lathander. Retired.
Ikram Sahir ibn Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad, Second Son of the House of Ra'ad, Defender of the Burning Sands. Lvl 9 Brass Dragonborn Sorcerer + Greater Fire Elemental Devil.
Viktor Gavriil. Lvl 20 White Dragonborn Grave Cleric, of Kurgan the God of Death.
Anzio Faro. Lvl 5 Prot. Aasimar Light Cleric.
I think it is also worth noting that dragons are not really defined by their elemental nature but instead by the environment they tend to inhabit. It's easy to see their breath weapon and decide there is a correlation but I think the different dragons were created so a player (or DM) might have an idea of what to expect when going to certain places on the map. Especially back in the day when traveling from point A to point B often meant dozens of rolls on random encounter tables. A type of play that is not really a part of modern D&D.
Another point is that energy types were not really a thing back in 1st edition. Sure they had fire, lightening, acid, etc but they were not codified like you see now a days. Even the saves were specifically against Dragon Breath and not versus Poison (which were two different saves back in the day). And there was not a spell that provided protection against every energy type. Protection from fire was a 3rd level druid spell and protection from lightening was 4th level. Cleric's had resist fire for 2nd level and magic users (wizards for you new kids) didn't have a way to protect from anything. Some things you could not gain protection versus but in turn they didn't do as much damage. The reason a black dragon rolled d4's for its acid breath weapon while a red rolled d8s for fire breath.
My point is that dragon breath weapons were more about game mechanics than anything else. At least originally. Coming up with more dragons is just a way to challenge players with something new. If you are looking to associate different dragon types with elemental categories then just homebrew it. Not a reason why a blue dragon couldn't be a 'storm' dragon instead of a desert dweller. Or why a brass dragon can't breath poison to match the green (leaving the gold and red with fire breath).
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