I am writing a campaign set at a magic academy. The BBEG of this campaign is a disguised red dragon appearing as a teenage girl who attends said academy (human draconic bloodline sorcerer who is also a noble). She is a devoted follower to Tiamat. The age of her dragon form is either adult or ancient (have not decided which yet but I will not do young or wyrmling because I want the fight to be difficult) The players will be seeing her a lot throughout the campaign but she will not turn into her red dragon form until the end of the campaign when they fight her as the final boss of the story. Until then, I need help with developing her a bit more.
What subtle hints should I give that she is a red dragon?
What should I tell my players if one of them casts Detect Magic or gets Truesight?
How should I describe her transformation from human to dragon (This scene is meant to be an intense and climatic scene in the story)?
I hate to be that guy, but I would caution you against deciding that she will be the final BBEG. Instead, focus on what her agenda is and set her against other powerful forces in your world. This way you can have her giving the party morally dubious quests like "free a subdued black dragon from captivity" and see how the party reacts. You can then shape the campaign according to what your players want to do. Maybe they don't want to just play the good guys. Maybe serving Tiamat sounds like fun. Think about the D&D cartoon where Tiamat and Vengure are two forces that the party can play against each other.
In any case, placing the dragon as just one of the powerful figures in your campaign allows you to reward good playing by the players if they figure out early that there's something fishy about this bratty teenager. You can then listen to their speculation and weave some of their clever ideas into the game.
My 2cp worth: how about a spin on the notion of Attonement.
(Insert Dragon name) failed Tiamat and as punishment was killed and her "soul" was discarded onto the Material Plane where it was reincarnated into the form of a mortal baby. As she grew she found herself to have been born into a wealthy family (because the innate avarice of her Draconic nature wouldn't tolerate anything less), although to her chargin the family was not very prominent. As time passed she displayed small amounts of magical prowess and her family placed her within an academy where her skills could be nutured and made to flourish. Deep inside she recalls her previous glory and desperately wants to feel the wind surging passed her leathery wings once more and is trying to find a magical way to do so.
To this end, she spends her time in the academy researching dragonkind and transmutational magic and is viewed by some of her professors as a prodigy. This all goes to swell her draconic pride and belief that she is better than everyone else.
She displays the pride, avarice and arrogance that red dragons are noted for but this is tempered by her belief that she is a weak and feeble mortal.
Her goal is to cast either a Wish or True Polymorph spell to transform herself back into a Dragon form, but she has also hatched a secondary plan that will draw Tiamats gaze and hopefully attone for her past failure and bring her into Tiamats "good" graces once again. This seconday goal is to create a cult of Tiamat worshippers, initially siezing control of the academy and then the wider area and eventually use True Polymorph to turn her cultists into Abashai.
What does this means for the party? Well, initially (Insert Dragon name) is encountered as a low level sorcerer, maybe a level or two higher than the party, she comes over as arrogant and entitled. She maybe in a different year at the academy so the party see her around but may not have many dealings with her initially but these can increase as the campaign continues and she may even become something of a quest giver when she needs a item or material component but cannot get it herself and the party might come to view her as an asset if not an ally.
There we go...maybe not quite 2cp worth but use it if you like it.
None of the teachers at a magic academy are going to notice it’s a red dragon in disguise? Seems like something they’d pick up on. Kids running around doing magic, making illusions, etc. I’d expect at least one would be casting true sight now and again.
Maybe the dragon has a few humanoid minions at the school or something. Then it shows up at the end because the minions failed time and again, so they show up to handle it themself.
What subtle hints should I give that she is a red dragon?
What should I tell my players if one of them casts Detect Magic or gets Truesight?
How should I describe her transformation from human to dragon (This scene is meant to be an intense and climatic scene in the story)?
Sounds like a very cool NPC, though I agree with the above that you shouldn't decide she is the ultimate BBEG right from the start. She can certainly have evil intentions, and be a villain, but the party might figure out what she is early on in which case you need to have a reasonable plan to allow them to expose her and have the entire faculty of the magic school fighting her.
In terms of subtle hints : red dragons like others desire power and wealth and are associated with fire. So,
this NPC should have established herself as an important figure in the school, maybe she's the class president or the leader of a clique or the head of a sports team. And be ruthless when it comes to maintaining her position.
She should have a hoard of gold and valuables hidden somewhere and she might occasionally steal the valuables of other students
She should be reluctant to give away money for any reason.
Since she is very old and experienced she shouldn't need to practice or study but instead be pursuing some other ulterior motive for being in the school.
She should be particularly adept at fire-based spells.
She is immune to fire, so she might use a fire as a distraction for one of her schemes and be seen walking through the fire without getting hurt, or might be slow to react / fail to react after spilling a boiling hot potion on herself.
She might occasionally slip and reveal she has personal experience / first-hand knowledge of events from a long time ago (perhaps during history classes).
Since her normal form can fly, she should be particularly acrobatic / skilled at flying-based activities.
Re:Detect Magic / Truesight
Truesight means your buggered, you would have to reveal her true form is a red dragon but that just means that this plotline is almost guaranteed to end when they get access to truesight. You will have to make up some reason why the teachers (who presumably can cast truesight) haven't noticed her - perhaps she can cast Modify Memory to wipe the memory of any who notice her, or she avoids certain teachers that are able to cast Truesight as much as possible.
Detect Magic and other spells/abilities that would affect Dragons you can get around by saying she has Nazuls Magic Aura cast on herself making her appear to be an ordinary human.This does mean that she should be very worried about someone casting Dispel Magic on her.
Re:Transformation
Again don't plan this so far ahead of time. You have no idea when or how this will happen because you don't know when the party will realize she is a dragon or what they might try to do about it. It might end up being an intense climatic moment of her powerfully revealing herself, or it might be the result of a clever plan by the players coming together to force her back to her dragon form, or it might be when she makes a desperate attempt to escape / fight the various teachers who the party have convinced that she is up to no good coming to capture her.
An npc doesn't necessarily need to be bound by player rules but immunity to any spell or effect should be intuitive. In terms of detect magic, players are likely to expect a spell caster to be covered in magic so it will not really reveal much especially if you simply cover them in spells like abjurations ect... players won't think anything of it. If that doesn't work then plant info about a transmutation cream to cover blemish's
True sight is a bit harder to deal with because intuitively there is an expectation that it shows all. Personally I think it's a bad for narrative to have information spells that reveal all plot relevant information. Stories get around this by having information magic be rare, vague or misleading. In truesight's case I think it's bet done by fulfilling it's reputation of showing all but not revealing what is plot relevant. For example it sees into the ethereal plane which is a spiritual dimension unbound by space and time it should be full of ghosts and monsters causing nightmares, bad luck, feeding off magic ect... It may also be the case that all powerful spell casters appear distorted under true sight. A divination user may appear covered in eyes, an invocation wizard a raging inferno and sorcerers may take on traits of their ancestry. Ideally many of the things shown would also lead to opportunities and plot interactions for example seeing a ghost may lead to a side quest.
What subtle hints should I give that she is a red dragon?
What should I tell my players if one of them casts Detect Magic or gets Truesight?
How should I describe her transformation from human to dragon (This scene is meant to be an intense and climatic scene in the story)?
Sounds like a very cool NPC, though I agree with the above that you shouldn't decide she is the ultimate BBEG right from the start. She can certainly have evil intentions, and be a villain, but the party might figure out what she is early on in which case you need to have a reasonable plan to allow them to expose her and have the entire faculty of the magic school fighting her.
In terms of subtle hints : red dragons like others desire power and wealth and are associated with fire. So,
this NPC should have established herself as an important figure in the school, maybe she's the class president or the leader of a clique or the head of a sports team. And be ruthless when it comes to maintaining her position.
She should have a hoard of gold and valuables hidden somewhere and she might occasionally steal the valuables of other students
She should be reluctant to give away money for any reason.
Since she is very old and experienced she shouldn't need to practice or study but instead be pursuing some other ulterior motive for being in the school.
She should be particularly adept at fire-based spells.
She is immune to fire, so she might use a fire as a distraction for one of her schemes and be seen walking through the fire without getting hurt, or might be slow to react / fail to react after spilling a boiling hot potion on herself.
She might occasionally slip and reveal she has personal experience / first-hand knowledge of events from a long time ago (perhaps during history classes).
Since her normal form can fly, she should be particularly acrobatic / skilled at flying-based activities.
Love your ideas!
I can totally imagine her being the Queen Bee of the school.
Since I decided the school has dorms, she can have a private suite with a hidden room holding her hoard. Also stealing other's valuables is a great idea and can be one of the things they report to the school when attempting to expose her.
I also imagine her making her servants buy lunch for her.
I would probably say that wouldn't work if the trigger was someone looking at you. If they look at you then it's already too late, they have already seen your true self. Also I think most creates with true seeing have it as a natural ability and not a spell.
Another idea: It might be worth using the Spellcasting variant rule for Dragons in the Monster Manual. It'll give them a number of spells equal to 1/3 their CR rating that they can cast once per day without material components. Combine that with the Sorcery Points and the Extended Spell Meta Magic and oh look...your Dragon has Nondetection spell active for 16 hours a day and is immune to divination magic which negates Detect Magic and True Seeing spells, although whether this also renders you immune to a creatures natual ability of True Sight might be debatable.
EDIT: you could also just let them have the magic item: Amulet of Proof Against Detection and Location which would do the same thing.
I am writing a campaign set at a magic academy. The BBEG of this campaign is a disguised red dragon appearing as a teenage girl who attends said academy (human draconic bloodline sorcerer who is also a noble). She is a devoted follower to Tiamat. The age of her dragon form is either adult or ancient (have not decided which yet but I will not do young or wyrmling because I want the fight to be difficult) The players will be seeing her a lot throughout the campaign but she will not turn into her red dragon form until the end of the campaign when they fight her as the final boss of the story. Until then, I need help with developing her a bit more.
Witness the might of the seas!
- Sea Fairy Cookie
I hate to be that guy, but I would caution you against deciding that she will be the final BBEG. Instead, focus on what her agenda is and set her against other powerful forces in your world. This way you can have her giving the party morally dubious quests like "free a subdued black dragon from captivity" and see how the party reacts. You can then shape the campaign according to what your players want to do. Maybe they don't want to just play the good guys. Maybe serving Tiamat sounds like fun. Think about the D&D cartoon where Tiamat and Vengure are two forces that the party can play against each other.
In any case, placing the dragon as just one of the powerful figures in your campaign allows you to reward good playing by the players if they figure out early that there's something fishy about this bratty teenager. You can then listen to their speculation and weave some of their clever ideas into the game.
My 2cp worth: how about a spin on the notion of Attonement.
(Insert Dragon name) failed Tiamat and as punishment was killed and her "soul" was discarded onto the Material Plane where it was reincarnated into the form of a mortal baby. As she grew she found herself to have been born into a wealthy family (because the innate avarice of her Draconic nature wouldn't tolerate anything less), although to her chargin the family was not very prominent. As time passed she displayed small amounts of magical prowess and her family placed her within an academy where her skills could be nutured and made to flourish. Deep inside she recalls her previous glory and desperately wants to feel the wind surging passed her leathery wings once more and is trying to find a magical way to do so.
To this end, she spends her time in the academy researching dragonkind and transmutational magic and is viewed by some of her professors as a prodigy. This all goes to swell her draconic pride and belief that she is better than everyone else.
She displays the pride, avarice and arrogance that red dragons are noted for but this is tempered by her belief that she is a weak and feeble mortal.
Her goal is to cast either a Wish or True Polymorph spell to transform herself back into a Dragon form, but she has also hatched a secondary plan that will draw Tiamats gaze and hopefully attone for her past failure and bring her into Tiamats "good" graces once again. This seconday goal is to create a cult of Tiamat worshippers, initially siezing control of the academy and then the wider area and eventually use True Polymorph to turn her cultists into Abashai.
What does this means for the party? Well, initially (Insert Dragon name) is encountered as a low level sorcerer, maybe a level or two higher than the party, she comes over as arrogant and entitled. She maybe in a different year at the academy so the party see her around but may not have many dealings with her initially but these can increase as the campaign continues and she may even become something of a quest giver when she needs a item or material component but cannot get it herself and the party might come to view her as an asset if not an ally.
There we go...maybe not quite 2cp worth but use it if you like it.
None of the teachers at a magic academy are going to notice it’s a red dragon in disguise? Seems like something they’d pick up on.
Kids running around doing magic, making illusions, etc. I’d expect at least one would be casting true sight now and again.
Maybe the dragon has a few humanoid minions at the school or something. Then it shows up at the end because the minions failed time and again, so they show up to handle it themself.
Sounds like a very cool NPC, though I agree with the above that you shouldn't decide she is the ultimate BBEG right from the start. She can certainly have evil intentions, and be a villain, but the party might figure out what she is early on in which case you need to have a reasonable plan to allow them to expose her and have the entire faculty of the magic school fighting her.
In terms of subtle hints : red dragons like others desire power and wealth and are associated with fire. So,
Re:Detect Magic / Truesight
Truesight means your buggered, you would have to reveal her true form is a red dragon but that just means that this plotline is almost guaranteed to end when they get access to truesight. You will have to make up some reason why the teachers (who presumably can cast truesight) haven't noticed her - perhaps she can cast Modify Memory to wipe the memory of any who notice her, or she avoids certain teachers that are able to cast Truesight as much as possible.
Detect Magic and other spells/abilities that would affect Dragons you can get around by saying she has Nazuls Magic Aura cast on herself making her appear to be an ordinary human.This does mean that she should be very worried about someone casting Dispel Magic on her.
Re:Transformation
Again don't plan this so far ahead of time. You have no idea when or how this will happen because you don't know when the party will realize she is a dragon or what they might try to do about it. It might end up being an intense climatic moment of her powerfully revealing herself, or it might be the result of a clever plan by the players coming together to force her back to her dragon form, or it might be when she makes a desperate attempt to escape / fight the various teachers who the party have convinced that she is up to no good coming to capture her.
An npc doesn't necessarily need to be bound by player rules but immunity to any spell or effect should be intuitive. In terms of detect magic, players are likely to expect a spell caster to be covered in magic so it will not really reveal much especially if you simply cover them in spells like abjurations ect... players won't think anything of it. If that doesn't work then plant info about a transmutation cream to cover blemish's
True sight is a bit harder to deal with because intuitively there is an expectation that it shows all. Personally I think it's a bad for narrative to have information spells that reveal all plot relevant information. Stories get around this by having information magic be rare, vague or misleading. In truesight's case I think it's bet done by fulfilling it's reputation of showing all but not revealing what is plot relevant. For example it sees into the ethereal plane which is a spiritual dimension unbound by space and time it should be full of ghosts and monsters causing nightmares, bad luck, feeding off magic ect... It may also be the case that all powerful spell casters appear distorted under true sight. A divination user may appear covered in eyes, an invocation wizard a raging inferno and sorcerers may take on traits of their ancestry. Ideally many of the things shown would also lead to opportunities and plot interactions for example seeing a ghost may lead to a side quest.
Important note about truesight. It reveals magical transformations. If the transformation isn't magical then it wouldn't reveal it.
Have them cast contingency, with dispel magic, triggered upon someone with true seeing looking at them.
Love your ideas!
Witness the might of the seas!
- Sea Fairy Cookie
I would probably say that wouldn't work if the trigger was someone looking at you. If they look at you then it's already too late, they have already seen your true self. Also I think most creates with true seeing have it as a natural ability and not a spell.
Another idea: It might be worth using the Spellcasting variant rule for Dragons in the Monster Manual. It'll give them a number of spells equal to 1/3 their CR rating that they can cast once per day without material components. Combine that with the Sorcery Points and the Extended Spell Meta Magic and oh look...your Dragon has Nondetection spell active for 16 hours a day and is immune to divination magic which negates Detect Magic and True Seeing spells, although whether this also renders you immune to a creatures natual ability of True Sight might be debatable.
EDIT: you could also just let them have the magic item: Amulet of Proof Against Detection and Location which would do the same thing.