Is it reasonable for a dragon to age from a young dragon to an adult dragon since the characters encountered her?
In my campaign, the characters encountered a young green dragon at very low level and bargained with her to pass through her territory unharmed. (The bargain entailed dealing with her wyrmling rival, which the characters fulfilled by taking the wyrmling with them).
Now they have reached a higher level, I wanted to bring this dragon back into the campaign as an enemy. If the dragon remained a young green dragon, I would need to introduce her again very soon so that the fight isn't too easy. If she became an adult green dragon, I could wait until the players had reached higher levels. The problem is, does a dragon aging like this make sense from both a lore and a mechanical standpoint?
It will probably be only a few months in game time, since the characters don't have much opportunity for downtime in the world environment.
Is it reasonable for a dragon to age from a young dragon to an adult dragon since the characters encountered her?
According to FToD, a dragon needs to accumulate a certain size of hoard before it can progress to the Adult category, and that's something that can plausibly occur over a fairly short time scale.
Is it reasonable for a dragon to age from a young dragon to an adult dragon since the characters encountered her?
According to FToD, a dragon needs to accumulate a certain size of hoard before it can progress to the Adult category, and that's something that can plausibly occur over a fairly short time scale.
In this case, the dragon was the daughter of an ancient dragon who died (aging/sickness combined with the potential help of the young dragon or maybe this one organization), and essentially took over her hoard. How would that impact her aging process?
In this case, the dragon was the daughter of an ancient dragon who died (aging/sickness combined with the potential help of the young dragon or maybe this one organization), and essentially took over her hoard. How would that impact her aging process?
You're the DM and it's not like there's firm rules. As long as you can come up with a story good enough to convince your players, that's all you need.
In earlier editions, this could be sidestepped by having monsters advance in PC classes. For instance, a dragon could be young but also accumulate ten levels of sorcerer. If you're not interested in time travel, this might be good logic to import.
Is it reasonable for a dragon to age from a young dragon to an adult dragon since the characters encountered her?
According to FToD, a dragon needs to accumulate a certain size of hoard before it can progress to the Adult category, and that's something that can plausibly occur over a fairly short time scale.
In this case, the dragon was the daughter of an ancient dragon who died (aging/sickness combined with the potential help of the young dragon or maybe this one organization), and essentially took over her hoard. How would that impact her aging process?
You're looking for precision where what you really need is narrative contrivance, and Fizban really opens up the possibility for the maturation of dragons. Heck there are multiple options for the production of viable dragon eggs in that book, everything from traditional mating to sort of "poof" it's just there. Bottom line is a dragon develops the way the DM wants it too. You have what sounds like solid narrative symmetry for the party to meet an older version of the dragon down the line, so lean into the this young dragon growing to a form more suited to its station as heir to its ancestor's hoard. It's D&D not the Discovery Channel or even Wild Kratts.
If you have some sort of lore lawyer (which is probably the one play style worse than a rule lawyers IMHO) who has some chart from one page of one book that says a wyrmling is 0-99 years, young 99-500, etc. and insists your dragon is impossible by centuries, say the dragon's new hoard had a portal to another plane, like call the plane the Well of Dragons, which de facto incubated the dragon to a greater form, infusing it with greater draconic essence worthy of its birthright as heir, yada yada.
The idea sounds fun for the party, just make it so.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
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Is it reasonable for a dragon to age from a young dragon to an adult dragon since the characters encountered her?
In my campaign, the characters encountered a young green dragon at very low level and bargained with her to pass through her territory unharmed. (The bargain entailed dealing with her wyrmling rival, which the characters fulfilled by taking the wyrmling with them).
Now they have reached a higher level, I wanted to bring this dragon back into the campaign as an enemy. If the dragon remained a young green dragon, I would need to introduce her again very soon so that the fight isn't too easy. If she became an adult green dragon, I could wait until the players had reached higher levels. The problem is, does a dragon aging like this make sense from both a lore and a mechanical standpoint?
It will probably be only a few months in game time, since the characters don't have much opportunity for downtime in the world environment.
Only spilt the party if you see something shiny.
Ariendela Sneakerson, Half-elf Rogue (8); Harmony Wolfsbane, Tiefling Bard (10); Agnomally, Gnomish Sorcerer (3); Breeze, Tabaxi Monk (8); Grace, Dragonborn Barbarian (7); DM, Homebrew- The Sequestered Lands/Underwater Explorers; Candlekeep
According to FToD, a dragon needs to accumulate a certain size of hoard before it can progress to the Adult category, and that's something that can plausibly occur over a fairly short time scale.
In this case, the dragon was the daughter of an ancient dragon who died (aging/sickness combined with the potential help of the young dragon or maybe this one organization), and essentially took over her hoard. How would that impact her aging process?
Only spilt the party if you see something shiny.
Ariendela Sneakerson, Half-elf Rogue (8); Harmony Wolfsbane, Tiefling Bard (10); Agnomally, Gnomish Sorcerer (3); Breeze, Tabaxi Monk (8); Grace, Dragonborn Barbarian (7); DM, Homebrew- The Sequestered Lands/Underwater Explorers; Candlekeep
You're the DM and it's not like there's firm rules. As long as you can come up with a story good enough to convince your players, that's all you need.
In earlier editions, this could be sidestepped by having monsters advance in PC classes. For instance, a dragon could be young but also accumulate ten levels of sorcerer. If you're not interested in time travel, this might be good logic to import.
You're looking for precision where what you really need is narrative contrivance, and Fizban really opens up the possibility for the maturation of dragons. Heck there are multiple options for the production of viable dragon eggs in that book, everything from traditional mating to sort of "poof" it's just there. Bottom line is a dragon develops the way the DM wants it too. You have what sounds like solid narrative symmetry for the party to meet an older version of the dragon down the line, so lean into the this young dragon growing to a form more suited to its station as heir to its ancestor's hoard. It's D&D not the Discovery Channel or even Wild Kratts.
If you have some sort of lore lawyer (which is probably the one play style worse than a rule lawyers IMHO) who has some chart from one page of one book that says a wyrmling is 0-99 years, young 99-500, etc. and insists your dragon is impossible by centuries, say the dragon's new hoard had a portal to another plane, like call the plane the Well of Dragons, which de facto incubated the dragon to a greater form, infusing it with greater draconic essence worthy of its birthright as heir, yada yada.
The idea sounds fun for the party, just make it so.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.