My party will be stumbling upon a young Green Dragon. Does anyone know if there are parts of the dragon that can be used for potions and other magic related items (ie scales, the gland that produces the poisonous gas, etc)?
Dragon Scale armor is an obvious choice. Maybe some poison-related items, periapt of proof against poison, dagger of venom, serpent’s fang. Just do an item search on poison. While it’s not official, I’ve always considered dragons ability to fly as magical, rather than the physics of their wings, so flight-related items are fair game in my book.
Dragonscale armor (and shields) are an obvious one but if you stop to think about it it’s not just the scales that are resistant it’s the skin underneath as well. And that skin should be fairly thick too so you can conceivably get 2 layers from it - an inner layer you could make a normal leather armor from and an outer layer with the harden attachment points for the (removed) scales that could be used to create studded leather armor. There are several of magic items listed that are made from dragon claws/fangs/horns so you might want to read through the sourcebooks for them (Fizban’s should have a few). Blood or other selected fluids should be a basis for fire breath potions (and spells) ( infact why aren’t there potions of cold breath, lightning breath, poison breath, acid breath etc based off of dragon blood/fluids?). As I said there is no real official list in 5e so have fun being creative.
Take note of the CR of the creature, it may come in handy per the Magic Item Ingredients in XGtE. Consider breaking the creature down into units of X, where X is the resource material. leather (skin), scales, bone, teeth, heart, organ that allows for breath weapon... you get the idea. Then decide how much of each resource a creature of this particular size would yield of each type of material. Give a party member an opportunity, Medicine Check, to harvest an amount of resources. DC determines how much of what they are able to harvest. Allow for one check per time interval (like every hour or four hours) to spend butchering. Might suggest starting the small end of the table at DC 15 or 20 and escalate from there. Higher the result, the more resources are gleaned and the better the quality of the resource. Leather, scales and bones being the most common, organs and blood being more rare.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
"...or you can find the secret tunnel that leads to the Vault of Dickish DM which is filled with 10,000,000 copper coins and a 5,000 pound solid gold statue of a middle finger that is too big to fit through the door."
Dragons are very magical so you could probably use their parts to make almost anything. You just need to link the parts function to that of the item. e.g
Hearts have historically viewed as the core of a living thing or a source of its power. Similarly the heart can act like a magical battery to power magical items things like say a staff or wand. Examples are harry potter wands made from dragon heart strings. It would work best if you chose spells linked to the dragons elements or magic but by combining the dragons heart with another item connected to that spell you could easily justify the heat being used like a battery.
Blood has similar connotations to the heart and so can also be used more broadly but has a greater association obviously with liquids and consumables. There is also the common myth of bathing in blood as part of magical rituals for youth or invulnerability in fiction.
Eyes are obviously associated with sight and a dragons magical nature makes magical sight within it's realm. items like the gem of seeing or [Tooltip Not Found] fit that bill.
There is also the notion of like capturing or countering like from things like homeopathy so the use of dragon parts to make explicitly anti dragon items is also common. Similarly things like the eye which have a strong association to something else like sight could similarly be used to counter that thing like using a dragon eye to create invisibility and illusions.
Bones are solid and strong they have connections to ideas like the earth and martial combat. There's also an idea that bones carry the history or spirit of a thing so a small echoe of the dragons bower may be present. It may also some how bind the spirit creating a ghostly fear aura or something similar.
The green dragon specifically if run how they are in the books has elements of mind control and control of nature as well.
Something from mythology, dragons blood allows them to understand the speech of birds. As a DM, have them drink or be submerged in dragon blood on accident or by their choice. Then, have the birds begin speaking to them, and here are two ways to do that:
One, have birds talking be what birds would say. They might be able to give warnings to the players when a monster is approaching, but not all they say may be completely accurate. They might start screaming of a giant, flying beast of darkness with razor sharp talons. Have all the players rush around in fear, and then they see an eagle fly overhead. To a bird, an eagle is a horrible monster of death. Characters might try to start up conversations with the birds, but they will mostly talk about worms, seeds, air currents, and other bird stuff.
The other option is to make birds more mystical. Birds have been attributed prophetic powers, think of augury. Maybe birdsong is really the prophetic chants of the future. A creature who can understand what they say will hear snippets of divination every now and then. For example, in Hellboy, birds often seem to randomly announce important events that have happened or will happen. Sometimes the birds act as heralds, announcing the appearance of mysterious figures of great power. Have the birds do this when a powerful foe or friend approaches your characters. Use the birds as a sort of in-game narrator.
For a way to mechanically express some of these effects, maybe make it so that the characters are immune to being surprised while in wooded areas or anywhere that there might be birds.
My party will be stumbling upon a young Green Dragon. Does anyone know if there are parts of the dragon that can be used for potions and other magic related items (ie scales, the gland that produces the poisonous gas, etc)?
There is no official list of parts that is up to the DM to create.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
Are you saying you’re looking for ideas?
Dragon Scale armor is an obvious choice. Maybe some poison-related items, periapt of proof against poison, dagger of venom, serpent’s fang. Just do an item search on poison.
While it’s not official, I’ve always considered dragons ability to fly as magical, rather than the physics of their wings, so flight-related items are fair game in my book.
Dragonscale armor (and shields) are an obvious one but if you stop to think about it it’s not just the scales that are resistant it’s the skin underneath as well. And that skin should be fairly thick too so you can conceivably get 2 layers from it - an inner layer you could make a normal leather armor from and an outer layer with the harden attachment points for the (removed) scales that could be used to create studded leather armor. There are several of magic items listed that are made from dragon claws/fangs/horns so you might want to read through the sourcebooks for them (Fizban’s should have a few). Blood or other selected fluids should be a basis for fire breath potions (and spells) ( infact why aren’t there potions of cold breath, lightning breath, poison breath, acid breath etc based off of dragon blood/fluids?). As I said there is no real official list in 5e so have fun being creative.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
Take note of the CR of the creature, it may come in handy per the Magic Item Ingredients in XGtE. Consider breaking the creature down into units of X, where X is the resource material. leather (skin), scales, bone, teeth, heart, organ that allows for breath weapon... you get the idea. Then decide how much of each resource a creature of this particular size would yield of each type of material. Give a party member an opportunity, Medicine Check, to harvest an amount of resources. DC determines how much of what they are able to harvest. Allow for one check per time interval (like every hour or four hours) to spend butchering. Might suggest starting the small end of the table at DC 15 or 20 and escalate from there. Higher the result, the more resources are gleaned and the better the quality of the resource. Leather, scales and bones being the most common, organs and blood being more rare.
Bones can be used for Staves, weapon hafting, crossbow stocks, even bows and blades if masterfully enchanted, carved and sculpted. Teeth make decent daggers. Leather might make decent Armor of Poison Resistance, Studded Leather. Scales would be useful for Dragon Scale Mail (Green), blood for Absorbing Tattoo, Poison, eyes for Sentinel Shield...you name it, you can do it.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
Thank you so much, these are great ideas and will be put to use!
Some more inspiration can be found here - Thieves' Guild Harvesting & Loot
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
"So you seek to butcher MY dragon?! Thou shall not pass!!"
The Hamund's Harvesting Handbook series is a pretty good resource for this: Hamund's Harvesting Handbook: A Complete Guide to Harvesting and Crafting in D&D 5e - Dungeon Masters Guild | Dungeon Masters Guild (dmsguild.com)
#OpenD&D #ORC
"...or you can find the secret tunnel that leads to the Vault of Dickish DM which is filled with 10,000,000 copper coins and a 5,000 pound solid gold statue of a middle finger that is too big to fit through the door."
Dragons are very magical so you could probably use their parts to make almost anything. You just need to link the parts function to that of the item. e.g
Something from mythology, dragons blood allows them to understand the speech of birds. As a DM, have them drink or be submerged in dragon blood on accident or by their choice. Then, have the birds begin speaking to them, and here are two ways to do that:
One, have birds talking be what birds would say. They might be able to give warnings to the players when a monster is approaching, but not all they say may be completely accurate. They might start screaming of a giant, flying beast of darkness with razor sharp talons. Have all the players rush around in fear, and then they see an eagle fly overhead. To a bird, an eagle is a horrible monster of death. Characters might try to start up conversations with the birds, but they will mostly talk about worms, seeds, air currents, and other bird stuff.
The other option is to make birds more mystical. Birds have been attributed prophetic powers, think of augury. Maybe birdsong is really the prophetic chants of the future. A creature who can understand what they say will hear snippets of divination every now and then. For example, in Hellboy, birds often seem to randomly announce important events that have happened or will happen. Sometimes the birds act as heralds, announcing the appearance of mysterious figures of great power. Have the birds do this when a powerful foe or friend approaches your characters. Use the birds as a sort of in-game narrator.
For a way to mechanically express some of these effects, maybe make it so that the characters are immune to being surprised while in wooded areas or anywhere that there might be birds.