I agree with Maruntoryx about the timing. Just for some detail, per Fizban’s, a dragon is a wyrmling for the first 5 years. Then young until about 100, and adult until about 800 when they finally become ancient.
Dragons take a while to age, but maybe if you inserted magical aging or something (in times of stress, biological experiments upon this dragons when it was an egg causes it to rapidly age) and then when facing the BBEG it goes berserk, jumps to ancient from young, saves the party, then dies of age, it might work.
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He doesn't have much besides the skin on his bones. Me: I'll take the skin on his bones, then.
"You see a gigantic, monstrous praying mantis burst from out of the ground. It sprays a stream of acid from it's mouth at one soldier, dissolving him instantly, then it turns and chomps another soldier in half with it's- "
I know it sounds insane but I am thinking about giving my players a gold dragon egg that will hatch an go it's lifespan as they level up.
So, the ultimate debate is should I?
It takes far longer than a typical campaign for a dragon to mature, so it'll probably never progress past Wyrmling.
I agree with Maruntoryx about the timing. Just for some detail, per Fizban’s, a dragon is a wyrmling for the first 5 years. Then young until about 100, and adult until about 800 when they finally become ancient.
Dragons take a while to age, but maybe if you inserted magical aging or something (in times of stress, biological experiments upon this dragons when it was an egg causes it to rapidly age) and then when facing the BBEG it goes berserk, jumps to ancient from young, saves the party, then dies of age, it might work.
He doesn't have much besides the skin on his bones. Me: I'll take the skin on his bones, then.
"You see a gigantic, monstrous praying mantis burst from out of the ground. It sprays a stream of acid from it's mouth at one soldier, dissolving him instantly, then it turns and chomps another soldier in half with it's- "
"When are we gonna take a snack break?"
Then over the course of a few long campains.
Or magic as WolfeCriedPup said.