In my story there is a Young Red Dragon who is sort of a good character? Trying to make it redeemable, like it's being manipulated by a much more powerful evil Red Dragon. I wanted to make it obvious on her age and how easily her rage could be used a manipulated by others. I also wanted to add something like a fixation for humanoids or what not, what did you guys think I should add? Any suggestions?
First you have to decide how Alignment is decided in your game. Is this a prescriptive thing or is it purely descriptive? For me, going with the lore Alignment is prescriptive for Outsiders and a few other things in the game. Illithids for instance are Aberrations and are so alien in their outlook that their actions and method of sustenance they are de facto evil. Dragons are another type that are defined by their alignments. Gold Dragons are good and lawful, Red Dragons are evil and chaotic. Why? Because they are embodied forces of nature and closely tied to those roles by their Draconic Gods (Bahamut and Tiamat).
If a young or very young Red Dragon in my mind were to swerve from the inherently prescribed alignment of Chaotic Evil, there would still be vestiges of the proscribed alignment as you said: Rage and Avarice. Reds are engines of destruction when roused, they are smart yes, but they are also prone to laying waste to whatever annoys them. Channelling this, and keeping the young Dragon under control whenever it throws a temper tantrum is going to be a challenge. Avarice is another thing, and one that all dragons suffer from: they LOVE stuff. How much treasure is she going to want to be happy? 20%...50% or more of what the party finds? She isn't going to be content wallowing in a portable hole filled with coppers either. She wants the real deal, and might want that gold and silver threaded tapestry hanging in the Duke's dining hall as a blankie.
One last thing, other dragons, will want to bend this one back to the prescribed path or attempt to kill her as a mutant and obscenity to Tiamat's design. Do the players have the capacity to consider Dragons a "wandering monster" encounter with 10-15% chance each week or so?
If you are the DM, you can basically do any tweaking that you want, but keep in mind that bending the expectations of your players too much might make the game feel less immersive for them. That said, Hawksmoor makes some good points about decisions that you need to make about how alignment functions in your world. For what reason are chromatic dragons considered Evil in your world? Do Tiamat and Bahamut exist in that universe? If so, how much influence do they exert over their spawn's spawn?
If I were a DM who wanted to adjust the Red Dragon for purposes of storytelling and potential cooperation with the party, I would change the avarice for shiny treasure to something less likely to cause violent conflict, like food or hats or vestiges of collapsed ruins. Make it something that will not have the dragon constantly arguing with the party over. Regarding the temper tantrums, that would be have to be managed somehow b/c while a pissed off baby dragon might be occasionally cute, a pissed off adult dragon is never a laughing matter for nearby humanoids.
If I understand it correctly, what you're asking is how can you show the redemptive qualities of a red dragon.
That can be hard, but one way is to give it something the characters themselves might bond with. Maybe the red is followed by an animal companion. The path to redemption could start with that companion dying during one of its rages. If the party has a similar creature, the red might spare their lives through a combination of pity and remorse.
I would do a silly cute voice so the players wouldn't want to attack it lol. Maybe while it isn't being controlled it protects a village from an attack I dunno. Maybe it just loves humans and talks like how you would a puppy dog because they all look the same to the dragon lol.
I guess you could have a Red Dragon similar to the character of Greed in Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood. Somebody who wants power and possessions but who genuiinely cares for the wellbeing of those who are willing to serve her/him. Polite and possibly willing to do favors for others in exchange for opportunities to expand their own reach of power at some point down the line. Of course, there must be some prominent bigger, more greedy and powerful villains in your campaign for this to come off as redeemable.
Depending on how your world works, where did the young dragon get their world view? The young dragons world view may have come from their parentage, the nature of Red Dragons, or from the way people treated them. So figure out the world view of the entity that imparted it to the young dragon, and have the young dragon hit the age where they start to question that. Knowing this information will help you figure out how this NPC reacts to the players, their surroundings, and how to engage in conversation with them.
This sets up a great fun theme to layer into your adventure that can rear it's head in many other ways: Nature vs. Nurture.
The young dragon is redeemable because they are challenging the beliefs they were raised with or the nature of who red dragons are. That's further complicated by the way the people of the realm (a traditional D&D realm at any rate) treat Red Dragons, which fear, suspicion, and violence; possibly supporting the evil/malevolent nature that the young dragon is questioning.
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In my story there is a Young Red Dragon who is sort of a good character? Trying to make it redeemable, like it's being manipulated by a much more powerful evil Red Dragon. I wanted to make it obvious on her age and how easily her rage could be used a manipulated by others. I also wanted to add something like a fixation for humanoids or what not, what did you guys think I should add? Any suggestions?
First you have to decide how Alignment is decided in your game. Is this a prescriptive thing or is it purely descriptive? For me, going with the lore Alignment is prescriptive for Outsiders and a few other things in the game. Illithids for instance are Aberrations and are so alien in their outlook that their actions and method of sustenance they are de facto evil. Dragons are another type that are defined by their alignments. Gold Dragons are good and lawful, Red Dragons are evil and chaotic. Why? Because they are embodied forces of nature and closely tied to those roles by their Draconic Gods (Bahamut and Tiamat).
If a young or very young Red Dragon in my mind were to swerve from the inherently prescribed alignment of Chaotic Evil, there would still be vestiges of the proscribed alignment as you said: Rage and Avarice. Reds are engines of destruction when roused, they are smart yes, but they are also prone to laying waste to whatever annoys them. Channelling this, and keeping the young Dragon under control whenever it throws a temper tantrum is going to be a challenge. Avarice is another thing, and one that all dragons suffer from: they LOVE stuff. How much treasure is she going to want to be happy? 20%...50% or more of what the party finds? She isn't going to be content wallowing in a portable hole filled with coppers either. She wants the real deal, and might want that gold and silver threaded tapestry hanging in the Duke's dining hall as a blankie.
One last thing, other dragons, will want to bend this one back to the prescribed path or attempt to kill her as a mutant and obscenity to Tiamat's design. Do the players have the capacity to consider Dragons a "wandering monster" encounter with 10-15% chance each week or so?
If you are the DM, you can basically do any tweaking that you want, but keep in mind that bending the expectations of your players too much might make the game feel less immersive for them. That said, Hawksmoor makes some good points about decisions that you need to make about how alignment functions in your world. For what reason are chromatic dragons considered Evil in your world? Do Tiamat and Bahamut exist in that universe? If so, how much influence do they exert over their spawn's spawn?
If I were a DM who wanted to adjust the Red Dragon for purposes of storytelling and potential cooperation with the party, I would change the avarice for shiny treasure to something less likely to cause violent conflict, like food or hats or vestiges of collapsed ruins. Make it something that will not have the dragon constantly arguing with the party over. Regarding the temper tantrums, that would be have to be managed somehow b/c while a pissed off baby dragon might be occasionally cute, a pissed off adult dragon is never a laughing matter for nearby humanoids.
If I understand it correctly, what you're asking is how can you show the redemptive qualities of a red dragon.
That can be hard, but one way is to give it something the characters themselves might bond with. Maybe the red is followed by an animal companion. The path to redemption could start with that companion dying during one of its rages. If the party has a similar creature, the red might spare their lives through a combination of pity and remorse.
Sounds like a good idea MikeoftheGC, one of my players has a fashion designer bard so maybe the dragon enjoys dresses and befriends them?
I would do a silly cute voice so the players wouldn't want to attack it lol. Maybe while it isn't being controlled it protects a village from an attack I dunno. Maybe it just loves humans and talks like how you would a puppy dog because they all look the same to the dragon lol.
-Sol
I guess you could have a Red Dragon similar to the character of Greed in Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood. Somebody who wants power and possessions but who genuiinely cares for the wellbeing of those who are willing to serve her/him. Polite and possibly willing to do favors for others in exchange for opportunities to expand their own reach of power at some point down the line. Of course, there must be some prominent bigger, more greedy and powerful villains in your campaign for this to come off as redeemable.
Depending on how your world works, where did the young dragon get their world view? The young dragons world view may have come from their parentage, the nature of Red Dragons, or from the way people treated them. So figure out the world view of the entity that imparted it to the young dragon, and have the young dragon hit the age where they start to question that. Knowing this information will help you figure out how this NPC reacts to the players, their surroundings, and how to engage in conversation with them.
This sets up a great fun theme to layer into your adventure that can rear it's head in many other ways: Nature vs. Nurture.
The young dragon is redeemable because they are challenging the beliefs they were raised with or the nature of who red dragons are. That's further complicated by the way the people of the realm (a traditional D&D realm at any rate) treat Red Dragons, which fear, suspicion, and violence; possibly supporting the evil/malevolent nature that the young dragon is questioning.