Amphibious. The dragon can breathe both air and water.
Fabricate (1/Day). The dragon can cast fabricate, requiring no spell components and using Intelligence as the spellcasting ability.
Legendary Resistance (3/Day). If the dragon fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead.
Living Shadow. While in dim light or darkness, the dragon has resistance to damage that isn’t force, psychic, or radiant.
Shadow Stealth. While in dim light or darkness, the dragon can take the Hide action as a bonus action.
Sunlight Sensitivity. While in sunlight, the dragon has disadvantage on attack rolls, as well as on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight.
Multiattack. The dragon makes one Bite attack and two Claw attacks.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 15 (2d10 + 4) piercing damage plus 3 (1d6) necrotic damage.
Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (1d8 + 4) slashing damage.
Desiccating Breath (Recharge 5–6). The dragon exhales shadowy necrotic energy in a 60-foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a DC 17 Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, the creature takes 35 (10d6) necrotic damage and is weakened until the end of its next turn. A weakened creature has disadvantage on Strength-based ability checks and Strength saving throws, and the creature’s weapon attacks that rely on Strength deal half damage. On a successful save, the creature takes half as much damage and isn’t weakened. A humanoid reduced to 0 hit points by this damage dies, and an undead shadow rises from its corpse and acts immediately after the dragon in the initiative count. The shadow is under the dragon’s control.
Spellcasting (Psionics). The dragon casts one of the following spells, requiring no spell components and using Intelligence as the spellcasting ability (spell save DC 17):
1/day each: bane, control water, create or destroy water
Change Shape. The dragon magically transforms into any creature that is Medium or Small, while retaining its game statistics (other than its size). This transformation ends if the dragon is reduced to 0 hit points or uses a bonus action to end it.
Psychic Step. The dragon magically teleports to an unoccupied space it can see within 60 feet of it.
The dragon can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action option can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature’s turn. The dragon regains spent legendary actions at the start of its turn.
Claw. The dragon makes one Claw attack.
Psionics (Costs 2 Actions). The dragon uses Psychic Step or Spellcasting.
Essential Reduction (Costs 3 Actions). The dragon targets a creature or an object not being worn or carried that it can see within 60 feet of it. The target must succeed on a DC 17 Constitution saving throw or take 28 (8d6) necrotic damage. If this damage reduces the target to 0 hit points, it crumbles to dust.
Description
Shadow dragons are true dragons that were either born in the Shadowfell or transformed by years spent within its dismal confines. Some shadow dragons embrace the Shadowfell for its bleak landscapes and desolation. Others seek to return to the Material Plane, hungry to spread the darkness and evil of the Plane of Shadow.
Dark Portals. Portals to the Shadowfell manifest in forlorn places and the deep gloom of subterranean caverns. The dragons that lair in such places often discover these portals and find themselves transported to a new realm. Ancient dragons that sleep in their lairs for months or years at a time might find themselves spirited away, never knowing that a portal has formed without their knowledge as they dream.
Recast in Shadow. The transformation to a shadow dragon happens over a period of years, during which time a dragon’s scales lose their luster and fade to a charcoal hue. Its leathery wings become translucent, its eyes paling to pools of opalescent gray. Shadow dragons find sunlight abhorrent, and they are weaker in bright light than they are in darkness. Darkness makes the dragon fade to a spectral shadow of its former self.
The magical nature of dragons holds an attraction for the Shadowfell, which seems somehow to crave the might and majesty of these great reptiles. The Shadowfell also has a dispiriting effect on its denizens, such that the longer a creature remains on the plane, the more it accepts the plane’s malaise. As months and years pass for a dragon on the Shadowfell, it becomes aware of the transformation being wrought upon it, and yet can do nothing to prevent it.
Back in the World. A shadow dragon is so suffused with the power of the Shadowfell that even a return to the Material Plane can’t undo its transformation. Some shadow dragons attempt to lure other creatures from the mortal realm back to the Shadowfell to keep them company, at least until they tire of their guests and devour them. Others are happy to leave the Shadowfell behind forever, understanding that treasure and power are easier to come by in the Material Plane.
Lair and Lair Actions
A Topaz Dragon’s Lair
Topaz dragons dwell where the sea meets the land, favoring sites where the constant action of the waves and tides is slowly reducing the land to gravel. They make their lairs in caves set into sea cliffs, or beneath salt marshes where fresh water and sea water mingle, constantly grappling with their dislike of water to use flooded tunnels as secure entrances into their homes. They keep the interior chambers of their lairs meticulously dry.
The challenge rating of a legendary topaz dragon increases by 1 when it’s encountered in its lair.
Lair Actions
On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), the dragon can take one of the following lair actions; the dragon can’t take the same lair action two rounds in a row:
Beguiling Whisper. The dragon telepathically whispers to one creature within range of the dragon’s telepathy. The creature must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or be charmed by the dragon until initiative count 20 on the next round. A creature charmed in this way obeys to the best of its ability any command the dragon issues that isn’t directly harmful to the creature.
Cancellation. The dragon chooses an active spell of 5th level or lower that it’s aware of in the lair and ends the spell.
Negative Energy Infusion. Up to two creatures the dragon can see within the lair must each succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or take 14 (4d6) necrotic damage. Negative energy then infuses the lair until initiative count 20 on the next round. While the infusion lasts, creatures in the lair other than the dragon can’t regain hit points.
Regional Effects
The region surrounding a legendary topaz dragon’s lair is altered by the dragon’s magic, creating one or more of the following effects:
Crystal Profusion. Natural stone within 6 miles of the lair grows plentiful crystal formations and veins of topaz gemstones, particularly underground.
Negative Energy. When a creature finishes a long rest within 6 miles of the lair, the creature must first succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or be unable to reduce its levels of exhaustion or regain spent Hit Dice. Creatures resistant or immune to necrotic damage are immune to this regional effect.
Thriving Wildlife. Giant squid are attracted to the sea within 6 miles of the lair, migrating and hunting there in large numbers.
Watery Sight. Water within 6 miles of the lair is a conduit for the dragon’s psionic presence. As an action, the dragon can cast the clairvoyance spell, requiring no spell components and targeting any body of water in that region.
If the dragon dies, the population of giant squid in the region returns to normal levels over the course of 1d10 days. The existing abundance of crystals and topazes remains, but new ones form at a normal rate.
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