d20 Mongoose Publishing Classic Play - Book Of Dragons.pdf - Mongoose Publishing - R5700

Classic Play

Book of Dragons

Gareth Hanrahan

Contents

Introduction 2

The Desolation of the Dragon 4

Watchers on the Mountain 12

Servants of the Dragon 23

Dragon Lairs 52

Flattery and Riddles 68

Tactics and Warfare 75

Dragon Anatomy 93

Hoards 118

Age Advancement 124

Dragon Feats 141

Dragon Design 149

New Dragons 158

Dragon Magic 188

Lifecycle 204

On the Heritage of Dragons 209

Hatching and Raising Dragons 217

Campaigning

Credits

Developer

Paul Tucker

Cover Art

Vincent Hie

Interior Illustrations

Tony Parker, Brent Chumley, Stephen Shepherd,

Patricio Soler, Richard Otey, Chris Quilliams, Fred

Rawles, Gillian Pearce, Shane Coppage, Andrew

Jordan, Oliver Erikson, Renato Guedes, Scott Purdey

Production Manager

Alexander Fennell

Proof Reading

Ben Hesketh

Playtesting

Mark Howe, Daniel Scothorne, Mark Sizer, Michael

Young, Mark Billanie, Daniel Haslam, Jamie

Godfrey, Alan Moore, Leigh Anne Reger, John R.

Ivicek Jr., Mike Mang, David S. Souza

226

A Mortal Miscellany

244

Index

251

Designer’s Notes

255

Open Game Content & Copyright Information

Open Game Content of this work by any means without the written permission of the publisher is expressly

forbidden. Classic Play – Book of Dragons is presented under the Open Game and D20 Licences. See page 64

for the text of these licences. All text paragraphs and tables containing game mechanics and statistics derivative

of Open Game Content and the System Reference Document are considered to be Open Game Content. All

other signiﬁcant characters, names, places, items, art and text herein are copyrighted by Mongoose Publishing.

are used according to the terms of the d20 System License version 5.0. A copy of this License can be found at

www.wizards.com/d20. The mention of or reference to any company or product in these pages is not a challenge to

the trademark or copyright concerned. Dungeons & Dragons and Wizards of the Coast are trademarks of Wizards of

the Coast, Inc. in the United States and other countries and are used with permission. Printed in China.

Mongoose Publishing

Mongoose Publishing, PO Box 1018, Swindon, SN3 1DG, United Kingdom

info@mongoosepublishing.com

Visit the Mongoose Publishing website at www.mongoosepublishing.com for additional rules and news

INTRODUCTION

Introduction

H umanity’s myths are dreams of dragons.

If by some miracle the party survive, they can delve

into the fabled Hoards of the dragons, or even into

the carcass of their foe with reference to Anatomy of

the Dragon.

No other creature is quite so present, so

dominant, in our stories. Almost every

culture has its own tales of the serpents. Our

fantasy reﬂects this, and dragons have been one

of the deﬁning elements of the fantasy genre for

decades, and their pedigree in adventure gaming is

obvious. There is good reason for this pre-eminence

– no other creature has the power or the terrifying

majesty of the dragons, no other creature has the

curious alchemy of horror and glory that makes

dragons so wonderful. On leathern wings, they soar

across the skies of our imagined worlds. Their ﬁre

threatens the world, but also illuminates it.

After this, we move on to customising dragons. Age

Advancement presents a variant method for creating

dragons especially skilled in warfare, or magic, or

some other ﬁeld of expertise. A selection of new

Feats (with especially emphasis on the feared breath

weapon) follows. The rules in those two chapters

are then used as the basis of a system of Dragon

Design.

The nightmarish fruits of that system are presented

in New Dragons , ranging from the parasitical Sin

Dragons to the noble Heraldic Dragon and chaotic

Planar Dragons.

The simplest adventure game is going into the

dungeon, killing the monsters, and bringing back

the treasure. Turn that monster into a dragon, and

you’ve got a myth that has resonated through the

centuries.

Dragon Magic has new spells and items for dragons

(and their enemies). Lifecycle and the Heritage of

Dragons delves into the physiology and history

of the draconic species. Hatching and Raising

Dragons examines the egg. Campaigning contains

advice on using dragons in a game, as symbols,

enemies, allies, mounts or even characters. Finally,

a Mortal Miscellany deals with the response of the

lesser races to the dragons.

The Book of Dragons is designed to be the deﬁnitive

guide to using dragons in a game. It complements

but does not require the Slayer’s Guide to Dragons

and Encyclopedia Arcane: Dragon Magic .

Overview

The ﬁrst half of this book traces the path of an

adventuring party as they approach a dragon. The

Desolation of the Dragon describes the region

around a lair, and explores the effects dragons have

on their environment. Watchers on the Mountain

provides a system for tracking the progress of

the party and the responses of the dragon and its

servants. Servants of the Dragon has details on the

various kinds of warriors and pawns used by dragons

to defend their lairs and affect the mortal world.

The Classic Play

Series

Classic Play is a new series of books from

Mongoose Publishing, each examining an element

of fantasy gaming in glorious detail. Each book

contains new rules, new ideas and insightful essays

to bring a particular aspect of the game to life in

your campaign.

Dragon Lairs has all the detail needed to design a

dragon’s lair, from a dank cave ﬁlled with rotting

remains of previous adventurers to an ancient ruined

city despoiled by the beast. When the party ﬁnally

encounter the dragon, Flattery and Riddles lets them

have a few last moments before the dragon employs

its Tactics and Warfare to wipe them out.

INTRODUCTION

I see you there, thief.

Yes, even in the shadows. Don’t be so coy. Come forth. Come forth or burn to death.

Ah. The diplomacy of dragonfire never fails.

You thought you would catch me sleeping. Ah, innocence. I heard your footsteps through the stone,

thief, and I can taste your sweat on the air. Even in this dim light, I mark your trembling lip and shaking

hands. Your fear pollutes you. Be not afraid! I mean you no harm.

That’s a lie, of course. Dragons lie on beds of gold, which is what drew you here, thief. Do you like

my hoard? I see that you do. Your eyes, quivering behind their curtain of tears, flicker between two

magnificent sights – me and my hoard. Even now, with your death close at hand, you cannot help but

desire my gold. That is an avarice I can respect.

No, that does not mean you can keep the cup you stole. Put in down – wipe your grease off it, first.

Now…what shall we do with you, thief? Killing you is little sport. My teeth can tear through plate

armour forged by dwarves and warded by elven-spells and my claws can shatter granite, while you

are wearing what smells to be dried cow-skin. I don’t suppose you’re some sort of superhumanly agile

acrobat who can evade my strikes like the wind.

*snitkt*

No, obviously not. Oh, stop whimpering. The wound isn’t that deep. I barely scratched you. It will heal

and scar.

Now, you will run. You will run back the way you came, through the tunnels and winding worm-guts

of my mountain. My defences will not slow you, my guardians will not bar your path. You will run to

whatever fetid city or canker of a village you call home. Run home, dripping blood all the way.

It will be long years before I come for you, thief. That wound that wells up hot ruby blood now, it will

be a old grey scar and a dull ache before I come for you. The dragonfear will never leave you; it will soak

into the marrow of your bones and the sinews of your heart. You will listen in the night for the sound

of leathern wings. Every shadow that passes overhead shall be a presage of doom. Every crackling fire

shall carry the promise of my breath.

And I shall surely bring that fire. When you are old and grey, thief, when the short years of your life are

running out and you are thin as a dried stick, then shall I take flight. I have marked you, scarred you; I

have tasted your blood and know your scent. I shall find you, and I shall burn you and all your kin and

all you hold dear. I shall scatter the ashes of your bodies and sift them for gold, I shall raze your home

and set all the lands aflame in the glory of my wrath.

You are a thief, thief, and you will pay for daring to steal from my hoard. You will burn.

What more did you expect? You descended into the dungeon, and you found the dragon.

THE DESOLATION OF THE DRAGON

THE

DESOLATION

OF THE

DRAGON

It is a great blessing that most dragons spend much

of their time asleep or fasting. If a dragon indulges

its appetite fully, it can depopulate its whole domain

in a season or two. This is not because the dragon

literally eats everything and everyone in the area,

as even the most voracious monsters have limits

to the amount of food they can catch, but a roused

dragon might set forests alight, burn the life from a

river, or smash a town into cinders purely because

it can. Dragons do not merely hunt for food, they

hunt to possess and selﬁshly destroy. Everything in

a dragon’s domain exists at the dragon’s whim, and

when the dragon’s ire is raised, the dragonﬁre will

claim it.

O n rare occasions, a traveller may ﬁnd a

ghastly signpost on a country road – the

burnt and crushed corpse, often that of

an armoured knight. If any of the cadaver’s face

survives, the expression is invariably one of terror.

The corpse stands propped against a tree or stone,

one hand outstretched. In that hand is a single gold

coin, scarred by the marks of huge claws. This

solitary coin is the wyrm-gild, the fraction of a

dragon’s hoard that the wyrm gives away freely. The

traveller may take the coin without consequences.

Domain Size

The size of a domain is determined by the strength

and size of its ruler. Obviously, especially strong

dragons, or those with access to powerful magical

items can safely claim a larger domain. The basic

radius of a domain (centred on the dragon’s lair) is

the dragon’s age category squared in miles, modiﬁed

as follows:

The broken corpse shows the consequences of

trying to take more than that single coin. In leaving

the wyrm-gild, the dragon marks the borders of his

territory and declares that it has given the rest of the

world its due. Anything beyond that coin must be

bought with blood.

Dragon Domain Size

Dragon Status

Domain Size Modiﬁer

Spellcasting

+1 mile per level of

spellcaster

Vassal Dragons

+1/2 size of vassal’s

domain

Domains

Dragons are solitary creatures by nature. While

there are nests or cities where several wyrms dwell,

these places are very much the exception. Most

dragons establish their lair in some cavern or dwarf-

hold, then claim the surrounding territory as their

domain. These domains bear little resemblance to

the geographic or political borders of the region.

Other dragons within the domain must either be

driven out or forced to yield - chromatic and younger

metallic dragons engage in physical combat, while

the elder metallics resolve conﬂicts of domain using

riddle-contests or negotiation. If a dragon yields

to another, it becomes a vassal wyrm (see On The

Heritage of Dragons ).

Mated Pair of

Dragons

Increase domain size

by 50%

Strength above

+1 mile per point

above 25

Intelligence

above 25

+1 mile per point

above 25

Charisma above

+1 mile per point

above 25

For example, the average Adult Red Dragon has

a domain 51 miles in radius (36 miles due to age,

+7 for being a 7 th level sorcerer, +8 miles for a

Strength of 33). The dragon can reach anywhere in

its domain within two hours if it hustles, but it takes

around two days at best for grounded travellers to

reach the dragon’s lair – and at any point during that

frightful march, the dragon could swoop down and

incinerate them if their presence is discovered.

Only other dragons and – rarely – other powerful

beings are taken into account when a dragon claims

its domain. The great egotism of the dragons

prevent them from considering humans and other

races as anything more than a quick snack or pets.

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