Some DMing help

[halfdragon62]

First, if any of my real life players are reading this, navigate away. Reading this post, and subsequent posts will only undermine your enjoyment of the campaign as well as mine.

I am currently running a d&d campaign with slight horror influences, and, of course, at some point I would like to run an adventure path which features a dragon as the major antagonist.

But herein lies the problem: Dragons are among the most (if not the fore-most) familiar icons in fantasy and mythology, let alone Dungeons and Dragons. Granted, a great wyrm is perhaps the most intimidating statistical nightmare a group of players will ever encounter - But this is fear in the meta-game sense of "His strength is what?! And he has how many attacks?!", ergo; A fear born of familiarity with the game. And while this does create genuine tension at the table, it isn't really "horror". Unfortuneately, how can you make something so familiar (so iconic!) to the players horrific? (Familiarity breeds contempt anyone?)
The irony, of course, is the sheer power and versatility that dragons have at their disposal - They're massive, they fly, they're insanely intelligent and strong, their psychology and perception of morality is completely alien to a human, and they are potent spellcasters! By default, they should scare the sh!+ out of the players (and in some ways they still do). But how to put the horror back into the dragon!?

[Vladislav]

Dragons can polymorph. Rumors of a dragon wandering about in human form are afoot. Everyone your players meet could be that dragon!

They don't actually need to ever see the dragon to be afraid... just the possibility could be quite scary.

[Gamer Girl]

1.Don't Use a Familiar Dragon--Don't make your dragon a 'common chromatic type' right out of the MM. Scattered through the books you can find a good 30 or 40 other dragon types. An unknown dragon is scary. Plus over on the homebrew board you can find lost of new dragon types.

2.Spice Up the Dragon--A ghost dragon, a dracolich, a construct dragon, or any other template. Or you can give the dragon a powerful magic item, location or such.

3.The Non-Standard Dragon--A dragon does not have to be a big, flying, strong monster. How about a weak, near skeletal, wingless dragon(that lost a big fight once upon a time) now doing the 'old godfather' role. How about a huge, fat dragon(AKA Dragon the Hutt). And so forth.

[Kuulvheysoon]

Agreeing with Gamer_Girl's #3 here.

Look at the Draconomicon, if you can. It's got tons of options for alternate dragons, up to (and including) the flightless Landwyrms (ranging in CR from about 5? to 22), Planar dragons (imagine dragons without spellcasting, and focused on a specific 'plane', all with the full 12 age categories), and vampiric/zombie/ghost/skeletal dragons (slightly different stats/abilities than if you had just applied the standard templates.

Dragon Magic also offers some alternative dragon abilities, like removing their frightful presence and replacing it with different auras, like one that deals fire damage based on it's age category. Then there's also different sets of SLAs that you can give them.

There's really a lot of options out there. If you told us more about the campaign, maybe we could give you more specific help?

[halfdragon62]

If you told us more about the campaign, maybe we could give you more specific help?

Here's the setting in a pinch: Norse-like culture and religion clashing with omnipresent single religion; Arcane and "Wild" magic is distrusted, as it is believed to open one up to dark influences. Alignment is pretty much out the window, to allow for "Shades of Grey" moral choices. Magic is not quite as common as in other campaigns, the general populace suffer from famine, disease, and the abuse of power by those in authority. Tainted regions and dark magic and monstrosities lurk just out of reach of most garrisons, constantly threatening settlements. Generally, quite bleak, with weather ranging from temperately cool to deathly freezing. Dragon-wise, they are believed to have been wiped from the region. But you and I both know that there is one last wyrm out there somewhere... His warped mind lusting for revenge against the society that destroyed his brethren and left him in exile... until the time is ripe to remind mortals why their ancestors feared the once upon a time lords of heaven and earth...

Also, taint, and other stuff from Heroes of Horror.

[Kuulvheysoon]

Frozen, eh?

Frostburn might have some interesting stuff for you.

Draconomicon-wise, there's a Tundra Landwyrm (sucks blood, likes to ambush), but it hits CR 16ish. No wings, though, not breath weapon or spells. Might be an interesting "warm up" for the big finale. Shadow Dragons also seem to fit the flavor that you're going for here, and their shadow-related abilities are quite cool.

For Dragon magic.... well, there's always the Twilight Guardians (dragon-like plants that are bonded to nature... quite a bit lower CR, something like around 7?). They're actually created from the spirits of dead dragons, so fits with your whole "dragons got massacred" plotline. White dragons get some pretty neat ice/cold related SLA/SLA-replacement stuff in there too.

Whatever you choose, definitely have undead dragons roaming the lands, their spirits restless, endlessly searching for revenge against the humans who slew them.... Undead dragons are also immune to cold:smallwink:

[Gamer Girl]

A Norse-like culture? Well, then you don't want a dragon at all.......you want a Linnorm(Aka Norse Dragons). You can find then in MM2(plus more variants on the web).

[halfdragon62]

Those are some damn cool ideas actually...

Oh, how about this: The party, having heard reports of draconic apparitions, track them down and destroy them. Eventually, they learn the ghosts must be coming from a dragon graveyard. Arriving at the location, a place where those dragons who were slain or who sought death of their own accord were brought to be laid to rest, the party quickly discovers that, along with those perturbed spirits who have been unable to pass on, the graveyard's ancient guardian remains, along with his half-dragon children and servants. And, it quickly becomes apparent that the guardian has been nursing a grudge against mortals for all the long centuries he has stood vigilant...

[Kuulvheysoon]

Only problem being that they're 3.0. Which isn't bad, per se, but have you SEEN the "errata" for the MM2? It's completely horrendous!

That and the fact that the WEAKEST is CR18/19.

[Kuulvheysoon]

Those are some damn cool ideas actually...

Oh, how about this: The party, having heard reports of draconic apparitions, track them down and destroy them. Eventually, they learn the ghosts must be coming from a dragon graveyard. Arriving at the location, a place where those dragons who were slain or who sought death of their own accord were brought to be laid to rest, the party quickly discovers that, along with those perturbed spirits who have been unable to pass on, the graveyard's ancient guardian remains, along with his half-dragon children and servants. And, it quickly becomes apparent that the guardian has been nursing a grudge against mortals for all the long centuries he has stood vigilant...

Sounds awesome. Hope that their cleric has been advancing his turn undead!

[halfdragon62]

A Norse-like culture? Well, then you don't want a dragon at all.......you want a Linnorm(Aka Norse Dragons). You can find then in MM2(plus more variants on the web).

Holy...
You just blew my mind.

[Kuulvheysoon]

Holy...
You just blew my mind.

Actually... aside from being CR 28 (!!!), the Corpse Tearer Linnorm would be perfect for this, especially considering all their powers over undead.

(Corpse tearer is on the far right)
http://132.209.40.23/w4/campagne/Downloads/e-tools_UPDATES/Unzip%20dans%20eTools_Portraits/completed%20etools%20portraits/monster%20manual%20ii/Linnorms.jpg

[halfdragon62]

Well, at least now I know I don't need to go through all the work of creating stats for "Nidhogg" from scratch... Hehehe...

[Kuulvheysoon]

You are an evil, evil DM... why can't you live in Canada?:smallfrown:

(So I can join your game)

[halfdragon62]

You flatter me sir

My thanks to both of you, my imagination is aflame! :smallbiggrin: