Brown Dragons & Dragons in the Party

[zoobob9]

Here's the back story:

At the last meet I was at, while looking for a new mount, the beastmaster had a Dragon Egg with him (my arcana check said it was brown, but the Beastmaster was completely unsure) that we were all considering purchasing for the group mascot/pet/whatever. We didn't, but we could track this guy down later and try to buy it later. The main reason we didn't buy it: it was a year away from hatching, and needed to be tended to every day for a large portion of time. As the adventurous folk we are, we couldn't stay and take care of it, and since we were in a hurry we couldn't find someone to take care of it for us. Even if we were to buy and hatch it, we weren't sure how to go about having a dragon in the party.

Long story short:

If we were to buy a brown dragon and hatch it, what would we have to do to keep it "in line," and what would we expect it to do?

How would you hatch it? (My first thought was paying a trustworthy townsperson and instruct them to contact us somehow when it hatches)

Is it a good idea for our party, or would it be a bad idea?
FYI, our party is:

human warlock 7
dwarf fighter 6/ dwarven defender 1
kenku fighter with LA+1 and an ECL of 7 (all I know about him)
an NPC fighter of unknown level with some strange bloodline
TBA at probably level 7 (new person is joining in soon)

And by the time it hatches, we would be at around 10-13 I'd think with our current progression

What book is the Brown Dragon in?

Have you had any interesting experiences with dragons in your party?

Thank you all for the help!

[Coidzor]

Brown Dragons... IIRC, those are featured in Monsters of Faerun.

Wikipedia thinks so too.


Faerûnian dragons
Brown dragon

* Breath weapon: Sludge
* Terrain: Bogs
* Alignment: Neutral
* Image: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/mof_gallery/MonFaePG39.jpg
* Notes:
* Appears in: Monsters of Faerûn


Cracking open my copy, page 38 reveals that they're actually usually Neutral Evil and typically dwell in Deserts with an acid breath weapon.

They're also about as big as Riding Dogs.

So while it can't fly, it can probably eat any halfling party members.

So, use caution while raising it. I'd say you were a bit too low of a level for it to be a proper pet, since out of the egg it's aboot as strong as one of you.

[Urpriest]

There are rules for hatching dragons in Draconomicon.

[deuxhero]

Which, if said rules are used, mean its an omelet, as no one who can't ID the type of egg will be able to raise it right.