A question about dragons in dnd

[thisisnotspam]

Does anybody know what happens when two dragons of different colors breed?
A black one and a silver one for example, what determens the color of the offspring (and it's alligment to a degree)? Is it explained in a book or one of the dragon magazines? If not, does someone have a good homebrew system for determening the properties of children born out draconic forbiden love?

[Aeryr]

The half dragon template can be applied to dragons. :smallcool:

[thisisnotspam]

The half dragon template can be applied to dragons. :smallcool:
so if i were to breed a gold dragon and a silver dragon and breed the offspring with the child of a bronze and a brass dragon i would just have to add 3 half-dragon templates to 1 normal dragon for the final product?

[motoko's ghost]

I do remember a book(pretty sure it was a 3rdparty, encyclopedia arcane?) where it listed stuff about dragon crossbreed, the pink(red&white mix) breath weapon was frozen black tar that was on fire(dual-elemental dmg!) :smallamused:

[KillianHawkeye]

Does anybody know what happens when two dragons of different colors breed?
A black one and a silver one for example, what determens the color of the offspring (and it's alligment to a degree)? Is it explained in a book or one of the dragon magazines? If not, does someone have a good homebrew system for determening the properties of children born out draconic forbiden love?

You would either end up with a half-black silver dragon or a half-silver black dragon (DM's choice).

Typically, it seems common to have the base creature be the same color as the mother and the template be the same color as the father, but there's no specific rules to govern this.

[Swooper]

There was even an article on wizards.com that statted out a half-dragon dragon, so it's the official way to deal with mixed-colour dragons :smallbiggrin:

[hamishspence]

Draconomicon 4E discussed this as well- suggesting various options.

Dragon looks like one, has some of the powers of other.
Dragon looks like one, has all of the powers of other, and none of the one it looks like.

Dragon looks like a mixture- and has powers as you choose.

It also had "polychromatic dragons" in the appendix- ways of adding powers from the other dragon types.

[Swooper]

so if i were to breed a gold dragon and a silver dragon and breed the offspring with the child of a bronze and a brass dragon i would just have to add 3 half-dragon templates to 1 normal dragon for the final product?
This is a bit more complex... Only the first generation results in half-dragons (so the parents would be a half-silver gold dragon and half-bronze brass dragon (or vice versa)), the next few generations get the draconic template (RotD) instead, but applying that to a dragon feels kind of dumb and useless. I'd say: Pick the base type of one parent (let's say gold) add half dragon for the other (brass). If you want, maybe add breath weapons and resistances from the other two grandparents (with appropriate CR increases), but don't add a full half-dragon template again.

[DigoDragon]

Dragon looks like a mixture- and has powers as you choose.

This has been by far my favorite way to run things, subverting the "color coded for your convinience" trope with D&D dragons. :smallbiggrin:
And my players honestly enjoy the idea that every dragon can be unique where they have to do a little research or a couple side quests to glean which powers a particular dragon has before fighting it.

[hewhosaysfish]

There's an NPC/boss idea in here somewhere.

2 sibiling: one a white dragon with the half-red-dragon template; the other a red dragon with the half-white-dragon template.
Or maybe a half-dragon fiend and a half-fiend dragon. Maybe make them twins... or whatever is the egg-laying species equivalent to twins.