Removing a bunch of dragons

[SilverLeaf167]

Like a lot of fantasy gamers, I've always had a thing for dragons. However, I don't particularly like the typical D&D way of handling them. Having a countless amount of different species, with individuals being basically identical, and with alignments set in stone, really degrades their formidable and legendary role. Also, players very quickly become familiar with the abilities of each type of dragon; a single look in the Monster Manual will suffice.

So, in the setting I'm building, I'm thinking of doing something quite different. I'm planning on removing the whole deal with subspecies, and making every true dragon unique. They could be any alignment and have almost any powers. True dragons would also be very rare, and a dragon egg or even just a half-dragon child would be incredibly valuable and sought after, but the existence of dragons would still be very concrete. Think a little Tolkien-ish: dragons exist, but not a single one is seen in the main trilogy, and in the hobbit we see a single Red Dragon that is feared by all and only slain through what is basically a miracle (can't say about the Silmarillion).
A lot of niches that are currently sort-of filled by true dragons would be instead filled with other dragons: wyverns and sea serpents, for example. Dragon-like in appearance, but not in power or intellect.

Of course, I'll need to do a lot of homebrew, but it wouldn't be too bad since I'd only need to design them on a case-by-case basis (instead of making a dozen different variants all at once) and could use the existent stats as a basis, just slapping on the special stuff.


The main questions are:

What do you think of the idea itself?
Do you think something very important, fluff or crunch, would be lost beyond simple refluffing?
As a bonus, do you have any cool ideas for unique dragons?

Thanks in advance for any feedback :smallbiggrin:

[Yora]

The classic D&D dragons are actually a case of something looking great on paper, but not really working in an actual game.
D&D dragons got such a reputation of gargantuan mastermind sorcerers, that it's really difficult to use them. Just using wyrmlings or young dragons would be lame, since they are neither brilliant nor big. And once you get to the "real" dragons, you're already up in the CR 10+ range where most games never get to. Dragons should be masterminds, but how can they do really clever stuff when they are sitting in a cave in the wilderness far away from civilization? And if you actually get to use one of those big dragons, dealing with all those spells and roughly a dozen melee attacks every round doesn't look fun at all.
For those reasons, I ditched the standard D&D dragons myself.

[prufock]

In my E6 settings, I basically consider the dragons to be godlike. Most of my settings would have only one or two dragons, period. Each one IS unique, but there was very little homebrewing necessary.

If you're going with the "unique dragon" idea, getting rid of colour-coding would be a good place to start. While the dragons may be different colours, they should be known for things other than that.

[Waker]

I've had issues with the alignment system for a long time, so I'm always supportive of it being ditched. Having dragons color-coded for the party's convenience is also a bit dumb.
Should the party come into conflict with a dragon, consider giving the dragon some kind of extra action mechanic so it doesn't get beaten down by the action economy. Something like an extra standard or move action for certain specific actions.

[Fax Celestis]

I've started something along those lines here: http://wiki.faxcelestis.net/index.php?title=D20r:True_Dragon