mistformsquirrl
2014-01-22, 11:33 AM
Thanks to the wonderful people on this forum, I now know I can build a PC dragon; and thanks to Paizo, I've got those rules on my PC now. Unfortunately, as my imagination is incredibly overactive*, I've spawned a great number of ideas for draconic player characters. The problem is... I'm unsure which concept to go with. One of said concepts also requires a little examination because I'm unsure if it's genuinely feasible without DM fiat.**
Basically I have three ideas -
1:
A Silver or Gold dragon wyrmling forced out into the world too early, having become seperated from it's parents.
I'm thinking said parents were assailed by an evil dragon or dragons, and in the confusion the wyrmling ran away - regardless of the result of the battle, the wyrmling can't find it's way home or otherwise can't return.
Ordinarily such a small dragon would be very vulnerable, but they manage to run into the adventuring party and (seeing the potential, not to mention hopefully not being utter jerks), they decide to try to help it out.
Alternatively, adventurers run across a slain silver/gold dragon and find a clutch of smashed eggs with a single egg having survived. Again seeing the potential of a dragon as an ally (but relatively ignorant of just how long they take to grow), they decide to hatch it. (It's even possible the dragon is still alive, but mortally wounded and hopes to ensure the survival of it's last egg by offering it to the adventuring group out of desperation.)
There's really a lot of ways this one can go; but the key element is you can't go home again. (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/YouCantGoHomeAgain)
This is the most straightforward concept and probably the easiest to put into a campaign. It's a bit bland, but that makes sense considering it's not exactly commonplace for baby dragons to become adventurers. Basically, this is an excuse plot that makes it easy on the DM.
However it does mean that as a player, in order for such a character to be interesting, I have to work extra hard to develop their personality; while other characters have quirks from their background, this one is essentially a blank slate at the start and has to really grow into the group. Not a bad thing, but potentially a roleplaying challenge.
2.
The second idea requires an older dragon - meaning the game is probably starting toward the mid-levels. This is a very young/young dragon of pretty much any description that has essentially learned all the basic lessons it's parents have to teach it and is ready to explore the world a bit on it's own.
This dragon is substantially more arrogant than the wyrmling (it's a dragon raised by dragons... it has good reason to be); and isn't above talking in draconic*** even when it knows no one can understand it.
I'm kind of thinking of this concept as the dragon equivalent of a know-it-all/rebellious teenager basically. Maybe the dragon falls in with the adventurers specifically to hack off it's parents Or maybe it's parents really are jerks and the young dragon decided it just needed to get away from the lair. (Good alignment doesn't mean good parents after all - Eugene Greenhilt is a pretty excellent example of that.)
The end result is a brash young dragon with a chip on it's wing who, nevertheless, can prove to be a great ally. As it matures it may also begin to take a more serious interest in lore and knowledge - rather than just trying to show people up with it's intelligence.
Rulewise I'm thinking this dragon might be more toward the spellcaster side of things comparative to the wyrmling above.
I like this concept a fair bit, but obviously it requires a higher level party to work with, since the dragon is going to be the equivalent of 10-15th level most probably, and integrating with a higher level party can be difficult as they may already have a group dynamic established. So there's that; and that makes it harder on the DM.
3.
This is the concept where I need help on the alignment.
The idea is chromatic dragon wyrmling - either found as an egg or while very much a newborn - who's parents' lair is raided, and the parent chromatic dragon(s) slain. The wyrmling is too young and helpless (or still unhatched) to even attempt to fight back against the invader, and so it's captured.
There are several routes that things could take at this point - the egg couuld then be gifted to the PCs by a metallic dragon who took part in the raid, perhaps as an experiment (If a chromatic dragon is raised by good people, will it be good too?), or the wyrmling could have been imprisoned but released into the PC's custody for one reason or another.
The essential idea here is a chromatic dragon that has wound up in good-aligned company, struggling against it's tendency toward mayhem to emulate those good people.
Here's the thing: In 3.5e Chromatic dragons are Always Evil as I recall... that, unless I miss my guess, essentially dooms the poor wyrmling to eventually become a monster. Is that the way it has to be essentially (outside of DM fiat?) Or is there some leeway there?
I like the idea of this little dragon struggling between nature and nurture - trying very hard to be good, but sometimes doing really bad things for reasons it doesn't quite comprehend. Is that actually possible though?
-----
Sorry for the tremendous wall of words; I'm usually more decisive about my characters than this, but then I've never tried to build a dragon before.
Suggestions, ideas, thoughts, all welcome!
*Seriously, there's a reason I'm constantly asking questions here - I'm constantly getting ideas!
**Not that I'm opposed to asking for a DM ruling if they're willing; but as a player I don't want to put too much pressure on the DM, especially when asking to bring a dragon to the game.
***I'm thinking for this, I might even borrow Skyrim's dragon language.
Basically I have three ideas -
1:
A Silver or Gold dragon wyrmling forced out into the world too early, having become seperated from it's parents.
I'm thinking said parents were assailed by an evil dragon or dragons, and in the confusion the wyrmling ran away - regardless of the result of the battle, the wyrmling can't find it's way home or otherwise can't return.
Ordinarily such a small dragon would be very vulnerable, but they manage to run into the adventuring party and (seeing the potential, not to mention hopefully not being utter jerks), they decide to try to help it out.
Alternatively, adventurers run across a slain silver/gold dragon and find a clutch of smashed eggs with a single egg having survived. Again seeing the potential of a dragon as an ally (but relatively ignorant of just how long they take to grow), they decide to hatch it. (It's even possible the dragon is still alive, but mortally wounded and hopes to ensure the survival of it's last egg by offering it to the adventuring group out of desperation.)
There's really a lot of ways this one can go; but the key element is you can't go home again. (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/YouCantGoHomeAgain)
This is the most straightforward concept and probably the easiest to put into a campaign. It's a bit bland, but that makes sense considering it's not exactly commonplace for baby dragons to become adventurers. Basically, this is an excuse plot that makes it easy on the DM.
However it does mean that as a player, in order for such a character to be interesting, I have to work extra hard to develop their personality; while other characters have quirks from their background, this one is essentially a blank slate at the start and has to really grow into the group. Not a bad thing, but potentially a roleplaying challenge.
2.
The second idea requires an older dragon - meaning the game is probably starting toward the mid-levels. This is a very young/young dragon of pretty much any description that has essentially learned all the basic lessons it's parents have to teach it and is ready to explore the world a bit on it's own.
This dragon is substantially more arrogant than the wyrmling (it's a dragon raised by dragons... it has good reason to be); and isn't above talking in draconic*** even when it knows no one can understand it.
I'm kind of thinking of this concept as the dragon equivalent of a know-it-all/rebellious teenager basically. Maybe the dragon falls in with the adventurers specifically to hack off it's parents Or maybe it's parents really are jerks and the young dragon decided it just needed to get away from the lair. (Good alignment doesn't mean good parents after all - Eugene Greenhilt is a pretty excellent example of that.)
The end result is a brash young dragon with a chip on it's wing who, nevertheless, can prove to be a great ally. As it matures it may also begin to take a more serious interest in lore and knowledge - rather than just trying to show people up with it's intelligence.
Rulewise I'm thinking this dragon might be more toward the spellcaster side of things comparative to the wyrmling above.
I like this concept a fair bit, but obviously it requires a higher level party to work with, since the dragon is going to be the equivalent of 10-15th level most probably, and integrating with a higher level party can be difficult as they may already have a group dynamic established. So there's that; and that makes it harder on the DM.
3.
This is the concept where I need help on the alignment.
The idea is chromatic dragon wyrmling - either found as an egg or while very much a newborn - who's parents' lair is raided, and the parent chromatic dragon(s) slain. The wyrmling is too young and helpless (or still unhatched) to even attempt to fight back against the invader, and so it's captured.
There are several routes that things could take at this point - the egg couuld then be gifted to the PCs by a metallic dragon who took part in the raid, perhaps as an experiment (If a chromatic dragon is raised by good people, will it be good too?), or the wyrmling could have been imprisoned but released into the PC's custody for one reason or another.
The essential idea here is a chromatic dragon that has wound up in good-aligned company, struggling against it's tendency toward mayhem to emulate those good people.
Here's the thing: In 3.5e Chromatic dragons are Always Evil as I recall... that, unless I miss my guess, essentially dooms the poor wyrmling to eventually become a monster. Is that the way it has to be essentially (outside of DM fiat?) Or is there some leeway there?
I like the idea of this little dragon struggling between nature and nurture - trying very hard to be good, but sometimes doing really bad things for reasons it doesn't quite comprehend. Is that actually possible though?
-----
Sorry for the tremendous wall of words; I'm usually more decisive about my characters than this, but then I've never tried to build a dragon before.
Suggestions, ideas, thoughts, all welcome!
*Seriously, there's a reason I'm constantly asking questions here - I'm constantly getting ideas!
**Not that I'm opposed to asking for a DM ruling if they're willing; but as a player I don't want to put too much pressure on the DM, especially when asking to bring a dragon to the game.
***I'm thinking for this, I might even borrow Skyrim's dragon language.