Minions for a dragon Help

[PeekingPenguin]

My campaign is set in a desert where a battle between an oppressing blue dragon and a brass dragon is taking place. Using only and all 3.5 sources I need help building a list of desert creatures/races that might live there that dragons could use as pawns to battle each other. I do plan to open this up to Bahamut vs Tiamat holy war thing eventually.

Additionally any plot hooks, adventure ideas or dm tips that pop into your head would be appreciated as I am a first time dm. :smallsmile:

I am open to using some homebrew or pathfinder as long as it fits the desert theme and is free/online.

[TheCrowing1432]

A lot of monsterious humanoids and giants, tend to be bullied into service by bigger badder things.

Goblins, Orcs, Kobolds, Hill Giants, Etc.

So these would all make good fodder for Evil Dragons.

I know theres Environmental Versions of a lot of these creatures, so you shouldnt have a problem finding Desert Orc and so on.


As far as the Brass Dragon does. Any goodly characters would relish the chance to serve a good cause, Paladins and Clerics that worship Bahamut or any of Bahamuts allies, Hired soldiers, mercenaries that do this as a share of the loot.

[endur]

Desert-dwelling lizardmen. Regular D&D lizardmen are swamp dwellers and prefer watery climates, but use a variant that is desert-dwellers and prefers sand. i.e. use all the various dragon spawn templates and stuff and/or Dragonlance draconians.

[Flickerdart]

Scorpionfolk. Giant scorpions, and giant scorpion entomanothropes (lycanthropes, but with vermin). For bonus points, Tauric thri-kreen giant scorpions. You can adapt a lot of the drow spider stuff into scorpion stuff for these desert dwellers.

The nice thing about entomanothropes is that they can rebuke and command twice their HD in vermin of their type. So a simple Desert Orc Entomanothrope (normally Medium) with a Large Scorpion form can command and ride on a Huge Scorpion. If the base creature were a Hill Giant, it could have a Huge form, and then command a Colossal Scorpion as its steed and servant.

[(Un)Inspired]

Scorpionfolk. Giant scorpions, and giant scorpion entomanothropes (lycanthropes, but with vermin). For bonus points, Tauric thri-kreen giant scorpions. You can adapt a lot of the drow spider stuff into scorpion stuff for these desert dwellers.

The nice thing about entomanothropes is that they can rebuke and command twice their HD in vermin of their type. So a simple Desert Orc Entomanothrope (normally Medium) with a Large Scorpion form can command and ride on a Huge Scorpion. If the base creature were a Hill Giant, it could have a Huge form, and then command a Colossal Scorpion as its steed and servant.

Tauric Thri-kreen giant scorpion; rad to the max. I'm gonna use that in the future.

Were Thri-kreen ever released for 3.5?

[WhamBamSam]

I'm a huge fan of Mechanatrixes for Blue Dragon minions. They're not exactly desert creatures, but then again, they're not exactly not desert creatures either (if you accept that Moldrons occasionally take a break from their duties as beings of pure law to cut loose, venture down to the material, and plug their circuits into the local population to produce offspring, you might as well accept it happening in a desert settlement). They're healed by electricity, so the dragon can use its breath weapon right into the midst of the fray without damaging its property allies.

Dragonborn Desert Half-Orc is a popular race for those aiming for Orc/Half-Orc substitution levels (say, on a Druid), or PrCs. Desert Kobold is one of the better kobold variants for non-Wis focused builds, as it removes the racial Con penalty. Either or both might make for good minions for a Brass Dragon.

EDIT:
Tauric Thri-kreen giant scorpion; rad to the max. I'm gonna use that in the future.

Were Thri-kreen ever released for 3.5?MM2 was updated to 3.5, so basically, yes.

[Coidzor]

Desert Kobolds are kinda semi-notable as the best subrace of kobolds, IIRC. So that's always fun. :smallamused:

Dragons'll boink just about anything a human might and get some decent servitors out of the bargain.


Scorpionfolk. Giant scorpions, and giant scorpion entomanothropes (lycanthropes, but with vermin). For bonus points, Tauric thri-kreen giant scorpions. You can adapt a lot of the drow spider stuff into scorpion stuff for these desert dwellers.

The nice thing about entomanothropes is that they can rebuke and command twice their HD in vermin of their type. So a simple Desert Orc Entomanothrope (normally Medium) with a Large Scorpion form can command and ride on a Huge Scorpion. If the base creature were a Hill Giant, it could have a Huge form, and then command a Colossal Scorpion as its steed and servant.

Ooo, swank!


Tauric Thri-kreen giant scorpion; rad to the max. I'm gonna use that in the future.

Were Thri-kreen ever released for 3.5?

IIRC, psionic Thri-Kreen are from Expanded Psionics Handbook but aren't published on the d20srd.org for the same reason Gith and Illithids aren't.

There's also non-psionic Thri-Kreen somewhere, too, I believe.

[(Un)Inspired]

IIRC, psionic Thri-Kreen are from Expanded Psionics Handbook but aren't published on the d20srd.org for the same reason Gith and Illithids aren't.

There's also non-psionic Thri-Kreen somewhere, too, I believe.

Oh yeah, I forgot. Whenever I see RHD my eyes tend to just glaze over and my mind blanks