If raised by a dragon

[Th3N3xtGuy]

If a character(Non-Dragon) was raised solely by Adult or Older dragon what would the childhood be like?

Also what do you think a childhood of being raised by a Primal dragon would be like?

Personally i'm more interested in a Umbral Dragon for a character origin story reasons, being raised in the shadow plane. Could it work or be not plausible? What are your thoughts?



http://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Primal_dragon

[Xervous]

Given that dragons are liable to view humanoids as food, slaves, or ants to be left to their own follies, it takes special circumstances for a dragon to rear a humanoid. Come up with some interesting motivations for the dragon and the upbringing should fall into place.

[Aldrakan]

How affectionate are you picturing this relationship?
Looking over Umbral dragons I can easily see the kid being used as resuable bait - stick them out in a dangerous region of the shadow plane, hide, and wait for undead to show up to consume the rare living being that's wandered into their domain. Then the dragon can eat it.
The dragon could have expected the child to get caught and killed years ago, but when they kept managing to dodge long enough for the dragon to get there it decided they might be useful.
Possibly some emotional manipulation to make it seem like this was also somehow for the greater good, raising them to believe fanatically in their god-father.

Or older umbral dragons can command undead, so the child could have been partially raised by them - just as an example of how that can distort your perspective I once started I story with a young boy who mentally refers to some people he knows as having "natural smiles", which means they don't have flesh covering their teeth.

[Flickerdart]

The child would definitely be influenced by draconic traits:

Dragons aren't in a rush - they sleep a lot and otherwise spend time in their lair. The child would likely grow up very patient, possibly also lazy.
Dragons are greedy, prideful, and solitary. The child would not get a lot of socializing done, and would probably inherit such an attitude towards "lesser" beings. The isolated nature of the Plane of Shadows and the alignment of the dragon don't really help matters.
Umbral dragons like to venture out into the Material plane and scoot around ruins. The kid will certainly tag along at some point, and develop a taste for adventuring.
It is highly likely that the dragon will encourage the kid to pursue a character class that is either useful to its undead-eating deal (cleric or dread necromancer) or venerates its dragon-ness (dragonfire adept). The child itself would probably prefer to pick a full caster class so he can plane shift to and from the Shadow like its "parent."

[MorgromTheOrc]

My first thought was emo Natsu, but in seriousness my votes with Flickerdart.

I'd probably play either a dragonfire adept, dragon shaman, or if you care more about the shadow aspect you could go warlock, hexblade, or maybe even an actual shadow casting class but I'm not familiar with them so I can't vouch for how well they actually play.

[Flickerdart]

I'm not familiar with them so I can't vouch for how well they actually play.
Very poorly - Shadowcasters are a T4 despite having 9th level "spells" due to how few uses they get and how restricted they are in learning them.

There's also another side to this - if the dragon is a bad parent, flip everything I said. The child grows up impatient, furious with the dragon for taking its time with everything. He would leave as early as possible and be overly social in an annoying attempt to "catch up" with people who are supposed to be more like him. He might actually become afraid of ruins and undead, but if he still has a taste for the adventuring life, he might go for a class that allows him to dominate a dragon (such as a dragon-riding paladin) or slay them (like a ranger with FE: dragons).

[daremetoidareyo]

The relationship between a dragon and a humanoid could wind up looking like one between person and pet. If the child is treated like a faithful lab, the alignment almost doesn't matter, as almost any alignment can want a lil' schmubbly wumbkins.


(CE is probably out, unless the dragon is using its pet for fighting & gambling).

[Th3N3xtGuy]

Rough Idea

Well what I was thinking was the character's parents and him kidnapped when he was 8 and turned into slaves. Parents attempt to escape or at least free character they end up dead. Character being chased by undead or something. They run by a scheming Dragons lair it notices and eats undead but leaves character alone because he was a scrawny 8 year old human. Kid won't leave dragon alone so it ends up raising it. Character spent its teen years being a middleman (making drops and trading on its behalf) ends up going to shadow plane cities and material plane. Allowing dragon to focus on delicious undead eating.

Oh character alignment Chaotic Neutral, due to not being inherently evil but got a me first attitude due to how he was raised by a CE or NE dragon(Umbral Dragon in pathfinder alignment is NE so its possible).

[Nifft]

The kid might be very much the opposite of the dragon's personality in order to compensate for the dragon's flaws and foibles.

Like, the dragon is inconsistent and often changes its mind, but also tolerates no imperfections in others. So, the kid is LN to a fault -- always follows through, always does everything precisely and diligently, always thinks ahead about what his master might want, and never loses his cool.

Think about someone who says, "The customer is always right," and means it: that type of service-oriented personality with minimal ego is very well-suited to long-term survival under an unstable megalomaniac.

[Th3N3xtGuy]

The kid might be very much the opposite of the dragon's personality in order to compensate for the dragon's flaws and foibles.

Like, the dragon is inconsistent and often changes its mind, but also tolerates no imperfections in others. So, the kid is LN to a fault -- always follows through, always does everything precisely and diligently, always thinks ahead about what his master might want, and never loses his cool.

Think about someone who says, "The customer is always right," and means it: that type of service-oriented personality with minimal ego is very well-suited to long-term survival under an unstable megalomaniac.

What you said makes a lot of sense, very realistic, if following orders equals survival. But outside of the dragon's influence when your adventure wouldn't the character be very chaotic(independent) due to his lawful nature only existing out of survival around the dragon.