How to stat/play a dragon with the mind of a dog?

[Miz_Liz]

So, long story short, my players are currently in the company of an adult blue dragon with the mind of a dog (Transmutation craziness. The BBEG is now a blue dragon stuck in the body of a chihuahua)

It's a fun idea, and the players are loving the rp of it, but I'm having issues figuring out mechanically how to work it. Fluffy technically has all the stats and powers of an adult dragon, but being a dog he has no clue how to use them/uses them sporadically ("Nearly killed" the sorc when he sneezed and let off a jet of lightning) I've kind of just been flying by the seat of my pants on this, but I would like to sort it out more formally. I would also love help on figuring out a bit of progression, maybe how the players can help Fluffy learn how to use the powers.

Inversely, if you have any recommendations on how best to work out the casting capabilities of a chihuahua with the mind of an adult blue dragon, they'd help as well.

[Nifft]

Disney movies might cover both -- the majority of Disney mascots are allegedly using doglike behavior, according to some critics.

I suspect there are evil mastermind animal (non-mascots) characters, too.

[Tiadoppler]

Well, here's what I'd do:

Casting is completely dependent on mental attributes. If a chihuahua doesn't know how to cast a spell, then a chihuahua in the body of a dragon doesn't know how to cast a spell. The chihuahua only gains the physical attributes of a dragon, but doesn't necessarily know how to use them (sneezing and letting off a natural breath weapon, for example :D).

Chihuahuas don't know how to fly, or how to flap their wings, or even necessarily how to move them on purpose. Chihuahua the dragon has wings, but they tend to flap out, or flop around randomly, getting caught on things.

Chihuahuas are small dogs, so he might be used to jumping up on people, sitting in laps, being carried. This can lead to funny shenanigans. He might even be relatively poorly trained (behavior that's unacceptable in a large dog, like jumping or growling, occasionally gets overlooked in a small dog).



An adult dragon in the body of a chihuahua is far more dangerous, and less amusing. This dragon will be spending his energy trying to learn which spells he can cast. I'd suggest that he would quickly relearn how to cast some or most of the spells he normally could. He retains his own mental stats, so he is doubtlessly angry, and being quite clever, he may decide to imitate the behavior of a dog as closely as possible, until he's ready to strike or escape.

[Man_Over_Game]

Also, unless trained and socialized, Chihuahuas are real jerks. They're usually selfish, demanding, yappy dogs that aren't very compliant. The only reason they aren't very aggressive is because they're small, and they often attach themselves to specific owners.

If this is intended to be a realistic Chihuahua, I'd expect it to start acting a bit less friendly once it realizes how big it is.

[Aett_Thorn]

Look at the description of the Grey Render if you want some inspiration for how this might work out in practice, with a large killing machine that has pretty low intelligence and some pretty fierce loyalty.

[Miz_Liz]

Thanks so much for the help everyone, especially re: what powers/capabilities the dragon would and wouldn't have. The grey render idea is great, I'll definitely look into that. We've already had some fun shenanigans with the size thing, I'd imagine that'll keep going.

[Clistenes]

Is it a good dog, or a bad dog?

My sister's 2 kg (4 lb and 6.5 oz) lapdog will attack dogs twenty times his size, bite us when we try to make him move from the couch or even because we tried to touch him when he didn't feel like it...

My father's 40 kg (88 lb and 3 oz) dog looks like a jet-black wolf out of hell, but I have pulled him to the vet and held him in place while he tried to escape, and he never tried to bite me. He usually ignores small yapping dogs barking at him and trying to bite him (his fur is too thick for him to be bothered) and acts like they aren't even there...

If the dragondog is like my sister's lapdog, he may be worse than an actual dragon...

If the the dragondog is like my father's dog, he may be safe enough and actually useful to the players...

[MagneticKitty]

Well, here's what I'd do:

Casting is completely dependent on mental attributes. If a chihuahua doesn't know how to cast a spell, then a chihuahua in the body of a dragon doesn't know how to cast a spell. The chihuahua only gains the physical attributes of a dragon, but doesn't necessarily know how to use them (sneezing and letting off a natural breath weapon, for example :D).

Chihuahuas don't know how to fly, or how to flap their wings, or even necessarily how to move them on purpose. Chihuahua the dragon has wings, but they tend to flap out, or flop around randomly, getting caught on things.

Chihuahuas are small dogs, so he might be used to jumping up on people, sitting in laps, being carried. This can lead to funny shenanigans. He might even be relatively poorly trained (behavior that's unacceptable in a large dog, like jumping or growling, occasionally gets overlooked in a small dog).



An adult dragon in the body of a chihuahua is far more dangerous, and less amusing. This dragon will be spending his energy trying to learn which spells he can cast. I'd suggest that he would quickly relearn how to cast some or most of the spells he normally could. He retains his own mental stats, so he is doubtlessly angry, and being quite clever, he may decide to imitate the behavior of a dog as closely as possible, until he's ready to strike or escape.

I'd argue the dragon body might instictually know how to fly. And the dragon fear is innate. Also Can use wing knock back attack.
And the bbeg dog cannot cast like an early level wild shape druid. No sommatics no material usage with no thumbs. No verbal with dog throat.

[Finback]

Is it a good dog, or a bad dog?

Logical error. Since all dogs are "good dogs", there are no bad dogs! ;)

[Nifft]

Logical error. Since all dogs are "good dogs", there are no bad dogs! ;)

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