Dragonspawn from Gem Dragons

[Orpheus108]

Greetings All

Ive been running a game now with somewhat new players and one of the main focus for the game is the intro of the Dragonspawn, who have been introduced only in the aftermath of combat that the party has come across and only heard of these new 'monsters' that have been seen. The party has been trying to find out more info on them and has gone to great lengths to learn of them, tracking them down and finding them.

Finally the party has learnt that they are Dragonspawn of Tiamat and the dragonspawn havent been since of in many life times. Now the party are trying to learn more and warn others of this threat.

Now my question is based on the dragonspawn the party is trying to learn about and gear themselves up to fight effectively against, I came up with an idea of throwing a curveball against them (plus there is a psionic character in the group) and coming up with a new breed of dragonspawn, that of Gem Dragons.

My thoughts are that of a lich in league with the church of Tiamat has been experimenting with creating these Gem dragonspawn, after many years of trial and error, (hunting down half gem dragon races, getting Gem Dragon eggs and such) finally created a new race of these Gen Dragonspawn with psionic powers with a number of other abilities in line with the original dragonspawn.

Id like to hear others thoughts on this and maybe ideas aswell for creating the new dragonspawn, such as cool names as its 2am here and had only come with the idea after the game here tonight. Im not limiting myself on just the MMII Gem Dragons as ill be also using the lesser Gem Dragons as dragonspawn too, the Amber, Jacinth, Jade, Moonstone and Pearl. I know they never converted the lesser ones to 3.5 but id like to include them in the game.

This new race, I hope will realyy throw the party as all their efforts will be in fighting and learning as much as they can on the main 5 colour dragonspawn on Tiamat.

Cheers All

[ZamielVanWeber]

It needs updating but here (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psb/20030124b) is obsidian dragon.

[ShurikVch]

There are two possible variants of "Dragonspawn":
Krynnish Dragonspawns (Dragonlance Campaign Setting | Bestiary Of Krynn Revised | Dragons of Krynn - three different versions) - they were created by Dragon Overlords; to become a Dragon Overlord, Dragon need a Skull Totem
Spawns of Tiamat (Monster Manual IV) - they were originally created by Tiamat herself; Gem Dragons aren't from Tiamat, but Sardior (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20030124a)
That is - you can homebrew them if you want, but it will be 100% homebrew

Also, are you sure your players wouldn't mistake possible Emerald Dragonspawns for more common Green Dragonspawns, Sapphire Dragonspawns - for Blue Dragonspawns, or Topaz Dragonspawns - for Aurak Draconians?

[Orpheus108]

My thoughts on the party mistaking the gem and chromatic dragonspawn would be the gem ones being more gem-like hide.

I know that 2 different gods created the chromatic and gem dragon, but the story line is that standard dragonspawn have been hunting down half-gem dragon creatures, finding gem dragon eggs and so forth. Its totally homr brew and just trying at shaking things up to throw at the party to keep them on their toes.

Thanks for the Obsidian Dragon, i totally firgot about that one

[Ruethgar]

Being fresh experiments, I would try and find the Slaad table and add that extra random on top.

Though this did make me sort of wonder what Tiamat’s sister’s children would be like as dragonspawn, and if any of them would be organized enough to try and revive their progenitor or get back at her murderer(likely Tiamat).

[Orpheus108]

Good idea Ruethgar, ill have to do some searching for it and do some playing around.

The whole background with why ive added the gem dragons besides that Tiamat is just plane evil, im still working on background and all the finer details.

Other idea that i was toying with to add to the dragonspawn ( and this is homebrew stuff as the land is home brew) is that the Drow are in tje beginning of a civil war as a number of Drow cities habe turned to the worship of Tiamat. The Drow males were the first to turn to the worship of Tiamat and had gained allies in Raksashas and the like, long story short, big fight, lots of killing and a number of Drow cities became the domain of Tiamat. Through this the Lolth cities are fighting the Tiamat cities. This has become a surface war to some extent through the use of dragonspawn.

Now the main problem is balance towards the group as the party is really a weird grouping ( well i find the classes as a strange group, for party balnce) they are as folllows;

All have just got to level 5.

1/ Half-Orc Babarian
2/ Wild Elf Druid
3/ Elan Erudite
4/ Human Ranger (heading to be a Dread Commando)
5/ Half-Elf Rogue/Wizard

[Ruethgar]

Let's see quick and dirty.

Amethyst: Green Dragonspawn stats, Line of Force(Blue Equivalent damage)
Crystal: White Dragonspawn stats, Cone of Untyped(Black Equivalent damage)
Emerald: Red Dragonspawn stats -2 Str, -2 Dex, -2 Con, Cone of Sonic(Red Equivalent damage)
Sapphire: Blue Dragonspawn stats +4 Dex, Cone of Sonic(White Equivalent damage)
Topaz: Red Dragonspawn stats +2 Int, +2 Wis, -2 Str, Cone of Desiccation(Blue Equivalent damage)
Obsidian: Blue Dragonspawn stats +4 Int, Cone of Fire(Red Equivalent damage)
Ruby: Red Dragonspawn stats +2 Dex, +2 Int, +2 Wis, +2 Cha, Cone of Searing Light(Fire/Untyped|Red Equivalent damage)

Orange: Blue Dragonspawn stats +4 Int, Line of Bludgeoning(Green Equivalent damage), Swim speed as Sea Dragonspawn instead of flight
Yellow: Green Dragonspawn stats +4 Dex, Cone of Desiccation(White Equivalent damage)
Purple: Red Dragonspawn stats +2 Cha, Cone of Untyped(Red Equivalent damage)

Platinum(extracted by the torture of so many Dragonborn): Red Dragonspawn stats +2 Str, +2 Int, +2 Wis, +2 Cha, Line of Disintegrating Force(Force +50% to objects, if die by breath Disintigrate body as per the spell|Red Equivalent damage)

[Orpheus108]

Ruethgar, thanks heaps for the quick and dirty, good base to start and then flesh them out.

I was looking at the Amethyst Dragon and his abilities. From that i came up with the Dragonspawn Bomber, because of his gem lozenge he can spit out. My thought was he sits back and basically spits out these gem bombs at the party while others take to hth combat

Cheers