Quote Originally Posted by lylsyly View Post
You are both right of course. By RAW dragons advance thru age categories not "levels". RAI? I feel that it's yet another example of poor editing by WotC and that it was entended to remain a wyrmling.
Hard disagree.


Given that Dragons quite explicitly don't need XP or class levels to advance, the restriction that they can't gain them does absolutely nothing to change how a Wyrmling Dragon would advance. Just that it isn't going to gain XP and class levels as a cohort or party member ordinarily would. Given that they are stated to participate in the party's adventures like cohorts or other followers do, that's a pretty logical thing for them to specify.

Rather than gaining XP or class levels, though, the moment it hits 6 years old, it becomes a Very Young Dragon. Period. Full stop. At 16, it becomes a Young Dragon, and so on.

That's just how Dragons work, and considering that they're not only a core creature from the core Monster Manual 1, but also in the very name of the game, it's not like that basic fact about Dragon advancement would be something the team would simply 'forget' or 'poorly edit'