How long can Dragons live?

[Sims]

I'm pretty sure they aren't immortal, but I read Great Wyrms can live past 1,200 years. So how long can they live before dying of old age?

[Zaydos]

Depends upon if they're metallic or chromatic (no official statement on others...) and their Charisma. Put simply whites become senile at 2100, gold at 4400. They die a few years later.

[Wabbajack]

Draconomicon p14: Charisma score x 50 + 1200 for chromatic and Cha x 100 + 1200 for metallic. After that they can make DC 20 con check each year. If they succeed they lose 1 con otherwise they die.

[Jair Barik]

Most dragons though prefer to go off to a dragon graveyard, meld into the landscape or resort to lichdom and the like rather than go mad/die of old age. Plus a lot of dragons won't reach maturity anyway due to roving adventures and the like.

[CycloneJoker]

Just for reference, I don't think Force, Prismatic, or Time Dragons die of old age.

[hamishspence]

If the same logic was applied to any dragon that isn't either chromatic or metallic, then Deep, Shadow, Song, Fang, and so forth Dragons, wouldn't die of old age either.

As I recall, Time Dragons are explicitly called out as immortal in the issue of Dragon Magazine that has them- which may imply the other two epic dragon types aren't immortal or their entries would have said so.

[CycloneJoker]

If the same logic was applied to any dragon that isn't either chromatic or metallic, then Deep, Shadow, Song, Fang, and so forth Dragons, wouldn't die of old age either.

As I recall, Time Dragons are explicitly called out as immortal in the issue of Dragon Magazine that has them- which may imply the other two epic dragon types aren't immortal or their entries would have said so.

I remember it specifying they were all immortal, epic dragons, I think, but I don't have it right now, so whatever.

[LOTRfan]

That is correct, if I remember correctly, it is stated that Time Dragons are unique amongst all other dragons in that they are immortal. If I am remembering correctly, than the other two must die of old age at some point.

[hamishspence]

Page 40 Dragon 359 September 2007:

Ecology:
Only disasters or other creatures can kill time dragons. The passage of time itself cannot. As such, they are the only truly immortal nondeific dragons.

[linebackeru]

Bottom line: "Long enough to not matter for campaign purposes"

[Zaydos]

If you extrapolate from their double age category length to mean double age then epic dragons would live Cha x 200 + 2400 years (maybe Cha x 100 + 2400 years; but I'd give them the benefit of the doubt and say they do better than metallic dragons).

[PetterTomBos]

My world have a lot of xorvintaal dragons (MM3), the great game:

I'm making it a plotpoint that insanely old (allmost as the creation) dragons might/will exist, but they will need to play the game perfectly, and not do much in dragon form...

[MarkusWolfe]

My world have a lot of xorvintaal dragons (MM3), the great game:

I'm making it a plotpoint that insanely old (allmost as the creation) dragons might/will exist, but they will need to play the game perfectly, and not do much in dragon form...

Obtain a copy of the Draconomicon; it contains a few dragon-only classes. One of them (namely, dragon ascendant) literally makes the dragon a quasi deity after 12 levels. In this way, the dragons can be however old you need them to be......though I must warn you if you ever intend to have the party defeat one of these dragons, you must forget about using dragon ascendant. It's 12 levels of a very powerful class being added onto what is already one of the most dangerous creatures in the book.

[Zaydos]

Obtain a copy of the Draconomicon; it contains a few dragon-only classes. One of them (namely, dragon ascendant) literally makes the dragon a quasi deity after 12 levels. In this way, the dragons can be however old you need them to be......though I must warn you if you ever intend to have the party defeat one of these dragons, you must forget about using dragon ascendant. It's 12 levels of a very powerful class being added onto what is already one of the most dangerous creatures in the book.

Maximizes hp, makes them immortal, requires them to eat their hoard. Yeah, I've used it once. Great Wyrm +3 Dragon Ascendant 8 Red Dragon with levels in wizard, cleric, and another dragon PrC from Draconomicon representing an allegiance to Tiamat, and also all the truenaming abilities of a 20th level truenamer and enough SR that even wizards of a level equal to his CR with Epic Spell Penetration couldn't beat his SR without using Assay Spell Resistance first (and then they'd need a 13+ without CL boosters if I remember correctly). He was on his path to becoming a god, and had been granted an extended life span and the ability to go beyond Great Wyrm by the gods for "great services performed to the world". He also had 360 true seeing + X-ray vision. He was called the Trial of Heroes, and if a party of 25 people went in and killed him you'd have 25 new gods.

[LOTRfan]

Maximizes hp, makes them immortal, requires them to eat their hoard. Yeah, I've used it once. Great Wyrm +3 Dragon Ascendant 8 Red Dragon with levels in wizard, cleric, and another dragon PrC from Draconomicon representing an allegiance to Tiamat, and also all the truenaming abilities of a 20th level truenamer and enough SR that even wizards of a level equal to his CR with Epic Spell Penetration couldn't beat his SR without using Assay Spell Resistance first (and then they'd need a 13+ without CL boosters if I remember correctly). He was on his path to becoming a god, and had been granted an extended life span and the ability to go beyond Great Wyrm by the gods for "great services performed to the world". He also had 360 true seeing + X-ray vision. He was called the Trial of Heroes, and if a party of 25 people went in and killed him you'd have 25 new gods.

How'd that work out?

[Zaydos]

How'd that work out?

It was a level 8 campaign and they were ultimately one of his hundreds of mortal agents because he could not directly intervene in the world off of his island or else the gods would smite him down (with great power comes great limitations). He was Lawful Neutral and only wanted 3 things: 1) to become a god; 2) to create a utopia for (primarily chromatic, but theoretically all) dragonkind; 3) to stop the Elder God of Blood from reviving because the first thing said elder god would do is get revenge on the people who helped the gods last time. The PCs were helping with 3 and 1 (at the same time).

[MarkusWolfe]

Maximizes hp, makes them immortal, requires them to eat their hoard. Yeah, I've used it once. Great Wyrm +3 Dragon Ascendant 8 Red Dragon with levels in wizard, cleric, and another dragon PrC from Draconomicon representing an allegiance to Tiamat, and also all the truenaming abilities of a 20th level truenamer and enough SR that even wizards of a level equal to his CR with Epic Spell Penetration couldn't beat his SR without using Assay Spell Resistance first (and then they'd need a 13+ without CL boosters if I remember correctly). He was on his path to becoming a god, and had been granted an extended life span and the ability to go beyond Great Wyrm by the gods for "great services performed to the world". He also had 360 true seeing + X-ray vision. He was called the Trial of Heroes, and if a party of 25 people went in and killed him you'd have 25 new gods.

Nice......I encountered a Dragon Ascendant once. But it was a much mroe peaceful encounter.

See, in the campaign world I'm in, Tiamat and Bahamut have just started a fight that could end the world. But this has happened once every 1000 years, so when the DM decided he wanted to have us go on a mission to the far eastern island to talk to a Lung Dragon who had seen this 4 times already, he needed a way of plausibly extending his lifespan. So, 12 levels in Dragon Ascendant it was.

[hamishspence]

Maximizes hp, makes them immortal, requires them to eat their hoard.

It also requires six feats (Draconic Knowledge, Fast Healing, Improved Speed, Great Fortitude, Lightning Reflexes, Iron Will.)

[PetterTomBos]

Obtain a copy of the Draconomicon; it contains a few dragon-only classes. One of them (namely, dragon ascendant) literally makes the dragon a quasi deity after 12 levels. In this way, the dragons can be however old you need them to be......though I must warn you if you ever intend to have the party defeat one of these dragons, you must forget about using dragon ascendant. It's 12 levels of a very powerful class being added onto what is already one of the most dangerous creatures in the book.

Meh, I just fiat the "live forever" thing as a boon from the , very chatoic, game. But thanks for the tip :)