Your Most Memorable Dragon?

[Palanan]

Just what it says on the tin.

Whether it’s a dragon you’ve fought, bargained with, played as a character or thrown at your terrified PCs, what’s the most memorable dragon you’ve had in a game?

[JNAProductions]

Spoiler: Lilla, the Brainstealer Dragon Wyrmling

Show

The party had just defeated Xerth, the encarmine monk mind-flayer. They explore her cave, and find a big ol' egg-slightly acidic to the touch. They feel emotions coming from the egg, and a general question of "Is it safe?" They're hesitant, but say yes. The egg hatches. And out comes a tentacle-mouthed, purple-scaled dragon.

Over the course of the next week or so, they name her Lilla, and decide to adopt her. Plenty of shenanigans ensue with keeping Lilla hidden, but later, when they're dealing with the Magister of Elmton, Lilla is kidnapped by Xerth! They hunt her to an underground lair, but she teleports out before they can get to her, taking Lilla with. Screaming in rage, the party vow to track her down.

And track her down they do! Finding Xerth and Lilla on the elemental plane of fire, she's housed with an efreet. They talk to the efreet, but let Xerth know that they're onto her, and Xerth panics. She Dominates the efreet hostess, and orders her to kill the party. The party manages to break the enchantment, and the efreet turns on Xerth, who flees... Without Lilla, this time. They reunite, joyously.

They continue on their adventure, and eventually find a home for Lilla with the Alden-green plant elf people. Of course, later on, when a king threatens their daughter, they react by immediately using Call Lightning and vaporizing him. Don't mess with their family.

[Mastikator]

We were playing Drakar och Demoner Trudvagn and I was reading the bestiary about dragons and it came up that one kind (the fire dragon) had the magical power of shape changing, this was obviously intended as a plot hook for the DM. I however decided it could also serve as a back story, so I managed to convince the DM to allow me to play a young fire dragon that had greatly nerfed stats compared and could only shape change once per year. I would only retain my mental stats and then take on human stats and a human appearance. One important requirement was that if I had my character shapechange back to a dragon it would instantly become an NPC.

Well I went full on dragon stereotype: charismatic, impulsive, greedy, vain, clever, and always scheming. My human persona, or.. "husona" was that of a very rich priest, I was given actual enormous wealth (moreso than the entire rest of the party, by FAR) but I had to spend literally ALL of it on jewelry and other fancy stuff. So basically I could only use the dragon parts for roleplay parts. He wasn't especially good at fighting, had theoretical knowledge of arcane magic and was bereft of clerical magic. At first nobody questioned that they never saw my character use clerical magic because it was a very low magic game anyway.
Basically in terms of "powergaming" I was probably the weakest character, but in terms of social power I had the strongest character, highest social status and super-human lying ability. I could even go past the human lie detector PC who was otherwise a walking "Zone of Truth" paladin.

Over time the other players were getting a tad bit miffed with the character and I decided it's only going to get worse so it's better that I retire the character. I figured it would be very dramatic if I had him shapechange back into a dragon and fly into the horizon. The look on the other players faces was just perfect when I did just that.

[Imbalance]

Y'know, I could do with more dragon in my Dungeons & Dragons. I've only been into tabletop RPGs for a few years, and until this thread I hadn't stopped to count. There have been four.

Spoiler

Show

First, as a player, was an adult red, whom we fought in his volcanic lair. The dragon was less memorable than the means by which we defeated him, owing strongly to the same critical hit card deck that had plagued us all along our journey to face him. My fighter got off a nat 20 attack, the deck said it hit the foe's spine, causing immobilization. DM ruled that on a 50/50 percentile, it would cancel a movement type. The roll took his flight. Since he couldn't kite us, we wore him down and collected his head.

My first game as DM, running LMoP, one of my players has a silver wyrmling/youngish dragon that she knows as part of her backstory. Not like a companion, just an acquaintance. Not much else was written, so I pushed my license, introduced this spaz of a valley girl to the party, had her go on and on about Waterdavian social circles, how she wishes she could polymorph already, how her mom won't let her have any fun, how it's so hard getting a hoard started when you're young, all the while subtly injecting world-building rumors, exposition, and quest leads.

Same campaign. Spoiler warning. I may have gone a bit too Cruella Deville with Venomfang. I accidentally read her as female (which probably doesn't matter), but as soon as it was revealed that she had pupnapped the ranger's pet wolf (totally off rail), all negotiations were null. The young green got off one breath attack and some good slashes and chomps, but in her attempt to flee the tower and enlist the cult that had been trying to woo her as quick reinforcements, the party's sorcerer lit her up with a critical lightning bolt. She died spectacularly, then nearly crushed them all after plunging back down through the ruined ceiling.

Most recently, just starting HotDQ, the party has only caught glimpses of the aerial threat circling Greenest. Each time somebody gets a good perception roll I feed them more data about the dragon, and each time the party's Kenku rogue parrots, "crap, we're gonna die." It's a direct quote from one of the kobolds they faced when they entered town after they slew five of its buddies. They've just arrived at the keep, but midnight is fast approaching.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by JNAProductions
Over the course of the next week or so, they name her Lilla, and decide to adopt her.

…Of course, later on, when a king threatens their daughter, they react by immediately using Call Lightning and vaporizing him. Don't mess with their family.

Wyrmlings can grow on you that way.

What did Lilla eat? And were there ever any problems feeding her?

Originally Posted by Mastikator
I figured it would be very dramatic if I had him shapechange back into a dragon and fly into the horizon. The look on the other players faces was just perfect when I did just that.

Was this in response to a particular moment in the story, or did he just up and decide to leave without warning?

Originally Posted by Imbalance
Not much else was written, so I pushed my license, introduced this spaz of a valley girl to the party, had her go on and on about Waterdavian social circles, how she wishes she could polymorph already, how her mom won't let her have any fun, how it's so hard getting a hoard started when you're young, all the while subtly injecting world-building rumors, exposition, and quest leads.

This is hilarious. Was she doing this in human form, or in her natural silver-dragon form?

[JNAProductions]

Wyrmlings can grow on you that way.

What did Lilla eat? And were there ever any problems feeding her?

Brains. Animal brains, mostly.

And yes, initially, but it wasn't that interesting, so I kinda let it fade to the background.

[Democratus]

Patina, the Green dragon who tricked the party by claiming she was a gold dragon who had been "tarnished" by a curse. And thus, her color.

Over the course of the campaign, however, the party's noble actions rubbed off on the dragon and it eventually sacrificed itself to save them - its scales turning a shining gold as it died.

[Imbalance]

This is hilarious. Was she doing this in human form, or in her natural silver-dragon form?

I use this figure when they encounter her:

Spoiler: like, totally

Show

[Composer99]

Running HotDQ, and instead of running the dragon attack in Greenest as written, I had the blue dragon attack the party plus refugees while they were fleeing back to the keep from the Temple of Chauntea. The dragon rolled poorly for its breath weapon recharge so it tended to scoop people up and carry them into the sky and drop them. Took three javelins from the party barbarian, all three attacks hitting despite disadvantage, one of which was, if memory serves, a critical hit.

In my homebrew setting game, the party has been traveling with Argent, a shape-shifted silver dragon who has been called by old magic to the land her mother helped found. Argent is antsy about having left her hoard behind, accidentally called mortals "morsels", and doesn't want to show her true form in order to avoid a panic.

[Yora]

As far as I can recall, I've only ever seen a single dragon appear in 20 years of playing D&D.

At least, I know I ran a high level adventure that has a dragon in it, and we played it through to the end. I'm pretty sure the players encountered it, but I can't remember anything about that fight.

[Wizard_Lizard]

The young green dragon in Mines of Phandelver. Through like... a lot of prep, a touch of luck, and some strategy, the party of three level threes (myself included) managed to beat it! it was all round epic, even though I spent the last bit unconscious and hidden in a bush!

[Kane0]

The half Green, half black adult that spoke with way too much emphasis on S's.

It successfully hid above them using tree cover and instead of TPKing them with a single breath weapon from above blackmailed them into doing its dirty work in territory neighboring its own.
The party was incredibly motivated to get revenge, though they never really got a chance to because it got mind controlled and forcibly relocated by the BBEG.
Ironically the dirty work the PCs took too long to do was specifically to obtain a item that would render it immune to mental influence and thus in its own selfish way actually help the party in the long run.

[Tanarii]

A Green Dragon, in the opening of The Night Below campaign. I can't recall if it was something in the campaign, or something my players sought out. My (dorm mate) players befriended it by bribing it, then getting it to regularly cast Plant Growth of fields of weed they had planted. They marketed it as Dragon Bud. Thus began a crazy campaign of underworld empire building as they infiltrated markets along the sword coast, eventually partnering with the Zhentarim to market to the Heartlands, Comyr, Sembia, and beyond. With lots of betrayals and backstabbing. Instead of going down into the Underdark per the campaign box-module.

[Witty Username]

The green dragon that we killed and took his Lute. He was a wandering bard we attacked in the street as he was walking, whistling, and playing on his loot. We won initiative and killed him, then this older brother showed up and demanded compensation.

[KillianHawkeye]

I think my most memorable dragon was as a DM running the Red Hand of Doom and the party got to the Fane of Tiamat and I busted out the Avatar of Tiamat mini that I got on eBay just for that occasion. But I had to triple her hit points for her to stand a chance against them. :(

I still keep it on my shelf.

[Mastikator]

Was this in response to a particular moment in the story, or did he just up and decide to leave without warning?

My memory is a bit vague, this was almost 10 years ago mind you. The story had been meandering for a bit, we had recently defeated some cultists and the party was growing more incredulous with my character's antics. I'd say it was in response to the party rather than the story. It was the right time, the turning into a dragon bit though was probably without warning in their experience

[King of Nowhere]

Skarrakatach, the older and stronger dragon of my campaign.
a 1500 years old gold dragon, he spent most of the campaign convincing anyone he was just content to spend his last years inside the vault of the merchant union, it being the only hoard large enough to keep the dragon alive (in my world, dragons need magic, and hoards act as magic amplifiers).
but he remembered the times when nobody would dare stand against a dragon, and now mammals rule the world. seeing the dragons slowly but surely supplanted by humanoids, he formed a secret society of dragons with the purpose of humanoid extermination. the plan was to instigate a large scale was among humanoids, then unite the dragons and attack while the enemy was weakened.
he pulled a lot of strings. he even managed to plant a loial ally as a party cohort, to subtly manipulate the party into causing strife (he shouldn't have bothered, the high priest of vecna was just done building his lich army in the meanwhile...) and then he had a few of his dragons on both sides, and he used them to subtly sabotage the war efforts of whichever side was winning, so that the war would be as protracted and destructive as possible.

when he finally revealed himself, i was counting on his chasing away the party and forcing them to come back with reinforcements. unfortunately, even the might of three great wyrms failed at the task, so skarrakatach died quite miserably. still a great villain, though.

[Xervous]

It’s probably the family of 3 white dragons I deployed as a random encounter when the party was traveling overland.

Seeing the 200y/o white strafing the village they decided to poke at it. Only the elf archer could put a dent in it at range, and the breath weapon hurt. They eventually caved and used charges from a staff to fireball it, scaring it off. They didn’t have the gear to pursue at the time.

Later on they wanted revenge, riding along on their magic carpet to assault the lair on an isolated peak in the middle of what’s otherwise mainly forest and lowlands. Turns out Jr still lives with the folks given real estate is scarce.

All it took was one failed targeted dispel magic on the carpet to send them fleeing. They didn’t have a soul among them that knew feather fall, nor items for producing the effect. They did have a good dozen tokens for making trees...

Snowy lawn defended, mama dragon went back to snacking on an elk. The players from that party have been more meticulous in their planning ever since.

[LibraryOgre]

I played a dragon in a high-power Rifts game (which should tell you how crazy that game was). My previous character had committed suicide by demon lord (he'd made some questionable choices, and, as they say, the third time pays for all), and we were coming to the end game, so I just threw in a hatchling dragon with the personality of a kitten with zoomies and a nursing bottle full of meth. Absolutely no sense of boundaries, telepathy all the time to pull random thoughts from people and then change into those. He was instrumental enough in the final battle that they gave him a pyramid.

[Tanarii]

He was instrumental enough in the final battle that they gave him a pyramid.

This sounds like a kind of innocuous statement unless you know what pyramids can do in Rifts.

[LibraryOgre]

This sounds like a kind of innocuous statement unless you know what pyramids can do in Rifts.

We had some debate about the effect of a pyramid (on a nexus) would have on a hatchling dragon.

[Alcore]

Kazar, the Tyrant


Despite the moniker, given to him by his enemies, he was a rather calm and patient Red and was a good host til someone gets grabby around the treasure. His court had intrigue that the players didn't want and there were wars that the players had a minor role in so their spheres never truly met.

He just slowly conquered his geographical area and brought peace and stability. As the PCs grew to higher levels the creatures grew and then the PCs joked that Kazar got rid of the bandits/goblins/orcs. So the roads slowly got retconned into better ones and the party waved to the occasional group of hardened monster hunters. Forts started dotting his lands and dragonic creatures became more common.



The party never fought him but he was felt from beginning to end. He even handed out a quest; new lands and new kingdoms were discovered and he want one copper, one silver, one gold, one platinum, an authentic national flag and any historical writing on each of them. He had less a hoard and more a collection...

He was supposed to be a boss. Oh well...

[Xasten]

As a DM, and it was Xygoz the Hide-Carved Dragon. My players first caught a glimpse of this colossal red dragon wearing fullplate who was overseeing a naval staging area early in the game around level 8. They managed to sneak past at a distance. Only later in subsequent encounters were they able to discern that his armor was actually due to him having levels in the Draconomicon PrC Hidecarved Dragon.

He was the penultimate villain of a very memorable campaign and ended up being a fairly tragic and sympathetic character. The players were around level 21-22 when they fought him.

His abridged 3.5 stats below.

Dragon Lord Xygoz
Colossal Great Red Wyrm Hide Carved Dragon
HP: 2,000 Ability DR: 4/- Fortification: 80%
Initiative: +15 Speed: 80’, 15’ Step, 200’ Fly (clumsy)
AC: 65 T: 55 FF: 52
Atk: Bite +55 (4d6+40)
2 Claws +55 (2d8+15) OR 4 Claws 50/50/45/45
2 Wings +55 (2d6+15)
Tail +55 (2d8+30)
Breath Weapon: 24d10 Fire (DC 40) (1d3 rds refresh)
Frightful Presence: DC 38
Saves: 40/30/40

SPECIAL ANGLED ATKS:
Caustic Vision: 90’ cone 5d10 Acid damage/rnd
Anti-Magic Cone/Palm Carved Rune: 5/day 60’ Cone all targets covered in antimagic bubble for 1 rnd. Left claw cannot be used to atk for 1 rnd.

Spells Per Day/Known: 24+SL CL 19 QUICKEN SPELL
6/9/9/9/8/8/8/8/8/8
Known: 9/5/5/4/4/4/3/3/3/2
1: Magic Missile, Shield, Feather Fall, True Strike, Charm Person
2: Resist Energy, See Invisibility, Scintillating Scales
3: Haste, Fly, Fireball, Alter Fortune
4: Stunning Breath, Restoration, Improved Invisibility, G. Mirror Image
5: Teleport, CURE 5
6: G. Dispel Magic, Ruby Ray of Reversal, CURE 6
7: Spell Turning, Limited Wish, Teleport Without Error
8: Moment of Prescience, Maze, Superior Invis
9: Wish, Time Stop

ADAPTIVE DR: 5/- Base (+10 each successive atk from same target in a given rnd)
ADAPTIVE ER: ER 50/- from last type of damaging energy atk to harm him
SR: 35 base + 30 "pool points" (usable at discrection each round as a free action when going to resist any effect)
Soul Splice: All spells auto quickened so long as the splice is active. Soul can be dispelled by eroding via dispels it's overall CL pool (100 CL worth) or via other methods Trap the Soul, etc.

INHERENT: True Sight, Death Ward, Inviolate Form (Polymorph immunity)
Spells: Moment of Prescience +19


Trapped Hidecarved Scales: 50% chance to trigger a scale on hit. Each may be used until exhausted (uses denoted by X#). Roll 1d10:
1: 10’radius semi-circle 10D10 force damage attacker (10d10 surrounding) REF 35 X3, 2: Dispel Greater, CL 20 X2, 3: Enervate, X2, 4: Stun DC 45 Fort, X2, 5: Heal Xygoz 100 pts, 6: Feeble Mind 45 Will, 7: Confusion 50 X2 Will, 8: Forcecage on atker, 9: Implosion DC 50, 10: Maze

[Zazax]

A while back I was running an almost-Epic level game for my group of which a major part was a decades-long war between dragons and humanoids (humans, elves, dwarves, and so on). The PCs naturally sided with the humanoids, but it soon became clear that the war was almost entirely the work of a single dragon; a Great Wyrm Black Dragon named Gavarenth who thought dragons were superior and humanoids were lower life forms yadda yadda. He ended up being a big boss fight, but he's not who I'm talking about this time.

Now, on the human side there were several NPCs that the players frequently interacted with, and one of the recurring ones was a young woman named Val. Val was a prodigy, and had in only a few short years worked her way up the ranks to become the adjutant for the Supreme Commander of the Coalition (the alliance of humanoid races defending themselves from Gavarenth's war) himself. Even so, having reached this position, she adamantly refused any suggestion of a promotion, saying she could do her job best in her current position. At the time the PCs didn't pay her much attention, but she was always there, listening in at meetings, occasionally giving out suggestions and helping the PCs out with a few things. When asked about her personal life she was mostly evasive, but did mention something about missing her father, having not seen him in years.

On the draconic side, Gavarenth's biggest political opponent was another Great Wyrm, a Gold named Rylarth, who was trying to stop the war. He quickly became a fairly significant (if somewhat aloof) ally of the PCs. Rylarth was himself quite a character, putting on a classic 'harmless old man' act before the PCs figured out who he was, and he offhandedly mentioned at one point about how, in his younger, more brash days, he had had a forbidden fling with a Red Dragon. Said fling didn't last long, but did produce a daughter that Rylarth ended up raising himself. When the PCs asked about her, Rylarth straight-up told them that he had sent her on a deep cover mission shortly after the start of the war, and outside of updates in the form of magical communications, the two had barely spoken since then, let alone seen each other.

For a third perspective, the PCs actually managed to ask Gavarenth himself about Rylarth's daughter at one point. He was visibly disgusted by the fact that she liked and willingly spent most of her time around humanoids.

Even with all that, the players didn't figure it out until they found out some time later that 'Val' wasn't short for 'Valerie', but for 'Valstrath'.
Post-reveal, she effectively became an unofficial party member.

[Frankbit]

I'm playing that campaign right now. One of our last sessions we had a run in with that dragon. It ended up being a TPK and an overall lesson in "don't try to negotiate with green dragons." And then we woke up. Apparently we were in a drugged dream state from drinking a magic tea in a druid's hut.

Those minutes between my character "dying" and our DM waking us up were terrifying. DM claims that even if we killed the dragon without any party deaths it still would have been a dream. Who knows.

[aglondier]

In my homebrew kingdom, the barony out on the edge of the wilds is ruled by the kind, just and fair Lord Whitearrow. Who has just recently returned from a trip to the capital with a blushing new bride. His halfelven son is not impressed. It was totally unexpected, the man was a widower with no intention of remarrying...ever.
His lovely young bride is, in fact, a shapeshifted Blue Dragon. Fairly young, and setting about building a powerbase for herself. Using manipulation, enchantment, a little skulduggery, and the occasional scouring lightning breath, she plans to take over the monstrous tribes in the area. Using the threat of the PCs attacking to get the tribes to do her bidding, and sending the PCs to kill any monsters that refuse to serve her.

In the three games I've run in this setting, she has only been discovered once, and managed to pass herself off a a bronze that one time...colour cantrips for the win...

[Xervous]

In the three games I've run in this setting, she has only been discovered once, and managed to pass herself off a a bronze that one time...colour cantrips for the win...

Playing the part of a bronze would also leave the party with few opportunities to get a word in. At that point I’d feel sorry for the king, knowing how much a bronze would talk his ear off.

[LibraryOgre]

Oh, man, I forgot about Zippo Squadron!

So, we were playing GURPS Technomancer, where one of the suggested campaigns is "Dragons during the Vietnam War". We were Zippo Squadron (SEMPER FIRE!), Marine aviators who happened to be dragons. We didn't need planes or choppers... we just needed intel and a flight corridor.

Some of it was straightforward air raids on Vietcong installations... show up, set an ammo dump of fire, fly off with the explosion behind you. Some of it was base hijinks, culminating in our human CO conceding that we probably DID need a basketball hoop to keep from harassing the other dragon squadron in a prank war.

Ever seen a prank war between small groups of young dragons? It was expensive in materiel.

Like most games with that group, it was just a few sessions, but I still remember. Everyone came to the game with their own, unique, naming style. I cannot recall my character's name, but one of our players named hers "Freedom." We teased her about the name and she said, with perfect delivery, "My mother's name is Justice."

Zippo Squadron! SEMPER FIRE!

[TeChameleon]

Huh. Thinking about it, my party has encountered various dragons over the years, although... yeah, there is one real standout, although, like many others, the means of its destruction ended up being somewhat more memorable than the dragon itself.

It was an Ancient Gold Dragon... that had been corrupted by millennia guarding, then eventually just sitting on, a rift to the Far Realms. And quite, quite thoroughly insane by this point.

We, unfortunately, needed to deal with this, one way or another, so we got ready to go fight the thing. And one of the PCs in my party decided to pop up Drawmij's Instant Fortress when it charged us. Thing was, it was so close when the Fortress was thrown down that the DM ruled that its head got caught in the window of the room we ended up in

Thing was, earlier on, we had run into a plot to blow a mining city into low orbit and had come away with some interesting loot.

So the dragon inhaled to scour the room with its breath weapon...

and found itself choking on nearly two hundred pounds of magical C4-equivalent.


It ended up being a very short fight