Dragon (Dungeons & Dragons)


In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, dragons are an iconic type of monstrous creature. As a group, D&D dragons are loosely based upon dragons from a wide range of fictional and mythological sources. Dungeons & Dragons allows players to fight its fictional dragons and "slay their psychic dragons" as well. These dragons, specifically their "dungeon ecology," have implications for the literary theory of fantasy writing. D&D dragons also featured as targets of the moral panic surrounding the game.
In D&D, dragons are depicted as any of various species of large, intelligent, magical, reptilian beasts, each typically defined by a combination of their demeanor and either the color of their scales or their elemental affinity. For example, a commonly presented species of dragon is the red dragon, which is named for its red scales, and known for its evil and greedy nature, as well as its ability to breathe fire. In the game, dragons are usually adversaries of player characters, and less commonly, allies or helpers. Even though dragons are iconic for the D&D game, they are rarely encountered as part of official scenarios due to dragons typically being too powerful for low-level players. An exception to this is the Dragonlance game world.

Classification

In the D&D universe, there are many different species of dragons. However, despite their variety, a number of traits are common to nearly all types of dragons. All species appear to be generally reptilian or serpentine in their natural form. Except for the youngest dragons, they tend to be quite large—usually at least as big as a horse, and often much larger. Most species depicted have wings and are able to fly, and nearly all are quadrupedal. Almost all species of dragon are highly intelligent and are able to speak. Essentially all species of dragon are said to be magical in nature, and in most species this nature is expressed as an affinity for some type of elemental power; some dragon species are naturally able to cast magical spells, as well. Most dragons have the ability to breathe or expel one or more types of energy associated with their elemental affinity, as well as bearing some resistance to damage or injury from any other sources of such energy. Dragons are egg-layers, and most have sharp teeth, horns, and claws. A D&D dragon is protected by its scaly hide, the color of which is determined by the dragon's species, and which also offers a visual clue to the specific elemental nature of each species of dragon. Each species of dragon has a particular temperament associated with it, as well as a deeply rooted moral outlook derived from that temperament; these factors underlie the personality and behavior of each individual dragon. Typically, dragons do not vary widely in appearance or personality within a species, although exceptions are possible, especially in certain D&D settings, such as Eberron.
Because D&D dragons are essentially monstrous creatures designed to antagonize player characters, the majority of dragons in D&D are evil by default. This was particularly the case in the original Dungeon and Dragons releases where only the gold dragon was lawful good while all other colors were chaotic evil or neutral evil.
Some dragons have two different kinds of breath, usually a lethal one and another that is typically non-lethal.
In the second edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, dragons were completely reworked from their first edition counterparts, and were much more powerful. For example, they had magic resistance, could no longer be subdued, and had physical attack forms besides just claws and bites.
AD&D 2nd edition and D&D 3rd edition divided true dragons further into three main categories: chromatic dragons, such as green and black dragons, which are evil-aligned; metallic dragons, such as gold and silver dragons, which are good; and neutral-aligned gem dragons, rare creatures that possess psionic abilities. In addition, there were other sub-species of true dragons that did not fit into the three main categories. For example, mercury and steel dragons would seem to be metallic dragons, but in the Dungeons & Dragons world they are considered to be outside of the main family of metallic dragons because of various biological differences. The "lung dragons" or spirit-dragons of Oriental Adventures are also true dragons.
The third edition of D&D classifies dragon as a type of creature, simply defined as "a reptilelike creature, usually winged, with magical or unusual abilities". The dragon type is broken down into several classifications. True dragons are dragons which increase in power by age categories. Lesser dragons do not improve in age categories and may lack all of the abilities of true dragons. Examples of lesser dragons include dragon turtles and wyverns. Other creatures with the dragon type include drakes, felldrakes, elemental drakes, landwyrms, linnorms and wurms.
However, with D&D 4th edition, the classifications were changed: chromatic dragons became not strictly evil, and metallic dragons became not necessarily good. Also, there are several new categories : "planar dragons" which are defined as dragons that were warped by living on a plane of existence other than the Material Plane, "catastrophe dragons", which take on the aspects of natural disasters which are chaotic evil and cause chaos for its own sake, and "scourge dragons". Chromatic dragons are presented in the Monster Manual and Draconomicon: Chromatic Dragons. Metallic dragons are presented in the Monster Manual 2 and Draconomicon: Metallic Dragons. Catastrophe dragons are presented in Monster Manual 3. Planar dragons have been presented in both Draconomicon: Chromatic Dragons and Draconomicon: Metallic Dragons.
Detailed information about D&D dragonkind in second, third, or fourth editions may be found in their respective editions of the Draconomicon, a D&D supplement book designed especially for draconic information. No such book was published for the first edition, although the Basic game had a Bestiary of Dragons and Giants.

Publication history

Five evil-aligned dragons, and the lawful-good aligned golden dragon first appeared in the original Dungeons & Dragons "white box" set. The Greyhawk Campaign supplement added the copper dragon, brass dragon, bronze dragon, and silver dragon, along with the Platinum Dragon and the Chromatic Dragon.
The white dragon, black dragon, red dragon and brass dragon reappeared in the original Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set. The six dragons from the 1974 boxed set appeared in the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Rulebook, and again in the 1983 version of the Basic Set. These six appeared along with the gemstone dragons, and the dragon rulers, Ruler of all Chaotic Dragons; Diamond, Ruler of all Lawful Dragons; Opal in the Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia.
The five chaotic-aligned dragon types from the 1974 boxed set, as well as the gold dragon and the four new dragon types from the Greyhawk supplement appeared in first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons in the original Monster Manual, along with Bahamut and Tiamat. The former five dragon types were given as evil-aligned, while the latter five dragon types were given as good-aligned. The ten dragon types were given pseudoscientific names as follows: black, blue, brass, bronze, copper, gold, green, red, silver, and white. The Oriental dragons appeared in the original Fiend Folio, including the li lung, the lung wang, the pan lung, the shen lung, the t'ien lung, and the yu lung. The cloud dragon, the faerie dragon, the mist dragon, and the shadow dragon appeared in the original Monster Manual II.
The black dragon, blue dragon, brass dragon, bronze dragon, copper dragon, gold dragon, green dragon, red dragon, silver dragon, and white dragon appeared in second edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons in the Monstrous Compendium Volume One. The faerie dragon, and the Oriental dragons—lung wang, pan lung, shen lung, t'ien lung, tun mi lung, yu lung, chiang ling, and li lung —appeared in the Monstrous Compendium Forgotten Realms Appendix. The radiant dragon appeared in the boxed set. The dragons of Krynn', the amphi dragon, the astral dragon, the kodragon, the othlorx dragon, and the sea dragon appeared in the Monstrous Compendium Dragonlance Appendix . The cloud dragon, the Greyhawk dragon, the mist dragon, and the shadow dragon appeared in the Monstrous Compendium Greyhawk Appendix. The adamantite dragon appeared in the Monstrous Compendium Outer Planes Appendix. The moon dragon, the sun dragon, and the stellar dragon appeared in the Monstrous Compendium Spelljammer Appendix. The deep dragon appeared in the Monstrous Compendium Forgotten Realms Appendix II. The gem dragons first appeared in The Dragon magazine #037, and then appeared again in the Monstrous Compendium Fiend Folio Appendix. The chromatic dragons, the gem dragons, metallic dragons, brown dragon, cloud dragon, deep dragon, mercury dragon, mist dragon, shadow dragon, steel dragon, and yellow dragon appeared in the Monstrous Manual. The onyx dragon, jade dragon, ruby dragon and amber dragon appeared in the Monstrous Compendium Mystara Appendix.
The chromatic dragons, and the metallic dragons appeared in the third edition in the Monster Manual, and in the revised 3.5 Monster Manual. The Gem dragons appeared in the third edition in the Monster Manual II.
The five chromatic dragon types appeared in young, adult, elder, and ancient variants in the fourth edition Monster Manual. Three more chromatic dragon types appeared in Draconomicon: Chromatic Dragons: the brown dragon, the grey dragon, and the purple dragon. The adamantine dragon, copper dragon, gold dragon, iron dragon, and silver dragon appeared in the Monster Manual 2.

Abilities

In D&D, true dragons continue to become more powerful as they mature and age; they grow bigger and stronger, become more resistant to damage and magic, their breath weapon become increasingly dangerous and their knowledge and magical abilities improves. Old dragons can cast draconic magic which is a special form of D&D magic; dragons can cast spells with just a few words, rather than a sometimes long and complex ritual involving words, gestures and preparations like other D&D wizards. In 3 and 3.5 editions dragons cast spells spontaneously like sorcerers do, sometimes having a wider choice of spells. Dragons also radiate a mystical fear aura around them. After a millennium or two, a dragon reaches his maximum development. In the Draconomicon, there is also an article about Advanced Dragons, dragons that have reached their oldest age category but can still advance "virtual age categories", and become larger and stronger.
Many D&D dragons have some innate magical abilities, but they vary from race to race. Metallic dragons are often able to shapechange into small animals or human forms, and use this ability to secretly help or watch over humans. Dragons also have some innate powers over the element they are linked to. For example, a red dragon will have some control over fires. Like all other draconic powers, they gain more as they grow older. Lesser dragons, for example wyverns, halfdragons or dragonwrought kobolds may lack innate magical abilities, while still counting as dragons for purpose of all other effects.

Breath weapon

A breath weapon is the cone or line shaped weapon exhaled by dragons in D&D. Each type of dragon has a different breath weapon. The chromatic dragons have one breath weapon and the metallic dragons have two. Other dragons and semi-dragons frequently have breath weapons. One example is the dragon turtle's cone of steam breath weapon.

Form

Breath weapons typically come in one of three forms.
Breath weapons typically are composed of one of several materials.
True dragons are born with a natural flair for magic, but they need to practise and hone their skills and come of age before they are able to use it to any meaningful effect.

Biology

D&D dragons are able to eat almost everything, but each race has a preferred diet.
Dragons are inherently magical beings, and are cold blooded reptiles. They have no biological relationship to mammals.
The number of eggs laid each time depends on the race of the dragon, but is usually low. Dragons can also cross-breed with virtually any other creature, creating a half-dragon. The most commonly heard of are in the humanoid races, particularly with human and elves. Any combination is possible, however, even with devils or angels.
As far as senses, which vary slightly depending on species, they are superior in most ways to other creatures; like any predator, they have exceptionally acute senses, which only increase with age. Like avian creatures, they have excellent depth perception and comparingly good peripheral vision, able to see twice as well as a human in daylight; unlike avians, they have great night vision, and are able to see even when conditions have no light to offer, although in such conditions they cannot discern between colors.
In some editions, dragons can also pick up scents very well, utilizing both their sensitive nose and tongue, much like a snake. In the 3.5 edition Monster Manual they do not have the Scent extraordinary ability , so that a dragon's sense of smell does not markedly excel a human's.
Also, a dragon's hearing is roughly on par with human hearing, although a dragon's mind can filter what noise it hears. They are capable of "blindsense", the sense in which eyes, ears, and other senses are used to detect invisible persons or objects. Dragon taste is also refined, although they do not respond well to sweet flavors, and most dragons do not discuss the matter as to why. Of all its senses, a dragon's sense of touch is the only one to decrease throughout age, thanks mostly to the development of thick, hard scales.

Dragon personalities

All true dragons in Dungeons & Dragons are depicted as intelligent beings, and most of them exceedingly so. A dragon's personality varies by individual, but dragons of the same subrace tend to have similar mindsets. This is not always true; several exceptions exist in official D&D material. In the Forgotten Realms, a good-aligned red dragon is involved against his will in the Fall of the elven city of Myth Drannor.
Dragon subraces encompass all D&D alignments, going from lawful good paladin-like gold dragons to the cruel and very greedy chaotic evil red dragons.
All dragons share a common desire to collect treasure, be it precious, beautiful, magical or just shiny—indeed, the treasure in question needn't always be gold, and may sometimes be aesthetic in nature, ranging from popular artwork or sculptures or even rare books and tomes that might otherwise have an overwhelming monetary value. For evil-aligned dragons, this generally directs a greedy attitude to achieve such wealth by whatever means suit them. For good dragons this lust for treasure is tempered, although they are certainly not averse to earning such wealth, and still appreciate gifts.
Being stronger, faster, generally smarter, and possessing longer life than humans and most other races, dragons tend to consider themselves superior creatures. For good-aligned dragons, this may only mean they often consider humanoid races as children, trying to take care of them and educate them; for evil-aligned dragons, they consider humanoids as mere animals, or as toys to play with; at best, they are minions and slaves.
The longevity of dragons is evident in their often lackadaisical attitudes. Good-aligned dragons, while concerned with defeating evil, are able to see a much broader scope of the world, and although certain crises arise that may seem extremely important to good-aligned humans, their dragon counterparts are able to see the event as an unimportant hiccup that will pass in mere centuries; even those that adventure with others tend show a sense of incredible patience, even in situations where all others feel they've not a second to lose. Similarly, evil-aligned dragons that are crossed by belligerent adventurers may plot for dozens of generations before exacting revenge on the trespasser's line—it is not uncommon for those descended from the mentioned adventurer to find themselves the target of a dragon based simply on their lineage.

In campaign settings

In many settings, the god-king of the metallic dragons is Bahamut, the Platinum Dragon, and the goddess and queen of the chromatic dragons is Tiamat, the Five-Headed Dragon. She is based on the Tiamat from Babylonian mythology, who was considered the evil mother of dragons, though the appearances of the fictional deity differs greatly from its model.
The progenitor and supreme deity of all dragons in the game is known as Io. Other deities often included in the draconic pantheon of gods include Aasterinian, Chronepsis, and Faluzure. Other draconic gods may be present in different campaign settings.

Dragonlance setting

The Dragonlance novels and campaign setting helped popularize the D&D-derived perspective on dragons. Here the Platinum Dragon is called Paladine, and the Dragon Queen is called Takhisis. Dragons are divided up into good and evil groups, known as the Metallic Dragons and the Chromatic Dragons, respectively. Paladine leads the Metallic Dragons and Takhisis the Chromatic. The Metallic Dragons rarely became involved in the world other than to oppose the actions of Chromatic Dragons, who often joined into war as their goddess Takhisis instructed. However, in the "Fifth Age", massive Chromatic Dragons who were not native to Krynn emerged and took over many of the humanoid-controlled nations of Krynn, as well as slaying many of the native dragons. They are known as Dragon Overlords. There was one from each race of Chromatic Dragons; red, green, black, white, and blue.

Dark Sun setting

In the world of Athas of the Dark Sun campaign setting, normal D&D dragons do not exist. Dragon-like drake races exist, one for each classical element, but for most people the word dragon refers to the Dragon of Tyr, who is a very powerful sorcerer-king who transformed himself into a dragon-like creature using very powerful magic. However, this dragon was eventually killed in Troy Denning's book The Cerulean Storm by his former master, the sorcerer Rajaat. Several other sorcerer kings had been rumored to be dragons, but all others were only in a process of being transformed into a dragon type being, unique to the Athas world, which took several long stages to complete, but became greatly powerful if achieved.

Forgotten Realms setting

In the Forgotten Realms campaign setting, dragons are very close to the ones in Dragonlance. A sect of cultists called the Cult of the Dragon believes that dragons, particularly undead ones, will rule the world, and are trying to persuade evil dragons to become dracoliches -- undead lich-like dragons, which are partially bound to the cult by the rituals which grant them their undead status. Additionally, in the D&D supplement book The Draconomicon, several other undead varieties of the dragon – ghost, skeleton, vampire, and zombie dragons – are described.
A series called Wyrms of the North ran in Dragon magazine issues #230 through #259 and was later updated to third edition rules on Wizards of the Coast's website. Each article detailed an individual dragon of significance in Faerûn.
Lately an ancient affliction that attacks dragons, rendering them mad; the Dracorage, was invoked causing countless dragons to rampage throughout Faerûn. A novel trilogy, The Year of Rogue Dragons set by Richard Lee Byers, as well as a game accessory, Dragons of Faerûn, details the exploits and deeds of several dragons as the Dracorage swept the continent.

World of Greyhawk setting

s, originally known as Greyhawk dragons, are those originating in the World of Greyhawk campaign setting, later appearing in other settings like the Forgotten Realms. They have hair-like spines around their heads, cat-like bodies with vaguely human-like faces, and scales resembling steel armor. They are much like the other races of metallic dragon with one primary exception: they prefer to maintain the form of another sentient race in order to mingle with, infiltrate, and study the cultures of men and their ilk. Few people know when they are interacting with a Steel Dragon, but they always have a feature which betrays them by resembling their natural complexion. Within the Greyhawk setting, such dragons are known to have made journeys into other material planes where they have come to be called steel dragons.

Council of Wyrms setting

The Council of Wyrms campaign setting is the only one that allows for dragon player characters in its base rules. The setting is based around a society of dragons and their servitors and uses the standard D&D dragon races and dragon gods. It has detailed rules for creating and playing dragon PCs and NPCs, including various draconic character classes.

Eberron setting

In the Eberron campaign setting, three dragon gods have created the world: Siberys, Eberron and Khyber. Siberys and Eberron waged war against Khyber and imprisoned it within the depths of the earth. In the end, all three dragons merged with the land: Siberys becoming the sky, Eberron the continents and Khyber the underground world.
Dragons are apart from civilization, which is mostly concentrated on the continent of Khorvaire. They live on the continent of Argonnessen, a rather unknown place, since dragons are very territorial, it makes exploration often hazardous. The dragons used to rule over Eberron many centuries ago, but at the end of the Dragon-Fiend war, against the demons and devils of Khyber, they departed from Khorvaire to go to Argonnessen.
Dragons are immersed in the Draconic Prophecy, a legend which all bits of information are scattered throughout the world and that the outcome is unknown. They see every event as an important event in the Prophecy, and they even form an organization called the Chamber, where they send their brethren in search of clues. They can be of any alignment, like any creature in Eberron, so a good red dragon is as common as an evil gold dragon. This rule might throw some players off-balance. Dragons also consider themselves superior, treating all other races as inferior. Furthermore, any half-dragon spotted by these dragons is vowed to be hunted, as they treat these half-breeds as a disgrace to their image.

Birthright setting

The Birthright campaign setting had its own version of a Dragon, named Cerilian Dragon, Cerilia being the main continent in the setting. They resemble more the eastern-type dragons being long and serpentine with leathery wings. Their backs are protected by iron-hard scales, their bellies by layers of thick, leathery skin. Their color ranges from reddish rust-brown to iron gray, with their bellies usually of a paler tone than their scales. Cerilian dragons are among the most ancient inhabitants of the continent, predating even elves and dwarves. Perhaps once there were many, but over the years, in-fighting and fighting the younger races have taken their toll. There are only a half dozen dragons known to be left. All living dragons are of the Old age or higher. Dragons are extremely intelligent and knowledgeable, conserving much lore that has been lost to the younger races. They speak their own language; some also speak Elven or Dwarven. Some of these dragons took part in the Battle of Deismaar, the only verified alive and awake dragons right now are the dragon of Vstaive Peaks in Vosgaard, also known as Vore Lekiniskiy and Kappenkriaucheran who inhabits the Drachenward mountains and controls their magic. The most famous of the dragons is Tarazin the Grey who has not been seen for several decades when the official campaign begins. The only known Dracolich is Komassa who lives in the Shadow World. Dragons in Birthright are meant to be rare and powerful beings and only rarely if ever appear in any adventure.

True dragons

In most descriptions, true dragons only comprise the two families of chromatic dragons and metallic dragons. There are, however, many more families among the true dragons, and some kinds exists outside any specific category.

Chromatic dragons

A Chromatic dragon is a classification of fictional dragon. Chromatic dragons are typically of evil alignment, in contrast to the metallic dragons, which are typically of good alignment. Chromatic dragons have played a large role in various D&D monster compilation books: white, black, green, blue and red dragons being the classic chromatic dragons. Tiamat is the queen of chromatic dragons, based on the evil mother of all dragons from Babylonian mythology.

Publication history

The classification of "chromatic dragons" was used in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons second edition Monstrous Manual, although the dragons comprising the category had been in print since the original Dungeons & Dragons "white box" set. The term was continued in use in the third edition and fourth edition Monster Manual.
The German magazine Envoyer commented that the artistic rendering of dragons in the game evolved positively through the editions, giving the different races more distinctive characteristics aside from color.

Primary types

Other chromatic dragons

This is a list of other dragons which are based on colors, but are not truly related to other chromatic dragons. In 4th edition, the gray, brown, and purple dragons were released in Draconomicon, but the grey and purple dragons were different. Instead of being based on the dragons listed here, they were based on the fang and deep dragons of 3rd edition.
NameCharacteristicsNotes
Brown dragon
  • Breath weapon: Line of acid
  • Terrain: Desert
  • Preferred Treasure: Valuable cookware and cutlery
  • Alignment: Neutral Evil
  • Image:
Ferocious and intelligent beasts from the Forgotten Realms campaign setting that come from the Raruin desert east of Mulhorand. They view humans as food and think it peculiar to talk with one's meal. They have no wings, but instead burrow in the desert sands with their webbed claws. They have a membranous frill that connects each row of spines down the length of the dragon's body allowing undulating flight through the air.
Grey dragon
  • Breath weapon: A caustic ooze that burns flesh and immobilizes victims
  • Terrain: Badlands, scrublands, dry prairies, and other flatland terrain
  • Preferred Treasure: Mementos and trophies
  • Alignment: Chaotic Evil
    		• Grey dragons are the most rapacious, venal, and brutish of the chromatics. Elder and ancient gray dragons have a special affinity with stone. They can exude a stony essence that petrifies foes. An ancient gray dragon's spikes have an elemental resonance that petrifies not only the dragon's primary targets but also nearby creatures.
    Orange dragon
  • Breath weapon: Explosive compound
  • Terrain: Jungle rivers and lakes
  • Alignment: Neutral Evil
    		• Crafty predators who attack from ambush. They prefer to lurk in deep rivers and lakes. They are territorial and natural tyrants who seek to bring creatures in their area under their control. They bear a resemblance to monstrous, orange alligators.
    Purple dragon
  • Breath weapon: A purple dragon's breath weapon can take on three different forms. It can manifest as a cone of energy, a burst of power, or a blade of energy.
  • Terrain: Underdark
  • Preferred Treasure: Rare maps and cartography tools
  • Alignment: Lawful Evil
    		• Long, lean bodied dragons with deep purple to midnight black scales. These fancy themselves to be the lords of all dragonkind, believing themselves arisen from the long dead sister of Tiamat. They are among the most intelligent of dragons, able to gather and control vast numbers of minions. Their energy-related attacks make them powerful fighters.
    Yellow dragon
  • Breath weapon: Salt water
  • Terrain: Aquatic and coastal areas
  • Preferred Treasure: Coins
  • Alignment: Chaotic Evil
    		• Solitary and secretive dragons who prefer to lay in wait for prey to stumble into carefully prepared traps instead of hunting actively. They are among the most agile and quick of all dragons. Their breath weapon is a watery blast that contains a corrosive sodium compound. They adore water and will play in it.

    Reception

    The young adult black dragon was ranked first among the ten best mid-level monsters by the authors of Dungeons & Dragons For Dummies. The young white dragon was ranked eighth among the ten best low-level monsters by the authors of Dungeons & Dragons For Dummies. The authors chose the young white dragon over a wyrmling, feeling that "it's more satisfying for characters to battle against a dragon that's at least as big as a person, if not bigger. The young white dragon offers the best chance for this kind of fight". Dant et al called the red dragon "deadly", and "one of the most fearsome and classic monsters" in role-playing games.

    Metallic dragons

    Metallic dragon is a classification of dragon found in the role playing game Dungeons & Dragons. In this setting metallic dragons are of good alignment. Bahamut is the deity of good-aligned dragons and metallic dragons, and currently the only known Platinum dragon in existence. Metallic dragons have played a large role in D&D's various monster compilation books, and for most of the game's history five main types - brass, copper, bronze, silver, and gold - were presented as roughly analogous to the five types of chromatic dragons. The fourth edition of the game's second Monster Manual substituted iron and adamantine dragons for brass and bronze, and released the latter dragons in a later book alongside cobalt, mercury, mithral, orium, and steel dragons.

    Publication history

    The classification of "metallic dragons" was used in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons second edition Monstrous Manual, although the gold dragon first appeared in the original Dungeons & Dragons "white box" set and the other dragons comprising the category had been in print since the first edition Monster Manual. The term was continued in use in the third edition and fourth edition Monster Manual.

    Common types

    Rare types

    Gem dragons

    Gem dragons are typically of neutral alignment with respect to good and evil, but some kinds are quite egoistic and awful company nevertheless. The Gem dragon family comprise Amethyst Dragons, Crystal Dragons, Emerald Dragons, Sapphire Dragons, and Topaz Dragons. Sardior is the deity of gem dragons. Although Obsidian Dragons are also technically gem dragons, they are opposed to Sardior and most other gem dragons.
    The following is a list of the gem dragons, a classification of dragon found in the role playing game Dungeons & Dragons. In this setting, gem dragons are typically of neutral alignment. Sardior is the deity of gem dragons.

    Publication history

    The gem dragons and Sardior the Ruby Dragon first appeared in the first edition in Dragon #37.
    The gem dragons appeared in the second edition in the Monstrous Compendium Fiend Folio Appendix, and the Monstrous Manual. They appeared as player character races in the Council of Wyrms set and the Campaign Option: Council of Wyrms book.
    The gem dragons appeared in the third edition in Monster Manual II.

    Types

    ;Amethyst dragon
    The most powerful of the neutral gem dragons, amethyst dragons are honorable, regal creatures. They inhabit the mountains of the northern islands, living on the shores of isolated lakes and pools. At birth, these dragons have lavender skin with fine, translucent-purple scales. These scales darken as the creature grows older, eventually reaching a sparkling lavender color.
    These creatures approach life with a detached air, ignoring the conflicts of good and evil, law and chaos. At best, they see these conflicts as petty squabbles over inconsequential points of view, and not worthy of their time or consideration. These majestic dragons consider themselves to be the leaders of the gem dragons, and most of the lesser gem dragons acquiesce to this leadership – in everyday life and in the Council Aerie.
    While amethyst dragons consider their silver and copper cousins to be foolish and have an active dislike of red and white dragons, they do not consider any life form to be their inherent enemies. They prefer to reason out a settlement through discussion and negotiation rather than through combat, but they can and will fight if they must. Being honourable and noble, these dragons never hide or attempt to ambush foes. To them, even retreating is a dishonourable action, but they will flee if faced with certain death.
    Amethyst dragons eat large quantities of fish and gems. They keep vassals to attend to their needs, though they do not place as many restrictions or requirements on them as other dragon lords do. Most keep at least one hidden, underwater cave for seclusion and secrecy.
    Amethyst dragons approach mating in a very logical manner, seeking the optimum partner to produce the best offspring. Love and pleasure rarely, if ever, enter the equation.
    ;Crystal dragon
    The friendly crystal dragons of Io's Blood's northern isles spend much time trying to learn about world around them. They value friendship over all else and the treasures tend to be sentimental rather than valuable, they welcome visitors who come to them with good intentions.
    Hatchlings have glossy white scales that become more and more translucent with age. By the time they reach adulthood, these scales become luminescent in moonlight. In the full light of the day they glow with a dazzling, almost unbearable brilliance.
    Fun-loving and mischievous, crystal dragons tend to be irresponsible rulers. For the daily running of their domains, these dragons rely on their vassals to keep things going. They establish domains in the cold, open northern reaches, building castles out of snow and ice. They leave these castles open to the sky, for they love to watch the stars on clear, cold nights. The white dragon clans consider crystal dragons to be nothing more than prey, so the two types are almost always in conflict. The crystal dragons also have little love for the tribes of giants that live beyond the Ice Sea and often come south to enslave the small, relatively weak gem dragons.
    Like other benevolent dragons, the crystal dragons prefer to talk rather than fight. Even without special abilities, they can be charming and engaging to an extreme. Gems and metal ores are their foods of choice.
    They mate with willing partners whenever they want, as desire and need move them. It has also been known for crystal dragons to adopt white dragon hatchlings.
    ;Emerald dragon
    Emerald dragons live among the tropical islands in the Io's Blood chain's southern waters. They are a curious species, taken to keeping track of history, lore and customs. They tend to be very reclusive, suspicious that others covet their treasure hoards and territory.
    Hatchlings have translucent green scales, which harden and take on many shades of green as they age. These scales are scintillating in the light, giving an emerald dragon's hide the appearance of being in constant motion.
    A desire for privacy runs through the emerald clans, going so far as to determine where the dragon lords and their spawn establish lairs. In the southern islands, emerald dragons built their domains around the inactive volcano range that stretches across the tropical isles. Only their most trusted vassals are permitted to serve them within the main lairs. The others tend to duties throughout the rest of the domain.
    The primary lairs consist of traps and alarms designed to warn the dragon of visitor and other threats. Emerald dragons prefer to quietly observe intruders and rarely emerge from hiding. If parlay is called for, they send their kindred or chief vassals to handle such duties while they watch, hidden, from cover. When forced into combat, emerald dragons prefer to attack by ambush, using stealth and surprise attacks to quickly disable their enemies. If the threat prove to be too great to handle, an emerald dragon will not hesitate to retreat. However, it will plan revenge, and its patience can last for centuries if need be.
    Emerald dragons have no compunctions about what they eat. They prefer lizards and giants, but they will eat anything in a pinch. Of all the other type of dragonkind, emerald dragons get along best with the sapphire dragons, often controlling parallel domains. They fear the red dragon clans because of their well-known greed, and they are usually in open conflict with the fire giants from beyond the Burning Sea. Emeralds like the security and protection offered by a trusted partner and will take a single mate for a long time.
    ;Sapphire dragon
    The sapphire dragons of the Io's Blood Isles control subterranean domains beneath two of the larger southern islands. While most of the territory above their realms belongs to the emerald dragons, they keep a small portion of the surface area as their own as well as the extensive caverns beneath the tropical jungles.
    From birth, sapphire dragons are beautiful, with scale ranging from light to dark blue in color, which sparkle in the light. Because of their coloration, they are sometimes mistaken for blue dragons.
    Of all dragonkind, perhaps the sapphire dragon clans are the most militaristic. They fervently protect their territory from outsiders, going so far as to distrust anyone who even gets close to their borders. They work to keep their vassals in peak fighting condition, maintaining some of the best-trained armies in the isles. As most of the territory that interests the sapphire clans is below the ground, they rarely come into conflict with other dragon clans unless they attempt to take caverns currently in use. Only the black dragons compete with them for the tropical underground, and even they are wary of going into direct conflict with the armies of the sapphire clans.
    Most of the demihuman vassals serving the sapphire dragons are either dwarves or gnomes, as these races have no problems living and working beneath the ground. Also, elves are too much like drow, whom these dragons consider to be one of their natural enemies. Dwarven vassals are treated little better than slaves, as the two species were once at war, and they are almost never granted the kindred bond. This honour is usually reserved for gnome only.
    Giant spiders make up most of a sapphire dragon's diet, and great hunts are conducted in the tunnels to find these delicacies. When a dragon lord feeling particularly lazy, it will send its dwarven vassals into the tunnels in search of the spiders. Of course, they must capture the spiders alive.
    While militaristic and warlike, the sapphire dragons are not quick to attack. They prefer to observe intruders so that they can plan how to deal with them. If drow or dwarves from another clan approach, they are immediately attacked. Others can often at least make some gesture of friendship or parlay before being told to leave. If a sapphire dragon or its treasure is ever threatened, it attacks immediately with its breath weapon, spells, and physical attacks. It uses psionics and special abilities to escape if faced with a more powerful foe. Sapphire dragons take a single mate for long periods of time, however sapphires seek to possess a mate to enhance their prestige and status more than other reasons
    ;Topaz dragon
    Topaz dragons inhabit the coastal regions of the temperate islands, building lairs below the waterline, though constructing them so they remain dry. Clannish and self-seeking, these gem dragons usually want little to do with the other inhabitants of the isles. They keep vassals to fill their domain and make them appear as prosperous as their neighbors, and they participate in the Council activities on occasion, but for the most part these dragons neither seek company nor welcome it.
    Out of the egg, a topaz dragon is a dull yellow-orange in color. With the age, its scales harden and become translucent and faceted. When it reaches adulthood, a topaz dragon sparkles in the light of the sun.
    While topaz dragons enjoy the feel of sea wind and spray on their faceted-scale hides, they do not particularly like the water. They swim to hunt, attack, or reach their lairs, but not for enjoyment. They do love to eat fish and other sea creatures, especially the tasty giant squids that live in the Coral Sea.
    While not malicious, topaz dragons are not the best of company or particularly pleasant to deal with. Besides caring little for social graces, they display erratic behavior that is unsettling and very confusing. They dislike visitors, but tend to avoid combat if they can help it. If combat is unavoidable, they use tricks and promises to distract their foes before striking with teeth and claws.
    Unless it specifically interests or affect them, topaz dragons tend to be indifferent to the causes and concerns that occupy the rest of dragonkind. They dislike bronze dragons and usually oppose the interests of those clans.
    It takes time for a topaz dragon to accept another dragon's friendship, but once it does it remains a friend for life. Once another dragon gets past its outer defenses and gruff exterior, it finds a loyal companion and ready protector in the topaz dragon.

    Other gem dragons

    ;Obsidian dragon
    Obsidian dragons, while the most intelligent of the gem dragons, are also the most vicious. They are extremely haughty, anger easily, and like to toy with prey before finishing it off.
    An obsidian dragon has smooth black skin with razor edges where joints come together. When first hatched, their scales are gray, rough to touch, and well defined. As they get older, the scales darken, become smoother, and begin to blend together.
    Most obsidian dragons prefer to make their lairs around volcanoes or in one of the mountains of coal found on the Elemental Plane of Fire. Most great wyrms, though, make use of the genesis power to create their own demiplane.

    Catastrophic dragons

    Catastrophic dragons are typically of neutral alignment. They are Avalanche Dragon, the Blizzard Dragon, the Earthquake dragon, the Tornado Dragon, the Typhoon Dragon, Volcanic Dragon, and the Wildfire Dragon. Catastrophic dragons pay their homage to the Primordials as opposed to any other dragon deity. After the defeat of Io, there was a group of dragons that defected to the side of Primordials. The Primordials transformed these dragons into beings imbued with the elemental chaos. Metallic and Chromatic Dragons view Catastrophic dragons as aberrations.

    Lung dragons

    The Lung dragons, originally known as Oriental dragons, are all of neutral alignment with respect to good and evil. They are wingless creatures, and fly by innate magical means. Lung dragons can have any colour despite their specific type. These dragons are derived from Chinese mythology.
    Oriental dragons appeared for the first time in the original Fiend Folio, including the li lung, the lung wang, the pan lung, the shen lung, the t'ien lung, and the yu lung. Two more were added in the 1st edition Oriental Adventures book, the chiang lung and the tun mi lung. The Lung dragons later appeared in the Monstrous Compendium Forgotten Realms Appendix.
    These creatures appeared in third edition under the "lung dragon" heading in Oriental Adventures.

    Ferrous dragons

    Ferrous Dragons are typically of lawful alignment. They are the Iron Dragon, the Nickel Dragon, the Tungsten Dragon, the Cobalt Dragon, and the Chromium Dragon. They originated in Dragon Magazine. All Ferrous dragons can sense ordinary metals and the lawful ferrous dragons have a strict hierarchy, with the higher dragons dictating the laws to the lower ones. The hierarchy, from highest to lowest, is iron, chromium, cobalt, tungsten, and nickel. Gruaghlothor is the supreme ruler of the ferrous dragons.

    Chromium Dragon

    Shining, dull silver dragons that did not seem to match up in description to silver, steel, or mithril dragons were mentioned. These dragons had a breath weapon that fired forth freezing crystal. These dragons appear to have a particularly malevolent nature to them.

    Cobalt Dragon

    Midnight blue dragons that could fire a breath weapon of pulsing, barely perceptible energy. These dragons, like the chromium dragons, were foul of temper, but subservient to iron dragons and their lord.

    Iron Dragon

    This form of dragon had grey and white metallic scales and could breathe corrosive gas as a weapon.

    Tungsten Dragon

    A species that appeared to be generally benevolent, there was a species of ferrous dragon, one whose breath weapon was composed of superheated sand and
    bludgeoning sand, that seemed especially set upon fighting chromatic dragons and other forms of powerful evil. This form of dragon has metallic scales that are a dull green with grey.

    Planar dragons

    Planar dragons inhabit the outer planes.

    Shadow dragon

    Adamantite dragons are perhaps the mightiest of dragonkind. They are the epitome of good, sacrificing whatever is necessary for the common good of intelligent creatures everywhere. These other-planar creatures are strange among dragonkind, since they are born with their shining coats of adamantite fully developed. This mighty coat is a shining silver color that reflects light in brilliant, scintillating beams and rainbows-refreshing to those who can bask in its goodness, painful to those who hide in the shadows of evil.
    Adamantite dragons speak their own tongue and the language of all good dragons. By their juvenile years, they will speak common. By the time they are adults, they are 50% likely to speak any language of dragonkind.
    Combat: Due to the adamantite dragons strong taste for physical battle, they may use the extra attack forms of dragons one age category earlier than other dragons.
    Breath weapon/special abilities: An adamantite dragon has two breath weapons, one of which can only be used at certain times. The common form of breath weapon is a cone of flame 110' long, 10'wide at the dragon's mouth, and 45'wide at the end- This is a magical flame and will ignite even nonflammable materials.
    The adamantite dragon's second breath weapon projects an area of time stop. It has the same dimensions as the cone of flame. Anyone caught in the area must save vs., spells or be affected as if by a time stop spell cast at 20th level of magic use - This breath weapon may only be used on the dragon's home plane, when the dragons are defending the plane, and even then only one time per day.
    Adamantite dragons may use the following spell-like abilities:
    Due to their extra-planar nature, all adamantite dragons are immune to non-magical weapons.
    Habitat/Society: The adamantite dragons are the self-appointed guardians of the Twin Paradises. These great creatures are extremely powerful and will come to the aid of any intelligent creature. They are unconcerned with law or chaos, but only the protection of sentient lifeforms.
    Ecology: Adamantite dragons have little place in the ecosystem of the Twin Paradises, They can, however, be avaricious hunters with huge appetites. Adamantite dragons have no moral objection to hunting unintelligent life forms.

    Arboreal dragon

    Brown dragon

    Incarnum dragon

    Force dragon

    Hex dragon

    Other species of true dragon that exist outside of the main dragon families include: Steel, Mercury, Pearl, Amber, Cloud, Mist, and many more.
    Two comedic dragons that appeared in Dragon Magazine #156: The Pink Dragon, which had a cone breath weapon of bubbles ; and the Paper Dragon, which looked like a dog-sized folded paper dragon, which when slain left several spell scrolls from its remains.

    Cerilian dragon

    Lesser Dragons comprise all dragonkind that are not true dragons, and includes a broad range of creatures.

    Drakes

    Drakes are a large family of Lesser Dragons. They look like miniature versions of the much larger true dragons and sometimes acts as guards for the true dragons. Most drakes are of animal intelligence and can not speak, but they also have breath weapons and can be a dangerous opponent. Drakes can be subdued, and some subduers turn them into flying steeds or beasts of burden.
    Elemental drakes are drakes most closely related to wyverns. They hail from the Elemental Planes, and are sometimes used as mounts by jann. Unlike wyverns they are sentient.
    Dragonet is a common term sometimes used for all minute Lesser Dragons. Technically they also include the Drakes.
    Landwyrm is a family of Lesser Dragons that are mostly of an evil nature. They are cunning and can speak, but they have no wings and can not fly.

    Linnorms

    Linnorms are ancient, primeval cousins of the true dragons. They lack wings and hind legs, making them more serpentine than true dragons. All known linnorms are evil and cruel. Linnorms are sometimes referred to as "Norse dragons". There are many subtypes of linnorms.

    Other types

    Various other types of lesser dragons exist, including:
    Dungeons & Dragons for Dummies assigned the dragon a central role, stating that for many characters "the opportunity to fight a dragon is the reason you play the game". The authors also chose a specific dragon each among the ten best monsters for low- and mid-level characters.
    The ancient blue dragon was ranked third among the ten best high-level 4th Edition monsters by the authors of Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition For Dummies. The authors described the ancient dragons as "the most powerful versions of these majestic and deadly creatures, and the ancient blue dragon approaches the pinnacle of all dragon-kin", surpassed only by the red dragon. The authors concluded that "Few single challengers can stand long against the fury of this terrible dragon as it unleashes lightning and thunder."
    Screen Rant compiled a list of the game's "10 Most Powerful Monsters, Ranked" in 2018, calling the prismatic dragon one of the strongest, saying "It represents the ultimate challenge for any party of adventurers, though it would easily dispose of all but the most insanely overleveled groups. Defeating a prismatic dragon would also represent the ultimate challenge for the actual players, as they would likely expire from old age before rolling all of the dice necessary to finish an encounter with the creature."

    Other publishers

    In 1981 Varanae published a supplement named Dragons detailing 50 new dragon types in the format of a Monster Manual. In 1986 a scenario also titled Dragons was published by Mayfair Games, with a war between good and evil dragons as backdrop, and including more background material about dragons.
    The black dragon, blue dragon, brass dragon, bronze dragon, copper dragon, gold dragon, green dragon, red dragon, silver dragon, and white dragon are fully detailed in Paizo Publishing's book Dragons Revisited.