I’ve gotten round to reading about dragons in my old MM. A couple of things have come up and given me cause for thought though the main one is I am NOT going to do an in depth review of dragons. I’m beginning to think the alphabet thing was a poor idea.
But that being said I have read the section and need to make a few comments. Firstly it is completely clear in the monster limit that dragon breath always causes damage totally the beasts total hit point value and not it’s current value. I seem to recall we had loads of arguments back in the day about this, players stating that once injured it’s potential to cause harm lessens. And who knew, it’s all here in the MM, plain as dad and incontrovertible - my god but we were idiots back then. I sometimes think that we weren’t mature enough to play games and enjoy them without it becoming a festival of bickering, bitching and point scoring - teenage boys in the 80s, what a bunch of twats!!
Secondly, read the section on dragon sundial. Easy peasy to do and very worthwhile financially. Why everyone wasn’t doing it is a mystery to me now - the rules and restrictions were right there in black and white High Gygaxian. That been said it’s a bloody nonsense of course, dragons are highly intelligent apex predators, particularly at the higher age categories and should be treated as such. Any DM worth his salt should be playing them as the greatest of bad guys, always ready to flee to fight another day if needs be. If I ever start playing again I will hold the dragon in high respect.
On the subject I can highly recommend the series “Dragons of the North” by Ed Greenwood. It was serialised in the Dragon and later appeared on the WOTC website statted up for third edition. This is how dragons should be. A great look at Firgotten Realms lore as well as insights into the machinations and desires of the Uber-monster, great stuff and well worth rooting out.
Anyway that’s it for now, stay safe in these strange times.
Carl
