Dragons... has the icon been lost?

[A'koss]

Dragons.

It was a little slow this morning so I headed over to WotC’s site and had a look at their latest “Fight Club” entry – Mavarothix, the Gargantuan Black Dragon. Its entry is a tie-in for their new Dragon mini (which btw does look very cool indeed).

Then I started to read its stat block…

Mavarothix Without Class Levels
When beginning melee, Mavarothix likes to spend a few rounds casting spells on himself. These include scintillating scales, nerveskitter, fires of purity, greater wings of air, sharptooth and razorfangs on his bite attack, plus shield and greater mage armor. He makes good use of his swift spells in combat: dispelling breath, wraithstrike, and breath weapon substitution. If he feels threatened, he retreats via teleport or flying, casts greater invisibility on himself, and makes flyby attacks for the duration of the spell. He is not afraid to land on some foes with a crush attack, take a few rounds of full attacks, and then fly off or teleport away and do it all again.

… yeah.

In that one paragraph I was reminded just how much the soul of the Dragon has been lost in a sea of spell power-ups and sorcerous tactics. The first thought that popped into my head was… This isn’t a Dragon, this is a wizard trapped in a giant lizard’s body.

It’s one of those cases where you know that this is the way this monster has been in 3e, but it took this one example to really drive that point home. And I wondered - where have the classic, literary iconic dragons gone? Where are my brute forces of nature? My rampaging, pillaging, burning-down-the-village-because-it’s-Tuesday dragons? Hmm…

And what do you do when you want to beef up a Gargantuan Black Dragon to make him even more fearsome…

You give him levels in Cleric and Mystic Theurge of course.

Mavarothix With Ten Class Levels
By now, Mavarothix is vastly powerful, but so are the heroes who will face him. He makes full use of his spells, especially those that modify his breath weapon or provide defense. Spells he would leave combat to cast include scintillating scales, greater wings of air, razorfangs, sharptooth, shield, and greater mage armor. Given more time he would prepare with additional spells on himself. He also makes use of his ability to cast three quickened spells per day through his Divine Metamagic feat, and so he could cure himself as a quickened spell.

He is a very canny opponent and knows how to strike and fade or wade into melee or use spells against opponents. In combat, he uses maze to remove enemy fighters so he can concentrate on the spellcasters, and time stop to leave and cure himself or bolster his defenses between enemy actions.

Mavarothix CR 30
Great wyrm black dragon cleric 4 of Tiamat/mystic theurge 6

… yeah.

Okay, so it’s not like it was the Dragon’s only choice of advancement but seeing this creature gave me one hell of an involuntary twitch. And through that spell-laden haze it reminded me of another other thing that’s always irked me about Dragons…

Here you have a near perfectly crafted engine of rampaging destruction… and then you give it an intelligence and wisdom so high that it virtually begs to be run contrary to its design.


So now I wonder if this is the kind of dragon today’s DMs like to run and I’m just being too Olde School here... or does this resonate with anyone else in the same way?

 

[Victim]

Dnd dragons have always had the high mental stats and spellcasting ability though; they've never been statted as pure rampaging engines of destruction. At least now they have more HP.

 

[A'koss]

For some reason I didn't think they were big spellcasters in previous editions but I can see (with digging out some of my old books) that they did actually have some (albeit more modest) spellcasting ability even in 1st ed. So it's my failing memory to blame a little there but it still feels like they've gone too far from the classic, literary icon.

 

[IceFractal]

D&D Dragons have always been the smart type - smarter than most humans, and inclined to devious plans when they're actually challenged. The only reason they usually rely on brute force is that most things are so much weaker than them, and it's more fun.

Now if you want a brute force dragon, you might want to check out the Fang Dragon and Beast Dragon, I believe those are a lot less subtle. Or alternately, take a fairly young dragon, from before it gets any spells, and put the Gigantic template on it.

 

[Quickleaf]

I've felt the same way and ran a one-shot in the "Wyvernlands" where there were no dragons, only rampaging wyverns. It worked quite well, and I actually played up their innate intelligence, having one fake its death and then surprise attack the party at close range. I gave them a few extra abilities (though no breath weapon) to mimic dragons of myth more, allowing them to vanish mysteriously when out of view. Often the wyvern was never seen until the final confrontation, rather signs of its existence were found - massive foot prints, slaughtered sheep, dogs barking like crazy and horses bolting, huge amounts of shed skin and scat, birds changing migratory patterns, etc.
Note that I did this in a low-magic world with custom magic rules, so there weren't fireball slinging and wish-casting wizards. Instead the players relied on tactics, tracking, gathering an army, and using siege weaponry.

 

[Victim]

For some reason I didn't think they were big spellcasters in previous editions but I can see (with digging out some of my old books) that they did actually have some (albeit more modest) spellcasting ability even in 1st ed. So it's my failing memory to blame a little there but it still feels like they've gone too far from the classic, literary icon.

Classic literary dragons don't have to deal with flying, teleporting, fireball throwing people who try to kill them though. A DnD adventuring party isn't the classic literary icon of the questing knight with a lance. So why should dragons be the same too?

 

[frankthedm]

Heroes in myth don't buff themselves that much either. Whats good for the goose is good for the gander. If PCs buff up so much players seek ways to protect thier "precious buffs" from dispel magic, damn right thier foes respond in kind.

When i deploy a dragon, it's Mage armor to start the day, them Shield at the first sign of trouble. Follow with resist energy fire [or cold or electricity if fire immune] if that is an option.

The dragon takes out the casters before the casters can dispel his buffs.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Kinda makes you miss ol' Smaug, doesn't it?

 

[I'm A Banana]

I like the clever beasties.

If I wanted a rampager, I'd make an iron golem LOOK like a dragon, and send it hurtling through the nearest city.

 

[jaycrockett]

Kinda makes you miss ol' Smaug, doesn't it?

Not sure that a dragon that is either invulnerable or a 1-shot kill would be that fun in D&D.