The magical properties of dragon's blood

[randomling]

What would they be, do you think? Could a drop of dragon's blood be a necessary component for a wish spell? Could it have healing properties?

E.G.:
A pint of fresh dragon's blood, if drunk, acts as a heal spell.

If the blood is dried and mixed with water into a paste, a one-ounce dose rubbed on the skin acts as a cure moderate spell of a caster level equal to the dragon it was drawn from.

What else do you think dragon's blood can do?

 

[Sir Osis of Liver]

I'd say it would be good for various elemental resistance items, and it would be cool if you had it be used as an additional componant with certain meta-magic feats, like maximise and empower.

 

[arwink]

I tend to allow PC's to use dragon-parts as spell components, or as a substitute for the xp costs of magic item creation.

Mostly, this is because I use a slow advancement rate for XP, but don't change the costs of item creation. I always liked the 2e method of harvesting parts for your potion, sword etc, so the creature parts and other ingredients are often a short-cut for those not willing to part with the full amount.

 

[randomling]

I like both those ideas.

How would you rule the dragons-blood-for-exp worked? How much blood is equivalent to how much exp? I've never played 2e...

Elemental resistance - maybe you could have a potion of fire resistance which has to be made from the blood of a red dragon, but also then enchanted, so it's hugely exoensive to buy. You could do this with other colours too - a potion of acid resistance comes from the blood of a black dragon, etc. They would give you X resistance 5 and cost at least 200GP.

 

[arwink]

I like both those ideas.

How would you rule the dragons-blood-for-exp worked? How much blood is equivalent to how much exp? I've never played 2e...

I'm still ruling it on a case by case basis, depending on what the PC is trying to make. I'd say slaying a red dragon with a masterwork weapon would pretty much take care of half the xp for something like half the XP on a flaming weapon enchantment. Would probably let it count as 10 xp if a vial of ink made from dragonblood was used in scroll scribing, that kind of stuff.

No-one in the game's really hit the magic-item creation point, and they're still shooting up levels pretty quickly one game.It'll become more in depth as time goes on, and I'm keeping a record of what gets used where.

 

[Mr Fidgit]

I tend to allow PC's to use dragon-parts as spell components, or as a substitute for the xp costs of magic item creation...

i do the same. i would probably allow an enterprising alchemist use dragon's blood and other ingredients to emulate some of the dragons innate abilities, like increasing the range of a characters low-light or darkvision (low alchemy DC) or even give a limited-duration spell resistance (high DC)

 

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Red dragon blood would also be a good component in fire breath potions.

Dragon blood would also be good for items that have fear effects.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

Dragon scales would be good for armour and shields, of course, again I think it would be even better if you intended them to have [energy] resistant properties.

 

[Stalker0]

If you want some printed examples, the Quintessential Druid has some great rules for converting the remains of Dragons, Magical Beasts, outsiders, etc into magical components.

 

[randomling]

Thanks

Don't have a copy, but I do have a little Christmas money hanging around, maybe that's what I'll pick up. Think I can find it at Amazon.

I still think dragon's blood (IMC) is going to have healing properties as mentioned above. I'm also going to have the blood of different dragons be refined into various different draughts, potions and poisons, depending on the dragon type.

(Some of the below nicked from Diana Wynne Jones's Chrestomanci books.)

Fresh dragon's blood (for preference, drained from a cut throat) is very potent. And the older the dragon, the more potent the blood. The fresh blood of an Ancient Wyrm would be powerful stuff indeed -- though it is almost unheard of to come across such a substance in quantities of more than a droplet at a time. However, the smell of fresh dragon's blood, its illegality, and the difficulty of transporting it, makes it prohibitive.

More commonly, dragon's blood is dried. Dried dragon's blood is less dangerous by far, and therefore legal (in some places, and usually with a license to use it). It's less powerful than the fresh stuff, but still potent enough for most uses. Dried dragon's blood is used to mix with different substances and enchantments to make powerful, but expensive, draughts.

Any more ideas? I'm just getting started here...