Dungeons & Dragons Dragons / Characters

Dragons are in many ways D&D's emblematic monsters and — at least in their own eyes — some of the most fearsome and magnificent things alive. There is a wide assortment of creatures given the "Dragon" creature type, but this page is focusing on the "true" dragons, what most people think of when they visualize a dragon.

"True" dragons are distinguished from other draconic creatures for possessing a breath weapon, being able to frighten lesser creatures with their mere presence, and growing through distinct age categories, from awkward wyrmlings to ancient and mighty great wyrms. The majority also follow a particular body plan, with four legs and two wings, though there are a few exceptions. They can be further grouped into distinct families, though individual species may be reclassified depending on source.

Unless otherwise specified (usually denoting a change across editions), these creatures can be assumed to be "Dragons" under the game's classification system.

See the Creature Types subpage for general information about creatures with the Dragon type, which are found on the general creatures list.

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General Tropes

Alien Arts Are Appreciated: Some dragons, especially metallics who dwell near or among humanoids, acquire a taste for other races' art, and their hoards can include collections of the dragon's favorite paintings, sculptures, music, or literature.
Alternate Self: Fizban's Treasury of Dragons posits that any given dragon on any given world of the Material Plane probably has "echoes" of itself living on other worlds of the Material Plane. Particularly ancient and powerful dragons can develop a special sense, dragonsight, which lets them contact these "echoes" for interdimensional shenanigans.
Art Evolution: In general, most true dragons received redesigns in the jump from 2nd to 3rd Edition, which took care to differentiate them beyond mere scale color, to the point that it's now possible to identify a dragon by its head or body structure even in a monochrome image. There have been additional minor design evolutions since then.
Binomium ridiculus: The 1st Edition AD&D Monster Manual has the following for the classic ten dragons: Black = Causticus Sputem, Blue = Electricus, Green = Chlorinous Nauseous Respiratorus, Red = Conflagratio Horriblis, White = Rigidus Frigidus, Brass = Impudentus Gallus, Bronze = Gerus Bronzo, Copper = Comes Stabuli, Gold = Orientalus Sino Dux, and Silver = Nobilis Argentum.
Bizarre Alien Reproduction: In general, dragons are assumed to reproduce in the usual manner vertebrates do. Fizban's Treasury of Dragons admits that this may likely be the case on at least some worlds, but posits some additional means by which dragons make little dragons:
- Parthenogenesis — the least unusual of the lot, a dragon simply laying a clutch of eggs without needing to mate. This may happen spontaneously, or after the dragon consumes a prodigious quantity of treasure.
- Five adult or older dragons of different breeds come together and sacrifice a bit of their life energy to create a clutch of five eggs. The breeds of the resulting eggs will match the makeup of the conclave that formed them.
- When dragons reach advanced age, they can enter a deep trance, die, and reform as an egg.
- Dragons physically craft their eggs through painstaking labor, and magically breathe life into them when done.
- Enlightened humanoids become dragon eggs after death or by performing a specific magic ritual.
- Dragon eggs form from the bodies of dead dragons, which can take the form of them growing from their parent's rotting carcass like fungus, being left behind after the dragon's body is consumed by fire, or being mined out of a dragon that turned into solid stone or metal after death.
- Dragon eggs grow from a tree somewhere in a distant corner of the world. Dragons in a family mood must track this tree down and talk its warden into giving them an egg.
- Dragon eggs arise naturally, with metallic dragon eggs forming within veins of metal, gem dragon eggs forming within deposits of precious minerals, and chromatic dragon eggs forming in extreme environments such as the hearts of volcanoes, arctic wastes, primeval forests and the like. They may hatch on their own, or when dug up by someone else.
- Dragons cannot reproduce. All dragons are the fruit of direct intervention by the gods Bahamut or Tiamat, who are the only beings who can create new dragon eggs.
Breath Weapon: This is one of the most common and iconic abilities of dragons, and one of the most powerful forms of elemental magic in the world. A dragon's breath weapon originates in an organ known as the draconis fundamentum, located near the heart. True dragons have at least one breath weapon, some can switch between two different breath effects, and the metallic family is distinguished by having both a damaging and a non-lethal breath weapon. The game also tends to give each new dragon species a unique breath weapon, which has resulted in some fairly abstruse ones popping up over time. Apart from the standard Fire, Ice, Lightning and various types of acid and of poisonous gas, some of the more unusual ones include energy-draining clouds of shadow, explosive gems, a randomly-determined energy type, beams of blinding light, sonic screams, ten-foot-wide webs that harden into ice, and weirder things.
Catlike Dragons: It's not uncommon for dragons to be given physical or behavioral feline traits. Behaviorally, dragons' tendency to toy with their food, pride and fastidiousness are often compared to the same traits in cats. Physically, dragons tend to be described as resembling felines much more strongly than their reptilian outward appearance would suggest. Their eyes are very similar to a cat's, and their skeletons, limbs, musculature and walking gait are also much like those of large felids.
Color-Coded for Your Convenience: The main types of true dragon are notoriously named after and subdivided by their scale colors, which at a glance can tell you their alignment, likely attitude, threat level, breath weapon and elemental immunities and weaknesses.
Crafted from Animals: Dragon body parts have traditionally had a long list of practical uses, and carving up a slain dragon's corpse for building materials and magical reagents is a long-standing part of the dragonslaying process.
- The 3rd Edition Draconomicon includes a section describing items craftable from dragon body parts:
  - Dragon bones can be used to make bows with very high tensile strength and range.
  - Dragon claws and fangs can be made into weapons that inflict energy damage of the same type as the dragon's breath weapon.
  - Dragon hide can be used to create armor, capes and shields. These don't have any explicitly magical properties, but do provide very good protection, are lighter than equivalent items made from other materials, and are immune to the energy type of their original owner's breath.
- Dragon Magazine #332 includes an article, "Cutting up the Dragon", on this subject.
  - A dragon's skeleton, hide and wings may be used to create a boat. This can be given a number of enchantments, such as flight or the ability to use the dragon's breath weapon once per day on its pilot's command.
  - Dragon feet can be hollowed out and fitted with grips to serve as clawed gauntlets for a creature of equivalent size.
  - Dragon skulls can be made into helmets that ward their wearer against paralysis and Forced Sleep.
  - Dragon vocal cords can be incorporated into string instruments to give them magical effects.
- A crystal blade is formed from a dorsal spike taken from a crystal dragon, and retains enough of its former owner's magic to deal radiant damage to its targets.
Dragon Hoard: All dragons have hoards, typically three times as much treasure as normal for their Challenge Rating, though their content varies from species to species — bronze dragons like mementos from their campaigns, emerald dragons favor artifacts with historical significance, while white dragons are fond of trophies taken from defeated foes, for example. Dragons derive status and power from the size of their hoards, and may obsessively arrange their treasures by theme, or place them so that the light hits them just right. Some dragons will proudly display their treasures to impress visitors, others will slay intruders for so much as gazing upon their hoards. In any case, it is very dangerous to steal treasure from a still-living dragon — and given the existence of undead dragons, even the alternative is not without its risks.
Dragon Rider: There have been rules in various edition for riding dragons, most of which involve raising a hatchling dragon from birth to accept a humanoid caretaker as a rider. Another common option is for a humanoid and dragon whose alignments and goals align to form a partnership of sorts. In either case, the dragon is a fully sapient being and expects to be treated as such, meaning that it will not tolerate being ordered about like an animal and will require both a suitable lair and treasure of its own.
Fantastic Medicinal Bodily Product: The Dragon Magazine #332 article "Cutting up the Dragon" describes how dragon bone marrow can be used to create a salve that can heal the diseases of those whose skin it's applied to.
Fisher King: When a true dragon takes on permanent residence in an area, their magic bleeds into their surroundings and causes a number of supernatural effects within them, represented as a list of "Regional Effects" in 5th Edition. Most commonly, these include the easing or hampering of certain types of magic, the attraction and proliferation of wild animals of specific types, and, in the case of gem dragons, the growth of veins and formations of the dragon's associated gemstones.
Genetic Memory: True dragons inherit instincts based on the memories and experiences of their parents, though it's magical in nature rather than purely genetic. The spawn of a sorcerer dragon, for instance, will inherit some of its parent's magical skill, while the spawn of a dragon who survived an encounter with a giant will instinctively know to avoid giants when they hatch. This even applies to non-dragons who are related or descended from true dragons, and is why all dragonborn, kobolds, half-dragons and draconic sorcerers know Draconic, even if they did not have a chance to learn it.
Giant Flyer: Full-grown dragons reach sizes comparable to whales, and tend to some of the biggest things in the skies.
Glowing Eyes of Doom: The oldest and most powerful dragons, and particularly greatwyrms, are depicted this way.
Godhood Seeker: Dragon ascendants are dragons who seek to transcend material existence entirely, refining their magical and spiritual natures in order to become deities themselves. At the class' highest level, they become quasideties and thus enter the lowest rank of true divinities.
Hear Me the Money: In the Complete Book of Villains, a 2E supplement, a dragon is presented as an archetypical villain representing greed. When its minions bring it tribute, it listens to the coins being poured out onto its hoard, and immediately detects from the sound that one of them has cheated it.carry enough
Kaiju: The largest dragons are gigantic engines of destruction in the same size range as airplanes. Advanced and epic dragons are so large that their wyrmlings hatch the size of giants, and their oldest members belong to a special Colossal+ size category. And then there are 5th Editon's greatwyrms, which are depicted looming over entire settlements and filling the sky with their elemental energy.
Lazy Dragon: In 1st Edition Advanced D&D, all dragons encountered inside their lairs had a percentage chance of being discovered while asleep. This ranged from a low of 5% for Bahamut the Platinum Dragon to a high of 60% for a white dragon.
Long-Lived: While it fluctuates with editions (some saying different dragons have different livespans, for instance), dragons are generally not considered adults until they've reached 100 years. A 800 year old dragon can be considered venerable, while the mythical Great Wyrms have passed 1,200 years.
Mage Species: Dragons are inherently magical, able to cast spells or use other supernatural abilities beyond their breath weapons. In 3rd Edition in particular, dragons could be difficult to run because they were simultaneously physical powerhouses with a variety of attacks and also increasingly high-level sorcerers.
My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Dragons are generally thought of as strictly locked into their alignments — "always evil" chromatics, or "always good" metallics, for example — but they are in fact capable of going against their default alignment to a certain extent, and in rare cases may subvert expectations entirely. The Fifth Edition Fizban's Treasury of Dragons supplement in particular makes sure to have dragon traits on the random personality tables that go against their species' presumed alignment, giving the possibility of copper dragons with a cruel streak, possessive and tyrannical silver dragons, green dragons who honor the transience of intelligent life, and red dragons who have tempered their chaotic nature with discipline.
Our Dragons Are Different: Holy mackerel, are they ever. With just core rulebooks you've got your basic metallic dragons (usually good-aligned) and chromatic dragons (usually evil), and even within those sample dragons there's tremendous variety in elemental affinities, size and body shapes, attitudes and behaviors. With add-ons it gets fairly ridiculous, to the point that there are entire supplements written solely about dragons and draconic races.
Required Secondary Powers: The overwhelming majority of dragons are immune to the same energy type of their breath weapon, so that red, brass and gold dragons are all Immune to Fire and could take a lava bath if they so desired. Depending on the rules set, however, those dragons might have an accompanying weakness to cold damage.
Signature Scent: Each dragon breed tends to have a particular odor, good for metallics, bad for chromatics, and often associated with their breath weapons. Black dragons stink of rot and foul water, blue dragons smell of ozone and sand, brass dragons have an actinic sandy odor, bronze dragons smell of sea spray, copper dragons have an actinic stony scent, gold dragons smell of saffron and incense, green dragons have the stinging scent of chlorine, red dragons smell of sulfur and pumice, silver dragons carry the scent of rain, and white dragons have a crisp, faintly chemical odor.
Speak of the Devil: A regional effect from Fizban's Treasury of Dragons lets a dragon know when and where something speaks the dragon's name within a mile of its lair. It also lets the dragon eavesdrop on the spot where its name was spoken for the next few minutes, so hopefully you weren't discussing your plans to slay the dragon or plunder its hoard at the time.
Stronger with Age: The mark of a true dragon is that it never stops growing, and only gets stronger with age. In editions with penalties to physical stats for age, this penalty was not applied to creatures of the dragon type.
Super-Senses: A dragon's senses of sight, hearing, taste and smell are all far superior to a human's, granting them blindsight out to a respectable range.
Superior Species: Dragons, even Good-aligned ones, consider themselves superior to everything else that lives and breathes, except maybe the gods themselves. It's not hard to see why: a dragon is typically stronger, faster, tougher, and smarter than every other mortal species that they meet. Many of them also live long enough to see entire civilizations rise and fall. The difference is that Good-aligned dragons consider humanoids to be inferior but worth protecting, like how the average human would consider a puppy or a kitten. Evil-aligned dragons think of humanoids as annoyances at best; many chromatic dragons think of humanoids as another type of food or a blight upon the world to be exterminated.
Supernatural Fear Inducer: True dragons have a frightful presence that can cause enemies to be frightened just from watching the dragon attack or fly overhead.
Supernaturally Marked Grave: When a dragon dies, it can undergo "environmental diffusion," causing permanent elemental effects where it died. In other cases, a dying dragon merges with the landscape, creating dragon-shaped hills or lakes that supernaturally protect the eggs of the dragon's breed, while the dragon's spirit lingers in the area to provide advice to wyrmlings.
Synchronization: The "echoes" of a dragon are mystically linked to one another, and what happens to one of them can affect the others. For example, if a dragon on one world decides to embrace undeath by becoming a dracolich, its echoes on other worlds will grow sickly and emaciated in reflection of its undead state. Such changes can be quite alarming to the dragon's echoes, especially if they have not unlocked dragonsight and are unaware of their counterparts' existence.
Vertebrate with Extra Limbs: The vast majority of true dragons are quadrupeds with a pair of wings.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: Many dragons pick up the ability to assume the forms of other creatures, which they use to keep a low profile while patrolling their territory, disguise themselves during interactions with other races, or the engage in some Interspecies Romance. Silver and steel dragons in particular are known for preferring a humanoid form to their true shapes.

Greatwyrms (5E)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/637707682551131626.jpeg

Red greatwyrm (5e)

Challenge Rating: 26 (Gem), 27 (Chromatic), 28 (Metallic)

A true dragon is never alone in the multiverse. Perhaps as a sign of their shared origin in the First World, or just a consequence of their great power, dragons of similar nature will appear across many different worlds across the Prime Material. These "echoes" are intrinsically tied to each other and may even develop Dragonsight, the ability to communicate across worlds. Sometimes, through violence or peaceful cooperation, many different echoes may come together into one, ascending into something far greater than the sum of their parts. Dragons who accomplish this are called Greatwyrms, and number among the most powerful creatures in the multiverse.

Alliance of Alternates: Greatwyrms are made when a dragon merges with all its echoes across other worlds. This is the more peaceful option, though it can be through force as well.
The Archmage: Using the optional Innate Spellcasting rules, a gem greatwyrm can cast seven different 8th level spells, chromatic greatwyrms can cast eight different 9th level spells, and metallic greatwyrms can cast ten different 9th level spells.
Auto-Revive: All greatwyrms have an Awakening ability, which activates when they're reduced to 0 hit points and (among other things) replenishes a large part of their HP pool.
Cannibalism Super Power: Some greatwyrms reach that point not by uniting with their echoes, but by consuming them.
God Guise: Greatwyrms are so powerful that they are often assumed to be gods. In fact, all draconic gods except Bahamut, Tiamat, and Sardior were retconned in 5th Edition to be merely powerful greatwyrms. Admittedly, with the older and more powerful greatwyrms, the difference is semantic.
Kaiju: As seen in the image, a single greatwyrm can be larger than an entire city, though smaller ones do exist.
Magic Missile Storm: Chromatic greatwyrms can launch volleys of unavoidable, spear-shaped magical projectiles at their foes as a legendary action.
Mind over Matter: Gem greatwyrms are immensely powerful psions. Mechanically, the only limit on their psychic grip is range and a 4,000 pound limit on each individual item or creature being affected. Theoretically, the greatwyrm could grip thousands of people with no particular difficulty... and if desired, crush them.
The Needless: Greatwyrms in 5th Edition are sustained entirely by the magical potential of their hoards and do not require food or drinks.
Reality Warper: Using the Innate Spellcasting rules, Chromatic and Metallic Greatwyrms can learn the Wish spell
Retcon: The concept of planar echoes and dragonsight as a whole was invented in 5th Edition. Previously, "great wyrm" was simply the oldest age category a dragon could reach, with access to the most powerful of that dragon's innate abilities, and the only special thing about them was that they could survive that long.
Sequential Boss: Greatwyrms aare classified as mythic monsters in 5th edition, which means they have a second phase baked into them. When they hit 0 hit points for the first time in an encounter, they immediately recover most of their health, recharge their breath weapons, replenish their uses of legendary resistance, and gain extra legendary action options.
Super-Scream: Metallic greatwyrms can let out a powerful roar that harms and incapacitates other creatures within a large radius.

Chromatic Dragons

The "always evil" dragon family, embodying the worst aspects of dragonkind. Their patron is the goddess Tiamat, whose five heads represent the breeds of the true chromatics.

Chromatic Dragons in General

Mother of a Thousand Young: Chromatic females can become a surrogate example. As part of her long rivalry with Bahamut, Tiamat began exerting her influence upon the eggs of chromatic dragons so that they hatched dragonblooded magical beasts or monstrous humanoids. As such, each breed of chromatic dragon may occasionally birth several varieties of draconic monsters, which the mothers take as a sign that Tiamat has plans of conquest in store for them.

Black Dragon

Challenge Rating: 3-22 (3E), 2-26 (4E), 2-21 (5E)
Typical Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Vicious, spiteful, and malevolent, black dragons are the most cruel and wicked of all the chromatics. They dwell in swamps and marshes, or particularly lush and wet forests, which can bring them into contact with green dragons, but the two breeds generally leave each other alone so long as the black dragon sticks to the watery areas. Black dragons particularly value opals, as well as relics from lost civilizations

Acid Attack: They spit a line of corrosive liquid.
Art Evolution: In 1st and 2nd Edition, black dragons aren't significantly skeletal in appearance and have straight, forward-pointing horns. 3rd redesigned them to be highly emaciated and sinister, and curved their horns to be more ram-like in shape.
Casting a Shadow: Black dragons can plunge an area into magical darkness to effectively blind their foes.
Evil Smells Bad: Black dragons stink of rotting things and stagnant water, with an acrid undertone.
Making a Splash: 5th edition black dragons can magically control any pools of water within their lairs, making them sweep out and drag nearby creatures into their depths. Fizban's Treasury of Dragons gives them the power to make geysers of foul water erupt from the floor, harming and hindering any creatures caught in the spray.
Pest Controller: 3rd and 5th edition black dragons can summon swarms of stinging insects to harass their enemies.
Sadist: Black dragons are the most openly sadistic of the chromatics. Other dragons may kill hundreds of people in a fit of rage or see no particular reason not to hunt intelligent humanoids when they're hungry, but black dragons just like to hurt people.
Skeleton Motif: As they age, the flesh around black dragons' heads and faces gradually deteriorates, leaving only their leathery hide to adhere closely to the counters of the bone beneath. This, combined with their already heavily ridged craniums and deeply sunken eyes, leaves them with faces that look distinctly like living skulls. This has led to their being nicknamed "skull dragons," and symbolizes their extremely malevolent personalities.
Swamps Are Evil: Black dragons are the most sadistic, spiteful and dysfunctionally, pointlessly cruel of all true dragons — and, of course, they live in swamps, and play up this trope's association with rot, stench, corruption and stagnant, unclean waters for all it's worth. Deceased black dragons who undergo environmental diffusion likewise cause the area they died in to become abnormally humid, with foul soil and acidic, undrinkable water and unable to sustain more than a few toxic plants.
Trademark Favorite Food: Black dragons like to "pickle" food by leaving it to soak in the water near their lairs for a few days.

Blue Dragon

Challenge Rating: 3-25 (3E), 4-28 (4E), 3-23 (5E)
Typical Alignment: Lawful Evil

Blue dragons embody cruelty tempered by order, ruling over their territories as harsh and unforgiving tyrants. They favor hot, sandy deserts but can also be found on arid steppes, choices of territory that bring blue dragons into conflict with brass dragons, whom they despise for their frivolity and perceived cowardice. Blue dragons are also the vainest dragons by far, favor similarly-colored gemstones, and seek out treasures that allow them to gaze upon their own reflection.

Art Evolution: Blue dragons have undergone a less extreme case of this than other dragons, but between 2nd and 3rd editions they became much more muscular, stout and armored, and gained more prominent horns and ears.
Benevolent Boss: Blue dragons covet talented agents, whether assassins and mages or bards and other artists, and will reward their minions well for their service... so long as those minions remain loyal.
Chain Lightning: In 4th edition, the blue dragon's lightning breath jumps from the initial target to a second target and then to a third target.
Dig Attack: Blue dragons can swim through sand as if it were water, and are known to wait for days under a layer of sand, with only their eyes, nostrils and crag-like horn protruding above the surface, before shooting out to feast on any prey that passes by. If forced into a confrontation above the sand, they will actively attempt to leave a fight if they drop below a certain HP threshold — and be content with waiting just out of their enemy's reach to recharge their lightning breath and strike their foe when that foe least expects it.
Dishing Out Dirt: 5th edition blue dragons can use their lair actions to whip up blinding sandstorms or bring down parts of the ceiling on their enemies.
Noble Demon: 4th edition presents blues as the most personable of the chromatic breeds. As long as their territory is respected, they rarely wish to expand their holdings and lack the cruelty and volatile tempers of greens and reds, allowing them to coexist rather peacefully with neighboring civilizations.
Perpetual Storm: In 4E, deceased blue dragons who undergo environmental diffusion cause the area they died in to become shrouded in perennial wind and rain. These storms rise and fall from gentle gusts and mild showers to violent torrents lashed by lightning, but never fully dissipate regardless of the weather conditions around them.
Shock and Awe: Their breath weapon is a line of lightning, and they can make lightning arc between surfaces in their lairs.
Wicked Cultured: Some blue dragons are quite particular about the treasures they amass for their hoards, only accepting items themed to certain regions or time periods.

Green Dragon

Challenge Rating: 3-24 (3E), 4-27 (4E), 2-22 (5E)
Typical Alignment: Lawful Evil

As cunning as they are cruel, green dragons view themselves as the absolute rulers of the arboreal homes — a view other forest-dwellers are rarely in a position to dispute. These dragons prefer to use subtlety and mind games to expand their influence rather than displays of brute strength. They are fond of green gemstones, as well as art featuring scenes of nature.

Acid Attack: 3rd Edition, which did not have a "poison" damage type, interpreted the green dragon's breath weapon as a cone of corrosive gas.
Art Evolution: The overall features have remained fairly consistent overall, but the 3rd edition design tweaked them from bottom-heavy bipeds into long-armed quadrupeds, making them look like monstrous, winged brachiosaurs. 4th Edition tweaked their head design from a high crest and curved jawline to having near-horizontal horns, but this was reverted for 5th Edition.
Consummate Liar: Green dragons are inborn deceivers, lying as easily as others speak, and are very good at it.
The Corruptor: Green dragons take particular delight in corrupting virtuous souls with their mind games.
Enchanted Forest: Their habitat of choice is deep, ancient forestland where the vegetation towers over their own sizeable forms — the vaster its extent, the older and taller the trees and the farthest the reach of civilization, the better.
Faux Affably Evil: While they're honey-tongued and sophisticated when dealing with other creatures, among their own kind, green dragons are surprisingly crass and loud, especially regarding rivals of equal age and ability.
Green Thumb: Particularly old green dragons can cause plants to grow and magically control them as well.
I Surrender, Suckers: On a years-long scale. If a green dragon clashes with a rival dragon, the green might pretend to back down, then spend decades working on a scheme to slay its opponent and seize their hoard.
Poisonous Person: A green dragon's breath weapon is specifically a cloud of toxic chlorine gas.
Wicked Cultured: Green dragons uniquely use their magic to enhance their treasure, forming floral or horticultural arrangements incorporating conventional valuables. Disturbing such artful displays will enrage the green as readily as stealing the item in question.

Red Dragon

Challenge Rating: 4-26 (3E), 5-30 (4E), 4-24 (5E)
Typical Alignment: Chaotic Evil

The greatest of the chromatics, red dragons are the archetypal fairy-tale dragon — powerful, fiery, feared and immensely, proudly evil. Red dragons are calamities given flesh, brooding for decades at a time in their mountain lairs before emerging to put entire countries and cities to fire and fang. They covet gold above all treasure, amassing great piles of coins and jewelry, every piece a trophy commemorating one of the dragon's victories.

Evil Counterpart:
- To gold dragons, as they're the strongest of the core chromatic and metallic dragons respectively, have diametrically opposed alignments and are viciously opposed one another.
- To silver dragons as well, and in some ways more so: they have the same CR, live in the same areas, and one's a chaotic evil fire dragon while the other is a lawful good ice dragon. The 3rd edition Draconomicon also says they have similar silhouettes from below.
Expy: They're very transparently based on Smaug, down to the color and to legends of sneak thieves who sent red dragons into rampages by stealing a single bauble from their hoard.
Ineffectual Loner: Red dragons frequently clash with silvers, as the two breeds prefer the same environments to lair in, have thoroughly incompatible worldviews, and generally detest one another as a matter of course. Red dragons are larger and stronger than silvers, but tend to lose in their clashes anyway because their pride prevents them from accepting or seeking out aid, while silvers facing a red will willingly work together or seek out non-draconic help.
It's All About Me: Red dragons are notoriously self-centered. Anything they do is to prove that they are the greatest dragon in the area, and part of their faith is that Io was a red dragon, and all other dragons are unnatural aberrations. This even extends to mating, as the only reason an elder red dragon will tolerate a mate nearby is because a mate would demonstrate their might and majesty.
Monster Misogyny: Being based on traditional European dragons, they prefer to eat female human (and elf) virgins. Apparently, it's because they taste better.
Playing with Fire: Their breath weapon is a cone of roaring fire, and red dragons can also make magma erupt in their lairs to threaten invaders.
Shoot the Messenger: Red dragons frequently employ other creatures as spies and messengers in order to keep abreast of world events, but take reports with extremely poor grace and do not hesitate to kill or eat servants who bring them bad news.
Volcano Lair: Red dragons seek out areas of volcanic activity to make their lairs in, which suits the dragons just fine while making invaders' lives more difficult. Though as a consequence, they have little use for paper, cloth, and other flammable treasure.

White Dragon

Challenge Rating: 2-21 (3E), 1-24 (4E), 2-20 (5E)
Typical Alignment: Chaotic Evil

White dragons are, according to both humanoid scholars and other dragons, the last and least of the chromatics, and are indeed primitive, stupid and fairly pathetic creatures — for dragons. In their arctic homes, white dragons are apex predators that swoop upon prey during a blinding blizzard, erupt out of snowbanks, or burst from frigid water. They prefer white-colored treasure that doesn't clash with their icy lairs, but also take trophies from their victims.

Battle Trophy: Even simple pieces of junk can find important places in a white dragon's hoard, so long as they were taken from a dangerous enemy.
Dead Guy on Display: White dragons like to decorate their lairs with the frozen corpses of prominent foes they've overcome.
An Ice Person: They breathe a gale of freezing wind, and as they age they gain the ability to create clouds of freezing fog and raise walls of ice.
It Can Think: While normally compared to wild animals more often than sapient beings, white dragons are still smarter than their outward appearance suggests. They normally have an actual plan for creatures entering their lair that doesn't consist of simply slashing a creature until it dies; instead, they like to hang like bats from the ceilings of their lairs, descend down, pick off anyone foolish enough to enter, and kill them easily. It's also noted that for all their actual stupidity, they have excellent memories, and remember every slight against them.
Not Worth Killing: Some white dragons who lair in the highest, coldest mountains find themselves neighbors with red dragons, but the reds generally ignore them as unworthy opponents, and the white dragons are smart enough not to antagonize the most powerful of the chromatics.
Sleepyhead: Catching a white dragon asleep in his lair is not uncommon. In fact, with a sixty percent chance to be asleep when encountered — the highest of any dragon subspecies — it's more odd if you find the white awake instead of asleep. That being said, the fact that they like to display many a Battle Trophy, including people who have opposed them, the white's arrogance means he doesn't feel like he has to take a constant watch.
Stealthy Colossus: What makes a white dragon so dangerous. They hunt as a wild animal does, and despite their size, have all the stealth they need to strike down prey. They know how best to hide in their frozen homes and aren't afraid to ambush their enemies.
Trademark Favorite Food: They only consume frozen flesh, and will either crunch on foes they've slain with their breath weapons, or stash larders in snowbanks around their lairs — which can be a warning sign that a white dragon's nearby.

Metallic Dragons

The "always good" dragon family, embodying the best aspects of dragonkind. Their divine patron is Bahamut, the Platinum Dragon.

Metallic Dragons in General

Condescending Compassion: This is noted to be a common character flaw of the Good-aligned metallic dragons in-universe. Metallic dragons won't hurt humanoids or other sentient beings, unless in self-defense or if someone they personally care for is threatened. Some of these dragons even go out of their way to be a Protectorate for a certain area or group of people. However, metallic dragons consider humanoids the same way that humans would consider a puppy or a kitten - something worth being friendly and kind to, but nowhere close to an equal. Only silver dragons consistently escape this trap.
Good Is Not Nice: Even the "good" metallic dragons can be materialistic and condescending towards humanoids, or willing to sacrifice lesser beings in pursuit of a greater good, for example by burning down an infected village so a plague doesn't spread.
Good Lips, Evil Jaws: Besides color and body shape, one easy way to differentiate between chromatic and metallic dragons is that the former's teeth protrude when their jaws are closed, while the latter's are hidden.
Humanity Is Young: Metallic dragons tend to see demihuman races this way, especially in their Ancient and late-Adult stages of life. Some are fascinated by demihumans and use their humanoid forms to study or play with them. Others see them as children to be guided and protected in secret, following the example set by Bahamut.
Monochromatic Eyes: This is a distinct feature of metallic dragons, whose pupils and whites fade as they age until their eyes become monocolored orbs.

Brass Dragon

^2e

Challenge Rating: 3-23 (3E), 2-26 (4E), 1-20 (5E)
Typical Alignment: Chaotic Good

Loquacious, gregarious, and fond of discussions and small talk, brass dragons are the likeliest dragons to associate with humanoids, although both they and other dragons find brasses best experienced in small doses. They favor hot, sunny terrain that often puts them in competition with blue dragons, confrontations that the brasses survive thanks to their superior speed and mobility. Brass dragons like items crafted from brass as well as wood and textile pieces for their hoards, but are also fond of artwork with "personality."

Art Evolution:
- In 1st and 2nd Edition, brasses have very fin-like wings that attach only to their sides, beginning behind their forelimbs and ending before their hindlimbs and not connecting to their tails. They also have a mixed greenish-yellow coloration. 3rd Edition drastically changes their design, giving them elongated wings running from their arms to their tailtip, making them an even golden brass in color and giving them prominent head shields.
- 4th Edition additionally tweaks their wing design. In 3rd, their wing "arm" is a single unbranched limb, and all wing rays attach independently to their sides; after 4th, two rays are instead attached to the wing arm, one as a second finger and the other attaching to the elbow.
Beach Bury: How a brass dragon rewards rudeness. If a brass initiates a conversation with you, you're expected to comport yourself politely with him, even if excusing yourself from it. If you ignore him or yell at him to shut up, he'll knock you out with his Sleep Breath Weapon and bury you to your neck in the desert sand. When you wake up, he'll continue the conversation from where you interrupted him. You'll be freed when the dragon is done talking your ears off.
Companion Cube: Fizban's Treasury of Dragons explains that brass dragons are prone to giving nicknames to statues, paintings, and similar art depicting individuals, assigning them personalities, and happily chatting with these inanimate objects for want of other conversation partners.
Entitled to Have You: A platonic example. The 3.5e supplement Dragon Magic describes a set of variant abilities for particularly obsessive brass dragons - ones who kidnap people to serve as conversation partners, talk to them non-stop until they fall unconscious, and then enter their dreams in order to continue the conversation. At great wyrm levels they can even imprison their "guests" in an eternal dream similar to the sequester spell to prevent them from leaving. In what is either editorial oversight or a stealth punchline, creatures you communicate with via a dream spell don't get to talk back.
Forced Sleep: Their secondary breath weapon knocks other creatures unconscious for up to ten minutes.
Humble Hero: Subverted; brass dragons have a reputation for humility, since they're most willing to converse with "lesser" creatures, but this is actually a form of draconic hubris, the brass dragon allowing others to enjoy their charming, engaging company.
Motor Mouth: Brass dragons love to talk, and a brass dragon can spend hours to days chatting away about whatever strikes their interest. When not engrossed in conversation, a brass will devote much of his time to learning new words, factoids and stories to talk about.
Playing with Fire: Their breath weapon is a line of fire.
Vitriolic Best Buds:
- With copper dragons. When a brass and a copper meet, their visit often consists of the brass being too busy talking to laugh at the copper's jokes and the copper being too busy cracking jokes to engage the brass in conversation, until the dragons part ways feeling unsatisfied and frustrated with the other. Despite that, they still consider themselves good friends with one another.
- Ironically, brass dragons also cannot stand each other, and go out of their way to avoid each other whenever possible. This is because, if two brasses were to ever meet, both dragons will want to talk, and talk over the other. Instead, brass dragons stay in touch from a distance through a network of contacts, which fosters a much healthier relationship.
Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Brass dragons take tremendous amounts of pride in their vocabulary, and they will take any opportunity to demonstrate it in conversation.
Summon Magic: Great wyrm brass dragons can summon a djinni ally once per day.

Bronze Dragon

Challenge Rating: 3-25 (3E), 5-29 (4E), 2-22 (5E)
Typical Alignment: Lawful Good

Bronze dragons have a strong sense of justice, leading them to patrol their territories in an innocuous form to draw out aggressors, or join military campaigns for what they think a worthy cause. They prefer to lair where steep cliffs meet deep water, which can bring bronzes into conflict with evil sea creatures like sahuagin or merrow, as well as rival green and black dragons. Their hoards can be a mix of treasure salvaged from shipwrecks, payment or booty from their campaigns, or tribute acquired from passing ships.

Angel Unaware: Bronze dragons enjoy using their shapeshifting to pose as penniless beachcombers, stranded sailors, guileless island natives and the like, in order to test the moral character of people who visit their coastal domains. Kindness, respect and generosity earn the dragon's respect, which may well lead to aid or rewards in the future. Those who attack or try to take advantage of the seemingly helpless nobody, however, find themselves dealing with much more than they bargained for when the dragon reveals itself.
Art Evolution: Bronzes gain much more prominent fins between 2nd and 3rd Edition, which also replaces their original golden coloration with a tan one with green highlights.
Cultured Warrior: Bronze dragons have a romantic view of themselves as foes of tyranny, and reinforce that by stocking their hoards with wargear, historically-significant weapons, or books on military history and tactics they can apply to future campaigns.
Friend to All Living Things: Bronze dragons dislike killing anything they're not planning to eat, and try to fend off dumb animals with distractions of food or their repulsion breath, and attempt to negotiate with intelligent attackers before resorting to force to defend themselves.
Hired Guns: They're happy to fight alongside armies for a cause they believe in, but will expect to be compensated for their service. That said, if the side they favor can't afford their normal fee, the bronze might accept a military artifact as compensation, or will claim one of the enemy's treasures.
Mind over Matter: A variant; bronze dragons' secondary breath weapon is a cone of energy that shoves creatures away. In earlier editions, it was instead a gas that compelled creatures who succumbed to move away from the dragon.
Trademark Favorite Food: While they mostly eat aquatic plants and fish, and are fond of shark meat, bronze dragons also dine on pearls, which they keep in their hoards as both treasure and snacks.
Sea Monster: Inverted. They're huge and monstrous creatures, to be sure. But bronze dragons not only don't attack sailors, they've been known to save sailors in distress and fight off oceanic monsters in the name of helping sailors reach their ports safely. Not for nothing, bronze dragons are usually found near the sea. That said, bronzes have been known to inspect a ship's cargo in seagull form, spot something they like, and then assume their true form and "bargain" for what they want.
Shock and Awe: They breathe a line of lightning, while those attacking a bronze dragon's lair might be blasted by a deafening thunderclap.

Copper Dragon

Challenge Rating: 3-25 (3E), 4-27 (4E), 1-21 (5E)
Alignment: Chaotic Good

Copper dragons are pranksters and jokesters, although their genial natures bely a covetous streak notable even among dragons. Their preferred environments, dry foothills, often makes them neighbors to red dragons — a fact that the much weaker coppers don't particularly enjoy. Copper dragons favor burnished metal treasure, fine tapestries and sculptures, and keepsakes commemorating their greatest pranks.

Acid Attack: They spit a line of acid as their breath weapon.
Acquired Poison Immunity: Copper dragons' favorite snacks are monstrous scorpions, which they claim shapren their wits. Between that and their draconic digestive systems, copper dragons are immune to ingested poisons, though they're still affected by injected poisons.
Arch-Enemy: One of a copper dragon's favorite games is to deliberately piss off a nearby red dragon, and then lead him on a chase into a narrow canyon or chasm. The red is the stronger dragon and the superior flyer, but he can't maneuver very well in tight, narrow passages. The copper, on the other hand, can maneuver just fine in them, and can use his earth manipulation abilities to further frustrate the red. Naturally, this makes red dragons hate copper dragons almost as much as they hate silver dragons, their other territorial nemesis.
Art Evolution: In 1st and 2nd Edition, coppers have very fin-like wings that attach only to their sides, beginning behind their forelimbs and ending before their hindlimbs and not connecting to their tails, and are yellow. 3rd Edition gives them elongated wings running from their arms to their tailtip, recolors them to a coppery red and gives them thicker horns of the same color as their scales. 5th Edition re-modifies their wings, removing the additional rays attached to their sides and retracting their membrane to give them more traditional bat-like wings.
Dishing Out Dirt: Copper dragons have a great deal of innate control over elemental earth, naturally learning stone shape, rock to mud, mud to rock, wall of stone and move earth as they age.
The Gadfly: Copper dragons are known to amuse themselves by disguising themselves as humanoid NPCs and sending adventurers on fake quests. Occasionally, the copper doing this will also play the part of the fake quest's Big Bad to tease the party in secret.
Never Gets Drunk: The copper dragon's immunity to ingested poisons also makes him immune to alcohol, allowing him to indulge in copious amounts of wine without issue.
The Prankster: Coppers are infamous for their proclivity toward pranks.
Status Infliction Attack: Their secondary breath weapon is a cone of slowing gas.
Vitriolic Best Buds:
- With brass dragons. When a brass and a copper meet, their visit often consists of the brass being too busy talking to laugh at the copper's jokes and the copper being too busy cracking jokes to engage the brass in conversation, until the dragons part ways feeling unsatisfied and frustrated with the other. Despite that, they still consider themselves good friends with one another.
- Just like brass dragons, copper dragons generally tend to avoid one another. This is because if two coppers were to meet, they would engage in a verbal duel that will eventually devolve into the two dragons Volleying Insults at one another until one of them gets offended and leaves. The two coppers won't necessarily be enemies with each other afterward, but they will spend centuries annoying the hell out of each other with pranks and insults.
You Are Who You Eat: The 3.5e supplement Dragon Magic details a subspecies of copper dragons who have subsisted so heavily on venomous scorpions that they are unaffected by poison anywhere in their body (rather than just ingested poisons), later gaining the ability to neutralize poison in others and use their tail as a venomous stinger a limited number of times per day.

Gold Dragon

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/23b2e0dd41dc1c7f86b98b54c812cfaa.jpg

^2E

Challenge Rating: 5-27 (3E), 7-30 (4E), 3-24 (5E)
Alignment: Lawful Good

Mighty, wise and righteous, gold dragons are the greatest of the metallics and of all true dragons, and champions of goodness with few equals. They prefer to lair in secluded places with picturesque scenery around a lake, river or shoreline, where only the most dedicated or desperate petitioners will reach them. While gold dragon enjoy gems and pearls as delicacies, their favorite treasure is items they can learn from, whether rare texts, puzzles, or even a reminder of a past defeat.

Angel Unaware: Gold dragons spend much of their time in humanoid or animal form and, when traveling through dangerous areas, deliberately take on especially nonthreatening forms. This allows the dragon to essentially use itself as bait to draw out evil creatures, and many bandits and monsters met their ends when what they thought was a helpless victim turned out to be a powerful and very indignant dragon in disguise. In this way they emulate Bahamut the Platinum Dragon, who sometimes travels the land with seven gold dragon companions in the guise of an old man with seven canaries.
Art Evolution: In 1st and 2nd Edition, gold dragons closely resemble Chinese dragons in appearance — they're elongated, serpentine beings with no wings, proportionally short limbs and curling horns. In 3rd, they're rather drastically redesigned to resemble Western dragons with finlike wings running from their shoulders to their tail tips, yet their lithe bodies, long tails, "whiskers" on their faces, and preferred territories are all more evocative of an Asian long than an European wyrm.
Catlike Dragons: In post-3rd edition art, gold dragons tend to be drawn with distinct references to felines in the anatomy of their legs, torsos and heads.
Eat Dirt, Cheap: They feed mainly on gems and pearls — they can subsist on meat as well, but prefer not to.
Gentle Giant: The franchise's most iconic examples. While metallic dragons are generally quite large and pleasant, golds are the largest and most pleasant. A stereotypical ancient gold has the personality of your favourite grandparent and is roughly the size of a mountain.
Gold-Colored Superiority: Gold dragons are the most powerful among the metallic dragons and, Depending on the Writer, the most powerful dragons overall.
The Hermit: While gold dragons like to be informed about world events, they also value their privacy and thus make their lairs far from civilization. That said, they still might play Hermit Guru to those seeking their wisdom, and gold dragons will never turn away people who come to them in desperation.
Playing with Fire: They breathe a cone of fire.
Status Infliction Attack: A gold dragon's secondary breath weapon is a cone of weakening gas that saps other creatures' strength.

Silver Dragon

Challenge Rating: 4-26 (3E), 5-29 (4E), 2-23 (5E)
Alignment: Lawful Good

Silver dragons are particularly preoccupied with the woes and troubles of other beings, and tend to spend a great deal of their lives in the guise of harmless humanoids as they watch society for those who would do others harm. They make their lairs high in the mountaintops or even in the clouds themselves, which unfortunately places them in competition with red dragons for territory. Silver dragons like treasure that complements their coloration, but particularly prize mementos and keepsakes from the humanoids they've interacted with, resulting in quite eclectic hoards.

An Ice Person: They breathe a conical gale of freezing wind.
Art Evolution: Silvers don't undergo a change as drastic as other dragons', but gain beard- and sideburn-like facial fins between 2nd and 3rd Edition.
Intrigued by Humanity: While silver dragons consider themselves superior beings, they are impressed by the dynamism of humans and other short-lived races, who manage to accomplish so much in their brief lifespans — a lesson the silvers think other dragons could learn from.
Knight in Sour Armor: Silver dragons are this compared to bronzes. While bronze dragons eagerly crusade against evil, silver dragons find that evil tends to pop up everywhere, and instead focus on quashing it when it appears in the silver's territory. That said, silver dragons will still act against a looming threat that affects their entire corner of the world.
The Paralyzer: Their secondary breath weapon is a cone of paralyzing gas.
Parental Favoritism: Bahamut has made it abundantly clear that the silver dragons are his favored creation.
Fizban: Silver dragons are the best of the best kinds of dragons. They just get it, you know?
The Power of Friendship: As mentioned previously, a silver dragon can't quite prevail in a one-on-one fight with a red dragon, but the silver's ability and willingness to bring allies to the battle often proves decisive.
Solid Clouds: Silver dragons have cloudwalking as an innate ability, and often dwell in lairs sculpted within the clouds. They lose this ability in 5th Edition, where they're instead able to make clouds and fog as solid as stone for anyone walking on them with a few days' work.
Weather Manipulation: Silver dragons often have some limited ability to control weather events. In 5th Edition, for instance, they can use lair actions to create small fog banks or gusts of freezing wind, or use a regional effect once daily that allows them to essentially cast control weather over a six-mile radius around their lairs.

Gem Dragons

The "always neutral" dragon family, the gem dragons are also characterized by their psionic powers. Their patron was Sardior the Ruby Dragon, the first creation of Bahamut and Tiamat, who was shattered into millions of pieces during an ancient conflict with the gods of the humanoid races.

Gem Dragons in General

Art Evolution: Gem dragons were revamped with their cousins for 3rd Edition, then got another major overhaul for 5th Edition, which gave them hovering spines and horns around their bodies that shift position in reaction to the dragon's mood, in a weird variant of Expressive Hair.
Charm Person: In 5th Edition, all gem dragons can use "Beguiling Whisper" as a lair action, attempting to charm an intruder.
Names The Same: Mystara is also home to a family of dragons known as Gem Dragons, who have absolutely nothing to do with the "standard" Gem Dragons of the rest of the D&D multiverse. They consist of the Crystal Dragon (renamed the Crystalline Dragon when updated to 2nd edition), Onyx Dragon, Jade Dragon, Sapphire Dragon, Ruby Dragon, and Amber Dragon.
Pieces of God: In 5th Edition, the gem dragons were born from the shattered pieces of the dragon-god Sardior's consciousness during the struggle between the draconic and humanoid gods, and some of their number believe that they should try to bring Sardior together into a single whole again.
Psychic Powers: A key feature of gem dragons is that they are natural psions rather than latent sorcerers (though in 3rd Edition, they got both spell-like abilities and psionic attack and defense modes).
Sixth Ranger: Both 2nd and 3rd edition attempted to introduce a 6th gem dragon to the family; the Prismatic Dragon in 2e and the Obsidian Dragon in 3e. Neither version caught on well enough to be retained in subsequent editions.
Teleportation: In 5th edition, sufficiently old gem dragons can teleport over short distances at will.

Amethyst Dragon

^3e

Challenge Rating: 3-25 (3E), 4-23 (5E)
Alignment: True Neutral

The mightiest of the gem dragons, amethyst dragons are wise, regal and aloof beings who often serve as intermediaries and diplomats for other dragons and humanoid nations. Amethyst dragons prefer to lair on the Elemental Plane of Earth, or in caves near or beneath stillwater, which quickly develop crystalline formations to match their inhabitants. They are profoundly fascinated by the laws that govern existence, and often become passionate scholars of psionics, physics and interdimensional travel, filling their hoards with artifacts from other worlds and esoteric texts.

Eat Dirt, Cheap: Downplayed. Amethyst dragons prefer a mixed diet of fish and gems.
Gemstone Assault: In lieu of their usual breath weapon, they can opt to regurgitate a giant explosive gemstone that they can spit with pinpoint accuracy.
Gravity Master: They have innate control over the force of gravity, so that amethyst dragons can naturally levitate (allowing them to hover in place, unlike most dragons) and their primary attack is referred to as a "singularity breath."
Mind over Matter: They naturally develop telekinesis as great wyrms.
Non-Elemental: An amethyst dragon's primary breath weapon is a line (in 3rd Edition) or cone (in 5th Edition) of raw concussive energy, dealing force damage.
Shockwave Stomp: In 3rd Edition, amethyst dragons can use the stomp psionic power, stamping to create a conical shockwave that knocks enemies off their feet.
Walk on Water: Amethyst dragons have supernatural control over their weight and equilibrium, which among other things can let them walk across the surface of liquids.

Crystal Dragon

^3e

Challenge Rating: 2-23 (3E), 2-19 (5E)
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral

Crystal dragons are among the friendliest of dragonkind, curious about the world and eager to converse with visitors. They dwell on the Elemental Plane of Air or on high mountains on the Material Plane, which can bring them into conflict with white dragons and evil giants. Crystal dragons are often astronomers and astrologers, so their lairs feature open roofs that let them view the night sky, and they hoard refractive gemstones and other baubles that remind them of the stars.

Art Evolution: Crystal dragons have no wings in 2nd and 3rd Edition, but gain them in 5th. 3E crystal dragons also have reflective scales that make them look like they're carved from solid crystal, while in 5E they have a more natural, reptilian appearance.
Eat Dirt, Cheap: Crystal dragons prefer a diet of gemstones and ores over any other sort of food.
Light 'em Up: Their breath weapon is a cone of brilliant light that can leave other beings blinded and, in 5th Edition, also deals radiant damage. In 5th Edition, they can also direct concentrated beams of searing starlight against foes.
Multiple-Tailed Beast: A crystal dragon's tail forks in two about halfway down its length.
Orc Raised by Elves: Despite their clashes with white dragons, crystal dragons are known to steal white dragon eggs or adopt white wyrmlings, in order to raise the more savage dragons to be friendlier creatures.
See the Invisible: In 5th Edition, a crystal dragon can cause gleaming starlight to radiate from a point in the lair. Creatures illuminated by the light cannot become invisible.

Emerald Dragon

^3e

Challenge Rating: 2-24 (3E), 2-21 (5E)
Alignment: Lawful Neutral

Emerald dragons are both intensely curious and paranoid to a fault, and thus use their psionic powers to spy on neighboring communities from afar or in disguise. They prefer to lair in forgotten ruins or inactive volcanoes, and hide their actual homes behind layers of traps and blinds for good measure, though their preference for heat and geothermal activity can bring emerald dragons into conflict with fire giants, or worse, red dragons. Emerald dragons prefer coins over gemstones, particularly rare mintings, but also prize artifacts with historical significance.

Combat Clairvoyance: 3rd Edition emerald dragons can use the shield of prudence power to see a few seconds into the future, gaining a bonus to their Armor Class.
Fast Tunneling: Unlike other dragons with a burrowing speed, emerald dragons can explicitly leave behind a usable tunnel, if they're willing to move at half their normal rate.
Mind Rape: In 5th Edition, an emerald dragon's breath weapon is a cone of "psychic dissonance," dealing psychic damage and imposing penalties on targets' attack rolls and ability checks. They can also distort the perception of intruders in their lairs, dealing more psychic damage.
The Paranoiac: A defining emerald dragon trait that only grows more pronounced as they age, resulting in the oldest dragons creating nested layers of traps and defenses for their maze-like lairs.
Playing with Fire: As a legendary action, 5th Edition emerald dragons can cast an enemy in green flame to deal fire damage.
Super-Scream: In earlier editions, their breath weapon is a cone of keening sonic energy that can also stun (in 2nd) and deafen (2nd and 3rd) victims.
Trap Master: Emerald dragons are profoundly paranoid, and like to booby-trap their lairs as extensively as they can to ensure their safety when resting within them. Intruders into an emerald dragon's home have to contend with a maze of confusing tunnels littered with deadly traps, ranging from simple spiked pits and pitfalls into lava to complex magical contraptions.

Obsidian Dragon

Challenge Rating: 3-25 (3E)
Alignment: Neutral Evil

Intelligent, haughty, and vicious dragons that rival amethyst dragons in psionic and physical power. Though considered gem dragons, their evil natures have led them to be shunned and despised by the rest of their kind.

Black Sheep: They're this to the other gem dragons, being the only evil example of the normally-neutral dragon family, and thus outcasts.
Dimensional Traveler: They can innately shift between the Material and Inner Planes. Ancient obsidian dragons eventually learn plane shift and become able to bring other creatures with them, so one of their favorite tactics is to grab an enemy, then bring them to the Elemental Plane of Fire.
Noodle Incident: Seradess, the thane representing obsidian dragons in Sardior's court, did something so heinous that the Ruby Dragon destroyed her and banished the obsidians, but not even Sardior's clergy knows what that offense was.
Playing with Fire: Their breath weapon is a cone of fire, and many of the psionic powers they learn are geared towards pyrokinesis, such as burning ray, flaming shroud and whitefire.
Pocket Dimension: Obsidian great wyrms learn the genesis power to create their own demiplane, which frequently becomes their preferred home.
Remember the New Guy?: The third edition lore for gem dragons talks about obsidian dragons as if they'd been part of the family all along, but they hadn't appeared at all in earlier editions. The closest analogue might be the Mystaran Onyx Dragon, which was more like a Dumb Muscle variation of the standard Black Dragon.
Sadist: While they prefer to overpower foes quickly in combat, obsidian dragons then like to toy with prey before finishing it off.
Volcano Lair: When they aren't living within the charcoal mountains of the Plane of Fire, obsidian dragons settle for the volcanoes of the Material Plane.

Prismatic Dragon (2e)

Alignment: Chaotic Neutral

Described as a closely related to gem dragons, though with characteristics of copper dragons as well, these creatures are greedy and self-important even by draconic standards. They have little patience for anything that bores them, but can easily be wooed and influenced by sustained flattery and gifts of precious metals and gems, whilst gifts that exploit their boundless vanity (such as an artisanal mirror or a song exalting the dragon's wisdom and beauty) can make them forget almost any "wrong" they have suffered.
For subsequent dragons dubbed prismatic dragons, see the "Epic Dragons" section below.

Breath Weapon: Theirs is conical gout of luminous vapor containing swirling patterns of sparkling particles and bright, interweaving colors that replicates a rainbow pattern effect to hypnotize onlookers — and prismatic dragons younger than adults also have a chance to be enthralled by their own breath weapon. As a secondary effect, this vapor transmutes water into a milky-colored solid substance similar in appearance to mother of pearl. This is downright lethal to creatures like water weirds, while creatures like humans will have their flesh partially transformed and crack and flake, dealing damage from the physical trauma, slowing them for several rounds, and inflicting additional damage if they attempt strenuous activity.
Creation Myth: Prismatic dragons hold that they and the conventional gem dragons were carved from gemstones on a tropical island by the Creator Dragon, often described as a copper great wyrm. After shaping dragons from emeralds, sapphires, rubies and diamonds, the Creator Dragon found a beautiful crystal that put all the other jewels to shame. She cast her other creations in the sea to drown, and used that crystal to make the first prismatic dragon, which the Creator Dragon gave life with her final breath. But some of her cast-off creations survived her attempt to discard them, and their descendents now live a "wrongful existence," justifying prismatic dragons' efforts to exterminate them.
Everything's Better with Rainbows: Rainbows are a big motif for prismatic dragons. Their breath weapons are rainbow-hued clouds of glowing gas. At birth, their scales are bright, mirrorlike silver except for several distinct bands of color at its midsection — red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Over time, the colors spread and fade, and the shiny scales give way to pastel hues with dazzling refractive qualities (much like a holographic image). As its natural colors fade, the dragon gains great control over its shimmering scales. By the adult age, the scales are a homogeneous translucent blue-gray, with patches or bands of color confined to wing tips, claws, and face. A basic hypnotic pattern power develops that increases with age — great wyrms can make themselves virtually invisible and can project complex illusions simply by manipulating their scales.
Fantastic Racism: Prismatic dragons despise the "common" gem dragons, and consider it a racial obligation to kill them all in order to honor the Creator Dragon.
Lady Land: The homeland of the prismatic dragons is only occupied by mature females who have born or who are rearing hatchlings, and hatchlings of either gender. Upon reaching maturity, males are exiled, never to return. Females may leave if they wish, but are only allowed to return if they are gravid or accompanied by young.
Light Is Not Good: Prismatic dragons are heavily associated with light and color, but are vainglorious, arrogant and obnoxious.
The Minion Master: Prismatic dragons prefer to put expendable lackies between themselves and any risk of harming their beautiful visages. However, they reject the mind-controlling spells of Enchantment as beneath them, and prefer to instead make heavy use of Summon Magic.
Retcon: This dragon is very different from the Epic Dragon that will bear its name in 3rd edition.
Small Name, Big Ego: Their creation myth literally describes them as the only true and perfect breed of Gem Dragon, despite lacking the powerful Psychic Powers of their fellows.

Sapphire Dragon

^3e

Challenge Rating: 2-24 (3E), 3-22 (5E)
Alignment: Lawful Neutral

Cunning, strategically-minded dragons who consider themselves born tacticians and military masterminds. Fiercely territorial, sapphire dragons lair on the Elemental Plane of Earth or deep underground, which can bring them into contact with emerald dragons and communities of dwarves and gnomes, or spark conflict with evil races of the Underdark. Sapphire dragons covet military paraphernalia over other treasure, and decorate their lairs with trophies taken from drow, aboleths and illithids.

Arch-Enemy: Sapphire dragons have a particular hatred for aberrations from the Far Realm, and often team up with emerald dragons to hunt them down, combining their martial focus and tactical acumen with the emeralds' intelligence-gathering skills.
Dishing Out Dirt: They get stone shape, move earth and wall of stone as innate spell-like abilities, and often use them to shape and optimize their subterranean lairs.
Fast Tunneling: They can leave behind usable tunnels when they burrow at half their normal speed.
Food Chain of Evil: Giant Spiders are sapphire dragons' favorite prey, and the dragons often allow these creatures to inhabit their lairs explicitly to have a reliable food source close at hand.
Mind over Matter: In 3rd Edition sapphire dragons can use the skate power to move a creature or object across the ground in defiance of friction, while in 5th edition older dragons can telekinetically fling objects at foes.
The Strategist: They consider themselves as such, obsessing over military history, strategy and tactics. Despite their territoriality, sapphire dragons may let intruders go if they're willing to engage the dragon in a strategy game, with the caveat that it can be dangerous to let the dragon lose.
Super-Scream: Their breath weapon is a cone of ultrasonic energy that is nearly inaudible to humanoids, but deals sonic damage and can incapacitate victims in 5th Edition. In earlier editions the secondary effect was instead a Supernatural Fear Inducer, except 2nd Edition noted that the effect was more metabolic than supernatural, so magical wards against fear didn't apply.
Wall Crawl: Sapphire dragons are under a constant spider climb effect, allowing them to scale sheer surfaces or walk across ceilings.

Topaz Dragon

^3e

Challenge Rating: 3-25 (3E), 2-20 (5E)
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral

Topaz dragons are selfish, unpleasantly morbid, occasionally erratic, and potentially dangerous to be around. They prefer to lair on coastlines, despite their hatred of actually being submerged in water, and their favored terrain can bring them into conflict with bronze dragons, whom topazes despise and attack on sight. They prefer yellowish gems and metals for their hoards (but never bronze), but are also fascinated by magical items that create or destroy matter, or manipulate negative energy.

Admiring the Abomination: Topaz dragons are deeply fascinated by the undead due to their unique relationship with entropy and negative energy, and may keep undead monsters as part of their hoards as curios.
Art Evolution: In 3rd Edition, topaz dragons are raptor-like bipeds with small, uniform scales and large facial fins. In 5th, they are quadrupeds with blocky scales resembling plate armor and backwards wings.
Dark Is Not Evil: Topaz dragons are quite unpleasant to be around, and are essentially living embodiments of the concepts of rot and entropy. They view these as natural parts of the world necessary for clearing the way for new growth, and focus their power on destroying crumbling ruins and decaying vegetation.
Glowing Eyes: A topaz dragon's pupils fade with age, until their eyes becoming glowing, fiery orbs with no visible divisions.
Ironic Fear: Topaz dragons are naturally amphibious and have a swim speed, but they despise getting wet, and their breath weapon in most editions is a dehydrating blast that can dessicate living creatures and remove water. Even when lairing on the very Elemental Plane of Water, topazes will take care to keep their homes totally dry. Unfortunately their Trademark Favorite Food is Giant Squid, which gives topazes a chance to have something to complain bitterly about as they emerged soaked from the depths with a calamari dinner.
Make Them Rot: 5th Edition revamped topaz dragons to give them an innate connection to negative energy, so that their dessicating breath weapon is recast as a cone of negative energy that induces rapid decay in its victims.
Reduced to Dust: Adult and ancient topaz dragons can use their "essential reduction" legendary action to deal heavy necrotic damage to a creature or object, potentially making it crumble to dust.
Weather Manipulation: In 3rd Edition, topaz dragons naturally have access to control winds, fog cloud and control weather, allowing them to direct and manipulate weather patterns in their immediate surroundings.

Ferrous Dragons

The "always lawful" dragon family, ferrous dragons exist in a strict hierarchy beneath Gruaghlothor the Supreme Dragon, the first of their kind. An ancient war decimated the ferrous dragons' numbers, but they are eager to reclaim their past glory.

Ferrous Dragons in General

Body Surf: Gruaghlothor, ruler of the ferrous dragons, is not actually a god, and has died in the past. But each time he does so, an iron dragon goes into hibernation for a year, awakening as a reborn Gruaghlothor. When asked about this, the iron dragons only say "It has always been so."
Color-Coded Castes: Not only are ferrous dragons organized into families and clans within their breeds, those breeds themselves are ordered so that a ferrous dragon will defer to the wisdom and judgment of a dragon of equal age from a breed higher on that hierarchy. Iron dragons sit at the top of this hierarchy, followed by chromium, cobalt, and tungsten, with nickel dragons at the very bottom.
Early-Installment Weirdness: Before the "always lawful" angle was fully developed, 2nd Edition ferrous dragons had more varied alignments.
Fantastic Racism: While ferrous dragons get along with the also-neutral gem dragons, and universally revile chromatic dragons, they have mixed reactions to metallic dragons — tungsten dragons see them as metals at their purest, iron dragons have little use for them, while chromium, cobalt and nickel dragons consider metallic dragons abominations to be destroyed.
Great Offscreen War: While their 3rd Edition write-up only makes vague allusions to a genocide that threatened the ferrous dragons with extinction, their 2nd Edition material mentions the centuries-long Iron Wars that took place at the very dawn of history, before the advent of mortal races like men and elves, when there were at least a dozen ferrous dragon breeds. It seems to have been a civil conflict that only ended after the nickel dragons changed sides to support Gruaghlothor the Supreme Dragon. Of the ferrous dragon breeds that were involved, two were wiped out completely, while the conflict's losers were driven into hiding, and the surviving ferrous dragons refuse to speak of them.
Supernatural Sensitivity: All ferrous dragons can sense the presence of nearby nonprecious metals such as iron, which makes it next to impossible to sneak up on them with conventional weapons and armor.
Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: The evil chromium and nickel dragons share a mutual hatred with the good tungsten dragons, but will refrain from attacking each other, as per Gruaghlothor's command. The survival of the ferrous dragon species comes before their internal disputes, and infighting is not tolerated.

Chromium Dragon

Challenge Rating: 3-25 (3E)
Alignment: Chaotic Evil (2E), Lawful Evil (3E)

The greed of a chromium dragon is only matched by that of a red dragon, while in combat they are as cruel as they are merciless. They lair in and under arctic mountains, bringing them into conflict with white dragons, which the stronger chromiums can dominate, as well as silver dragons, the chromiums' mortal enemies.

Arch-Enemy: Chromium and silver dragons despise each other, so that the silvers will hunt down and kill the chromiums without remorse. As with red dragons, the silvers are technically the underdogs in such engagements, but the silver dragons have the resources and allies to prevail over a stronger foe.
Chrome Champion: As they are literally chrome dragons, yes.
An Ice Person: A chromium dragon can breathe either a line of solid ice, or a cone of freezing ice shards that deals additional Dexterity damage.
Mistaken Identity: Between chromium dragons' shiny scales and body shape, they bear a remarkable resemblance to the much less homicidal silver dragons, which has led to the deaths of many adventurers.
Pit Trap: Chromium dragons like to protect their lairs with pits lined with sharpened icicles, hidden beneath a thin sheet of ice that breaks under intruders' weight.
Sadist: The cruel chromium dragons enjoy toying with their prey, and will attack other creatures simply to see them writhe in pain.
Taken for Granite: A great wyrm chromium dragon can turn a victim into a crystalline statue, a flesh to crystal variant of the flesh to stone spell usable once per day. At that point, their victim is uniquely vulnerable to the shatter spell.

Cobalt Dragon

^3e

Challenge Rating: 3-25 (3E), 3-27 (4E)
Alignment: Lawful Evil

Diabolical and tyrannical, cobalt dragons attempt to subjugate every creature they come across, and so are shunned by other ferrous dragons. They make their lairs beneath the thickest jungles and darkest forests, putting them in direct competition with green dragons.

Art Evolution: 4th Edition redesigned cobalts from slender creatures with almost rat-like tails into much bulkier and blunter beasts.
Green Thumb: As they age, cobalt dragons gain access to spell-like abilities such as entangle, snare and plant growth to aid their trapmaking.
An Ice Person: 4th Edition cobalt dragons have a freezing breath, can surround themselves with chilling fog, and favor arctic climes, or even the Shadowfell.
Magnetism Manipulation: The cobalt dragon's breath weapon is a line of pulsing magnetic energy, which deals force damage and can push targets away.
The Minion Master: Cobalt dragons will often dominate a tribe of kobolds to help defend their territories, and their shared traits — a love of traps, sadistic tendencies, similar favored environments — has led some to presume that cobalt dragons are the kobolds' progenitors.
No-Sell: They are immune to electricity damage.
Retcon: 4th Edition classified cobalts as a breed of metallic dragon that wasn't necessarily evil, just extremely possessive, even willing to fight and die to defend their "subjects"... though admittedly to satisfy their sense of station.
Trap Master: Cobalt dragons make extensive use of traps both in their lairs and in the field, and will refuse to engage in direct combat until they've set up the battlefield to their advantage.

Iron Dragon

^3e

Challenge Rating: 4-26 (3E)
Alignment: Lawful Neutral

The mightiest of the ferrous dragons, iron dragons sit at the top of Gruaghlothor's hierarchy, and are committed to seeing dragonkind in general return to their rightful rulership of the world. They make their lairs around iron deposits in hills or mountains, leading to conflicts with mining races like dwarves, but these clashes are nothing compared to the enmity between iron and red dragons.

Arch-Enemy: Iron dragons despise red dragons as stains upon the reputation of dragonkind, while the reds see irons as weak and pathetic interlopers who don't deserve to live.
Art Evolution: While in 3rd Edition iron dragons had shovel-like heads and plates like shark fins running down their backs, 4th Edition gave them a more nondescript, generically draconian look.
Bizarre Alien Reproduction: Iron dragons covet iron more than any other treasure, both because they eat it, and also because it plays some role in their reproduction.
Dishing Out Dirt: As iron dragons age, they gain access to spell-like abilities such as stone shape and transmute rock to mud.
Forced Sleep: Iron dragons can breathe a cone of sleep gas as a secondary breath weapon.
I Want Them Alive!: They generally avoid combat, preferring to use intimidation or diplomacy to get what they want, and when forced into a fight, iron dragons use their sleep breath to incapacitate opponents. Foes captured outside the iron dragon's lair are typically ransomed off, while those detained inside their homes are interrogated, then eaten.
Playing with Fire: Iron dragons have the fire subtype, making them Immune to Fire (and weak to cold), and eventually pick up heat metal as a spell-like ability. Their primary breath weapon is a cone of superheated sparks, which deals both fire and electricity damage.
Retcon: 4th Edition reclassified iron dragons as a metallic breed, and made them stupid and brutish, the metallics' equivalent of the chromatics' white dragon.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: Like metallic dragons, iron dragons can assume an innocuous humanoid or animal form, which they use to gather information about the world outside their lairs.

Nickel Dragon

Challenge Rating: 3-22 (3E)
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral (2E), Lawful Evil (3E)

The least of the ferrous dragons, nickel dragons make up for their relative lack of strength with vicious tenacity and deception, and are known to raid neighboring settlements for treasure or simply to terrify the locals. They prefer to lair in swamps, resulting in brutal conflicts with black dragons.

Acid Attack: The nickel dragon's breath weapon is a cone of acidic gas.
Combat Breakdown: Nickel and black dragons are both immune to acid damage, which includes each other's breath weapons, so battles between them are savage affairs of tooth and claw.
Dying Race: Their 2nd Edition lore noted that nickel dragons' numbers were steadily decreasing due to their erratic nature — parents might go out and hunt for their wyrmlings, bring back a kill, and then decide to eat it themselves. 3rd Edition recast them as too lawful for such self-destructive stupidity.
Hit-and-Run Tactics: They're known to engage in this, ambushing prey from the water before ducking back beneath the surface and making the most of their swimming speed.
Plaguemaster: Downplayed; older nickel dragons can generate a field of corrosion that irritates the skin of other creatures, and can choose to cause distracting itching, imposing a penalty to their Armor Class and Dexterity checks while making spellcasting difficult, or a persistant, spreading rash that imposes mounting penalties to Charisma and Dexterity checks until healed with magic like remove disease.

Tungsten Dragon

Challenge Rating: 3-23 (3E)
Alignment: Neutral Good (2E), Lawful Good (3E)

The most benevolent of the ferrous dragons, tungsten dragons are committed to good, though they usually limit their activities to defending and developing their own territories. Their preference for arid climates can force tungsten dragons to band together to bring down rival blue dragons, but they don't look favorably upon brass dragons either, considering them irresponsible and ill-mannered.

Combat Pragmatist: Tungsten dragons dislike committing to melee combat, and prefer to use their breath weapons or magic, and try to end fights quickly with spells like baleful polymorph or banishment.
Dishing Out Dirt: Besides their breath weapon, tungsten dragons can generate a cloud of sand to obscure vision.
Good Is Not Nice: Tungsten dragons believe that the forces of good should use any means necessary to stop evil, so long as no innocents are hurt, and deal harshly with intruders unless they can convince the dragon that their intentions were noble.
Playing with Fire: A tungsten dragon's breath weapon is a cone of superheated sand that deals both fire and bludgeoning damage, while their great wyrms can cause enemies to immediately burst into flames.
Stealth Pun: They are the only good-aligned ferrous dragons, which is likely because tungsten is used in lightbulb filaments, and light is usually associated with goodness.

Neutral Dragons

The "always true neutral" dragon family, sometimes also known as the lesser gemstone dragons. They tend to be shy and solitary creatures.

Neutral Dragons in General

Charm Person: The jacinth, jade and pearl dragons can use "riddling talk and personal charm" to replicate a suggestion spell.
Intangibility: They learn to blink several times per day, with the exception of 2nd Edition moonstone dragons, which instead can become ethereal at will.
Large Runt: Lesser gemstone dragons are much smaller than other true dragons, so that even their largest breed, the moonstone dragons, are only half the size of a silver dragon of equivalent age. That still leaves them much bigger than humanoids, however.
Logical Weakness: Since they're smaller than most dragons, opponents get a bonus on saving throws against neutral dragons' frightful presence.
The Red Mage: To offset their physical weakness, neutral dragons mix their innate sorcery with divine spellcasting, so amber dragons learn druid spells, while the rest cast both priest and wizard spells.
Telepathy: Jacinth, jade and pearl dragons can mentally communicate with other telepathic beings, or individuals with Intelligence of 18 or higher.

Amber Dragon

Alignment: True Neutral

Dragons who live as forces of nature, which can make them gentle at times and violent at others. They don't establish permanent lairs or collect treasure, and instead roam their vast territories within coniferous forests.

Beak Attack: Their teeth are cartilaginous and not suited for combat, but instead amber dragons jab foes with their horn-beak.
In Harmony with Nature: They're closely attuned with their natural surroundings, but fall short of being "guardians of nature," as amber dragons are more concerned with their own survival than anything else. While they'll slay hostile creatures that enter their territories, they merely tolerate the presence of druids, and only rarely commit to an alliance with them.
Magnetism Manipulation: As a nod to amber's magnetic properties, these dragons can magnetize an opponent three times per day, interfering with their ability to attack with metallic missile weapons, and imposing further attack roll and Armor Class penalties on victims in metal armor.
Sticky Situation: Amber dragons' breath weapon is a cone of scalding tree sap, which deals damage and can also entrap victims within a rapidly-hardening shell of resin.
Telepathy: They can communicate telepathically with druids as well as sylvan creatures such as elves, gnomes, sprites and brownies.
Trademark Favorite Food: They subsist upon tree sap, which they extract by jabbing conifers with their beaks. This leaves distinct triangular markings on trees that druids and rangers can identify as signs of amber dragon activity.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: They're the only breed of neutral dragon can can polymorph themselves, or more specifically use a druid's shapechange ability.

Jacinth Dragon

Alignment: True Neutral

Among the rarest dragons in the multiverse, there are only at most a dozen jacinth dragons on any given world. Though they generally prefer their solitude while basking in hot deserts, they can be overly curious about visitors, and may venture forth in search of their namesake gemstone, which they cherish.

Blinded by the Light: Jacinth dragons' sparkling, flame-colored scales are so brilliant that in bright sunlight, anyone who looks at them for more than two rounds has to save or be temporarily blinded.
Eating Optional: Downplayed; jacinth dragons can't ignore their dietary needs completely, but can go for weeks without food or water.
Jedi Mind Trick: Beyond being able to charm others through the methods described above, jacinth dragons can control the shades of their skin to subtly hypnotize onlookers, lowering their guard and granting the jacinth dragon a bonus on surprise rolls should it attempt an attack after several rounds of peaceful interaction.
Playing with Fire: Downplayed; their breath weapon is a cone of superheated air instead of outright fire, but it's still hot enough to deal damage and ignite objects.

Jade Dragon

Alignment: True Neutral

Slightly more powerful and even more antisocial cousins of emerald dragons, so reclusive as to be considered mythical. Jade dragons lair within dense forests and collect both rare woods and precious and semiprecious stones for their hoards, particularly prizing jade.

I'm a Humanitarian: Notably averted; jade dragons subsist upon forest plants and animals, and never eat humanoids.
Super-Scream: Their breath weapon is a sonic wail that affects all in a 90-foot radius, dealing damage and deafening victims, as well as forcing them to save or be knocked unconscious.
Unreliable Illustrator: Their description says jade dragons look much like an Oriental dragon, but with wings, except their art doesn't give them any.

Moonstone Dragon

Challenge Rating: 2-21 (5E)
Alignment: True Neutral

Moonstone dragons are whimsical, freehearted dragons with strong ties to dreams and the fey, believed to be descended from dragons who fled into the Feywild at the end of the First World. They are generally gentle and curious about travelers from faraway places, and sometimes visit the dreams of mortals to inspire artists or guide heroes. Moonstone dragons can be found all over the Feywild, as well as the Ethereal Plane, Region of Dreams, or moonkissed corners of the Material Plane.

The Bus Came Back: Moonstone Dragons debuted in 2nd edition in the Monstrous Compendium Appendix Annual Volume 2, and after that were ignored for decades until 5th edition saw them return in Fizban's Treasury of Dragons.
Dream Walker: Moonstone dragons can project themselves into the dream world to communicate with sleeping people. When fighting in their lairs in 5th Edition, they can also forcefully transport people into the world of dreams.
Fairy Dragons: Moonstone dragons are reclusive and gentle-natured dragons native to the Realm of Faerie/Feywild and the Plane of Dreams, and distinguished by blue-tinted silver scales; when discovered in the mortal world, they usually reside within or near faerie realms or portals to the faerie, dream, or ethereal planes. In contrast to the small faerie dragon, they're full-sized dragons.
Forced Sleep: Their secondary breath weapon is a cone of gas that can cause those who breathe it to fall asleep. In 2nd Edition this was simultaneously a dispel magic attack, with the catch that it would not endanger any lives by doing so, i.e. dispelling a water breathing enchantment underwater.
Involuntary Dance: When fighting in their lairs in 5th Edition, they can cause targets to hear illusory music that forces them to dance compulsively.
Laser-Guided Amnesia: In their AD&D rules, rather than a frightful presence, moonstone dragons instead awe those around them, who stand and gawk until the dragon leaves, then forget about the encounter entirely.
Light 'em Up: 5th Edition gives them an offensive breath weapon, a beam of moonlight that causes radiant damage.
#1 Dime: Moonstone dragons collect light-colored gems and metal goods, but truly treasure things with less quantifiable value, like someone's painting of their favorite place, a heartfelt song, or a story of happy times.
Portal Network: Moonstone dragon lairs can span multiple locations on the Feywild, Material and Ethereal Planes, connected by portals under the dragon's control. Sometimes they forget to close these portals after them, resulting in cross-planar traffic.
Weakened by the Light: In their AD&D rules, moonstone dragons find bright light painful, taking damage from natural sunlight and even more from magic like sunbeam. While this can't kill them, a moonstone dragon reduced to 0 hit points this way is banished to the Ethereal Plane until they recover.

Pearl Dragon

Alignment: True Neutral

Ocean-loving dragons who dwell upon sandy beaches as readily as rocky coastlines. They spend most of their time diving for pearls, relocating their lairs whenever the local supply dries up — a laborious process, given the dragons' refusal to leave a single pearl behind.

Arch-Enemy: Dragon turtles are their natural enemies, and only the oldest pearl dragons stand a chance against such sea monsters.
Nemean Skinning: Their lustrous, pearlescent hides are incredibly beautiful, and can be sold for as much as 60,000 gp.
Playing with Fire: Their breath weapon is a long cloud of scalding steam.
Super Not-Drowning Skills: Despite all the time they spend diving, pearl dragons aren't actually amphibious, but have developed an impressive lung capacity that lets them stay submerged for an hour at a time.

The "Forgotten" Chromatics

Also known as the "missing" or "lost" dragons, these creatures of uncertain provenance have scales of primary colors, but do not associate with the more famous chromatic dragons.

"Forgotten" Dragons in General

Multiple-Choice Past: Even their entries can't agree on where they came from. Some sages think they are the natural result of color theory, while others speculate these estranged chromatics were created by a rival dragon goddess subsequently slain by Tiamat.
Our Cryptids Are More Mysterious: In-universe; most sages and scholars dismiss sightings of such dragons as witnesses misidentifying a conventional dragon breed while under its fear aura, though a few fringe theorists will hire adventurers to launch expeditions into the wilderness in search of these "lost" dragon varieties. Even their write-up in Dragon comes with the disclaimer "If these wyrms do indeed exist, this is the best estimate of their true capabilities."
True-Breeding Hybrid: One theory behind their existence.
- Orange dragons are thought to be red-yellow dragon crossbreeds, with their breath weapon being a combination of a red's fire breath and a yellow's salt (sodium chloride) attack.
- Purple dragons are thought to be red-blue dragon crossbreeds, with the red's fire breath and blue's lightning breath combining to form plasma.
- Yellow dragons, in contrast, are speculated to be the ancestors of another dragon crossbreed: green dragons, the result of yellows mating with blue dragons, whose electricity breath separates chlorine gas from the yellow dragon's salt breath, resulting in green dragons' distinct poisonous breath.

Orange (Sodium) Dragon

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/d&d_orange_dragon_3e.png

Challenge Rating: 3-25 (3E)
Alignment: Neutral Evil

This exceedingly rare dragon breed dwells in tropical lakes and deep rivers, menacing anything that ventures into the water and trying to dominate any humanoids and monsters in their territory.

Acquired Poison Immunity: They eat enough dangerous jungle flora and fauna to develop an immunity to any poison.
Arch-Enemy: Bronze dragons occasionally compete with orange dragons for habitats, and clashes between the two usually end in the larger and smarter bronze's favor, unless the orange is able to launch a successful ambush. Black dragons can also share an orange dragon's habitat, but the oranges are usually able to drive off or subjugate the weaker black dragons.
Delayed Explosion: Orange dragons' breath weapon is a volatile explosive compound (i.e. sodium) coated in oily saliva — the dragon sprays its victims with a line of this goop, then two rounds later the saliva evaporates and the remaining chemicals explode upon contact with the air or water, so that each victim of the initial attack detonates in a 15-foot-radius explosion (though they only take damage once even if caught in multiple blasts).
Never Smile at a Crocodile: They look much like oversized, orange alligators, and similarly like to ambush their victims from the water, enough that one dragon's presence can halt all river travel in a region. Note that despite their lack of apparent wings, their stat block gives orange dragons a flying speed.
Sadist: They're as nasty as "true" chromatic dragons, and will always take the opportunity to spray victims with their breath weapon, just to listen to their targets' screams of pain when they detonate. "Such casual cruelty is an orange dragon's favorite pastime."

Purple (Energy) Dragon

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/d&d_purple_dragon_3e.png

Challenge Rating: 4-27 (3E)
Alignment: Neutral Evil (2E), Lawful Evil (3E)

These creatures rival red dragons in arrogance and power. They terrorize all around them, whether by launching night raids on farms, or waging ambitious campaigns to conquer humanoid kingdoms.
Not to be confused with 4th Edition's name for deep dragons, described below.

Art Evolution: They have tiny forelimbs in their 2nd Edition artwork, but lose them in 3rd Edition.
Blinded by the Light: Their brilliant breath weapon attacks can temporarily blind observers in 2nd Edition, while in 3E, purple dragons can manifest a burst of light that permanently blinds other creatures.
Evil Overlord: 3rd Edition casts them as such, with their genius intellect, immense charisma, and great might allowing purple dragons to take over small kingdoms and actually run them better than their rightful rulers, earning grudging respect from their new subjects. "When forced to choose between utter annihilation and a prosperous, if perhaps iron-fisted rule under a dragon, must folk choose the dragon's rule."
It's All About Me: They are supremely arrogant, and actively seek out both chromatic and metallic dragons to defeat and prove their superiority — and thanks to the purple dragons' power and intelligence, this arrogance is well-earned.
Pure Energy: Their primary breath weapon is a cone of Non-Elemental energy, so intense that in 2nd Edition, damage dealt by it cannot be healed by non-magical means. Alternatively, they can shape it into a temporary Laser Blade, "wielding" their breath attack like a melee weapon that bypasses armor and can be used in tandem with their natural attacks (save for their bite).
Purple Is Powerful: They overtake red dragons' Challenge Rating at the "ancient" age category, putting purple dragons on even footing with gold dragons, normally the strongest of the "standard" dragons.
Stealth Expert: They're night hunters, and thanks to their coloration, enjoy a bonus to Hide checks when flying at night that ignores their normal size penalty.
The Strategist: Purple dragons are likened to master chess players, patient and brilliant, attacking only from an advantageous position and withdrawing if an attack proves unsuccessful, or the enemy offers unexpected resistance. They also prioritize using magic items to gather as much intelligence as possible, to formulate plans to neutralize tough opponents.

Yellow (Salt) Dragon

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/d&d_yellow_dragon_3e.png

Challenge Rating: 2-21 (3E)
Alignment: Lawful Evil (2E), Chaotic Evil (3E)

Cruel, serpentine dragons who lair along coastlines, or in salt marshes or inland seas, and are equally at home in the air and water.
Not to be confused with the desert-dwelling yellow dragons below.

Arch-Enemy: Bronze dragons, who compete with coast-dwelling salt dragons for food and lair sites. A bronze will almost certainly beat a salt dragon unless the latter is significantly older than the bronze, or brings in some sahuagin allies. Marsh-dwelling salt dragons can usually coexist with black dragons, so long as each sticks to the fresh or salt waters they prefer.
Fragile Speedster: Salt dragons are described as the weakest true dragon breed, but rely on their blistering speed in the air and water to overcome opponents, utilizing Hit-and-Run Tactics to attack and escape before the enemy can retaliate, or fleeing from a landbound foe into the water, or vice versa.
Sand Blaster: A variant; their breath weapon is a conical blast of salt crystals, an attack that deals damage, blinds victims, and debilitates them from the terrible pain and salt encrusting their bodies, inflicting increasing penalties to attack rolls, saving throws, movement speed, and physical ability checks until the salt is washed off or 10 minutes have passed.
Snakes Are Sinister: Their bodies are distinctly long, supple, and fine-scaled, they have a decidedly unpleasant Breath Weapon, they delight in tormenting other creatures, and they specifically seek out intelligent prey to consume during special occasions, torturing their captives before finally devouring them.
Villain Team-Up: Those who dwell near the ocean often ally with sahuagin to go after mutual threats like a nearby bronze dragon, or subjugate a coastal community.

Arcane Dragons

This mysterious dragon family is characterized by possessing even greater magical power than other true dragons, and its breeds specialize in specific schools of magic.

Arcane Dragons in General

Mage Species: The definitive trait of the Arcane Dragon species is its affinity for arcane magic. All true dragons are naturally magical, with spell-like abilities and the full casting ability of sorcerers, but their spellcasting abilities tend to be very limited and slow-maturing, typically falling short of what humanoid archmages are capable of achieving. Metallic dragons, and the Red Dragon, don't start gaining spellcasting abilities until they reach the Young Dragon age category, tap out at Caster Level 19, and even reaching that requires they reach all the way to the Great Wyrm age category, which can take roughly a thousand years. Chromatic Dragons have it even worse — Blue and Green Dragons don't start gaining spells until they are Juvenile Dragons and tap out as 17th level casters, Black Dragons need to be Young Adults and max out at 15th level, and White Dragons need to be Adults and have a level cap of 13th level. In contrast, Arcane Dragons get the ability to use arcane magic far earlier — Tome Dragons can literally use magic (as 3rd level sorcerers, no less!) from the moment they hatch, whilst Hex Dragons gain the equivalent of 1st level sorcerer-dom from the Very Young age category, which is the 2nd on the list. They also have a much broader array of spells they can cast; in addition to the normal number of spells known they would have for being an equivalent sorcerer, an arcane dragon also instinctively knows all spells from the Cleric domain of Knowledge^note as well as all sorcerer spells from two schools of arcane magic - Enchantment and Necromancy for the hex dragon, and Conjuration and Divination for the tome dragon.
Foil: Tome and Hex Dragons are effectively foils to each other. Both are Squishy Wizards who favor indirect schools of magic and instead act as "back-row leaders". However, hex dragons are malevolent, cruel and selfish ones whose minions are either mind-thralled slaves or undead abominations raised by the foulest magic, whilst tome dragons are benign leaders who instead rely on contracted extraplanar allies and the use of magic to ensure they can deploy their forces with maximum effectiveness.
Psychic Radar: A sufficiently old Arcane Dragon can cast the Detect Thoughts spell, which allows it to sense any sapient creature within a fairly wide area.
Seers: Due to their innate possession of the Knowledge Domain spells, arcane dragons possess access to a number of of oracular abilities.
Squishy Wizard: Both species of arcane dragons are magically powerful but much less physically robust than other dragons, dealing less damage with their physical attacks and possessing only a fraction of the hit points expected of their Challenge Rating.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: Three times per day, they can shift into the form of a Medium or smaller animal or humanoid.

Hex Dragon

Challenge Rating: 3-24 (3E)
Alignment: Neutral Evil

The cruel and manipulative hex dragons are feared for their retributive curses. They disdain direct combat, sending in waves of undead minions to weaken foes, using spells to turn enemies against each other, or assuming a harmless guise to betray a party of adventurers at an opportune moment. They can be found within dark forests, fetid swamps or deep caverns, in palaces or dungeons constructed by ensorcelled servants and filled with strange odors, smoking braziers and arcane specimens.

Black Magic: Hex dragons are themed around the use of evil sorcery, and thus they have an intuitive understanding of both the necromancy and enchantment schools of magic, ensuring that they know all spells of those schools available to sorcerers in addition to their normal pool.
Beware the Mind Reader: Well, more like Beware The Mind Controller, but the sinister applications of the Enchantment school, a branch of magic that revolves around controlling the minds of others, are why it's associated with the evil arcane dragon.
Charm Person: With an affinity for Enchantment spells, hex dragons excel at controlling the wills of others.
Counter-Attack: When injured in combat, hex dragons can channel their pain and anger into a retributive curse, the severity of which grows more powerful as they age. Wyrmlings can merely sicken foes, but eventually the dragon can render attackers crippled by agony, blind, permanently insane, or obliterated as if they'd touched a sphere of annihilation.
Dark Is Evil: Hex Dragons are the evil branch of the arcane dragon family, and are distinguished by their dark coloration. Ironically, they start their lives as "corpse-pale" white, but darken to an "eldritch purple" as they age.
Deal with the Devil: Hex dragons like to assume less-threatening guises and offer dark bargains for arcane lore or power. They're also treacherous creatures, so few survive such encounters, and the ones who do rarely realize they've interacted with a dragon.
Dying Curse: A mortally-wounded hex dragon reflexively unleashes its retributive curse on all foes around it, which in the case of great wyrms can potentially kill them.
Fat Bastard: Wyrmling hex dragons have flabby bodies that, combined with their corpse-pale scales, make them look almost like giant maggots. They shrivel up and become Lean and Mean as they age, however.
Lean and Mean: An adult hex dragon is lean, wiry and serpentine in appearance, and also a ruthless, malicious, sadistic killer.
The Necromancer: With an intuitive understanding of most Necromancy spells, hex dragons often command powerful undead followers. Most also keep large numbers of undead minions as cannon fodder as a matter of course.
Picky Eater: Hex dragons can eat anything, but if given a choice, they're ritualistic when it comes to food, some going as far as eating only specific organs of specific creatures during specific phases of the moon.
Power Tattoos: Their bodies are covered in arcane runes that glow with eldritch fire, burning brighter as the dragon ages.

Tome Dragon

Challenge Rating: 3-26 (3E)
Alignment: Lawful Neutral

Tome dragons are sagacious and scholarly, masters of all magic but specializing in conjuration and divination. Unlike many dragons, they're highly sociable, often forming cabals with other tome dragons that construct mountainside libraries where they research new spells and ponder the mysteries of the multiverse.

The Archmage: Tome dragons are masters of metamagic, able to use such feats to enhance their spells without increasing their casting time or prepared spell level.
Insufferable Genius: Tome dragons' intellects can surpass those of gold dragons, leading to great arrogance and hubris as they assume it impossible for them to be lacking in judgment or knowledge.
Non-Mammalian Hair: Unusually for dragons, the face of a tome dragon is wreathed in a great mane of silky hair.
The Red Mage: A tome dragon's breath weapon doesn't do as much damage as usual for its age, but it is extremely versatile, capable of replicating a fireball spell for fire damage, a blast of air for sonic damage, a burst of water for nonlethal bludgeoning damage, or an explosion of earth for piercing damage.
Seers: With their penchant for divination, it is rare for a tome dragon to enter a battle it is not well-prepared for, already knowing their foe's capabilities and having a plan ready to counter them.
Summon Magic: With Conjuration as the second of their "inherent schools", tome dragons are easily capable of commanding entire armies of powerful otherworldly monsters that they can summon into battle when they've a need.
Trademark Favorite Food: Tome dragons eat little, and in fact view food as a distraction from more worthy pursuits, but they have a weakness for fine tea, especially made from exotic ingredients.

Lung Dragons

Based upon the dragons of Chinese and Japanese mythology, the lung dragon family is unique for how all of its different breeds begin life as a simple yu lung, or carp dragon, before transforming into something new.

Lung Dragons in General

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/d&d_lung_dragons_3e.jpg

Dragons Are Divine: All lung dragons are agents of the Celestial Bureaucracy, and even the evil, destructive tun mi lung are (usually) fulfilling the will of heaven when they send a typhoon against a coastal city. In the 3rd Edition Oriental Adventures sourcebook, all lung dragons are considered dragons rather than outsiders, but have the spirit subtype.
Flight: All lung dragons but the yu lung and lung wang can fly, even the ones that lack wings. The catch is that these wingless flyers can only do so thanks to a magical pearl in their brains, and should that pearl be removed (at which point it becomes valuable but nonmagical), the dragon is landbound.
Human Shifting: Lung dragons older than carp dragons can assume a humanoid form at awill.
Invisibility: All mature lung dragons can turn invisible at will.
Non-Mammalian Hair: Like most Asian dragons, lung dragons frequently have beards and manes in addition to scaled bodies.

Yu Lung (Carp Dragon)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/d&d_yu_lung_2e.jpg

Challenge Rating: 2-6 (3E)
Alignment: True Neutral

All lung dragons are born as a simple carp dragon, scavenging for food and dwelling within a neat but crude hut of mud and stone at the bottom of a lake or river.

Legendary Carp: The yu lung is the larval stage of lung dragons, and looks like a carp before growing up into a true lung dragon.
Metamorphosis: As soon as a young yu lung enters the juvenile age category, it instantly transforms with a thunderclap into a new type of dragon.
Non-Action Guy: Compared to the other lung dragons, yu lung are pretty underwhelming in combat, and would rather flee than fight.

Pan Lung (Coiled Dragon)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/d&d_pan_lung_2e.jpg

Challenge Rating: 7-22 (3E)
Alignment: Lawful Neutral

These long, colorful dragons are assigned by the Celestial Bureaucracy to guard shrines or tombs, passing the duty down along generations. They prefer to eat fruits and vegetables, and their minions often maintain elaborate gardens.

The Beastmaster: Three times per day they can replicate a charm person effect, with the caveat that it only works on scaled animals such as reptiles and fish.
Master of Illusion: They know magic like major image and mirage arcana, which pan lung often use to get the measure of a threat before engaging it themself.
Punishment Detail: Pan lung are sometimes accompanied by several minions, the spirits of unfaithful wives or husbands, ordered by greater spirits to serve the pan lung (usually for a number of years equal to the tears shed by their spouse). The dragon can control them as though the spirits were dominated by it.
Technicolor Fire: At will, a pan lung can surround itself with an aura of ghostly, flickering "water fire," which damages anything attacking the dragon. Other lung dragons are immune to this effect, and this water fire is dispelled upon contact with normal or magical fire, after which the pan lung has to wait a few rounds before conjuring it again.

Li Lung (Earth Dragon)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/d&d_li_lung_2e.jpg

Challenge Rating: 8-24 (3E)
Alignment: True Neutral

Subterranean dragons who punish the wicked, but are sometimes ordered to reward needy surface communities by revealing mines or underground springs. They lair in deep caverns, associating with other creatures only when ordered by the Celestial Bureaucracy.

Dishing Out Dirt: They know move earth, stone shape and wall of stone, and once per day can cause a devastating earthquake as per the spell (the effects of which they are immune to).
Eat Dirt, Cheap: Li lung primarily subsist upon dirt and stone, but also enjoy gold, silver and other precious metals.
Our Sphinxes Are Different: Li lung are unique for having lion-like bodies that quickly grow fur over their scales, human faces, and feathered wings.
Super-Scream: In combat they can roar, with a sound like the scraping of metal against stone, that effectively renders other creatures deaf, and makes it more difficult for mages to miscast a spell that relies on verbal components.

Shen Lung (Spirit Dragon)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/d&d_shen_lung_2e.jpg

Challenge Rating: 8-24 (3E)
Alignment: Lawful Neutral

These draconic courtiers are assigned by the Celestial Bureaucracy to assist and guard chiang lung, and often live in their own manors close by the palaces of their superior. Shen lung are fascinated by humans, who in turn build statues and conduct ceremonies to attract the favor of the great spirits' messengers.

The Beastmaster: Three times per day they can replicate a charm person effect, with the caveat that it only works on scaled animals such as reptiles and fish.
Supernatural Repellent: Shen lung are constantly surrounded by a "vermin barrier," preventing normal or giant insects from coming within 60 feet of them.
Tail Slap: Shen lung's tails are particularly long and spiky, dealing damage disproportionate to their size category.
Technicolor Fire: At will, a shen lung can surround itself with an aura of ghostly, flickering "water fire," which damages anything attacking the dragon. Other lung dragons are immune to this effect, and this water fire is dispelled upon contact with normal or magical fire, after which the shen lung has to wait a few rounds before conjuring it again.
Weak to Fire: They have the water subtype, and take double damage from flame attacks.

Chiang Lung (River Dragon)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/d&d_chiang_lung_2e.jpg

Challenge Rating: 9-25 (3E)
Alignment: Lawful Neutral

In certain areas, every river or lake is home to a chiang lung, who dwells within underwater palaces in the Spirit World. They often take human form and act as patrons to virtuous artists and scholars, entertaining them on opulent boats in the guise of a wealthy noble or official.

Eat Dirt, Cheap: Chiang lung can eat any type of mineral or gem.
Making a Splash: They can use control water at will, and once per day (but only when approved by the Celestial Bureaucracy), can create a devastating tidal wave capable of destroying wooden structures, capsizing ships, and causing flooding.
Star-Crossed Lovers: Chiang lung are often attracted to humans, but such relationships always end tragically, with the death of the human. Children of such unions are river spirit folk.
Weather Manipulation: They can breathe storm clouds to cause rain whenever they wish, and use control weather or control winds at will.

Tun Mi Lung (Typhoon Dragon)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/d&d_tun_mi_lung_2e.jpg

Challenge Rating: 9-25 (3E)
Alignment: Neutral Evil

Malicious creatures tasked by the Celestial Bureaucracy with dispensing terrible storms, though they often ignore their orders in favor of sating their own destructive impulses. Tun mi lung lair within palaces in remote parts of the sea floor, but more often roam the coasts and skies, looking for an excuse to destroy something.

Extreme Omnivore: Tun mi lung are the least choosy of the lung dragons, eating fish, precious gems, capsized ships, etc.
Shock and Awe: They know magic light lightning bolt and chain lightning.
Token Evil Teammate: They're the only blatantly evil lung dragon, and while they take glee in performing their duties, tun mi lung are often disobedient, requiring a t'ien lung to bring them to heel.
Weather Manipulation: Once per week, tun mi lung can use divine wind to create a hurricane-force storm.

Lung Wang (Sea Dragon)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/d&d_lung_wang_2e.jpg

Challenge Rating: 10-26 (3E)
Alignment: True Neutral

These turtle-like dragons wander the seas, keeping the tribute they compel from passing ships in hidden caches. They protect the creatures of the ocean as well as undersea races like merfolk.

The Beastmaster: Three times per day they can replicate a charm person effect, with the caveat that it only works on scaled animals such as reptiles and fish.
Playing with Fire: Like dragon turtles, their Breath Weapon is a cone of scalding steam that is equally effective above and below the water's surface.
Sea Monster: When provoked, lung wang can easily capsize ships and pick off their crews at their leisure.

T'ien Lung (Celestial Dragon)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/d&d_tien_lung_2e.jpg

Challenge Rating: 10-26 (3E)
Alignment: Lawful Neutral

These rulers of dragonkind are the most favored officials of the Celestial Bureaucracy, noble, honorable but also rigid and unmerciful. T'ien lung dwell within resplendant castles on mountain peaks or cloud banks.

Don't Make Me Destroy You: A t'ien lung tries to avoid combat by greeting potential threats with a warning shot from their breath weapon. Those who persist are fought ferociously.
Eat Dirt, Cheap: They enjoy snacking on opals and pearls, and look kindly upon mortals who gift them such delicacies.
Playing with Fire: T'ien lung are one of the few lung dragons with a breath weapon, a cone of fire, and also know magic such as fire storm, pyrotechnics and meteor swarm.
Signature Scent: They smell like cherry blossoms.
Weather Manipulation: They can use control weather several times per day.

Space Dragons

Rather than dwelling on the worlds of the Material Plane, these dragons make their lairs on other planetary bodies, or wander Wildspace.

Space Dragons in General

Batman Can Breathe in Space: Their unusual natures mean they don't require air, allowing them to fly through the void.

Lunar Dragon

Origin: Spelljammer
Challenge Rating: 2-19 (5E)
Alignment: Varying Evil (2E), Neutral Evil (5E)

Also known as moon or phase dragons, these arrogant and xenophobic beings dig out lairs beneath the surface of desolate moons. They tend to view "mere" combat as beneath them, and prize treasure that fits their lunar motif, such as white and black pearls, or moonstones — though they enjoy the act of relieving others of treasure more than the treasure itself.

Harmless Freezing: In 5th Edition, their breath weapon's secondary effect is to immobilize a victim for a round as they're presumably half-frozen. But this trope is averted in moon dragon's AD&D rules, in which victims of their breath attack are completely encased in ice and put in danger of suffocating in two to five rounds, until the victim either breaks out, or their icy prison is smashed or melted from the outside with a few rounds of effort.
An Ice Person: Their breath weapon is a cone of black frost, and one of their 5th Edition legendary actions causes ice to form on the ground nearby, impeding movement.
Intangibility: 5E lunar dragons can "phase" a few times per day, becoming partially incorporeal — enough to take reduced damage from physical attacks, but not quite able to move through solid objects.
Lunacy: In 2nd Edition, moon dragons' coloration, alignment and power vary over a monthly cycle of seven-day "phases." When the dragon is a brilliant white, it is Lawful Evil and fights at only a quarter of its power (i.e. an old moon dragon would fight as if a very young dragon), but the glow of its body can cause lycanthropes to involuntarily change shape. Seven days after that, a shadow seems to move across it from the left side of its body, during which time the dragon fights at half strength and is Neutral Evil. When the moon dragon is wholly black, it fights at its full power and is Chaotic Evil. Then seven days after that, a sliver of white on its left side gradually expands so that it's at half-power and Neutral Evil again, until the dragon is wholly white once more and the cycle begins anew. 5th Edition ignores most of this, though does nod to this old lore by having lunar dragons' coloration change over their lives, from alabaster white at birth to slate black in old age.
Mama Bear: Compared to other evil dragons, who might lay their eggs somewhere hidden and then abandon them, a lunar dragon mother stocks her lair with food so she won't have to leave until her eggs have hatched and her wyrmlings are old enough to fend for themselves.

Radiant Dragon

Origin: Spelljammer
Alignment: Any

Also known as star or celestial dragons, these sinuous beings have scales made from mica and gypsum, which glitter in starlight. Some are benevolent rulers of the systems they claim, and others ravening marauders, but all radiant dragons are proud and haughty beings. They are entirely spaceborne creatures, and are natural spelljammers.
Not to be confused with the radiant dragons of Celestia, discussed below.

Arch-Enemy: Radiant dragons consider the likes of beholders, mind flayers and neogi to be "genetic failures that have not had the sense to die off." This hatred is reciprocated, and the aberrations and dragons attack each other on sight.
Cunning Linguist: They are quick to learn languages, with an increasing percentage chance per age category that they can understand any given tongue, and also fond of mimicry, imitating the accents of those they speak with.
Giant Hands of Doom: Radiant dragons learn to cast Bigby's interposing hand and Bigby's grasping hand as they age, though they insist on calling the spells interposing claw and grasping claw instead, and declare that Bigby stole them from the dragons. Scholars have concluded that the dragons didn't start using such magic until after Bigby developed his spells, but it is never wise to press this point.
A God Am I: They are on good terms with lizardfolk and dracons, whom the radiant dragons encourage to worship them.
Human Shifting: Mature adult radiant dragons are known to take on the form and identity of humanoid heroes when visiting the asteroid citadels of Wildspace, resulting in adventurers being surprised with unpaid bills "they" owe. This at least means that an adventurer has grown renowned enough for a radiant dragon to notice them — "In some regions this is considered a great honor (once it is confirmed by detect lie and other divination spells). In other areas of space it is considered a blasted nuisance."
Magic Missile Storm: Their breath weapon consists of pulses of force damage similar to a magic missile, though unlike that magic, a radiant dragon's breath attack can miss.
To Win Without Fighting: No matter their alignment or age, a radiant dragon's overwhelming sense of pride means that they'll give an opponent the opportunity to leave, parley, or beg for mercy rather than attacking immediately. However, once a radiant dragon is in a fight, that same pride means they'll rarely flee.
Turtle Island: Averted; as they average over a hundred feet long, radiant dragons are large enough to generate their own air envelopes, but unlike the kindori they won't tolerate passengers, and regularly clean their scales to ensure no hitchhiking animal and plant life is hiding on them.

Solar Dragon

Solar Dragon (5e)

^{Sun Dragon (2e)}

Origin: Spelljammer
Challenge Rating: 3-20 (5E)
Alignment: Any Good (2E), True Neutral (5E)

Also called sun dragons, these dragons make their lairs in the stars themselves, or on small planetoids engulfed by a star's fiery halo. Their choice of habitat means they have few opportunities to interact with mortals beyond investigating spelljamming ships that enter their territory.

Adaptation Personality Change: 2E sun dragons are playful but benevolent beings who respect life and freedom, while 5E solar dragons behave like territorial carnivores despite their intelligence.
Blinded by the Light: Those who come within 10 miles of a solar dragon's lair are unsurprisingly blinded unless they have protection such as goggles of night. This is probably a secondary concern to the hideous amount of radiant damage that comes from getting too close to a star.
Cat Like Dragons: 2E sun dragons are explicitly compared to cats for their habit of picking up enemies, batting them around, and swatting them into the air. Even if the dragon foregoes using its claws, these antics still deal a dice of buffeting damage.
Composite Character: 5th Edition conflates the 2E sun and radiant dragons for its solar dragons, combining the former's choice of habitat and Breath Weapon with the latter's serpentine body and territorial nature.
Cosmic Motifs: 2E sun dragons' very bodies are nods to stellar evolution (even if the sequence is a bit off) — they hatch with fiery red scales that fade through orange, then yellow, then blue-white as they age. A great wyrm sun dragon has flat white scales, and actually shrinks in size to that of a wyrmling, and when they finally die, their body collapses in on itself, leaving behind a sphere of annihilation or more rarely a well of many worlds. Such items are perfectly usable, though they have a 1% cumulative chance of fading away after every use, unless stabilized with the permanency spell.
Playing with Fire: Their photonic breath weapon is to spit or exhale a flashing mote of energy that detonates into a fireball, dealing fire damage in 2E or radiant damage in 5E. AD&D sun dragons additionally learn magic like fire shield and heat metal as they age.
No-Sell: They're immune to the damage of the stars they lair in, and in 5E, have "Nebulous Thoughts" that render them immune to mind-reading attempts.

Stellar Dragon

Origin: Spelljammer
Alignment: True Neutral

Immense limbless dragons that inhabit the phlogiston between the crystal spheres. They are usually content to monitor the rise and fall of civilizations, and prefer to watch mortals rather than interact with them, but stellar dragons can be enticed to trade information with lesser beings.

The Archmage: Stellar dragons' incredible knowledge extends to spellcraft, and they can not only cast any spell in the game without risk of failure, they can also modify or combine spells to suit their needs, for example blending darkness and fireball to create a shadow flare spell.
Enemy Summoner: Once per round, they can summon a creature from another plane, which serves the dragon "slavishly" for a few rounds before returning.
Gravity Master: Their breath weapon is a cone of gravitic attraction that draws victims into the stellar dragon's mouth, where an internally-generated sphere of annihilation awaits.
Ingesting Knowledge: The process isn't explained, but stellar dragons literally consume knowledge, turning it into clear or milky gemstones that stud their bodies — the number of these encrustations indicates both a stellar dragon's age and status. These gems of wisdom and pearls of knowledge are physical manifestations of the knowledge of thousands of beings, information that can be retrieved by sages and wizards should those gems and pearls somehow be wrested from the dragon, making them valuable beyond measure. As an aside, this means that misinformation (rather than misinterpretation of information) gives a stellar dragon severe indigestion, and "a dragon in pain is dangerous."
Kaiju: They are enormous. Young adult stellar dragons are over 1,200 feet long, while their great wyrms' bodies range from 10,000 feet to a million feet long, with their tails potentially adding two million more.
Knowledge Broker: Offers of new information are one of the few things that can entice a stellar dragon to interact with mortals, exchanging knowledge for knowledge. There's a rumor that Bigby learned his signature spells from one in this manner.
Purple Is Powerful: Their scales are a deep, iridescent purple with chrome tips, mixed with random patterns of gems of various sizes of color, and stellar dragons are among the mightiest of dragons, far outclassing the likes of gold or red dragons.
The Watcher: They haggle endlessly amongst one another over territory that contains dynamic civilizations to monitor, but consider it "loutish and in bad taste" to interfere in mortal affairs.
Weaponized Teleportation: They can teleport nuisances up to 6000 yards in a random direction.

Planar Dragons

Not all dragons dwell upon the Prime Material Plane — these breeds have adapted to life on the Transitive and Outer Planes (with the notable exception of Arcadia, which has no extant dragon species). While they are considered native to their home planes, and thus subject to spells that banish extraplanar creatures, they are still classified as Dragons rather than Outsiders.

Adamantite Dragon

Challenge Rating: 6-24 (3E)
Alignment: Neutral Good

Sometimes called adamantine dragons, the guardians of the Twin Paradises of Bytopia are known for their oversized claws, wings and tails, as well as their scales, which are exceptionally hard even as wyrmlings. They usually dwell within castles constructed by gnome petitioners on the settled layer of Dothion, but occasionally patrol the wilds of Shurrock

Art Evolution: 2nd Edition adamantite dragons had drastically different wings, frills extending horizontally from their flanks similar to how that edition depicted a brass dragon's wings. 3rd Edition gives them more conventional leathery wings.
Mooks Ate My Equipment: Their physical attacks are considered to be made of adamantine, for obvious reasons, which combined with their Improved Sunder feat puts opponents' weapons and armor in danger.
Nice Guy: Fittingly for their home plane, adamantite dragons are paragons of basic goodness and helpful to a fault.
Playing with Fire: The adamantite dragon's primary breath weapon is a cone (in 2nd Edition) or line (in 3rd) of white-hot fire.
Retcon: They debuted in Planescape as the Adamantite Dragon, but were renamed the Adamantine Dragon when converted to 3rd edition in Dragon #321. This leads to confusion with the similarly named Metallic Dragon unique to 4th edition, but the two are intended to be completely different creatures.
Status Infliction Attack: Their secondary breath weapon is a cone that affects those caught in it with the hold monster spell.
Time Stands Still: In 2nd Edition, an adamantite dragon's secondary breath weapon replicated a time stop spell within its area, but could only be used once per day, and only on Bytopia, in defense of the plane.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: Like many good dragons, they can assume a smaller humanoid or animal form.

Arboreal Dragon

Challenge Rating: 3-22 (3E)
Alignment: Chaotic Good

Native to the Olympian Glades of Arborea, these dragons can often be found in the elven paradise of Arvandor, enjoying wine and song with eladrins. But despite their delicate appearance, arboreal dragons are fiercely devoted to promoting freedom and good, and often aid heroes struggling against tyranny.

Confusion Fu: Arboreal dragons are unpredictable opponents, randomly employing magic, breath attacks and natural weapons to confuse their enemies.
Fairy Dragons: Arboreal dragons are true dragons whose appearance is the least draconic of them all — instead of spikes or horns, their bodies feature scintillating scales, gossamer wings, and elven eyes. They even leave a trail of sparkling mist in their wake when flying or walking, and enjoy the company of elves and good fey.
Flechette Storm: Their breath weapon is a cone of razor-sharp thorns, dealing piercing damage.
No-Sell: Arboreal dragons are immune to acid and sonic damage, as well as enchantment magic.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: Once they reach the young age category, arboreal dragons can polymorph themselves into another form a few times per day, with the catch that they can only shift into animal, humanoid or fey shapes.

Astral Dragon

Challenge Rating: 3-24 (3E)
Alignment: True Neutral

The sinuous dragons of the Astral Sea consider the entire plane their territory, and their family groups make communal lairs in the few clumps of matter drifting through the silvery clouds. While they will make pleasant conversation with fellow natives of the Astral Plane, astral dragons view interlopers as affronts to its beauty and sanctity, and will either coldly ignore astral travelers or attempt to drive them from the plane by force.

The Ageless: Living creatures don't age on the Astral Plane, which creates problems when astral dragons reproduce, since their hatchlings will not mature or grow within their home plane, requiring them to visit other planes to do so.
Art Evolution: In 1st and 2nd Edition, astral dragons have wingless, serpentine designs chiefly inspired by Asian dragons. Their 3rd Edition variant retains the serpentine look, but gains a pair of long, trailing wings and elongated horns resembling rigid antennae.
Banishing Ritual: One of their breath weapons is a line of magic that replicates a dismissal effect, punting affected creatures back to their home plane (or, if the dice are unlucky, a random plane). Astral dragons prefer this to their other attacks, since it's a lot easier to banish a living creature with their magic than it is to dispose of a corpse.
Blow You Away: Their damage-dealing breath weapon is a cone of dust and astral wind that flays enemies like a sandstorm.
Go Mad from the Isolation: Astral dragons can freely travel the planes, but everytime they do so there's a chance they'll get stuck. This will usually drive them mad. Ironically, there are usually more creatures on the planes they are stuck on than the Astral.
Gravity Master: Astral dragons can generate a field of null-gravity around them that only affects other creatures, which can override the subjective gravity of the Astral Plane and render opponents motionless unless they have some way of propelling themselves.
Hit-and-Run Tactics: Astral dragons prefer to blast enemies with their dismissal breath, use their incredible mobility on the Astral Plane to fly out of reach, then come in for another attack as soon as their breath weapon recharges.
Hopeless War: Astral dragons wage an endless, fruitless war against the githyanki, whom they see as occupiers of their home, but only manage to cause minor damage to their city.
Lightworlder: The Astral Plane has no gravity, so astral dragons on other planes suffer under the weight of their own bodies. Their horns weigh them down so they can't make bite attacks, and they're considered to be encumbered by heavy loads.
One-Hit Kill: Like astral dreadnoughts, these dragons' bite attacks can sever an astrally-projecting creature's silver cord on a Critical Hit, instantly separating their souls from their bodies.
Supernatural Sensitivity: They can sense the presence of extraplanar creatures.

Axial Dragon

Challenge Rating: 4-27 (3E)
Alignment: Lawful Neutral

Hailing from the Clockwork Nirvana of Mechanus, the axial dragons consider themselves the embodiment of the ideal draconic form. They dedicate their lives to the perfection of thought and body, striving to bring order, symmetry and purity to a flawed universe.

Combat Clairvoyance: They often use their true strike spell-like ability to land hits in combat.
Knight Templar: Each axial dragon has an individual concept of perfection, and thus a different reason to crusade in the name of order. Some seek to wipe out things as innocuous as flawed gemstones, but others target illogical philosophies, anarchic civilizations, or advocate a Final Solution against half-breed races or planetouched mortals.
Maligned Mixed Marriage: As mentioned, axial dragons have little tolerance for half-breeds, and never produce half-dragon offspring with other species.
No-Sell: Axial dragons are born with immunities to acid, fire and disease, and as they age gain immunities to cold and nonlethal damage, then poison and mind-affecting effects, later still immunity to polymorph or death magic, and finally ignore critical hits and sneak attack damage, effectively becoming more and more like the construct creatures of Mechanus.
Non-Elemental: Axial dragons' breath weapon is a cone of raw force.
Scars Are Forever: Pointedly averted; axial dragons are physically robust in general, and any injuries heal completely without leaving an unsightly scar.

Battle Dragon

Challenge Rating: 3-22 (3E)
Alignment: Neutral Good (3E), Any (4E)

As befitting natives of the Heroic Domains of Ysgard, battle dragons revel in glorious combat. Their enthusiasm for battle bolsters their allies as much as the dragons' magic, while their mere presence and secondary breath weapon can rout entire enemy formations.

The Berserker: They can enter a battle fury once per day, gaining a bonus on attack rolls and a penalty to their Armor Class. This is similar to a barbarian's signature rage ability, except the dragon is never tired afterward.
Blood Knight: They live for battle, seeking out armed conflict for its own sake and taking great joy in the act of combat itself.
Healing Factor: Battle dragons eventually develop fast healing, which is unusual for dragons, but fitting for creatures from a plane with the minor positive energy-dominant trait.
Horse of a Different Color: Battle dragons frequently and willingly serve as steeds for heroic Dragon Riders, and it's not uncommon for battle dragon families to form agreements with knightly orders where the dragons agree to serve as steeds for successive generations of knights.
The Pollyanna: Battle dragons are notoriously optimistic, maintaining positive outlooks on life even in the middle of grueling campaigns and finding silver linings to any situation, and often serve as fonts of inspiration and morale for their allies.
Status Buff: They can inspire courage similarly to a bard, and pick up aid as a spell-like ability.
Supernatural Fear Inducer: On top of their frightful presence, battle dragons have a secondary breath weapon, a cone of fear gas that can render enemies shaken or frightened.
Super-Scream: Their primary breath weapon is a cone of sonic energy.

Beast Dragon

Challenge Rating: 3-23 (3E)
Alignment: Chaotic Good or Neutral Good

These savage carnivores roam the Wilderness of the Beastlands in search of food and challenging prey. Beast dragons normally seek out worthy opponents such as dinosaurs, but should an evil creature set foot upon their home plane, the dragons will apply all their skill as hunters to end the threat.

Food Chain of Evil: They'll go after anything that provides them with a suitable test of their skills, but especially favor hunting other dangerous monsters such as dinosaurs and powerful evil beings.
Great White Hunter: Beast dragons are heroic predators who exist to test their hunting skills against the other creatures of the Beastlands, or evil intruders.
Horn Attack: Beast dragons possess a single unicorn-like horn that they use to gore opponents.
An Ice Person: Their breath weapon deals ice damage alongside electricity.
Shock and Awe: Their breath weapon is a cone that deals simultaneous cold and electricity damage, and thus beast dragons are immune to both energy types. They only use it when fighting on the defensive, however, preferring to employ only their natural weapons against normal prey.
Spikes of Villainy: Subverted; beast dragons are covered in a fearsome array of spikes, claws and horns, but are decidedly good guys, if obsessed with hunting and eating things.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: Beast dragons eventually pick up the ability to take the form of a Large or smaller magical beast or animal. They use this to join other predators on the hunt, and also to mate with the intelligent animals inhabiting the plane. As such, the Beastlands has a high population of half-dragon creatures.

Chaos Dragon

Challenge Rating: 3-22 (3E)
Alignment: Any Chaotic

Appropriately for creatures from the Ever-Changing Chaos of Limbo, no two chaos dragons look quite alike, and even an individual dragon's appearance is suspected of changing over time. They exist to upend order and tear down structured civilizations, though whether chaos dragons do so through positive means or murderous violence depends upon an individual dragon's alignment.

Horse of a Different Color: There was a time when the githzerai attempted to make a pact with the chaos dragons of Limbo to counter the githyanki and their alliance with red dragons, but unsurprisingly, creatures of chaos turned out to be unreliable partners. Still, chaos dragons and githzerai can be encountered together in rare circumstances.
No-Sell: Chaos dragons aren't immune to any type of energy damage, but can ignore any magical compulsion effects.
Random Effect Spell: Their offensive breath weapon is a line of random energy damage — acid, cold, electricity, fire or sonic — that varies each time it's exhaled. Not even the dragon can tell what it's going to be until it uses it.
Stupidity-Inducing Attack: Chaos dragons' secondary breath weapon is a cone of confusion gas.

Chole Dragon

Challenge Rating: 4-25 (3E)
Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Horrific monsters from the Infinite Layers of the Abyss, chole dragons embody that plane's chaotic hate for the rest of the cosmos. They seemingly exist only to kill other creatures, and make no attempt to communicate a greater purpose.

Attack! Attack! Attack!: Chole dragons attack everything they encounter, from lowly manes to mighty demon princes, never showing mercy to weaker foes and never retreating from stonger enemies.
Combat Tentacles: In lieu of wings, a chole dragon has a mass of tentacles on its back, though only two are under its control, while the rest writhe erratically. Oddly, and despite their chaotic nature, chole dragons reliably come with set numbers of tentacles, either four, seven, nine or thirteen, which seems to correlate with what spell-like abilities they develop — chole dragons with four tentacles learn to cast fly, for example, while those with seven instead learn darkness.
Draconic Abomination: Their warped, tentacled bodies make them borderline Eldritch Abominations with a clear draconic heritage.
Go Mad from the Revelation: Some brave/foolish explorers have ventured to the chole dragons' reputed nesting grounds on the 518th layer of the Abyss, but those who return are driven insane by the experience, capable of only saying the word Melantholep. It is unclear whether this is the name of the layer or that of a demon prince, and the chole dragons aren't elaborating.
Human Notepad: Chole dragons' bodies are marked with a number of glowing Abyssal runes equal to their number of tentacles. Some sages and other dragons worry that these runes could spell out some great insight about the Abyss, if only enough marked chole dragon scales could be collected.
Poisonous Person: A chole dragon's breath weapon is a cone of poisonous gas that induces insanity, dealing Charisma and Wisdom damage.
The Speechless: Chole dragons do not speak or make any kind of vocalization, despite having the high Intelligence scores typical of dragons.

Concordant Dragon

Challenge Rating: 3-24 (3E)
Alignment: True Neutral

The dragons of the Concordant Domain of the Outlands monitor the rest of their kind, ensuring that dragons as a whole neither decline nor gain. This makes them natural allies of the rilmani, who refer to the concordant dragons as the uranach.

Balance Between Good and Evil: Concordant dragons are concerned with this as well as keeping the dragons' current status quo, hence their association with the like-minded rilmani.
Enemy Summoner: Concordant dragons of sufficient age can summon rilmani reinforcements, gaining access to more powerful allies as they grow older.
Sickly Green Glow: Despite their chunky, lead-colored scales, concordant dragons emit a faint green glow. The hint why is in the rilmani's name for them — the rilmani subtypes are based around metals, so aurumachs are golden, and ferrumachs have iron skin. As "uranach," concordant dragons are uranium dragons.
Situational Damage Attack: A concordant dragon's breath weapon is a cone of antithetical energy, which deals more damage depending on how many non-Neutral elements are in a target's alignment.
Supernatural Sensitivity: Concordant dragons can use detect chaos, evil, good or law at will.

Elysian Dragon

Challenge Rating: 3-22 (3E)
Alignment: Neutral Good

The dragons from the Blessed Fields of Elysium believe in promoting good, but also that happiness and goodness are inextricably entwined. As such, Elysian dragons eat, drink and make merry to excess, disregarding criticism of their behavior as light-hearted jests or offering slurred rebuttals in response.

Big Fun: Dragons have extremely efficient metabolisms, but Elysian dragons manage to overindulge themselves to the point of obesity (and frequently intoxication). They're still representatives of the plane of pure good, however.
Booze-Based Buff: An Elysian dragon's secondary breath weapon is a cone of inebriating gas, released in what sounds suspiciously like a belch. Those affected are considered sickened, but also become upbeat and happy, gaining a bonus on saves against fear effects.
Casual Danger Dialogue: Elysian dragons are slow to enter combat, and are mostly offended that someone might try to ruin their party with violence, but when they do fight, they crack jokes or make conversation with their opponents, trying to talk them down... or because the dragon's too drunk to know better.
The Hedonist: Elysian dragons enjoy nothing more than bacchanalian feasts and lusty revelry, and tend to drain their hoards by hosting parties (or just eating or drinking their treasures).
Miracle Food: Even very young Elysian dragons can cast create food and drink at will.
Really Gets Around: They are perhaps the most prolific dragon breed, reproducing at a rate that other dragons find irresponsible, and siring more half-dragons than all the other planar dragons combined (this is despite the fact that Elysian dragons cannot naturally shapeshift into more compatible forms).
Sizeshifter: Elysian dragons can shrink themselves by up to three size categories, mainly so they can fit inside the buildings of the towns they frequent.
Super-Scream: Their offensive breath weapon is a line of sonic energy.

Ethereal Dragon

Challenge Rating: 3-19 (3E)
Alignment: True Neutral

The dragons of the Ethereal Plane spend most of their time spying on the Material Plane, curiously watching other creatures or searching for treasure to steal. Their pearlescent scales have given them the nickname of "moonstone dragons," though they should not be confused with that fey dragon breed.

Blow You Away: Great wyrm ethereal dragons can summon an ether cyclone once per day, potentially dealing damage to ethereal opponents, scattering them up to dozens of miles away, or even sending them to the Material Plane or another plane entirely.
No Warping Zone: Adult ethereal dragons learn to cast dimensional anchor, allowing them to evade foes on one plane by shifting to the Material or Ethereal Plane as needed.
Non-Elemental: Their breath weapon is a line of raw force, meaning that it can affect creatures on the Ethereal Plane when the dragon is on the Material Plane.
See the Invisible: Ethereal dragons on the Material Plane can see creatures on the Ethereal as if they were in the same plane.
Touch the Intangible: After ancient age, ethereal dragons on the Material Plane can strike creatures on the Ethereal as if they were physically material.

Gloom Dragon

Classification: 3-22 (3E)
Alignment: Neutral Evil

Often mistaken for undead monsters, these craven dragons prowl the Gray Waste of Hades, consuming carrion and looting magic items from the Blood War's battlefields. They have no appetite for a fair fight, but their magical abilities can leave victims helpless to their predations.

Deader than Dead: When a gloom dragon eats a creature no larger than two size categories smaller than itself, that creature's tombstone grows on the gloom dragon's back. Such a creature can only be brought back to life after the gloom dragon is slain, and then only with a wish or miracle followed by resurrection.
Dirty Coward: Gloom dragons generally avoid combat, and flee from the slightest resistance, attempting to use their aura of gloom and breath weapon to weaken and immobilize enemies. They'll only stand and fight when confronted in their lairs.
Emotion Bomb: A gloom dragon's breath weapon is a cone of apathy gas, a concentrated form of the soul-crushing planar effect of Hades itself. Those who succumb to it take no action, make no attempt to defend themselves, and are considered helpless, putting them in danger of a Coup de Grâce attempt. Fortunately, damage dealt to an affected creature gives it another chance to make a saving throw to end the effect.
Poisonous Person: Their bites carry the gray wasting disease, which can cause Charisma damage.
Supernatural Fear Inducer: On top of their normal draconic frightful presence, gloom dragons are surrounded by a green-gray mist that can leave other creatures shaken.

Hellfire Wyrm

Challenge Rating: 26 (3E)
Alignment: Lawful Evil

Diabolical dragons from the Nine Hells of Baator, bearing the infernal flames of that plane. They are often found on the Material Plane under various humanoid guises, steering civilizations towards tyranny and evil.

The Corrupter: They're sent to the material plane to infiltrate societies and manipulate them and their rulers into committing evil acts, spreading death and misery, and ultimately damning themselves.
Dragons Are Demonic: Hellfire wyrms are literally dragons from Hell, scheme to bring about mortal damnation, stink of brimstone, breathe hellfire, and can turn into devils at will.
Early-Installment Weirdness: The hellfire wyrm made its debut in 3rd Edition's Monster Manual II, published just a month before Dragon #300 printed the edition's first article on planar dragons and codified their format. As such, they're the only type of planar dragon with a single stat block and no age categories, and the Odd Name Out on a list of "X dragon"s, but Dragon #344 still lists hellfire wyrms with the other nineteen planar dragons.
Hellfire: A hellfire wyrm's breath weapon consists of hellfire, which deals half fire damage, half Non-Elemental damage not subject to any resistances.
Playing with Fire: Hellfire wyrms are closely tied to an infernal version of elemental fire; besides breathing the stuff, they can innately cast a number of fire-based spells and possess an aura which burns anyone who approaches them.
Spikes of Villainy: A hellfire wyrm's neck, back and shoulders bristle with vicious spikes.
Summon Magic: Once a day, hellfire wyrms can summon a devil to their side.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: Hellfire wyrms can take on humanoid form at will, although this is always that of a tiefling or lesser devil.

Howling Dragon

Challenge Rating: 5-23 (3E)
Alignment: Chaotic Evil or Chaotic Neutral

The perpetual shrieking gales of the Windswept Depths of Pandemonium have driven these dragons as insane as any other inhabitants of the plane. They remain brilliant and scheming creatures, however, exploring every last twisting tunnel of their territory for prey, then attacking with mad ferocity.

Extreme Omnivore: They'll eat anything, living, undead, even constructs, just so long as it's still wriggling when they bite into it.
Home Field Advantage: Inverted; howling dragons are less dangerous on Pandemonium, since the plane's constant shrieking winds reduce their breath weapons' effective ranges to 10-foot cones.
Stupidity-Inducing Attack: Howling dragons learn spell-like abilities such as confusion, insanity, and symbol of insanity as they age.
Super-Scream: They have two breath weapons, one a cone of damaging sonic energy, the other a cone of maddening wails that can deal Wisdom damage.
Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises: Howling dragons' eyes are oversized and feral-looking, with tiny pupils, indicative of their madness.

Oceanus Dragon

Challenge Rating: 4-22 (3E)
Alignment: Neutral Good

Serpentine, legless dragons that dwell in the River Oceanus, the great waterway that connects the Upper Planes. They spend little time in their lairs, and instead patrol their namesake river for good creatures in need of assistance, or evil beings to be punished.

Sea Serpents: They do not possess legs — their wings are their only limbs — and physically resemble vast snakes or eels. They can breathe water and are fully aquatic, spending most of their lives beneath the waves of the Oceanus. That said, they can move at a decent pace across solid ground, and have an impressive flight speed, but they prefer to stay in the water.
Shock and Awe: Their primary breath weapon is a cone of electricity.
Status Infliction Attack: Their secondary breath weapon is a cone of tranquility gas, which renders those who succumb dazed and unable to act.
Supernatural Sensitivity: They can detect evil at will.

Pyroclastic Dragon

Challenge Rating: 4-22 (3E)
Alignment: Lawful Evil or Neutral Evil (3E), Evil (4E)

Dragons native to the Bleak Eternity of Gehenna, pyroclastic dragons are beings of raw elemental fury, cataclysms given flesh.

Disintegrator Ray: Their secondary breath weapon is a line of disintegrating force that cases everything it touches to crumble into ash.
Eat Dirt, Cheap: Pyroclastic dragons can subsist on entirely mineral-based diets should they need to, although they greatly enjoy the taste of meat and prefer it to other foods when it's available.
Playing with Fire: Pyroclastic dragons are very closely tied to fire's destructive potential, and can innately cast a number of fire-based spells — fire storm, incendiary cloud, produce flame, pyrotechnics and wall of fire — as spell-like abilities.
Poisonous Person: In 4E, pyroclastic dragons constantly vent toxic volcanic fumes from the cracks in their hide, exposing anyone in their immediate vicinity to dangerous poisoning.
Super-Scream: Their primary breath weapon is a cone of sonic force intermixed with superheated ash, dealing both sonic and fire damage.
Volcanic Veins: Their hides resemble semi-solid lava shot through with glowing, steaming cracks.

Radiant Dragon

Challenge Rating: 5-23 (3E)
Alignment: Lawful Good

Native to the Seven Mounting Heavens of Celestia, radiant dragons are paragons of righteousness and valor, merciful to the needy and good and terrifying harbingers of justice to evil.

Blinded by the Light: People caught in their light-based breath weapon are left blinded for a number of rounds, which the dragon can cut short using its ability to cast remove blindness.
Healing Hands: Old or older radiant dragons can innately cure creatures with a touch, whether by directly restoring hit points or limbs or by removing conditions such as blindness, deafness, paralysis or poison.
Light 'em Up: Their secondary breath weapon is a cone of light that leaves targets blinded for a number of rounds.
Non-Elemental: Their primary breath weapon is a line of raw force damage.
Phosphor-Essence: Radiant dragons glow like the sun (an effect they can suppress, if desired), and their juveniles and older dragons automatically dispell magical darkness around them if the caster level is lower than their age category.

Rust Dragon

^2e

Origin: Planescape
Challenge Rating: 3-22 (3E)
Alignment: Lawful Neutral or Lawful Evil

Rust dragons, native to the Infernal Battlefield of Acheron, resemble metallic dragons covered in rust, verdigris or tarnish. They are straightforward creatures interested only in consuming metal, and while they'll become irate with attempts to stop their feeding, rust dragons will break off from combat if a meal proves more trouble than it's worth.

Acid Attack: Their primary breath weapon is a line of acid.
Art Evolution: Their 2nd Edition art makes rust dragons highly insectoid, with exoskeletons, antennae and small butterfly wings. 3rd Edition makes them wholly reptillian in apperance instead.
Metal Muncher: They feed on metal, which they can soften and corrode with their breath weapon. Fortunately, Acheron is full of scrap metal, but rust dragons crave metal from outside sources the way humans enjoy candy. On the Material Plane, they gravitate to veins of ore and are loathed by miners as a result. A rust dragon who finds itself in Mechanus, a plane made entirely out of gigantic metal gears, is a planar bull in a china shop, and is quickly hunted down by the inhabitants.
Mooks Ate My Equipment: By Io, can they ever. A rust dragon's secondary breath weapon is a cone of corrosive red-brown liquid that destroys any metal it touches, even gold, mithral and adamantine. Their bite attacks can cause weapons or armor to corrode and fall to pieces in an instant, and mere contact with a rust dragon's scaled hide can destroy a weapon. In all cases, only enchanted items are given a chance to resist the effect, everything else is destroyed with No Saving Throw.
Retcon: Back in 2nd Edition, rust dragons were explicitly identified as the mature form of rust monsters, which were rust dragon larvae sent to the Material Plane. 3rd Edition mentions that some sages make a connection between rust monsters and rust dragons, "but the rational mind correctly sees these claims as the ravings of deranged lunatics."

Styx Dragon

Origin: Planescape
Challenge Rating: 3-22 (3E)
Alignment: Neutral Evil

Also known as shadowdrakes, darkwyrms or death drakes, these serpentine dragons haunt the polluted waters of the River Styx, and can be found across the Lower Planes, preying upon anything from wayward mortals to local fiends.

Acid Attack: Their primary breath weapon is a line of acid.
Beware My Stinger Tail: Their tails fork into a pair of flexible, bladed whips with which they can slash at prey and foes.
Food Chain of Evil: While Styx dragons will happily feed on mortals, their preferred prey are fiends.
Sea Serpents: Styx dragons are elongated, snakelike creatures with atrophied legs and wings that now serve as fins, and lurk beneath the waters of an immense interplanar river and attempt to drag anything that comes close to a watery grave.
Stupidity-Inducing Attack: Their secondary breath weapon is a cone of stupefying gas that deals Intelligence damage. They also learn feeblemind and mind fog as they age.
Summon Magic: Once per day, great wyrm Styx dragons can attempt to summon fiendish giant squid, giant octopi, sharks, crocodiles and similar monsters to their aid.

Tarterian Dragon

Challenge Rating: 5-23 (3E)
Alignment: Chaotic Evil or Neutral Evil

As denizens of the Tarterian Depths of Carceri, these dragons are simultaneously wardens and inmates of that prison plane. They prey upon anything weaker than themselves, and when they escape to the Material Plane delight in recreating Carceri's jailhouse atmosphere.

Emotion Bomb: Tarterian dragons' secondary breath weapon is a cone of will-sapping gas that replicates the crushing despair spell, imposing penalties on victims' saving throws, attack and damage rolls, and skill checks.
Food Chain of Evil: They're used to consuming both condemned mortal souls as well as fiendish flesh.
Institutional Apparel: Invoked by their striped scale patterns.
Non-Elemental: Their primary weapon is a line of disruptive force.
Wardens Are Evil: Tarterian dragons act as such, whether on their home plane or elsewhere. Their spell-like abilities fit the theme as well, and they learn Otiluke's resilient sphere, maze, forcecage and imprisonment as they age.

Epic Dragons

These dragons stand apart from the rest of their kind for both their size and their immense power, so that even these breeds' juveniles are mightier than chromatic or metallic great wyrms.

Epic Dragons in General

Signature Scent: Zigzagged; force and prismatic dragons notably exude no scent whatsoever.

Force Dragon

Challenge Rating: 13-59 (3E)
Alignment: True Neutral

These aloof and arrogant dragons have little use for other creatures, and only respect prismatic dragons and certain deities. While they rarely seek combat, force dragons will viciously attack anyone who intrudes upon their remote lairs.

Insufferable Genius: Force dragons are born geniuses, and their great wyrms can boast an Intelligence score of 62, resulting in the dragons having little interest in conversation with other creatures, who couldn't possibly possess any knowledge surpassing their own.
Invisible Monsters: Force dragons are born with glittering, diamond-like scales, but as they age those scales become less brilliant while continuing to bend light, eventually granting them blur and displacement effects that make them harder to hit. By the great wyrm stage, light passes straight through force dragons' bodies, making them naturally invisible.
Magic Eater: What little they eat is mostly meat, but some sages speculate force dragons feed upon force effects or raw magic.
No-Sell: Not only are force dragons immune to force effects like magic missile and Mordenkainen's sword, they can pass straight through a wall of force and aren't restrained by any of the Otiluke's ___ sphere spells.
Non-Elemental: Their breath weapon is a cone of highly-damaging force.

Prismatic Dragon

Challenge Rating: 14-66 (3E)
Alignment: True Neutral

These sparkling dragons have personalities as flamboyant as their scales, and despite their great power are charming and personable, often making their homes near humanoid settlements. Though they rarely venture into those communities, they welcome visitors to their lairs, and seldom attack other creatures unless provoked.

Everything's Better with Rainbows: Their breath weapon replicates the effect of the prismatic spray spell, and they learn rainbow pattern, prismatic wall and prismatic sphere as they age.
Light 'em Up: They also pick up sunbeam and sunburst as spell-like abilities.
Mass Hypnosis: They can cast hypnotic pattern at will, even as wyrmlings.
No-Sell: Prismatic dragons are immune to spells involving light, the prismatic ____ line, as well as any attempts to blind them.
Phosphor-Essence: They're constantly surrounded by an aura of multicolored light similar to a cloak of chaos spell.
Retcon: Prismatic dragons date back to a Dungeon magazine article in the AD&D days, but those are very different creatures. Rather than prismatic scales, they have bands of color on their bodies that fade as they age, while they gain the ability to weave illusions and turn invisible. Their breath weapon is a cloud of swirling, rainbow-colored particles capable of entrancing other creatuers (and potentially the dragon who made it). Finally, they are not epic-level creatures, but roughly equivalent in power to a gold dragon — they're even considered to be part of the Gem Dragon family tree.

Time Dragon

Challenge Rating: 26-90 (3E), 5-26 (5E)
Alignment: True Neutral

The mightiest of dragons, time dragons rarely interact with each other save for the purposes of procreation, and only socialize with deities and other immortal beings. They make their lairs on remote parts of the timeline, such as before or after the era of humanoid civilizations, and put little effort into building or maintaining their hoards, though they'll treasure any timepieces within it.

The Ageless: Time dragons are biologically immortal, and only die if killed.
Alpha Strike: As their entry explains, time dragons "have better things to do than engage in the potential dangers of combat," and when faced with a threat will blast foes with their most powerful spells and abilities right off the bat, usually abusing time stop to set up multiple effects at once.
Clocks of Control: Their bodies have a lot of chronal symbolism — their wings and eye markings resemble hourglasses (or the infinity symbol), the crests atop their heads resemble sundials, and the blades on their tailtips resemble the hour and minute hands of a clock.
Combat Clairvoyance: Time dragon great wyrms can travel into possible futures before taking actions, allowing them to roll d20s twice and use the better result.
Rapid Aging: One of the time dragon's breath weapons is a blast of "ravaging time" that causes creatures and objects to rapidly age, dealing Constitution damage to living creatures and weakening object's Hardness.
Really Was Born Yesterday: Unlike every other type of true dragon, each of their age categories is a random duration, ranging from minutes to millennia, meaning that a Gargantuan-sized young time dragon might have been born mere hours ago. On the flipside, a time dragon wyrmling might be one or two millennia old.
Superpower Lottery: As the very last monster to appear in a print issue of Dragon Magazine, it seems the design goal was simply "screw it, let's just make the strongest monster we can." All dragons have the potential to be immensely powerful, and the prior epic dragons even moreso, but the time dragon really takes it to a whole 'nother level. A wyrmling time dragon has a statline on par with a great wyrm of most other species, and a great wyrm time dragon clocks in at an insane CR of 90 (beating out the next-highest CR, the great wyrm prismatic dragon, by a whole twenty-four levels). And while tracking CR at that level is basically an exercise in futility, it certainly earns its spot as the strongest printed monster in the game's history; a fully-grown time dragon could reasonably solo entire pantheons without much difficulty.
Time Master: Their secondary breath weapon punts opponents a few rounds into the future, temporarily removing them from combat. Even wyrmling time dragons can cast time stop at will every few rounds, and as they age, they develop a slow aura around themselves to hamper other creatures, and eventually are permanently under a haste effect. Time dragon great wyrms eventually undergo a time apotheosis that allows them to cast time stop every round, and become immune to any effect that isn't instantaneous.
Time Travel: Great wyrm time dragons are so intricately tied to the time stream that they can move forward and backward in time almost at will.

Other True Dragons

Not every true dragon is easily grouped into a thematic family.

Adamantine Dragon

Challenge Rating: 7-28 (4E)
Alignment: Unaligned

Also known as "Cave Dragons" and "Underdark Dragons," these dragons prefer lairs deep underground, though they can also be found in the high mountains. Adamantine dragons treat their territories as their personal fiefdoms, ruling over all creatures within. Although they demand obedience and respect at all times, they also take their duty as "ruler" seriously, protecting their subjects (or at least the obedient ones) from attack. Their bond with their territories is such that they like to fill their hoards with treasures that remind them of notable characteristics of their domains — an adamantine dragon whose caves encompass veins of silver will feature a lot of silver in its hoard, for example. 4th Edition cast adamantine dragons as a member of an expanded metallic dragon family, though they have yet to reappear in 5th Edition.

Acrophobic Bird: Downplayed. Despite still having wings and being capable of flight, adamantine dragons are not particularly adept flyers and much prefer to stay on the ground, at most using low-altitude glides and wing-powered leaps. Even surface-dwelling adamantine dragons prefer to roam their territories on foot.
Berserk Button: Adamantine dragons demand respect, and are characterized as being willing to fly into a potentially lethal rage if given so much as a single insult.
Characterization Marches On: Their admittedly sparse lore in the 4e Monster Manual 2 describes them as natural tacticians. The Draconomicon: Metallic Dragons instead describes them as brutish and short-tempered, but smarter than these traits may make them seem.
Royals Who Actually Do Something: Adamantine dragons are noted as being extremely undemanding monarchs for the humanoids in their territories, making few demands except to be treated with the respect they feel they deserve. It's noted that an adamantine dragon is far less likely to employ humanoids as spies or assassins than a deep dragon.
Signature Scent: Notable for a scent that is both metallic and oily, akin to a recently polished sword or suit of metallic plate armor.
Super-Scream: Adamantine dragons wield pulverizing sonic blasts as their Breath Weapon, and were the first "mainstream" dragon to do so.
Trademark Favorite Food: Adamantine dragons prefer to eat numerous smaller meals over single larger meals. Whilst they will eat anything, giant-sized invertebrates such as spiders, beetles and ants are a particularly favored foodstuff.

Amphi Dragon

Origin: Dragonlance
Challenge Rating: 1-20 (3E)
Alignment: Neutral Evil

Cruel and repulsive toad-like dragons known for launching unprovoked attacks on other creatures, even fellow amphi dragons. They dwell in stagnant coastal lakes or estuaries, or underwater in kelp forests or coral reefs, lairing in sea caves or sunken ships.

Acid Attack: Their Breath Weapon is a line of acid, while the warts covering their bodies constantly ooze more acid, damaging foes that attack them in melee — as well as those foes' weapons.
Amphibian at Large: An amphi dragon hatchling resembles a deformed tadpole and eventually grows into a giant sea-green toad. As such, they're great jumpers, can lash at prey with an Overly-Long Tongue, and attempt to swallow victims smaller than it.
Chameleon Camouflage: They can change the coloration of their hides to blend in with their surroundings.
Evil Smells Bad: These dragons are foul in every sense of the word, and stink of rotten eggs, a smell that can be detected 100 yards away.
True-Breeding Hybrid: Amphi dragons are crossbreeds of green dragons and Krynnish sea dragons, inheriting the worst traits of both species. Most amphi dragons are born sterile, but enough have survived over the years to create a new species.
Wings Do Nothing: Amphi dragons have small and useless wings that only serve as an indication of their draconic lineage.

Aquatic Dragon

Origin: Dragonlance
Challenge Rating: 3-22 (3E)
Alignment: Chaotic Good

Reclusive dragons who dwell in deep ocean trenches, leading some scholars to dismiss them as myths. They scavenge their treasure hoards from sunken vessels, so that their lairs resemble ship graveyards.

Bioluminescence Is Cool: Aquatic dragons use their bioluminescent fringe to combat the darkness of the ocean depths (though they still possess draconic blindsense and darkvision).
Good Is Not Soft: These dragons prefer to avoid conflict, using their breath weapons to cover their escape, or creating a wall of water to isolate enemies. But if pressed — and especially if their young are threatened — aquatic dragons can be "surprisingly vicious" foes, using their abilities to break up and pick off enemies one by one.
An Ice Person: When out of water, an aquatic dragon's breath weapon is a cone of hoarfrost.
Making a Splash: An old or older aquatic dragon can create a wall of solid water.
Seahorses Are Dragons: They look rather like properly draconic leafy seadragons.
Sea Serpents: Their wingless bodies are long and serpentine enough to allow them to enwrap and constrict opponents.
Smoke Out: They have the "ink out" variant; in the water, an aquatic dragon's breath weapon creates an inky obstruction for several minutes.
Status Infliction Attack: More specifically, their underwater ink cloud breath is a "chilling darkness" that slows those within it as well.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: Like many good dragons, aquatic dragons can polymorph into an animal or humanoid form.

Brainstealer Dragon

Challenge Rating: 4-25 (3E)
Alignment: Lawful Evil

A horror created by the partially-successful implantation of an illithid tadpole into any true dragon's brain. It retains its status as a true dragon including its ability to grow Stronger with Age, but otherwise has none of the distinguishing traits of its original species.

See Dungeons & Dragons: Mind Flayers for more details.

Brine Dragon

Origin: Dragonlance
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral

Fully aquatic (i.e. they cannot breathe air or move on land), salt-eating dragons who claim distant relation to black dragons, but may be one of Takhisis' experiments. They have no society to speak of, only hoard wealth when they feel like it, and are in general dangerously unpredictable, sometimes attacking without provocation.

Acid Attack: Their breath weapon is a cloud that functions like acid, but is in truth a salt and alkaline-based spray — should it ever encounter a black dragon's acid breath, the two attacks cancel each other out to produce a volume of scalding hot water.
More Teeth than the Osmond Family: Their mouths are filled with oversized teeth, which "make them appear as if they are smiling all the time. The grin is not a friendly one."
The Pig-Pen: Their hides are a mess, with irregular scales that don't fit together well, encrusted with huge clumps of salt, some so old and discolored by the dragon's secretions that they won't dissolve in the water.
Sea Monster: They look something like draconic plesiosaurs, and may be enticed to breach the ocean's surface "if given the proper incentive, such as a boat load of juicy humans."

Brown Dragon

Challenge Rating: 2-24 (3E)
Alignment: Neutral Evil

Desert-dwelling dragons that, while not unintelligent, rarely bother communicating with humanoids, as they find the notion of conversing with food peculiar. While incapable of flight, they are excellent burrowers, and excavate cavernous lairs a thousand feet below the desert surface.

For the "brown dragons" of 4th Edition, see "sand dragon" below.

Acid Attack: Their breath weapoin is a line of acid.
Arch-Enemy: Due to their shared habitat, brown dragons frequently have ferocious battles with blue dragons. Oddly enough, desert-dwelling humanoids sometimes depict the browns as the lesser of the two evils during such engagements, despite the fact that the browns hunt humans for food, and vice versa.
Art Evolution: Brown dragons were depicted wingless in 2nd Edition, while their 3E art gave them atrophied, useless wings.
Dig Attack: Brown dragons can burrow through sand as rapidly as they move across its surface, and typically bury themselves in trenches until their tremorsense detects prey approaching.
Sand Blaster: Brown dragon adults can conjure a vortex of churning sand that deals damage to anything in its radius, and can potentially knock victims over.
Trademark Favorite Food: While they can survive on nothing but sand for extended periods, brown dragons prefer meat, particularly horseflesh. They'll even forgo using their breath weapons against mounted targets, just so they can savor their favorite meal.

Cloud Dragon

Alignment: True Neutral

Aloof, solitary and taciturn dragons who typically dwell within the clouds, or more rarely on the tallest mountain peaks.

Elemental Shapeshifting: They can assume or leave a cloud-like form every round.
Fantastic Racism: Cloud dragons look down upon creatures that cannot fly without magical or technological assistance (despite the fact that they're depicted without wings, and presumably fly using supernatural means).
An Ice Person: Their breath weapon is a line of frigid air that deals cold damage and can send victims tumbling head over heels.
Metal Muncher: They primarily subsist upon rain water and hailstones, supplemented by bits of silver.
Retcon: The 3rd Edition Draconomicon conflated cloud dragons with the storm drakes described on the main creature index, despite the former having a very different breath weapon and appearance.
Solid Clouds: They learn solid fog at a very young age, and typically make their lairs within cloud "islands" with magically-solid floors, at the very least.
Weather Manipulation: Cloud dragons learn magic like obscurement, call lightning or control weather as they age.

Deep Dragon

^3e

Challenge Rating: 3-25 (3E), 4-28 (4E), 1-18 (5E)
Alignment: Chaotic Evil (2E-3E), Evil (4E), Neutral Evil (5E)

Sometimes called purple dragons, these enigmatic creatures dwell in the depths of the Underdark, and as such are poorly-known by the surface world. They are eager explorers of the world's deep places, as well as cunning manipulators, using the secrets they uncover to play other Underdark races against each other. Deep dragon lairs are well-hidden but often near Underdark settlements of interest to them, and they take pride in arranging and displaying the treasures recovered from their expeditions.

Acid Attack: Their breath weapon through 3rd Edition is a cone of acidic vapor.
Art Evolution: For most of their history, deep dragons were typical dragons, if sinuous and serpentine, but 5th Edition redesigned them with a squat, flat build, wings attached to their forearms, gray, salamander-like skin rather than deep purple scales, and bulging, pupil-less eyes.
Beneath the Earth: Deep dragons live exclusively in the Underdark, and tend to avoid even its upper levels.
Bold Explorer: Deep dragons live for exploration and the thrill of discovery, and specifically in exploring the winding caves of the Underdark. While they rarely venture to the surface world, they greatly enjoy following distant, unmapped tunnels leading ever deeper into the earth, and discovering unknown treasures and sites of natural wonder never seen by mortal eyes. Some sages speculate that the deep dragons are pursuing the legend of Azarakka, a realm hidden deep beneath the surface by Io the Ninefold Dragon that contains a secret that will elevate the first to uncover it to the ranks of divinity.
Dishing Out Dirt: 3rd Edition deep dragons learn transmuate rock to mud, passwall and stone shape as they age, aiding their tunnelling.
Festering Fungus: In Fifth Edition, as deep dragons age, their use of their spore-based breath weapon causes large shelf-like growths of fungus to develop on their heads and necks. Their lairs can similarly be overgrown by Fungus Humongous.
Food Chain of Evil: Deep dragons feed primarily on subterranean aquatic creatures, and while their diet consists chiefly of albino fish and the occasional kuo-toa, they also prey on aboleths.
Mind Control: In 4th Edition, deep dragons can take control of a stunned or confused foe's mind with a look into their eyes. In 5th Edition, they can instead use a legendary action to release mind-controlling spores that force opponents to attack each other.
Mushroom Samba: Their 5th Edition breath weapon is a cone of fungal spores that sends targets on a bad trip, dealing psychic damage and making them frightened of the dragon.
Psi Blast: Purple dragons' 4th Edition breath weapon was a blast of psychic energy that could also move targets out of position.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: Deep dragons are natural shapeshifters, and gain a number of alternate forms as they age — first a winged snake that helps them worm their way through narrow passages, and then a humanoid shape they can use to infiltrate drow or duergar settlements.

Electrum Dragon

Alignment: Neutral Good

Philosophical but friendly beings, electrum dragons enjoy trading, intellectual debate, and the arcane arts. They lair in stone caves or ruins, but can often be found perched on mountain peaks, and their curiosity leads them to watch other creatures unnoticed. Unlike most of their kind, electrum dragons collect treasure for its beauty rather than its monetary value.

Mage Species: Electrum dragons view the practice of magic as a thing of beauty in itself, and are quite good at it. They cast spells at a higher level than most dragons of their age categories, and learn to cast utility magic like identify and dispel magic as they age. Electrum dragons have even developed spells that they subsequently traded or gifted to humanoid races, and swapping spells is often part of these dragons' mating rituals.
Non-Mammalian Hair: Fitting their wizardly theme, they appear able to grow beards.
Status Infliction Attack: Their breath weapon is a cone of gas that inflicts an enfeeblement effect for one round, followed by nine rounds of confusion.
Supernatural Sensitivity: Even as wyrmlings, electrum dragons can cast detect magic and read magic at will.
Trademark Favorite Food: While electrum dragons can subsist upon lichen, scrubs, fish and foul, they much prefer griffon and wyvern meat.

Fang Dragon

Challenge Rating: 2-21 (3E), 3-27 (4E)
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral

Aggressive, ill-tempered dragons whose heavily-armored bodies bristle with spines and barbed scales. They make their lairs in wild mountains, but hunt far from their homes, feeding upon fresh meat and particularly relishing the flesh of intelligent mammals.

In 4th Edition's Draconomicon: Chromatic Dragons, gray dragons are described as a variant of fang dragons altered by Tiamat or her agents to possess additional magical powers, and who have been charged with eradicating their fang dragon progenitors.

Acid Attack: While true fang dragons stand out for being the only true dragon without a breath weapon, the ones mutated into gray dragons by Tiamat can spit acid.
Basilisk and Cockatrice: Grey dragons have a loose connection these creatures, having gained their petrifying attacks when an ancestral clutch of fang dragons was brooded by a basilisk in a nest lined with cockatrice feathers.
Beware My Stinger Tail: Fang dragons have long tails tipped in a forked pair of scythelike blades.
Dirty Coward: Gray dragons aren't very keen on fair fights, and prefer to fight creatures that are land-bound and weaker than them. They will usually beat the retreat when faced with foes that prove to be tough enough to be a threat, or which can join the dragon in the air.
Hair-Trigger Temper: They tend to be emotionally volatile, and are prone to random violence and outbursts of rage.
Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: Downplayed. Gray dragons strongly favor sapient humanoids as prey; they can eat animals fine, but prefer their food to be intelligent enough provide at least some semblance of a contest in finding or in killing. They still favor targets that they overpower, however, and will quickly turn tail and run from persistent opposition.
Life Drain: In 2nd Edition, the bite of a fang dragon transfers the lost hit points to the dragon and inflicts Maximum HP Reduction on its victim. 3rd Edition downplays this to Constitution drain.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: Fang dragons tend to have gleaming red or orange eyes.
Retcon: 4th Edition rechristened fang dragons as "gray dragons," explaining that at at an unknown point in time, a being — probably Tiamat or one of her agents — mutated a clutch of fang dragon eggs into a new breed possessed of a breath weapon, charged by Tiamat with eradicating and replacing the older fang dragon species. It's unknown whether this change has persisted into 5th Edition.
Smash Mook: Fang dragons can pull tricks in combat like trip attacks, but they're definitely this compared to other dragons. They don't have breath weapons, are poor fliers, and have only limited offensive spell-like abilities, but they are really good at, and thoroughly enjoy, charging in and tearing enemies to pieces with their various physical weapons.
Taken for Granite: Elder and older grey dragons exude a petrifying essence that can cause immobilized foes to become stone. Ancient grey dragons can petrify foes — and any nearby living creature — with a swipe of their claws. This power overtakes grey dragons at the end of their lives, petrifying their bodies in turn.
Voice Changeling: Fang dragons can imitate any voice or sound they heard, usually to lure prey into an ambush, though AD&D describes them using this talent to trigger spell scrolls or magic items.

Fire Dragon

Origin: Dragonlance
Challenge Rating: 4-25 (3E)
Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Savage brutes created by the fell god Chaos, as if he sculpted magma into the shape of dragons. Fire dragons dwell in volcanoes and enjoy bathing in magma, which means the treasure they gather tends to burn or melt in their lairs.

Ax-Crazy: Fire dragons, who embody the destructive force of Chaos, act impulsively, seemingly at random, with no structure to their attacks, and do not think ahead to the consequences of their actions.
Dumb Muscle: In terms of raw power, fire dragons are nearly on par with the mighty red dragons, but in terms of Intelligence and spellcasting ability they're equivalent to white dragons.
Living Lava: They certainly look the part, with scales resembling polished obsidian and glowing Volcanic Veins that only grow pronounced as the dragon ages. This led some Krynnish sages to wonder whether these dragons were actually constructs created by Chaos in imitation of dragons, except fire dragons have been observed forming families and raising clutches of eggs. "A more likely explanation is that Chaos simply completed his task too well, and over time, his creations have gained a sort of true dragonhood, something that continues to perplex many intrepid scholars."
Omnicidal Maniac: Fire dragons exist outside of Creation and seek only to bring an end to it.
Playing with Fire: Their breath attack is a cone of chaotic fire, so intense that victims have to save or ignite and take Damage Over Time until they extinguish themselves. Additionally, half of this damage is pure chaotic energy not subject to energy resistance or immunity — so yes, red dragons have been burned by chaos dragons' breath. Fire dragons also learn spells like fireball, wall of fire and meteor swarm as they age.
The Spiny: The heat their bodies produce is so intense that it lends extra fire damage to the dragons' melee attacks, and harms those who attack them in turn.
Was Once a Man: There was speculation that fire dragons were converted by Chaos from red dragons the same way frost dragons were from gray dragons, except sages couldn't explain why the reds would give up so much of their cunning and spellcasting ability.

Frost Dragon

Origin: Dragonlance
Challenge Rating: 4-25 (3E)
Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Another creation of Chaos, frost dragons look sculpted from glaciers, and grow even craggier as they age until they resemble walking icebergs. They are rare in the extreme and concerned mainly with self-preservation.

Horror Hunger: Frost dragons have an inherent emptiness that they try to fill by devouring living creatures, but can never be satiated.
An Ice Person: Their breath weapon is a cone of cold charged with negative energy, which deals Charisma damage to victims as well.
Mama Bear: Female frost dragons are especially protective of their clutches and attack any perceived threats to their eggs.
Ret-Gone: If a frost dragon's breath weapon brings a victim's Charisma down to 0, they instantly vanish, leaving behind Empty Piles of Clothing, and everyone who knew them forgets they ever existed. To make matters worse, they're Deader than Dead, and can never be revived even through a wish spell.
The Spiny: Their bodies generate such intense cold that it adds extra damage to their melee attacks, and harms those who attack them in turn.
Was Once a Man: Frost dragons were once "gray dragons," white dragons mutated by the Graygem into more intelligent creatures back in the Age of Dreams. They abandoned Takhisis but feared her reprisal, so when Chaos was later set loose, the gray dragons willingly allowed their patron to transform them into frost dragons, by infusing them with the nullifying traits of his frost wights.

Incarnum Dragon

Challenge Rating: 4-24 (3E)
Alignment: Any non-Neutral

Dragons with an affinity (and hunger) for incarnum, giving them extreme ethical viewpoints. They are tireless proponents of the causes they adopt, and gravitate towards Outer Planes that match their alignment.

Color-Coded for Your Convenience: While the differences can be too subtle for untrained observers, an incarnum dragon's alignment can be discerned by its appearance. Good-aligned dragons have a steel-gray metallic sheen to their scales, while evil incarnum dragons have blue-gray highlights, and chaotic dragons have random shading patterns to their indigo hides.
Mage Species: Rather than magic, incarnum dragons have innate meldshaping ability that develops as they age.
Mana Drain: Meldshapers hit by their breath weapon have to save or have their essentia drained for an hour, while incarnum dragons can also make a special "consume soulmeld" attack that unshapes a random soulmeld and gives the dragon some temporary hit points.
Non-Elemental: Their breath weapon is a cone of "resonating energy" that deals nonspecified damage to creatures (but not objects).

Mystaran Gem Dragons

Native to the world of Mystara, Mystaran Gem Dragons are divergent strains of the original native dragons — Red, Blue, Black, White, Green and Gold — with slightly altered physical appearances, unique breath weapons, and outlooks on the world. They appear in only two sources; the Rules Cyclopedia for BECMI, and the Monstrous Compendium Mystara Appendix for 2nd edition. They consist of the Crystal Dragon (later renamed Crystalline Dragon), a variant White Dragon; the Onyx Dragon (Black Dragon); the Ruby Dragon (Red Dragon); the Sapphire Dragon (Blue Dragon); the Jade Dragon (Green Dragon) and the Amber Dragon (Gold Dragon).

All Your Powers Combined: Downplayed with the Breath Weapon of the Mystaran Amber Dragon; it combines the fire damage and equipment destruction effect of the Mystaran Ruby Dragon's breath with the rotting disease effect of the Mystaran Jade Dragon's breath. It's essentially a blast of magical radiation.
And I Must Scream: The Mystaran Sapphire Dragon's Breath Weapon is a "Vaporization Beam"; any target that survives the electrical damage is transmuted into a conscious but immobile and invisible cloud of gas. Fortunately, it only lasts for 1 round per hit die of the dragon, after which the victim reforms.
Bad Powers, Good People: Ironically, despite the terrifyingly visceral nature of the Mystaran Jade Dragon's miasma breath, they're considered to be amongst the most conversational, least hostile of all the dragons to be found on Mystara, with a deep love of art and philosophy.
Breath Weapon: The signature difference of Mystaran Gem Dragons between themselves and their "regular" Mystaran counterparts is that their breath weapons possess unique secondary attributes.
Casting a Shadow: The Onyx Dragon's Breath Weapon is a billowing cloud of corrosive darkness, which combines the acidic damage of a black dragon's breath with a magical cloud of darkness.
Dumb Muscle:
- Onyx Dragons may look a lot like black dragons, but are are vicious, dull-witted, near-animalistic brutes. They have an average Intelligence score of 5-7, which is lower even than a white dragon's! They're so dumb that they're considered more aggressive animals than genuinely malicious, giving them an official alignment of Neutral rather than Evil.
- Inverted with Crystalline Dragons, who are notably smarter than the white dragons they resemble.
Make Them Rot: The Mystaran Jade Dragon's Breath Weapon is a billowing cloud of "Toxic Miasma", which combines the effects of a green dragon's chlorine gas breath with a magical disease that causes living creatures and organic matter to rapidly dissolve into a putrescent goo.
Taken for Granite: The Crystalline Dragon's Breath Weapon is a "Crystalizing Blast", which not only inflicts frost damage, but also transmutes the victim and their belongings into solid crystal.
Weapons Breaking Weapons: A variant can be seen in the Mystaran Ruby Dragon's Breath Weapon; their "Melting Fire" not only does fire damage like a regular red dragon's breath, but it also causes the victim's gear to rapidly break down and destroy, representing the fire clinging to them and burning or melting anything they were carrying.

Mercury Dragon

Challenge Rating: 3-21 (3E), 4-28 (4E)
Alignment: Chaotic Good

Flighty and carefree creatures as mercurial as the metal they are named after, mercury dragons live their lives in an endless pursuit of new and interesting experiences. They make their lairs in high caves facing the sunrise, overlooking sparkling vistas like lakes and snowfields, which can result in territorial competition with red dragons. They're not considered to be part of any broader family in most editions, although 4th treats them as metallic dragons.

Arch-Enemy: Red dragons. A mercury dragon's superior flight speed lets them escape encounters with a stronger red, but to properly defeat one usually requires the mercury to team up with a nearby silver dragon. As such, mercury dragons try to stay on friendly terms with silvers, though the silvers find mercuries tiresome neighbors due to their capricious, even manic nature.
Blinded by the Light: By forgoing wing buffet attacks, they can use their wings as mirrors, focusing light in a cone to replicate a daylight spell, or in a concentrated beam that can blind a single foe for several rounds.
Cloudcuckoolander: 4th Edition describes them as "a little bit crazy — but there's definitely a method to their madness." Fitting for dragons associated with the metal that led to the phrase "mad as a hatter."
Elemental Shapeshifting: 4th Edition mercury dragons can transform into a blob of quicksilver to scale surfaces, squeeze through narrow gaps, or move past other creatures without provoking attacks of opportunity.
Hit-and-Run Tactics: In battle, mercury dragons prefer to capitalize on their speed and agility by harrying their foes with quick darting strikes from the direction of the sun, before swiftly retreating to seek out another opening.
Light 'em Up: Mercury dragons' magic mostly revolves around manipulating light. Besides having a laser beam for a breath weapon, they can cast color spray and prismatic spray as innate powers and cannot be blinded or dazzled by intense light.
Metal Muncher: While they're omnivorous, mercury dragons prefer a diet of metal ore.
Motor Mouth: They speak so quickly that their AD&D rules give them only a 75% chance of being understood by listeners.
Playing with Fire: Their breath weapon is a laser-like beam of burning, concentrated light, and they're immune to fire damage.
Poisonous Person: While they can't manipulate poison directly, mercury dragons have toxic flesh.
Super-Speed: In 3e they're among the fastest species of dragons, having a fly speed of 200ft from birth and increasing to 300ft as they age. More impressively their flight starts out with perfect maneuverability, and never falls below average even for the oldest and largest members of their species. This gives them the highest effective combat speed of any dragon species, at least for the first half of their lifecycle (they're surpassed by Yellow dragons in the second).

Mist Dragon

Challenge Rating: 3-21 (3E)
Alignment: True Neutral

Solitary and philosophical dragons whose favorite activity is sitting quietly and thinking. They prefer to lair around waterfalls or damp grottos, which can bring them into conflict with green dragons, while mist dragons who dwell along the coast sometimes end up peacefully coexisting with bronze dragon neighbors. Though not aggressive, mist dragons hate being disturbed and dislike conversation.

Acid Attack: 3rd Edition gave them an additional breath weapon in the form of a line of caustic slime.
Beware the Quiet Ones: Mist dragons are content to bask in foggy places while contemplating the universe, which allows them to get along fine with bronze dragons as the two species leave each other alone. Green dragons, however, constantly attempt to intimidate and dominate nearby mist dragons, leading the latter to spend months avoiding the greens, before finally snapping and embarking on an all-out campaign to drive out or kill the chromatic dragon.
Elemental Shapeshifter: They can freely pass into and out of a gaseous form, allowing them to hide in natural mists, fly at half speed with perfect maneuverability, and use their spell-like abilities while hidden.
Playing with Fire: Their primary breath weapon is a cone of scalding steam.
Signature Scent: They smell of fresh rain.
Weather Manipulation: Mist dragons learn spell-like abilities such as fog cloud, sleet storm, and control weather.

Mithral Dragon

Challenge Rating: 9-31 (4E)
Alignment: Unaligned

These mighty dragons have the power of foresight, receiving visions that they claim guide them on how to fulfil the will of Io, dragonkind's creator deity. They commonly lair within divine domains on the Astral Sea, though on the Material Plane they'll claim abandoned temples, or mines with gemstone or mineral deposits. They do not hoard treasure like other dragons, unless their plans require wealth, in which case mithrals will take anything that furthers their inscrutable goals. 4th Edition introduced mithral dragons as the greatest of the metallic dragon family (much to the golds' consternation), though they have yet to make a reappearance in 5th Edition.

The Ageless: They are immortal unless killed, and never enter their twilight.
Aloof Ally: Mithral dragons occasionally align themselves with other creatures as their agenda requires, but they're prone to abruptly vanishing without a word if they receive a new vision.
Because Destiny Says So: Mithral dragons are convinced that they are following Io's divine plan, and thus will cut down anything that stands between them and their goals without a second thought. On the flip side, a clever creature may be able to convince a mithral dragon that forming a temporary alliance is the best way to serve Io's will.
Combat Clairvoyance: Their "prophetic defense" ability grants them an armor bonus, and allows the mithral dragon to teleport if an attack misses them.
Light 'em Up: Their breath weapon is a blast of radiant energy that can also blind victims.
Seers: Beyond their visions from Io, mithral dragons are able to "read" gemstone deposits or veins of ore to divine their god's will.
Teleport Spam: In combat, they can make special attacks that involve teleporting a few squares, clawing one or more enemies, and teleporting again.

Orium Dragon

Challenge Rating: 6-28 (4E)
Alignment: Unaligned

These dragons have an obsession with the past, specifically in emulating their kind's ancestors, who once served now-fallen empires, or even ruled kingdoms of their own. As such, orium dragons claim crumbling ruins as their lairs, and then attempt to restore such sites to their former glory. They unsurprisingly favor ancient artifacts as treasure, though their homes are their most valued possession. 4th Edition introduced orium dragons as a member of the metallic dragon family, though they have yet to reappear in 5th Edition.

Acid Attack: Their breath weapon is a blast of acid, while older orium dragons are surrounded by an aura of corrosive fumes.
Arch-Enemy: Ironically, other orium dragons, who have little compunction about ousting one of their own from a desirable ancient site.
Benevolent Boss: Orium dragons tend to form symbiotic relations with their minions by providing protection in return for aid in restoring their lairs.
Catlike Dragons: They have a more feline look to them, with their main body being built more like that of a panther and their claws looking more like mammalian paws.
Failed a Spot Check: When an orium dragon finds a suitable ruin they often become so eager to set up their new lair that they give only a cursory glance to less interesting areas, which can result in monsters and other dangerous inhabitants of the ruin harassing the dragon and attacking its servants.
Flunky Boss: Each use of their breath weapon spawns a "vaporous servant," a serpentine minion that attacks with an acidic bite alongside the dragon.
Glory Days: Orium dragons are obsessed with regaining their breed's past glories.
The Minion Master: As part of their drive to recreate fallen empires, they typically "adopt" local humanoid populations as vassals, providing protection in exchange for tribute
Orichalcum: They're named for the D&D equivalent, a red-gold metal used by ancient empires, fabled for being able to amplify magic channeled through it. Unfortunately, while smelting it is simple, without the lost crafting methods of the ancients, the process produces a dangerous amount of poisonous fumes. Orium dragons in fact derive their caustic breath weapons from their namesake metal, and seek out sources of purified orium in hopes of transferring its power into their own bodies.
Prehensile Tail: Their tails are unusually long and flexible, allowing orium dragons to grab and constrict smaller creatures with them.
The Quiet One: Oriums initially seem rather taciturn compared to other dragons, and will usually greet other creatures with simple questions such as "Who are you?" and "Why are you here?" (which helps the dragon categorize those creatures as either thieves, potential minions, or food). Even in combat, orium dragons are fairly quiet, unless addressed in Draconic, at which point they will engage in some Trash Talk.
Temple of Doom: Their preferred terrain. In most cases these are classic overgrown jungle ruins, though orium dragons may venture into colder or wetter environments in search of a site with alluring ancient secrets. Subverted somewhat in that orium dragons will busy themselves with restoring these ancient ruins into a functional state, though they're willing to sacrifice historical accuracy for the sake of grandeur (or to accomodate a site's new draconic overlord).
While You Were in Diapers: In combat, orium dragons may taunt foes about their relative youth and inexperience, how they couldn't possibly comprehend the true value of the ruins around them, and so forth.

Rattelyr Dragon

Origin: Forgotten Realms
Challenge Rating: 2-20 (3E)
Alignment: Lawful Evil

Wingless dragons with serpentine features, who dwell in deserts, putting them into competition with blue dragons. Rattelyrs can be sociable, and might even kidnap passersby for news of the wider world, but this agreeable attitude only lasts until the dragon grows hungry.

Attack Reflector: Their cobra hoods have a practical purpose, and reflect incoming magic as per spell turning.
Dig Attack: Rattelyr dragons dwell in low-ceilinged burrows or caverns, and commonly ambush prey by bursting out of the sand or soil.
Playing with Fire: Their breath weapon is a cone of fire.
Snakes Are Sinister: They boast the key features of two feared snake breeds, a cobra's hood (which flares out based on how angry the dragon is, extending fully during battles with hated foes like blue dragons) and a rattlesnake's tail.
Supernatural Fear Inducer: Beyond their draconic frightful presence, a rattelyr dragon can rattle its tail, potentially panicking those who hear it.
We Are as Mayflies: Rattelyrs age five times as quickly as other dragons, becoming great wyrms in only 240 years and then dying of old age before 300.

Sand Dragon

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/brown_dragon.jpg

Challenge Rating: 2-27 (3E), 2-25 (4E)
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral (3E), Evil (4E)

These desert-dwelling predators are consummate survivalists motivated purely by their personal well-being, and can't understand why others would think any differently. They're not as malevolent as chromatic dragons, but definitely aren't as good as metallics, leading sand dragons to spare herders out of "mercy" after consuming the livestock they depended upon to survive. They make their lairs beneath the sand, and while they collect treasure, mainly use it as bait to attract humanoid prey.

Dig Attack: They hunt by first flying overhead to spot prey during daylight hours, then using the cover of night to burrow up to their targets from beneath them.
Elemental Shapeshifting: 4E brown dragons can turn themselves into animated clouds of sand and back.
Obsessed with Food: 4E brown dragons obsess over food, and particularly over variety and novelty in food, in the same manner that other dragons obsess over treasure. The purpose of life, in their minds, is to eat often and eat well, and they will go to great lengths to acquire and import exotic creatures to sample, or welcome attacks by foes of interesting species. They have been known to take considerable risks and forgo more strategic approaches to bite foes in combat when these belong to a species the dragon hasn't met before, and to muse aloud about the flavor as the fight continues. While they do collect regular treasure, they tend to favor food-related items such as silverware, dishes or decanters.
Retcon: 4th Edition renamed sand dragons as "brown dragons," despite the name already belonging to a quite different dragon breed, described above.
Sand Blaster: A sand dragon's breath weapon is a cone of grit capable of flaying flesh, and they learn to cast haboob, choking sand and sandstorm. 4E brown dragons can similarly spray sand and create vortices of quicksand.
Sand Worm: They spend most of their time buried under the desert sands, slithering beneath the surface when they wish to move, and greatly prefer ambushing prey in this manner.

Shadow Dragon

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/monster_manual_5e___dragon_shadow___craig_j_spearing___p85.jpg

5e, red dragon base stock

^3E

^2E

Challenge Rating: 3-24 (3E), same as base creature +4 (5E)
Alignment: Neutral Evil (1E), Chaotic Evil (2E-3E), Evil (4E)

Devious creatures closely tied to darkness and the Plane of Shadow, shadow dragons shun the light in favor of gloomy ruins, Underdark caves, or the Shadowfell itself. Some shadow dragons attempt to bring Material Plane creatures to the Plane of Shadow to undergo a similar transformation, while others use their power over darkness to enhance their predations.

In most of their appearances, shadow dragons are depicted as a distinct species in their own right. In 5th Edition, they're reimagined as the result of true dragons of any kind becoming corrupted by the influence of the Plane of Shadow.

Art Evolution: 1st and 2nd Edition depict shadow dragons as having four limbs, with the front pair serving as both arms and wings. 3rd switches to a six-limbed design with a lanky, deep-chested build and plenty of spiky frills. 5th lacks a specific design of any sort, as its shadow dragons are simply dark-scaled versions of other true dragon species.
Beneath the Earth: In the Material Plane, shadow dragons are most commonly found in the remote depths of the Underdark, many miles beneath the surface.
Casting a Shadow: They can magically hide within shadows and use them to teleport, and great wyrms can magically shroud large areas in darkness.
Dead Guy on Display: Their AD&D write-up explains that shadow dragons' favorite food is carrion, and they often kill for pleasure, leaving corpses around their lairs until they're rotten enough to eat.
Early-Installment Weirdness: Shadow dragons predate the concept of "planar dragons," but despite a clear connection to a transitive plane were never retroactively added to the family, or given the (Extraplanar) subtype.
Level Drain: Through 3rd Edition, shadow dragons' breath weapons inflict negative levels upon victims.
Make Them Rot: The 5th Edition shadow dragon template changes the base dragon's breath weapon to deal necrotic damage, and adds such damage to its bite and claw attacks.
Retcon: Previously, shadow dragons were a distinct dragon species with a connection to the Plane of Shadow, but 5th Edition portrays them as conventional dragon breeds transformed by the Shadowfell into creatures of darkness and necrotic energy.
Shadow Walker: 3rd Edition shadow dragons can cast shadow walk once per day.
Spawn Broodling: Anything that succumbs to a 5th Edition shadow dragon's breath attack rises as an undead shadow under the dragon's control.
Weakened by the Light: What's surprising is that it took until 5th Edition for shadow dragons to pick up the "Sunlight Sensitivity" trait. Interestingly, AD&D shadow dragons also hate pure darkness, preferring areas where light and dark meet to produce natural shadows.

Song Dragon

Origin: Forgotten Realms
Challenge Rating: 2-24 (3E)
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral (2E), Chaotic Good or Chaotic Neutral (3E)

Also errenoeously known as "weredragons," song dragons in their natural forms resemble small and slender copper dragons with iridescent blue-silver scales, but they can also freely assume the form of a human female, and prefer to live under a human guise, hiding their true nature. Their name comes from these dragons' love of music, so that they're known to sing joyously when entering combat.

Art Evolution: The 2E weredragon is wingless and serpentine, with a very long tail. The 3E song dragon is instead winged, and largely resembles a smaller copper dragon with silvery scales.
Big Eater: When presented with food, song dragons eat voraciously and prodigiously, despite never seeming to put on weight.
Black Widow: Their 2nd Edition lore paints them as a heroic example, habitually marrying a wealthy but evil suitor, revealing their dragon form before killing their spouse, and keeping his wealth for themself.
Human Shifting: Song dragons can innately polymorph into a human female, and each dragon has a distinct appearance when they do so.
Immune to Mind Control: 2E song dragons are immune to all mind-affecting spells.
One-Gender Race: 2nd Edition holds that song dragons are all female, and mate with humans to produce song dragon offspring. 3rd Edition instead states that song dragon males exist but are rare, and assume the form of human females when they shapeshift, same as song dragon females.
Retcon: The 5E Fizban's Treasury of Dragons sourebook suggests that there is no such thing as song dragons, and such creatures are "almost certainly" metallic dragons who simply prefer to live among humanoids.
Shock and Awe: A song dragon's breath weapon is a cone of electrified gas.
Weredragon: They're called as such in their original entry, though even their AD&D write-up states that this is a misnomer, as song dragons aren't the product of (what D&D calls) lycanthropy, and can't pass on or be cured of their condition.

Steel Dragon

^2e

Origin: Greyhawk
Challenge Rating: 2-18 (3E), 5-29 (4E)
Alignment: Lawful Good or Lawful Neutral

Steel dragons are unusual for preferring to dwell within humanoid cities, disguising themselves as sages, wizards or other intellectuals so they can satisfy their curiosity about the civilized races. They also prefer to dine in humanoid form, but must make monthly hunting trips to meet the dietary needs of their true body mass. As such, they take a dim view of those that would disrupt life in their city or the wilderness around it. Though not considered part of the family in past editions, 4th Edition lumped steel dragons with the metallic dragons.

Acid Attack: Their primary breath weapon in 3rd Edition is a line of acid.
Adaptation Personality Change: While steel dragons traditionally value law and order, 4th Edition gave them an anti-authoritarian streak, which could lead steels to spark rebellions in their home cities to overthrow a tyrannical ruler, or chafe beneath a gold or bronze dragon that insisted they knew what was best for others.
Art Evolution: Their original 2nd Edition art portrays them with wyvern-like bodies, but 4th Edition gives them the full four legs expected of true dragons.
Charm Person: Aside form being able to polymorph up to five times per day, all of a steel dragon's spell-like abilities are in this vein — enthrall, charm person, suggestion, mass suggestion, and mass charm.
Dimensional Traveler: They're also known as "Greyhawk dragons" and first appeared on the world of Oerth, but have since used magic to travel to other worlds such as Toril, where they are known as steel dragons.
Half-Human Hybrid: Like most other dragons, steel dragons can take humanoid form, mate with other humanoids, and produce children. But while most dragons will produce visibly reptilian half-dragons, the children of steel dragons show no visible draconic ancestry.
Intrigued by Humanity: Even moreso than silver dragons, steel dragons are fascinated by humanoid culture, politics, art, history, etc. While silver dragons will briefly shapeshift into humanoids for exploration and recreation, steel dragons will spend entire lifetimes in a single humanoid identity. When their old persona "dies", they will spend only a few years in their dragon forms to socialize and mate before crafting a new identity.
Mage Species: In 3e they're one of the few dragon species to have their racial spellcasting abilities from the time they're born, being surpassed in sorcerer potential only by the Squishy Wizard tome dragon and Purposely Overpowered epic dragons.
Morphic Resonance: In their humanoid form, these dragons always have a feature hinting at their true nature, either steel-gray eyes, hair or fingernails or simply steel jewelry. As such, steel dragons can recognize one another on sight, even in disguise.
Non-Elemental: A 4th Edition steel dragon's breath weapon is a blast of raw force.
Poisonous Person: In both 2nd and 3rd Edtion, steel dragons can exhale clouds of poison gas. This does Constitution damage in 3rd Edition, but is even nastier in 2nd, as affected creatures have to save or die instantly.
Repressed Memories: When a steel dragon's humanoid persona "dies", the dragon undergoes a ritual called "Vaulting" where they lock away the memories of their old life. This allows them to live their new life as authentically as possible.
Resistant to Magic: In 3e they begin developing their draconic Spell Resistance from the time they're born, and later gain abilities which greatly increase their Spell Resistance against low-level spells.
Retcon: As with the song dragons, 5th Edition sources suggest that there is no such thing as steel dragons, only other metallic dragons who prefer to live among humans.

Yellow Dragon

Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Solitary and secretive dragons that, despite their coloration, do not associate with chromatic dragons. Yellow dragons prefer to lair within hot and sandy deserts, which can bring them into conflict with brass dragons. Their existence was predicted by sages, based on theories of primary colors, long before the first confirmed yellow dragon sighting.
For the other dragon breed sometimes known as yellow dragons, see the salt dragons above.

Antlion Monster: Yellow dragons sometimes hunt this way, burying themselves up to their eyes and nostrils in a conical depression, then when something blunders into them, they sweep their wings so that the sides of the pit collapse, causing prey to tumble into their jaws.
Arch-Enemy: Brass dragons, which actively hunt the smaller yellow dragons. The yellows, in turn, savor the unhatched eggs of their rivals as a rare delicacy.
Blow You Away: They learn dust devil and wind wall as they age.
Combat Pragmatist: They much prefer traps and ambushes to a straight fight, and even when forced into direct combat will use their spell-like abilities to distract their opponents.
Sand Blaster: Their breath weapon is a blast of scorching hot air and sand, which deals damage and can temporarily blind victims.

Undead Dragons

Like other living creatures, dragons can rise as undead, and potent monsters at that. Unless otherwise noted, the creatures below have the Undead type.

General Tropes

Non-Human Undead: Most of the common types of undead can be made from dragons, unfortunately.
- Dem Bones: Skeletal dragons can't fly or swim, and lose their supernatural abilities, including their breath weapon. But they retain a dragon's many physical attack options as well as any energy resistances, while gaining immunity to cold and Damage Reduction to non-bludgeoning weapons.
- Our Vampires Are Different: Vampire dragons◊ are much like normal vampires, except they sleep on their hoards during daytime, and you'll need one hell of a stake to reach their heart. Also, they can get around the Must Be Invited restriction by flattening a building and sifting through the rubble.
- Our Zombies Are Different: Zombie dragons are slow and stupid like all zombies, but retain the dragon's breath weapon.

Death Dragon

Origin: Dragonlance
Challenge Rating: 10 (lesser), 14 (greater) (5E)
Alignment: Chaotic Evil

The skeletal remains of dragons infused with the lingering fires of the Cataclysm that devastated Krynn.

Death of Personality: "Greater" death dragons are able to hold onto their sense of self, if twisted by their undead state, but "lesser" death dragons have largely forgotten their past lives, and the brief flashes and echoes of memory they retain only fill them with rage and anguish.
Make Them Rot: Their breath weapon is a cone of ghostly purple flames that deal necrotic damage.
Spawn Broodling: Worse, Medium humanoids slain by their breath instantly rise as zombies under the death dragon's command.
Wreathed in Flames: A death dragon's bones burn with violet Cataclysmic fire, and so do the zombies created by its breath weapon.

Dracolich

Origin: Forgotten Realms
Challenge Rating: Base creature's +3 (3E), 17 (5E)
Alignment: Any Evil (3E), Lawful Evil (5E)

A draconic lich. What more needs to be said?

Body Surf: When a dracolich's body is destroyed, its spirit returns to its phylactery and possesses any draconic corpse within a certain range of it, eventually turning it into a copy of its original body. Most dracoliches inhabit multiple such bodies over their existences, and tend to keep a few spare ones around their phylactery to avoid being trapped within it.
Dracolich: Dracoliches are dragons who allowed themselves to be transformed by necromantic energy and ancient rituals into powerful undead creatures.
Out of Continues: If a dracolich has no host bodies to possess, and its phylactery is destroyed with its soul still inside, it's gone for good.

Draconic Shard

Challenge Rating: 17 (5E)
Alignment: True Neutral

When a powerful gem dragon dies, the force of its will and mind sometimes refuses to pass on, but lingers as a psychic remnant known as a draconic shard. Though intangible, a draconic shard possesses potent psionic abilities and can possess inanimate objects the way ghosts can possess living people.

Animate Inanimate Object: A draconic shard can pour its psychic essence into a nonsentient object, magically possessing it. The shard allows the object to fly, use its senses, speak, cast spells, and use legendary actions.
Charm Person: A draconic shard can command the thoughts of another creature, which becomes the shard's puppet, following its telepathic commands.
Equippable Ally: Draconic shards sometimes accompany adventurers in the guise of an intelligent magic item and steer them to fulfill its designs.

Ghost Dragon

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/d&d_ghostly_dragon_3e.jpg

Challenge Rating: As base dragon +5 (3E), 17 (5E)

Draconic spirits bound to the world by their hoards.

Dragon Hoard: A dragon's attachment to its hoard can be strong enough to turn it into a ghost dragon that haunts the hoard after death, with their spirit sometimes being tied to a particular object within it. In other cases, a ghost dragon lingers because its hoard was looted, leaving it unable to pass on to the afterlife until a treasure of equivalent value is returned to its lair — at that point, the ghostly dragon settles upon its treasure pile one last time and disappears along with it, taking its hoard into the afterlife. Yes, dragons love their treasure so much they can take it with them.
Non-Health Damage: In 3rd Edition, a ghost dragon gains a secondary Breath Weapon usable three times per day, which inflicts permanent Strength, Dexterity and Constitution drain based on the ghost dragon's age category.
Supernatural Fear Inducer: A 5th Edition ghost dragon's breath weapon instead deals cold damage and can cause victims to be paralyzed in fear.

Hollow Dragon

Challenge Rating: 18 (5E)
Alignment: Any

A husk made from the scales of a metallic dragon and filled with radiant energy. Metallic dragons voluntarily become hollow dragons in pursuit of a specific goal, passing on once that goal has been completed.

Animated Armor: While the "armor" is technically made up of the dragon's scales, hollow dragons look like a draconic version if this.
Ghostly Goals: Hollow dragons accept undeath to fulfil a noble goal, and don't suffer distractions from their purpose. When they fulfill their purpose, most hollow dragons embrace death... though some will look for a new purpose, or just linger out of stubbornness.
Light 'em Up: A hollow dragon consists of a metallic dragon's hide filled with radiant energy, and can exhale radiant flames.
Pulling Themselves Together: A defeated hollow dragon collapses into a pile of separate body parts. If the head remains intact for nine days, the dragon will reassemble itself and become active once more. And no, separating the body parts will not prevent this: the other pieces will teleport straight to the head's location once time is up.

Characters / Dungeons & Dragons Dragons

Chromatic Dragons

Metallic Dragons

Gem Dragons

Ferrous Dragons

Neutral Dragons

The "Forgotten" Chromatics

Arcane Dragons

Lung Dragons

Space Dragons

Planar Dragons

Epic Dragons

Other True Dragons

Undead Dragons

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Characters / Dungeons & Dragons Dragons

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Chromatic Dragons

Metallic Dragons

Gem Dragons

Ferrous Dragons

Neutral Dragons

The "Forgotten" Chromatics

Arcane Dragons

Lung Dragons

Space Dragons

Planar Dragons

Epic Dragons

Other True Dragons

Undead Dragons

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