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Contrary to popular belief, dragons don't age as other creatures and races do. An old dragon is not necessarily strong, and a strong one not necessarily old, at least if what you count are the years it lived. Dragons appear to age, and gain power, as their hoard gains size.
A player playing The Dragon uses the following rules:
HD: d12.
Experience Point Track: as magic-user. See class features.
To-hit: as fighter.
Saves: special. Use the class that gives the best saves vs. magic and magic device, if such saves are separate from the rest, with other saves being inverted (becoming worse as The Dragon levels up). Otherwise, as magic-user.
Weapons and Armor: special. See class features.
Great Hoard, Great Power: The Dragon draws their power from the size of their hoard, gaining levels as it grows. To gain levels as The Dragon, you must invest gold as experience points into the hoard. Gold invested this way cannot be used for other purposes, with one exception: if you put in copper coins, you may trade them up for an equal number of silver or better coins. Experience points are gained at a 1:1 ratio to gold value.
Gold that is removed from the hoard, by pesky adventurers for instance, lowers your experience points but not your level, and you will need to work up new wealth again.
A Place for your Hoard: for your hoard to affect you, it must be concentrated in one place, as either a big pile or a set of linked chambers. At first, you might be able to carry the hoard on your person or with you in a wagon. By the time you become a young adult, though, you are likely to need a permanent lair, for the hoard could become very great in size.
Stages of Growth: while dragons have 12 stages of growth, The Dragon only reaches the 6th stage before needing to retire if they want to continue growing, due to the need to protect their now very large hoard. When The Dragon reaches 6th level and its stage, they cannot gain enough experience points to advance to the next level and stage, by gaining no more than 1 experience point less than the requirement for the next level. Any more experience points gained beyond this limit are lost.
The 6 relevant stages are: wyrmling, very young, young, juvenile, young adult, and adult.
As your stages of growth progress, you grow in size, gain AC, improve your breath weapon, and gain more access to your special features, in addition to standard improvements.
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| A young adult atop his relatively sizeable hoard | Original |
Size and Length: dragons start big and only grow bigger. Your length is separated into 2: your body and your tail, with the tail making up nearly half your full length. As a wyrmling, your body length is 1d12+5 feet and your tail is 1d3 feet shorter. For every stage you grow, your body grows 1d3+10 feet longer, and your tail 1 foot less than that.
Draconic Hide: your AC as a wyrmling is as good as leather armor. For every 3 stages you grow, starting from young, improve your AC by 2. When you become a young adult, your hide begins to resist magic naturally and you roll saves vs magic and magic device with advantage.
Breath Weapon: you can breathe fire in order to attack others. Your breath weapon is a cone that erupts from your mouth to a distance of 10 feet, 5 feet wide at the base. For every stage you grow, the cone becomes 10 feet longer. Every other stage you grow, starting from very young, the cone becomes 5 feet wider at the base. When you become a young adult, you may choose to breathe a jet of fire instead of a cone. Double the length of the cone and keep it a uniform 5 foot width.
Your breath weapon deals damage equal to your HP, and after use you may not use it again for 10 minutes.
Natural Weapons: you have natural weapons in the forms of your claws, your mouth, and your tail. as a wyrmling, you may only use one of the three at a time in a given round. When you become a juvenile, you may use two of them in a single round.
All of your attacks add your level to their damage. In addition, each of your claws deals 1d6 damage, your mouth 1d10 damage, and your tail 1d4 damage in an arc behind you.
Treasures in the Hoard: whenever you include gems or magical items and equipment in your hoard, you may choose to forgo the experience point reward and instead use them for abilities and special benefits by attuning yourself to them. This feature essentially replaces equipment for The Dragon:
- Gems: starting with the first gem, you may detect gems 1/day in a 100 foot radius. Each gem included this way allows you to detect that type and up to that value in gold. You gain another daily use if you have at least 1 gem worth 500 gold, and a third daily use if you have one worth 5000 gold. Gems never need attunement, and also always give their experience point value as well.
- Magical Weapons: a weapon that provides a magical bonus to-hit and damage may be attuned to provide that bonus to your natural weapons. If multiple weapons are attuned this way, you only receive the highest bonus.
- Magical Armor: an armor that provides a magical bonus to AC may be attuned to provide that bonus to you. If multiple armors are attuned this way, you only receive the highest bonus.
- All Magical Items and Equipment: items and equipment providing special abilities may be attuned to provide them to you. Consult your GM how that manifests, with the following limitations - each attunement can provide only a single daily use with a duration in rounds no longer than you have levels in this class.
- Consumable Magical Items: require attunement and provide their effect on use. When used this way, they are consumed as usual.
You may attune yourself to as many benefits and abilities from magical items and equipment as you have levels. However, each item or piece of equipment may only provide a single effect from itself per attunement. To get a weapon's bonus and its abilities, for instance, 2 or more attunments are necessary.
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| The OG Dragon on Hoard, Smaug | Original |
Mighty Wings: you have mighty wings, which at first allow only short flight. Before you become a young adult, you may fly ten times your total length in feet at a time, in a largely straight line. After that distance, you need to rest for a minute before flying again. Once you become a young adult, you may fly for extended periods of time. Consult your GM how that works out. Your flight speed is 100 feet plus 10 feet per level per round.
Draconic Greed: your lust of gold and treasure leads your decisions and moral compass more than anything. Whenever shares of loot or payout are at stake, you must roll 10 plus your level or more on a d20. If you fail, you must demand a bigger share or payout. Additionally, if cutting your shares are ever brought up, roll the same saving throw, but twice. If you fail in either or both, you must stand your ground. Failing in either of these could lead to violence.
If you succeed at the saving throw, you will not be content with what you will be given, but you will accept it. Never forget the grievance, though.
Draconic Pride: up until you are a young adult, your draconic pride will not let you allow others to touch your hoard. It is yours and yours alone. Once you become a young adult you will demand, threaten, or hire others to do the work you once deemed your own. At this point, you will be too proud as a proper dragon to do the type of menial labor of carrying treasure.
Kobold Attraction: whenever you interact with kobolds, your draconic lineage will make them more compelled to help you. When you encounter kobolds, roll reactions at +3, and kobolds will require great compulsion to be hostile towards you. In addition, kobolds will agree to become hirelings for very little, if at all. If you gain a large amount of them, treat them as kobold Extras. Once you become a young adult, you may spend an entire day to instantly gain a first level kobold Extras if you have none.
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