D&D's Chromatic Dragon Yоu've Never Heard Of

every great journey has to have both a beginning and an end on this channel over the past year I have talked about pink purple yellow orange and gray dragons in addition to the red blue green black and white dragons already included in the 5th edition monster manual that means we now have access to every single one of the chromatic dragons ever officially published in a book in fifth edition except for one hello and welcome to monster of the week this week we're doing a deep dive into the final member of the chromatic Dragon family tree the brown dragon as always we're gonna go over the brown dragon's publication history it's Lauren ecology as well as some plot Hooks and ways you can actually use this creature at the game table we're also going to convert it into 5th edition d d so that no matter what version of the game you enjoy Brown dragons can make an appearance these draconic creatures are one of the more unique subspecies and I think a lot of you will be surprised by just how they operate so stock up on supplies and make sure you stay hydrated because we're taking a little trip to the desert foreign [Music] despite the fact that most d d players have probably never even heard of a brown Dragon no less encountered one they've been a part of the game for a very long time the first Brown Dragon to ever appear in a DND book would be in 1990 as part of the old Empire supplement for ad 2nd edition this book was something akin to a setting book detailing the ancient south of the Forgotten Realms not that ancient South think more south and more ancient this was a region made up of three major kingdoms called unthur chacenta and one Google seems to be convinced as actually a David Lynch movie mulhorand this region was very much inspired by the mythology of ancient Egypt complete with mummies pharaohs and I'm sure a bunch of other stuff that has not aged well but of course to round out this new ancient Egyptian themed area we would need a new type of dragon Brown dragons also known as great desert dragons are exactly that dragons that dwell in the desert these bad boys make their homes deep beneath the Desert Sands and according to lore might just be the most elusive type of dragon yet this is because they don't soar through the skies like many of their other draconic cousins in fact they don't fly at all because they don't even have wings depending on which edition's artwork you consider Canon they do have these long fin like structures on either side of their body but no actual Wings to speak of so since they can't fly and they live in a Big Wide Open Space full of sand rather than ruling from up above they rule From Below they've evolved to essentially be able to swim through sand at the same speed another Dragon might fly through the air this makes them incredibly hard to detect which is unfortunate for anyone trying to track them down or for anything that they're actively hunting although hunting isn't really the right word for what a brown Dragon does it's more like waiting for food to walk into their mouth I'm going in and I ain't coming out till I got me a big heaping plate of worms that's not the worm that's his tongue ready since they can burrow so quickly through the sand the way a brown Dragon feeds itself is by lying in weight just 50 feet or so below the surface by using its finely tuned Tremor sense it's able to detect anything walking on the surface up above them within a very wide area in the moment it does detect something it rapidly swims through the sand up towards the surface to close its jaws around whatever happens to be there if even the most well-trained survivalist is gonna have a hard time detecting the brown Dragon ahead of time because there's nothing to really detect these dragons will lie and wait for hours sometimes days in order to secure an easy meal so they're nothing if not patient particularly clever Brown dragons might even try to set a trap by hiding half buried treasure on the surface to lure in Travelers so if you ever see a treasure chest sticking conspicuously out of the sand be aware that it might just be bait on the end of a deadly Ambush now hearkening back to that first video I did in this series about chromatic dragons and the color theory that dictates their genealogy the brown dragon is somewhat of a mystery their origin isn't explicitly mentioned anywhere and while it can be easy to trace back the genealogy of a creature like the purple dragon as coming from red and blue dragons with brown dragons it's not quite so easy there are a lot of different color combinations that make brown and knowing what we know about these colors and their corresponding species of dragon I can see an argument for any of the possible combinations to be the true parentage of the brown Dragon however there is one minuscule scrap of information that I think can point us in the right direction in Baldur's Gate 2 the isometric DND Dungeon Crawler video game released in the year 2000 you actually encounter a brown dragon by the name of draconis which I have to say that's like being a human named Hue man but Goofy names aside draconis is a powerful Brown dragon and his father is also in the game as an NPC by the name of a Baza gal and a Baza gal is a blue dragon so if we apply that to what we know about color theory that means that brown dragons are born from the union between blue and orange dragons this is all just so funny to me because in a way Brown dragons do share some vague similarities with almost every other type of dragon which given what we just talked about kind of makes sense they burrow and set traps like yellow dragons they thrive in the desert like blue dragons they even breathe acid and have a horde kinda similar to the black dragon in fact their horde is basically a less sadistic version of what the black dragon usually keeps where black dragons tend to hoard objects and structures taken from Fallen civilizations that they've destroyed Brown dragons tend to hoard treasures and objects of immense value from long forgotten civilizations they just don't necessarily have to be objects from a civilization the dragons had a hand in destroying to the brown Dragon it's more the history aspect of the objects that they value in less the trophy taking side of things basically they just like to collect antiques Brown dragons are also obsessed with eating but not in the voracious sense for the sake of mere survival they can get by just eating rocks and digesting any of the minerals stored within when I say they're obsessed with eating what I mean is that they don't really eat to live they live to eat there's nothing a brown dragon loves more than experiencing a new flavor for the first time these nefarious little gourmands will actively seek out new species of creatures in order to taste what their flesh is like so while they might be used to eating humans and horses or whatever creatures commonly pass through the desert they will go out of their way to take a bite out of any creature they've never seen before so if you've got a player in your campaign who loves to play unconventional PC races here's a dragon that will also love the fact that they play unconventional PC races if encountered by a group of enemies the brown dragon is liable to prioritize damage based not on threat assessment but on what creature it wants to eat the most which is honestly unhinged just like the dragon's jaw am I right fellas this is such a weird little detail and it's funny to me because I think it's clear we're now getting to the point where there are so many different dragons we have to start giving them these bizarre personality traits they're not just the same as everyone else but personally I love this idea and I think it opens up a bunch of different potential options for storytelling but we're not at that part of the video yet I do think though that we've covered all the essential groundwork for what establishes the brown dragon and its deal so I think we should take a second to talk about where these dragons actually live I mean they live in the desert but where and how and why they live in the desert is a whole different story [Music] okay [Music] perhaps one of the greatest factors contributing to The elusive nature of the brown dragon is the fact that they live underground unlike other dragons their scales are a lot more leathery and a bit more malleable so they can very easily slip through the sand and since they can burrow at incredible speeds it takes them virtually no time to dig hundreds if not thousands of feet into the Earth and once they're down there they create these Grand open Chambers for themselves sometimes even co-opting ancient tombs and ruins hidden throughout the desert to use as a lair what makes these underground layers so interesting to me though is the fact that they are often entirely disconnected from the surface above after all we're talking about a dragon that can basically swim through sand so what need do they have for a corridor to connect two rooms as a result the brown Dragon Subterranean layer is going to essentially just be a series of large Chambers all with at least one area of sand the dragon can use to tunnel in and out as you can imagine this makes finding the Dragon's Lair extremely difficult let alone how you would even get in there it's almost impossible unless you have a very specific kit of magic and or equipment if the brown dragon is using part of an ancient tomb as its home there is a chance that that tomb will connect to the surface somewhere but without specific knowledge of where in the desert it might be that's like searching for a needle in a haystack from your average adventuring party's point of view the easiest way to get in and out of the Dragon's Lair is going to be by using teleportation magic but even then you still have to figure out where you're teleporting to if the players are in a situation where they're dead set on invading a brown Dragon's Lair they might want to look for an old map that will at least show them the location of where a possible entrance could be or you know just get the artificer to invent some kind of subterranean land vehicle if you want to make this a little easier on your players maybe they find an ancient manuscript that can retains the specific runes and glyphs that will allow them to connect to a teleportation Circle that is in the brown Dragon's Lair maybe it's using part of an underground tomb or an old dungeon or something down there that has a teleportation circle in it and the brown Dragon might not even know that it's there perhaps it's in part of the layer that has gone unexplored by the creature well not 100 required if you're feeling nice this could be a good way to move things along but in all honesty even if they manage to get in the lair the brown dragon's not gonna make it easy for them once they show up so let's talk about that yeah foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] dragons are very similar in combat to most other dragons with a few notable exceptions for one as I mentioned they can't fly this might seem like a huge disadvantage at first but when you factor in their ability to burrow at such insane speeds it more than makes up for it in fact I would argue that it's even worse because while a flying enemy is certainly a pain in the ass to deal with an enemy that spends as much time as possible burrowed into the ground can be even more annoying at least in my opinion as I mentioned this Dragon breathes a line of acid which is definitely something we've seen dragons do before but beyond that and it's flurry of claw and tail attacks and all that good stuff the thing that really sets this Dragon apart are two unique actions the first is called Sandstorm and it's just straight up mean this dragon can kick up a Vortex of swirling wind that encompasses a 60-foot radius of whipping sand this not only causes a small amount of Chip damage to anyone inside of it but it also heavily obscures the area effectively blinding anybody in the storm this however is nothing but upside for the brown Dragon because not only does it have a limited blind sight like every other Dragon does it also has Tremor sense out to a ridiculously long range so the dragon ain't gonna be bothered in the least by this it's simply gonna blind as many of its enemies as it can within the sandstorm and then take cheap shots at them from under the ground its second ability however is maybe even worse the brown dragon has access to an action which is very similar to the hallucinatory terrain spell this allows it to create an illusion up to 300 feet away from itself that encompasses a 150 foot area in this area it can visibly make the terrain look like anything natural it wants and while there are a lot of potential applications for this the brown drag again usually only has one use in mind what better way to lure in some unsuspecting prey than to create a mirage it can very easily manifest an illusion of an oasis in the middle of the desert crystal clear water palm trees and bushes bearing fruit are pretty hard for any creature to turn down while wandering the desert little does any Observer know that just below the surface of this Oasis is the brown Dragon ready to strike this ability is only available to adult or older Brown dragons because I guess until they finish puberty their Mastery over magic hasn't quite set in yet but this is an absolute bastard move and I love it no matter what combat actually looks like once initiative is rolled the thing to keep in mind while setting up your brown Dragon encounters is that they are Ambush Predators they're also very smart they're usually not going to fight to the death unless they have a very good reason to so if things start to turn sour there's nothing stopping them at any time from just diving into the sand and slipping away better to fight another day than die trying to secure a meal unless the adventurers bait the dragon out with something extremely tantalizing but I suppose that brings us to our next topic I'm sure the question that's been on everybody's mind this entire time how do we use this Dragon when we tell our stories so let's move on and talk about a few foreign [Music] as with most draconic creatures you have a lot of options when you're bringing a brown dragon to the table as we just went over the brown dragon is a big fan of the Ambush so setting up a random encounter where a brown Dragon attempts to eat the party while they Traverse the desert is always a basic option this is especially punishing if you're playing in a resource management heavy game and the party happens to be low on food or water having an oasis turn out to be an illusion is bad enough and then having to fight a dragon while you're dehydrated is just [ __ ] icing on a turd cake speaking of cake I feel like there's a lot of room to explore the brown dragon's pension for eating delicious food the party might encounter a group of Cobalts or other minions in service to the dragon while they're out seeking new potential meals for their Master if you want to take this in a bit of a darker Direction maybe they're out kidnapping locals in order to haul them back to the dragon as a fresh cut of meat I could just see this band of Cobalts led by a half dragon that has a caravan of prisoners taken from all different peoples across the world as they make their pilgrimage back to the desert hell maybe the party even Begins the campaign as prisoners in this weird Convoy Buffet maybe you even have an adventuring party that's all made up of different player races and the beginning of the game is them trying to bust out of this prison cellar being held in free the other prisoners and then ultimately stop this brown dragon from eating and consuming all these people from around the world but if you want to take this in a more light-hearted Direction maybe you have the brown Dragon acting as a sort of quest Giver NPC that's willing to reward anyone who brings it a delicious meal it's never had before so the party then has to go out in search of something they think the dragon will find incredibly delicious maybe they're even in competition with a bunch of other adventuring groups and they're all doing the same thing which all culminates in a fantasy cook-off while a top chef with some kind of magical artifact as the trophy and also maybe the loser gets eaten or something I don't know now I just really want to run a Top Chef inspired D campaign with a brown Dragon who has the personality of Gordon Ramsay overcooked on the bottom crispy as [ __ ] and it looks like Gandhi's flip-flop what a shame I think he would approve another dragon-shaped elephant in the room we have yet to talk about is the Other Desert dwelling draconic creature the blue dragon and believe me when I say blue dragons and brown dragons do not get along being extremely territorial creatures like most dragons tend to be they straight up hate each other something interesting about this though is that for whatever reason most people who live in a region were rival blue and brown dragons are both present tend to vilify blue dragons while speaking of brown dragons as though they're sort of awe-inspiring and deserving of respect this is likely because blue dragons are big time schemers who constantly [ __ ] with the humanoid populations around them while Brown dragons are pretty Elusive and tend to just do their own thing I mean sure they definitely eat Travelers when the opportunity arises but they aren't raising armies or demanding tribute from nearby kingdoms they don't really do that kind of thing they generally just keep to themselves the fact that they tend to stick to their own devices tends to make them come across in a better light than their blue cousins or maybe they just have a great PR guy or something I don't know but the battles between blue and brown dragons are nothing short of legendary both are among the smartest chromatic Dragon species so it's rare for a fight between them to end in death but given the fact that they can both burrow and how patient Brown dragons can be their battles will sometimes last days or even weeks and that is a delay no traveling Merchant is gonna chance not taking if a brawl between these creatures is happening in the desert it basically shuts down any traffic between cities that would normally be taking place across the desert for whatever reason a wrestling match between two dragons in the middle of a lightning-infused sandstorm isn't something most people want to be a part of but whatever you intend to do with these draconic creatures no matter what version of the game you're playing there's a stat block for you if you are playing 5th edition d d link in the description down below you'll find my conversion complete with all the age categories lore Lair actions legendary actions and other necessary information it's all down there and I truly look forward to hearing about the mini Brown Dragon appearances that will occur at your table in the future and I gotta be honest with you gang it's a little Bittersweet to be wrapping up this episode because this marks the final chromatic dragon video on this channel ever there are just no more chromatic dragons for us to talk about we did it and Alexander wept for there were no more worlds to conquer so I guess we're gonna just have to move on to the metallic dragons there's a whole bunch of dragons that never got converted to 5th edition I'm very excited to start talking about the good aligned side of the draconic coin and I'm relying on you guys to let me know which one I should start with there's already been a bunch of requests for many of the metallic dragons but I would love it if you guys would let me know in the comments what metallic dragon you're most excited to see and whichever one I see the most comments for that'll be the first one we do I'll probably put up a poll somewhere as well and I'll definitely put up a poll over on the patreon page and if you are one of my patrons don't forget to go over there and check out the dungeon dad style patreon stat block for this Dragon it contains all the same information but it's laid out in a very beautiful multi-page PDF that you can download and keep for yourself it's a cool thing to bust out at the table and it helps support me in the content that I'm making here and I appreciate the support from you guys so much and speaking of support of the channel I finally have merch I know you've been eyeing this sweater for the past 20 to 30 minutes or however long as this video ended up being but for real this is something people have been asking me about a bunch for quite a while now and I've tried a few different companies got a bunch of different samples in and I've finally landed on one that has awesome quality and is able to help me make the stuff that I want to make so Link in the description and in the pinned comment on this video you will find a link to the dungeon dad merch shop where I've got all kinds of new stuff up there for you to check out it's all super comfy very high quality super nerdy and some of it is just ridiculous and that's everything except you know I didn't forget it's time for patron of the week this week's randomly selected Patron is sturgeon of Doom thank you so much sturgeon of Doom for completing my fish tank in Animal Crossing and for your support it means a lot and thank you for watching I truly do appreciate it I feel like I've already talked enough about other stuff so I'm just gonna leave you with that I appreciate you I hope you're having an awesome day thanks and I'll see you in the next one till then [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] from the depths of the nine Hells this Devil Wears Prada Gucci and anything else with a fat price tag a master of schemes trickery and Insidious temptation is on the prowl this fiend has more than a few tricks up its sleeve and for some reason nobody can swing their sword at him next episode Harvester devil tune in next time for lots more fan service

Channel: Dungeon Dad

Views: 237,346

Keywords: How to play Dungeons and Dragons, dungeons and dragons lore, dungeons and dragons combat, d&d lore, d&d story, d&d online, d&d basics, d&d battle, dnd monsters, d&d monsters lore, dnd monsters explained, dnd monsters for level 1, d&d game breaking monsters, best d&d monsters, d&d cool monsters, creepy d&d monsters, d&d 5e custom monsters, classic d&d monsters, Dungeon Dad, Monster of the Week, D&D 5e, Dungeons and Dragons 5E, aj pickett, mr rhexx, D&D explained, homebrew

Id: 1Qd7nyMjIP0

Length: 23min 59sec (1439 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 17 2023