Dungeons and Dragons Lore: Drow, Sand, Purple and Cobra Dragons

[Music] hey there everyone AJ back again for the bite acoustic channel I make videos about Dungeons & Dragons Lal full-time so that you don't have to as promised it is time for some of the more obscure and confusing dragon breeds to have some ecological attention today we are talking cobra dragons the original purple dragons sand dragons and drow dragons so settle back grab a snack and a beverage we're about to get deeply nerdy Randy Jones created the Cobra dragon as it was first published in Dragon magazine number 146 thankfully it has been updated and adapted to 5th edition by Demian one two three four also known as John bub in the blogspot site called 5e grog nerd so full credit to the author this is an excellent article well done John I have also included links below to all of John's PDFs for sale on the DM skilled in the description below this video they pay what you want titles well worth a few bucks oh and on that note if you have purchased a PDF on one of the homebrew hubs and it is good please leave your thoughts and rate the product to help other people find the best PDS because there are so many and it's entirely up to us the community to promote the best products and best creators to ensure they get the support they deserve for their hard work if you'd like it share it rate it comment on it I would certainly appreciate it as it helps me find what I need and helps me put the spotlight on the best options on the indie market dragons the Cobra dragon is lean and powerful with gloss black scales in contrast to status contrasted starkly with orange underbelly on either side of its neck is a large hood of skin that resembles that of a king cobra legend holds that certain king cobras of great age transform into Kent Cobra dragons but the tales about these very rare dragons are more numerous than the Dragons themselves and likely of dubious veracity skull collecting is a favorite pastime of cobra dragons skulls of powerful monsters and rare creatures are highly prized favorite skulls include those of cave bears dinosaurs and other dragons unicorns and Giants per tick the Giants humanoid skulls are deemed interesting but of little value since they're so easily obtained and they like the chicken bones that just lifts around the place and piles in the corner of the lair tossing the tossed aside during the meals the offering of a rear skull is a gift when attempting to converse with a cobra dragon aids considerably in gaining the dragon's favor the skulls may be organized and well presented much like the collection of formidable skills by the predator aliens in the movie of the same name the Cobra dragon may even layer inside the tremendously large skull of a Titan or an epic dragon now so old that it's consistency more like rock than bone due to its high charisma graceful power and sly cunning a Cobra dragon of adult age and beyond always attracts a small number of intelligent creatures which serve the leader while they serve the leader this includes elite tribes of goblins the most intelligent and motivated lizard folk and secretive nefarious EU auntie commonly serving the cobra dragon for the lizard folk the dragon is more like a supreme leader a dragon that appears more reptilian and seems to appreciate the primal hunting skills of the lizard people to you auntie the they appreciate the power and wisdom of the cobra dragon they see them as pivotal super weapons and their long-term goal of retaking the world and a new era of reptilian dominance they see they can see the writing on the wall the dragons are on the rise in the time of the mammals enslavement is nigh goblins are naturally drawn to the most powerful worms and see it as only natural that the weaker members of their tribe is weeded out by the dragon for the greater good as long as the tribe survives in the shadows of a powerful master they willing to serve cobra dragons live in caves and underground caverns and tropical and subtropical environments they dislike swamps so they claim jungle choked ruins ancient shrines the remains of titanic creatures and elevated land features and a dangerous rainforest like other dragons the cobra dragon lays claim to an area of land surrounding its lair ferociously driving off all other creatures that did not serve it or feed its minions intrusion by another cobra dragon is only tolerated during the spring mating season the mating ritual involves the male and female entering a nan in juris combat that results in a fiery display the small population of followers of each dragon have all sorts of strange rituals and customs involved as they and travel with the dragons and interact with each other perhaps some sort of supernatural influence drives this behavior it's unknown as they can be a fairly bloodthirsty towards each other during the courtship of the Dragons and then quite Cora Porter cooperative once mating has occurred combat with the Cobra dragon is unpredictable destructive and extremely dangerous they have a range of lair actions that they can take during the round at the start of the round honours initiative count 20 they can cause one of the following effects with at least one round in between being able to repeat a specific action they can cause magma to erupt from a point in the ground they can see within 120 feet creating a 20-foot high 5-foot radius geyser of superhot liquid rock each creature in the geysers area must make a DC 15 dexterity to saving throw taking 66 fire damage on a failed save or half as matched in half as much damage on a successful one the dragon current create a thick cloud of billowing smoke as though it had cast the fog cloud spell the smoke lasts for until the start of the next round the followers of the Dragon will also be present and active during combat so the dragon may also direct them to perform specific maneuvers activate prepared traps make use of magical items on within the dragon's hoard release captive monsters or swarm the adventuring party giving the dragon a moment to disengage and recuperate we ready to for a fresh assault the region containing the legendary Cobra lair Cobra dragon's lair is warped by the dragon's magic which creates one or more of the following effects water sources within one mile of the lair a supernaturally warm and tainted often with sulfur clouds of black smoke obscure the land within six miles of the dragon's lair seemingly coming from nowhere if the dragon dies the smoke fades with one within the day and other effects fade within one D 10 days they are highly intelligent lawful evil masterminds they're neither chrome are chromatic nor are they metallic dragons they are descended from a long line of cobra dragons that predates the civil war and division of the dragons they want no part of either tier Mets or Bam bahamut's agenda and may even consider working as a mercenary for either side if the price is right and it generally serves their interests in way though they will take orders from no creature not for any price they may be persuaded to direct their hunting and sport and certain directions for instance they see nothing wrong with collecting the heads of younger dragons for the walls of their lair and they don't care what color they are actually one of each type would corporal probably quite pleased them and our October dragon has now in the class of 1816 d12 plus 96 head points so between 112 and 288 with an average head point a total of 200 so they're generally in very good shape they have a strength in constitution of 22 which makes them physically only as powerful as a white dragon of comparable size however they are as an intelligent as a copper dragon of the same age which gives them all the edge they need another advantage they have over maths most other dragons is that their bite carries a potent venom an adult is plus 11 to head with bites and claws the blight does 2d 10 plus 6 piercing damage plus 1d8 poison damage with no saving throws listen it's affect the clora tack does 2d six plus six flashing damage which it's not that far off the swipe of an adult red dragon so it's quite formidable other dragons may be may well underestimate how lethal a cobra dragon is and melee combat their breath weapon rate recharges and a results of five or six on a d6 at the start of each round it can exhale a 60 foot cone of fire or it can lift off the ground and breathe the cone of fire directly beneath to create a wall of fire some twenty feet in diameter basically like a fire smoker and around itself 20 feet diameter 20 feet high and 1 foot thick obscuring vision through it and any creature in the area must make ADC 19 dexterity saving throw or take 112 d probably sets fire damage 12 the 8 how I'm half as much if they make the 7 throat I seem to have made a typo d they may also swap one of their two claw texts all the abide attack to sweep the atte layout up to 15 feet doing to d 8 + 6 bludgeoning damage with it there are three legendary actions they can take during the ground - each at the end of another creatures turn include a tail attack a to action wing attack which makes the each creature within 10 feet make a DC 19 dexterity saving throw or take 2 d6 + 6 bludgeoning damage as they get knocked prone as dragons suddenly lifts off and flies a distance of 40 feet they can also make a perception check as a bonus legendary action aware of everything going on around them and they have three uses of legendary resistance per day well I can just choose to succeed as a saving through your totally immune to fire as you would expect and if a volcanic dry smoke billowing layer is available they'll take it they have blind sight out to sixty feet so they don't mind that all that obscuring air pollution and they have a hundred and twenty foot dark vision and a passive position of 21 very hard to sneak up on they not much else to say about them really they other than they have a flying speed of 40 feet per round sorry they have a speed of 40 feet period on the ground they have an 80 foot per round flight speed in the air and can swim as fast as they can walk little is known of the history outside of draconic scholars they consider mammals including the humanoids to be nothing more than vermin and dragon politics as the height of stupidity so here the dragons dragon please do check out John's titles down below the PDFs included collection of 9 new magical masks so medical harps one of Van rook ripped ins lost notebooks 21 new magical rings a different take on sorcerers and ten new magical bows and ammunition for them sourced from old dragon magazines and updated for the current edition of the game the RS there's some confusion about purple dragons they originally appeared in Dragon magazine number 65 in 1982 and an article by Richard L and lloyd along with the yellow and orange dragons the purple was a strong chromatic dragon affair but different from the deep dragon which was created later the purple dragon of 4th edition are basically a psychic dragon of the Underdark and purple dragons the originals also their underground almost always in deep complexes of underground caves free from any natural light sources they have a breath weapon that's ascribed as a combination of the lightning bolt of the blue dragon with the intense heat of the red dragon so basically a narrow beam of superheated charged plasma about 5 feet wide and fifty feet long for an adult purple dragon it is super bright able to cut right through anything flammable and will mount holes and metal and even scorch solid rock stone with air pockets or trapped moisture has a tendency to explode due to the tremendous heat and electrical charge which can fry targets on contact with metal armored objects and surfaces in the body of water which is struck by the bolt will also be fried by it as well so it's sort of it's up to your discretion really to determine how far their electricity would affect creatures around it purple dragons are the result of a blue and red dragon mating so they're not quite the same as the true breed of dragons which is the purple dragon wall the deep dragon what charm was developed later so they're quite rare these purple dragons but they combine the best of both breeds hybrid vigor growing as large and strong as a red dragon with a blue dragons wicked cunning and dominant attitude for their statistics select the best out of the red and blue dragon attributes and give those to the purple dragon the same for their physical attacks and legendary actions they have the ceiling collapsing and electrical arcing layer actions of the blue dragon and the earth tremor and volcanic gas eruption layer actions of the red dragon they also use their breath weapon to blind their victims temporarily they make a saving throw for wisdom at the same time they mated the 36 dexterity saving throw against it if they fail the wisdom safe they're blinded until the end of the next turn on the combat round purple dragons also are far more likely than other chromatic dragons to take class levels as Wizards rather than sorcery they hoard treasure and they are likely to include things like spell books scrolls and items for casting spells such as ones orbiter or staff or to low gain levels as they go up an age so an adult will be the equivalent of at least a tenth level wizard in addition to everything else it can do it can also cast spells and what's worse it can cast a spell during the ground counting as want two of its legendary actions which means they can forego a melee attack casting a spell on via toon and then cast another spell during the round at the end of another creatures turn which is just this is devastating when you consider what sort of mayhem a couple of fireballs can cause in a single combat round as powerful draconic creatures of both fire and lightning they are immune to both types of energy as well so they can fireball things with impunity even right next to them just a note here as we're talking about a dragon from the earlier game editions back then just as dragons were associated with a particular energy particularly energy type for the breath weapon they were also vulnerable to another energy type with the complete list of chromatic dragons there was a list there's kind of a logic to the kinds of breath weapon they each produced the rate the fire of the red dragon breaks apart the sodium chloride salt of the yellow dragon giving them sodium breath as a weapon for the orange dragon the electrodes electricity generating effect of the blue dragon breaks the sodium chloride of the yellow dragon apart to form the claw and breath of the green dragon and the weapons of the red and blue combined to yield the energy lance of the purple dragon arguably the most powerful of them all which is great until we get even more obscure dragons thrown into the mix and also the purple dragon was largely replaced by the deep dragon which is also purple but it's a creature of psychic power I have a video about them on this channel and somewhere in this in the dragon ecology playlist so the deep dragon is a deep dragon the purple dragon is a purple dragon yeah purple dragons should not be common in any DMD setting they're powerful enough to kick the ass of even a red or a gold dragon and really have no reason not to completely dominate whatever territory they choose to leerin I would surmise that the main cause of death and additional rarity of these particular chromatic dragons is that they would be the foremost target of any other dragons seeking to make a fearsome reputation for themselves even among their own kind a red dragon that can kill a purple dragon would have a formidable standing even among its own kind now on to the brown dragons and more specifically the difference between the brown and the sand dragon as they frequently assumed to be one and the same actually they're not here is the official text for the sand dragons sand dragons are violent irritable and cunning creatures given to raiding farms for cattle but leaving the farmers alive as a sign of mercy never mind that the dragon is just devoured the farmers entire life not exactly evil but definitely not good sand dragons are motivated only by what is good for their own survival in fact they have a difficult time understanding why any living creature would think any other way so compassion and understanding it's just not their Forte dragons sand dragons laid the eggs deep within the sand of the desert which is partly responsible for their name as the eggs hatch the hatchling dragons clawed their way to the surface giving the impression that the Dragons sprang spontaneously from the sand itself even at that age sand dragons are fairly fully developed with horns and claws enabling them to borrow just as easily as the appearance sand dragons wings are not actually winds at all but just from the membranes of a similar consistency in material to regular dragon wings these membranes stretch between a double row of spikes that run the length of the sand dragons back for the base of the scale to the tip of the tail these spines can collapse flat along those sand dragons back when it burrows protecting the fragile membranes from damage and the this basically that becomes a burrowing worm sand dragons also lie flat on a sandy surface and flutter their wings to cover themselves with sand much like a stingray flutter this one's to conceal itself on the ocean floor quickly disappearing from sight in fact sand dragons make their lairs under the sand and only emerge to hunt it all mate as a result sand dragons smell of freshly turned dirt and dust not a particularly unpleasant spell but a distinctive one and due to their borrowing ability sand dragons have little difficulty distinguishing the layers only the nostrils lie exposed allowing them to breathe and when the sand dragons travel underground their primary means of sneaking up on their prey they simply hold their breath sand dragons are most fond of lizards and rodents as food then the older they get the larger they the prayer's that they stalk young adult in adults and dragons eat goats jackals mature adult and older dragons go after cattle camels crocodiles and even giant lizards sand dragons acquire a good deal of treasure although they have no real use for it aside from bait for their prey usually they generally burrow in the sand up under the layers and lie waiting for the sound of shovels digging toward them sand dragons hunted by flying above the ground just sort of gliding over the the desert surface looking for herds of careful the concentrations are pray they wait for nightfall and land and burrow up beneath their targets using the tremor sense to determine when an animal is in a correct position the sound dragon then bursts forth snatches up the startled prey in its mouth or claws and then flies off to devour it in privacy which can be quite confusing if you're in it a camping environment and all of a sudden the ground explodes and then somebody's just gone ultimately as sands dragon might locate a trade route and bury herself in the sand along the side of the road waiting for a caravan to past they've really attacked from the sky as this simply too few clouds to provide the kind of concealment a sand dragon prefers the unique trick on a breath weapon is a swirling flesh ripping cone of grit and they commonly use arcane arts such as dispel magic creating confusing sounds in walls of sand and sand storms okay on with the show and a lot of I know a lot of you expressed a lot of interest in this next one drow always a popular topic what Coupee do tells us that in the Forgotten Realms the dark hours we once ancient tribes of early theater and my era my eret are elves the vacuums they were transformed into the drow by the cell during who cast down and drove them underground and the light-skinned elves who the drow called the theory elves because of the earth Aryans savagery during the crown wars it was the early theory who made the first alliance between elves and Dragons for example the Dark Elves had fallen under the influence of a Russian II who was transformed into loss and cast down into the demon web pits along with his son Viren by the elven god coral and lara Thiam because of lulls in Varun's attempt to take control of the elven Pantheon which included a roshni's seduction of an attempted murder of Carol and Laura thean the drow have lived ever since underground and now many thousands of years later the largest rouse civilization civilization is the subterranean city of worth rare with a population of 400,000 much more famous for the people of Earth though is the city of means Oak Barrens an popularized and novel's the city airs only 20,000 dry land and hundreds of thousands of humanoid slaves such as goblins kobolds bugbears Dwenger swift nibbly ox ogres minotaurs and giants as well as herds of Rafi kept his livestock the city trades poisons mushroom riding lizards spell scrolls wine and water from the the dag lake lives there it's also the focus of attention of most of the drow dragons these creatures are an offshoot of both the map the drow and the shadow dragon more precisely of the zekiel the half shadow dragon drow true shadow dragons are appear almost substantial with dark and translucent scales which help them camouflage Berkeley perfectly and the darkness around them though although they are often mistaken for black dragons their horns point backwards from the skull not forwards and down like true black dragons a long fringe of spines emerge from the back of the neck and they have a powerful tail which makes them superb at swimming through the great lakes and oceans of the deep under dark on average an dead old shadow dragon is between 20 feet and 30 feet long or six point one meters to nine point one meters in length and has a more healthy-looking muscular but lean can build compared to a black dragon the cycle and had the abilities of a drow and a half dragon of Shadow Dragon patron parentage their drow blood gave them a supernatural dexterity unlike normal drow the dragon blood a raised their drowse physical frailty and made them stronger and made their already quite keen minds sharper and personality stronger a more sort of predatory nature to them the drow heritage has also provided anything worth protection against magic that targets their mind including an immunity to sleep and also against magic in general and just basic leader assistance the draconic side provides them not only an outright immunity against being paralyzed but it also protects them from physical attacks so they really wear armor as drow they can see very well in the outer darkness and can cast dancing lights fairy fire and darkness as well as levitation as half you know dragons they have the ability to breathe life sapping energy against their foes in the form of a cone of shadows this also provided a resistance to any life draining effects directed at them another trait most distinctive is that cycle head dragon wins normally only half dragons of a much larger species could develop this spectacular trait but in the case of the cycle the pairing of drow and shadow dragon resulted in a particularly strong and capable offspring offspring well-suited for both life underground and the perfection of the roguish arts there are some of the most formidable humanoid fighters when is it ever likely to face above ground or below the drow dragon not a race that sprang up on its own all shared route dragons trace their ancestry back to clean Jays red the clan of Shadow dragons who enslaved the drought of the city of ulsan in - 221d are that's Dale rigging ritalin but were killed by their own half dragon offspring and servants in 634 dr the population of chilsen then travel to the plane of shadows to invade the armies of men's oberyn's are bent on killing them for being here attacks against loss in 734 dr after found in this city a chill morrison they came into conflict with clan and more lair málaga during this conflict house jays read at the time fulfilling the duties of a secret police force dedicated to finding and killing shape-shifting infiltrators stole from the malorum the necessary magic to divide divide their dragon enter chronic parts i've got a video on the mole or grimmer as well i'll put a link on the screen now for that the mole gram quite an interest in bad guy evil race of supernatural creatures shapeshifters so they stole the magic necessary to divide the drow and dragon parts and the race of the drought dragon was born as a result of that so there are magical creation almost basically a mage brood Cree creature in eleven thirty sixty our house Jared and with it a few drow dragons returned tutorial and in 1372 dr9 drow dragons were known to exist on torille it is unknown how many of them still lived in the show plane of shadow intial Morrison eight of the aforementioned drow Dragons formed the leadership of the Jays red Chilton the ninth was jarred Tulsans leader more still more skills daughter new revering new theorem drow Dragons Luke adjacent reproduction is a bit of a mystery on the one hand the child of a drow dragon and a drow was stated by as a goal so basically a half dragon and they had at NZ's tendency to produce more male half dragons than than female ones but those were still half dragons nor veeram musicals Jared's daughter was kidnapped in 1241 deer while still in the womb of your mother and only found in 1350 idea she was already a drought dragon despite not having undergone any rituals that turned her into one so it may be some sort of transformative psychological process brought about by environmental amend of individual elements drow dragons are shadow dragons but at the same time they are also drought they have the same abilities as the Shadow Dragon which they developed further as they age but add to this the ability to change into an individual growl form and back to dragon form at will and for as long as they desire to do so so they have an inherent predisposition towards the sorcery and magical power elemental power which that just makes them even more scary really the cycle and drought dragons are still very much active in the underworld of torille and can turn out to change the face of drow civilization if they can tell you about their business of undermining means Oberon's on and attacking the faith of love but they face conflict with the goddess of treachery herself one of the most nasty civilizations on the planet and one of the most harsh environments so they've got this odds stacked against them and they're still relatively few in number still I have more dragons to bring for you in future videos there's also the weird dragons which are coming up soon as well as the terrifying catastrophic dragons catastrophe dragons of fourth editions Monster Manual 3 published in 2010 some of my favourite elemental plane terrors and creatures I suspect may be locked away in many deep folds and the lowest underdog or prepped and safely contained within their own deme planes by powerful beings of ancient times I also have some more planted dragons the void dragon and many more as well as lots of draconic creatures such as the Drakon tor and various spawns of TM 8 plus the spell scale another draconic player character race meanwhile please like the video if you enjoyed watching it all the way to the end subscribe to the channel if you like this sort of content in your life check out my patreon from some exclusive content and all these full scripts for these videos buy some merchandise wear your geek with pride check out patron blades for a mighty smooth shave and as always thanks for listening and I'll be back with more for you very soon [Music] you

Channel: AJ Pickett

Views: 164,651

Keywords: aj pickett, the mighty gluestick, monster ecology, dragon, new dragons, rare dragons, roleplaying, DnD, 5th edition, 5E, Forgotten Realms, Toril, Faerun, Dungeon Master, draconic, drow, underdark, dungeons and dragons, d&d lore, dark elves, dungeons & dragons, forgotten realms lore, dark elf, dnd lore, fifth edition, d&d history, d&d 5e, tabletop games, dungeon & dragons, drow lore, roleplaying games, d&d creatures, d&d monsters, d&d story, monster manual, dungeon mastery

Id: fLe7uzOXl_Q

Length: 27min 34sec (1654 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 10 2019