Purple Dragons: The Mythical D&D Apex Predator

welcome to monster of the week the only show on the internet that asks the question why aren't there purple dragons in DND not to spoil the entire video here or anything but there totally are and they're terrifying I mean sure all dragons are terrifying in their own way but purple dragons topped the charts in so many ways and we're gonna cover all of them as always my goal this week is to cover the publication history of purple dragons as well as their in-game lore ecology a few plot Hooks and of course present you with some shiny new 5th edition stats 20 adventurers watching steal thy selves for Beyond here there be dragons foreign [Music] I did a video on the yellow dragon in which I talked about the old Dragon magazine articles discussing draconic color theory as well as the existence of yellow orange and purple dragons since then purple and orange dragons have been among the most requested monsters I've ever received for a creature to cover on Monster of the week I won't bore you with all the stuff about the rby color wheel in tiamat's murdered sister by going over it all again so if you haven't already seen the original video I'll link to that in a pinned comment down below and I'd recommend checking it out first if you've already seen that video or you simply fancy yourself the rebellious sword then get comfy and let's talk about purple people eaters the purple dragon first appeared in the aforementioned Dragon magazine article in issue number 65. following the base logic that chromatic dragons of differing colors can combine to make new species they are the result of red and blue dragons copulating they're defining physical traits are of course their purple scales a pair of straight and Jagged horns as well as a set of spikes that runs from the tip of their head all the way down to the end of their tail purple dragons can make their layers in almost any climate however they will always make sure to build a nest that is deep underground your typical Purple Dragon Lair is going to be a network of interconnected tunnels and of course there will be a few large Chambers which all these tunnels are interconnected to much like the typical YouTuber purple dragons tend to build their layers with as little natural light as possible ideally living in total darkness they do this for two reasons one it makes them seem cool and edgy to all their dragon friends two it makes the blinding effect of their breath weapon much more potent and what is the purple dragon's breath weapon you may ask well as children of red and blue chromatic dragons they have a healthy dose of both fire and lightning in their DNA which results in a spectacular tool of Destruction purple dragons breathe plasma so hot it can melt through steel and bypass fire resistance so brilliant is the light created by their breath weapon it can actually blind anybody who's looking directly into it and in complete darkness this effect is only compounded I mean there's a reason that welders wear face and eye protection when working so close to such a brilliant flame this breath Weapon by the way is by far the most lethal natural attack that any dragon has access to across all of d d but more on that later another important topic we need to touch on here is something most dragons are really good at but purple dragons excel at and that is gathering minions [Music] purple dragons are all born with the innate ability to understand and be understood by all sentient creatures this means that even as wormlings they're gonna be born with conversational abilities Beyond even some of the most eloquent speakers of other peoples and by the time they start to actually grow up they're liable to have already begun amassing loyal servants see to a purple dragon a horde of loyal followers is more precious than a mountain of gold and while you definitely will find some of the classic and more common draconic minions around such as Cobalts and half dragons and cultists purple dragons make a point of also recruiting stealthy and inconspicuous creatures such as doppelgangers assassins and basically anyone that they can use their typical offer for an arrangement like this is protection and trinkets in exchange for important information but make no mistake this is less of a negotiation in more of a here's what's going to happen type situation a small village in the dragon's territory for example might only be allowed to exist because the mayor of said town is working on behalf of the Dragon to inform them about the goings-on in a nearby Capital City purple dragons are extremely arrogant and I mean most dragons are but purple dragons especially think very highly of themselves and they love nothing more than to watch these masterful plans unfurl to bring ruin on their rivals on the one hand say you have a red dragon who's extremely pissed off at a town of local peasants simply burning the entire place to Ash might be enough to quell that dragon's wrath if the people in that Village did something to anger it where on the other hand a purple dragon would much rather watch the slow decline in generational suffering and ultimate destruction of that settlement at the hands of its agents who have interceded and are corrupting the place from within but that only scratches the surface of what makes a purple dragon truly terrifying [Laughter] something that I think sets the purple dragon apart from its kin and honestly adds a major element of horror to this creature is the fact that they are nocturnal let's just think about the ramifications of that for a moment seeing a powerful chromatic Dragon such as a red dragon approaching on the horizon is horrific in its own way sure but a dragon that attacks suddenly in the dead of night is nothing short of shock and awe-inspiring using this naturally dark and midnight toned coloration to their advantage they fly high above the clouds to make themselves indiscernible from the night sky and once they have located their target they will dive down suddenly from the darkness and attack just on an individual level this is awful right being ambushed by an apex predator like a dragon in the middle of the night is never going to be an ideal situation but think about the climate of fear that something like this would breed if you're living in a city which is under the thumb of a big purple dragon you know that you are never safe at any time it could just appear seemingly at random from the sky especially if it's night time and there's no forewarning to that you just have to always be worried that's always something that might happen to you I also Imagine in the lands surrounding a purple Dragon's Lair there's all kinds of certain customs and things that are adhered to for example having campfires at night when you're traveling is just something that's never done by adventurers or traveling Merchants lighting a fire while you're on the road is basically ringing a dinner bell that says hey there are people here another factor that contributes to this reputation of the Purple Dragon being analogous with a horrible death is the fact that they are family oriented unlike most other dragons after a purple dragon is born it will stick around with its parents for quite some time time most other dragons tend to take a pretty claws off approach to Parenting but purple dragons not only remain together to raise their children as a pair they also make an effort to keep raising them and protecting them until those dragons graduate and go off to college so to speak they only really leave the nest when there has either been some sort of disagreement within the family causing them to be forced out or making them leave on their own or once they've fully transitioned into adulthood and they want to go out and carve out a slice of the world for themselves so to speak but those Family Ties still remain relevant even once the adult children have moved on to greener pastures I'm sure they're expected to call with sending zones or something at least once a week now before we go any further we need to take a step back and talk about yet another species of dragons the Deep dragons deep dragons are now in 5th edition thanks to fizbane's treasury of dragons and a lot of people make the mistake of conflating them with purple dragons they do share a few similarities not the least of which being they're both purple scaled and they both live underground but purple dragons are totally different I think I only say I think because the fourth edition drachnomicon only serves to muddy the waters when it comes to this topic by including lore which specifically says purple dragons also known as deep dragons are possibly the least well known of the chromatic Dragon family now personally I chalk this up to 4th edition lore weirdness but bring up the chart speaking strictly from a lore and ecology perspective there are a ton of differences between purple dragons and deep dragons for one their breath weapon deep dragons exhale a cloud of psychoactive spores which cause fear and psychic damage to those who are unfortunate enough to inhale them and as we've already established purple dragons breathe plasma You could argue that breathing steel melting plasma is also fear-inducing but it's not really the same thing is it and while both purple dragons and deep dragons do in fact live underground deep dragons specifically live in the underdark while purple dragons live not quite so deep this all tells me that purple dragons are indeed distinct from Deep dragons but fourth edition was just kind of lazy about their lore in my opinion because they didn't want to have to worry about printing two separate dragons for however many more books they were going to be included in but that's just my opinion however it does open the door to some really interesting speculation perhaps this misunderstanding of information when it comes to deep and purple dragons isn't just a meta game thing but it's actually something that Scholars and historians debate within the world of your d d game maybe deep dragons actually used to be purple dragons but they stem from a lineage that dug so deep they found themselves trapped in the underdark and became lost then over time they evolved and adapted to their new environment thus splitting the species down two separate evolutionary lines these are the kind of things that I think are worth considering when lore from one edition doesn't necessarily match up with lore from another Edition there isn't necessarily always going to be a Canon explanation for why game lore changes between printings of the game but it gives you a chance to invent one which is pretty cool also one more thing this has nothing to do with the rest of the video but I need to vent to you about something this purple dragon shown in the fourth edition dracnomicon is indeed not even a dragon but a wyvern its arms are very much attached to its wings and that's like the one thing you have to keep in mind when you're drawing art for Dragons or wyverns respectively is it silly of me to bring this up yes is it pedantic absolutely but God damn it it's half the name of the game it's literally called Dungeons and Dragons and you can't even get your dragons drawn [Music] foreign [Music] I feel like I talk about this every single time we cover a dragon on this channel but it's worth saying because at its core the purple dragon can do all the same stuff that any other dragon can do it's got big claws big jaws and it can fly so rather than go over all the stuff that we've all already know I'm gonna focus on what makes the purple dragon unique and that starts with its breath weapon purple dragons exhale a cone of plasma that deals massive amounts of fire damage however unlike the fire created by their red ancestors this plasma breath bypasses all fire resistance so sorry to all you tiefling players watching yet another huge difference here is that the Dragon Gets to choose whether it wants to breathe a cone of plasma or a line the official explanation for this is that it has more complex muscles in the organ responsible for regulating the dragon's breath but I like to think it just uses its thumb over one of its nostrils like a kid spraying their sibling in the backyard with a hose the other thing you have to keep in mind and be careful of when it comes to this dragon's plasma breath is that it is in fact so bright it can cause creatures within a certain radius to go blind for up to four rounds in my opinion the only thing worse than being turned to death by a plasma breathing dragon is being burned to death and not being able to see anything while it happens now that might seem brutal which it absolutely is but the purple dragon has a third way in which it can use its breath weapon that will send even the most stalwart foes reeling rather than breathing a cone or a line of plasma the dragon can opt for a highly concentrated blast that targets only one creature this action is an attack roll and it does consume one charge of the dragon's breath but the results are devastating if the attack lands the plasma Spear of the Purple Dragon deals the same amount of damage as its breath weapon except because it's a single target attack the dragon is making an attack roll which means if it does connect there's no saving thrill you're just gonna take the full amount of damage that it can dull out this attack is special too because it ignores any cover bonuses granted by any object or armor that isn't made of adamantine the logic here is that the plasma spear will simply bore straight through it like a [ __ ] laser now because this attack shoots a hole straight through its target cauterizing the wound like a lightsaber any hit points lost due to this attack cannot be healed at least not until the target is treated with restoration magic and on the slight chance that this attack is a critical hit not only is it going to cause a ton of extra damage but it's also going to slice off one of the target's limbs if it has any so basically anytime the purple dragon just absolutely has to kill that one pesky Target this is going to be its attack of choice as far as actually building a combat encounter with this creature goes keep in mind the purple dragon's penchant for stealth and deception from up High they'll likely start combat by dropping a plasma spear on whoever they feel is the biggest threat then they're liable to brazenly dive down from the clouds crushing anyone beneath them and unleashing their plasma breath on the biggest group of enemies that oppose them one thing you should keep in mind though is that if the dragon's purpose for attacking is that it's hunting for food it's unlikely to actually make use of its plasma breath the aftermath of its breath weapon usually doesn't leave behind much meat for consumption it's usually just ash and maybe the odd bone fragment here or there but when the dragon is on the defensive things can certainly look a lot different depending on the age category of the Dragon so let's take a moment here to talk about the Dragon's Lair foreign [Music] dragons make their homes in their recesses of the earth forming labyrinthine tunnel systems that undercut entire regions their layers often open up in lots of different locations which makes it really tough for anyone to figure out exactly where the layer is all of these entrances are likely going to be very well hidden behind rocks or bits of overgrowth keep in mind that something which might prove a huge obstacle for a group of people looking for an entrance to this layer such as a massive pile of rocks covering up an entrance point is not as big of a deal for a dragon to Simply swat out of the way as it would be for a group of people purple dragons can make themselves at home pretty much anywhere but they often prefer Windswept planes and foothills since these places tend to be ripe with wild animals and livestock to feed upon another thing that purple dragons actively want to be near is settlements and cities they want to be close to these places because they will inevitably seek to hold dominion over them all these interconnected tunnels under the ground are bound on occasion to open up into already existing cave systems or other pockets of the underdark that are particularly close to the surface as a result the lands surrounding a purple Dragon's Lair are often filled with creatures such as trolls Minotaur and basilisks which are commonly only found in cave type environments on some occasions this can even lead to an uptick in Undead activity as the purple dragon's burrowing can often disturb old catacombs or ancient tombs which have been long since forgotten so in a bizarre twist a sudden upswing of Undead creatures might not be due to an evil Necromancer but rather a careless purple dragon now like other big powerful and ancient dragons the mere presence of a purple dragon can also alter the landscape around its lair in the case of the Purple Dragon it's layer is surrounded by a veil of darkness which causes all regular light to be reduced to dim light and all dim light to be snuffed out entirely this is mostly a flavor detail but it is going to affect the game in a sense where light sources will only carry so far in a torch that normally emits a 60-foot radius of visibility is now going to be reduced to 30 feet but something that will potentially have huge ramifications depending on your party composition is that dark vision does not function when within the layer of an ancient purple dragon so yes you may have dark vision but your character with dark vision is as blind as a bat in the presence of an ancient purple dragon just like the rest of us so as the party gets closer and closer to the purple Dragon's Lair suddenly that sputtering torch is the only thing standing between them and the Edge of Darkness I love this as a unique Regional effect because it actively changes how the players might choose to approach this problem and play the game and they might not even realize that it's a problem to be approached from a different angle until they get close enough where that dark vision suddenly starts to fade and I think that's really fun but what might the dragon actually do when the party approaches its lair let's find out together with the dragon's combat abilities any plot line you could successfully do with another dragon is going to be possible here but there are also a few I think the purple dragon is especially suited for for example perhaps the local Thieves Guild is actually being run by a purple dragon oh what a surprise that will be but the real twist isn't just that the master of Thieves is indeed a purple dragon but that the Dragon's Lair is at the center of a country and all the guilds from every small town and major city alike are connected via this underground network of tunnels which all lead to an ancient Dragon's Lair in fact it suddenly seems that this purple dragon has been using the entire country running things from behind the scenes in the shadows pulling the strings all to Aid in a bed whatever its end goals happen to be and maybe it's even a whole crime family of purple dragons after all that are known for sticking together maybe you have this ancient purple godfather-esque dragon kind of at the center of everything nesting underneath the capital city while various other dragons who are all related to it look after the smaller cities and settlements and what happens when the players kill one of those dragons after all since they do stick together much longer than other dragons do if you kill one purple dragon you better be damn sure you've killed every purple dragon in the entire area you mess with one of us you mess with all of us trust me you do not want to be on the Revenge list of a purple dragon parents conversely if a group of adventurers ever saves a purple dragon from hunters and manages to get it back to the purple dragon's parents they will be likely to reward them handsomely it certainly wouldn't suck to be in the good graces of an ancient purple dragon that is well connected throughout the entire Kingdom if you want to throw your players for a loop maybe give them a kind of dragon hunting Quest where they are tasked with investigating sightings of of a black dragon in a nearby wood after all due to their dark scales and nocturnal habits they can be very difficult to differentiate from black dragons when seen from a distance and as the party moves closer to the place where the dragon was spotted any player characters that are familiar with Dragons might start to notice that things are somewhat off that the normal signs of a black dragon's presence are not present only once they actually discover the creature will they realize they've stumbled upon something much much worse I do also love the idea of running this creature like it's from a horror story you know you have your party in this Village and some creature is attacking at night preying on livestock leaving nothing behind the party then has to go investigate they're likely in for a shock when they discover the culprit is indeed a purple dragon in any case whatever you choose to do with the purple dragon I think they are a truly awesome addition to the iconic catalog of creatures which we have in 5th edition linked Down Below in the description is a Google Document which contains everything you will need to run this creature successfully so if you're not playing a D and D or second edition or any of the other versions of the game that this dragon has sort of existed in in some way or another but you are playing fifth edition you can find all that stuff down there and like I said everything you need to use this creature at the table is in tow and of course if you are one of my awesome patrons over on the patreon page you will find the 5th edition dungeon dad special PDF which has all the same information but a much cooler presentation with the artwork and all kinds of lovely graphic design work done by a friend of the channel Taryn better known as indestructible and like I said that's just all on the patreon page speaking of patrons thank you guys all so much for the support and it is time for patron of the week this week's randomly selected Patron is madgex from Frost thank you so much for the support and don't forget to stay frosty and thank you so much for watching I do want to give a special shout out this week to Sean Oz Dave AKA Jeebs Tamika AKA Meeks Janie AKA Andy and Andrew also known as Dr P for sending me this dope hoodie it's very involved I know it looks very red from the front but look check this out bam thank you guys so much for the lovely gift I hope you guys are having a good game session this weekend and don't forget Little Gus is always watching one other shout out I want to do here which I don't know I don't know if this is a shout out or not but I want to talk about a Kickstarter that I'm working on is it still a shout out if you're talking about something that you're directly involved with I have no idea but I want to talk to you about the quintessential guide to monster Encounters this is a book that I am working on directly with Wally DM and Mr tarasque or two other cool d d YouTubers that have content not entirely to similar more from mine but while he does content all about traps and puzzles and that kind of thing Mr trash does a lot of like reviews and digging into various d d products so the three of us have combined our expertise in various knowledge to make a really cool monster book that's all about bringing some new monsters to fifth edition as well as bringing them with like specific encounters so that you can look at every single one of these monsters and run a really cool and compelling encounter at various levels of play with those monsters along with tons of stuff about like you know how we build encounters Our advice about building monster encounters and all kinds of other bells and whistles we've got a bunch of really cool guest writers set up for stretch goals as well that's going to be going to Kickstarter our aiming for the 25th of October so we'll see if we can hit that deadline we're working really hard on the preview PDF right now but you can subscribe to like follow it on Kickstarter which I will link down to in the comments as well so if you want to check that out and at least give it a look-see see if it's something you might be interested in that would mean the world to me and I know it would mean the world to my two companions here and making this really neat book we're all really excited about it uh yeah I also just want to apologize to all of you guys for the lack of uploads and content and just general presence over the past month as many of you guys know I've been dealing with some personal issues in addition to that my mom passed away on September 1st due to cancer which she had been dealing with for quite some time so you know it's it's been really tough um we're getting through it though and I just want to truly say thank you to this entire Community you guys have really gotten me through all of this in a way and there's been so many kind messages from people and like I know I have not had time or really the wherewithal to respond to every single one of them but there's so many messages and just cries from support from other people like other YouTubers and stuff in the community but also just from all of you guys through Discord and Twitter mostly um so I just really wanted to take a moment to thank all of you guys for that we are slowly getting back into the swing of things here so as far as cycles and content and all that stuff goes upload Cycles is what I'm looking for um we should be pretty much back on schedule so hopefully we'll get back to weekly uploads going forward uh no promises for the next couple weeks as there's still some things that are wrapping up but I just wanted to explain to you guys where I've been and what's been going on also especially to all of you patrons who have just stuck with me even though her um wasn't a lot of con there was no content going up on the channel over the past month I actually gained new supporters on patreon overall some people did leave in like that's totally cool I get it I wasn't uploading anything I don't expect you to just give me money for free but a lot of you stuck with me and after I announced I was coming back a bunch of the people who left came back and said okay cool I'm back into this now and a bunch of new people signed up during the month that I wasn't even uploading anything um and that really means a lot to me it's been a lot of support just from everywhere both emotionally mentally but also like literally monetarily you guys over on patreon have been helping me and my family get through this so yeah I um I'm not gonna dwell on this forever I just felt it was really important to include and at least my first video back to let you guys know just thank you it truly means the world to me um anyways yeah I could ramble on and on about this forever I will leave it at that uh just thank you and uh yeah I'll see you in the next one until then [Music]

Channel: Dungeon Dad

Views: 779,879

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: 2jWz3kyKVKY

Length: 29min 7sec (1747 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 07 2022