The Dragon D&D Tried To Erase From Its History

in the world of the Forgotten Realms stories speak of where dragons or song dragons which are variously described as beautiful humans transformed into dragons or as a distinct variety of metallic dragon the world of greyhawk has Legends of similar dragons called either Gray Hawk dragons or steel dragons which are said to favor life among humanoids in the hustle and bustle of great cities the creatures featured in these Legends are almost certainly copper silver or other metallic Dragons Who simply favored that particular form laughs I disagree hello and welcome to monster of the week the only show on the internet that loudly and proudly declares all dragons are valid today is an exciting day because we are setting out on a new adventure in much the same way that we covered all of the chromatic dragons that were forgotten and left out of 5th edition d d starting with this episode we're going to dig up and Revitalize the other side of the draconic spectrum starting with the most requested member of the metallic family tree the steel dragon as always today I'll be going over the steel dragons publication history it's lore across the many worlds and editions of Dungeons and Dragons as well as its in-game stats and abilities ultimately converting the dragon into 5th edition with some new art and some 5V stats I've been looking forward to this one for quite some time so without further delay wait what the hell is that oh gods are we being scryed on again ah now I will know all my DM secrets we won't be having a repeat of the Chrono Tyran next week wait what the hell is Nord v-pin it's nordvpn and it's gonna stop you from scrying on all of my DM prep are you tired of pesky divination Wizards scrying on you to steal your information and collect your most treasured Arcane secrets well thanks to this week's sponsor nordvpn you can browse the web knowing your spell formulas and secure information like passwords or personal details are kept out of Nefarious hands a VPN 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right now you don't even have to be a student which is the best kind of back to school promotion so thank you so much Nord for sponsoring this video about one of the most anticipated creatures of the year and speaking of which it's time for you to steal yourselves get it because they're steel dragons before it's time to talk about a draconic creature forged in the hottest fires of spicy lore and forgotten history thank you foreign [Music] steel dragons have a long and storied history that starts in the year 1988. it's showtime the first time we would ever see something akin to a steel dragon would be in greyhawk Adventures written primarily by James Ward as one of the players sitting at the table of Gary gygax's greyhawk campaign he was more than qualified to make content in the setting and one of the things he included in his book was the greyhawk Dragon A peculiar creature that was unlike other dragons in many ways people liked this Dragon so much that before long it had been fully transitioned with a few minor changes to the creature's lore into the repertoire of metallic dragons found in faerun and other setting agnostic products so what the hell even is a steel dragon and why were people so fascinated by them well let's start off with the creatures physiology they may have the same general shape as most other dragons but at Birth their scales are a bluish gray eventually becoming a brilliant burnished steel color as the creature ages the brighter the dragon scales are typically the older that specimen is their two most iconic features aside from the color of their scales of course would be their segmented wings and extremely expressive faces the wings of a steel dragon look less like traditional leathery dragon wings and more like bundles of tightly packed blades and their highly expressive faces are surrounded by long spines that grow from the creature's head and neck but they often don't actually look like dragons rather than living their life in the form of a massive Dragon soaring the skies they prefer to alter their appearance with magic and take on the form of a humanoid creature they will spend the vast majority of their life essentially wearing a costume that allows them to fit in with the various humanoid societies of the world this could be any race of creatures is ranging from Orcs to elves but they do have a certain fondness and Fascinations specifically with humans this Fascination and desire for not just knowledge but true understanding of the experience that so many of these other humanoid creatures live leads them to Dawn their humanoid disguise and live out many different lifetimes among the peoples they're so fascinated by they often use their magic to take on the role of a philosopher museum curator or other individual within society that has lots of opportunity to interact with a wide variety of others that said though they've also been known to take on roles such as that of a simple Merchant a town guard or even a beggar on the street they don't want to Simply live among the Upper Crust of high society they want to understand the breadth of human experience in as profound a way as possible because of this they never break character unless it is absolutely necessary it will go to extreme lengths to protect their true through identity even the dragon's closest friends will likely never actually know the true nature of their companion in fact there are only three instances in which this Dragon will drop its disguise and reveal its true form the first is simply when the creature's life is threatened if the dragon is ever about to be killed and is unable to escape it will definitely choose to drop the charade in favor of saving its own life the second is when it needs to eat like really eat while in the form of Jim the butcher the dragon can certainly eat three Square meals per day in fact they're known to really enjoy cooking and appreciate a well-prepared meal but the fact of the matter is that even when magically altered the dragon still must consume enough energy to support its massive form once it reaches adulthood and Beyond it can conserve its energy fairly efficiently but once every couple months or so the dragon must leave the city in order to hunt for a proper meal and after the dragon has stuffed itself with a few deer or other game animal it's happy to return to the city and resume its LARP the third situation in which this dragon can be found in its true form is when it is time for it to drop an identity and presume a new one most dragons live for a ludicrously long amount of time to the point where as far as Mortals are concerned they might as well be ageless and the average humanoid lifespan elves and dwarves withstanding is somewhere on the sub 100 Year side of things so the dragon uses its magic to subtly mimic the effects of Aging over a long period of time but eventually people will start asking questions if the town mayor has been alive for 400 years when they feel it's time to lay an identity to rest they will either fake their own death or leave town never to be seen again some will even go as far as to have a proper funeral be buried in a casket and then use teleportation magic to slip away once the deed is done now during this time between presumed identities the dragon has to do two things it must decide who its new identity is going to be and plan accordingly while its first identity may now be dead as far as everyone it knew is concerned the dragon is likely going to return to the same city under the guise of someone else so it has to prepare for that integration but before it can do that it must undergo a ritual called the vaulting this is specifically taken from the Gray Hawk lore but I think it's way too interesting to not be included steel dragons don't hoard gold or treasure they hoard the vast breath of their experience to them each lifetime lived in memories collected are as precious jewels to add to its collection but with this collection of lived experience also comes anxiety anxiety that the knowledge gleaned from other lives might taint the experience of their next life in other words steel dragons don't want to put themselves in a position where they have the option to metagame so they enact this vaulting ritual which allows them to store all of their experiences from a certain period of time deep within their subconscious and kind of pack it away back in their psyche once the ritual is complete all of those lived experiences and memories will feel to them as though they were a half remembered dream maybe even belonging to somebody else and that's exactly how they like it they can always always go into their memory Vault and relish the things that they've done in the past but on the day-to-day they don't have the burden of knowledge Weighing on them so that they can live the most authentic version of whatever life they are currently living they're tourists in the Realms of humanoids and shorter-lived creatures and they will do pretty much anything to make sure their immersion isn't broken so while you may be playing Dungeons and Dragons the Steel Dragon wants to play houses in humans it's also possible that the dragon might revert back to its draconic form in order to protect other creatures it cares about or even the city itself if a large enough threat appears but it really doesn't want to do that and will exhaust every possible alternative before doing so sometimes even refraining from action because going through hardships is all just another part of the human experience and if the dragon simply shifts into a dragon every time an orcish warband raids the town and will never know what it's like to truly be terrified they are generally lawful good natured so if something dire enough presents itself they could maybe be convinced to tip the scales time to tip the skin but that lawful part of lawful good is not always easy to overcome also it's worth noting they're not locked into any set alignment in fact there's precedent for steel dragons throughout the history of the Forgotten Realms that have taken on roles others might consider less than Savory to such individuals taking on the role of a tyrannical Emperor or a vicious pirate Captain is all just another element of the experience that some humanoid creatures live every day fortunately most steel dragons are good-natured but in an area where steel dragons are known to be you can never be too careful dealing with a villainous individual no matter how weak they might first appear because even without their draconic powers they are still just massively intelligent entities that are likely going to be very good at playing whatever role they set out to play one little Quirk that I find especially endearing is that every Steel Dragon always includes a sort of calling card in their appearance a tiny little detail that outs their true identity it might be a streak of Steely gray hair or a single blind grayed eye sometimes it can even be a worn piece of jewelry or other trinket but whatever the case this acts both as a single true piece of their identity and as a sort of calling card to other steel dragons speaking of other steel dragons they're often cordial with one another if they're existing in the same city but they very rarely interact after all their primary interest is learning about the other species of the world so what do they need to talk to a steel dragon for they already know about them they may stop to trade stories from time to time but generally they keep to themselves now with regards to this vaulting ritual there is one other component we need to discuss once the dragon has actually reached the end of its impossibly long lifespan they enter a period that they refer to as the reflection while in this state the dragon becomes nearly in Earth from the outside they seem to just be going into a long and deep sleep staying still is a stone during this time the dragon internally delves into their mind Vault and vividly relives every one of their most precious memories feeling them as if experiencing them for the first time once again this process can take hundreds if not thousands of years since the dragon is basically reliving its entire life for a second time however it will keep the memories from each life moving forward eventually Awakening with their entire lived experience intact and present in the dragon's mind altogether for the first time the dragon then undergoes the Monumental task of compiling everything it has learned everything the dragon has come to understand about the world and the people who live in it is then written into tomes put into works of art artifacts and items and be with magic the dragon believes to be significant it then arranges to have all of its work dispersed into the world to the people that it once walked among with the hope that it's centuries of life and all of its lived experiences might somehow help the coming generations and once the dragon is secure in its Mission knowing its vast horde of knowledge has been gifted to the people who gave it so many magnificent lives it finally allows itself to close its eyes one final time in the world of greyhawk Steel dragons believed that they were created by the god IO specifically for the purpose that the other races of the world might learn from the dragon's observations of them they see themselves as something akin to a bird but on a much larger Cosmic scale hoping to weave a grand story together that might further the cause of those with shorter life spans in fact it's said that when a steel dragon dies IO himself escorts them Across the Threshold of death and presents them with a test to determine if they have gained sufficient wisdom during their many lives if they pass they move on to the afterlife becoming one with IO himself and if they fail well they're reincarnated back into the material world to repeat the whole process all over again in many ways the Steel Dragon feels heavily inspired by Buddhism and samsata and I don't think that's my accident it's honestly really cool to see ideas like this expressed through creatures in Dungeons and Dragons through a metallic dragon no less but with all that said hopefully that gives you a good idea of what a steel dragon is and why people find them so compelling and for all the story and lore options that this creature presents when they do actually fight in their draconic forms it's something to behold so let's talk a little bit about what a steel dragon can do when it decides to take the mask off most of you already know the drill by now and in order to not waste anyone's time I'm not going to go over all the typical Dragon stuff yes they have claws yes they have a bite yes they can fly very fast instead of talking about that though we're going to talk about what makes the Steel Dragon unique amongst other dragons for starters they have the change shape action this works very much like the polymorph spell except it only allows the dragon to shift between its chosen humanoid form and the form of a Dragon something that does make this Dragon a lot more difficult to deal with however is its limited magic immunity trait this functions very similarly to the way the rock Shaw says magic immunity works but in different degrees at the wormling stage this dragon is immune to all magical effects of level 2 or lower unless it wants to be affected this immunity increases to spells of level 4 when they're young level six when they're adults and level 7 when they're ancient not only is this just extremely valuable in combat by shutting down a swathe of potential threats it's also great for when the dragon is just going about its daily business because it prevents magical detection spells meant to root out shapeshifters and doppelgangers from discovering the dragon's true nature it also just gives them advantage on saving throws against magical effects that they're not already immune to so that's nice it's breath weapon is no joke either it can choose whether it wants to breathe a line of acid or a cone of poisonous gas which is fantastic its acid breath simply fires in a straight line and does a bunch of acid damage however its poison breath doesn't simply cause a cone of poison damage to occur I mean it does do that but it also causes the creature to stabilize if they hit zero hit points and then awaken 1D 6 hours later with one HP since most steel dragons aren't particularly violent having access to a giant cone of knockout gas is very useful to them if the dragon ever finds itself in a situation where a whole bunch of people are about to see its true form it can simply knock them all out escape and nobody will be the wiser the only other little Quirk on the stat block which is honestly more of a flavor detail than anything else is that this Dragon gains access to more languages as the creature ages as a wormling it can speak common and draconic but by the time it reaches ancient status it can speak common draconic dwarvish Elvish Goblin halfling orc and under common that's probably not going to happen in a fight but I think it's neat and ultimately the Steel Dragon really doesn't want to fight but if it's claws or force it is just as if not more dangerous than any other true Dragon they are also extremely smart so in any combat situation the dragon is going to be thinking four steps ahead of its opponent to try and end combat as quickly as possible arguably to a steel dragon one of the most important things is actually the location of the fight because if this dragon is encountered in its Lair it has some very powerful layer options that will give it tools to allow it to end a fight as quickly and decisively as possible [Music] foreign steel dragons being City dwellers often make their layers in stone Towers libraries colleges Villas or in some cases they might even consider an entire city to be their Lair the Dragon's Lair is almost always a place associated with the current Persona they've adopted for example a steel dragon under the guise of a cleric might consider the cathedral in the center of town to be their Lair or a dragon masquerading as a dock worker might hold domain over the entire Harbor whatever the case think about what kind of place might be connected to your Steel Dragon and how that creature may use it to their advantage because while in their Lair steel dragons have access to some pretty powerful layer actions that go beyond what layer actions normally do for most dragons this is great for the dragon because they've seldom very far away from their Lair and will gladly use it to their advantage if someone causes trouble especially if they can use their layer actions to avoid shifting into a dragon so to get us started on layer actions here the dragon can drain spell slots from creatures in its Lair and heal itself with the stolen Arcane energy if the target fails their save the dragon can also cause infrastructure to crumble and potentially Crush anyone that it deems an enemy and if the dragon simply wants to manipulate the battlefield it can cause large stone walls to spring up into existing walls to recede into the ground creating and destroying structures as it sees fit all of these abilities are usually going to be used by the dragon to Simply avoid combat but if backed into a corner or just particularly enraged for some reason any one of these layer actions can contribute to an absolutely lethal encounter with a pissed off Steel Dragon in terms of the regional effects placed upon the land by a legendary Steel Dragon I've come up with a few different things that are mostly positive first off all creatures within a mile of the Dragon's Lair can think more clearly and therefore get advantage on intelligence checks creatures that spend more than 24 hours in the Dragon's Lair will have to pass a saving throw or find themselves magically Charmed but this isn't going to be anything that will really negatively impact the creature they'll simply be unable to speak poorly of the place and if they enjoyed themselves may even feel compelled to tell others about the location this is a sort of subtle way for the dragon to spread information about its domain its layer to try and draw new creatures in so that it can meet more folks and lastly given the dragon's Bend towards law and order it knows of any creatures within three miles of its Lair that are chaotic in nature it doesn't have GPS tracking on them or anything but it's aware that they're at least present in the area you have so much Freedom when it comes to the Dragon's Lair and I highly encourage you to get creative with what kind of place the dragon might currently consider its home in fact leave a comment with your strangest Steel Dragon Persona and what their Lair might be if the kython video taught me anything it's that you guys come up with some wild speaking of let's move on and talk about how we might actually use this creature at the gaming table [Music] all right this is the part of the video I've been the most excited to film so for starters since literally anyone can be a steel dragon even me or you for that matter you can basically just add the Steel Dragon angle onto any NPC in your world just to give them a little extra Genesee quad to flesh out their backstory a bit more whether they're Friend or Foe Megan the Steel Dragon is sure to be interesting at least perhaps the local librarian is actually a steel dragon or maybe the town mayor or your college professor if you're playing in strix Haven literally anyone could be a steel dragon and that's great for a really unique role-playing challenge I can even see a character working out with their DM that they are in fact a steel dragon you'd have to be real careful with that and I wouldn't advise trying this out with just any gaming group but if done with lots of thought and care and the right group of players I could see this working out to be a really interesting story for that character maybe you're a young Steel Dragon on your first Adventure as a human and you you've decided to live an exciting life as a hero or perhaps you're an ancient Steel Dragon living out your final lifespan as an aged wizard determined to help a group of Heroes save the world one last time before retirement but speaking of young steel dragons we didn't even really talk about how these guys are born I mean like all dragons they come from an egg but the way they're raised is kind of interesting steel dragons mate very rarely and when they do it's usually with another Steel Dragon who lives in a totally different city the pair get together hatch their young raise them for a period of two to ten years and then part ways but not before instilling their values and ideals in the children equipping them with the tools they need to set out on their journey of learning maybe one of these young hatchlings is orphaned or lost due to some tragic circumstance and they rely on a group of passing adventurers to help them figure out who and what they are and what their place in the world is maybe they even go searching for their parent and find them disguised as a human in some big city when you stop to think about it there are actually a lot of different reasons why the players might seek out a steel dragon maybe they've heard rumors of a steel dragon living in town and they need help with some catastrophically large problem so they seek Out The Reluctant Dragon and try to convince it to help them turn the tides maybe they even blackmail the dragon with information about its true form to make them a bit more Cooperative or maybe they offer to help it with some other kind of problem perhaps a rival Steel Dragon messing things up for them or the Rival might even be a gold dragon since gold dragons are so high and mighty about destroying evildoers they sometimes come at odds with steel Dragons Who prefer to just do their own thing and give back to the world in smaller ways but maybe if the party can get a pesky gold dragon off the steel Dragon's Back it'll agree to help them in some way lastly as I mentioned the dragon's horde is no physical object but rather all the experiences they have locked away in their mind Vault so perhaps you have an ancient Steel Dragon who once lived as a legendary hero or a villain or maybe some kind of archaeologist or something the point is the dragon lived a life where they were part of some massive and important Discovery the location of an ancient city or powerful artifact an important ritual or some other piece of crucial information for the adventurers on their Quest is locked in the mind Vault of this Dragon who is for whatever reason unwilling to share that information with the players perhaps fearing it's too dangerous for them in some way so the players must simply find a way to enter the dragon's mind maybe by using a specific magic artifact or with the help of an NPC or maybe even by using a spell like dream they could enter the dragon's mind Vault and attempt to find this information what follows would be essentially a heist but entirely in the dream space of an ancient steel dragon's mind that sounds absolutely wild to me I think it could be a really cool way to kick off an adventure but whatever you choose to do with this Dragon I truly love these guys and I sincerely hope that you can find a space for them at your game table at some point in the future thank you so much to all my awesome patrons who make this show possible and a special thank you to our patron of the week this week's randomly selected Patron is iron shaman420 thank you so much for your high level of support I truly appreciate it also one last thing before we move on to the outro Spiel and we take a look at what's coming up next week I want to share something special with you guys so this is a little package that I received from the mail the other day from YouTube inside this box is the silver play button that YouTube has sent to me for surpassing 100 000 subscribers on this channel and I mean I cut the tape and I opened it to make sure it was in there but I haven't actually taken it out of this box yet so I'm gonna do that for the first time right now with y'all it seems only right to me that we do this together since I literally could not be standing in front of you doing what I do right now if it weren't for you guys who have watched and supported me over the many years that I've been doing this all right there's a foam insert there's a letter on like very nice cardstock thanks YouTube we'll look at that later but we're really in here for and they even wrapped it in plastic is this bad boy I have a lot of emotions about what's going on right now um I truly never thought that I would get to the point where I had one of these hanging on my wall I know ultimately it is just a piece of plastic and MDF or whatever the this is made of but it really does mean a lot to me that so many of you have stuck around and have given me everything not a day goes by that I'm not eternally grateful for it so truly thank you so much for being here and hopefully this is just the next step on a much longer Journey all right enough sappy stuff if you like this kind of content and you enjoy what I'm doing here please consider liking leaving a comment but most importantly let me know if there's a weird monster from a previous edition of d d or some other tabletop game that you would like to see me cover do a lore dump on and convert into fifth edition and who knows you might just see it show up on the channel in the future you can let me know in the comments down below you can let me know in the monster suggestion Discord and whatever Avenue you choose to inform me of your request it will get added to the monster request list and we'll see what happens in any case I don't really have any other big announcements so I hope you have a great rest of your day and a lovely weekend enjoy enjoy the day off on Monday if you're in Canada like I am I'll see you in the next one until then [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] you're the poor you will be assimilated resistance is futile [Music]

Channel: Dungeon Dad

Views: 305,856

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: Xw56SJGkyWc

Length: 30min 37sec (1837 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 01 2023