The Problem with Dragons in Dungeons and Dragons

dragons are certainly a thing in D and D they are actually one of the D's of D and D the second one dragons get a whole creature type to themselves in the game four different stages depending on whether they are old enough to drive or vote entire books devoted to them like a hundred different weird cousins to beef up that monster type that don't get invited to the dragon Christmas office party and I don't love them and I'm going to tell you why I'm pointy hat this is D andd with a Twist and we're finally talking about the dragons of Dungeons and Dragons so what I think of dragons I think of in this D and D with a Twist dog and pony show series I talk about a D and D thing tell you a bit about how it goes I poke it with a stick a little to see what it does for the game and then I give you a whole free thing at the end of the video to using your D and D games and I may have you know mentioned once or twice in other videos that I'm I'm not the the biggest dragon fan around I don't want to hear more crying about how I hate dragons you have impossibly cool Treasure Planet ships and you give these guys dragons whatever I hate dragon dragon free Channel I'm not talking about them I refuse to talk about dragons you can't make me I hate Dragon but but wait wait wait wait I have my reasons so before you Dragon fans come pitchforks in hand into my house where I live and do my dark biddings on the internet in allow me to plead my case and in order to do that let's see what these big lizards actually are in D and D and in general so in order to talk dragons in D and D we got to talk dragons in general just general Dragon lure General Dragon lure is kind of like an understatement as nearly every culture in the globe has something that could be called a dragon if you really really really want to prove a point from the fire breathing evil European lizards to the water type snake Pokémon of Eastern Asia to I don't know C in meso America if you want to push for where is allowed on the Dragon Wiki page dragonik creatures are everywhere and they are all very different some are evil some are good some are basically animals and others are impossibly wise some inhabit the Realms of ' 90s children cartoons and some are relegated to outdated gamer memes the world of dragons is vast and far too boring to get into this video what you need to know is that D and kind of maps their dragons exclusively to what is commonly referred to as Western dragons as opposed to Eastern dragons of places like China Korea or Japan dragons in D and D are impossibly powerful things monsters Rays I'm I'm going race I'm I'm going to go with race they are these incredibly old race of lizards that basically precede everything including elves and elves are often assumed to be the oldest once so guess they are taking an L there that also means that D andd dragons subscribe to the big lizard school of thought dragons are mostly quadruped lizards with long necks big wings and a bigger e because of being in the literal title of the game and sort of the poster child of the game D and D dragons have had like 77 moments in the spotlight throughout the additions of the game to the point where very fun people on Twitter called D and D the dragon game and one of these dragons is currently renting the Amper sand in the middle of the DS cool logo though anyway this means we get like a thousand Dragon families so let's take a look at some of them but before we do that we need to find set dragons and that's no easy task if you're doing Dragon studies you will be expected to not just jump to wildly different biomes but different planes of existence so you better have access to a lot of teleportation spell scrs or you could try a different way did you know there's a Tavern out there that can help with this people don't go there for ale or wine but for teas and coffees and more importantly portals by simply drinking their magically infused bruise you could be transported to widely different places and even different planes as if your mug was an extra plane or portal the name of this establishment the many worlds Tavern and guess what they've sent me their magical [Music] bruise I don't have a mouth to drink them with familiar I'll go get the box yes as you can see I have acquired these powerful magical concoctions for myself and you can too Manny worlds Tavern is an online coffee and tea company that sells coffee for game nights and tea for tabletop imagine opening a box of tea based on magical places you could visit in your D and D campaign and finding dice inside and other things that's part of their fabl foliage lose leaf tea and herbal series they recently rolled out with only 1K bags available each first of the month and each bag contains stickers cards and actual magic spell cards and a full set of dice imagine what an incredible Christmas gift this would make for any coffee or tea lovers in your life including you I bought Sage's gate for myself with my own Earthling money at packs unplugged and I absolutely love it and I'm not much of a tea drinker myself so that says something so if all of this sounds good the first 100 people to use my code pointy 10 will get 10% off of their orders at checkout that's right this one is limited so think fast the link to many worlds Tavern is the first link in the description the discount code is point10 once again and thank you many worlds tavn for Your sponsorship and now that we know how to get to these dragons let's find out which different types of dragons are out there first we got to talk about the two biggest and most well-known ones chromatic and metallic dragons chromatica dragons are based on the colors of the rainbow and they are evil yep I I was also surprised when I first started playing this game and I found out that the technical ones were the mean ones chromatic dragons are said to be greedy egotistical aggressive dumb silly goofy lazy total uggos super fake wait no sorry I I mixed up my notes with the Diary of a metallic dragon cut cut their scales are you guessed it one specific color and each color is tied to a specific breath red being associated with fire black being acid blue being lightning green being poison and white being Christmas those are the main ones but someone must have shown the guys at watsy at coloring book or something because we got a bunch of extra colors in older editions with brown dragons that breathe acid again purple dragons that breathe psychic energy and pig dragons that breathe bubbles let not dty PR into that let's move on and like a bunch more but the more important ones are the big five red black blue green and white and I'm not the one saying that the chromatic dragon's literal Queen tiad agrees since she has five heads and I don't see any of them being purple or brown or pink the fact that TI is the god of chromatic dragons and also a literal Arch devil from Hell kind of Clues you in that these guys might not be all that nice that's right chromatic dragons are yet another victim of my dreaded Nemesis alignment rules but for each Bad Dragon no no no no stop do not Google that there must be good dragons and that's where metallic dragons come into the mix Metallica dragons as opposed to chromatica dragons are the good ones technically I mean they tell us they are and it say so on the stop block so I guess they are said to be altruistic righteous Brave kind Valiant beautiful super loyyal the best BFF you could ever have not fake like Kelly or Jan from biology oh oh God this is the metallic dragon Journal again cut cut she's super thick she's super pretty metallic dragons you guessed it have metallic scales good job these kind of track one to one with chromatic dragons except that metallic dragons get two breath weapons gee metallic dragons why does Bahama let you have two breaths anyway gold dragons have both a fire breath and a weakening breath that gives you disadvantage on strength saves copper dragons have acid and slowing breath bronze dragons have electrical malfunction breath and a repulsion breath also known as garlic breath silver dragons have a cold breath and a paralyzing breath which sounds like the same one I think this one here might be cheating it doesn't count as a second breath if you're just freezing them still like Frozone and finally brass dragons get a sleep breath and a fire breath I guess poison was too evil for the goody two shoes dragons anyway these guys also come with weird cousins that they don't want to invite to Thanksgiving dinner iron dragons are part of a sub subcategory of metallic dragons drons called Ferris dragons Jesus there's just so many of these lizards my God and they are said to be mean and sometimes evil so who knows why metallic dragons are set to be always good gu they weren't or yes I don't know these guys are not in who cares Mercury dragons breathe poisonous light okay and are also said to be insane great okay moving on just like chromatic dragons have the DOI mommy Tiamat metallic dragons have their own Daddy D bamed the things I get up and say on the internet where people can hear me my God baham is the king of metallic dragons and their Patron dating he doesn't get fight heads to do comedy bits with but rather Platinum scales that are super super powerful and indestructible and impossible to break and no spells can go through them or or like around them and also no swords or nothing oh sorry the sment isn't a metallic dragon Journal but just a drawing by a six-year-old with notes around it fascinating mohammad's eyes are inflicted with Mary Su fanic disease said to change color with his mood and be impossible to describe with the horny detail go off and he's also just said to be a very chill guy that doesn't believe in retributive Justice and champions forgiveness after due punishment right down to being an actual deity of Justice cool so that's the two main types of dragons and somehow believe it or not I told you there were too many of these were not even halfway done with these my God okay let's speed this up we can always do a full video on any of these there's just way too many I'm pulling out the lightning plane are dragons dragons associated with the planes of existence as if they weren't complicated enough although these are really cool unless pokemony that metallics and chromatics you have fairy dragons for the Fate wild Shadow dragons for guess then the upper planes get stuff like radiant dragons who are basically Angel dragons or battle dragons who are like Viking dragons that love a fair fight while the evil lower planes have stuff like howling dragons who are characterized by being bad crazy but also Geniuses staks dragons that literally live in the river sticks you know in hell and tartarian Dragons named after Tartarus who are literal prison Warden of the prison plane of careri man these are like seven times more interesting than the Technicolor dragon or the variegated Copper Dragon more of these please gem dragons if we had good dragons and bad dragons stop it stop it with a joke we of course needed neutral dragons these guys have how did you guess gemstone scales and they generally keep through themselves and don't meddle with anything ever and we're generally created so that DMS can give you someone to beg at for help for like an hour before they decide to actually help you they are also all psychic themed because of D not Bahamut but sardor the first gem dragon and the product of Bahamut and tiamat's pre- divorced Union sardor has since exploded and we don't have time to get into it moving on stand outs among gem dragons are amethyst dragons who are the most powerful of the gem lizards purple enjoyers rejoice and toas Dragons who are just my favorite because they are said to have like no social graces and just be generally a pain to talk to but also really love beaches and explicitly the feeling of the salty breeze on their skin kokabana dragon is the best Drag Dragon long dragons romanized long with U for no good reason and literally meaning dragon dragon in Chinese joining the chaii and AIT tuna Hall of Fame of bad names are the resident Eastern Dragon representation in DND they were introduced with katur the D and D setting of discourse long dragons are more Celestial than dragon as they are part of the celestial bureaucracy in the setting they come from this is kind of accurate S dragons did serve a Divine role in Chinese mythology but many also absolutely didn't so I guess the bureaucracy part is accurate though they are tasked with specific things like defending specific places like rivers or task with making sure that things like I don't know rain happen what time is it oh God I'm so bad at this lightning round thing okay engaging extra extra lightning round for the really weird cousins brain stealer Dragon mind flayer Dragon they happen when a mind fler tple infects a dragon and they are surely not a good idea for mind flers to make since they are known to turn on them they have a mind flare tadpole breath code gross I wish we had seen these in bers Gate 3 and anyway Dragon Turtles exactly what it sounds like big turtle Dragon these are very much a thing in many Asian and Pacific island mythologies and they are generally benevolent or at least capable of help and particularly known for their wisdom but in D andd they're just a big turtle that loves hoarding and gold and kills people and want people out of their swamp I mean ocean we could have had Avatar but we got this great song dragons we dragons kinda not really these ones like to live among people and for some reason only disguise themselves as women even male song dragons I wonder why these B bait dragons prefer to be in their person form rather than their lizard form which is not the case for dragons that can change appearance and the woman they turn into is like explicitly said to be young and very beautiful interesting this is plainly horny monster design I tried my very best to find something else but I truly think they are called song dragons because they just like music that's that's it and finally I know there are like 34 more but we have to move on there's too many of these Draco lies did you think I wouldn't talk about these ones it's what you think it is Undead dragons with their soul tied to a filer why would a dragon do this if dragons are basically Immortal well most of them don't as in they don't do this willingly Draco lies are a weird Lich in that most examples of them are of dragons that were inflicted with lichdom rather than having chosen it and so they were forced to walk the path of the Digimon there's not much to say about these guys they're just Dragon liches you get okay so that's a massive primer on D and D dragons we've talked chromatic we've talked metallic we've talked weird cousins we've talked General lore and I've promised you to finally talk about my beef with dragons and give you something for free in this video so how about we give dragons and you twist so you want to fight a dragon don't mess with me buddy dragons are the monsters for people that W too many fantasy books as kids and FES that insist you call them scales dragons are extremely popular as like a fantasy concept one could argue they are the most popular fantasy thing I don't know what can really compete with them the vague concept of magic even Heavy Hitters like unicorns have nothing on the hemony of dragons in popular culture throughout the globe in general these lizards are here to stay especially in a game named after them so why don't I like them that much here's the thing in D and D if you're not particularly enthused by the aesthetic of the Dragon if you don't think they look cool which is where I'm at dragons really don't offer you much of anything at all hear me out I've call this the Godzilla problem dragons are cool to a lot of people just visually big winged lizard real smart breathes fire mostly sometimes and I understand that that visual is very appealing to many people and very very appealing to some of you and I'm not here to King Shame not that there's anything wrong with that but I'm here to say that if you're not in the camp of dragons look cool if they don't look cool to you dragons don't give you much to work with in D and D at all Godzilla is an extremely powerful thing creature monster it rises from the depth to terrorize Japanese people and be an embodiment of their cultural anxiety towards nuclear war dragons are certainly very powerful monsters in D they can accomplish the same thing Godzilla can they can raise cities to the ground they can certainly put your players through a tough time but they are not much more than that just like Godzilla they are powerful but looking at their stat block that is really really where it ends with Dragons they are a threat but I find they are not particularly evocative to base quests around a dragon can very much destroy but based on his stat block it can't do much more than that especially when like 70% of them prefer to stay in the middle of nowhere in whatever bio matches their Pokémon type yes they are also smart but so what plenty of monsters are also smart this doesn't make dragons anything special and nothing in their sty block really takes advantage of this other than the fact that it's their spell casting ability but pointy I hear you say dragons can turn into people and can cast spells yes they can let's talk about both of those first for the Spells most of these are combat spells so it just goes goes further towards making them powerful in battle which as I discussed is not the issue I'm here to talk about they are powerful enough that's not the problem the rest of their not combat spell really fails in comparison to any spellcasting monster and also who is running D and D official dragons as spellcasters anyway nobody you run them as big monster things because their spells aren't that great and because if you're running dragons in combat you are running magical Godzilla every time running a spell casting dragon is just not a thing that people do generally that' be so crazy super pry anyway next for the human thing yeah they can indeed turn into a person at which point does it even feel like a dragon anymore if the quest you are gaining access to by putting a dragon in your game is because they are pretending to be a person it's not that dragons as a monster are evoking Adventure ideas you're just using a person to make a quest around and then revealing that it was a dragon the whole time and then you run a Godzilla fight again I fight against a thing that hits hard and has a lot of hit points and that's it nothing intrinsic to the dragon has made that Quest possible because they are a dragon unless it's to give a reason as to why this random person is so powerful in which case yeah we both agree that dragons are powerful there's also something to be said about overuse mythology is an almost NeverEnding source of inspiration for Monsters adventures and characters and because it's so vast it really really gets old when we keep going back to one thing especially if you don't find that thing all that cool looking dragons have had their spot in the Limelight a lot they are bound to become Sy and all hat after a while especially if all they show up to do is destroy whatever the heroes care about Once Again Godzilla problem they sure are flammable but not much else but I didn't come to this video to complain about dragons and leave it there and I understand that there's plenty of people believe me I look at my comments out there that absolutely love the concept of dragons and the look of them so I want to do the impossible I want to both appeal to Dragon lovers and dragon haters I want to make a dragon that dragon enjoyers can enjoy but that makes it easy for you to base quests Adventures entire campaigns around hell even play your characters if you want a dragon heavy backstory isn't that what players that like dragons want to do and why not try to make dragons feel distinct use some of the aspects of their mythology that are often ignored so I think I have a solution hear me out hordes dragons are known to hoard things at least in Western cultures they are that's like one of their defining traits and it's barely explored in dndd what if we took that and used it to make Dr that play Massive roles in the worlds that they inhabit instead of living in bum nowhere swamp Mountain volcano or pretending to be a goblin to live in society where no one even knows they're a dragon but how do we do that hear me out time Su people we're going to make dragons that hoard people let's go even among the widely different draconic families there is bound to be those that break the mold and Warden dragons are exactly that while most dragons hoard prize magical items mountains of gold or spoil from previous battles Warden dragons are defined by their hordes because their hordes are people this focus on amassing quantities of Select Mortals as part of their hordes makes Warden dragons inherently social creatures whereas many dragons prefer the peace and quiet of the natural world or the unending Solitude of The Ether surrounding the plains Warden dragons make their home and keep their hordes where people live because of their very nature Ward and Dragons especially the most powerful ones end up naturally playing key roles in the power structures of the societies they inhabit but the differences between Warden dragons and other members of the draconic family don't end there with another important difference being how Warden dragons grow in power the juvenile stage of any Warden Dragon starts by finding a specific mortal that matches the horde they want to build that mortal is soon joined by a small group of other Mortals and as The Horde grows in number so does the power of the Dragon a warden dragon's power is not measured in years live like it is for other dragons but in how many Mortals have joined its horde the horde of a warden dragon is not only its most priced possession but also the source of their power and the only way that any Warden dragon can ensure its continued existence Warden dragons do not lay eggs instead they select one of the members of their horde one that shows particular promise and aptitude often referred to as a prince once the time is right the dragon will perform a ritual with the prince with the goal of transferring their draconic Essence into the prince if successful a new Warden dragon will be born from the prince as they transform into set Dragon maintaining the essence of the original Dragon within them this way word and Dragons literally birth their successors from their hordes so connected are these dragons to their hordes that the kind of people they take under their wings dictates the sort of warden Dragon they are there are many different types of warden dragons and these are not defined by the color or material of their scales but the company they keep megas dragons hoard Arcane practitioners Elder megas dragons being known to form massive universities where Arcane knowledge is exchanged and learned Warrior dragons make their hordes into armies with a strict hierarchy and military training the members of the dragon's Army and horde sharing an exclusive fighting styles taught by the dragon itself Paragon dragons on the other hand form orders of knights that all banned under a common Creed a strong moral code dictated by the dragon but earnestly believed and followed by each member of The Horde as they are sent in oath or missions to work towards whatever the oath that bends them together is striving to achieve some scholars believe that it's the proximity to Mortals and their mortality that gives Warden dragons their characteristic appearance instead of being defined by the color of their scales Warden dragons can be recognized not just by The Horde but the animal characteristics each of them take on while retaining the reptile likee appearance that all dragons share despite the massive differences between each type of warden Dragon they all share the commitment to Growing their horde some hordes are made out of willing participants that join the ranks of like-minded individuals under the leadership of an impossibly powerful dragon to grow in power and in their area of expertise but some others are forced into a life of servitude to the dragon as the dragon's power grows with each unwilling addition to the horde both the servant and the source of power to an unknowable being much more powerful than any lone member of The Horde which method will a warden Dragon choose to grow its horde only each individual Warden dragon can say how about that DND D class dragons wizard dragons bar dragons maybe Mystic dragons who knows I'm pretty proud of them I think Warden dragons address my problems with d and d dragons pretty thoroughly they are still powerful but they also give you massive amounts of potential quests to base around them that don't necessarily have to revolve around them being a big Godzilla monster that hits real hard and destroys a bunch of stuff exclusively they are way more intrinsically connected with the part of the world in D and D that matters the part where people and big players in stories live they're not far off into some Mountain doing nothing and waiting for people to show up to kill it they are even basically set up to be big players in stories since they are the heads of massive organizations because of how their hordes work if you think about it something as powerful as a dragon would be a massive player in any world they inhabit because of their power and Warden dragons exemplify this beautifully I think and the focus on The Horde thing makes them feel more specifically dragons with a clear reference to the mythology that is rarely the focus of dragons in D and D but they are not just a DM tool you can very clearly make a ton of player characters that use Warden dragons if you like them I often say that a monster is not all that useful or cool if you can find ways to put them in your game as a player or as a DM so how about we do just that let's take one class one of the random examples we gave in that little L drop and flesh it out how about that's big one we haven't done yet on the channel and y'all scream at me in the comments for let's make a wizard dragon Mega dragons like all Warden dragons horde people and the people that make up a Mega's horde are exclusively Arcane practitioners Wizards are most populous in a Mega's dragon's horde but it's not rare to see lards among their ranks and even a rare City Druid you will however never find warlocks Sorcerers or clerics among their ranks Mega dragons are powerful spellcasters but their magic is not innate they studied it and as a result they feel a deep seething hatred towards any magic they feel hasn't been acquired through careful and long study Sorcerers and warlocks are most often the subjects of their scorn as megas dragons see them as cheaters taking shortcuts or being unfairly advantaged by their lineage as the only reasons why they are able to wield The Weave of magic at all this outlook on Magic as something to be rigorously studied and mastered leads megas dragons to form hordes not of any Arcane practitioners but only of those that are willing and motivated by the prospect of countless hours of study this might seem like a fade worse than death to some but to others those that would benefit and thrive in the horde of AAS they see this as an incredible opportunity AAS dragon has been amassing knowledge for all of its life some of its Arcane Secrets passed down to it by its predecessor in the ritual to pass along its draconic Essence the secrets that megga dragons can teach their horde are innumerable and often reason enough to join said horde as a wizard megas dragons follow Warden dragons in their animalis appearance taking on more avien traits that make them resemble owls but replacing the wide down of the owl by the megasus dragon trademark massive beards which all megus dragons sport regardless of sex it is said that the traditional idea of a wizard having a Long White Beard comes from the first Wizards imitating their draconic leaders when a megga dragon has AC crude enough members its horde is called a circle and particularly big circles find themselves becoming veritable universities some of the oldest and most renowned institutions of Arcane learning are the circles of AAS Dragon centuries old in their study of the arcade this academic approach to hord making has some interesting results first it's very very common for circles to develop intense and fierce rivalries towards one another universities led by Elder megas dragons end up as bitter Rivals keeping their best kept secrets from one another all while sending members of their hordes into rival universities to unearth those well-kept Secrets media wizard Taven braw has started with a conversation over which megga dragon is most knowledgeable the process of Prince selection for a megas dragon is also a product of this insistence on Academia a megas Dragon generally never goes off of instinct when making any decision much less the decision that will dictate which body its draconic Essence will embody next members of the megas Dragon Circle are constantly being graded and their grades are shared publicly amongst all members of the circle their Arcane discoveries their research papers and their exam results are constantly broadcast to The Horde and whoever is most acad mically gifted is who will one day be chosen as the prince to transform into a megas Dragon faced with this Relentless competition many students throw themselves into their studies and once they have exhausted everything their Circle could offer them they move their coveting eyes outwards it's not uncommon for wizards who wish to rise in their Circle to go on adventures seeking knowledge that not even their dragon knows in an effort to rise above the other pupils and be chosen as the next Prince this of course doesn't go without rivalry and it's regrettably not uncommon for the most bitter of rivalries to end in sudden and inexplicable deaths of fellow academics as the most Brilliant Minds of a circle fight in a constant battle of wits and Magic to prove themselves superior to the rest all the while enriching the dragon they have sorn falty to and deepening the dragon's pool of knowledge the most evil of the megas dragons will do this on purpose using Spite and jealousy as a way to motivate their horde into growing the dragon's knowledge for it itself caring little about the mental strain that this constant competition causes amongst hord mates that's a pretty sick Dragon concept that you can base a PC or a full adventure around I think think about it you could play the smartest student of a mega Dragon Circle as they leave on their quest to secure their position as the prince by learning even more things from the outside world all while dodging the attacks of jealous students good thing you can always rely on your good friend best friend from backstory what's that best friend from backstory is also trying to kill you oh the drama the humanity or how about a particularly incompetent wizard that is trying their hardest to be chosen as a prince they might not be the best at studying so they put all their eggs in one basket discovering the magical secrets of the Rival Circle to impress their dragon I can think of so many characters and hopefully you can too well hopefully not because Mega dragons don't exist Warden dragons as a concept don't exist I mean not in the way that D and D things don't exist because they are fantasy and maybe believe but but but in the way that I just made them up for for this video you know for for fun I mean I guess you could make them yourself have fun doing that I guess it's always tough to make dragons I find especially a spellcasting one because a wizard dragon has to feel like a spellcasting one right oh that's a weird monster to make for sure good luck oh what's that you want me to make the stab block despite you knowing full well I am a certified Dragon hater how dare you okay that's right the meas Dragon stat block is in the description of this very video for 100% certified pointy hat free for you to use in your own games for also 100% certified free but wait what if you're still not into dragons but you're looking for another cool monster to base your campaign around well here are two full videos about liches in which I make some funky class based liches that are in Wizards a barbarian and a ranger look at that as a matter of fact let me drop a full Lich playlist for you to do yes I am covering all classes will I do a series on dragons 2 and honestly fully depends on how this video does so if yall like this share comment like subscribe I'm being 100% for real if the video doesn't do well I'm not making it so make YouTube see this bother your mom okay let's see how it goes bye-bye now bye

Channel: Pointy Hat

Views: 531,383

Keywords: DnD, D&D, DnD with a twist, 5e, TTRPG, How to, Illustration, Dungeons and Dragons, D&D with a twist, d&d battle music, pointy hat, animation, rant, hat, homebrew, trailer, D&D trailer, OneD&D, one d&d, onednd, OGL, SRD, Wizards, wizards of the coast, WotC, WOC, baldur's gate, baldurs gate, baldur's gate 3, baldurs gate 3, baldurs gate III, lore, dnd lore, bg3, dnd encounter, dragon, dragons, chromatic, metallic, warden dragons, magus dragon, dnd dragons, dragon lore, baldur's gate 3 dragon

Id: JVu5V-vcX00

Length: 30min 14sec (1814 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 15 2023