Yellow Dragons and D&D's Draconic Color Theory

it's tia man we all know tiamat as the evil many-headed goddess of chromatic dragons she is the mother from which all red blue green black and white dragons descend each one of these draconic races is represented by a different head on tiamat's body which makes sense sort of though you probably already knew all of that but did you know that tiamat had a sister yet another dragon goddess with multiple heads though this sibling was a bit different she was said to have heads of purple orange and yellow hello and welcome to monster of the week this week we are going dragon hunting once again as we explore one of the lesser-known giant winged lizards the yellow dragon as always my goal here today is to go over this monster's abilities its ecology its in-game lore and actual publication history as well as provide you with some updated fifth edition stats and go over a few plot hooks and story ideas if that sounds good to you then settle in because this week's episode is a doozy now i'm assuming most of you watching this have a pretty good grasp on what a dragon is at least as far as dungeons and dragons is concerned however for the folks who aren't in the know here's a super quick crash course on dragons and why the color of their scales is important [Music] most dragons in d d you're likely to come across will fall into one of two groups chromatic dragons are the ones with colored scales that span the entire rgb spectrum of color they are evil metallic dragons have scales with a metallic sheen that fall on the spectrum of metals such as bronze copper or gold they are typically good aligned great so now that we know 99 of what there is to know about general dragon knowledge in d we can talk about what makes the yellow dragon so special yellow dragons made their first and only appearance back in dragon magazine issue number 65 in september of 1982. a gentleman by the name of richard allen lloyd was responsible for their creation via an article that he had written for this issue of dragon magazine entitled the missing dragons filling in the tints of the color wheel this was a fascinating article that asked one pretty simple question if we have red blue green black and white dragons why don't we have dragons of any other colors mr lloyd approaches this problem from a very interesting angle where he tries to use color theory and the idea of the color wheel to set precedent for dragons beyond the basic ones that we see in the monster manual the main idea here is that say a red dragon and a blue dragon decide to go off and start a family together once they get up to some baby making what color would their offspring be and more importantly what type of abilities would they have after all red dragons can breathe fire and blue dragons can breathe lightning so which breath weapon would the child inherit the answer richard allen lloyd came up with was neither he posited that their offspring would be a purple dragon because purple is the color you get when you combine red and blue and that the child would have a unique breath weapon and that makes sense right but the only problem with this is that red and blue are both primary colors black and white are the presence of all color or the absence of all color respectively but green is a secondary color meaning that the color green doesn't really exist on its own but rather it's a combination of yellow and blue but this was only a problem because we didn't have yellow dragons yet this would seem to imply that green dragons would be the offspring of yellow and blue dragons but then if we have yellow dragons in the mix that means we also have to have orange dragons as a result of yellow dragons mingling with red dragons and this only raises further questions when the topic of lore comes up in the established dnd canon tiamat is the mother of all chromatic dragons and one of her heads is green which would suggest that green dragons come directly from her and she doesn't have a yellow head so how then can blue and yellow dragons breed to make green dragons if green dragons came before yellow dragons basically this leaves you with two options as to why yellow purple and orange dragons might exist in the world at all option a is that you completely ignore the established cannon and rule that in your world red yellow and blue dragons came first and the other subspecies came about from them bone and down option b is that tiamat had a sister with three different colored heads who she murdered wait what [Music] richard allen lloyd the mad lad himself dropped a pantheon-shattering piece of information in an issue of dragon magazine but the weirdest thing about any of it is that this information didn't even come from this article in question it came from another article published in a different issue of dragon magazine in 1998 16 years later richard allen lloyd published another article called return of the missing dragons where he revisited some of his ideas from the original article that casually makes reference to tiamat maybe having a sister with heads of yellow orange purple and other crossbreed colors this sister is not named and there's no description or information given about her at all but it is implied that tiamat likely destroyed her and that's why these other colors of dragons have become so rare personally i really like this interpretation i find it fascinating i find it compelling but i also just really need to stress how bonkers it is that tiamat's alleged sister was brought up once in a dragon magazine article and then literally never mentioned again for those not entirely consumed by dungeons and dragons lore let me try to put this in perspective this would be like learning there's an eighth continent nestled between africa and australia and the only reason you found out about it is because you opened up a 20 year old geography textbook you just happen to find lying around i find this especially compelling because the author is basically daring you to invent a new god which is really cool but it would have been nice to at least get a few more details like i don't know her name for example but whatever origin story you subscribe to the mere existence of the yellow orange and purple dragons evokes some very interesting questions and debate which is almost universally the sign of an interesting monster speaking of subscribing it'd be super cool if you would maybe even leave a comment or a like i don't know but i still have one lingering question about yellow dragons [Music] yellow dragons will make their home anywhere there is salt in the air and preferably in the water as well typically they nest in seaside caves or cliffs however they are also known to take refuge in salt marshes or in mountain ranges surrounded by salt flats they're also amphibious too so i imagine undersea caves would be an attractive option physically yellow dragons have a few prominent features that easily distinguish them from others of their kind they have much longer bodies than your typical dragon and a more slender form the article also mentions that their scales are much smaller which of course leads them to being replaced much more often so anywhere that a yellow dragon has been regularly you can expect to find a pretty high amount of their scales kicking around this difference in scales isn't just aesthetic though it makes their bodies much smoother than other draconic kin their skin becomes more like that of a serpent rather than a lizard this of course allows for much faster movement cielo dragons are by far physically the weakest of all dragon kind but they're also the fastest to put it in perspective most dragons when fully grown have a top speed of 40 feet per round on foot and 80 feet per round while flying through the air yellow dragons have a top speed of 60 feet per round on foot and 120 feet per round while in the air they can also burrow and swim at a speed of 60 feet per round so all in all they're the fastest dragons in town and no terrain is off limits to them they're also immune to fire damage so volcanic locations and magma flows aren't even off limits and like most dragons they are of course highly intelligent meaning that they use this speed to their advantage yellow dragons never stick around to fight toe to toe they're gonna make use of that extreme speed to employ hit and run tactics the likes of which you have never seen they're also notorious for setting ambushes in traps to get the drop on their enemies and this fighting style really speaks to one of the core traits you'll find among most yellow dragons and that is selfishness in ages past when the dragons were at war with the giants it's said that the yellow dragons were nowhere to be found chromatic dragons aren't exactly known for getting along with one another but even in a time of crisis when their race was potentially facing extinction the yellow dragons chose not to show up you'd be hard pressed to find a being with a longer memory and a more intense penchant for holding a grudge than an ancient dragon and this kinda pushed the yellow dragons into obscurity it's not like chromatic dragons really have a ton of friends as it is so that coupled with the fact that any other dragon they came across would want to actively seek out and kill them led to them staying in hiding the yellow dragons decided it was best to just disappear this isolation eventually led to the yellow dragons creating their own unique dialect of draconic as beings who see everyone and everything as a potential threat their language evolved independently from the jachronic being spoken by all the other dragons so their dialect of draconic is only spoken by and understood by yellow dragons if you were to ask most other dragons would probably just eat you but if they decided not to eat you they would likely describe the yellow dragons as cowards but i don't think that's really true earlier i specifically used the word selfish to describe yellow dragons because that's exactly what they are they're not afraid of combat but they'll also never take a risk that they don't feel is entirely worth it if a yellow dragon ever chose to stick its neck out for somebody else they would have a pretty damned good reason for doing so the other reason i say they're not cowards is because most other dragons are actually afraid of them [Music] if say a pair of blue dragons were ever to try and take down a yellow dragon of equal size the blue dragons would certainly come out on top but in a one-on-one fight despite the fact that blue dragons are much more powerful physically in almost every way the yellow dragon actually has the advantage using their speed and incredible maneuverability along with some less than honorable combat tricks yellow dragons are statistically gonna come out on top every single time against almost every other type of dragon now that said it's not like they're going out and picking risky fights for no reason but if a rival dragon ever discovered that a yellow dragon was nesting within their lands they would have to think very carefully before moving to attack but should another dragon or a group of would-be dragon slayers ever try to take the creature down here's how it might react yellow dragons have a lot of the same tools that many of the other giant flying lizards in the world of dnd have they have a nasty bite claw tail and wing attack but what really sets them apart mechanically like with most dragons is their breath weapon yellow dragons breathe a massive concentrated cone of condensed salt this might seem a little bit lackluster at first because it doesn't really cause that much damage [Music] salt ground but the effects on anyone who fails their saving throw against this breath weapon are truly debilitating anyone who does take the full brunt of the dragon's breath is going to be blinded and has disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks for the next minute as the salt hardens over and crusts around their body the real kicker here though is that the salt also covers up and blocks any orifices on that creature's body hot tip your mouth and nose both count as an orifice and you need at least one of them clear to be able to breathe so while the raw damage of this breath weapon might not be that bad being blinded while you suffocate in proximity to a dragon is not exactly a place you want to be fortunately though if you or a party member are able to dunk at least a gallon of water onto your body the salt will mostly wash away and allow you to take a breath but overall just not a situation you want to be in yellow dragons are also notorious trappers if you encounter one of them either within its lair or the land surrounding it it's most definitely going to be trying to lure you into one of the many traps it has set up ahead of time an old favorite of the yellow dragon is to lie in weight underneath a bunch of sand or soft earth essentially creating a sinkhole that leads directly into its mouth also they have tremor sense so being able to see things walking along the surface above you while you lie in wait is a pretty good look something i really appreciate about dragons is the age category system based on whether you're looking at a freshly hatched wormling or some kind of ancient threat to civilization as we know it the dragon's lair and how they behave is gonna change drastically but if you're a dm the main thing to keep in mind when controlling a yellow dragon at the game table is that they are selfish and cunning no unnecessary risks lots of planning ahead and definitely make sure to use that speed to your advantage most players at least in my experience haven't really been exposed to monsters that expertly use harrying tactics to whittle them down so while i wouldn't recommend being mean about it just for the sake of being mean this is a perfect time to show your play group how an apex predator hunts like any dragon there's a lot of different stuff you can do when it comes to storytelling i won't waste your time with plot hooks that are relevant to just any dragon in general after all we're here to talk about the yellow dragon today so instead i'll focus on story ideas that are specifically related to the yellow dragon and what it's trying to do now i don't know if this is simply a byproduct of growing up in what the rest of the world would likely consider a small fishing village but the first thing my brain went to is pirate captain just think about it a yellow dragon sailing the seas in search of treasure commanding its horde of pirate minions now the obvious problem with this idea is that your standard dragon would likely not fit on your typical seafaring vessel at least not a big one but don't forget yellow dragons love salt and they are amphibious i love the idea of a yellow dragon either latching onto the bottom of their ship or simply swimming alongside it as it leads their pirate crew to the next raid this would also set up a really cool reveal where the adventuring party who's investigating this notorious pirate finds out the captain of the ship is a aquatic dragon there is also precedent in d d for dragons taking on humanoid form so if you wanted to go that route and have the dragon actually be captaining on the ship in disguise you could do that too plus then you could give him a really obvious and cool nickname like yellow beard or something because yellow dragons aren't in the monster manual most players won't think to associate that with dragons 99 of my encounter prep is built around nicknames i'm so sorry i also think encountering a yellow dragon for research purposes could be really interesting as an elusive and rare type of dragon perhaps the party is sent by some educational institution or a prolific scholar to investigate rumors of a yellow dragon spotted halfway around the world make it a real mysterious adventure something really fun about this too is that once the party actually does meet the dragon if they don't just try to fight it right away when they realize that they can't communicate with it speaking typical draconic language then they might have to find a way to enable that communication either through magic or maybe just by actually taking the time to learn the yellow dragon dialect that is definitely the type of thing that the scholarly characters out there will jump at in a sort of similar fashion maybe the adventuring party is sent to find the yellow dragon by another chromatic dragon a local red dragon might decide to send the party to investigate and take down this potential rival in exchange for something the party wants or needs there are a ton of different ways that scenario could play out and i think all of them are equally interesting finally if you want to do a little bit of leg work here you could always flesh out the idea of tia matt's sister as this other multi-headed dragon goddess perhaps there's a new cult dedicated to her that's trying to bring her back from the void which the party may want to actually help or hinder depending on how you set it up perhaps this unknown dragon goddess isn't even evil she might be good or neutral and that is why tiamat killed her or maybe she's way worse than tmatt and tiamat's actually the more reasonable of the two and you have to side with the cult of tiamat to prevent this much worse creature from coming back into reality this would open up a whole can of worms in a campaign where the party is going from location to location and all these long thought destroyed or non-existent dragon variants are suddenly coming into light as the approach of this dragon goddess draws near whatever you choose to do i think yellow dragons are pretty dang cool and at their very simplest they provide a bit of mystery and intrigue to a type of monster that most d d players have encountered time and time again if you do want to use this monster at the d d table and you're not playing a d and d and you don't have a couple copies of dragon magazine kicking around if you look in the description down below you will find a link to a google document which contains my entire fifth edition version stat block for the yellow dragon and all four age categories that are complete with everything you will need to successfully run this monster at your table and if you are one of my lovely patrons you'll be able to find the dungeon dead exclusive patreon pdf of this monster stat block all several pages of it over on the dungeon dad patreon page which can also be found linked in the description below and thank you so much to all the patrons out there watching this right now for bringing me back week after week to talk about all the cool monsters dnd's history has to offer i wouldn't be able to do it without you and speaking of patrons it's time for patron of the week this week's randomly selected patron is sleepy fox try not to wake them up but thank you for the support and thank you for watching i immensely appreciate it and if you've got a monster you would like to see show up on monster of the week let me know in the comments down below get at me on discord send me a tweet on twitter or whatever your preferred method of communication is and who knows you might just see it show up on monster of the week but that's all for now i'll see you in the next one until then [Music] you

Channel: Dungeon Dad

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Id: atqw_vkW-uc

Length: 21min 57sec (1317 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 04 2022