>Dragons are the only true immortal beings in the material world >If they are killed their spiritual essence merely reforms and possess any matter to reconstitute it's physical shape often assuming properties of the material it assimilates as evident when a dragon's soul possessed a cargo tanker and became a metal monstrosity. >However, in spite of this power Dragons do not possess anything more than animal intellect as only mortals are apparently intelligent. >To become immortal is to give up your ability to reason and be self aware.
A fair trade-off I would think. I was thinking of making it part of a plot hook where the bbeg tries to become immortal.
Yeesh, it'd be a rare person who would willingly commit Ego suicide to gain "immortality".
Asher Turner
I think it would be kinda anti climatic and seem like kind of a ass pull if the BBEG suddenly started barking like a dog after becoming immortal
Julian Carter
The trick is this isn't generally known fact in the world as people pursue it. The Dragons didn't think as much until they did it, now they no longer possess the ability to do so.
True, hence why the bbeg would turn into a monster of somesort, essentially becoming another Dragon in the process.
Ryan Campbell
I assume that the losing your personality bit would be the twist. Like the BBEG doesn't even know or tries to figure out a workaround.
Nolan Hill
Interesting concept. Not sure how to translate it into a fun campaign but I like where it's going.
Joshua Cooper
Okay, so what does this ultimately mean for your campaign? Can the players find out on convince the BBEG of this? if not why does it matter? if he succeeds does he just turns into a giant fuck off monster for the players to beat, or is there even any point then, since he's just basically become a mindless animal he's kind of self defeating. How long does this reformation process take? Is there a point to "killing" once he's post dragon, in that he'll be ethereal for a while, and not a problem?
Hunter Gutierrez
>give up your ability to reason k i got it, its fucking cool but...
>and be self aware ...this irks me, i don't want to go full autism and shitpost this thread into oblivion but giving away your self awareness as simple as it might be isn't really making the whole immortal thing null?
What im getting at is that 'dragons' aren't better that a fucking rock at this point.
Jackson Kelly
Here's a more interesting run:
BBEG *is* a young dragon, and they've noticed their mind starting to go. Their motive is to stop that from happening.
Dominic Williams
This. I think that this is a great alternative to your stock fantasy dragon, but self-awareness implies it looks after itself or similar. If anything it should emphasize a singular emotion/action. That way the BBEG becomes pure rage, spite, greed, etc. That leaves room for the newly formed dragon to attack adventurers, start to assimilate E V E R Y T H I N G, etc.
Luke Flores
>What im getting at is that 'dragons' aren't better that a fucking rock at this point.
No, they are as good a a lizard that breathes fire.
Jose Green
But then if it's immortal,. how do you stop it? And if you can't that kind of robs players of agency, which they as a general rule don't like.
Isaiah Miller
By destroying the dragon's body, you rob its soul of a physical vessel. You then have to slay the dragon's ethereal form before it reconstitutes a new body. You have to kill a ghost.
Josiah Wright
who're you going to call for that?
Asher Howard
Perhaps some sort of Shadeshankers.
Austin Morgan
This is unrelated to the point made by OP, but where is the line we cross, when a dragon stops being the typical Western medieval dragon, and the eastern oriental dragon?
Because I want to say we've crossed it with just OP's example, but I'm unsure on just how.
Josiah Wilson
DEHUMANIaE YOURSELF AND FACE TO BLOODSHED
Matthew Robinson
This is essentially what happens when you accumulate far too much power in the Lovecraft universe, except what lesser mortals percieve as 'animal intellect' is little more than reflexive action, like a heart beat. The body that mortals see is little more than more than the shadow or an 'anchor' of the actual being, which is now mucking around on other planes and in other time periods.
So maybe the BBEG believes that the 'animal intellect' isn't real, instead he believes that his mind will ascend to a higher plane and he can leave this abse Earth to become a God / Slay a God / Become Immortal.
Carter Jones
This sounds like a good and interesting idea, whether the BBEG is correct or not.
Jace Martin
Is there some sort of karma system?
Possibly one that controls certain attributes of what 'dragon' you would ascend to?
Perhaps enough atrocities would damage your soul/karma enough to make ones ascension a truly horrifying event. Opposite is true for grand/healthy/good souls/karma.
Lincoln Howard
Mash these two together?
Gabriel Howard
I'm stealing this.
How I'm going to use it, I'm still not sure, but I'm stealing it.
Justin Watson
I'm stealing this too. Will make some good drama out of this.
Samuel Davis
Having consistent rules in a world that not even the players can break isnt really robbing them of agency.
Oliver Ross
>live forever >become retarded The fuck makes you think this is a fair deal? The point of trying to achieve immortality is so you can actually *enjoy* having an eternity to do whatever the fuck you want until you inevitably get bored of everything and crave the sweet release of death. Why the fuck would anyone even bother if they couldn't consciously enjoy it? That's just incredibly stupid, even with the whole bit about no one actually realizing it until it happens (which they won't since they lack self awareness).
Christopher Morgan
Or Ghostgankers?
Alexander Cruz
Fear of death will drive you to do insane things. Take actions beyond reason, either through willful self delusion, or an against-all-odds hope that "it will be different with me"
Evan Campbell
>hope that "it will be different with me" Then wouldn't it be better to actually have a bbeg be the one lucky fucker thy actually succeeded in staying the same? At least then a story could be spun in which they churn out one savage immortal after another in an attempt to better understand and hopefully recreate the anomaly. It would give the party a chance to explore ways to neutralize their foes beyond the standard hack n' slash methods. Either that or give immortals a one in one hundred shot of regaining their consciousness every few thousand years. Imagine the shock that would come if you were to suddenly "wake up" in the Iron Age when you can still vaguely remember when stepping outside of your cave meant potentially being mauled to death by a saber tooth. The sheer culture shock would drive one insane. Even if these options weren't explored, id bet that even the most desperate of men could be made to realize that if you aren't actually conscious during your eternal life then you're probably more or less worse off than the dead. I mean at least they can enjoy the after life if there's one in the setting.
Hunter Gomez
a Veeky Forumseral faggot's gonna steal this idea, you know? Is me
Ayden Foster
The Silicon Mage by Babera Hambly.
Cameron Carter
You won't have to crave a death that can never come if you are no longer self-aware. Becoming retarded is basically the salvation someone stuck in that position would look for because they would no longer have to care about being immortal. Their sentience and life are essentially over. Instead of giving up your self-awareness up front, have it chip away little by little and the BBEG can be searching (in vain) for a way to stave it off because he was one of the few who realized what was happening to him before he was too far gone.
Nathaniel Ramirez
One eventual problem is that you risk getting into Raiders of the Lost Ark syndrome, where the party could just do nothing and let the bad guys fuck over themselves all alone.
Cooper Mitchell
Depends on if the dragons take more of 's approach and have them act with some semblance of desire once they're a dragon. Then there are risks to letting them wield their power. In OP's system, dragons are definitely going to eventually fuck themselves over by possessing a pebble or some other crappy form, but dragons could be considered a part of nature, only being problematic when they possess a freighter or something that causes problems for everyone else.
