Post "dragons"

>Following D&D standards, any living being could be a half-dragon.
Nah. I like halfdragons to show it. But for actual dragons I enjoy the potential versatility in storytelling. In D&D only one or two types can do it (of the core ten). Practically I stretch the rules and make it some trivial magic that they can acquire if they want- but again, isn't comprehensive, or permanent. A ring of alter self, when I last ran pathfinder. Each ring being a specific 'self'

I prefer to give them exploitable characters. They're prideful, vain, and arrogant, after all- it isn't too hard. I also prefer they usually win. They're badass and rich for a reason. PCs should not just go 'Oh, a dragon? Sweet, let's take its stuff!'. Usually, this requires some empirical education.

Nohr is best kingdom

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Sorry to disappoint you, then. My dragons can definitely shapeshift, and the party I DM for just got utterly played by a green dragon. They haven't yet realized that the friendly nobleman who liked to collect lots of wood carvings, statues, and strange creatures was in fact a green dragon who absolutely played them into giving away the location of what's basically a resistance haven. He "hired" them to off some elves and sent two of his personal guards to help. Long story short, as he anticipated, they turned on the guards and looted them... including two very nice magical daggers. Daggers which happened to be enchanted with a tracking spell.

They're going to kick themselves when they figure it out, especially the resident schemer. They realized that their situation was really bizarre, but wrote it off OOC as a "heavy-handed plot device" to get them to the haven. I know it's not the most elaborate scheme ever, but I'm pretty pleased with it - in attempting to screw over their employer, they ended up working for him instead, and all of it was planned with information he'd have in-game.

And all this was inspired when I read the MM entry on green dragons particularly enjoying manipulating people into serving them.

Cipher art detected.

Deploying Cipher art.

>specializes in destruction effects
>all of them are obscenely expensive or involve killing your own board
No way, I'd go with "fill board with worthless units" Hoshido or "meh MC" Divine Weapons before Nohr.

>he doesn't send xander in and 1v1the enemy army
lol

Sounds like good shit.

Now give them a PTSD-like phobia of chlorine gas, like they're WWI vets.

I did once play Xander a whole lot, but
>enemy holds crits while xander does fuck all to clear backrow
is not fun.

Cucking the opponent from getting the Orb broken, though, is.

>xander doesn't clear the backrow
bro hes got range just give him a shit load of elixers and he will never die

>elixirs
>range
We talkin' 'bout the same game here? Like, you ever play Fire Emblem Cipher any? Or are you jus' trollin' me.

>Fire Emblem Cipher
shit i was talking about conquest

Dragons are nearly extinct, with a few small enclaves existing in lonely, remote places.
One went nearly insane for want of companionship, so she regularly disguises herself and goes around the towns and cities that have blossomed near her mountain lair.
Some say that at least a full quarter of the population are related to her by blood.

>"dragons"

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I like shapeshifting dragons

Except for fucking draconis in baldur's gate 2 TOB he's a fucking cunt

If my lore are correct, Io experimented with the dragon gene pool to allow them to exist and adapt to any situation. And what better adeptation is there than stealing gene from other more adept race? Even his daughter experiment with it for her spawn or even his son with the dragonborn legion.

>ALSO, can your dragons shapeshift? I don't like when settings let it happen. I've heard D&D dragons can interbreed with almost anything.
Lucky for you, the most fecund example of a dragon producing hybrids in D&D explicitly can't take human form, it just doesn't give a shit if it's partner survives and figures if it fucks ALL the things, law of averages will keep some alive and it worked

>In D&D only one or two types can do it (of the core ten).
Three, all of them metalics
Others can learn to do it, but only in the same way a wizard can learn to polymorph himself into a dragon

A good DM knows, every dirty, exploitable, and "It works by RAW" trick the PCs pull, there's usually no good reason why an NPC can't do the same

>Grougaloragran
I will say he was handled very well, in both human and dragonic form his power and personality still screamed DRAGON

Pretty sure it's two. Gold and Silver. And one of them might just be small woodland critters, rather than 'people'.

I give my dragons the ability to shapeshift since it makes it easier for them to become major npcs rather than giant loot pinatas

From the SRD
Alternate Form (Su)
A young or older bronze dragon can assume any animal or humanoid form of Medium size or smaller as a standard action three times per day. The dragon can remain in its animal or humanoid form until it chooses to assume a new one or return to its natural form.

So animal or humanoid
...Actually would that be [small animal or humanoid] or [small animal or small humanoid]?
Can bronze dragons only become gnomes and halflings? And kender?

>Medium size or smaller
I think medium size is allowed.
Also, what edition you double donger? I could have sworn they didn't in 3.x

3.5 srd
d20srd.org/srd/monsters/dragonTrue.htm

Wait, fuck how did I read Medium size and get small size?
Shit I feel stupid now

Motherfucker, you're right.

Huh, I always thought that I THOUGHT it was three, but it was really two, for some reason. This is confusing.

I really hate the assumption that dragons are shapeshifters.

On the other hand, I do like steel and mercury dragons.

>3.5
It's 2017! Come on!

>Post "dragons".
CHU CHU YU

>ALSO, can your dragons shapeshift? I don't like when settings let it happen.
I unironically like the way Maid Dragon does it (in the manga at least). When dragons assume a human (or other) form, they're not allowed to just pick whatever form they like. They basically assume the form of "what they'd look like if they were human". So a pretty dragon would have a pretty human form, an ugly dragon would have an ugly human form etc.

This woul mean that even in her dragon form, Lucoa would be T H I C C by dragon standards.

As for the 'necessity' of giving them human forms, it allows for some interesting interactions. An Xboxhueg dragon can only be approached outside cities, in large areas and will have little to no experiences in common with humans. He's mysterious and unapproachble.

A dragon who can assume human form, even if the PCs never interact with him in that form, will at least know about human experiences. He knows what it's like to spend a lazy sunday on the couch, he knows that annoying feeling of buying something only to half an hour see that exact same product in a different shop for a lower price, he may know what it's like to get shitfaced on a friday night and wake up next to a woman he doesn't even know et cetera. And if he doesn't, showing him these experiences does a lot to create a bond with them.

Literally humanizing dragons tends to figuratively humanize them as well. Whether or not you want that depends on what role you want said dragon to play in the campaign.

If you see dragons as powerful spirits instead of smart and powerful lizards then shapeshifting seems pretty normal for them.

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Nap well, draggos.

My dragons can shapeshift, but only if they fall in love with a human. There's really not a lot of them left a massive drought hit their land and killed all the livestock that their druid companions normally give them. They all live underground tending to a sacred flame, but at this point with the druids forced off their land a lot of them might make their way top-side and wreck some shit.

Is that a swimsuit/maid dress hybrid?

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What's the point of making dragons shapeshifters but not other monsters like unicorns?

Anyone have the comic where the elf girl is mocking the humanoid dragon on how he speaks?

depends on which of my settings.

In my legit fantasy setting... Kind of.

It's less 'shapeshift from dragon to human form' and more that they can actually shift from quadrupeds (technically hexapedal) into a bipeds.

They are magically powerful enough to theoretically shapeshift but they see it as pointless and demeaning. They are the pinnacle of all lifeforms, why should they become something 'less'?

(same fag here)

No real physical weaknesses. In fact, one of the issues with fighting dragons of the setting is that there's only four things that can reliably kill them:
>Giants (who are as rare as dragons by the present)
>Another dragon (also rare, but surprisingly not hard to get two dragons to fight eachother, just hope you didn't like that city they were both in)
>High levels of magic mortals can't practically use
>Some kind of man-portable artillery which has yet to be invented in the setting yet. (though guns and cannons have been)

To make the last one worse: dragons are actually quite fascinated by technology and you can bet by the time those portable artillery weapons are created, the dragons will snatch them up and you'll have scaly A-10 warthogs.

>exploiting personality flaws
Okay, so that's five ways.

funny thing is, even if I imagine dragons in my setting to have become crimelords, they can still work as major NPCs. It's just making sure the plot works to explain WHY the dragon isn't doing it themselves.

On a very rare occasion I may have a polymorphing dragon, in my home brew, but its usually a plot device. Dragons tend to scare the shit out of peasants so without polymorph a dragon might have trouble seeking out adventurers or a quest.

Aside from that I don't think dragons would really feel a need to "transform" into a weaker creature.

>They are the pinnacle of all lifeforms, why should they become something 'less'?

I like this. I really do like this. Even though I, the OP, don't like shapeshifting dragons, they can do it in my setting, but I more or less follow this principle. To them, reshaping themselves out of their original forms is something like a sin to nature, but there are some exceptions, such as NEET perverted dragons who like mortal puccies.

I guess what I don't like is dragons pretending to be mortals, blending in with their societies and fucking every woman they can find. Well, most humans don't fuck rats and other small animals, right?

Unironically, would anyone here shapeshift into another animal just for easy secses? It's weird to think about it.

I personally hate the idea of a shapeshifting dragon quite a lot. There are numerous things I have observed as almost always happening whenever they can.

>obligatory, dragon form is informed, as in they stay human so often that you have to be reminded that they are a dragon somehow
>their personality traits are tailored to be overwhelmingly human, with those two points you might as well not even call them a dragon anymore
>obligatory cheese, where the dragon is easily killed by something they should be able to otherwise survive in their natural forms (caving in a building, falling, getting stabbed just once, etc)
>handwave magical realm bullshit to let slide the dragons fuck everything meme without any potential horror or weirdness to it

I basically see it as a huge copout. It's when you want to have a 'dragon', but don't actually want one, and all the associated concessions you'd have to take, like thinking of how differently they might behave or think, how they would interact with the surroundings, how to describe their actions and form, etc.

Anima GM here/
I, too, like having the dragons shapeshift with limitations, though more in the sense of "one or two overriding 'tells' no matter what form they take."
And only the Ancient Dragons, Gairas, and C'iels can do it, as they're Between Worlds beings instead of natural ones.

So Ancient dragons will tend to have hair and skin color closer to their scales, Gairas will always be blind and have some gem or marking on their forehead, and C'iels will always have a gem in their chest.
they also frequently choose forms fitting their personalities.
>Manah Razz, dragon of magic and fear, is known in her human form by many names, including Baba Yagga.
>Orgus Zangros, dragon of Git Gud and Veeky Forums is always swole AF, and talks like a dudebro.
>Unitas Eldereige often has a "christmas cake/team mom" look to her, and being in her presence is very relaxing.
etc.

Also, Nap well, draggos.

I mean, you can. Right on down to swanmays.

But Dragons have the intelligence and the relevance to mortal affairs (in the same way that say, a hurricane might be) that it would actually be interesting to see humans interact with them.
Oh, and they're more mainstream, and the ability is more frequently established for them, than unicorns.

Nothing wrong with either though.l

> # (same fag here)
Use your name field, broski.

Yeah but it only became as bad as it did because the GM wanted to fuck Corrin's player, and thus enabled all of the bullshit Corrin wanted to do and bent the plot over backwards to please him.

>the ability is more frequently established for them
Where?

The only shapeshifted dragon in my setting is only in human form because he's a fucking coward.

He's too much of a pathetic failure to deal with the workings of higher beings, so he decided he'd rather be a god among men.
Founded a mercenary band and lived his life in complete leisure, enjoying his pretend hero play, the admiration, the gold, food and women.

Well, players found him a few sessions ago. Won't be long now.

My take on it is that any sapient dragon CAN Learn magic, just as any intelligent being can, any that shapeshift are simply calling upon that school of magic and are no more special then a wizard using his magic to turn into a dragon etc.

Tldr dragon shapeshifting is learned not innate and not all dragons know it

D&D :^)

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Ah yes, the angry magical girl cicada dragon.