Dragons are overused and overrated

it sure is

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Cockatrice

The "dragons" of my setting are titanic one of a kind animals. Ancient relics from a bygone age.
I'm tempted to have one for each of the deadly sins.

Dragons.

>OP is wrong
Having gotten that out of the way, let's post pictures of dragons

Dat ass

Elves

A singular dragon of incredibly massive power, the last of its kind.

Fuck off Bendis.

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Lizardmen.

Depends on what you're using them for. Dragons are so ubiquitous in fantasy that they're basically the lazy man's major whatever.

If you're looking for the dichotomy of regal and bestial then gryphons are a good choice.

Ancient wisdom in a powerful body, sounds like a sphinx to me.

Horrible destructive reptile, then a wurm does the trick just fine, and burrowing is more interesting and interactive to players than flying.

Big bad powerful threat for players to overcome? Try Lovecraftian style horror monster. Worked well for Bloodborn, and let's you get really freaky with the design. Or for a fun experiment, try picking out all the mechanics you want your beasty to have, then figure out what horribly amalgamation of features would be able to do those things. If all else fails just throw a shoggoth at players and see what happens.

Also gotta ask; Source?

This has to be a porn game, sauce?

Unicorns.

No. Please be trolling.

Princess crown.

>one for each of the deadly sins,
This is lame, Has never been done well, And seems to be a fucking weeb trope.
Dont do that. You wont pull it off. It wont be good.

Too much girl, not enough monster.
Sometimes when I'm on /gif/ I see this gif/webM of a chocolate cow riding a shota. I think it's from a game called... Meadow something? Something Meadow?

*not enough girl, too mch monster

>No.
Yes.
And my players will eat that shit up.
I wasn't planning on telling the players. It was just a sort of general plan on the motivations of the demi-god level monsters.
Ie the Leviathan of Envy(Hippo) fucks up any signs of civilization on his river.
The Behemoth of Pride(elephant), grazes on trees and generally ignores humanity as being beneath his notice.
The Leviathan of Gluttony (Crocodile) has established a whole religion around himself in the swamps of the New World, forcing his followers to bring him tribute.

Overused trope
be creative and try making villains out of the seven virtues

Might be over used, but I've never done it.
Seven Virtues might be neat villians though.

Can someone tell me the historically factual powers for gryphons? And maybe some of their own cool ideas? All I really know is that they...can transform and are really smart and strong? What else? What abilities make them distinct from dragons, wyverns, alicorns and pegausi etc flying mounts.

I always say gryphons as the mongoose to Dragon's snake.

Bigger dragons.

They're considered the kings of the beast realm, which is why they're part lion (king of the land) and eagle (king of the sky). In Mediterranean mythology they have extremely keen eyesight, brutal cunning, and can take on multiple cavalry units. In fact they have a preferred taste to horse meat. Also they like to hoard gold.
Dragons are a, generally, Persian influence into the Greek region.

Dragons very rarely appear in actual campaigns, because very few games make it past the mid-levels and all the impressive dragons are really, really powerful.

youtube.com/watch?v=WM3N3255Bvk
Surprisingly it isn't.

This fighting cocks.

fpbp

I put forth the motion of Chinese style dragons, because fuck this continuous cycle of everything must be replaced to make it unique.

Basilisks!

You want flying, foul, and identified with Satan?

Symbolically their interesting because they can represent greed because as said, they have hoards. But they've also been used to symbolize Christ: being a hybrid of 2 animals is allegory for Christ having n natures, divine and human,

From Wikipedia:

>In legend, griffins not only mated for life, but if either partner died, then the other would continue the rest of its life alone, never to search for a new mate.[citation needed] The griffin was thus made an emblem of the Church's opposition to remarriage.[dubious – discuss] Being a union of an aerial bird and a terrestrial beast, it was seen in Christendom to be a symbol of Jesus, who was both human and divine. As such it can be found sculpted on some churches.[1]

>As to the gold which the griffins dig up, there are rocks which are spotted with drops of gold as with sparks, which this creature can quarry because of the strength of its beak. “For these animals do exist in India” he said, “and are held in veneration as being sacred to the Sun ; and the Indian artists, when they represent the Sun, yoke four of them abreast to draw the images ; and in size and strength they resemble lions, but having this advantage over them that they have wings, they will attack them, and they get the better of elephants and of dragons. But they have no great power of flying, not more than have birds of short flight; for they are not winged as is proper with birds, but the palms of their feet are webbed with red membranes, such that they are able to revolve them, and make a flight and fight in the air; and the tiger alone is beyond their powers of attack, because in swiftness it rivals the winds.

Yeah, but also to somehow look regal and look nice in a coat of arms or something.

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Dungeons

if you insist :^)

No, he was right the first time. Also,
>too much monster
Literally impossible. Give me all the monster.

>Prudence
>cruel dictator who forbids her subjects from all but the most minimal of leisure. The "deadly sins" are more literal there, as those who indulge more than the average monk are put to death. Views humanity as a corrupted thing which must be saved from itself.
>Justice
>he's Prudence's right-hand man, enforcement's driving force. Sees mercy and lenience as admission that his judgement might be injust, and therefore is never merciful or lenient
>Temperance
>shadow spirit, steals from the rich and destroys their goods. Main issue? It considers anyone with worldly possessions as "rich." Those who it catches indulging themselves with just their bodies are forcibly bound by a shadow and left in darkness as penance. Temperance does give them meager food and water, though... if it remembers about them.
>Courage
>in possession of several magical artifacts giving him immortality, ridiculous strength, and absurd vitality, he seeks stronger and stronger foes, even entire armies, desiring nothing more than endless good fights
>Faith
>high-ranking member of Charity's cult, though secretly doesn't buy into it. Avoids direct fighting at all costs, instead imploring his god for assistance. These requests are met with worrying frequency
>Hope
>pick a villain method and motivation. Hope's just incredibly confident things will go her way, and things generally do go her way (reroll anything directly affecting Hope, use the outcome that's best for her)
>Charity
>cult leader, teaches followers kindness and selflessness beyond self-preservation. Charity inspires hundreds a year to starve themselves for the sake of letting another have their food

Shai-Hulud

>Honesty: Thou shalt not lie, or thou shalt lose thy tongue.
>Compassion: Thou shalt help those in need, or thou shalt suffer the same need.
>Valor: Thou shalt fight to the death if challenged, or thou shalt be banished as a coward.
>Justice: Thou shalt confess to thy crime and suffer its just punishment, or thou shalt be put to death.
>Sacrifice: Thou shalt donate half of thy income to charity, or thou shalt have no income.
>Honor: If thou dost lose thine own honor, thou shalt take thine own life.
>Spirituality: Thou shalt enforce the laws of virtue, or thou shalt die as a heretic.
>Humility: Thou shalt humble thyself to thy superiors, or thou shalt suffer their wrath.

Harder to translate to monsters, but great for evil church or something.

Giants

Cloud Meadow

Ultradragons

I've read a webcomic with that before, the MCs were the Seven Sins.

>dragons that breathe dragons

We need more fanged wyvern.

Dinosaurs. As well as flying reptiles and marine reptiles. Keeps the fantastic flair, but also scientific. Prehistoric megafauna in general are criminally underused.

I vote for genies. They are already the epitome of arabian nights and most people know about their wish granting powers.

I wish Al-qadim would come back.

>dat smug look
>dem gainz

Whether it's intentional or not, that pic is doing weird things to me. And I don't know if I like it or not

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I'm trying to condense the sins into three. So far I have Predation, Savagery and Betrayal. Savagery is like wrath, gluttony, lust, and sloth. It's pretty simple. Betrayal is mostly just betrayal, even if it comes from difficult circumstances. Not keeping promises, saying one thing and doing another, cheating, stuff like that.

Predation is basically about pure evil. Loan sharks, oppression, indentured servitude, abusive relationships, facilitating gambling like casinos, etc.

How would you do it?

Griffons lack the power to be a setting icon - the apex mount for a knight sure, but a mover and shaker they are not.

Dragons are icons of fantasy for a reason, OP.
But they require enough room to shine. A dragon is not a high-level random encounter but a centuries to millennia old sapient force of nature. They should be treated as such, not thrown in as a side character.

Yeah, giant roosters carrying off villagers

Paladins with dragon mounts can be replaced by pic related

Keys to the kingdom did the concept well.
It also did

Blemmyes

How about a game where the players are genies?

A genie isn't a spirit bound to an item but an intelligent artifact. Created by an ancient magocracy, they sail through the river of time, serving their current wielder while advancing the long-term agendas they were made for. The body most think of as the genie is simply a temporary magical construct used for interacting with people; they tend towards the harem girl aesthetics because the resulting wishes are easy to satisfy and pillow talk gives an excellent opportunity to plant suggestions.

Basically, genies are artificial intelligencies running lost technology, magical or otherwise. Where an ordinary living thing has instincts genies have directives based both on their original intended function and current master's orders. The more directives a particular action fulfills the more strength (bonuses, dice pool, whatever) the genie can muster. However, they are not mere automata but have developed personalities and idiosyncrasies over the years.

Overall, the game is about manipulating your master while letting them think they're pulling the shots and scheming with allied genies (other players) to meet your long-term goals (to facilitate this the genies have long-distance wireless/telepathic communication). Naturally there are rival genies with incompatible goals, as well as neutral ones. Can you create a situation where your own goals align with your master's orders for maximum magical power?

Sphinxes or wurms

Kek i love this idea

MH japs using Wyvern as a general term for all their dragon creatures annoys the shit out of me an a completely autistic way.

But still, you are my dude.

>The Leviathan of Gluttony (Crocodile) has established a whole religion around himself in the swamps of the New World, forcing his followers to bring him tribute.
I have bad news for you

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>overused and overrated
when was the last time you fought a dragon?

You're forgetting mh also has dragons