5e:Bronze Dragon

< Metallic Dragon

D&D 5e (2014) CC-BY-SA

  

• Maximum Height: 15 feet
• Maximum Weight: 160,000 pounds
• Maximum Wingspan: 80 feet
• Breath weapon: repulsion gas, lightning
• Habitat: Aquatic, Tropical Islands
• Diet: Aquatic plants, shark meat, crustaceans, sahuagin.
• Preferred Treasure: Ceramics, statuary and gemstones.

Duty-bound and honorable to a fault, bronze dragons commit themselves to order and are among the greatest and most devout champions of that ideal. As order's sworn servants, bronze dragons can seem arrogant and haughty, with an inflated sense of self, a tendency that can put them at odds with those they meet. In rare cases, this self-righteousness grows into something far more sinister, and the bronze dragon takes over what it sees as lesser races, ruling as a cruel tyrant to its subjects. Bronze dragons claim coastlines, inlets, and islands as their own, constructing lairs in coastal caves that have access to the sea. More aggressive bronze dragons purposely choose lairs near shipping lanes so they can claim tribute from merchant vessels as those craft pass by. All bronze dragons share a deep and abiding hatred for blue dragons, and they are vigilant in protecting their homes from these interlopers.

Physically, the bronze dragon is quite fierce in appearance, despite its good nature. While most of its body is a reflective copper color, the wings are often tipped with green. The eyes of a bronze dragon begin with a green iris and as they age the eye slowly becomes a solid green with no distinct iris. The dragon has three main large horns protruding from each cheek, pointing back towards the tail. It also has a couple of smaller horns. The tips of these points are black and very sharp, and are often used for grooming. The tongue is purple-gray, long and pointed, and not forked. A large frill runs down the upper part of its neck. They smell like sea-spray.

Bronze dragons mate for life and take their duties as parents with the utmost seriousness. They will protect their eggs and their wyrmlings at any cost. Although bronze dragons always live near water, they lay their eggs in a dry cave. Apart from a dry, relatively warm environment, bronze dragon eggs require no special conditions for incubation like those of most dragons. Upon hatching, the wyrmlings are raised, taught, and protected by their parents. A newly hatched bronze wyrmling appears yellow with a tinge of green, and the scales will gradually shift to bronze as it matures. Bronze wyrmlings hold a strong sense of responsibility from the moment it leaves the egg- one that causes it to seek out purpose as thoroughly as it hunts for sustenance.

Given its exceptional abilities as a swimmer, the entrance to a bronze dragon's lair is quite naturally underwater, and often disguised with seaweed and coral. The bulk of the lair is above water level, however, consisting of multiple tunnels and large chambers, some as much as a thousand feet above sea level. They prefer to make their lairs in an island volcano, if possible.

While bronze dragons are often fascinated with battles, especially fighting to defeat evil, they have strong moral compunctions against killing living beings unless absolutely necessary. They will often join good-aligned armies to fight the forces of evil, either in human form or their own. In battle, their weapon of choice is to breathe repulsion gas, which is so putrid that it forces absolutely everything away. They also like to relocate a foe to a remote location where it can do no harm when possible. When forced to kill, the bronze dragon is a deadly combatant, roasting enemies with bursts of lightning or ripping them open with its clawed forelegs.

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