5e:Red Dragon

< Chromatic Dragon

D&D 5e (2014) CC-BY-SA

  

• Breath weapon: Cone of fire
• Habitat: Mountains or hilly plains
• Diet: Anything; they claim that female humans and young elves taste best
• Preferred Treasure: Anything with monetary value
• Alignment: Chaotic Evil
• Image: Wizards.com image
• Notes:

Red dragons are the largest and most powerful of the classic chromatic dragons. They are large with a wide wingspan. They have two swept back horns on their heads. They smell of smoke and sulphur.

The eggs of a red dragon must be kept in open flame at all times while incubating. Incubation takes approximately 660 days. After the eggs are laid, the younger of the two parents remains behind to guard the eggs and keep the nest of flames burning. Once they hatch, the wyrmlings are left to fend for themselves. A red wyrmling is roughly human-sized at hatching and dangerous. They are capable of breathing fire, and revel in wreaking destruction and havoc on almost anything that moves. The latter trait is carried fully into adulthood.

They regard all other Chromatic dragons as inferiors, with the amount of disdain proportional to the variety's general power level. When a Red Dragon and a White cross paths, the Red allows the white to leave, as they do not consider them worth the effort to kill; other Chromatic dragons are either killed, driven away, or bullied into servitude depending on the Red's mood and personality.

Due to their choice of living space, they cross paths with many of the metallic dragon, most notably the silvers, who are their worst enemies. They have the greatest disdain for copper dragons, and clash with them often.

Red dragons have an eye for value, and can determine the monetary worth of any object at a glance. The gaining and keeping of treasure is the focus of a red dragon's adult life, and they tend to amass incredible hoards with amazing rapidity. At any given moment, a red dragon will be able to tell you the precise monetary value of all the objects in its hoard, down to the last fraction of a coin.

Red dragons prefer to make their homes inside active volcanos. If a volcano is not available, they will reside in any mountain, provided that it has a good ledge from which the dragon can survey its territory. A red dragon's lair may have only one entrance, high above ground level. The entrance leads to a narrow tunnel, which drops off into a pit. At the bottom of the pit lies a pool of water, surrounded by several chambers. One is the dragon's sleeping quarters, another contains its hoard.

Red dragons are very dangerous in combat. Proficient in magic, they are also fast in the air, but clumsy, so prefer to fight on the ground. They spend years designing battle strategies, and wait until the best moment to call upon them. Their blasts of fire end most battles before they begin. As a result, red dragons use their powerful breath weapons first, followed by physical strikes, then magical attacks.

Red dragons may hoard women and children in their lairs along with their wealth. In some genres they have the 'power of persuasion' over weaker minds. They sometimes use this to persuade the chieftains of villages to sacrifice young girls to them.

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