Started writing this at 1 am to get it out of the way. Then I wrote an essay instead... then i fell down a Belatro hole. Now I am ready to post dragons!
Dragons
Greedy - Destructive - Superior
Defense: Protection 1 (Harm)
Theme: An apex predator capable of challenging heroes on multiple fronts.
Powerful enough to rend stone, ancient creatures with more experience than any living, capable of flight so your weapons can't even strike them. Oh, and they breathe fire. Dragons are not something you set out to slay, they are a calamity of the world, like a quake or hurricane. Your best hope is merely to survive.
However, every dragon lusts for something. For most, their it's gold and treasure. No one knows quite why they are so drawn to their collection, but they will rain hell down on anyone who steals a single piece from their horde. This can also present an opportunity for a community. Regularly providing a dragon with its obsession can stay its hand. But there is no domestication here, we are cats bringing birds to a bemused owner. Be warned of this gambit, a dragon's greed is unquenchable and ever-growing. They will demand more and more until there is nothing left.
Dragons break one of the base rules in the game which is that Protection has to be typed to a specific type of damage or action. Any harm, magical, physical, elemental, will trigger a dragon's protections. This is fucking rough because any attack gets the highest die taken from a pool. But it's also a DRAGON, it deserves that level of threat. I like pulling the focus on the greed that originates with Fafnir but most people know from Smaug. I like leaving it open so that tables can come up with interesting horde concepts beyond just treasure (I always love a Dragon who hordes magic). Destructive keeps our focus on these as threats, we aren't going down to trade spellbooks with the dragon. Superior gives us that draconic pride that could potentially be exploited but also is just... dragons are better than the PCs and know it.
Questions
- You grew up on the stories of a local dragonslayer, who were they? How did they fell the beast?
- Dragons are inherently magic and their corpses are prized by alchemists. What is it possible to create with the right draconic parts?
- There are spells known to dragons that no others have ever learned. What sort of magics have you heard they wield?
- Between its claws, the flames, being crushed, or devoured- a dragon possesses many ways to murder. What end do you fear the most?
Moves
- Spread your wings and tower, inspiring fear in all who see your majesty.
- Swipe with tail or claw, forcefully launching anything you strike.
- Take the sky.
- Breath a gout of flame (1 doom for every character targeted)1
- Cast an ancient, powerful spell
Alright, for questions we got the classic chance to create a tale and hint a possible weakness or way to deal with a dragon. Then we let the players essentially choose a reward for if they do kill a dragon by giving them a project they would work on. Draconic magic is fun because this is both giving the GM a knife to use but also creating a line in the world, others CAN'T use this magic. But also perhaps a skills mystic could study the dragon's casting during the fight and learn to use it? Then we got a personal one to ask how you are afraid to die. I like this here because it underlines the deadly nature of the threat, but players can answer more broadly than the end they might meed to a dragon. Our moves are fairly obvious, we know how dragons move. The big ticket is spending doom to spread damage between targets. This will kill parties, and it should. If the players didn't spend some time figuring out a way to deal with the flames first then they fucking deserve to get got.
Tactics
Dragons operate in two modes, First they will be a smoldering coal, amongst there horde and content. The heroes are a nuisance, easily dealt with- an annoyance. You are trying to swat them down in the same manner we might try and hit snooze on our alarm. A great trick during this phase is to not reveal the full size of the dragon, letting them sleep under their gold or be wound through the caverns of their lair. A clever player might be able to treat with the dragon and even escape with their lives. If they come pretending offering tribute, most dragons will simply accept that as what is their due.
The trouble comes in the other phase, when the coal ignites into a roaring blaze. The dragon emerging mighty and terrible. It want this dealt with now. It will still go for more direct assaults at first unless it realizes the players are being clever. The more effort they have to put in the deadlier the fight should become. This is why most first encounters should be with that first phase, to allow players to realize the danger they are in and retreat or beg for their lives. Once things escalate to this point it is kill or be killed.
Dragons can easily wipe out the party, and that should be on the table as a possibility. But if they walk in and you spend all your doom to just instantly kill them, it will feel bad for everyone. Dragons can fly, they are mobile. Force the players to move into position to get good strikes, have them seeking cover from blasts of fire. A good thing to shoot for is to give the opportunity for every player to get that heroic moment, provide shadows for the rogue, let the ranger get a shot at the flying dragon, let the wizard test their spells against the dragon. They might still fail horribly, but you should think of how to provide opportunities- not guarantees.
Variants
Drakes are simpler dragons, similar to apes and humans. They lack wings, magic, and a dragon's vast intellect. But they still possess the terrifying physique and ability to spew flames.
Wyverns lack the ability to breathe fire but possess a tail stinger with potent poison. They are smaller and more nimble than dragons, much swifter in the air but lack the protective plating that grants other dragons protection.
I like the idea of setting phases into a dragon's fight. It's grimly funny to imagine players getting nuked but I think creating stages works really well. It's also a situation where you can give a dragon multiple clocks to represent phases. I don't think enough people take advantage of the boss having multiple health bars. Still... dragons can be a common threat and not just overlords/bosses in a region, so I think I should maybe write up some stuff for just how encountering one in the wild outside the lair will work too. Drakes and Wyverns also cover these lower level dragons in a way I like. I still want to write overlord suggestions but I think that will wait for the book proper.