This gave me an idea for a story arc in a campaign. White Dragons have been seen gathing in the north, where the ancient kingdom of Ostoria once stood, preparing for a venture further north. Their goal; to find the amulet of Ulutiu and use it to spread ice across all of Faerûn to increase their territory. Your party is sent to gather information on the growing threat, but are drawn into the conflict when an army of Giants arrive to combat the Dragons, hoping to find the amulet themselves and destroy it to thaw their lost kingdom and return Ostoria to its former glory, stranding the party between the two forces. Along with the few other groups of adventurers, researchers, trackers, and whoever else had been north with your party must find a way to not only survive in the harsh unforgiving environment but also to stop the plots of both the Giants and Dragons as battle each other for the amulet and potentially reignite the Draco-Jotun War.
He got really excited when he found out Skyrim was a thing a few years ago, I found he had a save on my switch version, despite claiming he doesn't enjoy video games. Eventually he got me to help him one evening, it was a really good memory. See, ice dragons bring generations together despite being terrible parents themselves.
if a red were to crossbreed with a white which would be extremely rare it would result most likely in a pink dragon with a breath of fire so cold it burns
Pink Dragons have existed in a previous edition. I think they were a one-off in Dragon Magazine for 2e. Dungeon Dad has a video about them if you're curious.
Beyond the white dragon itself the deep seeded society and practices of dragons is fascinating. There is SO much more going on in the world of dragons and most adventurers can hope to grasp. So much opportunity for story telling. Oh and gotta get me a nice white dragon wing cape; they are all the rage this year! Poor little fellas ;)
So, in other words... a white dragon might only have a 10 INT score, but when it comes to predatory tactics they are comparable with Velociraptors via Jurassic Park? They may not always be successful in their assault but they never try the same way twice... plus they speak, ha
Here's a fun idea for a campaign: The Adventurers journey to a small village being plagued by a particularly old and deadly White Dragon, and have to team up with some folks from the village and an old ice giant to hunt down and kill this dragon before it buries the entire region in an eternal winter.
Thank you for this excellent in-depth video of my favorite D&D dragon. I always liked the idea of a "polar dragon" who, unlike any of the chromatics or metallics seldom has an ulterior motive beyond simple survival in their harsh native land. They're stunted physically and mentally in comparison to their cousins and have the shortest lifespan of any true dragon. For whatever reason, I find these flaws add to their character and paint them in a somewhat sympathetic light. Anyway, thanks again for the great documentary-style analysis.
I appreciate you Professor. Thank you so much for breathing new life into some of your older videos. Also. I appreciate the community here too. We're all classmates in Sage AJ's Candlekeep lessons and I consider a good chunk of you regulars here like siblings. Quick question. I remember reading or hearing that the first layer of Celestia has an infinite beach where good doggos go for their rest. So my question is, who is the lucky planetar or archon that gets to watch over them? My best friend Maya is on her way up and I miss her.
There's nothing scarier then forgetting that although White Dragons are treated as animalistic, they can speak. Nothing is more terrifying than being stalked over the frozen tundra by a white dragon occasionally taunting you or uttering a single word right before flash-freezing you solid. I'd like to see a white dragon Lazac who decides to gain levels in Wizard, and becomes a Frost Mage(Frostburn pg. 58).
In icewind dale, Rise of the frost maiden, there's a ice giant encounter. And when my too low level party encountered it, there was no battle. Just as a giant about to finish it's first attack, snow white claws grabbed it, and carrying into the blizzard. The battle is over...
So it would seem surprising a white dragon, or being surprised by one, would most likely be fatal to almost any party. I wonder how a white dragon would respond to a gift or tribute?
i could see a grey and white dragon having a sort of competitive relationship of who has hunted the greatest prey perhaps given both collect trophies from hunts though greys find more sport where whites don't as much
Icingdeath was also unique amongst white dragons in that he actually had the long horns on his head of which white dragons don’t usually have! Just a fun fact :)
I'm really glad you've decided to do updated entries on these dragons. You can never go wrong with dragon lore. If I may, I would suggest an updated series on Giants, another fascinating topic indeed. Love your work, please keep doing what you do, sir.
Hmm. Thats interesting. Do you think it would be to Fartetched to try and make a campaign about a White Dragon that was apprenticed to a blue dragon, and through magic means found a way to achieve Wyrm aging ? since I have not seen any information of White dragons reaching wyrm age only Acient.
It's your campaign, you can do basically anything. D&d is a game with hippo people and giant space hamsters so I wouldn't worry too much about being far fetched hahaha
If I remember right, a lot of the chromatics refer to the purple, lesser chromatic as big headed because they tend to like mind games more than actually causing trouble. One world, can't remember the specifics had a very interesting shift of how White dragons operate...they're the most social of the dragons within their own species. Males end up far bigger than females, and it tends to be one male claims a large area as his own, females have smaller lairs within it and exchange mating rights for protection...and the females in that territory tend to cooperate a lot more than most. Conflicts between males is semi-common, with males challenging each other for dominance over territory. Young dragons are protected by the "pride" of white dragons until they're old enough that the male tends to drive his children off...or the younger males are forced to flee when their father is defeated and driven off (Young females are potential, future mates). The world also had white dragons as the most common source of half-dragons, because the males developed an alternate form early on, and, well, they tended to be able to be, relatively, safe inside the local human and dwarf and other communities in such areas...though some older, dominant males might still have ties to such communities and not like youngsters dealing with what's theirs...and as those communities tended to be more of barbarian tribes and viking types, well, they fit in rather well with them It also meant that when dealing with White Dragons, you needed to be prepared for multiple dragons working together if you become a threat...and a lot of other dragons who know that the whites are weak and small for true dragons, well, they make up for it by being in groups. Sure, said groups tend to be tumultuous, both with other males vying to take over territory, and between the females to determine their pecking order
Woah... great video AJ. This video has shown me how I was totally cool in how I did the White Dragons and how their young are often Frost Giant mutts. And... I am gonna' send a link to this video to some players who were salty about how difficult their fight with "just a white dragon" was that was pretty much a mini-campaign that was really hard for them. New AD&D editions are nicely compatible with where I went with Loom of Magus (2nd Ed based).
@@AJPickett Will do. I'll tell those who reply to my emails. Most of them are parents now and take a while to get to emails from me. I still do emails, not texts or other phone junkie stuff... so getting back to me takes a while. ;)
Ran white dragon juveniles as a cross of tundra wolves /eagles hunting caribou. Start off a far, then slowly circle inwards where they land a few hits nips and fly off to watch their prey slowly bleed to death. Have them lay in view upwind where firing arrows/ crossbows will be affected by firing into the high winds. Since my shops played with 3.5e, the DM multi class them with 3rd-level rogue so all of them had Evasion, and any flank/ sneak attack does an extra 2d6 dmg. They just come up out of the snow and nip a Pc's leg and fly off. They took turns napping and drove the PCs into sleep exhaustion.
@@krispalermo8133 Nice. You gave those dragons the respect they deserve. Most DMs forget that when you want to gauge the approximate IQ of the monster, multiply its INT score by 10 and think of people around that IQ range and imagine them being born and raised as that creature. "Low" or even "Semi-intelligent" is no mere animal. ;)
@@That80sGuy1972 Thank you and nice hearing from you again. I grew up in the country and had coyotes and bob cats as semi pets. Even if you can train a coyote to be a house animal and hold it's self against other coyotes and single dog vs six or more raccoons it is going to get killed. Due to health reason being the only reason kept me from going full Grizzly Adames ( bad lungs/ pollen and cold), I was big on learning how animals hunt. In truth your odds from dying from blood poisoning in four days or thirst is greater than starving to death or getting mauled by a wild animal. Unfiltered water will make you puke your guts out, follow with exhaustion. The part with the dragons laying upwind, as a country boy I have for years tried shooting against the wind during all times of the years. When the wind shear reaches negative 20 below it is next to impossible to get any range with a bow. Even rifle fire is about useless. So have a large dog/ dragon laying in front of you as they stalk you basic say, " Yeah, so .. what are you going to do ?" Dragon, " Seen that, yeah I just dodge your Lightning Bolt/ Fire Ball. Now what you got ?" My game shops ran multiple games where wizards Polymorph young dragons into human form to train them to live and develop political power within human society and treasure. Reds: rowdy drunks, have to wait a century before they mellow down enough to be a parent before they are interested in political games. Blues/ Greens: They love using logic to play low int humans for gains. Skull face: They are just cruel murders. Whites: Mostly very quite, play with their cantrips in silence or stare a lot, wait till mid winter and hit you in the back of the head with a shovel then burry you in a snow bank. Or get you to walkout on thine ice. At best they would sing cleric songs to the cold freezing wind with throat singing. Or dance around in the snow like a simpleton. We had this one female coyote we raised as a pup that would hide my grand mom's cigarette case in the couch cushions then lay on top of the spot as a game. To realize how wild coyotes are, out of one litter the most aggressive bully off the pack under a year old killed the weakest sibling and the mother turn and snap his little neck without a second though. And the rest of the little kicked and dance on his corpse. As for bob cats, their mother would slap the hell out of the ones that didn't behave. I seen a mother bob cat slap their young away from the kitchen food bowl cause they turn down a live rabbit handed to them that after noon. For a cat it was you kill what you eat or trade a dead mole for a hot dog. We had a lot of dead moles. Which we dropped into an outside vinegar bucket to pickle for the winter and for snacks for the bob cats, skunks, buzzards, and coyotes. After a few months we started finding dead raccoons laying but the buckets and on top of the grill. Some coyotes are so smart and have a set of balls on them it is best just to shoot some of them on sight. Then there are reports on bears that they will stalk a person for weeks or months, just to slap them once and walk off. And bears are loners with animal level of intelligence with something that can only be describe as human azz hole humor. So what can and will a dragon do ? Then you have teenage sibling that go around sneezing or spitting on the backs of each other necks to pick a fight or get a reaction out of the other, then the family dogs picked up on doing that.
*Draco Rigidus Frigidus....* I didn't know Latin was Gnomish lol! Perhaps drawn from the "cold drakes" of Tolkien mythology, White Dragons had up until 4th Edition D&D one very *cool* advantage over other dragons: speed. Even back in 1st Edition, White Dragons moved faster than any of the other Chromatic dragons and this continued into v. 3.5, when they were even as fast as the Epic dragons (Force and Prismatic). They were matched in speed by only two types of Metallic dragons: the Brass and the Gold, but both of those were especially vulnerable to cold damage, which allowed the icy dragon to instinctively use its home realm to its advantage simply by moving further north (or south in topsy-turvy DragonLance). This led to the phrase used in the book I've just finished writing: *"No dragon can outfly a Frost!"*
Ho boy, a lot of published D&D adventures use white dragons. The newbie adventure _The Sunless Citadel_ has an unnamed white dragon wyrmling who served as a mascot for a tribe of kobolds living in the eponymous dungeon. Those who agree to work with the kobolds will be tasked with recapturing it from the goblins they are at war with. 3e players were luckier - white dragon wyrmlings were the size of cats then, and their breath weapons only dealt 1d6 damage. 5e wyrmlings are at least Medium-sized, and this guy can TPK even a 3rd level party with its 5d8 cold breath. _Storm King's Thunder_ has a random encounter with an ancient white dragon if PCs are in the Icewind Dale area. Arveiaturace, better known to Northfolk as Iceclaws, claims Icewind Dale as part of her domain. However, she is quite insane, and wears a saddle upon which sits the withered corpse of a wizard she once called a dear friend and who she apparently served - his or her death being the source of her insanity. Being out of her mind, Iceclaws will occasionally speak to the corpse as if it were still alive. Thankfully, she is not spoiling for a fight nor hungry, though those who do not take cover or cower before her may either get a face full of her icy breath or get grabbed then dropped from a great height. Also in _Storm King's Thunder_ is a mated pair of adult white dragons named Cryovain and Isendraug. Frost giants under the rule of Jarl Svardborg captured the pair, and the Jarl blackmails into cooperating with him by threatening their eggs. The two icy wyrms want nothing more than the safe return of their eggs. Unfortunately, like most evil dragons, they have zero concept of gratitude, and will still attack PCs who go through the trouble of freeing them and their eggs, no matter what promises they made. The final boss of _Hoard of the Dragon Queen_ is another adult white dragon named Glazhael. He is powerful, but like most white dragons, somewhat stupid and can be lured in difficult situations. He dwells on Skyreach Castle, a floating cloud giant castle. If weakened enough, he will flee and put every surviving resident of the castle on high alert by crying out, so it is highly suggested that PCs take care of the remaining threats first. There is a second adult white dragon in the Tyranny of Dragons plotline, this time in the _Rise of Tiamat_ adventure. Its name is Arauthator, aka Old White Death...and it just so happens to be Iceclaws' mate! It turns out that the wizard that remains on her back was a member of the Arcane Brotherhood, and three years before the start of the adventure, a tiefling who was also a member stumbled into his lair. However, his relevance to the plot is that he is a powerful ally to the Cult of the Dragon...
Cryovain also shows up in "dragon of icespire peak" in the essentials guide, I didn't know they had a mate though so once my adventurers defeat him I think I'll have the mate show up and declare revenge. Super rad additions to the video thank you haha.
They are not true giants, not even giant kin really. More like.. when a giant and a yeti love each other very much... You get those things (but not really)
@@AJPickett think you could do one on the northern races ? I was looking through an old PDF and found that they even had Neanderthals in 3.5. (Gave me a hilarious idea for a sorcerer variant of a duskblade that delivered the sleep spell with arcane channeling and a club that he got a racial bonus on)
The only thing that threw me off was, "...they have a second transparent eyelid to ward off snowblindness.." Having been raised in the Arctic, snowblindness is caused from the continual glare of light reflecting off of the snow. Transparent eyelids would not help. If anything, (and it would look cool) they would function like sunglasses instead, being black like or mirrored, giving it an alien type look :)
I happen to have the old Grenadier minis White Dragon lead model from 2nd edition AD&D days, they had three horns on the back of their heads at that time but I see they haven't changed too much over the years. If any mini painters out there find any those lovely old Grenadier dragon models just be ready to shell out some serious bucks, they go for high prices these days!
If a white dragon can remember how It lost a fight will it be just as sadistic and vengeful as a red dragon that was humiliated 🤔 I would like to know 😁🙏
remember every dragon is unique some dont even go by the book which is the average dragon example being a white dragon that would care alot for its eggs or one fascinated by humans they are intelligent enough to have unique personalities beliefs and abilities heck some dont even have frightful presence theres a book on dragon magic that says they can have other presences that replace the frightful like an freezing one that slowly freezes people around it
I enjoyed this video, but its a rare one in that it made kind of think something I made is lame.☺️ So, in my spare time, I like to throw together iconic monsters, but with a big twist, and one of those was the ancient white dragon known as Cryoclysmacus. I often think about how white dragons are often thought of as stupid, simple, brutes, when compared to others, and so I changed this one. At some point, he encountered a group of adventurers, and killed them. One of them, however, was a wizard, who happened to be wearing a circlet of intellect, and so the dragon decided to force it upon his own head. It raised his Int to 19, and allowed him to read the mage's spellbook, figuring out wizardry. As he grew, the circlet sort of became embedded, as his scales and horns grew over it, and as his mind expanded, his way of behavior changed. He figured out what many people thought of white dragons, and elected to play up those assumptions. He could do certain things, and no one would conclude a white dragon had done them, because what one would, or even could? Still, he now had new advantages, and elected to make the most of them. He attracted albino kobolds to his lair, and got them to enhance it; building traps, paths, and such. He made them collect piercers, and laced the ceilings of one of the entry chambers with them, so that when they fell, covered in ice, the sound was like an alarm. His treasure hoard is covered over in inches of ice, so no one can skulk off with any, without first chipping to it, making noise. He has a number of weird plans, now that he's ancient, but also does just enjoy staying home, when hunger doesn't draw him out. He's about as different as one could be from a typical white dragon, and this video actually sort of hammered that point home to me, in a way I guess I hadn't noticed, yet. Not enough to regret it; he might be a neat problem in some future campaign, but maybe a little silly for deviating SO much.😊 Still, I appreciate the idea of my players making their assumptions, be they meta-gaming players, or characters being fed erroneous Intel from NPCs, just to find a lair filled with kobolds, traps, dead ends, and a white dragon ancient with the intelligence, and spellcasting feature, of an archmage. Even though this all gives him some very unexpected options, when they just planned for "white dragon", this video also gives me a number of other, more legit, and yet maybe not anticipated things a white dragon could, and might do; he's not ashamed of what he is, but just takes advantage of enemy shortsightedness. To go back to typical white dragons, I think one of my first memories of them was Council of Wyrms. I seem to recall the frost giants there had two captured white dragons under their control, and gave a draconic option to fight the Dragon PCs, as they played through that portion of the episode. Would they kill their own? Save them? Would the giants capitalize on the time either of these took? I really liked those episodes, and feel it could be fun, even today.
Of similar age, Whites win easy. If the silvers are older, Silvers lose, but escape. If Silvers are much older, then they come back with help and the Whites die or are driven off with casualties.
Nice to see you are updating your dragon vids, not hat you needed to the first time around was great. Looking forward to when you re do the Shadow dragon Vids.
If i was DMing with a ice dragon and a PC came up and said I will not be hunted and throw down their weapon. I would roll out the crazies side quest for them. The dragon would come out mad as can be. Yell at them to fight and knock them down . If the PC hold there ground and not attack . The dragon ask why? They make some rolls to persuade it of their reason. They pass it they get cures and told to bring back proof of it in x time. ( less than a month).
@@paulfolta6214 Sorry i was tired. Ok the idea is that white dragons are all about the hunt. So image a white dragon that meet some thing that does not want to get hunted, fight them not fear them after it attack them. Some thing that is weak does that. The WD is confused by this and it enrages them. It ask them to explains why they do not fight but it does not get what they say.. So out of rage it put a curse on them and tell them to bring proof ( physical proof). The curse is a simple slow creeping ice death kind of thing. From there it can end any kind of way. This hinge on the way the DM talk as the dragon. Simple, blunt , aggressive and to the point like child. This is a kind of heavy role play quest with a lot of improve on both side with a bit of lore spoon feeding via old adventures. The crazy part is how you deal with the cures . It real slow to kill you( years) but give you frost resistance but speed up when hit by magic cold damage. Many ways to deal with this magical or not. chop chop
I have this setting concept but yeah feel like White Dragons are like a catch 22, Basically it's a setting where you have like these principalities and kingdoms each ruled/themed off a dragon type, I have a hard time seeing a white with the mind enough to be a ruler, Although I also want to do dragon themed beholders too and I like the idea of having the white dragon themed beholder just flat out ruling the mountain/ice lands.
Check out MTG's setting of Tarkir which has a similar concept. A group of particularly savage dragons have subjegated barbarian tribes, outlawed/slaughtered their spellcasters, and demand tributes of food or else they eat some of the barbarians.
White Dragons aren’t always left to survive completely on their own. Remember the Sunless Citadel from Tales from the Yawning Portal? The children of the more successful ones will have their parent’s cult of Kobold followers to care for them and teach them anything they need to know to be successful.
Fn love your lore vids. Is it true that a feral white dragon will sometimes take residence in a large bundle of sticks and branches similarly to a beaver?
Either way,I’m gonna make a white dragon character who resides in a huge bundle of brush and branches etc. He piled it up and burrowed through to create his lair
I've been giving some thought lately to dragon courtships, how they might change with each type of dragon and how different dragons might 'flirt' with each other. Gold dragons for example might have a teacher/student thing going on where even hinting interest in the other's field of study is risque and provocative. Silver and steel dragons may have a deep taboo about doing the deed in human form ect... It's a topic I think should be given more thought.
@@AJPickett It was you talking about green dragons tricking adventurers to go to each other's lairs as a snack that started me thinking about it. How would a black dragon flirt with a green dragon? I think the reason red/blue dragon's are somewhat common is pretty obvious, they both love the abusive relationship. So many variations. It'll be fun figuring out how each type would interact.
@@jgr7487 Short answer, yes. Long answer, the conditions dragon eggs need to develop successfully are complicated so it may not always be viable. Dragon culture may also make it rare if not impossible, like a Romeo and Juliet story, but that doesn't mean it flat out doesn't happen.
Always liked these guys, but the low intelligence has always bothered me. They're still dragons after all. I'd make them at least as smart as a human, but make up for the relatively lower int with wisdom to reflect their instinctual nature.
I would like to use a Very young dragon hunting in the warm lowlands as a first sign of giants moving into the near by mountain range.
Excellent.
Stealing this.
Like it’s getting chased out. Smart.
"Or whatever the hell this thing is"
That line killed me.
I wanna make a white dragon archmage for my campaign either as an arc villain or a mentor or maybe both
This gave me an idea for a story arc in a campaign.
White Dragons have been seen gathing in the north, where the ancient kingdom of Ostoria once stood, preparing for a venture further north. Their goal; to find the amulet of Ulutiu and use it to spread ice across all of Faerûn to increase their territory. Your party is sent to gather information on the growing threat, but are drawn into the conflict when an army of Giants arrive to combat the Dragons, hoping to find the amulet themselves and destroy it to thaw their lost kingdom and return Ostoria to its former glory, stranding the party between the two forces. Along with the few other groups of adventurers, researchers, trackers, and whoever else had been north with your party must find a way to not only survive in the harsh unforgiving environment but also to stop the plots of both the Giants and Dragons as battle each other for the amulet and potentially reignite the Draco-Jotun War.
The white dragon is the epitome of the meme
_Reject civilization return to monkey_
That ice trick is fucking brutal. *Yoink*
I feel totally comfortable with giving the odd white dragon the barbarian rage ability
If my cat can have this ability I see no reason why a dragon can't have it.
3 white dragons make for an encounter that's a blend of the velociraptor that meets the Predator
Clever girl
Small correction: white dragons adore treasure too. They also get smarter as they get older.
So, among Chromatic dragons, lazack (assuming that’s how it’s spelled, only heard it never read it) basically translates as “NEEEEEEEERRRRRRD!!!!!!!!”
Lazakh
This is why cooking tools is very important. You introduce them to meat flavor ice cream.
So totally awesome, you can't have Dungeons without Dragons for sure! 🔥🐉
@The Devil 😈
WTF
Oh baby, more dragons!
Pffffft, it’s just “Dungeons and dragons lore:” and nothing else, that’s glorious.
That's just me being a dumbass :)
AJ Pickett You just made a mistake man, doesn’t make you a dumbass. Still a funny mistake tho
Bahaha, I thought I misread it at first xD
I like describing the personality of a White Dragon as "Permanently Hangry".
Here wuz Seamus.
Seamus finished the first season to his passion project.
Seamus is proud. Now, Seamus will begin work on season two.
If you even want some inspiration, don't hesitate to message me directly Seamus!
@@AJPickett I might just take you up on that! Thank you my friend
@@Fgway oh heck! Thank you!
awesome narration and art choices as usual - plus i love white dragons so muchhhhh
They are one of my favorites as well.
@@Fgway Nawwww, thanks :)
My dad always fought these and frost giants back in the day, they ran an arctic campaign in 1E for years.
He got really excited when he found out Skyrim was a thing a few years ago, I found he had a save on my switch version, despite claiming he doesn't enjoy video games. Eventually he got me to help him one evening, it was a really good memory. See, ice dragons bring generations together despite being terrible parents themselves.
Am I the only person who shouldn't call a White Dragon simple and mindless but instead clever and beautiful?
Cool these are
Wow. Thanks Kevin. I thought I was alone.
So big snow gators that hate nerds. Simplicity itself, it's why I love them!
Just imagine a white dracolich! The boost to the cold power would be brutal!
Here's an idea, it uses its ice magic to fill the gaps in its body so it's like a skeleton with ice instead of flesh
Are you sure that, "Lazach" isn't draconic for, "Nerd!"
In my case, guilty as charged. 😉
if a red were to crossbreed with a white which would be extremely rare it would result most likely in a pink dragon with a breath of fire so cold it burns
Or a breath of boiling water
Pink ? Or like a koi fish ?
Pink Dragons have existed in a previous edition. I think they were a one-off in Dragon Magazine for 2e. Dungeon Dad has a video about them if you're curious.
DRAGONS!!!!!
nuff said. :)
Beyond the white dragon itself the deep seeded society and practices of dragons is fascinating. There is SO much more going on in the world of dragons and most adventurers can hope to grasp. So much opportunity for story telling. Oh and gotta get me a nice white dragon wing cape; they are all the rage this year! Poor little fellas ;)
So, in other words... a white dragon might only have a 10 INT score, but when it comes to predatory tactics they are comparable with Velociraptors via Jurassic Park? They may not always be successful in their assault but they never try the same way twice... plus they speak, ha
Here's a fun idea for a campaign: The Adventurers journey to a small village being plagued by a particularly old and deadly White Dragon, and have to team up with some folks from the village and an old ice giant to hunt down and kill this dragon before it buries the entire region in an eternal winter.
Interesting how the release of Jurassic World influenced the artwork and fanart of the white dragon
Of all the dragon types, I like the white dragon's head the best. I'm not a huge fan of ice stuff, but their skull shape is great
I love your dragon videos. Could you please do a Adamantine dragon video😁
Yes 🧙♂️
@@AJPickett Thank you very much
Thank you for this excellent in-depth video of my favorite D&D dragon. I always liked the idea of a "polar dragon" who, unlike any of the chromatics or metallics seldom has an ulterior motive beyond simple survival in their harsh native land. They're stunted physically and mentally in comparison to their cousins and have the shortest lifespan of any true dragon. For whatever reason, I find these flaws add to their character and paint them in a somewhat sympathetic light. Anyway, thanks again for the great documentary-style analysis.
I appreciate you Professor. Thank you so much for breathing new life into some of your older videos.
Also. I appreciate the community here too. We're all classmates in Sage AJ's Candlekeep lessons and I consider a good chunk of you regulars here like siblings.
Quick question. I remember reading or hearing that the first layer of Celestia has an infinite beach where good doggos go for their rest. So my question is, who is the lucky planetar or archon that gets to watch over them? My best friend Maya is on her way up and I miss her.
It may have a reputation of the weakest of true chromatic, but a dragon is still a dragon.
There's nothing scarier then forgetting that although White Dragons are treated as animalistic, they can speak. Nothing is more terrifying than being stalked over the frozen tundra by a white dragon occasionally taunting you or uttering a single word right before flash-freezing you solid. I'd like to see a white dragon Lazac who decides to gain levels in Wizard, and becomes a Frost Mage(Frostburn pg. 58).
In icewind dale, Rise of the frost maiden, there's a ice giant encounter. And when my too low level party encountered it, there was no battle. Just as a giant about to finish it's first attack, snow white claws grabbed it, and carrying into the blizzard. The battle is over...
They may be stupid in dragons level but so are goblins to human and look who is a threat
It's like being the weakest in a high level strong man competition. They're not the best but they're still not to be trifled with
Lore blank dragon yes!
Love the new introduction!
By the way, could you do a video on the Aarakocra? I would love to learn more about them.
I do have an older video on them, but it could do with an update.
This should be sent to Matthew Mercer's Twitter
So it would seem surprising a white dragon, or being surprised by one, would most likely be fatal to almost any party.
I wonder how a white dragon would respond to a gift or tribute?
White dragons are my favorite, thank you for a great video 10/10
i could see a grey and white dragon having a sort of competitive relationship of who has hunted the greatest prey perhaps given both collect trophies from hunts though greys find more sport where whites don't as much
Exactly so.
Icingdeath was also unique amongst white dragons in that he actually had the long horns on his head of which white dragons don’t usually have!
Just a fun fact :)
I know kobolds worship dragons but what do they think of white dragons?
They still consider them pretty amazing.
I'm really glad you've decided to do updated entries on these dragons. You can never go wrong with dragon lore. If I may, I would suggest an updated series on Giants, another fascinating topic indeed. Love your work, please keep doing what you do, sir.
I am indeed working on the giant videos as well, thanks Prague!
"Whatever the Hell this is" fillets are delicious! Just add some butter and a squirt of lemon juice.
Hmm. Thats interesting. Do you think it would be to Fartetched to try and make a campaign about a White Dragon that was apprenticed to a blue dragon, and through magic means found a way to achieve Wyrm aging ? since I have not seen any information of White dragons reaching wyrm age only Acient.
It's your campaign, you can do basically anything. D&d is a game with hippo people and giant space hamsters so I wouldn't worry too much about being far fetched hahaha
It's entirely possible.
If I remember right, a lot of the chromatics refer to the purple, lesser chromatic as big headed because they tend to like mind games more than actually causing trouble.
One world, can't remember the specifics had a very interesting shift of how White dragons operate...they're the most social of the dragons within their own species. Males end up far bigger than females, and it tends to be one male claims a large area as his own, females have smaller lairs within it and exchange mating rights for protection...and the females in that territory tend to cooperate a lot more than most. Conflicts between males is semi-common, with males challenging each other for dominance over territory. Young dragons are protected by the "pride" of white dragons until they're old enough that the male tends to drive his children off...or the younger males are forced to flee when their father is defeated and driven off (Young females are potential, future mates).
The world also had white dragons as the most common source of half-dragons, because the males developed an alternate form early on, and, well, they tended to be able to be, relatively, safe inside the local human and dwarf and other communities in such areas...though some older, dominant males might still have ties to such communities and not like youngsters dealing with what's theirs...and as those communities tended to be more of barbarian tribes and viking types, well, they fit in rather well with them
It also meant that when dealing with White Dragons, you needed to be prepared for multiple dragons working together if you become a threat...and a lot of other dragons who know that the whites are weak and small for true dragons, well, they make up for it by being in groups.
Sure, said groups tend to be tumultuous, both with other males vying to take over territory, and between the females to determine their pecking order
Yay!
My favorite dragon nice
Dude I love your content!
Thanks Jacob :)
Woah... great video AJ. This video has shown me how I was totally cool in how I did the White Dragons and how their young are often Frost Giant mutts. And... I am gonna' send a link to this video to some players who were salty about how difficult their fight with "just a white dragon" was that was pretty much a mini-campaign that was really hard for them. New AD&D editions are nicely compatible with where I went with Loom of Magus (2nd Ed based).
Tell your players I say Hi :)
@@AJPickett Will do. I'll tell those who reply to my emails. Most of them are parents now and take a while to get to emails from me. I still do emails, not texts or other phone junkie stuff... so getting back to me takes a while. ;)
Ran white dragon juveniles as a cross of tundra wolves /eagles hunting caribou.
Start off a far, then slowly circle inwards where they land a few hits nips and fly off to watch their prey slowly bleed to death.
Have them lay in view upwind where firing arrows/ crossbows will be affected by firing into the high winds.
Since my shops played with 3.5e, the DM multi class them with 3rd-level rogue so all of them had Evasion, and any flank/ sneak attack does an extra 2d6 dmg. They just come up out of the snow and nip a Pc's leg and fly off. They took turns napping and drove the PCs into sleep exhaustion.
@@krispalermo8133 Nice. You gave those dragons the respect they deserve. Most DMs forget that when you want to gauge the approximate IQ of the monster, multiply its INT score by 10 and think of people around that IQ range and imagine them being born and raised as that creature. "Low" or even "Semi-intelligent" is no mere animal. ;)
@@That80sGuy1972 Thank you and nice hearing from you again.
I grew up in the country and had coyotes and bob cats as semi pets. Even if you can train a coyote to be a house animal and hold it's self against other coyotes and single dog vs six or more raccoons it is going to get killed. Due to health reason being the only reason kept me from going full Grizzly Adames ( bad lungs/ pollen and cold), I was big on learning how animals hunt. In truth your odds from dying from blood poisoning in four days or thirst is greater than starving to death or getting mauled by a wild animal. Unfiltered water will make you puke your guts out, follow with exhaustion.
The part with the dragons laying upwind, as a country boy I have for years tried shooting against the wind during all times of the years. When the wind shear reaches negative 20 below it is next to impossible to get any range with a bow. Even rifle fire is about useless. So have a large dog/ dragon laying in front of you as they stalk you basic say, " Yeah, so .. what are you going to do ?"
Dragon, " Seen that, yeah I just dodge your Lightning Bolt/ Fire Ball. Now what you got ?"
My game shops ran multiple games where wizards Polymorph young dragons into human form to train them to live and develop political power within human society and treasure.
Reds: rowdy drunks, have to wait a century before they mellow down enough to be a parent before they are interested in political games.
Blues/ Greens: They love using logic to play low int humans for gains.
Skull face: They are just cruel murders.
Whites: Mostly very quite, play with their cantrips in silence or stare a lot, wait till mid winter and hit you in the back of the head with a shovel then burry you in a snow bank. Or get you to walkout on thine ice. At best they would sing cleric songs to the cold freezing wind with throat singing. Or dance around in the snow like a simpleton.
We had this one female coyote we raised as a pup that would hide my grand mom's cigarette case in the couch cushions then lay on top of the spot as a game. To realize how wild coyotes are, out of one litter the most aggressive bully off the pack under a year old killed the weakest sibling and the mother turn and snap his little neck without a second though. And the rest of the little kicked and dance on his corpse.
As for bob cats, their mother would slap the hell out of the ones that didn't behave. I seen a mother bob cat slap their young away from the kitchen food bowl cause they turn down a live rabbit handed to them that after noon. For a cat it was you kill what you eat or trade a dead mole for a hot dog. We had a lot of dead moles. Which we dropped into an outside vinegar bucket to pickle for the winter and for snacks for the bob cats, skunks, buzzards, and coyotes. After a few months we started finding dead raccoons laying but the buckets and on top of the grill.
Some coyotes are so smart and have a set of balls on them it is best just to shoot some of them on sight.
Then there are reports on bears that they will stalk a person for weeks or months, just to slap them once and walk off.
And bears are loners with animal level of intelligence with something that can only be describe as human azz hole humor.
So what can and will a dragon do ?
Then you have teenage sibling that go around sneezing or spitting on the backs of each other necks to pick a fight or get a reaction out of the other, then the family dogs picked up on doing that.
What is truly amazing about this video is the 1.6k likes to 6 dislikes ratio. I feel like that is a great achievement
The new intro is really great. Art, animation & music.
I think I got it right :)
5:30 "WAZZAP"" or "Hey big head"
I love the new logo ,AJ and how are you today
Tired, but accomplished, thanks Mr Cy
I like the Ice dragons because they are somewhat accessible to parties. They are not superhuman intelligent.
*Draco Rigidus Frigidus....* I didn't know Latin was Gnomish lol!
Perhaps drawn from the "cold drakes" of Tolkien mythology, White Dragons had up until 4th Edition D&D one very *cool* advantage over other dragons: speed.
Even back in 1st Edition, White Dragons moved faster than any of the other Chromatic dragons and this continued into v. 3.5, when they were even as fast as the Epic dragons (Force and Prismatic). They were matched in speed by only two types of Metallic dragons: the Brass and the Gold, but both of those were especially vulnerable to cold damage, which allowed the icy dragon to instinctively use its home realm to its advantage simply by moving further north (or south in topsy-turvy DragonLance). This led to the phrase used in the book I've just finished writing: *"No dragon can outfly a Frost!"*
maybe except yellow and time dragons
Ho boy, a lot of published D&D adventures use white dragons.
The newbie adventure _The Sunless Citadel_ has an unnamed white dragon wyrmling who served as a mascot for a tribe of kobolds living in the eponymous dungeon. Those who agree to work with the kobolds will be tasked with recapturing it from the goblins they are at war with. 3e players were luckier - white dragon wyrmlings were the size of cats then, and their breath weapons only dealt 1d6 damage. 5e wyrmlings are at least Medium-sized, and this guy can TPK even a 3rd level party with its 5d8 cold breath.
_Storm King's Thunder_ has a random encounter with an ancient white dragon if PCs are in the Icewind Dale area. Arveiaturace, better known to Northfolk as Iceclaws, claims Icewind Dale as part of her domain. However, she is quite insane, and wears a saddle upon which sits the withered corpse of a wizard she once called a dear friend and who she apparently served - his or her death being the source of her insanity. Being out of her mind, Iceclaws will occasionally speak to the corpse as if it were still alive. Thankfully, she is not spoiling for a fight nor hungry, though those who do not take cover or cower before her may either get a face full of her icy breath or get grabbed then dropped from a great height.
Also in _Storm King's Thunder_ is a mated pair of adult white dragons named Cryovain and Isendraug. Frost giants under the rule of Jarl Svardborg captured the pair, and the Jarl blackmails into cooperating with him by threatening their eggs. The two icy wyrms want nothing more than the safe return of their eggs. Unfortunately, like most evil dragons, they have zero concept of gratitude, and will still attack PCs who go through the trouble of freeing them and their eggs, no matter what promises they made.
The final boss of _Hoard of the Dragon Queen_ is another adult white dragon named Glazhael. He is powerful, but like most white dragons, somewhat stupid and can be lured in difficult situations. He dwells on Skyreach Castle, a floating cloud giant castle. If weakened enough, he will flee and put every surviving resident of the castle on high alert by crying out, so it is highly suggested that PCs take care of the remaining threats first.
There is a second adult white dragon in the Tyranny of Dragons plotline, this time in the _Rise of Tiamat_ adventure. Its name is Arauthator, aka Old White Death...and it just so happens to be Iceclaws' mate! It turns out that the wizard that remains on her back was a member of the Arcane Brotherhood, and three years before the start of the adventure, a tiefling who was also a member stumbled into his lair. However, his relevance to the plot is that he is a powerful ally to the Cult of the Dragon...
Cryovain also shows up in "dragon of icespire peak" in the essentials guide, I didn't know they had a mate though so once my adventurers defeat him I think I'll have the mate show up and declare revenge.
Super rad additions to the video thank you haha.
But does it have blue eyes?
€dit: lol, it does.
Wait, what other types of undead dragons are there besides dracoliches😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱
Wights, zombies, wraith's, etc.
Botched or sabotaged litch
Dragons are great bases to add monster templates onto. Especially with 5th edition where undead don't have greatly reduced HP.
Shiny new logo and a shiny new video. Very nice!
Ahh white dragons because some has to be the disappointment of the dragon race
YAY, new video! thank you so much! I have gotten so much inspiration from your lore videos.
Well it's about these Arctic predators well like dragons are the last smart the chromatic dragons but who needs intelligence
Yes this was really great but you forgot one white wyrmling that rules over a group of kobolds that's part of the yawning portal quest line.
No spoilers.
Arctic Furred Giants? How have these not been mentioned in the Giant series?
They are not true giants, not even giant kin really. More like.. when a giant and a yeti love each other very much... You get those things (but not really)
@@AJPickett Ahh. A creature of giant proportions but not of Giant blood. Got it.
AJ Pickett but if it’s half giant it’s literally giant kin also what?
@@charlottewalnut3118 its origins are unknown, there is no lore, we don't know. Pure speculation.
@@AJPickett think you could do one on the northern races ? I was looking through an old PDF and found that they even had Neanderthals in 3.5. (Gave me a hilarious idea for a sorcerer variant of a duskblade that delivered the sleep spell with arcane channeling and a club that he got a racial bonus on)
Oh happy day!
Is the reason crystal dragon's raise white wyrmling is because they look like baby crystal dragon's?
Probably
Ok so you made them sound a lot smarter than that other guy I am subscribed to.
Good to know.
There may be some things he did not tell you.. ;)
@@AJPickett
Ay the subtlety.
The only thing that threw me off was, "...they have a second transparent eyelid to ward off snowblindness.."
Having been raised in the Arctic, snowblindness is caused from the continual glare of light reflecting off of the snow. Transparent eyelids would not help. If anything, (and it would look cool) they would function like sunglasses instead, being black like or mirrored, giving it an alien type look :)
Yes, polarization. The eyelids appear silver
I happen to have the old Grenadier minis White Dragon lead model from 2nd edition AD&D days, they had three horns on the back of their heads at that time but I see they haven't changed too much over the years. If any mini painters out there find any those lovely old Grenadier dragon models just be ready to shell out some serious bucks, they go for high prices these days!
If a white dragon can remember how It lost a fight will it be just as sadistic and vengeful as a red dragon that was humiliated 🤔 I would like to know 😁🙏
Absolutely
@@AJPickett good to know and thank you
I actually like white dragons because they are dumb it provides contrast .
Not very bright
remember every dragon is unique some dont even go by the book which is the average dragon
example being a white dragon that would care alot for its eggs
or one fascinated by humans
they are intelligent enough to have unique personalities beliefs and abilities
heck some dont even have frightful presence theres a book on dragon magic that says they can have other presences that replace the frightful like an freezing one that slowly freezes people around it
Brass dragons need love too
I enjoyed this video, but its a rare one in that it made kind of think something I made is lame.☺️ So, in my spare time, I like to throw together iconic monsters, but with a big twist, and one of those was the ancient white dragon known as Cryoclysmacus. I often think about how white dragons are often thought of as stupid, simple, brutes, when compared to others, and so I changed this one. At some point, he encountered a group of adventurers, and killed them. One of them, however, was a wizard, who happened to be wearing a circlet of intellect, and so the dragon decided to force it upon his own head. It raised his Int to 19, and allowed him to read the mage's spellbook, figuring out wizardry. As he grew, the circlet sort of became embedded, as his scales and horns grew over it, and as his mind expanded, his way of behavior changed. He figured out what many people thought of white dragons, and elected to play up those assumptions. He could do certain things, and no one would conclude a white dragon had done them, because what one would, or even could? Still, he now had new advantages, and elected to make the most of them. He attracted albino kobolds to his lair, and got them to enhance it; building traps, paths, and such. He made them collect piercers, and laced the ceilings of one of the entry chambers with them, so that when they fell, covered in ice, the sound was like an alarm. His treasure hoard is covered over in inches of ice, so no one can skulk off with any, without first chipping to it, making noise. He has a number of weird plans, now that he's ancient, but also does just enjoy staying home, when hunger doesn't draw him out. He's about as different as one could be from a typical white dragon, and this video actually sort of hammered that point home to me, in a way I guess I hadn't noticed, yet. Not enough to regret it; he might be a neat problem in some future campaign, but maybe a little silly for deviating SO much.😊 Still, I appreciate the idea of my players making their assumptions, be they meta-gaming players, or characters being fed erroneous Intel from NPCs, just to find a lair filled with kobolds, traps, dead ends, and a white dragon ancient with the intelligence, and spellcasting feature, of an archmage. Even though this all gives him some very unexpected options, when they just planned for "white dragon", this video also gives me a number of other, more legit, and yet maybe not anticipated things a white dragon could, and might do; he's not ashamed of what he is, but just takes advantage of enemy shortsightedness.
To go back to typical white dragons, I think one of my first memories of them was Council of Wyrms. I seem to recall the frost giants there had two captured white dragons under their control, and gave a draconic option to fight the Dragon PCs, as they played through that portion of the episode. Would they kill their own? Save them? Would the giants capitalize on the time either of these took? I really liked those episodes, and feel it could be fun, even today.
Ok hear me out 8 of these with pack tactics vs a mated pair of silvers
Of similar age, Whites win easy. If the silvers are older, Silvers lose, but escape. If Silvers are much older, then they come back with help and the Whites die or are driven off with casualties.
I see them use instead pack tactics the version that hobgoblins feature that increases damage instead
I had a rough time this winter because I got really sick from Lyme disease parasites and other stuff in the fall.
This is a massive no thankyou
Sorry to hear, but glad you got through it.
Nice to see you are updating your dragon vids, not hat you needed to the first time around was great. Looking forward to when you re do the Shadow dragon Vids.
Thank you.
Oh yeah, the dum(for dragons) barbarian/ranger of dragons.
AJ Pickett Oh, thank you for the like.
2:31 - das a thicc boi
That's it.
Digging the new intro graphics
Excited to run Arauthator in RoT with the new mini from whizkids.
If i was DMing with a ice dragon and a PC came up and said I will not be hunted and throw down their weapon. I would roll out the crazies side quest for them.
The dragon would come out mad as can be. Yell at them to fight and knock them down . If the PC hold there ground and not attack . The dragon ask why? They make some rolls to persuade it of their reason. They pass it they get cures and told to bring back proof of it in x time. ( less than a month).
Thought you had a good idea at first then it made less sense as you went on.. please explain
@@paulfolta6214 Sorry i was tired. Ok the idea is that white dragons are all about the hunt. So image a white dragon that meet some thing that does not want to get hunted, fight them not fear them after it attack them. Some thing that is weak does that. The WD is confused by this and it enrages them. It ask them to explains why they do not fight but it does not get what they say.. So out of rage it put a curse on them and tell them to bring proof ( physical proof). The curse is a simple slow creeping ice death kind of thing. From there it can end any kind of way.
This hinge on the way the DM talk as the dragon. Simple, blunt , aggressive and to the point like child. This is a kind of heavy role play quest with a lot of improve on both side with a bit of lore spoon feeding via old adventures. The crazy part is how you deal with the cures . It real slow to kill you( years) but give you frost resistance but speed up when hit by magic cold damage. Many ways to deal with this magical or not. chop chop
If you’re DM is clever they could have the dragon send you on one of these impossible fetch quests so it can gain an item their mate desires.
I have this setting concept but yeah feel like White Dragons are like a catch 22, Basically it's a setting where you have like these principalities and kingdoms each ruled/themed off a dragon type, I have a hard time seeing a white with the mind enough to be a ruler, Although I also want to do dragon themed beholders too and I like the idea of having the white dragon themed beholder just flat out ruling the mountain/ice lands.
A barbaric kingdom or one that's in decline makes sense for how the White Dragons operate
I think it has been very well demonstrated lately that leaders don't need to be intelligent...
Check out MTG's setting of Tarkir which has a similar concept. A group of particularly savage dragons have subjegated barbarian tribes, outlawed/slaughtered their spellcasters, and demand tributes of food or else they eat some of the barbarians.
I know that these take a while to produce, but I'm surprised that you didn't do White Dragons when 'Dragon of Ice Spire Peak' came out.
They don't call me AJ the Topical.
I always give my young dragons lair and legendary actions, but ones with less impressive effects and smaller areas.
White Dragons aren’t always left to survive completely on their own. Remember the Sunless Citadel from Tales from the Yawning Portal? The children of the more successful ones will have their parent’s cult of Kobold followers to care for them and teach them anything they need to know to be successful.
Very true!
Fn love your lore vids. Is it true that a feral white dragon will sometimes take residence in a large bundle of sticks and branches similarly to a beaver?
Either way,I’m gonna make a white dragon character who resides in a huge bundle of brush and branches etc. He piled it up and burrowed through to create his lair
Seems feasible
I've been giving some thought lately to dragon courtships, how they might change with each type of dragon and how different dragons might 'flirt' with each other. Gold dragons for example might have a teacher/student thing going on where even hinting interest in the other's field of study is risque and provocative. Silver and steel dragons may have a deep taboo about doing the deed in human form ect... It's a topic I think should be given more thought.
Hmmm, I like what you are thinking so far.
@@AJPickett It was you talking about green dragons tricking adventurers to go to each other's lairs as a snack that started me thinking about it. How would a black dragon flirt with a green dragon? I think the reason red/blue dragon's are somewhat common is pretty obvious, they both love the abusive relationship.
So many variations. It'll be fun figuring out how each type would interact.
wait, Dragons mate outside their colors?
@@jgr7487 Short answer, yes. Long answer, the conditions dragon eggs need to develop successfully are complicated so it may not always be viable. Dragon culture may also make it rare if not impossible, like a Romeo and Juliet story, but that doesn't mean it flat out doesn't happen.
Half prismatic dragon, half time dragon... I guess I did open the door on this, and it would be a unique thing, but why not?
Woohoo! New dragon videos !
Always liked these guys, but the low intelligence has always bothered me. They're still dragons after all. I'd make them at least as smart as a human, but make up for the relatively lower int with wisdom to reflect their instinctual nature.
I mean, they are nowhere near as stupid as an Ogre.
Hey AJ you forgot to add a 't' to the subscribestar link in the description.
aj-picket -> aj-pickett
Thank you!
TankofChaos
So nice of you.
Hype! Thanks, this if going to help Immensely with running dragon of ice spire peak.
Great video AJ! Looking forward to the Cloud Giant video. 🤘😎
Great video as always, Professor 😀
good video AJ
My favorite dragon! I’ve been waiting for this one!
Love your Videos especially dragons as they are a personal favorite, Would love to see some Gods/ Pantheon videos.