Have to disagree with you . Dracolichs are evil but they are undead and I wouldn't count them as part of the Dragon family anymore. In my opinion Shadow Dragon are evilest of all the living Dragons.
If we wanted to be very strict in our definition of dragon and limit it exclusively to creatures that have the "dragon" creature type, then the title of most evil would go to the black dragon. I did consider including shadow dragons in this video, and maybe I should have. The thing is, a dragon becoming a shadow dragon doesn't necessarily make it more evil. The Plane of Shadow influences creatures to be dark and gloomy, so it would make a good or neutral dragon closer to evil, but a dragon that's already nearly like a devil (green dragon) or a demon (black dragon) is not going to become more evil due to being dark and gloomy. Thus was my predicament regarding putting the shadow dragon into this video: There wasn't a good place to fit it in the progression toward most evil, as it would fit almost anywhere in this list. I probably should have mentioned all that in the video though.
@@esperthebard just looked up 5e write up about Shadow Dragon and it states that they are or were Evil Dragon that become even more twisted from the Shadowfell. So I'm sticking with my call that Shadow Dragona are the most evilest of all the evil dragons.
@@rjh7101 What specifically did you read? Link? That's not really what the Monster Manual says. As I mentioned, a good or neutral dragon that turned into a shadow dragon would shift more towards evil, but a dragon that is already utterly vile, such as green and black, isn't going to become more evil from Shadowfell influence. They become more despairing and sullen, they take on a more gothic appearance, they become more stealthy, and their breath damage type becomes necrotic, but none of those factors supersedes a dragon that was already committing the worst atrocities imaginable.
Shadow Dragons in 2e were _by far_ the most dangerous to fight. Breath weapon: lose 3/4 of your levels, saving throw reduces this to 1/2! That's just... wow.
One of the main villains of my last campaign was an Great Wyrm blue dragon, who finally died when one of the PCs sacrificed themselves to kill it. My players where so freaked out when he came back as a dracolich in the sequal campaign.
Blue is definitely one of my favorites too. They do have those positive qualities to round out all the evil ones, and I love the long-game strategy combat style they have. Plus popping up from burrowing to lightning breath, then going back under the sand is awesome.
The half-Illithid Purple Dragon I used as the BBEG in my epic 4e campaign was mere breaths away from summoning C'thulu into the world. It was so evil it took a party of hardened evil assassins to take it down.
How was it a half-illithid? Was the Ceremorphosis interrupted? Recently had a player that humored the idea of their character inserting a tadpole into themself and trying to stop it, like they could play Parasyte or something 😆. The notion just reminded me of that. I know brainstealer dragons are much more complicated to "make."
"The most evil dragon, is the one in your mind". Oh, sorry, the right phrase was, "the most evil dragon, is the one who guards no hoard. What did I kill this lizard for!". A great take, yet again, Esper! I love these videos where you give your thoughts. And the analysis of the lore is very in depth! I would agree, a dragon who's beyond the boundaries of the flesh, can be dedicated solely to the worst aspects of it's being.
Seems like the Topaz and Deep Dragons could make for some potential, albeit reluctant, allies that could require some convincing to help the party combat an even greater evil.
That would be a great part of a campaign. Actually, just making this video gave me a couple ideas for those two dragon types. Now to find good spots to weave them into my current campaigns ...
@@Keyce0013 There is a campaign idea, your party is secretly a cursed group of blue dragons, cursed into the forms of whatever races your group chooses. You keep it secret from them and they have to find out where these unusual abilities and quirks come from. "Hmm, why do I like sitting on my gold pouch?"
My campaign setting has an ancient black dracolich. In life he was an ancient dragon naturally gifted in necromancy but was slain by a legendary dragon slayer. With some aid for his cult worshippers he was able to rise as a dracolich. Many of the ancient and powerful undeadin my world have the Curse of Abartach which for an undead it is really a gift. The Curse of Abartach allows it so that you will rise after death up to three times before you can be finally laid to rest. This ancient black dragon was slain once already and even if my players quest to slay this now undead ancient dracolich he will just rise at least two more times though not necessarily as a dracolich.
Not really dragons though. They were sorcerer kings who spent hundreds of years gathering supplies and power to do a ritual to make them INTO dragons. Least that’s what was mentioned in the prism pentad books.
@@jamessm4401yeah I agree. At least in my head the question is most evil true dragon. You can always pile on more templates etc onto anything and theoretically make it "more evil". But that's just my take on it..
I've recently started exploring ideas in my setting relating to treating Metallic Dragons in a similar way to the Jedi Order from the prequels: Originally keepers of peace and guardians of justice, a majority of them have become complacent under an increasingly Lawful Evil Empire because they've had it so good for so long.
I would say that specially Gold Dragons and Brass Dragons are great for a more greyish moral dilemma. Golden Dragons defently still see themselve as "better" then other morals and dragons, and Brass Dragons sometimes can go to far when it comes to "defeating evil"
3e, purple dragons where just another name for deep dragons. Topaz and Deep just come off as Goth kids. Some see as evil but when you look under the social opinion are just normal people. No cobra dragon's? Or Abyssal? Dracolich, like shadow, are not a dragon type, but a template. It takes an evil minded creature to become a lich in the first place, so yes they are evil, but that is a prerequisite to them being a lich. Black(Skull) are one of my favorite dragons, I don't see them as evil but more like an embodiment of decay and a swamp's dangers. Again another one I view more as perceived evil, over true evil. But even if I have different views I still liked the video, Thanks.
should maybe do a video like this for other creatures known for the evilness like various humaniods, outsiders, undead, fey, fiends, gods etc as well as good alignment versions as well also i think the 5e deep dragon seems more drake then true dragon in both looks and certain other traits previous versions of the deep/purple dragon are some of my favorite dragon types where the 5e is one of my least favorite
In 3.5 in the center of a labyrinth in the plane of negative energy, lies the eye of the void, a spherical voidstone cracked in half with a portal in the center that leads beyond the outer realms. Guarding this gate is IXULDRAX the mad gatekeeper. A green dragon born of the primordial forests of the shadow plane, turned dracolitch and master manipulator. She awaits challengers in her citadel amongst her hoard of magical artifacts and lich minions.
If we include dragons from older editions, I go with the Tarterian Dragon, a type of dragon that is native to Carceri, the great prison plane. Like the plane, the dragon has this cool prison theme to it, being able to cast spells like Forcecage, Maze and even Imprisonment, and it can breath a force-beam breath and a will-sapping gas, and it acts in a manner that is like a combination of a cruel prison bully and a tyrannical warden. It basically combines the worst parts of a black and a green dragon, which is saying a lot. Oh, and it primarly eats fiends. It also just looks horrible, being skeletally gaunt, with leatehry scales stretched thightly over withered-looking flesh. The scales are colored in a striped pattern of black, grey and olive green, its eyes are black and glow with a ghostly green light, its claws and teeth are long and black in color, and its mouth is shaped so that it allways appears to have a wicked, grinning expression, something it would probably do a lot anyway as it looks at its next victim.
I actually love the whole theme breakdown you included in this video and your previous video. It’s handy to have buzzwords to reference when designing NPCs and Villains.
I always wondered how Dragons got so greedy without hands or pockets that could carry treasure or trinkets. Maybe the lack of such inspires that greed, and they must rely on minions to gather the bulk of it for them.
That sounds like something a human would say. If 4 talons that are like a hand but have claws and lack a pinky are useless in your setting just have them use Mage Hand.
My fellow adventurer and traveler of the land, speaker of many tongues and whisperer of a 1000 odes, bearer of forgotten stories and chimer of hidden wisdom... Esper the Bard... I speak to thee! Please, guide me with your words and bless my ears with the directions on how to possess the mighty hardback that is the Emporium of Esoterica!
Many thanks, you honor me! I have been going back and forth with the print company for weeks now. Actually as of today, they think that they have figured out what's been going on with a problem related to the images and text. Hopefully it should be available within a couple months.
There's something to be said, when a villian gets you to do all the evil deeds yourself and reveals at the end. That screams way more evil than an angry dragon who kills you for pleasure. Greens would literally turn brother against brother and that, in my books is more evil than anything
My two cents would be on the black dragon. One of my best times as a GM was back when my group still played DD3.5 and I ran a heavily homebrewed version of "The Forge of Fury". An abandoned dwarven mine where a group of orcs had set up shop in the first level - with four other levels in the complex. And at the very bottom was (unknown to the PCs) the lair of a young black dragon; this was a low level adventure so its CR7 was still a stretch, but they were five experience players and I really wanted to try running a dragon encounter. I set up things up so that the dragon would spot the PCs long before they even reached the mine. It would follow them out of sight during the day but then close in when they camped for the night. It never attacked the PCs' camp but they would spot its eyes watching them in the distance, smell it, hear it roar, snatch one of their mules, paranoia-fuel like that. When they finally reached the mine after two play sessions they were utterly freaked out and clearly glad to get out of the open and leave "whatever it was" behind. They defeated the orcs and spent the next few sessions exploring the other levels. And then they heard it - a roar like they had heard several times on their journey here - only amplified by the enclosing cave walls - and clearly coming from ... below. I would pay good money to once more see their faces at that moment :-D
Blue dragons are not the most evil BUT they are one of if not the best villains in a campaign plus i love blue. Also will you do a video about the nicest dragons?
Green is my favorite, according to historical bestiaries dragons are embodiments of the devil, and green dragons just have his style. The additional lore is cool in my opinion as well.
@@esperthebard Ooo! Both of those sound very fun indeed! I'm not sure what I'd conclude. And thanks! Owls are my favorite animal/bird, thus why I'm mildly obsessed with owlbears.
What's funny when I ran Lost Mine of Phindelver, the young green dragon, VenomFang was fun character to play. I was going to make him manipulative, and stereotypical of a green dragon. But then my brother's character fell in love with a DMPC I made for the group, and I wanted to play on VenomFang being a love struck teenager, and the whole love triangle bit. What's also funny, the DMPC wasnt even interested in either of them. But VenomFang was just always pinning for the DMPC. He's evil, and deceitful, but I feel like it's more of his alignment shifting slowly, is due to the interactions of the party. Also he totally tricked my brother into giving him Cragmaw Castle, and that was funny interaction. XD
Thanks to my dm constantly throughing my character into absurd situations in the cold many a times, I also gained a bond with the white dragons who mind not the company, even fought together as equals against pirates who sought to take slaves to the western continent. To this day we hang out and fly across the skies
I made a draconic beholderkin... Behold, if you will, the Admirer. The toughest fighter in all the land limps through the doorway, drinking his last health potion and holding the door open for his friends, before slamming it closed on one of the ghouls' heads, as the horde of supercharged undead monstrosities behind them slowly lose interest, and they all catch their breath. The cleric uses his last spell slot to heal the wizard, who casts an upcast cone of cold back out the hallway, and shouts obscenities at the now frozen solid and no longer stubbornly refusing to die corpses, kicking one over. The rogue goes out and loots them, stuffing dozens of enchanted weapons into the handy haversack, and tosssing the barbarian a warhammer of thunder, before they finally explore the room they just happened upon, and behold the treasure they fought through seven layers of trapped dungeon and a small army for, The Hoard of Xal'Hackthul; A pile of gold to make dragons jealous and dwarves swoon, a full _three hundred_ feet high, and exactly why they brought along four handy haversacks (which may still take several trips) stands gleaming before them, wreathed at the base with a veritable _fortification_ of magic items; a sack overflowing with decanters of endless water, a pile of foldable boats on what looks like a MASSIVE foldable boat, several golden coat-racks of various magical cloaks, dozens upon dozens of magic staffs, a pile of enough magic armor to suit a small army, and mirriad enchanted swords, warhammers, bows, crossbows, instruments, and countless more treasures, all laying on a floor LITERALLY PAVED in gemstones. However, before they can even begin to take inventory, a Booming voice echoes down from the top of the pile so loud it scatters coins flying, saying; "FOR CENTURIES MY EYES AND MINE ALONE HAVE GAZED UPON THIS HOARD, AND I WILL NOT LET SOME UPSTART INTRUDERS DEFILE IT WITH THEIR GAZE; PREPARE TO _DIE!!!"_ And to their horror, the party sees the horrible visage, of Xal'Hackthul, the Dragon-eater; A maw to rival tales of the terrasque houses hundreds of massive teeth, its breath coiling purple waves of antimagic around its jaws, dripping with saliva, the eyes, dear god the eyes! Two dozen of them deformedly twisting from the horn-like stalks of many colors sprouting from all over the floating head, their pupils burst open to jaws lined with teeth like some eldritch horror, each of them brimming with their unique magic, the largest eye in the center Glaring with menacing greed amd anticipation, as the beast ROARS a bellow that shakes the party to its bones, and a prismatic array of magic radiates from its screeching eye-maws like the corona of a twisted god, and the fighter feels true terror for the first time. When a beholder dreams of losing its curioes and its life to a dragon, it begins a metamorphosis that may never truly end, as it becomes an Admirer. Driven by a frantic need for the power to protect its curioes from even the mightiest of dragons, it sets out on frantic wings it didn't have before to devour every dragon it can find. When it does so, it grows another eye stalk that emits the dragon's breath attack, and its mouth grows into the snout of a dragon. After eating 5 young or older dragons, all its pupils grotesquely split open to jaws, though the eyes still work, its wings grow into dragon's wings, it gains 30ft of flight movespeed, and its mouth gains a special antimagic breath attack that inflicts large amounts of force damage upon any magic item or spellcaster, exploding them if it destroys the item or reduces the caster's HP to zero; the magic item's HP determined by its value. after eating 20 dragons, all the eye stalks double in power, and the Admirer grows one size. This occurs twice more; once after eating 50, and then once more after eating 100 dragons; after 50 it must use its wings to stay aloft and loses 30ft of flight movespeed, and after 100 it loses the ability to fly alltogether, and gains massive claws on the ends of 4 scaled legs, which give it 30 feet of walking speed, and attack with the force of an acient dragon. Ever the collector, it will enthrall mortals to help haul and carry with its telekinesis the hoards of the dragons it eats back to its lair, expanding the traps and minions within over time. If you use one, first roll a d100 with disadvantage to see how many dragons it has eaten, or decide yourself if you so choose.
Drow of the Underdark for 3.5 Explains a lot more about Deep Dragons. They are generally neutral with a tendency toward evil when there's something to be gained by it.
I'm actually pretty surprised that you reached back an edition for the 4th edition purple dragon that you included in the section about the deep dragon. Which made me even more surprised that you did not include other varieties of dragon from previous editions or acknowledge the previous versions of the deep dragon.
Black Dragon is my favorite of the evil dragons. I simply adore the fetid swamp thing they got going on. Plus you add in their sadistic and chaotic nature, and ya got a deliciously vile creature.
In regards to the purple dragon, I personally like and use the example printed in the old Paizo Dragon Magazine Annual hardcover. It had force as a breath weapon and could use its breath weapon dice to add force damage to its melee attacks and extend its reach.
I once had a story where the party had to keep fighting a dragolich, they were so confused as to why it was so easy to kill let alone kept attacking them. I did this till they were tired of if and hinted down it's gem which was guarded by a lich king. Once they finally destroy the crystal keeping the dracolich alive they find out the reason why it kept attacking them was because it was a trapped good aligned dragon trapped by the lich king to perform evil acts against it's will. The people I was playing with loved it.
I played a red dragon who was turned into a human in one campaign, and she was obviously the least moral member of the party, but they did learn how to work around her, and she how to work around them, and she ended up getting quite close to the party’s druid. I always wanted to see what would happen if they encountered a dracolich. I’m not sure if her reaction would be anger, revulsion, or grief. Probably a mix. Unfortunately, the campaign died before we got there.
Purple and deep should be made clear that they are separate. Seems in Fizban they indirectly leave room for a Purple though. Whats going on in the minds of who decides these dragons at WotC??One is a energy dragon, the deep is a fungi spore breather. I dont use Twitter or live in Seattle/ US. If somone could pour on and convince them to make them separate. Also I wish for a HUGE Draconomicon with tons of dragons from all editions updated for 6e. Also including Yellow salt dragons, Orange sodium explosive and yes Brown sand, Gray fang dragons. Have Tiamat evolve from a Queen to an Empress gaining five more chromatic dragon heads. Yellow, Orange, Purple, Gray and Brown. Lore reason? She might have lost one of her avatars but extra effort paid off in 9 hells, Io/ Asmodeus could have gifted her new form, evolved it all alone since her body gave all them colors, she just use White, Black, Green, Red and Blue out of habit. She could also have killed her sister, absorbing her own 5 chromatcs etc
A black dragon will wound you to the point of near death then lie to you about giving you mercy...then kill you. It wanted you to have hope, just to steal that hope from you in your last moment. They are evil bastards.
I'd say dracoliches are in their own seperate bracket, since it's almost a occupation of dragons and they're still affected by what they were before. Kinda like how if a dwarf becomes a paladin the dwarf doesn't stop being a dwarf, they're still influenced by their own dwarven factors.
You know why a blue dragon isn't that much bad? They live in secluded locations, they actually talk to humanoids (yes to find out how to exploit them, but still), they have allies for tasks that they can't or won't do, and they KEEP THEIR WORD. I cannot stress how important is the last part.
in a background story for one of my campaigns, it involved a gold dragon polymorphed into a goliath working for a blue dragon and subtly helping the blue to become good until the people the blue ruled over not only bowed to him in respect and fear, but in genuine gratitude and admiration, then when a red dragon tried take over the blues land, the gold revealed his true self and helped the blue defeat the red and the two decided to remain friend and the blue was made an ally to good.
I think it would be interesting if there was a campaign where a gold dragon hires the party to help kill off a red dragon that's been terrorizing the countryside. I want it to be a big twist though, where the red dragon was raised to be a heroic spirit and is simply trying to save the people of the country run by a tyrant. Specifically the gold dragon who's actually an evil mastermind.
@@Kyla-Stormhazard indeed, I'd say go for it, I'd think you may also try to convince any other gold dragons of your evil golds nature before confronting them to avoid said evil gold from calling upon its allies, since golds are very social with each other.
@@james739123 I could do that... or I could give the players a chance to do that. It'd be quite interesting if the players failed and the evil dragon's allies show up and find the party working with a red dragon. Why would dragons side with an obviously evil dragon? Which could lead to a sacrifice scene, or the red dragon surviving and questioning if it really is the villain they claim him to be, despite his efforts to the contrary.
@@Kyla-Stormhazard the choice is yours, I'm just a fan of the whole "Villain thinks he has all the cards only for the rug to be pulled out from under them" deal, you know.
I'd personally put the Red Dragon above the Green Dragon. The fact that the Green prefers to use proxies and slaves to do its dirty work suggests that it's concerned about drawing attention to itself and its lair and would rather lay low and let someone else act and take the blame if something goes bad. A Red Dragon doesn't have that kind of caution; it will personally burn down your city or hometown - and half the countryside with it - because you said or did something to offend it. In this way we can see that a Green Dragon is very selectively about its evil acts and a Red Dragon is much more broad and destructive in its approach.
I think you misunderstood the green's motives. A green dragon doesn't want to have a fall guy. Do you really think a green dragon would care if you chastise him for doing evil? Yes, they would take it as a compliment. It wouldn't be hard for the dragon to poison you and your family. But greens choose to take the time, care and effort to make your brother poison you and your family. Because why settle for simple murder when making the humans kill each other is just as effective and several times more fun.
@@ConcerninglyWiseAlligator It is not so much the idea that a Green Dragon might care that a person calls it out for its evil deeds, so much as it is the fact that it uses other people to do its dirty work means you can't retaliate against it unless you know there's a Green Dragon trying to ruin your life, and you have to know where to find its lair. A Red Dragon takes a much simpler approach to dealing with people it doesn't like or wants to ruin the lives of: it gets into your face and turns you into ash with its fire breath. I would rather deal with a Green Dragon and its proxies and slaves because I can live my life and fight them off if I'm very observant and prepared. If I had to deal with a Red Dragon I'd be better off just letting it kill me because I wouldn't be able to run away fast enough to accomplish anything meaningful with the last few seconds of my life before the fires got me.
@@Keyce0013 I’d consider Green dragons more evil for one reason. From what I remember Red Dragons more often have a reason behind there acts of evil and murder. A red dragon will kill you if you slight it, or if killing you benefits it, or if you’re in it’s generally like of sight when it’s even slightly angry. But Green dragons? They’ll go out of their way to make as many people suffer as possible simply because they want, even if it doesn’t benefit them in any way.
@@digieykid6096 agreed, the worst thing a Red dragon can do is kill you, a Green can turn the whole world against you to the point were you wish for death, but they'll keep you alive purely for their amusement.
I have heard tell of tarterian dragons from the plane of Carceri. I cannot remember much about them, but I recall them being pretty horrible. I’d probably put them higher up than the black dragon, maybe around or higher than the dracolich.
I honestly don't know what is going on . But maybe something happened and The Dragons live on in/with me and it's my responsibility to bring them back into existence.
They are fierce and protective. I believe because I protected them they can help us but that's a long time down the road. I think I have access to genetic and other materials through my abilities. And they assumed survival was most likely trusting devil himself.
No I'm the only shape shifter only Superman can shape shift into dragon. There were other Supermen. Usually Lucifer or Jesus Christ. A long long time ago they had a good relationship. I know they worked together with evil the dragon but there were many evil dragons.
Evil Superman used to be Evil Jesus Christ. devil himself and I are brothers. Evil Himself is Evil Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ is the devil himself.
Daurgothoth is a black dragon dracolich, and is the strongest canonical monster in the forgotten realms, with a stat sheet, at a grievous Challenge rating of 50, currently working on making mordenkainen's disjunction (takes the magic away from your artifacts) as a breath weapon
Overdue reply but. Yeah totally agree! Heck if they used the Lloyds missing chromatic dragons from Dragon Magazine 65/ 248, that would win me over buying minis and adventures/ starter kits introducing not only missing chromatics but also gems, metallics. Lloyd concepted coastal, salt spewing Yellow dragons. I DESPISE his dragon magazine 248 version of his yellow dragon. It basically a LUNG dragon, NOT a true chromatic dragon as it should be. Anyway. Weakest of all chromatics but had 120 ft flying speed and could swim. Sure 2e had yellows too but they were sand yellows and seems 4e Brown dragons " replaced " them. I despise replacing potential dragons so I would just rename the sand yellows to Beige/ Tan dragons instead. I MUCH prefer salt spewing coast living Yellow dragons. Imagine Yellows, Topazess and Bronze dragons having deadly yet hilarious overlapping disputes of territories?? Now thats a adventure RIGHT there! Also not to forget Lloyds Orange jungle dragons spewing sodium enriched, oily substance that thye use in ambushes. Get that stuff on you and it will immolate you just by being reactive with air. Trying to jump into a nearby river/ lake to wash it off? KABOOM! And lastly Lloyds Purple dragons were living in the Upper Underdark, near surface underground. Have a plasma breath weapon, and digs tunnels leading up to open frields so it can feat on cattle and other grazing animals. Preferrably in the night. Regarding damage types. Yellow, Orange and Purple Lloyd dragons could have their salt, oil and plasma breath be under poison, fire and lightning damage types OR be more unique and have TWO combined damage types but each deal 50% of the damage each. So salt be poison and acid but flavored as a corrosive, poisonous for mof salt that hardens and blinds, oil be fire and force that flavors as immolation and explosive, plasma be lightning and fire, flavored as energy. plasma is ionized, superheated gas after all. Grays and Browns are STILL 5e included.Grays should have the more draining bite instead of corrosive bile. To be more unique. Browns can still have searing hot sand spew though. Judging by their mention in the Dragons and Treasures young adventurers book. Highly recommend it anyways. Not just for kids, hold alot of interesting nuggets of info! Like preferred food, treasures, nicely listed.
I mean, the Most Evil Dragon is clearly Tiamat. Yes, yes, she's technically primarily a deity, but I feel like leaving her off the list, even as an honorable mention, does a disservice to the Great Mother of Chromatic Dragons, Nemesis of the Gods and Bane of Bahamut.
The base lore of Dragons is excellent and well-developed in D&D, but I love tweaking the formula when it suits a particular setting and campaign. Personally, when I run homebrew campaigns involving dragons; I make it so the dragons are not bound to an alignment based on their type, but rather each dragon is their own individual. A Chromatic dragon could be good, a Metallic dragon could be evil, and so on. It all depends on the setting and circumstances.
We always see the illustrations of dragons lying on piles of treasure (gold, gems loose items) and I always have to wonder - how did that pile get there considering that dragons do not have hands (unless shapechanged of course, even then would they stoop to manual labor?). Did they all take over an already existent mound? If not then how did they move it? One coin and gem at a time in their mouths? I guess those with servitors could have them do it for them but would they trust them enough to? This leads to the second question - why do dragons want gold? It's not like they desire to become captains of industry and need it to fund their investments. I suppose the manipulator dragons could use it for bribes but could they bear to part with it even for that? In my own campaign the dragons had an extra-planar origin and laying on gold helped them dream of home. It would seem nonsensical for them to obsessively collect a substance for which they have no real use. If the males had to collect a horde (similar to what bower birds do) to attract a mate then it would make more sense. Otherwise collecting a substance that attracts enemies for no reason is not a good long term survival strategy.
When showing deep/purple dragon some of those pictures are shadow dragon. Should probably be on this list. Wonder if linnorm are left off just cause not in 5e or just not called dragon?
Considered most evil dragon (after Tiamat) was Klaus, a red dragon. Most evil of undead dragons, dragolich is not alone, there also vampire dragons who are condsidered as bad or worse). Then theres catastrophic dragons, with volcanic been worst of theme. Volcanic dragons like to hunt and torture red dragons as far as i remember (and take over theyr nests). But catastrophics are more elementals then dragons and somewhat left out of game it feels. Theres also "hoarder dragons", rather obscure and not sure can You consider theme evil. More like it will kill anything that tryes get its hoard. Evil or not, these are one of hardest dragons to fight (if You are unlucky enough to find one). And then theres Chole dragons, these are quite horrificly evil to.
I believe that any one species of dragon is susceptible to corruption and evil. In my world dragons behave much like the tenants of many editions of D&D, but just like mankind, any can be turned and corrupted to evil. There’s actually an undead gold dragon as the primary villain of one of my adventures
I'd take freezing by ice Burning by fire 🔥 Just don't wanna run into a poison mist dragon. The melting guy in robocop convinced me. That's the worst way to go.
I would like to argue the case for Bronze Dragons to at least get an honorable mention. Their desire for strict law and order sometimes leads to tyranny over coastal settlements. And evil which thinks itself good and just is very wicked indeed.
Azi. They are wicked dragons mixed with the corruption of ahriman and dahak both. Two evil gods collaborated to make em And they come in 3 flavors of evil!
If I may add my 2¢, if we’re talking dragons period, I’d agree with AJ Pickett: Vampire dragons are the most evil. They’re on par with a lot of things that dracoliches are and can do, and can do as much and more than shadow dragons. And just the flavor text itself; the fact that a vampire dragon is so evil that it literally needs lakes of blood to sustain itself, and if you’re able to kill it outside it’s lair, it simply reforms with its treasure hoard. And most likely everything in that hoard is tainted with evil or cursed just because of the innate magic leaching off such a creature as dragons are able to do with their incitement.
Personally if the Metallic/Chromatic/Gem category wasn’t so heavily based on alignment I would say that Topaz Dragons are closer to evil than neutral, Blue and Bronze Dragons both are on the Edge of where Lawful Neutral and Lawful Evil/Good Meet, and Crystal Dragons are just Neutral Good there’s nothing Chaotic Neutral about them.
Me and my dm hardcore trolled our party one day because the other players were complaining about the difficulty level of the monsters. We had a tpk in mind. We had made it to a village under the rule of an ancient red dragon nesting nearby. The people of the village were saving gold to hire a party of heroes to slay their oppressor. My party happily took the quest. Thing is my ranger character was scouting the lair. When i was gone for too long the party rushed into the cave looking for me only to find the dragon gone and just me standing there. I had told the dragon that its village had been treasonous and there was a party coming for it. The party was shook when they got blasted by fire from behind and arrows loosed from my magic bow from the front. After the party was gone me and the dragon raised the village to the ground, i have never gone from lawful good to chaotic evil in my life.
Have to disagree with you . Dracolichs are evil but they are undead and I wouldn't count them as part of the Dragon family anymore. In my opinion Shadow Dragon are evilest of all the living Dragons.
If we wanted to be very strict in our definition of dragon and limit it exclusively to creatures that have the "dragon" creature type, then the title of most evil would go to the black dragon. I did consider including shadow dragons in this video, and maybe I should have. The thing is, a dragon becoming a shadow dragon doesn't necessarily make it more evil. The Plane of Shadow influences creatures to be dark and gloomy, so it would make a good or neutral dragon closer to evil, but a dragon that's already nearly like a devil (green dragon) or a demon (black dragon) is not going to become more evil due to being dark and gloomy. Thus was my predicament regarding putting the shadow dragon into this video: There wasn't a good place to fit it in the progression toward most evil, as it would fit almost anywhere in this list. I probably should have mentioned all that in the video though.
@@esperthebard just looked up 5e write up about Shadow Dragon and it states that they are or were Evil Dragon that become even more twisted from the Shadowfell. So I'm sticking with my call that Shadow Dragona are the most evilest of all the evil dragons.
@@rjh7101 You both have good points, but becoming more emo doesn't make a dragon more evil. It does make them more sad though...
@@rjh7101 What specifically did you read? Link? That's not really what the Monster Manual says. As I mentioned, a good or neutral dragon that turned into a shadow dragon would shift more towards evil, but a dragon that is already utterly vile, such as green and black, isn't going to become more evil from Shadowfell influence. They become more despairing and sullen, they take on a more gothic appearance, they become more stealthy, and their breath damage type becomes necrotic, but none of those factors supersedes a dragon that was already committing the worst atrocities imaginable.
Shadow Dragons in 2e were _by far_ the most dangerous to fight. Breath weapon: lose 3/4 of your levels, saving throw reduces this to 1/2! That's just... wow.
One of the main villains of my last campaign was an Great Wyrm blue dragon, who finally died when one of the PCs sacrificed themselves to kill it. My players where so freaked out when he came back as a dracolich in the sequal campaign.
That much of been fun.
Personally Blue is my favorite dragon type, they give me a harsh but fair ruler vibe, imagine a Blue dragon pharaoh.
Blue is definitely one of my favorites too. They do have those positive qualities to round out all the evil ones, and I love the long-game strategy combat style they have. Plus popping up from burrowing to lightning breath, then going back under the sand is awesome.
@@esperthebard yeah! Like shooting lightning breath on the sand turning em into glass ,then use their wings to blow the glass into the adventurers.
@@schizoolander Ah yeah! By the way, I did a video a couple years ago drawing and designing a one page adventure that is a blue dragon lair.
@@esperthebard cool ! definitely gonna check it out
blue is my favorite too, they give me strong "mafia boss" vibes
The half-Illithid Purple Dragon I used as the BBEG in my epic 4e campaign was mere breaths away from summoning C'thulu into the world. It was so evil it took a party of hardened evil assassins to take it down.
I bet you *loved* crafting that villain.
@@esperthebard Oh you know it! When you have to constantly ask yourself if this or that feature is too deadly, you're probably doing just fine 🙂
@@esperthebard "loved crafting" nice little subtle pun about the absolute, shall we say, Lovecraftian nature of the abberations.
How was it a half-illithid? Was the Ceremorphosis interrupted?
Recently had a player that humored the idea of their character inserting a tadpole into themself and trying to stop it, like they could play Parasyte or something 😆. The notion just reminded me of that. I know brainstealer dragons are much more complicated to "make."
@@Kholan95obviously he'd been playing baldurs gate 3 demo 😂 thats literally the main thing in BG3
"The most evil dragon, is the one in your mind". Oh, sorry, the right phrase was, "the most evil dragon, is the one who guards no hoard. What did I kill this lizard for!".
A great take, yet again, Esper! I love these videos where you give your thoughts. And the analysis of the lore is very in depth!
I would agree, a dragon who's beyond the boundaries of the flesh, can be dedicated solely to the worst aspects of it's being.
Last time I was this early, maps still had “Here Be Dragons” on them.
And the edge of map was burned and frayed.
Seems like the Topaz and Deep Dragons could make for some potential, albeit reluctant, allies that could require some convincing to help the party combat an even greater evil.
That would be a great part of a campaign. Actually, just making this video gave me a couple ideas for those two dragon types. Now to find good spots to weave them into my current campaigns ...
I like the idea of making them the Creepy angsty friend, that makes everyone feel uncomfortable.
I like your profile pic
That's easy, Brainstealer Dragons. All the wickedness of chromatic dragons combined with that of ilithids.
I refer you to my main comment
@Fred Freddy Brainstealers are from 3E, they ain't new 🤷
Yup
@Fred Freddy brain stealer… the mind flayer dragon- the ultimate evil
dont know that you can count that, personally i associate them purely with aberrations of the outer dark.
50% of the players I played with "kill to obtain plunder or selfish objectives".
“kills to obtain plunder”
Wow, blue dragons are murder hobos. Good to know.
Player-characters being murder hobos might have been a dragon's plot all along ...
@@esperthebard The party were blue dragons the entire time! Now to get them to fight each other over who keeps the hoard.
@@Keyce0013 There is a campaign idea, your party is secretly a cursed group of blue dragons, cursed into the forms of whatever races your group chooses. You keep it secret from them and they have to find out where these unusual abilities and quirks come from. "Hmm, why do I like sitting on my gold pouch?"
My campaign setting has an ancient black dracolich. In life he was an ancient dragon naturally gifted in necromancy but was slain by a legendary dragon slayer. With some aid for his cult worshippers he was able to rise as a dracolich. Many of the ancient and powerful undeadin my world have the Curse of Abartach which for an undead it is really a gift. The Curse of Abartach allows it so that you will rise after death up to three times before you can be finally laid to rest. This ancient black dragon was slain once already and even if my players quest to slay this now undead ancient dracolich he will just rise at least two more times though not necessarily as a dracolich.
Dangggg. This was an amazing video. You definitely set the mood and tone with this one. Epic!
Thanks Wally! That's what I was aiming for.
"The Dragon of Athas" is the most evil dragon on the entire material plane, hands down.
I would even say the multiverse for one simple fact : one chooses to become one.
Ya it’s not even close there that’s a big whiff on the video’s part
Not really dragons though. They were sorcerer kings who spent hundreds of years gathering supplies and power to do a ritual to make them INTO dragons. Least that’s what was mentioned in the prism pentad books.
@@jamessm4401 you tell Borys he’s not a real dragon I dare you
@@jamessm4401yeah I agree. At least in my head the question is most evil true dragon. You can always pile on more templates etc onto anything and theoretically make it "more evil".
But that's just my take on it..
I've recently started exploring ideas in my setting relating to treating Metallic Dragons in a similar way to the Jedi Order from the prequels: Originally keepers of peace and guardians of justice, a majority of them have become complacent under an increasingly Lawful Evil Empire because they've had it so good for so long.
I would say that specially Gold Dragons and Brass Dragons are great for a more greyish moral dilemma. Golden Dragons defently still see themselve as "better" then other morals and dragons, and Brass Dragons sometimes can go to far when it comes to "defeating evil"
@@sakulhd8189 Brass dragons? Are you sure you don't mean Bronze dragons?
@@TheHornedKing Yes your absolutly right ofcourse xd Mixed them up there
3e, purple dragons where just another name for deep dragons. Topaz and Deep just come off as Goth kids. Some see as evil but when you look under the social opinion are just normal people. No cobra dragon's? Or Abyssal? Dracolich, like shadow, are not a dragon type, but a template. It takes an evil minded creature to become a lich in the first place, so yes they are evil, but that is a prerequisite to them being a lich. Black(Skull) are one of my favorite dragons, I don't see them as evil but more like an embodiment of decay and a swamp's dangers. Again another one I view more as perceived evil, over true evil. But even if I have different views I still liked the video, Thanks.
Excellent video!
Thank you, O Father of the Dungeon!
should maybe do a video like this for other creatures known for the evilness like various humaniods, outsiders, undead, fey, fiends, gods etc as well as good alignment versions as well
also i think the 5e deep dragon seems more drake then true dragon in both looks and certain other traits previous versions of the deep/purple dragon are some of my favorite dragon types where the 5e is one of my least favorite
In 3.5 in the center of a labyrinth in the plane of negative energy, lies the eye of the void, a spherical voidstone cracked in half with a portal in the center that leads beyond the outer realms. Guarding this gate is IXULDRAX the mad gatekeeper. A green dragon born of the primordial forests of the shadow plane, turned dracolitch and master manipulator. She awaits challengers in her citadel amongst her hoard of magical artifacts and lich minions.
there was a deep dragon in the book daughter of the drow and it was nice to the main character that wasn't evil.
Well that's because this are all just generalities and even black dragons are NEARLY universally evil (so not allways always).
She is a drow they probably have more persuasive possible gods or truce treaty involved?
If we include dragons from older editions, I go with the Tarterian Dragon, a type of dragon that is native to Carceri, the great prison plane. Like the plane, the dragon has this cool prison theme to it, being able to cast spells like Forcecage, Maze and even Imprisonment, and it can breath a force-beam breath and a will-sapping gas, and it acts in a manner that is like a combination of a cruel prison bully and a tyrannical warden. It basically combines the worst parts of a black and a green dragon, which is saying a lot. Oh, and it primarly eats fiends.
It also just looks horrible, being skeletally gaunt, with leatehry scales stretched thightly over withered-looking flesh. The scales are colored in a striped pattern of black, grey and olive green, its eyes are black and glow with a ghostly green light, its claws and teeth are long and black in color, and its mouth is shaped so that it allways appears to have a wicked, grinning expression, something it would probably do a lot anyway as it looks at its next victim.
I noticed that critical role music at the Red Dragon. I remember Thordak, what a fun lad he was
I actually love the whole theme breakdown you included in this video and your previous video. It’s handy to have buzzwords to reference when designing NPCs and Villains.
I cast a vote for Ashardalon as most evil dragon. Tiamat, Null, Faluzure(sp?) and Garyx are deities, so I disqualified them.
I always wondered how Dragons got so greedy without hands or pockets that could carry treasure or trinkets. Maybe the lack of such inspires that greed, and they must rely on minions to gather the bulk of it for them.
I imagine dragons can carry chests or sacks full of treasure just fine.
They just swallow and regurgitate. Black Dragons really struggle with bulimia.
3.5 has a spell called hoard gullet and the description says dragons use it to move treasure. Basically turns your throat into a bag of holding
I think most are greedy because precious metals rejuvenate and fosters growth. They don't see the treasure as wealth to be traded, it sustains them
That sounds like something a human would say.
If 4 talons that are like a hand but have claws and lack a pinky are useless in your setting just have them use Mage Hand.
"We live in a society."
-Black Dragons
Black dragon: I'll fix that 😈
My fellow adventurer and traveler of the land, speaker of many tongues and whisperer of a 1000 odes, bearer of forgotten stories and chimer of hidden wisdom... Esper the Bard... I speak to thee! Please, guide me with your words and bless my ears with the directions on how to possess the mighty hardback that is the Emporium of Esoterica!
Many thanks, you honor me! I have been going back and forth with the print company for weeks now. Actually as of today, they think that they have figured out what's been going on with a problem related to the images and text. Hopefully it should be available within a couple months.
@@esperthebard That's great! Well please keep us updated please...as I will be sure to order one!
@@xTheJoexRF I certainly will 👍
Always been a big fan for the green in my campaign for there manipulations
Green dragons are excellent evil mastermind villains!
There's something to be said, when a villian gets you to do all the evil deeds yourself and reveals at the end. That screams way more evil than an angry dragon who kills you for pleasure. Greens would literally turn brother against brother and that, in my books is more evil than anything
My two cents would be on the black dragon. One of my best times as a GM was back when my group still played DD3.5 and I ran a heavily homebrewed version of "The Forge of Fury". An abandoned dwarven mine where a group of orcs had set up shop in the first level - with four other levels in the complex. And at the very bottom was (unknown to the PCs) the lair of a young black dragon; this was a low level adventure so its CR7 was still a stretch, but they were five experience players and I really wanted to try running a dragon encounter.
I set up things up so that the dragon would spot the PCs long before they even reached the mine. It would follow them out of sight during the day but then close in when they camped for the night. It never attacked the PCs' camp but they would spot its eyes watching them in the distance, smell it, hear it roar, snatch one of their mules, paranoia-fuel like that. When they finally reached the mine after two play sessions they were utterly freaked out and clearly glad to get out of the open and leave "whatever it was" behind.
They defeated the orcs and spent the next few sessions exploring the other levels. And then they heard it - a roar like they had heard several times on their journey here - only amplified by the enclosing cave walls - and clearly coming from ... below. I would pay good money to once more see their faces at that moment :-D
Blue dragons are not the most evil BUT they are one of if not the best villains in a campaign plus i love blue.
Also will you do a video about the nicest dragons?
Yes, I love blue dragons too! One of my favorites. I'm considering doing videos about good alignments and levels of goodness, we'll see.
Best villans in DnD period!
Blue Dragons are the most deadly if you match their capabilities to lore instead of the game mechanic manual.
mmm I think I've just gotten inspiration from this on how to run my Imperial underworld dragon in my campaign. Cheers!
Green is my favorite, according to historical bestiaries dragons are embodiments of the devil, and green dragons just have his style. The additional lore is cool in my opinion as well.
Step onto my platter if you wish your loved ones to survive the evening. Stand where you are in safety if you’d rather your family be my meal tonight
Thanks for another great video! Few subjects are more interesting and absorbing than dragons and the many layers of evil.
Thank you much. Also, nice profile picture (I like owls a lot). I'm considering doing this kind of video for undead or demons next.
@@esperthebard Ooo! Both of those sound very fun indeed! I'm not sure what I'd conclude. And thanks! Owls are my favorite animal/bird, thus why I'm mildly obsessed with owlbears.
I thought that we were gonna build a evil dragon character. But this is a fun listen.
Cyan Bloodbane from Dragonlance is the most evil dragon. Not strongest in arms but strong in manipulation of mind.
What's funny when I ran Lost Mine of Phindelver, the young green dragon, VenomFang was fun character to play. I was going to make him manipulative, and stereotypical of a green dragon. But then my brother's character fell in love with a DMPC I made for the group, and I wanted to play on VenomFang being a love struck teenager, and the whole love triangle bit. What's also funny, the DMPC wasnt even interested in either of them. But VenomFang was just always pinning for the DMPC. He's evil, and deceitful, but I feel like it's more of his alignment shifting slowly, is due to the interactions of the party. Also he totally tricked my brother into giving him Cragmaw Castle, and that was funny interaction. XD
Cyan Bloodbane was such a great green dragon.
He was my favorite
@@mikereese529able the greens were always under rated for characters.
No mention of Hellfire Wyrms or Abyssal Drakes? I would think actually demonic dragons should win here.
Or the Tarterian Dragon.
Red dragon just sounds like the government
Great video thanx
Thanks to my dm constantly throughing my character into absurd situations in the cold many a times, I also gained a bond with the white dragons who mind not the company, even fought together as equals against pirates who sought to take slaves to the western continent. To this day we hang out and fly across the skies
I made a draconic beholderkin...
Behold, if you will,
the Admirer.
The toughest fighter in all the land limps through the doorway, drinking his last health potion and holding the door open for his friends, before slamming it closed on one of the ghouls' heads, as the horde of supercharged undead monstrosities behind them slowly lose interest, and they all catch their breath. The cleric uses his last spell slot to heal the wizard, who casts an upcast cone of cold back out the hallway, and shouts obscenities at the now frozen solid and no longer stubbornly refusing to die corpses, kicking one over. The rogue goes out and loots them, stuffing dozens of enchanted weapons into the handy haversack, and tosssing the barbarian a warhammer of thunder, before they finally explore the room they just happened upon, and behold the treasure they fought through seven layers of trapped dungeon and a small army for, The Hoard of Xal'Hackthul;
A pile of gold to make dragons jealous and dwarves swoon, a full _three hundred_ feet high, and exactly why they brought along four handy haversacks (which may still take several trips) stands gleaming before them, wreathed at the base with a veritable _fortification_ of magic items; a sack overflowing with decanters of endless water, a pile of foldable boats on what looks like a MASSIVE foldable boat, several golden coat-racks of various magical cloaks, dozens upon dozens of magic staffs, a pile of enough magic armor to suit a small army, and mirriad enchanted swords, warhammers, bows, crossbows, instruments, and countless more treasures, all laying on a floor LITERALLY PAVED in gemstones.
However, before they can even begin to take inventory, a Booming voice echoes down from the top of the pile so loud it scatters coins flying, saying;
"FOR CENTURIES MY EYES AND MINE ALONE HAVE GAZED UPON THIS HOARD, AND I WILL NOT LET SOME UPSTART INTRUDERS DEFILE IT WITH THEIR GAZE; PREPARE TO _DIE!!!"_
And to their horror, the party sees the horrible visage, of Xal'Hackthul, the Dragon-eater;
A maw to rival tales of the terrasque houses hundreds of massive teeth, its breath coiling purple waves of antimagic around its jaws, dripping with saliva, the eyes, dear god the eyes! Two dozen of them deformedly twisting from the horn-like stalks of many colors sprouting from all over the floating head, their pupils burst open to jaws lined with teeth like some eldritch horror, each of them brimming with their unique magic, the largest eye in the center Glaring with menacing greed amd anticipation, as the beast ROARS a bellow that shakes the party to its bones, and a prismatic array of magic radiates from its screeching eye-maws like the corona of a twisted god, and the fighter feels true terror for the first time.
When a beholder dreams of losing its curioes and its life to a dragon, it begins a metamorphosis that may never truly end, as it becomes an Admirer. Driven by a frantic need for the power to protect its curioes from even the mightiest of dragons, it sets out on frantic wings it didn't have before to devour every dragon it can find. When it does so, it grows another eye stalk that emits the dragon's breath attack, and its mouth grows into the snout of a dragon. After eating 5 young or older dragons, all its pupils grotesquely split open to jaws, though the eyes still work, its wings grow into dragon's wings, it gains 30ft of flight movespeed, and its mouth gains a special antimagic breath attack that inflicts large amounts of force damage upon any magic item or spellcaster, exploding them if it destroys the item or reduces the caster's HP to zero; the magic item's HP determined by its value.
after eating 20 dragons, all the eye stalks double in power, and the Admirer grows one size. This occurs twice more; once after eating 50, and then once more after eating 100 dragons; after 50 it must use its wings to stay aloft and loses 30ft of flight movespeed, and after 100 it loses the ability to fly alltogether, and gains massive claws on the ends of 4 scaled legs, which give it 30 feet of walking speed, and attack with the force of an acient dragon.
Ever the collector, it will enthrall mortals to help haul and carry with its telekinesis the hoards of the dragons it eats back to its lair, expanding the traps and minions within over time.
If you use one, first roll a d100 with disadvantage to see how many dragons it has eaten, or decide yourself if you so choose.
Drow of the Underdark for 3.5 Explains a lot more about Deep Dragons. They are generally neutral with a tendency toward evil when there's something to be gained by it.
I'm actually pretty surprised that you reached back an edition for the 4th edition purple dragon that you included in the section about the deep dragon. Which made me even more surprised that you did not include other varieties of dragon from previous editions or acknowledge the previous versions of the deep dragon.
You should do a separate video on the Elder Brain dragon - it’s an incredible thought experiment and terrifying foe
i'm not a hardcore DnD fan but your videos are quite informative and i hope you get more subs
Black Dragon is my favorite of the evil dragons. I simply adore the fetid swamp thing they got going on. Plus you add in their sadistic and chaotic nature, and ya got a deliciously vile creature.
It is the dragon that hurts with words. They always cut the deepest.
In regards to the purple dragon, I personally like and use the example printed in the old Paizo Dragon Magazine Annual hardcover. It had force as a breath weapon and could use its breath weapon dice to add force damage to its melee attacks and extend its reach.
Neutral in nature, looking to help nearby societies maintain their governance and protect them from outside threats.
I once had a story where the party had to keep fighting a dragolich, they were so confused as to why it was so easy to kill let alone kept attacking them. I did this till they were tired of if and hinted down it's gem which was guarded by a lich king. Once they finally destroy the crystal keeping the dracolich alive they find out the reason why it kept attacking them was because it was a trapped good aligned dragon trapped by the lich king to perform evil acts against it's will. The people I was playing with loved it.
I played a red dragon who was turned into a human in one campaign, and she was obviously the least moral member of the party, but they did learn how to work around her, and she how to work around them, and she ended up getting quite close to the party’s druid. I always wanted to see what would happen if they encountered a dracolich. I’m not sure if her reaction would be anger, revulsion, or grief. Probably a mix. Unfortunately, the campaign died before we got there.
OK but who's the goodest boy among dragons
Purple and deep should be made clear that they are separate. Seems in Fizban they indirectly leave room for a Purple though. Whats going on in the minds of who decides these dragons at WotC??One is a energy dragon, the deep is a fungi spore breather. I dont use Twitter or live in Seattle/ US. If somone could pour on and convince them to make them separate. Also I wish for a HUGE Draconomicon with tons of dragons from all editions updated for 6e. Also including Yellow salt dragons, Orange sodium explosive and yes Brown sand, Gray fang dragons. Have Tiamat evolve from a Queen to an Empress gaining five more chromatic dragon heads. Yellow, Orange, Purple, Gray and Brown. Lore reason? She might have lost one of her avatars but extra effort paid off in 9 hells, Io/ Asmodeus could have gifted her new form, evolved it all alone since her body gave all them colors, she just use White, Black, Green, Red and Blue out of habit. She could also have killed her sister, absorbing her own 5 chromatcs etc
A black dragon will wound you to the point of near death then lie to you about giving you mercy...then kill you. It wanted you to have hope, just to steal that hope from you in your last moment. They are evil bastards.
now I'm thinking of Red Death and that train moment in Venture Bros
You can find out much more on the deep dragon in the 2nd edition book on the Drow of the Underdark
I'd say dracoliches are in their own seperate bracket, since it's almost a occupation of dragons and they're still affected by what they were before. Kinda like how if a dwarf becomes a paladin the dwarf doesn't stop being a dwarf, they're still influenced by their own dwarven factors.
You know why a blue dragon isn't that much bad?
They live in secluded locations, they actually talk to humanoids (yes to find out how to exploit them, but still), they have allies for tasks that they can't or won't do, and they KEEP THEIR WORD.
I cannot stress how important is the last part.
in a background story for one of my campaigns, it involved a gold dragon polymorphed into a goliath working for a blue dragon and subtly helping the blue to become good until the people the blue ruled over not only bowed to him in respect and fear, but in genuine gratitude and admiration, then when a red dragon tried take over the blues land, the gold revealed his true self and helped the blue defeat the red and the two decided to remain friend and the blue was made an ally to good.
I think it would be interesting if there was a campaign where a gold dragon hires the party to help kill off a red dragon that's been terrorizing the countryside. I want it to be a big twist though, where the red dragon was raised to be a heroic spirit and is simply trying to save the people of the country run by a tyrant. Specifically the gold dragon who's actually an evil mastermind.
Gold dragons have a very black and white mentality, so for one to fall to evil, it will be a subtle thing, far greater his they admit it
@@james739123 Which is why it'd be a fun plot twist. No one may expect the gold dragon to be evil, not even the gold dragon
@@Kyla-Stormhazard indeed, I'd say go for it, I'd think you may also try to convince any other gold dragons of your evil golds nature before confronting them to avoid said evil gold from calling upon its allies, since golds are very social with each other.
@@james739123 I could do that... or I could give the players a chance to do that. It'd be quite interesting if the players failed and the evil dragon's allies show up and find the party working with a red dragon. Why would dragons side with an obviously evil dragon? Which could lead to a sacrifice scene, or the red dragon surviving and questioning if it really is the villain they claim him to be, despite his efforts to the contrary.
@@Kyla-Stormhazard the choice is yours, I'm just a fan of the whole "Villain thinks he has all the cards only for the rug to be pulled out from under them" deal, you know.
I'd personally put the Red Dragon above the Green Dragon. The fact that the Green prefers to use proxies and slaves to do its dirty work suggests that it's concerned about drawing attention to itself and its lair and would rather lay low and let someone else act and take the blame if something goes bad. A Red Dragon doesn't have that kind of caution; it will personally burn down your city or hometown - and half the countryside with it - because you said or did something to offend it. In this way we can see that a Green Dragon is very selectively about its evil acts and a Red Dragon is much more broad and destructive in its approach.
I think you misunderstood the green's motives.
A green dragon doesn't want to have a fall guy.
Do you really think a green dragon would care if you chastise him for doing evil?
Yes, they would take it as a compliment.
It wouldn't be hard for the dragon to poison you and your family. But greens choose to take the time, care and effort to make your brother poison you and your family. Because why settle for simple murder when making the humans kill each other is just as effective and several times more fun.
@@ConcerninglyWiseAlligator It is not so much the idea that a Green Dragon might care that a person calls it out for its evil deeds, so much as it is the fact that it uses other people to do its dirty work means you can't retaliate against it unless you know there's a Green Dragon trying to ruin your life, and you have to know where to find its lair.
A Red Dragon takes a much simpler approach to dealing with people it doesn't like or wants to ruin the lives of: it gets into your face and turns you into ash with its fire breath.
I would rather deal with a Green Dragon and its proxies and slaves because I can live my life and fight them off if I'm very observant and prepared. If I had to deal with a Red Dragon I'd be better off just letting it kill me because I wouldn't be able to run away fast enough to accomplish anything meaningful with the last few seconds of my life before the fires got me.
@@Keyce0013 I’d consider Green dragons more evil for one reason. From what I remember Red Dragons more often have a reason behind there acts of evil and murder. A red dragon will kill you if you slight it, or if killing you benefits it, or if you’re in it’s generally like of sight when it’s even slightly angry. But Green dragons? They’ll go out of their way to make as many people suffer as possible simply because they want, even if it doesn’t benefit them in any way.
@@digieykid6096 agreed, the worst thing a Red dragon can do is kill you, a Green can turn the whole world against you to the point were you wish for death, but they'll keep you alive purely for their amusement.
I have heard tell of tarterian dragons from the plane of Carceri. I cannot remember much about them, but I recall them being pretty horrible. I’d probably put them higher up than the black dragon, maybe around or higher than the dracolich.
A little late to the party, but I came across the deep dragon in 3e/3.5. They were allied with the drow.
I honestly don't know what is going on
.
But maybe something happened and The Dragons live on in/with me and it's my responsibility to bring them back into existence.
They are fierce and protective. I believe because I protected them they can help us but that's a long time down the road. I think I have access to genetic and other materials through my abilities. And they assumed survival was most likely trusting devil himself.
No I'm the only shape shifter only Superman can shape shift into dragon. There were other Supermen. Usually Lucifer or Jesus Christ. A long long time ago they had a good relationship. I know they worked together with evil the dragon but there were many evil dragons.
Evil Superman used to be Evil Jesus Christ. devil himself and I are brothers. Evil Himself is Evil Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ is the devil himself.
Kreator is also out brother.
Fr3ak.
Ever heard of the orange yellow or purple dragons. I found them one day on dragon magazine 248 pages 28-32
Deeps remind me a lot of the priestesses of Lloth. Without the brutal malevolence.
The Deep Dragon likes to breed Hellhounds or Displacer beasts. I forgot which.
But it doesn't control them, it just breeds them as a hobby.
Awsome video, its cool to hear your perspective on this.
I guess it would depend on how your personal "evil barometer" is adjusted.
Daurgothoth is a black dragon dracolich, and is the strongest canonical monster in the forgotten realms, with a stat sheet, at a grievous Challenge rating of 50, currently working on making mordenkainen's disjunction (takes the magic away from your artifacts) as a breath weapon
He's also a chosen of mistral
Dude that was sick.
Thomas, especially in his 'human form' the fat controller
Kinda sad this is limited to 5e as there are many more interesting dragons from older editions, not to mention teasing us with a bit of 4e lore
Overdue reply but. Yeah totally agree! Heck if they used the Lloyds missing chromatic dragons from Dragon Magazine 65/ 248, that would win me over buying minis and adventures/ starter kits introducing not only missing chromatics but also gems, metallics. Lloyd concepted coastal, salt spewing Yellow dragons. I DESPISE his dragon magazine 248 version of his yellow dragon. It basically a LUNG dragon, NOT a true chromatic dragon as it should be. Anyway. Weakest of all chromatics but had 120 ft flying speed and could swim. Sure 2e had yellows too but they were sand yellows and seems 4e Brown dragons " replaced " them. I despise replacing potential dragons so I would just rename the sand yellows to Beige/ Tan dragons instead. I MUCH prefer salt spewing coast living Yellow dragons. Imagine Yellows, Topazess and Bronze dragons having deadly yet hilarious overlapping disputes of territories?? Now thats a adventure RIGHT there! Also not to forget Lloyds Orange jungle dragons spewing sodium enriched, oily substance that thye use in ambushes. Get that stuff on you and it will immolate you just by being reactive with air. Trying to jump into a nearby river/ lake to wash it off? KABOOM! And lastly Lloyds Purple dragons were living in the Upper Underdark, near surface underground. Have a plasma breath weapon, and digs tunnels leading up to open frields so it can feat on cattle and other grazing animals. Preferrably in the night. Regarding damage types. Yellow, Orange and Purple Lloyd dragons could have their salt, oil and plasma breath be under poison, fire and lightning damage types OR be more unique and have TWO combined damage types but each deal 50% of the damage each. So salt be poison and acid but flavored as a corrosive, poisonous for mof salt that hardens and blinds, oil be fire and force that flavors as immolation and explosive, plasma be lightning and fire, flavored as energy. plasma is ionized, superheated gas after all. Grays and Browns are STILL 5e included.Grays should have the more draining bite instead of corrosive bile. To be more unique. Browns can still have searing hot sand spew though. Judging by their mention in the Dragons and Treasures young adventurers book. Highly recommend it anyways. Not just for kids, hold alot of interesting nuggets of info! Like preferred food, treasures, nicely listed.
Pyroclastic dragon
Howling dragon
Or literally any of the dragons from the lower planes
The most evil dragon is the one your cat curls up next to after running from your attempts to show affection.
I mean, the Most Evil Dragon is clearly Tiamat. Yes, yes, she's technically primarily a deity, but I feel like leaving her off the list, even as an honorable mention, does a disservice to the Great Mother of Chromatic Dragons, Nemesis of the Gods and Bane of Bahamut.
I immediately thought of Tiamat as well.
whatever evil dragon has the highest intelligence is the most evil.
I'd say black dragons are worst than green dragons. Green dragons can at least care for others, even if it's only their children
Red dragons will always be my all time favourite dragons
The White Dragons are my favorite out of all the others.
I feel like the Tartarian Dragon is the most evil, or at least one of them.
The base lore of Dragons is excellent and well-developed in D&D, but I love tweaking the formula when it suits a particular setting and campaign. Personally, when I run homebrew campaigns involving dragons; I make it so the dragons are not bound to an alignment based on their type, but rather each dragon is their own individual. A Chromatic dragon could be good, a Metallic dragon could be evil, and so on. It all depends on the setting and circumstances.
Will you do a video like this with other monsters/races (goblins/hobgoblins) and maybe even a “what is the most good dragon in D&D?” Video?
Hastes Entropy, speeds up the end of the Universe a small bit. Not really evil but awesome.
We always see the illustrations of dragons lying on piles of treasure (gold, gems loose items) and I always have to wonder - how did that pile get there considering that dragons do not have hands (unless shapechanged of course, even then would they stoop to manual labor?). Did they all take over an already existent mound? If not then how did they move it? One coin and gem at a time in their mouths? I guess those with servitors could have them do it for them but would they trust them enough to? This leads to the second question - why do dragons want gold? It's not like they desire to become captains of industry and need it to fund their investments. I suppose the manipulator dragons could use it for bribes but could they bear to part with it even for that? In my own campaign the dragons had an extra-planar origin and laying on gold helped them dream of home. It would seem nonsensical for them to obsessively collect a substance for which they have no real use. If the males had to collect a horde (similar to what bower birds do) to attract a mate then it would make more sense. Otherwise collecting a substance that attracts enemies for no reason is not a good long term survival strategy.
Great video as usual!
Solid run down
since my earliest game playing, the five headed Queen is the scariest.
Spectral dragons, from the ad&d dragonlance supplement
I'm surprised that there was no mention of Shadow Dragons.
Black Dragons are some of the most fun kind of villains.
When showing deep/purple dragon some of those pictures are shadow dragon. Should probably be on this list. Wonder if linnorm are left off just cause not in 5e or just not called dragon?
The most evil dragon is whatever the DM says. The red dragon makes a great villian for your adventures.
Considered most evil dragon (after Tiamat) was Klaus, a red dragon. Most evil of undead dragons, dragolich is not alone, there also vampire dragons who are condsidered as bad or worse). Then theres catastrophic dragons, with volcanic been worst of theme. Volcanic dragons like to hunt and torture red dragons as far as i remember (and take over theyr nests). But catastrophics are more elementals then dragons and somewhat left out of game it feels. Theres also "hoarder dragons", rather obscure and not sure can You consider theme evil. More like it will kill anything that tryes get its hoard. Evil or not, these are one of hardest dragons to fight (if You are unlucky enough to find one). And then theres Chole dragons, these are quite horrificly evil to.
I believe that any one species of dragon is susceptible to corruption and evil. In my world dragons behave much like the tenants of many editions of D&D, but just like mankind, any can be turned and corrupted to evil. There’s actually an undead gold dragon as the primary villain of one of my adventures
I'd take freezing by ice
Burning by fire 🔥
Just don't wanna run into a poison mist dragon. The melting guy in robocop convinced me. That's the worst way to go.
Does Tiamat count
I would like to argue the case for Bronze Dragons to at least get an honorable mention. Their desire for strict law and order sometimes leads to tyranny over coastal settlements. And evil which thinks itself good and just is very wicked indeed.
Copper would be a better choice. But they are all over the place on the morality spectrum.
Azi. They are wicked dragons mixed with the corruption of ahriman and dahak both. Two evil gods collaborated to make em And they come in 3 flavors of evil!
If I may add my 2¢, if we’re talking dragons period, I’d agree with AJ Pickett: Vampire dragons are the most evil. They’re on par with a lot of things that dracoliches are and can do, and can do as much and more than shadow dragons. And just the flavor text itself; the fact that a vampire dragon is so evil that it literally needs lakes of blood to sustain itself, and if you’re able to kill it outside it’s lair, it simply reforms with its treasure hoard. And most likely everything in that hoard is tainted with evil or cursed just because of the innate magic leaching off such a creature as dragons are able to do with their incitement.
Personally if the Metallic/Chromatic/Gem category wasn’t so heavily based on alignment I would say that Topaz Dragons are closer to evil than neutral, Blue and Bronze Dragons both are on the Edge of where Lawful Neutral and Lawful Evil/Good Meet, and Crystal Dragons are just Neutral Good there’s nothing Chaotic Neutral about them.
Me and my dm hardcore trolled our party one day because the other players were complaining about the difficulty level of the monsters. We had a tpk in mind. We had made it to a village under the rule of an ancient red dragon nesting nearby. The people of the village were saving gold to hire a party of heroes to slay their oppressor. My party happily took the quest. Thing is my ranger character was scouting the lair. When i was gone for too long the party rushed into the cave looking for me only to find the dragon gone and just me standing there. I had told the dragon that its village had been treasonous and there was a party coming for it. The party was shook when they got blasted by fire from behind and arrows loosed from my magic bow from the front. After the party was gone me and the dragon raised the village to the ground, i have never gone from lawful good to chaotic evil in my life.
really good video !
maybe a goodest dragon video next ?
I feel bad for Jim Stone, being coveted by blue dragons like that.