"Half red dragons don't come from red dragons and humans mating" I see the council has come to a decision, but seeing that it's a stupid ass decision, I've elected to ignore it
I think i have just been inspired into thinking up an adventurer’s idiom about the importance of moderation and thinking long term. “Kill enough Goblins and you might becomes famous. Kill enough Kobolds and some dragon will decide you’re too inconvenient to leave alive.”
I like the idea of a party looting a massive red dragon's hoard and finding tucked away in a corner a cracked eggshell, implying that the thing had never parted with anything it had ever owned.
A tip to anyone trying to raise a dragon that is typically evil aligned in nature- if you want to successfully raise it to be of good alignment incubate the egg on one of the Upper/Celestial Planes that are basically infused with and radiate good. Just as a Red Dragon can be mutated by being on a lower plane, incubating and raising one on an Upper Plane can have equal effect in influencing their development. The earlier after being laid that you can deliver the egg safely onto an Upper Plane the greater the effect prior to hatching. This is clearly not an undertaking for the unprepared.
Finally. Someone else thought of it. :D That's exactly what I did in the backstory of one red dragon in my campaign. His name is Morghul. He is rather jovial, but still full of himself and a tad arrogant, and gets into whole heaps of trouble. He is the dragon of Iathil, a female tiefling cleric of Mystra and celestial warlock of the Archangel Vasiariah. She stole the egg from the red dragon known as Inferno, and brought it to Celestia herself. Morghul is viewed as a myth by folks of the north. As the general rule of thumb is that Red Dragons tend to show up to eat young damsels, not save them. So, it throws towns people for a loop when he does show up, saves the lady, burns the goblin army, than turn around and asks for a payment plan for saving the town. "One gold and one silver from each towns folk, per month. If that is too much, I also do trades. Also... Is there any livestock I could, ya know? Immolate and devour? Im famished." Townsfolk: 😳 "...I know, Im sorry, I always forget humanoids are put into shock by my pure draconic splendour. I'll try to tone it down. But no, really, you guys got any cows I could burn and chomp?"
The idea of a Red Dragon being born good and having to grapple with the fact it is an outcast and hated by it's own kind sounds like an interesting baseline for a dragon npc.
Red Dragon Mentality \ \ Do I own it? / \ No Yes / \ Burn it Does someone else want it? / \ No Yes / \ Add it to the Horde Burn it / Did someone steal it? / \ No Yes / \ Get minions to guard it Hunt down the thief and burn their entire village to the ground
I once ran a max level one-shot (big mistake) where the players had to fight an ancient black dragon. They didn't stand a chance... the ancient black dragon has taken over the world by acidifying the oceans and lived in an adamantine fortress at the bottom of that ocean, contained within is an artifact which blocked conjuration magic (that includes Wish) within a mile of the fortress, which is itself guarded by acidified water elementals (invisible in the ocean) and Clay Golems that heal insane HP every round because of the acid ocean. So yeah, you can make dragon encounters nearly impossible to win without too much creativity.
Now I have the image of a 1 foot tall baby Half-Dragon running through the back alleys of Waterdeep, chasing down and pouncing on rodents, strays, and house pets alike to appease the ever present hunger that fuels its rapid growth.
I imagine if a Red Dragon Wyrmling was adopted by Humans it would grow up much like Morty Jr. from Rick & Morty. Wanting to kill and enslave by default and going through an angsty teenage rebellion when the adoptive Humans parent/s try to curb their innate destructive and covetous nature. Or like Spike from MLP when he went through "Dragon Puberty" in Season 2 and suddenly he wanted to hoard whatever he could get his claws on.
Player group: Can we fight a Red dragon? Me the DM: There's a reason it takes up two pages of the monster manual, is on the standard DM screen, and gets an hour on AJ's channel.
"Bilbo was now beginning to feel really uncomfortable. Whenever Smaug's roving eye, seeking for him in the shadows, flashed across him, he trembled, and an accountable desire seized hold of him to rush out and reveal himself and tell all the truth to Smaug. In fact he was in grievous danger of coming under the dragon-spell.""
One of my favorite things to do with any fire breathing dragon is to whip up a bunch of sand with the wings to fill the area, then breathe fire up into the sand cloud to rain down burning droplets of liquid glass for a few rounds.
I just started rereading a book that made me think of this video, and the classic greedy Smaug-like dragon I absolutely love: The Dragon's Banker by Scott Warren. The premise is that a medieval/early modern kingdom has just adopted fiat currency, and so an ancient red dragon so old that no one knows he isn't a myth kidnaps a banker to demand of him why pitiful human beings trading paper is supposed to devalue his hoard. The concept itself is funny, but the main character is wealth-obsessed in a way that lends to interesting descriptions and observations, and his meeting with the dragon is very insightful. Hope you don't mind media recommendations, I figure it could help develop NPC dragons, but if it's obnoxious let me know and I can take it down.
One of my favorite dragon fights was when I threw a red dragon that had an iron golem with it. The red dragon would constantly breathe fire on the golem and whoever was close to it. The players hated that fight but will talk about it often, one of the most memorable fights.
I had a campaign involving a very wealthy human master thief who specialized in putting together Ocean's Eleven-style heists on Red Dragon hoards. Turns out that she's actually a female Red Dragon herself in polymorph who is running this operation in order to rob her mates blind. She actually mates with lower, more insecure males as a way to case their lairs and hoards, playing on their insecurities and ego in order to get them to "show off" their hoard, usually by implying that she heard that her mark's hated rival has a bigger treasure hoard and should probably go mate with _him_ instead. This tactic works more often than you'd think. This way, when she puts together a team of professional adventurers and thieves later, she knows the layout, the traps, and the defenses the mark has and can prepare accordingly. Obviously, her accomplices will get a cut, but she's secure in the knowledge that she'll be getting that gold eventually: most of the places they're likely to spend their loot are either owned by her or are paying her extortion money. In this method, she's amassed a gargantuan treasure hoard, which she takes pains to keep hidden.
"It is within the power of dragons to destroy the Abyss and restore the multiverse to what it once was." Wait, what? Really?! That's a deeply nerdy bit of lore I've gotta know about!
I have a bit of a headcanon. I believe that red dragons actually aren’t the strongest of dragons, they’re just the most vicious and unfair. They’ll use any tactics necessary to win a fight, even if it’s unfair. Not only that, but they only pick fights they can win, and they prey on weaker dragons. I wrote about a red dragon named Inferno, and one of his victims described him as being “the most wretched of predators.”
I can see a dragon promoting a free market to generate wealth, and then becoming a banker to ensure everyone in the society ends up in debt to it, and pays it an ever increasing stream of revenue.
That is purple dragons, what you are describing are purple dragons. They’re what you get when a red dragon and a blue dragon love each other very much; and they’re almost as smart and magically gifted as their blue parent, almost as physically and elementally powerful as their red parent, and not much less sociable with/manipulative of non-dragons than green dragons. Oh, and they keep blue’s familial habits but actually work together. Also they’re tiny (for true dragons), being a size smaller than you’d expect at a given age. They’re like this because they prefer to live in caves, the deeper the better (but the underdark is a bit too out of the way for most.) One of their regional effects is reducing all light by one level, and their breath weapon compounds with that in a hilarious way: they breathe plasma that basically flashbangs anyone within a certain range. And bypasses fire resistance. And cover. And they have a choice of a cone, a line twice as long, or an attack roll.
This nerd (meant as a compliment),, just made me sit here for an HOUR, soaking up the lore of a classic game, that I haven't played in over 20 years! (GREAT JOB GUY!!👍💯)
Although I love your shorter videos as well, there is nothing quite like leaning back after a long, stressful day and listening to almost an hour of lore. Awesome vid as always, the level of detail was legendary! I've got a question regarding Tiamat, and would very much appreciate your input. I've always wondered how the lore of Tiamat as the evil sibling of Bahamut fit in with the lore of Tiamat as originally having come from Earth and becoming part of the Untheric pantheon when the Imaskari captured themselves their human slaves (see 2e Powers & Pantheons). Has this ever been resolved?
I have heard that the Dragonlance authors don't associate Takisis with Tiamat, which was news to me. Tiamats from other realms might not be the same Tiamat 😄
Man this gave me a really cool idea. An ancient, massive, powerful and arrogant red dragon wakes up, expecting a tribute from the nearby kingdom. Except there's nothing there. The dragon investigates and find the kingdom celebrating. It demands to see the king, and is led to the castle. The dragon demands triple tribute, to include every child of the king, and takes a moment to bask in the terror. Except instead of terror, the dragon is met with laughter from the king, who offers the dragon a chance to surrender unconditionally. The enraged dragon prepares to burn everything when suddenly the ground beneath its feet buckles. It barely makes it into the air in time to avoid the collapse, and watches in absolute terror as something climbs free of the Earth. A clockwork dragon, made of gold, silver, electrum, and platinum, so large that the red looks like a pseudodragon in comparison. The clockwork dragon grabs the ancient beast around the neck, shrugging off its struggles and flames. It chokes the red dragon to the point of near unconsciousness and spits in its face before hurling it through the air and into the side of its own mountain lair. The last thing the ancient wyrm sees before losing consciousness is the construct stalking towards it, malice in its black stone eyes and mouth filling with some sort of energy.
Best Red Dragon encounter I ever ran was in 3.5, with the player's having been tasked to take out an ancient red dragon. The dragon in question lived inside of a volcano, complete with rivers of lava. On the way into the lair, the players was forced to fight a pack of hell hounds, which due to the party's level was a very easy encounter. But the hell hounds was never meant to stop a serious threat to the dragon, they were an early warning system. So when the party got into the main lair, the dragon was nowhere to be seen, because the players didn't look straight up. On the wall, right above the entrance, with the head towards the floor (thus seeing the party as it entered the lair), was the dragon, all thanks to a little first level spell that most players discard as irrelevant: Spider Climb. So imagine the players surprise as they all had to save against the dragons fire breath before even rolling for initiative. Half the party got stunned before even getting the protective wards up, even the party rogue got severely burned due to a failed reflex save (had they not had uncanny evasion the blast would have killed them outright), This lead to an epic fight with the dragon throwing spells and using its breath weapon and frightful presence scarily effectively. By the time the dragon was dead (one and half hours later real time), a third of the party was dead (ranger died by getting crushed by a falling dragon, lol). But ultimately the party persevered.
Redeem dragons, maybe, yes. But to 'redeem' a demon, that would be an impossibility. In the D&D multiverse, demons are quite literally concentrated evil given physical form - they cannot exist as anything else, therefore if they were to somehow switch alignment, the demon would be utterly and completely destroyed. Redemption of a devil may be possible, if they were once celestial (like the Erinyes, or certain Arch Devils like Zariel) but unlikely.
I like how you described alignment here. I tend to agree: alignment is a product of personality characteristics, which is itself a combination of choice, dispositions, and environment. A red dragon has characteristic aggression, arrogance, and greed. With the right training, it could be lawful good, but that might look more like the lawful good of a bronze dragon (I think) where they think they are right and will oppress people who disagree with them. They might still love burning things to the ground, but only inflict such wrath on demons. Interesting thought experiment on how alignments change as a result of environmental, and may be expressed differently.
No, dude, it's fantasy escapism. You - and others like you - needlessly complicate matters. It's an evil monster just shy of a demon; it needs to be slain for the sake of civilization.
I honestly love intelligent enemies in dnd in general due to the creative means they can fight. On the mention of hoard defenses, I had a great blue dragon with a massive pile of diamond dust which it threw up in a directed blast with big beats of its wings. This dust not only obscured visioned but became a choking hazard for party members directly hit by the blast. It's stuff like that, which makes the dragons fun.
If you *really* want to be evil, give your red dragon an iron golem that obeys them as part of their hoard. Not only is it immune to getting caught in the fire breath, it heals from it.
dragons don't seem to be the kind of creature to have golems. they seem repelled by such unminded things. besides, they have no way to create them, in dragon form.
@@youtmeme they can totally make them in dragon form remember dragons are naturally good at magic they could easily use something like mage hand to make something
@@ivory867 making a golem requires the use of a magical tomb. unless the polymorphic into a humanoid form, obtained the tomb and was able to read its magic in the language...🤔 naturally good at magic does not mean they are able to do things that human magicians do to practice, expand, test and create their magic!🤨
AJ. I know that weekly videos this in-depth is a big ask. But I loved it. There is so much info all in one place I will be listen to it from start to end many times through.
This was so amazing I had 3 tasty beverages. There should be nothing generic about Dragon encounters. Your talking about intelligent creatures that have survived for centuries, fighting for their own survival, against really tough opponents.
This is by far one of my favorite videos, 10/10 This is what motivated me to start creating my own campaign set around dragons and the dragon Gods 🐉. What if a new dragon god were to come to power how would the curent pantheon react? How would the dragons of the prime material plane be influenced? Once again AJ delivers a unique and much appreciated lore video on D&D monsters, 10 /10 thank you and keep up the great work
An idea I had about what you told at the beggining of the video is that you could basically raise a dragon into thinking that making good deeds increases their reputation. Like, doing good stuff makes them respected and valuable, and so they could just do good to make themselves seen as a respectable and valuable member of society.
Convince them that the humanoids of their territory are part of their hoard, and that the humanoids will write songs and stories in their honor. As long as the tributes keep coming, I could see it working.
knee jerk response: How in the world did the red dragon never get covered before? See video length: Ohhhh, AJ was doing a dissertation level deep dive, now I get it
4:17 Figuring out the best way to raise a creature that's going to grow up really fast and surpass you in a couple days is an absolutley incredible psychological experiment IMO
Lol, my party became evil while raising a red dragon, it absolutely played them. They became its minions and were later sacrificed for its goals. It did feel a moment of conscious sadness before devouring their remains. I also let my red dragon polymorph just like metallic dragons, I can't see why chromatics couldn't though most wouldn't.
@@mikewaterfield3599 dragons are often major players in campaigns that I've run, depending on locality. I remember Dragonlance 2nd age, I think it was when dragons ruled the world and it was fun to have a desert kingdom invading others at the behest of an ancient blue dragon. Think back on it, no party has ever successfully killed an adult dragon though 4 attempts were made. I won't play the villains as being incompetent much to the derision of dead PCs.
@@josephjohnson5415 hey before i was a dm I enjoyed the full effect of TPK at the hands of a white north of Luskan. She just broke the ice we were on and froze top over after we fell in. No one had water breathing.
@@mikewaterfield3599 my most memorable dragon death was getting smoked by a green dragon. It feigned weakness and tricked us into a cave where it's chlorine breath filled the space. The only one to make the saving throws was a Gnome fighter/thief that made it out. Of course then he got to watch the dragon prepare him for dinner. The DM did a great job in describing it too.
So that means that there are three choices for the origin of a Red Half-Dragon - magical mishap/experiment, the essence transfer, and finally a polymorphed Red Dragon that is completely and utterly cracked in the coconut.
This was outstanding. I very much enjoyed it all, especially the bit at the end, detailing how ridiculously tough it should be to fight one of these in its lair. I was hoping to hear about the unique ability shown by Malazan, a sub-villain in book two of Year of the Rogue Dragons (such a great series!) wherein she makes herself bleed and the coating of blood on her scales makes her AC go up and enrages her and I think makes her able to simply burst into flame entirely!
I like the idea of good aligned devils. Many of them started off as Celestials, after all. Why not let them still be good but cursed to their infernal form because they took part in the war against the Abyss. If a Solar can fall, why can't a Pit Fiend raise??
I thought of a new type of celestial (that I'm going to make an archon now) some time after AJ made the angel remaka vid, who were the result of a pit find getting redeemed and now serve as high ranking celestials in mount celestia and their role was to be the bodyguards of the highest level archon that's not an angel (who I can't remember their names right now). Some of them (alongside individuals of other types) were devils who realised the error in their ways early in the history of the hells and returned to MC, others are from the stock of modern day pit fiends while more are souls who aspired to become this way because ever since the redemption of the original group this had becomed a new form of archon like any other. They look like a regular pit fiend but with scales that look like they were made of silver and with smaller horns and less spiky.
I wonder if some of the Githyanki and the Red Dragons maintain any post-service contact with one another. A few centuries of millitary service gives you an appreciation of one another even if actually friendship is rare. Tipping one another off when their special interests collide. A dragon finds some mind flayers and passes along that information to the githyanki; with the understanding that some loot from a raid will be forthcoming. Some githyanki dispatch of some obnoxious adventurers for some continued co-operation from a specific Red Dragon.
_"Revenge! Revenge! The King under the Mountain is dead and where are his kin that dare seek revenge? Girion Lord of Dale is dead, and I have eaten his people like a wolf among sheep, and where are his sons’ sons that dare approach me? I kill where I wish and none dare resist. I laid low the warriors of old and their like is not in the world today. Then I was but young and tender. Now I am old and strong, strong, strong, Thief in the Shadows! My armor is like tenfold shields, my teeth are swords, my claws spears, the shock of my tail a thunderbolt, my wings a hurricane, and my breath death!"_
39:30 If you plan on painting any dragon figures to use during play sessions, I highly recommend either getting a pre-painted one if you're playing Pathfinder and only want to use Pathfinder figures, or make sure you aren't buying a Pathfinder dragon. Painting it to look like what you see on the box is a lot of work because of all the horns and spikes, and the pose makes it tricky to reach all of it with a brush. I'm glad I had already bought an airbrush.
The density and depth of information in this video are staggering. Seriously, this is one of the best D&D lore videos I've ever seen. You might've done yourself a disservice by raising the bar this high, but I earnestly congratulate you on a job well done, mate. 👌 (Imagine me standing up on the bleachers cheering my lungs hoarse.)
That was every thing I hoped it would be and OVER A HOUR ! Freaking amazing also with this you have remastered all of your old core dragon video,s ! And those old video,s were booty these all of them are great ! Thank you
"I wont go into it here, but its worthy of its own video." Take a shot each time this is said, and imagine how long this video could have been. Dragons got so much lore its great.
just occurred to me that i watched this brilliant video without leaving a comment, so I'm back to say thanks for the wonderful content as always AJ, i can't tell you how much i appreciate a good hour long deep dive into some of the more iconic monsters.
You know I've listened to this about four times, and only just now did Master of the deadly chair just sink in. That's going in probably every campaign I will ever run for the rest of my life
Seeing Klauth appear here made me smile. In my Faerun he's got a ring of regeneration and wands of fireball and lightning bolts He also has legendary artefacts on that hoard. Getting to introduce him responding to a very bold scrying by the party cleric oh his hoard. He visited Mirabar, where the party was situated. Had a very fun dynamic by having the very cool Harshnag nearly frozen in fear at the legendary Great Wyrm was a lot of fun
I like to think that Dragons can channel their sorcery through their breath/vomit. Like their fire is non magical, but they can weave their magic in to it as an excellent conductor, much like their blood
Reminds me of when I had a group of players go up against an adult Blue Dragon. The cleric succeeded his Divine Intervention, which i granted as turning all the partys weapons dragonbane, and giving the cleric immunity to damage for 1 minute. It took the dragon 2 rounds to figure out he couldn't hurt the cleric, so he grappled him, and buried him 20ft deep in the sand. Then he picked off the party 1 by 1. That group still hasn't forgiven me, but they sure as hell respect dragons more.
Cook it in acids! Canonically they are different and in reality too! You could totally saute a huge bunch of onions, let it soak in that for several hours for tenderness. Irl works lol Then use some fantasy acid to cook it because most acids we have wouldnt really work very well.
Loved the Video!Dragons are honestly the coolest creatures I love how brutal and savage the red dragons are but the gold dragons who are wise and powerful are also extremely interesting as well!
"Half red dragons don't come from red dragons and humans mating"
I see the council has come to a decision, but seeing that it's a stupid ass decision, I've elected to ignore it
I think i have just been inspired into thinking up an adventurer’s idiom about the importance of moderation and thinking long term.
“Kill enough Goblins and you might becomes famous. Kill enough Kobolds and some dragon will decide you’re too inconvenient to leave alive.”
Oh Lord an entire hour! Grab a tasty beverage, this is gonna be extra nerdy!
Ha! I had the 1st half with Lunch, and the 2nd w/dinner!!
Deeply
Extra Nerdy.
Educational. What "tasty" beverage would you recommend nerd lord? Wow... the cringe is thick with this one...
@@ReapWhatYaSow something dark, thick and malty. Hobgoblin by Wychwood is good, but Guinness will do in a pinch.
I like the idea of a party looting a massive red dragon's hoard and finding tucked away in a corner a cracked eggshell, implying that the thing had never parted with anything it had ever owned.
A tip to anyone trying to raise a dragon that is typically evil aligned in nature- if you want to successfully raise it to be of good alignment incubate the egg on one of the Upper/Celestial Planes that are basically infused with and radiate good. Just as a Red Dragon can be mutated by being on a lower plane, incubating and raising one on an Upper Plane can have equal effect in influencing their development. The earlier after being laid that you can deliver the egg safely onto an Upper Plane the greater the effect prior to hatching. This is clearly not an undertaking for the unprepared.
Great idea!
@@AJPickett Thanks!
Finally. Someone else thought of it. :D
That's exactly what I did in the backstory of one red dragon in my campaign. His name is Morghul. He is rather jovial, but still full of himself and a tad arrogant, and gets into whole heaps of trouble. He is the dragon of Iathil, a female tiefling cleric of Mystra and celestial warlock of the Archangel Vasiariah. She stole the egg from the red dragon known as Inferno, and brought it to Celestia herself. Morghul is viewed as a myth by folks of the north. As the general rule of thumb is that Red Dragons tend to show up to eat young damsels, not save them. So, it throws towns people for a loop when he does show up, saves the lady, burns the goblin army, than turn around and asks for a payment plan for saving the town.
"One gold and one silver from each towns folk, per month. If that is too much, I also do trades. Also... Is there any livestock I could, ya know? Immolate and devour? Im famished."
Townsfolk: 😳
"...I know, Im sorry, I always forget humanoids are put into shock by my pure draconic splendour. I'll try to tone it down. But no, really, you guys got any cows I could burn and chomp?"
@@sagesheahan6732 oh
The idea of being able to make evil things good because they were born in good land is kinda stupid though
An hour of Dragon lore?
Truly, you spoil us, oh Great Sage.
The idea of a Red Dragon being born good and having to grapple with the fact it is an outcast and
hated by it's own kind sounds like an interesting baseline for a dragon npc.
Red Dragon Mentality
\
\
Do I own it?
/ \
No Yes
/ \
Burn it Does someone else want it?
/ \
No Yes
/ \
Add it to the Horde Burn it
/
Did someone steal it?
/ \
No Yes
/ \
Get minions to guard it Hunt down the thief and burn their entire village to the ground
Facts
Literally, I would argue, the most iconic D&D monster.
I once ran a max level one-shot (big mistake) where the players had to fight an ancient black dragon. They didn't stand a chance... the ancient black dragon has taken over the world by acidifying the oceans and lived in an adamantine fortress at the bottom of that ocean, contained within is an artifact which blocked conjuration magic (that includes Wish) within a mile of the fortress, which is itself guarded by acidified water elementals (invisible in the ocean) and Clay Golems that heal insane HP every round because of the acid ocean.
So yeah, you can make dragon encounters nearly impossible to win without too much creativity.
33:20 "red dragons were an issue until one innovative wizard invented the spell, 'Leaderboard'. After that, the reds sorted themselves."
“Half red dragons are NOT the result of a red dragon mating with a humanoid”
And with that it’s as if millions of bards cried out and were silenced
Somewhere there is a very sad Ass.
I mean 5e has invulnaribility spell so maybe posible but rare
@@lorekeeper685 😂😂
@@lorekeeper685 Given that pregnancy can easily be seen as a parasite forming within a person, I think that spell would also prevent pregnancy.
@@viperswhip it only prevents damage, you can still get magic cancer
Now I have the image of a 1 foot tall baby Half-Dragon running through the back alleys of Waterdeep, chasing down and pouncing on rodents, strays, and house pets alike to appease the ever present hunger that fuels its rapid growth.
I imagine if a Red Dragon Wyrmling was adopted by Humans it would grow up much like Morty Jr. from Rick & Morty. Wanting to kill and enslave by default and going through an angsty teenage rebellion when the adoptive Humans parent/s try to curb their innate destructive and covetous nature.
Or like Spike from MLP when he went through "Dragon Puberty" in Season 2 and suddenly he wanted to hoard whatever he could get his claws on.
Player group: Can we fight a Red dragon?
Me the DM: There's a reason it takes up two pages of the monster manual, is on the standard DM screen, and gets an hour on AJ's channel.
Sounds like a yes to me.
Fight? Yes.
Win said fight? Not without heavy losses.
Dragons:This infinite plane of existence ain't big enough for the two of us.
my favorite comment for this video. lmao
"Bilbo was now beginning to feel really uncomfortable. Whenever Smaug's roving eye, seeking for him in the shadows, flashed across him, he trembled, and an accountable desire seized hold of him to rush out and reveal himself and tell all the truth to Smaug. In fact he was in grievous danger of coming under the dragon-spell.""
“Stupid as a bag of ogres” is the funniest thing I’ve heard all month
"Do you think flattery will keep you alive?" ~Smaug
Well yes it actually does.
"no, but actually yes"
you know you're a fan of The Mighty Gluestick when an 1h video isn't long, but just making justice to the majesty of the monster.
35:08 Red dragons are the reason that the game is calls Dungeons and Dragons? Well played sir.
A Masterclass Indeed Sage. Your hard work has definitely paid off.
One of my favorite things to do with any fire breathing dragon is to whip up a bunch of sand with the wings to fill the area, then breathe fire up into the sand cloud to rain down burning droplets of liquid glass for a few rounds.
I hope no one ever tells your dragons about flower dust in the air...
I just started rereading a book that made me think of this video, and the classic greedy Smaug-like dragon I absolutely love: The Dragon's Banker by Scott Warren. The premise is that a medieval/early modern kingdom has just adopted fiat currency, and so an ancient red dragon so old that no one knows he isn't a myth kidnaps a banker to demand of him why pitiful human beings trading paper is supposed to devalue his hoard. The concept itself is funny, but the main character is wealth-obsessed in a way that lends to interesting descriptions and observations, and his meeting with the dragon is very insightful.
Hope you don't mind media recommendations, I figure it could help develop NPC dragons, but if it's obnoxious let me know and I can take it down.
One of my favorite dragon fights was when I threw a red dragon that had an iron golem with it. The red dragon would constantly breathe fire on the golem and whoever was close to it. The players hated that fight but will talk about it often, one of the most memorable fights.
"If you manage to give the hatchling a sound thrashing it will see you as a rival - "
Yeah, I can see that.
"- and possibly a potential mate."
Oh no.
I had a campaign involving a very wealthy human master thief who specialized in putting together Ocean's Eleven-style heists on Red Dragon hoards.
Turns out that she's actually a female Red Dragon herself in polymorph who is running this operation in order to rob her mates blind. She actually mates with lower, more insecure males as a way to case their lairs and hoards, playing on their insecurities and ego in order to get them to "show off" their hoard, usually by implying that she heard that her mark's hated rival has a bigger treasure hoard and should probably go mate with _him_ instead. This tactic works more often than you'd think.
This way, when she puts together a team of professional adventurers and thieves later, she knows the layout, the traps, and the defenses the mark has and can prepare accordingly. Obviously, her accomplices will get a cut, but she's secure in the knowledge that she'll be getting that gold eventually: most of the places they're likely to spend their loot are either owned by her or are paying her extortion money.
In this method, she's amassed a gargantuan treasure hoard, which she takes pains to keep hidden.
"It is within the power of dragons to destroy the Abyss and restore the multiverse to what it once was."
Wait, what? Really?! That's a deeply nerdy bit of lore I've gotta know about!
It was an OG draconic ritual that pretty much created the outer planes. Well, more of a creation technique that was also kind of a fight.
Now we are going to expect an hour for every dragon type.
I have a bit of a headcanon. I believe that red dragons actually aren’t the strongest of dragons, they’re just the most vicious and unfair. They’ll use any tactics necessary to win a fight, even if it’s unfair. Not only that, but they only pick fights they can win, and they prey on weaker dragons.
I wrote about a red dragon named Inferno, and one of his victims described him as being “the most wretched of predators.”
Capitalist red dragon running a fleet of ships, several caravans, warehouses and several trade companies, with the mercenaries to protect their goods.
I can see a dragon promoting a free market to generate wealth, and then becoming a banker to ensure everyone in the society ends up in debt to it, and pays it an ever increasing stream of revenue.
That is purple dragons, what you are describing are purple dragons.
They’re what you get when a red dragon and a blue dragon love each other very much; and they’re almost as smart and magically gifted as their blue parent, almost as physically and elementally powerful as their red parent, and not much less sociable with/manipulative of non-dragons than green dragons. Oh, and they keep blue’s familial habits but actually work together. Also they’re tiny (for true dragons), being a size smaller than you’d expect at a given age. They’re like this because they prefer to live in caves, the deeper the better (but the underdark is a bit too out of the way for most.) One of their regional effects is reducing all light by one level, and their breath weapon compounds with that in a hilarious way: they breathe plasma that basically flashbangs anyone within a certain range. And bypasses fire resistance. And cover. And they have a choice of a cone, a line twice as long, or an attack roll.
You have failed to convince me that Red Dragons don't do love. You have instead only convinced me that Red Dragons are into BDSM.
Lol, ok? Small victory.
@@AJPickett 🤣
All Red Dragons are Doms, since they are power hungry, greedy and refuse to be tamed.
The dragons can destroy the abyss?! Damn, really want to hear more on that one! Thanks for great content.
Yeah. That tid bit.
That is shut up and take my money lore.
This was great affirmation that I ran my party's red dragon boss fight appropriately. Also thanks for answering my question on famous ancient reds.
You're welcome :)
This nerd (meant as a compliment),, just made me sit here for an HOUR, soaking up the lore of a classic game, that I haven't played in over 20 years!
(GREAT JOB GUY!!👍💯)
Dragons are like students, it's hard to know how many there are at any time as they spend 90% of their time in deep slumber.
Although I love your shorter videos as well, there is nothing quite like leaning back after a long, stressful day and listening to almost an hour of lore. Awesome vid as always, the level of detail was legendary!
I've got a question regarding Tiamat, and would very much appreciate your input. I've always wondered how the lore of Tiamat as the evil sibling of Bahamut fit in with the lore of Tiamat as originally having come from Earth and becoming part of the Untheric pantheon when the Imaskari captured themselves their human slaves (see 2e Powers & Pantheons). Has this ever been resolved?
I have heard that the Dragonlance authors don't associate Takisis with Tiamat, which was news to me. Tiamats from other realms might not be the same Tiamat 😄
Man this gave me a really cool idea. An ancient, massive, powerful and arrogant red dragon wakes up, expecting a tribute from the nearby kingdom. Except there's nothing there. The dragon investigates and find the kingdom celebrating. It demands to see the king, and is led to the castle. The dragon demands triple tribute, to include every child of the king, and takes a moment to bask in the terror. Except instead of terror, the dragon is met with laughter from the king, who offers the dragon a chance to surrender unconditionally. The enraged dragon prepares to burn everything when suddenly the ground beneath its feet buckles. It barely makes it into the air in time to avoid the collapse, and watches in absolute terror as something climbs free of the Earth. A clockwork dragon, made of gold, silver, electrum, and platinum, so large that the red looks like a pseudodragon in comparison. The clockwork dragon grabs the ancient beast around the neck, shrugging off its struggles and flames. It chokes the red dragon to the point of near unconsciousness and spits in its face before hurling it through the air and into the side of its own mountain lair. The last thing the ancient wyrm sees before losing consciousness is the construct stalking towards it, malice in its black stone eyes and mouth filling with some sort of energy.
Sounds pretty wild.
Best Red Dragon encounter I ever ran was in 3.5, with the player's having been tasked to take out an ancient red dragon. The dragon in question lived inside of a volcano, complete with rivers of lava. On the way into the lair, the players was forced to fight a pack of hell hounds, which due to the party's level was a very easy encounter. But the hell hounds was never meant to stop a serious threat to the dragon, they were an early warning system. So when the party got into the main lair, the dragon was nowhere to be seen, because the players didn't look straight up. On the wall, right above the entrance, with the head towards the floor (thus seeing the party as it entered the lair), was the dragon, all thanks to a little first level spell that most players discard as irrelevant: Spider Climb. So imagine the players surprise as they all had to save against the dragons fire breath before even rolling for initiative. Half the party got stunned before even getting the protective wards up, even the party rogue got severely burned due to a failed reflex save (had they not had uncanny evasion the blast would have killed them outright), This lead to an epic fight with the dragon throwing spells and using its breath weapon and frightful presence scarily effectively. By the time the dragon was dead (one and half hours later real time), a third of the party was dead (ranger died by getting crushed by a falling dragon, lol). But ultimately the party persevered.
This is the way.
+1 for the fraggle rock reference.
Im really interested in the dragons destroying the abyss comment that you made. Really got my brain going on how they could accomplish that feat.
Ditto.
The only to actually cook red dragon meat is with acid. My in-game tavern is now serving Red Dragon Ceviche. Thanks AJ!
Redeem dragons, maybe, yes. But to 'redeem' a demon, that would be an impossibility. In the D&D multiverse, demons are quite literally concentrated evil given physical form - they cannot exist as anything else, therefore if they were to somehow switch alignment, the demon would be utterly and completely destroyed. Redemption of a devil may be possible, if they were once celestial (like the Erinyes, or certain Arch Devils like Zariel) but unlikely.
Well what about Eludecia, the Succubus Paladin? (Since succubi are technically demons)
Which is why Red Dragons in my setting love harvesting daemons, tricking them into becoming batteries for their metastraenum thaumaturgy reactors.
@@ChibiHoboProductions Succubus Paladins are stupid and any DM that uses them should feel bad.
@@jupiterrising887 Thank you.
Yes this is indeed what the 3.5 book of exalted deeds says
I like how you described alignment here. I tend to agree: alignment is a product of personality characteristics, which is itself a combination of choice, dispositions, and environment. A red dragon has characteristic aggression, arrogance, and greed. With the right training, it could be lawful good, but that might look more like the lawful good of a bronze dragon (I think) where they think they are right and will oppress people who disagree with them. They might still love burning things to the ground, but only inflict such wrath on demons. Interesting thought experiment on how alignments change as a result of environmental, and may be expressed differently.
No, dude, it's fantasy escapism. You - and others like you - needlessly complicate matters. It's an evil monster just shy of a demon; it needs to be slain for the sake of civilization.
Your dragon series was how I originally found your channel.
Are silver's next ? An hour on silver dragons would just be awesome
That was the shortest hour I've had in a long time. 👍
I honestly love intelligent enemies in dnd in general due to the creative means they can fight. On the mention of hoard defenses, I had a great blue dragon with a massive pile of diamond dust which it threw up in a directed blast with big beats of its wings. This dust not only obscured visioned but became a choking hazard for party members directly hit by the blast. It's stuff like that, which makes the dragons fun.
Listening to you wax and wane about the grandiose and magnificent habits and history of dragons is truly a pleasure, as always sir.
If you *really* want to be evil, give your red dragon an iron golem that obeys them as part of their hoard. Not only is it immune to getting caught in the fire breath, it heals from it.
dragons don't seem to be the kind of creature to have golems. they seem repelled by such unminded things. besides, they have no way to create them, in dragon form.
Okay satan, calm down now.🤣
@@youtmeme they can totally make them in dragon form remember dragons are naturally good at magic they could easily use something like mage hand to make something
@@ivory867 making a golem requires the use of a magical tomb. unless the polymorphic into a humanoid form, obtained the tomb and was able to read its magic in the language...🤔
naturally good at magic does not mean they are able to do things that human magicians do to practice, expand, test and create their magic!🤨
Gave mine a bunch of "Iron Golems"(Mechwarrior mechas, really), all outfitted with 90cm cannons, plasma casters and flamers.
Well played, this was a deep dive into the mentality of the Red Dragon..
AJ. I know that weekly videos this in-depth is a big ask. But I loved it. There is so much info all in one place I will be listen to it from start to end many times through.
This was so amazing I had 3 tasty beverages. There should be nothing generic about Dragon encounters. Your talking about intelligent creatures that have survived for centuries, fighting for their own survival, against really tough opponents.
This is by far one of my favorite videos, 10/10
This is what motivated me to start creating my own campaign set around dragons and the dragon Gods 🐉.
What if a new dragon god were to come to power how would the curent pantheon react? How would the dragons of the prime material plane be influenced?
Once again AJ delivers a unique and much appreciated lore video on D&D monsters, 10 /10 thank you and keep up the great work
An idea I had about what you told at the beggining of the video is that you could basically raise a dragon into thinking that making good deeds increases their reputation. Like, doing good stuff makes them respected and valuable, and so they could just do good to make themselves seen as a respectable and valuable member of society.
Until they learn how the world really works. Then they would despise you
Convince them that the humanoids of their territory are part of their hoard, and that the humanoids will write songs and stories in their honor. As long as the tributes keep coming, I could see it working.
Time to incorporate a red dragon into my next campaign
knee jerk response: How in the world did the red dragon never get covered before?
See video length: Ohhhh, AJ was doing a dissertation level deep dive, now I get it
it was covered earlier in a quite shorter video. all MM creatures were. but, now, AJ is remaking them.
The greatest D&D channel one can fine greatest quality, quantity, expectations are constantly surpassed. Aj you do great work sir please don’t stop.
That ‘dungeons and dragons’ joke was amazing. But the info of potential context that the joke gave? Priceless.
59:01 beautifully put. I really want to put together a really good dragon fight one of these days, and I hope it isn't a total stomp on either side.
A whole hour dedicated to red dragons!! Thank you so much. I don’t really play d&d but I love the lore…AND I LOVE DRAGONS!!
Absolutely crushed it.. grab a 6 pack of tasty beverages and get super mega ultra nerdy with this absolute unit of a video
I'm about to watch this for the 4th time! Amazing work, AJ!
4:17
Figuring out the best way to raise a creature that's going to grow up really fast and surpass you in a couple days is an absolutley incredible psychological experiment IMO
Had some players try it with a black dragon, they TPK'd and doomed an entire city in the process.
@@AJPickett Hahahaha
Like all good psychological experiments, it ended horribly.
Lol, my party became evil while raising a red dragon, it absolutely played them. They became its minions and were later sacrificed for its goals. It did feel a moment of conscious sadness before devouring their remains. I also let my red dragon polymorph just like metallic dragons, I can't see why chromatics couldn't though most wouldn't.
Same here, but i home brew 2/3 ed rules.
@@mikewaterfield3599 dragons are often major players in campaigns that I've run, depending on locality. I remember Dragonlance 2nd age, I think it was when dragons ruled the world and it was fun to have a desert kingdom invading others at the behest of an ancient blue dragon.
Think back on it, no party has ever successfully killed an adult dragon though 4 attempts were made. I won't play the villains as being incompetent much to the derision of dead PCs.
@@josephjohnson5415 hey before i was a dm I enjoyed the full effect of TPK at the hands of a white north of Luskan. She just broke the ice we were on and froze top over after we fell in. No one had water breathing.
@@mikewaterfield3599 my most memorable dragon death was getting smoked by a green dragon. It feigned weakness and tricked us into a cave where it's chlorine breath filled the space. The only one to make the saving throws was a Gnome fighter/thief that made it out. Of course then he got to watch the dragon prepare him for dinner. The DM did a great job in describing it too.
@@josephjohnson5415 im surprised you even got to the green. There usually fond of proxies and subterfuge.
A whole hour on red dragons you say?
Well I say yes!
So that means that there are three choices for the origin of a Red Half-Dragon - magical mishap/experiment, the essence transfer, and finally a polymorphed Red Dragon that is completely and utterly cracked in the coconut.
Yes
That was a 601 level presentation! Loved it.
This was outstanding. I very much enjoyed it all, especially the bit at the end, detailing how ridiculously tough it should be to fight one of these in its lair. I was hoping to hear about the unique ability shown by Malazan, a sub-villain in book two of Year of the Rogue Dragons (such a great series!) wherein she makes herself bleed and the coating of blood on her scales makes her AC go up and enrages her and I think makes her able to simply burst into flame entirely!
Still getting started, but it sounds like its going to be another great lore video. Keep up the great work AJ, your a hero to us all.
I’m running a tiefling fiend/red draconic sorlock and this video helped for roll playing tips.
Male Dragon: "Be gone thot!"
Female Dragon: "So anyways I started blasting."
Strange. That's a lot like Italian Couples too.
@@atilax6452 whoo, that's a spicy meat-a-ball
Glad I found this. Forever I've wanted to write a campaign based around the Orbs of Dragon kind. This gave me the inspiration I needed. Thank you
I like the idea of good aligned devils. Many of them started off as Celestials, after all. Why not let them still be good but cursed to their infernal form because they took part in the war against the Abyss.
If a Solar can fall, why can't a Pit Fiend raise??
I thought of a new type of celestial (that I'm going to make an archon now) some time after AJ made the angel remaka vid, who were the result of a pit find getting redeemed and now serve as high ranking celestials in mount celestia and their role was to be the bodyguards of the highest level archon that's not an angel (who I can't remember their names right now). Some of them (alongside individuals of other types) were devils who realised the error in their ways early in the history of the hells and returned to MC, others are from the stock of modern day pit fiends while more are souls who aspired to become this way because ever since the redemption of the original group this had becomed a new form of archon like any other.
They look like a regular pit fiend but with scales that look like they were made of silver and with smaller horns and less spiky.
It truly annoys me that going to evil is always treated as a one way irreversible change.
@@Mortablunt idk man. Playing a good demon just sounds like some goofy anime crap.
Holy Bahamut this is gonna be one juicy video
54:00
Be the dragon, think like the dragon. Throw cultists and rocks like the dragon.
Great video AJ You're the premiere dungeons and dragons lore channel nobody else even comes close.
I wonder if some of the Githyanki and the Red Dragons maintain any post-service contact with one another. A few centuries of millitary service gives you an appreciation of one another even if actually friendship is rare. Tipping one another off when their special interests collide.
A dragon finds some mind flayers and passes along that information to the githyanki; with the understanding that some loot from a raid will be forthcoming.
Some githyanki dispatch of some obnoxious adventurers for some continued co-operation from a specific Red Dragon.
I'm a former U.S. submariner. Seeing a colossal dragon compaired to the class of ship I've stood upon makes me hope I never encounter one in game.
_"Revenge! Revenge! The King under the Mountain is dead and where are his kin that dare seek revenge? Girion Lord of Dale is dead, and I have eaten his people like a wolf among sheep, and where are his sons’ sons that dare approach me? I kill where I wish and none dare resist. I laid low the warriors of old and their like is not in the world today. Then I was but young and tender. Now I am old and strong, strong, strong, Thief in the Shadows! My armor is like tenfold shields, my teeth are swords, my claws spears, the shock of my tail a thunderbolt, my wings a hurricane, and my breath death!"_
Excellent video AJ. Thank you again for the work you do.
39:30 If you plan on painting any dragon figures to use during play sessions, I highly recommend either getting a pre-painted one if you're playing Pathfinder and only want to use Pathfinder figures, or make sure you aren't buying a Pathfinder dragon. Painting it to look like what you see on the box is a lot of work because of all the horns and spikes, and the pose makes it tricky to reach all of it with a brush. I'm glad I had already bought an airbrush.
The density and depth of information in this video are staggering. Seriously, this is one of the best D&D lore videos I've ever seen. You might've done yourself a disservice by raising the bar this high, but I earnestly congratulate you on a job well done, mate. 👌
(Imagine me standing up on the bleachers cheering my lungs hoarse.)
Thank you for such a wonderfully long video I love these lore videos so much you sir are a saint
The dislikes are Red Dragons who felt that the video "wasn't praising enough."
Loved this so much. So much history and information from so many editions. Well written and read. Thanks for the inspiration for my own campaigns.
That was every thing I hoped it would be and OVER A HOUR ! Freaking amazing also with this you have remastered all of your old core dragon video,s ! And those old video,s were booty these all of them are great ! Thank you
"I wont go into it here, but its worthy of its own video." Take a shot each time this is said, and imagine how long this video could have been. Dragons got so much lore its great.
just occurred to me that i watched this brilliant video without leaving a comment, so I'm back to say thanks for the wonderful content as always AJ, i can't tell you how much i appreciate a good hour long deep dive into some of the more iconic monsters.
Draconomicon was one of my favorite pieces by WotC EVER!
You know I've listened to this about four times, and only just now did Master of the deadly chair just sink in. That's going in probably every campaign I will ever run for the rest of my life
Seeing Klauth appear here made me smile. In my Faerun he's got a ring of regeneration and wands of fireball and lightning bolts
He also has legendary artefacts on that hoard.
Getting to introduce him responding to a very bold scrying by the party cleric oh his hoard.
He visited Mirabar, where the party was situated. Had a very fun dynamic by having the very cool Harshnag nearly frozen in fear at the legendary Great Wyrm was a lot of fun
Hey, would love to hear more about the multiple types of undead dragons, also great video.
God damn, what a video. Easily your best one yet.
Just noticed that AJ didn't note how Red Dragons thinks of Brass Dragons
They consider them weaker, and too involved in the affairs of terrestrial humanoids.
Talk to much
I like to think that Dragons can channel their sorcery through their breath/vomit. Like their fire is non magical, but they can weave their magic in to it as an excellent conductor, much like their blood
I totally agree.
Reminds me of when I had a group of players go up against an adult Blue Dragon. The cleric succeeded his Divine Intervention, which i granted as turning all the partys weapons dragonbane, and giving the cleric immunity to damage for 1 minute. It took the dragon 2 rounds to figure out he couldn't hurt the cleric, so he grappled him, and buried him 20ft deep in the sand. Then he picked off the party 1 by 1. That group still hasn't forgiven me, but they sure as hell respect dragons more.
Cook it in acids! Canonically they are different and in reality too!
You could totally saute a huge bunch of onions, let it soak in that for several hours for tenderness.
Irl works lol
Then use some fantasy acid to cook it because most acids we have wouldnt really work very well.
Hot peppers, salt and vinegar would work. Dragon ceviche.
This video is so rich with information that I just kept rewinding to get all of it but I loved every minute of it.
This is just an hour of AJ giving justifications for why it's always morally correct to exterminate Red Dragons.
Loved the Video!Dragons are honestly the coolest creatures I love how brutal and savage the red dragons are but the gold dragons who are wise and powerful are also extremely interesting as well!