For me, I like 2 types of dragons: 1) Smaller beasts who just like to BBQ villages sometimes in packs. 2) Giant ones who live eons, who hold immense knowledge and are downright Lovecraftian horrors of sorts.
Given what I know about green and blue dragons, they might actually welcome civilization cropping up in their territories, at least to an extent. This gives the green dragons people to manipulate and screw around with, and the blue dragons somebody to subjugate and dominate.
There's even a green dragon in the lore that just enjoyed scrying on the people of the nearby city like she's watching a t.v. show lol. The storylines of the actual people is her entertainment.
@@impartialthrone2097 Imagine being an aspiring adventurer and getting to the dragon''s lair only for it to go: "So, I think you should know your mom is sick and your sister is pregnant, oh, and I'd reccomend you leave this lair and give me your magic items, otherwise your party, sponsors and the populace will know about that oh so embarassing story from when you were 11!"
Honestly, I could see a story where you have a world where rather than kings, you have dragons ruling human nations. This would give a fun way to make each dragon unique. Perhaps one of them brags that he has more humans than his rival because he knows how to make them want to stay in his territory; leading to the two of them constantly one upping each other incentives to get humans to move to their land. "Look at you loser. You can't keep your subjects from moving to my land. They can see that I am the superior one here." Meanwhile you could have dictator dragons that threaten to hunt down any people with capability and force them stay in their lands.
I just thought of a potential villain faction off this one. What if the dragon IS the bank. Have it start off in a one off. Dragon comes to terrorize a village and the minister just comes out to talk to the dragon. As a novelty, the dragon lets him speak his piece. Minister explains that they would gladly fork over what they have, but that a local warlord is due here any day now for their OWN tribute payment, and they're sort of stuck with "ONE of you is gonna raze our village to the ground either way, we can't afford to pay both". But the minister notes: if the village burns, that means NO future tributes. This gets the dragon's brain turning. So when the warlord comes rolling in, the dragon lands near the minister and helpfully explains that the warlords tribute HAS been paid and that the dragon is simply holding onto it for "safekeeping". Delivering a tenth of it so the warlord can pay and feed his troops, he's welcome to get more of it if he NEEDS it. Later, the warlord gets even more bad news. The Imperial borders are getting a LOT closer. They WILL move in, they WILL take over, and they will thank themselves to any loot the warlord and his company might have if they don't kill them outright. But then the warlord thinks... about the dragon. He comes to their lair, every single copper they have in tow. The warlord asks if the dragon would mind holding onto THIS coin. For safekeeping. And over time this venture slowly becomes just how commerce operates in the area. Anyone is welcome to use coin, but many larger transactions are actually bargained over bonds equating to various shares of the dragon's hoard, going from one party to the next. And anyone is welcome to come and bring their bond into the dragon's lair! Now an opulent edifice you could see from freakin' orbit. You can walk right in, present your bond, and then ask the Ancient Red Dragon you'd like your coin back. And you MIGHT just live to tell about it!
This is clever. Assuming the dragon just likes sleeping on a massive hoard of gold. As long as there isn't the equilvent of a bank run and people trigger a dragon rampage, it works. And you know the gold is safe. The dragon is ltierally sleeping on it.
The 3rd edition draconomicon had some cool dragons. I liked the blue dragon that took over a mine and used zombies to mine, because he was too cheap to pay normal workers. He ended up running a massive mining company.
Cheap? More like greedy and very bright (as Blues tend to be). He just got himself a workforce that not only does not require pay, but neither does it require food, water or air for that matter, but more importantly, NO REST. A regular humanoid employee works about 8 hours a day, give or take an hour or hour and a half, considering breaks, etc. but a zombie will work three times that period WITHOUT INTERRUPTION. And without any days off, invalidities, holidays, etc. Also, safety regulations? Pff! What silly nonsense! Heck, the Undead are a great source of practically infinite energy as well. You can have them power machinery or just straight up operate a turbine to generate electricity (I'm sure Blue Dragons ought to figure it out sooner than pretty much anyone else). Plus, you can easily go beyond you Hit Dice limit (don't know if that concept exists in 5E?) by having conditions set for your Undead to continue their work even without your orders, although that always involves risk. Nothing you can't manage easily as an Adult+ Blue Dragon, though!
@@Harrowed2TheMindThere are several mines in my homebrew world run by powerful servant undead and operated by thousands of skeleton miners. The creator has been gone for a thousand years but they just keep mining.
@@jameskurth3560I honestly think that thats quiet realistic take. Mining work is hard and dangerous. Your miner can die. But if instead if humans you have zombies/sketetons? You can have constant working force for nothing, your prices could be cheaper, and you can dominate the market
@@jameskurth3560 Free labor is absolutly underestimated in fantasy. You can do so much shit with that, possibilites are endless. You want to build roads? Need new walls? Brige? UNDEAD
Fun fact, in certain settings of DND certain dungeons were specifically used to hide treasure and protect people from dragons That's why most dungeons are built underground, hidden and have security measures. It's when their abandon you see monsters take over.
That makes an idea of a dungeon that is still occupied, like imagine your party discovers a dungeon that has no knowledge ofthe outside world, only that Dragons exists, heck if your party has nonhuman members you could make it where they have no idea what a dragon is, so they think that your nonhuman party members are dragons.
The dragon idea I like the most, is dragon horde as fractional reserve banking with credit. Dragon accumulates a whole pile of wealth, writes letters of credit and loans on the back of that treasure. The dragon wants treasure. The people are perfectly happy with paper money.
I feel like I never see Giants get the same love that dragons and other monsters get, especially in deep dives like this. If you're taking requests on videos to make the worldbuilding of world-changing monsters more interesting, Giants would be my vote.
I’d love to see more on giants too. I did a drawing of a rogue trying to escape from a fire giant hall a couple of years back, and while I was doing it, I suddenly realized: giants basically just can’t do fine manipulation. When your fingers are as thick as a new roll of paper towels, you can’t turn small keys, thread needles, or even untie knots in a normal-size rope. They may need servants or human slaves to do that stuff for them.
I've had a small idea about giants, since they we known rivals of dragons, you could both have utterly massive structures [Normal sized compared to a giant of course] that giants have abandoned. A abandoned giantish city with fortifications to fight a dragon would be lovely, if in need of adaptation for smaller races, to hold.
Thank you for covering D&D dragons. I agree that they are boring, when used RAW. Another thing to consider is the sheer volume of food they would consume. Consider their size, the dragon may actually invite humans (as they would be easy to manipulate) to move into an area to promote livestock breeding. It may, even an evil dragon, provide the city with protection as long as the city continues to raise livestock for it. It may make for some interesting regional laws surrounding eating meat. Anyway, dragons have some of the most untapped potential in D&D. Your insights are unique.
Perhaps, but they might also just eat less food than their size would imply. Dragons are inherently magical creatures with elemental power running through their flesh, perhaps that power also acts as a sort of generator, reducing the food they would otherwise need to consume. Given that Greatwyrms actually don't need to eat, it could also be that the older, larger and more powerful a dragon becomes the less food they need, with Wyrmlings eating several times their weight in a day, while Ancients have so much access to food compared to their need for it that they become incredibly particular about it - for instance an ancient red might have gotten a strange addiction for the flesh of young humanoid girls, but they need to be well fed and taken care of to ensure the flesh has the right texture, and so the legends of princess eating dragons comes about.
+17 fucking perception and +7 stealth with 18 intelligence. RAW there's almost no way the party should be going into a fight with a dragon without expecting some trap or tricks or manipulation. "It's not a trap if you know the trapper's trying to trap you, it's a face off"
I get around the food thing by saying that the older a dragon gets, the more time it spends asleep. An ancient dragon might hibernate for over a century, wake up and strip a countryside clean of food (while also helping itself to treasure for it’s hoard) for a couple weeks, then sleep for a century again. Eventually most ancient dragons reach a point where they just don’t wake up
To be fair, 5e has crippled Dragons something shocking. They used to all be casters in addition to overwhelming physical fighters after a specific age. A full attack used to be 6 separate attacks in melee, they used to have up to 250ft fly speeds depending on types and size. Add to that the ability to cast as a magic user of up to max level depending on age, magic/spell resistance and a near impenetrable armoured body, and you get a real force of nature.
3:16 A note about movement: The speed in the statblock is primarily for combat. It's reasonable to assume that a dragon would be able to fly much faster if they have time to accelerate properly. (15 km/h would be pretty slow for a large flying animal!) For comparison, it has been estimated that azhdarchids - the largest of the pterosaurs - were able to cover up to 16000 km IN ONE GO, meaning they could have circled the planet in a few days.
Aaaah, finally some quality worldbuilding content on youtube for DRAGONS! Well, I got a few notes on this vid, so it's gonna be a long one! - Your angle on the world having developed alongside dragons is on point, especially the easily-rotate-able ballistas. In my setting, I basically give means of aerial defense and defensible architectural features (like the roofed walkways across the streets!) in ALL the places that have dragons OR another aerial threat present. Moreover, DUNGEONS HAVE A REASON TO EXIST! If people had problems dealing with dragons, then they could've made dwellings or even whole TOWNS underground, which later get abandoned for one reason or another, leaving cool places for players to explore! - I'm VERY glad you remembered there are more aerial creatures and monsters than just dragons - aaracokra, (hippo)griffon cavalry, manticores, perytons, harpies, perhaps some winged bug people or drakes or winged dragonborn or urd or whatever else - if there is ANY threat from above, people will adapt. Though all of this aerial combat also means that an aerial cavalry is ALSO a viable response - instead of land-air defense, have interceptors to swoop in! Make a dragon breathe their element, then IMMEDIATELY charge in before their breath comes back, or simply pursue it while peppering it with arrows, using superior numbers as an advantage. - Castles would still be built, I think. Dragons have a habit of taking years-long power-naps or simply... not bothering to destroy a castle, convinced of their own superiority. At least SOME of them would make a mistake of letting a castle be built, and pay with their life for it - which would show that a highly defensible place with LOTS of ballistas and a courtyard that's a killzone with HUNDREDS of archers is effective... So more people are gonna copy that strategy. AND EVEN IF early castles were not effective against dragons at first... Well, all the more reason for dragons to leave them alone, same as all the other wooden shacks, if the dragon is given their tribute. At the same time, a castle (even a wooden one) is perfect for PROTECTING YOUR WEALTH FROM OTHER HUMANOIDS. In that way, their use is not that different from IRL. It's just that there are additional threats, so if you want a BIG and EXPENSIVE castle, then it also has to have anti-air capabilities that serve as a strong deterrent. - As for dragons simply ruling over land and claiming it for themselves - you make it sound like if they wouldn't create quite valid city-states under their rule. Blue and Green could absolutely rule and manipulate mortals in a noble-like capacity. But remember - DRAGONS ARE NOT THE ONLY POWERHOUSE AROUND. Even an adult or ancient dragon is not gonna just attack a stone/frost/fire giant stronghold that has DOZENS of capable giants of fighting age. Solo? Sure, dragon wins. But giants often have organized communities and even consider dragons a DELICACY! (like Frost giants and white dragons) In fact, MIMICING GIANTS might have been what pushed humanoids towards building castles! And a ballista was just someone thinking how to achieve the firepower of a giant's bow or yeeted boulder with machines. - The idea that mortals could not defeat dragons in the olden days is perhaps short-sighted, given how "the olden days" often have huge presence of the GODS AND THEIR MIRACLES. Imagine some demigod or a saint/chosen of a given diety making a power move of freeing their followers from slavery under a dragon! Smiting a beast of the material with godly might! - As for common adaptations of civilized folk for fending off dragons, I'd simply make a law that REQUIRES every family to have a spear and a crossbow at home, and require that each guild holds shooting drills for their members (as it was the case IRL, actually). Most people are not too strong, nor do they have the training to learn to use a longbow... But a crossbow? Much more viable! Additionally, there may be mandates that a town only gets announced a town once it has aerial protections, basically incentivizing building such defenses by policy in ALL of your kingdom, not only places that directly border dragon-infested lands. This will mean that a dragon simply CANNOT attack any settlement bigger than a village with impunity. They gonna get hurt, unless they are very smart about it and the people are very neglectful. - Speaking of illusion magic, I can definitely see elves and gnomes using those in order to hide from draconic tyranny, given that I don't see them burrowing or making ballistas to defend themselves. That said, elves (with their HORRENDOUSLY long lifespan) could simply have SUPREMELY powerful individuals that are able to simply take down dragons via their magic, skill, or both, with squads of very high level individuals. I mean, just look at how powerful DROW are with their matrons and elite warriors and all! If you have surface elves be motivated by dragons to develop similar level of skill, they have the ability to do the same. - Other races that might take on hunting dragons are, of course... Orcs. Imagine if orcs have developed a culture of seeking to befell the BIGGEST AND BADDEST MONSTERS in search for status within their tribes... And then figured out that if they share in the glory with a few mates, they could take down way bigger monsters than when fighting alone. And if they take down a dragon, then it's their whole TRIBE getting a reputation boost! That then leads to warbands of orcs that are not interested in pillaging wealth from other humanoids, but rather want to get a chance of hunting big beasties in other lands... because they have already killed most of beasties in THEIR lands! :V That way, you can have bands of scarily efficient orc mercenaries. Ones that, perhaps, could be hired by a kingdom that has an overpopulation of "flying magical dinosaurs", as you have called them? :)
as a note on your note, a large population of longbow men is not at all unviable. In fact, as stated in the video, in medieval England every able bodied peasant man was trained in using the longbow every week, so when they attained fighting age they were able to fire 150-180lb draw weight longbows at a rate of 8-10 arrows a minute (funnily enough, about 1 per round), and that's in waves, when it's fire at will it can get even faster. They would be more than strong enough, and with bodkin heads they would be able to pierce through a dragon's thick scales (considering they could punch through a solid steel breastplate). While crossbows can get much higher power, they are much slower firing, (lighter ones can get 1-3 per minute, heavy ones can take up to 2 minutes) and require a lot more advanced skills to make effectively. Yes they are easier to train people on, but for something like this a hundred bows is much better than a hundred crossbows, as they are cheaper and you get about 4* the arrows in the air at a lowball sorry, i like medieval stuff and ranged weapons are kinda my specialty within that
@@energeticcreeper7969Generally speaking. Weren't bows also cheaper to make? For a crossbow you would need someone who understood how to even produce a crossbow and gather the needed material. So from a persepective of ressources, a population of bowman would also be more viable.
I think the idea of isolated cities cut by large wilderness with dragons roaming around is similar to the Monster Hunter world and is the type of setting that I like.
A lot of the misconception about dragon movement is in that movespeed. I've always felt that 80 feet in a round is their full maneuverability top speed, not their actual flying speed. They can fly much faster but they're beholden to things like inertia and aerodynamics at that point, 9mph or less is like their "hover" speed.
I mean as an added point YOU try performing an accurate strafing run from 1000 feet in the air going at the speed of sound without a targeting computer there, Skywalker.
Or we could go pathfinder and they have 200 or 250 ft of flight. When accounting for "running" as a full round action that 4x that speed and ranges from 90 to 120 mph. Very reasonable
the ramification of dragons is why I decided to make them near extinct in my game they are so rare, no one can agree if they ever were real or not. their legendary exploits and tales of destruction have some believe dragon is just an old word for big natural disasters. This means I can make a lot of fake dragon encounters where the dragon turns out to be, at worst, a wyvern but more often than not the dragon turns out to be a Cockatrice or lizardfolk, sometimes its just a dragonblood sorcerer. It also means I buffed the few dragons that do exist, by making them larger, harder to kill and a couple new abilities, to keep them in line with the stories people tell about them and to terrify the players when they eventually come face to face with an actual dragon.
I actually really liked a red dragon that I built for a campaign. Valethar the Conqueror is the ruler of a domain about the size of how far she can fly in a day, she's more likely to be encountered within half a day's flight from her lair, but the capital city of her domain is nestled near her volcano lair. She guards the land as a preventative measure against giants and other very large creatures, while the cities and towns are all meant to give her offerings, from food to treasure to people so she can have soldiers for her army. The Duke ruling in her stead has several rumors floating around; like him being a person given magic by her presence, being one of her descendants and some hushed whispers claim that the Duke is actually Valethar in disguise. She is meant to be a mover and shaker in the world, but she also only reacts to something when it is dangerous enough to require her attention.
In my setting, there's a subspecies of dragon called rust dragons. Their breath weapon is an acidic miasma that hastens oxidation in ferrous metals, and it is these metals they horde, but only to eat. Their diet is entirely composed of said materials, which means they will snap up and armored knight, chew off the tasty crunchy coating, and spit out the chewy part on the inside. This would leave only a select few precious metals usable in equipment (which some of you probably know does not make good equipment) wood or stone. The environmental effects of their lairs would be rust particulates "salting" the earth and poisoning the water supply. If this is left unchecked, the rivers and lakes may even run orange.
In a game i once ran i had a metalic dragon running the city's bank. This meant everyone had tremendous faith in the banking institution, they knew that the dragon (being a goodly creature) would never cheat them and that its loans were always extremely reasonable. As a result the city thrived and the dragon was heralded as the heart of their city, they even went so far as to sell merchandise of the dragon. The dragon loved all of this and would often secretly take a human form to just spend time around the citizens, sometimes basking in their praise other times finding out about problems the people are having and using its immeasurable economic power to solve the problems people had.
Could you make a video about the ridiculous biodiversity of worlds within dungeons& dragons? They're implied to have all of the normal stuff we have plus elves, dwarves, dragons, monstrosities and a bunch of other stuff. So seeing anything covering the ridiculous biosphere of something that complicated would be great
I once created a village that was ruled by a dragon who kept themselves in the shadows. If the dragon had to make a public appearance, they'll use disguise magic. The village wasn't oppressed or suffering; the dragon kept the local laws fair and would broker deals to have trade routes run through their village, taking cuts of the trade profits (disguised as taxes). Thus, the locals were doing pretty well for themselves. The dragon even hired the PCs a couple times to go slay monsters that threatened the village! The dragon was evil, but leaned into the lawful side of their alignment because it was a practical way of amassing a hoard without attracting a band of heroes out to slay them.
It would be cool if you did a metallic dragon video as well. I figure that if humans actively avoid chromatic dragons and try to build far away from their lairs, it seems logical that humans might ally with and build near metallic dragons, especially the friendlier ones like brass and silver dragons, for mutual protection, especially in earlier eras when human technology, defenses, and weapons were much more primitive and less effective.
Major trade hubs in the desert being basically at the foot (Or even inside) of a brass dragon's nest. They might be the weakest dragon, but their still *A dragon*. But they also need an amount of food and supplies sustainable for *A dragon* and thus would probably have the only nice places in the desert scoped out already. But they also love talking, so hanging out in a brass town is probably lively.
@@nonya1366they like talking a bit *too* much however. Feeding it would be the least of your problems, keeping it entertained however... now that's a plot idea.
@@callmequaz9052 Well, they're probably going to be perched on an oasis. That's why I brought up the food and drink requirement. It's not that the dragon needs to concern itself with food I'm guessing. It's the fact that it's usually perched to make it easier to do so as a convivence. Which, by proxy makes it perfect for people who's main concern in a desert *Is* food and water...Which has other benefits. [even though brass dragons have other preferences for lairs but shh.] Since I'm assuming it's a pretty nice pick in the desert. Especially for social creatures. An enterprising merchant probably finds them by accident and proxy...Another benefit of the oasis idea. All it takes is one merchant with a big enough brain....If the brass is willing to stay around in one place long enough of course. The regional effects of a brass means the 6 miles around the oasis is also likely to have more water and the ilk and pretty comfy. Perhaps the passive regional *makes* it a type of oasis. But, knowing they have to go and also knowing they might not be let go, there's a pretty simple argument to be made. "If you let me go, I'll tell others about the oasis, who will in turn use this as part of their paths. Who will in turn have a chance to meet and talk to you. Strangers from all over, from many walks of life. Who know many more tales will come through here. While I may grow old and die one day, a place of commerce will never die as long as there's profit to be made." I'm imagining it's a very long conversation of course, and since the brass just, likes conversations of all kinds and the merchant is probably not carting around perishables, the initial interaction might last a few weeks or months, longer then the merchant probably wishes, but wiser then running from a dragon. On foot or on camel. But More conversations is always better. Even if it's about say. A topic a merchant can talk for hours about...Like economics. Irregardless, the key argument is "Let me go [for sake of profit] so you can get more people to talk to." An investment if you will. And of course, anywhere in the inhospitable desert which both has A: Protection [Dnd world danger etc etc] B: Water and C: Food is, as far as I'm aware, a perfect place to setup shop. Especially for merchant trails since if your catering to people who come through that way a lot, you don't really have to leave to make a profit. A profit that is safe and easy to make and probably lucrative. Which, even if by some miracle no one thinks about, might become the dragons job at first. Because talking to people with new stories and conversations is I'd wager, natural for a brass. And by proxy a natural occurrence of one person setting up shop, is another getting the bright idea to set up shop as well. And by extension living in that area. The main driving point here is, if the brass can curtail kidnapping merchants in favor for the argument of simply providing a passive service, people will take advantage of the free passive service. Which in turn will make people plan around having that passive service. Which in turn means they're far more likely to settle if the service is good enough... In too long to read bits: If you just get enough momentum, trade hubs could easily spring up around Brass dragons who perch themselves in good places along more obvious trade routes.
I have something like this in my world. There is the Strait of Peace, a location that, travel-wise, behaves similarly to Bosporus in our real world. One way from the strait, the most powerful empire is similar to the Roman empire at about the times of Octavianus Augustus, on the other side, the powerful kingdom is inspired by Persia at the times of Cyrus the Great. Despite both being rather big and warlike, the Strait of Peace makes sure there is not an overt war between the two. The reason is: In the history, they tried. Both. And failed, horribly. Because upon the strait (Constantinople-like), there is a small state controlling the trade, clearing the local pirates, taking a rather agreeable toll from merchants and preventing the invasion armies from sailing through, regardless of the direction. The point is: This ministate is controlled (and ensured to work as it should) by its leaders - a pair for life of dragons, Gold male and Bronze female. The horrific failures of invasion attempts? Yup, that's a pair of dragons sinking the fleets. The toll, of course, gets split between keeping the state in order and going into the dragons' hoards.
Another layer of depth you can add to your dragons is simply by customizing their toolsets. Their magic items already affect their abilities a lot (hitting a dragon is already hard, now imagine one with a Ring of Protection+3 and a Cloak of Resistance!), but you also used to be able to easily configure your monster's skills and feats, not to mention class levels, among other things, in older editions. Having a high Hit Dice (and high Int), dragons allow for A TON of customization, which makes every single dragon encounter potentially incredibly different, even among the same dragon race. You can set their spell lists to a certain theme and optimize their feat selection to go with it, what with metamagic feats, etc. or they could specialize in the use of their breath weapon with metabreath feats. Perhaps a dragon with lots of combat feats in order to leverage their physical might, making them akin to a giant Fighter in their prowess. Or even one which specializes in stealth and trickery by focusing on skills paired with illusion, enchantment and polymorphing magicks (very Green dragon, I know!). The Draconomicon also features several very interesting draconic spells, feats and dragon-specific magic items. Granted some work is required, but it's to be expected when dealing with customizing such epic creatures!
The dragon with cursed items on top of his hoard, so any foolish adventures he lets in might grab those, and if a fight breaks out he can always fling them at the party with his tail.
15:16 relating to this, I really enjoyed The Dragon's Banker by Scott Warren where an ancient wyrm is very upset that the humanoids have invented fiat currency. "The little thieves found a way to diminish my hoard without even having to break in and steal anything? They will pay for their hubris!"
Here in Brazil there is a D&D ripoff named Tormenta, in it there are some countrys ruled by dragons, including a country ruled by a red dragon, and picking a fight whit it is the same as declaring war whit a nation.
I wouldn't really call Tormenta a ripoff, its got a very distinct but good system in 3d&t, and it's style reminds me more of 90s fantasy anime rather than the Lord of the Rings that DnD is based on. ... .. . I'll forever be sad that they do not have an English translation for the ruleset, It would have done pretty great for itself in the English speaking market.
Sounds kinda like Dark Sun. And I wouldn't call any game a ripoff of D&D at this point. You can currently get a game of literally any flavor that is some selection of not at all to xeroxed edition since you can't copyright mechanics. There's too many games at this point for one to be a ripoff.
@@angrytheclown801 maybe ripoff is not the right word, but it is very close to 3.5… or at least the old edition was. And it is not like Dark Sun, the world is very rich and colorfull.
Idk how so many of us have been sleeping on this, it's such a painfully obvious thing that the fact that Dragons have been made into a "villain of the week" is a horrible misstep, they should be as important as characters like Strahd I feel 🤔
You neglect the fact that dragons can be negotiated with, even the chromatics. Granted a deal with an evil dragon is bound to be one-sided, there are stories of dragons being sponsors for pockets of civilization, making it part of their territory, and so on. The social aspect of dragons in these worlds seem afterthought as well. The oldest and scariest dragons are often manipulators, and what better to use than a group of adventurers who think they know better.
Plus, since dragons are so old, dragon cults from societies that sprung up around dragons and pays tribute to them are bound to be the first few religions. With the humanoid pantheon likely being based around the struggle against them.
Ðere is an anime where ðe main location is called "Ðe Divine Dragon's Kingdom of Lugunica". Basically, ðe dragon is so wise and strong, ðat he participated in a biblical anihilation catastrophe, and is one of ðe 3 heroes who stopped it, and supposedly "sealed' ðe villain. It's a really interesting mystery þriller anime ðat focuses on character study and psychology, but also has an insane lore and mysteries ðat are set up as Chekhov's Guns. It's called "Re:Zero" or "Re:Zero Kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu". It's one of ðe top 2 Light Novels in existence, and is very good at showing ðat being summoned to anoðer world doesn't save you from yourself, but highlights who you are even more.
I can see a dragon making a mutually beneficial deal with a kingdom, even if it resembles something like a protection racket. The dragon gets a steady flow of food and treasure and the kingdom is safe from other threats as no army wants to invade the land Thanderyx the Living Storm calls her domain.
Blue dragons often do this since they live in deserts and the presence of their lair creates rain storms. So a lot of people will purposely build a settlement close to a dragons lair and give tribute because they know that as long as this dragon lives in that location theirs going to be a constant supply of rain water
I made a dragon very smol, he's effectively the main magic source for the kingdom built around his lair. He's effectively the sovergn deiety who elects the king's bloodline. Dispite being 2'9 and far more interested in the outside. Whole campaign was basically, what happens when a sheltered Lil guy has to abandon his kingdom after it falls to ruin whilst also being the focus of lightning magic in the world. Lightning spells are almost always the most powerful iteration possible in his presence, which has led to, one absolutely amazing lightshow, three cataclysmic thunderstorms, a bolt of lightning decimating one motherfucker as a demonstration, and our resident lilman blu getting zapped constantly. We last left off in a populated kingdom and now no one is allowed to use lightning magic and blu needs to be hidden at all times. We continue next Saturday.
I solve this in my games in three ways: 1. An elder Dragon's territory is called a Desolation. It is marked like a Kingdom on the map and almost always avoided by sensible people. 2. Dragons collect mortals which it uses as minions. These minions form a Drakencult, a pack of brainwashed creatures that literally or metaphorically worship the Dragon. Drakenkults vary depending on a Dragon's needs and desires. 3. Dragons hoard different things. One Dragon may hoard books and scrolls, many full of ancient knowledge and magical power, while others may hoard statues, art, certain kinds of people (actors, artists, musicians, failed dragonslayers, etc) jewels, desserts, beetles, etc. Whatever a Dragon hoards it has a fixation on. Whatever a Dragon doesn't hoard is useless in it's eyes. A Dragon that hoards weapons will try to steal famous magical swords, but it will try to bribe intruders with huge rubies which are just taking up space, as the Dragon would rather be eating or admiring it's collection than wasting time fighting a bunch of apes.
Don't forget, magic missile can't miss and doesn't use spell slots(i.e. isn't a limited resource). Having a civilization prepared to have a few hundred wizard trainees in case dragons come by is a MASSIVE deterrent. With that setup, you basically have an instant kill setup for just about any major threat, and it would all be over in a few minutes.
Idea: >Dragon kills a king for his treasure vault >All Hail King Flameywings, first of his name (yes, really, the former king had decreed that anyone who could best him in combat is the next king) >People don't see any functional difference between "pay me tribute every month or I'll eat you" and "pay me taxes every month or I'll have you hanged" >Everyone begins to take after Flameywings I in some way because of how dragons warp the environment and creatures who live there >Kingdom has an army of dragontouched sorcerors and dragonborn fighters, and kobolds running the palace/government >"And that's how the Draconic Imperium was founded."
Dragons love wealth. Sooner or later one of them will realise that you can make a lot more by letting your mortals prosper and pay for your protection over centuries.
In the Dragonlance novels, they had Good vs Evil Dragons that served those Pantheons as a counter. But when that was swung toward Evil Dragons under the rule of one Evil Goddess, they divided up the world under their rule.
I made a clan of blue dragons. They are lawers, and handle magical contracts. They have a monopoly on these contracts, and will never allow others to learn the magics used in them. One of them that the party has me, wears armor, and wields a magical ballista... In his claws, he never engages in melee combat unless he is sure he will win.
16:22 - This kind of reminded me of the dragon hunt in the manga, "The Dragon, the Hero and the Courier", where the dragon hunting party included the Hero of the land (not the MC), and about 40-50 other people prepared to make money off of the dragon through transporting the remains, selling them or to note down what actions the hero's party did (MC being a part of this), so that their 'skills' may get better.
@@MrGreensweightHistbeing warm-blooded would not at all make them mammals. All mammals have hair (barring individual exceptions), no scales, and females can create milk. Being warm blooded wouldn't disqualify it from being a reptile. Even being a hexapod might not disqualify them, though it's a bit of a stretch. To a lay person, the body covering is probably the first point of reference, so having scales would immediately point to reptiles in the same way that hair does mammals, feathers and scales does birds, and hairless/slimy skin does amphibians. Among land vertebrates.
Personally I prefer dragons yo be more like animals than inteligent monsters (dont get me wrong some of my favorite shows & films have a talking dragon- Ex: Dragon Heart). But when designing my fantasy settings I prefer them to be monsterous beasts (like dinosaurs on steroids & a spark in their breath). With that in mind I often design my worlds in a way where cities are designed to keep such creatures from attacking through walls & anti-air defences. Being more like animals they are usually territorial, more than malicious, & have a magpie level interest in all things *shiny*, hence the treasure hoards they keep.
Both work, I love both but this DOES really simplify it for the DM, having my little plebian mind trying to pretend to be an epic, wise, manipulative, godlike ancient being is.... Well it certainly doesn't portray it particularly well haha.
Love this! Every idea you touch upon can make for great campaigns or even individual world by themselves, like world run by underground dwarf bankers funding even magic academies to solve the "dragon question", and all the myriad of stories this premise can conjure up, especially with greed, underestimating your enemy and general pigheadedness coming into picture :D
In our table's DnD world, it's always Dragons, all the way down, always has been. If anything significant happens in the world (even those that seem to be driven by kings and wizards), there are Dragons sponsoring, supporting, encouraging, or blackmailing it. Usually from 2-3 sides, since Dragons have allies too.
I’ll say this: learning the perspectives of all the creatures, monsters, entities, and living things of your world is a monumental task that requires active development to see real progress at your table. It’s a foreign thing to many because these things aren’t real and we have to ensure our players are immersed based on our level of skill vs their expectations.
As usual love the take and the linking into the world and lore. And as usual now i feel guilty for just making a silver dragon a enthusiastic tour guide XD
I was just listening to this as background while I was working on my campaign setting, when I heard you mention the 3.5e Draconomicon, and was like, "wait a minute, I have that book!". Very interesting discussion. Gives the imagination a little boost. 👍
This is hands down the best video on worldbuilding D&D around game mechanics I've seen. And for the dragons specifically...! Some absolutely fantastic ideas, I had to get out paper to start scribbling notes when this was meant to be a background video while working.
Some kingdoms might actually crop up within the territory of a dragon. This would happen mainly with Metallic Dragons, since they tend to be more tolerant of Humanoids
Really cool video. I like the eerie music choice at the start kind of reminding you of the underlying threat dragons pose. You brought up some great points to consider. Inspired a few ideas. Perhaps a powerful country encroaching on a dragon's territory means the dragon has to push onto a lesser country's territory creating tensions between the three. This smaller country may not pose a threat on its own, but if it were to negotiate and ally itself with the dragon now that's evened out the playing field... But I especially liked the idea of the dragon's affecting the way countries and boarders are structured.
4:53 ancient structures could have powerful weapons, both msgical and mundane, that helped ward off dragons. they could also be designed for defense against dragons instead of (or along side) humanoid sieges. this could be lost tech/magic and could give the party a quest to retrieve such tech/magic to help combat a dragon
In 3e Draconomicon, it states 2 things that I find interesting: "Dragons can literally eat rock or dirt and survive". Another part has details of their maximum lifespan: 2100 to 2500 years for chromatics, 3200 to 4400 years for metallics.
I like the “turns out the guild master of this merchants guild is a green dragon and we killed its 15 year old son and it’s kinda pissed but kind of glad since it taught it’s other children that they won’t care if they die” or the “this ancient bronze dragon is either bored as hell or literally losing its sanity”
Imo civilisations close to ancient or greatwyrm dragons might never develop coin based economies. They might use gold as religious sacrificial objects to give to the dragon instead.
That's a very good point, they could even go as far as to frown upon any travelers trying to trade in gold and such. Since they're tainting the purity of that gold and endangering everyone around them with their foolishness.
Our game has a GM who has made dragons pretty important in our campaign. THey are pretty much all, at least in the current era, mixed colors/races and see all the territory on the world as theirs with just with everyone else living on it. So far we have had a young dragon acting as a bandit leader, made friends with his father after stopping him, played a Cards against humanity with another one we randomly met, had a side story evil party release a dangerous ancient one on the world that is attacking stuff, used a demonic contract to escape from another one that was enslaving one of our PC's brothers, and had to work around the a magical fog that had the psychic forms of two dragons fighting each other from back in the past. ANd they aren't the main villain's we are dealing with.
Having flying natural disasters that traditionally target gold seems like it would encourage the adoption of fiat currencies. Message based funds transfer at point of sale perhaps, at least for anything large. The chance of a more modern dragon ending up running your central bank shouldn't be discounted either.
"How feasible is it to spend years building a castle when a Dragon can come in and ruin all your hard work?" Oh idk, about as feasible as starting a business in California, Hawaii, or anywhere else a natural disaster can randomly do the same.
That wouldn't work, dragons understand the worth of things, its not like they mindlessly guard coins, they have tons of ancient magic items in their hoard usually.
No mine aren't. My last one was a rockstar, a modified blue dragon with a giant guitar plugged into his whip like tail and his wings acting like amps firing his "breath weapon" of lightning and sound in two cones. Named Slytrethax, stage name Sly the Lightning (and yes, ride the lightning was the music playing when they fought him) He set up a battle of the band's competition that involved playing music and fighting, went and threatened towns to send competitors ,and constantly sent his kobold minions to screw with the contestants. In an attempt to set up the winners of the competition with an artifact that would let them stand a chance against him. All to make a bigger spectacle of his performance, pump his ego and rake in some cash. I find legendary resistance to be boring, so I gave his kobold minions counterspell, and potions with varying effects they can use on him. Useful groupies. But going more standard. I put a fair amount of thought into how you could lean hard on their insane level of perception, and rather high stealth. I think it's silly when I hear of stories of people busting into a dragon's lair and casting some really powerful spell and then the dragon is fucked... These things are ancient and extremely intelligent. Surely they've picked up some tricks to deal with threats. Surely they already know the capabilities of each of your party members, and exactly how each of them would be a threat, and what to do to nullify such a threat. Such as destroying the spell caster's focus or using some cursed or magical item from its treasure horde, or preying on some flaw of character. I just have so much trouble seeing an 18 intelligence creature as just a giant monster...
Shades of the first epic level game I ever ran back in 3.5e. Normal dragons might not pose a huge threat to a five person party of 25th level heroes, but if it’s a suddenly unified front of seemingly all chromatic dragons acting in concert things get much more interesting. 😁
I love these style of videos. My play group amd I are all "older" gamers, so we often think of the longer reaching impacts of things. I would love to see a video exploring the prestidigitation spell and how it can easily transform a local economy.
The Dragons in my setting(not necessarily dnd, it was a pet project in a creative writing class I took) are, In general, advanced, semi mechanical warrior race of super Kaiju who are basically semi Eldritch beings who fought in my setting’s titanomachy along side what is Basically Shub Niggurath, Nyarlathotep and an Eldritch Dragon God based off Asgorath from dnd called the Leviathan. Their multiverse spanning Dictatorship, in sum, effectively functions like the Imperium of Man meets the Dalek meets the Federation in Paul Verhoven’s starship troopers meets the Frieza force but less incompetent and more murderous and manipulative. Their Main motive is they want the Ultimate war zone where they are free to scheme against and destroy each other but they wish to “clear the gameboard that is reality” by killing other sentient beings off before they start throwing hands and antimatter ICBMs with each other. They mainly travel to other universes via Hell, a hub dimension they obtain by conquering it and brutally genociding demons, rendering demons effectively endangered in my setting, and have basically turned hell into this Immense, nigh on endless shipyard and hub. One of the Few things that can stand against these sociopathic Cyborg doom lizards would be the Celestials, the Few Benevolent Creator Gods and their Seraphs as well as dragons who defected from their Dictatorship.
In my personal attempt at world building a PF2E Campaign, the Holy Empire of Man had previously indoctrinated the aid of Metallic Dragons whom they've bread through distinct lines and lineages over the years to aid in the prevention of Chromatic Dragons raiding the inner cities of the Empire. Some of the largest Metallic Dragons that ever existed grew to such sizes due to the Holy Empire of Man ensuring their protection through their adolescence. As for other Empires, the Lizardfolk have taken to worshiping Chromatic Dragons, trading them jewels, food and service in exchange for protection and their blood. The Lizardfolk use the Dragon's blood in dark rituals to transform them into Dragonborn, individuals with the same command over the elemental forces as true Dragons. The Dwarves are very technologically advanced and spend most of if not all of their time within their volcanic home, actively pushing out specifically Red Dragons from their previous territory. The Elves don't tend to have anything Dragons really want as they are heavily influenced by the Fae and make their treasures out of wood or stone. Dark Elves are generally nomadic in nature so they may suffer a raid every now and then however, they only have what they are able to carry and believe that detaching themselves from physical lusts like gold or jewelry is necessary to live a happy life. As for Orcs... well, they just want a good fight and if that means gathering a massive Orcish horde to slay Dragons, they'll gladly do it even if they lose. Ancient Chromatic Dragons do however greatly affect the areas where they lair. The Campaign is placed on a large island that is sort of a realm of its own due to a swirling storm of magic that surrounds it, so there are obviously no natural freezing poles, dense forests or swampy bogs, it is these Ancient Chromatic Dragons that cause the difference in temperature and environment. If you were to say slay the Ancient White Dragon in the northern hemisphere, noted for its freezing temperatures, sprawling mountain ranges and quantity of blizzards, upon the Dragon's death all that would cease to exist until another White Dragons grows strong enough to take up the mantle. This makes it absolutely cataclysmic for Ancient Dragons to relocate or worse, fight other Ancient Dragons - it would be as if two separate environments were clashing in an all out battle.
I just discovered your channel, and frankly I love it! I would definitely love to see more videos like this discussing effects on world building of various creatures. I would love to see your thoughts on the presence of large subterranean burrowing predators such as brown dragons or bulette towns and cities as well.
I like the idea of a high-level Drake Warden Ranger NPC with the Charlatan background, conning the local lord and becoming something of an antagonist to the PCs. Very Dragonheart.
"No clear upper limit on draconic age In the Cannon" There's literally a chart in the Monster Manual, my guy. Fizban's didn't retcon that. Depending on the species, it ranges from 12,00 to 2,000, unless there's something unique about the dragon that extends their life(Dracoliches, or Palarandusk, for example). Also, in regards to building underground (which Dwarves & Drow already do) Some dragons, Including White Dragons are excellent borrowers, not to mention all the other kinds of deadly monsters that live underground.
I will say, in my copy of 5e's monster manual, there is certainly no upper limit on that table. It states that ancient dragons 'can live for over a thousand years', and that's about it. This may not be the case in other editions, but off the top of my head the Draconomicon was the only book which clearly specified age limits on dragons, and that was variable (anywhere from around 1500 - 5000). I will also say I assumed tunneling and building through stone, which is much tougher to burrow through, even if we assume burrowing speeds.
@@Grungeon_Master 5e has 801+ as the age of an Ancient Dragon, 3.5e had 1201+ as the age of a Great Wyrm, and while the 3.5e Draconomicon does have some maximum ages listed, it also makes clear that those ages and the 'fact' that dragons are mortal is only according to a research paper by two half-elf scholars that vanished. Canon D&D lore never comes clean and says they do in fact have an upper age, at most it offers an optional way for that to exist.
In my world, Dragons are one of the most advanced races due to them having developed sapience sooner and were able to become a Technoarcane civilisation before Humans figured out how to make fire
There is a VERY old edition of Dragon Magazine that has a LOT of information about how a medieval fortress would adapt to these kinds of threats. Many of them were things you brought up. One that was interesting to me was the combination of felt and fur for door stripping to make a room somewhat proof against toxins and gaseous attacks.
a blind eel who rips holes in space and time and is not effected by gravity and breathes purple fire which can have various effects one of them will physically change you're body to when you were tastiest in time. do you like it ?
Imagine this. Dragon history is about three times as old as humanoid history. Their territories, families, fights, trades, go back approximately 12 millennia. 4000 years ago, the first civilisations developed. The dragons saw humanoids as a great source of wealth and entertainment as well as military might. Thus, humanoid civilizations were always the dragon's pets. Only a few polities found themselves dragonless, either through revolution (which always ended in a coalition of dragoned nations) or through natural death of the lineage of dragons (period which usually ended by a young landless dragon signing a vassallage contract with the nation, although the new commer dragon often was under the authority of the humanoids instead of the other way arround).
one of my quest givers was an extremely manipulative female Green Dragon, who had her own palace within the starting city. she was quire a nice person, who had claws in every pie: the court, the temple, the wizard academy, and all other important facets of life. yes, I did give *all* adult dragons the Metalic ability to shapeshift.
I know your base is the DND kinds of dragons, which can be absurdly huge, but if you're going for a more Medieval focus, dragons were generally depicted no larger than an elephant, and often smaller. Those are much more manageable on in incidental basis. There is also rarity to consider, though I suppose if you have one great wyrm for each kind of dragon, that's still a lot of dragons. I guess since in 5e a gargantuan creature is only 20x20, that is less ridiculous than they used to get in earlier editions. Another thing to consider though is that they sleep a lot, and more the bigger they get.
Good stuff. This has led me to reimagine my setting. A virtual "wall' where civilization effectively ceases because of dragon lairs which may even have pre-dated said civilizations is both narratively interesting and logical. Thank you!
You wanted us to tell what other topics may be interesting to hear about with your worldbuilding spin on it. I think I've got a few ideas! - How does the setting change when we consider extremely long-lived or (nearly?) immortal beings as factors shaping the society? If we assume a human lives 70 years on average in this setting, then dwarves (350) live 5x longer, while elves (700) live 10x longer. Does that change how people view/write history? Does it change who is considered fit to lead? Does the backbone of people with hundreds of years of experience support the state apparatus or craft guilds or train best soldiers? Does that mean that a human cannot reasonably achieve highest guild positions, because when he's got enough experience, he is 10 years away from death of old age? And that's just mere mortals, not to mention Sphinxes, friendl-ish metallic dragons, archfey, liches, couatls and WAY more various long-lived creatures that could basically lead some nation or community for EONS! - How does the presence of gods change how churches/religions affect things? And I don't mean just whether "atheist=idiot?" topic you gave quite the attention to already. I mean - do gods keep knowledge from being forgotten? Does a god of the forge keep reminding people about how to make damascus steel each time the art is lost? Do the gods of healing actively campaign for building better sewers and separating drinking water from poop water, and encourage the priests to teach basic hygiene to the masses? - How does presence of high-power morals change warfare and the world in general? How is a person with 150 hp viewed in-universe? Is this basically anime, like in Overlord, where body of high-level adventurers and high-CR NPCs (like Champion or Warlord statblocks) is just supernaturally resilient? Is this something that's recognized in-universe, similar to how in Overlord when a state wants to weaken an enemy kingdom, they SEND AN ARMY TO KILL ONE GENERAL BECAUSE HE'S SUCH A BADASS HE'S GONNA SURVIVE ANYTHING LESS? What does it mean to have high hp, and high level anyway, from in-universe perspective? Why are some people able to do that, while others are not? Why is a regular wizard training for 20 years to get to 5-th level while adventurers put in 5-7 years of study in their background starting at level 2, then go in two weeks to level 7? Does that bring resentment? What about ALL THE PRIESTS THAT DON'T GET SPELLCASTING? What of all the members of a holy order that don't get Lay on Hands and other stuff because their conviction is not strong enough? Or alternatively, are ALL PRIESTS ABLE TO CAST SPELLS? AAAAAAAAAAA This topic is so fucking deep and complicated it literally keeps me up at night!
@@labibsaud8064 I am the type of guy to sit with another nerd in the corner and discuss deep lore of some universe or make up fun stories about what may happen in said universe. If you think that's not fun enough, then you have the right to have your fun in a different flavor. I just prefer mead and "what if-s"!
@@Hilianus I was trying to jest, personally you are fun but the kind of guy who brings a bag of goodies where others are confused with the choices. I do enjoy likeminded ppl😘
My friends climbed a mountain and found a red dragon's nest and loot, I completely forgot about regional effects so they just encountered one of his human pets which made them not want to stick around.
In my setting, one of the things that sets the Royal army and the forces kept by many of the more wealth nobles apart from the average Town guard and the forces kept by lower ranking lords is that minor magic studies are mandatory for their soldiers. Every member of the kings army has Magic Initiate: Wizard and can cast Firebolt and Ray of Frost with their first level spell varying depending on the specific soldier's role. Flying foes are one of the reasons for that.
Lol. I love how "Don't make dragons boring" is backed up by a lesson that makes them lore-relevant. It would be so easy to laundry list faults rather than show how to make them awesome, like you just did.😄
I often use a life event chart for intelligent monsters, rolling on that helps me come up with the past of the monster and how it shaped their personality and tactics.
Dragons aren't winged lizards. Dragons are divine beasts. Make them part of your world's religions. People worship them, pray to them, bring them offerings, get magic and other blessings from them. I have a character who's a consecrated virgin in service of a silver dragon. And no, they don't evangelize, they don't compete, they don't try to persuade people to worship them to the exclusion of other gods, that's beneath them. Polytheism is not the same thing as multiple monotheisms. And of course if you're going to negotiate with a dragon, start with the assumption that they're smarter than you - or at least think they are.
I have a bronze dragon in my campaign whose lair is directly under a giant coastal city, at the bottom of the bay. He has plenty of space and swims out to sea, but also takes offerings from fishermen to "bring good fortune". The regional effect that makes people unable to break a promise LITERALLY affects all the people in the nation, which gives a reason to why the people are so stubborn and prideful!
I actually had a black dragon nicknamed "Doomfang" that my players really loved. Essentially, he was once a very powerful black dragon who existed in a different reality, adventurers in that reality ended up sending him the the current one through their actions. He was badly beaten down, and trapped on an island to try and recover. After years passed, he fell into a deep depression, and found himself unable to find the desires he once had, and began to just let himself slowly die because he had no reason for living anymore. When the player's encountered him, they convinced him to let them heal his wounds fully, and help him recover (high charisma rolls). Eventually, they were able to give him a new meaning for life, and in exchange for what they did for him, he became the guardian of a dwarven city in the mountains. The players were initially terrified of him due to the nature of most chromatic dragons, but by making changes to the traditional formula, they ended up creating an interesting story arc for the character. He still leans towards evil when accomplishing his role, but because of the player's impact, he is able to suppress some of it.
Thank you so much for this fantastic video. I have subscribed and am eager for more. I have always wondered and then tried working into my fantasy world/s how society and civilization would developed if magic was common, or monsters ran rampant or if some people became near super-hero/Demi-god powered, and in this video, yes, dragons too and their impact. I agree that it is lazy to build a world for instance, in D&D, and not consider any of these. Thank you again for the great content.
came back to this video cuz i had another thought in mind.. you could create a creature for your world that is of similar strength to a dragon and has natural aggression towards them but is friendly towards humanoid races. building in/near a dragon's territory could then require building a roost to house one or more of these creatures to ward off or fight any dragon. this could change how castles/forts/towns are built and cause other changes to the setting such as needing larger supply caravans to help feed/take care of these creatures.
for the campaign im doing,im gonna introduce Baszaru,the tale hunter he is a dragon that hordes tales and feats,he has used polimorf to become every race and become a legend on every race,he was a famous scholar,the most powerful mage,the renounced chef, iconic writer,etc trough the campaign im gonna introduce all of those legendary figures and reveal it was all Baszaru,ans as a Dragon he is gonna have many titles too,and he will have every title he ever conquered on his scales,i kinda want to say as a dramatic line "I HAVE AS MANY OF LEGENDS AS I HAVE SCALES,WHAT WILL I WRITE OF YOU?BASZARU THE ANT-CRUSHER??"
We had a GM that had us working for this guy taking out all sorts of “villains” and other corrupt individuals. After a year of gaming it was revealed it was actually a Red Dragon that was just manipulating everyone in the party to take out rivals and make this his sole domain. Man that was such a fun game.
When talking about civilization developing around dragons, you treated them as effectively permanent zones. And while the timescale of a dragon means that they exist for hundreds if not thousands of years and that is effectively the case... that also goes the other way too. If a dragon dies, or moves away, it's possible that they might leave behind territory for hundreds of years, a relatively short time from a dragon perspective, but potentially enough for a civilization to pop up, or a previously underground/subdued one to expand and develop. I definitely think you should do an entire video diving into the ways dragons and civilizations would interact, and how semi-immortal, incredibly powerful, and selfishly manipulative beings would twist civilizations that emerge around them. Different styles of rulership or coercion, what might be exchanged between mortal and dragon, how these "dragon kingdoms" would interact with each other. Tons of very interesting details, and I've love to hear your take!
In my setting, dragons hoard gold because their eggs require an environment stacked with the magic of precious metals to hatch into a dragon. Dragon eggs hatched without any precious metals surrounding them hatch into much smaller creatures called Geschuppte (a German word translating to "scaly creatures"), reminiscent of D&D's kobolds, that are infertile and instictively obedient towards the first dragon they see in their lives (i. e. imprinting). Dragons lay a ton of eggs (maybe one or two a day), but they place only very few in their hoards close to their gold, because they're fiercely individualistic and competitive even among each other and smart enough to understand very well that dragon overpopulation would be a really bad idea. As a result, there aren't that many dragons around, but they always rule over small fiefdoms of obedient, nasty little humanoid lizard servants that go on raids and steal gold wherever they can. I guess the viking comparison isn't too far off there.
Eusocial dragons, very interesting! Do they have a similar "swarming" behavior to our world's eusocial species when the new dragon hatches/grows and is ready to claim its own territory? Like, some of the mother's Geschuppte are going to be involved primarily in caring for the 'royal' dragonets and some of those will see the little prince/ss as their first dragon. It would be interesting to see a dragon hive split in that way, with the young dragon setting off to seek their fortune, followed by a gaggle of a couple dozen Geschuppte servitors as a starter populace. Do male dragons have a different life cycle to female dragons, or do they have a similar life cycle but the males are nomadic and have limited servitors while the females set up empires? So many thoughts and questions just from one worldbuilding note.
@@QuantumWaltz This might still be subject to change later on, but so far, I see dragons as self-fertilizing hermaphrodites, which plays into the loner archetype I want to go with for them. They're eusocial, yes, but they don't really trust creatures they can't control, and that usually includes other dragons, and with that being the vibe I want to go for with them, making them genderless self-fertilizers plays best into that idea. I'm going for a high fantasy setting more inspired by mythology and my own weird ideas than the real world (although for my human cultures, I do draw on the history and cultures of the migration period as well), so I'm using artistic license for things like biology quite liberally when it comes to fantasy creatures. But yes, something like "swarming" would almost have to be a thing with this kind of setup.
@@tarvoc746 Ah, I see! I thought of the dragons being single-gendered/agendered/hermaphroditic shortly after I left the comment. Your structure reminds me of how classical phoenixes were their own parents, being born from an egg congealed from their own ashes upon immolation - rather than simply rejuvenating themselves in fire as more modern phoenixes do - so I think so far you're nailing the mythology 'feel.' Very cool!
In my setting, which uses heavily expanded and modified Pathfinder rules, there is actually a dragon kingdom the structure of which curbs the worst excesses of draconic nature. There are also demigods who serve as guardians, and sometimes rulers, of largely isolated and self-sufficient humanoid kingdoms. Rogue dragons have bounties on their heads and are hunted down by agents of the draconic kingdom or adventurer parties.
Remember to make your dragons not only told to bw powerful, and not only looks powerful, but BE powerful. Show them strike terror into your adventurers hearts and show them getting kills on characters that are known to be skilled.
In my settings wyrmlings and young dragons are monster of the week. Adults and ancients are forces of nature, state, or both. The largest empire in the world is owned by an adult drow-dragon, the Underdark all pays tribute to a shadow greatwyrm who is the source of all earthquakes, hell the bbeg laid waste to the entire north simply by pissing off an ancient red dragon.
me that has dragons as major players on almost all the major places of the continent i have worldbuilt in the desert a blue dracolich called Imyorith "rune bones" cursed the desert centuries ago having the sands turn all that die there into undead, she controlls the sands and most cities that still prosper are floating and ruled by equaly powerfull rulers such as Alamasya the Clone master and Azen the Great in the Weastern caves more specificly in the forest of glowing moshroom south area theres Mrhghy a unique draconic being born from the body of a non specified dragon eaten by fungi, he is called the kind of fugi and he rules the south of the glow shroom forest, he helped to defend the blind trogs agaisnt the humans after the trogs find themselfs worty of his help (a blind trog hero yes a player gave him a good fight and he wich isnt a bad dragon helped them) the jungle of Eper´swhii are filled with draconic adjacent beings wich are venus fly traps, called man eater´s and of course a great green dragon yet named that rules over the snake folk of the southern jungles. at the north of the human kindom the one that crusaded to kill the blind trogs of the weastern caves mentioned above lives a ilusive pink dragon yet named he lives in one of the few areas whit monsteres and non human creatures that wasnt killed by the kindom, thanks partly to his ilusions and magics that confuse the armies and are strong enought to confuse and force Jabras the empire archbishop and chosen of a god out. those are the more powerfull ones, theres in other continent im starting to work a red acient as well but im not quite shure where nor how dragons are not as prevalent as monsters of destroction cause theres other beasts as powerfull that can body them
The presence of metallic dragons are probably what helps the world have some stability silver and red dragons nest in mountains many of the metallic and chromatic dragons co-exist in similar dens which probably makes a bigger part of the world habitat-able
I love these videos. Thinking about the economic implications is great for world building. I did similar when I decided that magic items would be much cheaper on Ravnica.
I unfortunately don't have a group to play with:( However, I have created 6 different lvl 1 characters in case I found a group. None of them are Bards (though I do have an idea for a Bard character if I had another character sheet to use). Anyway, all of my characters could potentially want to seduce Dragons and some other "Monsters/Enemies" depending on how they are played/designed.
I recently saw a Tumblr post where people were talking about a 3-headed dragon based on the red/white/yellow (RCA) cables that used to be used before HDMI. I came up with the "Arway Dragon" The Red and White heads telepathically whisper to potential prey... the red whispering threats and lies (heard only through the right ear of the victim), while the white head whispers of wondrous offerings and temptations to beguile the prey (heard through the left ear), giving a "Devil and Angel on the shoulders" conscience effect, luring them in with the promise of fortunes while also filling their mind with avarice and fears they they'd leave empty-handed and unfulfilled. The yellow head creates visual illusions of treasure while hiding the dragon's presence. Anyone foolish enough to delve deep enough into its lair would quickly find themselves on the dinner menu. Yes, it's kind of basic in terms of how a dragon would act, but it would certainly make for an interesting encounter for a one-shot or a mid-campaign mission.
In my homebrew world there are only 14 true dragons one for each color metallic dragons when they die they get reborn like a pheonix, while for chromatic dragons who ever killed them becomes the host for the chromatic dragon corrupting them and eventually turning their body into their previous dragon form
One way you can add danger to a Dragon is if the target is in the center of most adult breath weapons then they roll with disadvantage. If they are in the center of an Ancient Red Dragon's breath weapon then they don't even get a savings throw at all. It makes ZERO sense that you should be able to "Dex savings throw" and Area of effect weapon greater in size than your turn's movement speed.
I love your video and wish I found this video sooner and love your take on dragons, and honestly that is a problem with most design on dragons. I haven't finished setting up dragons in my setting but chromatics, are still bullies and cunning but their focus isn't on terrorizing its just territory rights, farming settlements near hungry dragons for one are in more danger than large settlements since WISE dragons see attacking the larger settlements outright as not worth the energy, and use other ways via minions, or some kinda of tactic. I pull from the lores of the dnd dragons to create my dragons, but the big gimmick I pull is, most facts shared about dragons, that are the normal tropes for the colors, are the result of what survivor of raids understand. Dragons target the biggest and fatest creatures they can find, and will only pass or attack a settlement to either send a message or if they know it's a fight they can win easily. They are powerful creatures but they know a well fortified city will either make them too wounded to hunt or fight other dragons or outright kill them if they are careless. So I made them a TRUE mirror to their metallic counterparts for my setting, in a sense more twisted versions of their metallic counterparts. Dragons are in a form still united in my setting but loosely mostly for the case of dealing with bigger issues, like what do they do with the mortals in the long run. All actions an adult dragon takes has the weeks, or even months ahead planned for in minimum. The random out of the blue dragon attacks. Those are normally younger dragons or dragonic creatures. I also have it that Chromatics CAN shift into a humanoid visage, but either dont normally like to unless they have to for a plan to work or stay in a more dragonic looking form, be it something like a dragonborn etc.
For me, I like 2 types of dragons:
1) Smaller beasts who just like to BBQ villages sometimes in packs.
2) Giant ones who live eons, who hold immense knowledge and are downright Lovecraftian horrors of sorts.
And one turns into the other over time
For me the 3 is. Neurodivergent giant lizard who devotes their life to their special interest. Bonus points of humans are the special interest.
boring
Ah of course, everything that remotely has a connection with the universe is Lovecraftian, a classic of the slow death of creativity in the internet.
@@CoracaoAcidental98 I see you like to huff your own farts
Given what I know about green and blue dragons, they might actually welcome civilization cropping up in their territories, at least to an extent. This gives the green dragons people to manipulate and screw around with, and the blue dragons somebody to subjugate and dominate.
There's even a green dragon in the lore that just enjoyed scrying on the people of the nearby city like she's watching a t.v. show lol. The storylines of the actual people is her entertainment.
@@impartialthrone2097 , good old nawbone!
@@impartialthrone2097 Imagine being an aspiring adventurer and getting to the dragon''s lair only for it to go: "So, I think you should know your mom is sick and your sister is pregnant, oh, and I'd reccomend you leave this lair and give me your magic items, otherwise your party, sponsors and the populace will know about that oh so embarassing story from when you were 11!"
Honestly, I could see a story where you have a world where rather than kings, you have dragons ruling human nations. This would give a fun way to make each dragon unique. Perhaps one of them brags that he has more humans than his rival because he knows how to make them want to stay in his territory; leading to the two of them constantly one upping each other incentives to get humans to move to their land.
"Look at you loser. You can't keep your subjects from moving to my land. They can see that I am the superior one here."
Meanwhile you could have dictator dragons that threaten to hunt down any people with capability and force them stay in their lands.
I could actually see both of them defending humans because they've grown a perverse attachment.
I just thought of a potential villain faction off this one.
What if the dragon IS the bank. Have it start off in a one off. Dragon comes to terrorize a village and the minister just comes out to talk to the dragon. As a novelty, the dragon lets him speak his piece. Minister explains that they would gladly fork over what they have, but that a local warlord is due here any day now for their OWN tribute payment, and they're sort of stuck with "ONE of you is gonna raze our village to the ground either way, we can't afford to pay both". But the minister notes: if the village burns, that means NO future tributes. This gets the dragon's brain turning.
So when the warlord comes rolling in, the dragon lands near the minister and helpfully explains that the warlords tribute HAS been paid and that the dragon is simply holding onto it for "safekeeping". Delivering a tenth of it so the warlord can pay and feed his troops, he's welcome to get more of it if he NEEDS it.
Later, the warlord gets even more bad news. The Imperial borders are getting a LOT closer. They WILL move in, they WILL take over, and they will thank themselves to any loot the warlord and his company might have if they don't kill them outright. But then the warlord thinks... about the dragon. He comes to their lair, every single copper they have in tow. The warlord asks if the dragon would mind holding onto THIS coin. For safekeeping.
And over time this venture slowly becomes just how commerce operates in the area. Anyone is welcome to use coin, but many larger transactions are actually bargained over bonds equating to various shares of the dragon's hoard, going from one party to the next. And anyone is welcome to come and bring their bond into the dragon's lair! Now an opulent edifice you could see from freakin' orbit. You can walk right in, present your bond, and then ask the Ancient Red Dragon you'd like your coin back.
And you MIGHT just live to tell about it!
This is clever. Assuming the dragon just likes sleeping on a massive hoard of gold. As long as there isn't the equilvent of a bank run and people trigger a dragon rampage, it works. And you know the gold is safe. The dragon is ltierally sleeping on it.
Bro, share some of that brainpower with the rest of us. Stop hoarding it all! (Pretty great thinking)
The 3rd edition draconomicon had some cool dragons. I liked the blue dragon that took over a mine and used zombies to mine, because he was too cheap to pay normal workers. He ended up running a massive mining company.
Cheap? More like greedy and very bright (as Blues tend to be). He just got himself a workforce that not only does not require pay, but neither does it require food, water or air for that matter, but more importantly, NO REST. A regular humanoid employee works about 8 hours a day, give or take an hour or hour and a half, considering breaks, etc. but a zombie will work three times that period WITHOUT INTERRUPTION. And without any days off, invalidities, holidays, etc. Also, safety regulations? Pff! What silly nonsense! Heck, the Undead are a great source of practically infinite energy as well. You can have them power machinery or just straight up operate a turbine to generate electricity (I'm sure Blue Dragons ought to figure it out sooner than pretty much anyone else). Plus, you can easily go beyond you Hit Dice limit (don't know if that concept exists in 5E?) by having conditions set for your Undead to continue their work even without your orders, although that always involves risk. Nothing you can't manage easily as an Adult+ Blue Dragon, though!
@@Harrowed2TheMindThere are several mines in my homebrew world run by powerful servant undead and operated by thousands of skeleton miners. The creator has been gone for a thousand years but they just keep mining.
@@jameskurth3560I honestly think that thats quiet realistic take. Mining work is hard and dangerous. Your miner can die.
But if instead if humans you have zombies/sketetons? You can have constant working force for nothing, your prices could be cheaper, and you can dominate the market
@@komiks42 Or in this particular case dominate a continent.
@@jameskurth3560 Free labor is absolutly underestimated in fantasy. You can do so much shit with that, possibilites are endless.
You want to build roads? Need new walls? Brige? UNDEAD
Fun fact, in certain settings of DND certain dungeons were specifically used to hide treasure and protect people from dragons
That's why most dungeons are built underground, hidden and have security measures. It's when their abandon you see monsters take over.
So dungeons were basically dragon bunkers/fallout shelters? That’s an interesting idea
@@donovan5656 yes
That makes an idea of a dungeon that is still occupied, like imagine your party discovers a dungeon that has no knowledge ofthe outside world, only that Dragons exists, heck if your party has nonhuman members you could make it where they have no idea what a dragon is, so they think that your nonhuman party members are dragons.
Congratulations, you've just given me the inspiration to run a one shot that is basically Fallout Vaults - Fantasy Edition.
This is genius
The dragon idea I like the most, is dragon horde as fractional reserve banking with credit.
Dragon accumulates a whole pile of wealth, writes letters of credit and loans on the back of that treasure.
The dragon wants treasure. The people are perfectly happy with paper money.
I feel like I never see Giants get the same love that dragons and other monsters get, especially in deep dives like this.
If you're taking requests on videos to make the worldbuilding of world-changing monsters more interesting, Giants would be my vote.
I’d love to see more on giants too. I did a drawing of a rogue trying to escape from a fire giant hall a couple of years back, and while I was doing it, I suddenly realized: giants basically just can’t do fine manipulation. When your fingers are as thick as a new roll of paper towels, you can’t turn small keys, thread needles, or even untie knots in a normal-size rope. They may need servants or human slaves to do that stuff for them.
I've had a small idea about giants, since they we known rivals of dragons, you could both have utterly massive structures [Normal sized compared to a giant of course] that giants have abandoned. A abandoned giantish city with fortifications to fight a dragon would be lovely, if in need of adaptation for smaller races, to hold.
@@HelotOnWheels Giant key and giant needles. Size built for giants etc.
I second this!
@@HelotOnWheels how often do you need to use stuff built for a mouse?
Thank you for covering D&D dragons. I agree that they are boring, when used RAW. Another thing to consider is the sheer volume of food they would consume. Consider their size, the dragon may actually invite humans (as they would be easy to manipulate) to move into an area to promote livestock breeding. It may, even an evil dragon, provide the city with protection as long as the city continues to raise livestock for it. It may make for some interesting regional laws surrounding eating meat. Anyway, dragons have some of the most untapped potential in D&D. Your insights are unique.
Perhaps, but they might also just eat less food than their size would imply. Dragons are inherently magical creatures with elemental power running through their flesh, perhaps that power also acts as a sort of generator, reducing the food they would otherwise need to consume. Given that Greatwyrms actually don't need to eat, it could also be that the older, larger and more powerful a dragon becomes the less food they need, with Wyrmlings eating several times their weight in a day, while Ancients have so much access to food compared to their need for it that they become incredibly particular about it - for instance an ancient red might have gotten a strange addiction for the flesh of young humanoid girls, but they need to be well fed and taken care of to ensure the flesh has the right texture, and so the legends of princess eating dragons comes about.
+17 fucking perception and +7 stealth with 18 intelligence.
RAW there's almost no way the party should be going into a fight with a dragon without expecting some trap or tricks or manipulation.
"It's not a trap if you know the trapper's trying to trap you, it's a face off"
I get around the food thing by saying that the older a dragon gets, the more time it spends asleep. An ancient dragon might hibernate for over a century, wake up and strip a countryside clean of food (while also helping itself to treasure for it’s hoard) for a couple weeks, then sleep for a century again. Eventually most ancient dragons reach a point where they just don’t wake up
To be fair, 5e has crippled Dragons something shocking. They used to all be casters in addition to overwhelming physical fighters after a specific age. A full attack used to be 6 separate attacks in melee, they used to have up to 250ft fly speeds depending on types and size. Add to that the ability to cast as a magic user of up to max level depending on age, magic/spell resistance and a near impenetrable armoured body, and you get a real force of nature.
@@Ishlacorrin yeah but you also get a cthulu that's hard to worldbuild with.
3:16 A note about movement: The speed in the statblock is primarily for combat. It's reasonable to assume that a dragon would be able to fly much faster if they have time to accelerate properly. (15 km/h would be pretty slow for a large flying animal!) For comparison, it has been estimated that azhdarchids - the largest of the pterosaurs - were able to cover up to 16000 km IN ONE GO, meaning they could have circled the planet in a few days.
Aye - at a minimum you'd want to double it (dash) - but even that's low - because dash is still in the context of trying to not get stabbed.
Aaaah, finally some quality worldbuilding content on youtube for DRAGONS! Well, I got a few notes on this vid, so it's gonna be a long one!
- Your angle on the world having developed alongside dragons is on point, especially the easily-rotate-able ballistas. In my setting, I basically give means of aerial defense and defensible architectural features (like the roofed walkways across the streets!) in ALL the places that have dragons OR another aerial threat present. Moreover, DUNGEONS HAVE A REASON TO EXIST! If people had problems dealing with dragons, then they could've made dwellings or even whole TOWNS underground, which later get abandoned for one reason or another, leaving cool places for players to explore!
- I'm VERY glad you remembered there are more aerial creatures and monsters than just dragons - aaracokra, (hippo)griffon cavalry, manticores, perytons, harpies, perhaps some winged bug people or drakes or winged dragonborn or urd or whatever else - if there is ANY threat from above, people will adapt. Though all of this aerial combat also means that an aerial cavalry is ALSO a viable response - instead of land-air defense, have interceptors to swoop in! Make a dragon breathe their element, then IMMEDIATELY charge in before their breath comes back, or simply pursue it while peppering it with arrows, using superior numbers as an advantage.
- Castles would still be built, I think. Dragons have a habit of taking years-long power-naps or simply... not bothering to destroy a castle, convinced of their own superiority. At least SOME of them would make a mistake of letting a castle be built, and pay with their life for it - which would show that a highly defensible place with LOTS of ballistas and a courtyard that's a killzone with HUNDREDS of archers is effective... So more people are gonna copy that strategy. AND EVEN IF early castles were not effective against dragons at first... Well, all the more reason for dragons to leave them alone, same as all the other wooden shacks, if the dragon is given their tribute. At the same time, a castle (even a wooden one) is perfect for PROTECTING YOUR WEALTH FROM OTHER HUMANOIDS. In that way, their use is not that different from IRL. It's just that there are additional threats, so if you want a BIG and EXPENSIVE castle, then it also has to have anti-air capabilities that serve as a strong deterrent.
- As for dragons simply ruling over land and claiming it for themselves - you make it sound like if they wouldn't create quite valid city-states under their rule. Blue and Green could absolutely rule and manipulate mortals in a noble-like capacity. But remember - DRAGONS ARE NOT THE ONLY POWERHOUSE AROUND. Even an adult or ancient dragon is not gonna just attack a stone/frost/fire giant stronghold that has DOZENS of capable giants of fighting age. Solo? Sure, dragon wins. But giants often have organized communities and even consider dragons a DELICACY! (like Frost giants and white dragons) In fact, MIMICING GIANTS might have been what pushed humanoids towards building castles! And a ballista was just someone thinking how to achieve the firepower of a giant's bow or yeeted boulder with machines.
- The idea that mortals could not defeat dragons in the olden days is perhaps short-sighted, given how "the olden days" often have huge presence of the GODS AND THEIR MIRACLES. Imagine some demigod or a saint/chosen of a given diety making a power move of freeing their followers from slavery under a dragon! Smiting a beast of the material with godly might!
- As for common adaptations of civilized folk for fending off dragons, I'd simply make a law that REQUIRES every family to have a spear and a crossbow at home, and require that each guild holds shooting drills for their members (as it was the case IRL, actually). Most people are not too strong, nor do they have the training to learn to use a longbow... But a crossbow? Much more viable! Additionally, there may be mandates that a town only gets announced a town once it has aerial protections, basically incentivizing building such defenses by policy in ALL of your kingdom, not only places that directly border dragon-infested lands. This will mean that a dragon simply CANNOT attack any settlement bigger than a village with impunity. They gonna get hurt, unless they are very smart about it and the people are very neglectful.
- Speaking of illusion magic, I can definitely see elves and gnomes using those in order to hide from draconic tyranny, given that I don't see them burrowing or making ballistas to defend themselves. That said, elves (with their HORRENDOUSLY long lifespan) could simply have SUPREMELY powerful individuals that are able to simply take down dragons via their magic, skill, or both, with squads of very high level individuals. I mean, just look at how powerful DROW are with their matrons and elite warriors and all! If you have surface elves be motivated by dragons to develop similar level of skill, they have the ability to do the same.
- Other races that might take on hunting dragons are, of course... Orcs. Imagine if orcs have developed a culture of seeking to befell the BIGGEST AND BADDEST MONSTERS in search for status within their tribes... And then figured out that if they share in the glory with a few mates, they could take down way bigger monsters than when fighting alone. And if they take down a dragon, then it's their whole TRIBE getting a reputation boost! That then leads to warbands of orcs that are not interested in pillaging wealth from other humanoids, but rather want to get a chance of hunting big beasties in other lands... because they have already killed most of beasties in THEIR lands! :V That way, you can have bands of scarily efficient orc mercenaries. Ones that, perhaps, could be hired by a kingdom that has an overpopulation of "flying magical dinosaurs", as you have called them? :)
as a note on your note, a large population of longbow men is not at all unviable. In fact, as stated in the video, in medieval England every able bodied peasant man was trained in using the longbow every week, so when they attained fighting age they were able to fire 150-180lb draw weight longbows at a rate of 8-10 arrows a minute (funnily enough, about 1 per round), and that's in waves, when it's fire at will it can get even faster. They would be more than strong enough, and with bodkin heads they would be able to pierce through a dragon's thick scales (considering they could punch through a solid steel breastplate). While crossbows can get much higher power, they are much slower firing, (lighter ones can get 1-3 per minute, heavy ones can take up to 2 minutes) and require a lot more advanced skills to make effectively. Yes they are easier to train people on, but for something like this a hundred bows is much better than a hundred crossbows, as they are cheaper and you get about 4* the arrows in the air at a lowball
sorry, i like medieval stuff and ranged weapons are kinda my specialty within that
I am getting so much inspiration
@@energeticcreeper7969Generally speaking. Weren't bows also cheaper to make? For a crossbow you would need someone who understood how to even produce a crossbow and gather the needed material.
So from a persepective of ressources, a population of bowman would also be more viable.
Thank you to all the people in this thread, you've made me understand the implications of dragons and defense strategies super easily!!
I feel like you're overfocused on killing ðem. Benevolent dragons exist, my dude.
I think the idea of isolated cities cut by large wilderness with dragons roaming around is similar to the Monster Hunter world and is the type of setting that I like.
A lot of the misconception about dragon movement is in that movespeed. I've always felt that 80 feet in a round is their full maneuverability top speed, not their actual flying speed. They can fly much faster but they're beholden to things like inertia and aerodynamics at that point, 9mph or less is like their "hover" speed.
Good way to think about it.
Exactly. And there's windup, too. Sure it could reach like 120 mph or something crazy, but not within 6 seconds.
I mean as an added point YOU try performing an accurate strafing run from 1000 feet in the air going at the speed of sound without a targeting computer there, Skywalker.
Or we could go pathfinder and they have 200 or 250 ft of flight. When accounting for "running" as a full round action that 4x that speed and ranges from 90 to 120 mph. Very reasonable
Absolutely - flying creatures can still dash in combat - so we they can move faster.
the ramification of dragons is why I decided to make them near extinct in my game
they are so rare, no one can agree if they ever were real or not.
their legendary exploits and tales of destruction have some believe dragon is just an old word for big natural disasters.
This means I can make a lot of fake dragon encounters where the dragon turns out to be, at worst, a wyvern but more often than not the dragon turns out to be a Cockatrice or lizardfolk, sometimes its just a dragonblood sorcerer.
It also means I buffed the few dragons that do exist, by making them larger, harder to kill and a couple new abilities, to keep them in line with the stories people tell about them and to terrify the players when they eventually come face to face with an actual dragon.
I actually really liked a red dragon that I built for a campaign. Valethar the Conqueror is the ruler of a domain about the size of how far she can fly in a day, she's more likely to be encountered within half a day's flight from her lair, but the capital city of her domain is nestled near her volcano lair. She guards the land as a preventative measure against giants and other very large creatures, while the cities and towns are all meant to give her offerings, from food to treasure to people so she can have soldiers for her army. The Duke ruling in her stead has several rumors floating around; like him being a person given magic by her presence, being one of her descendants and some hushed whispers claim that the Duke is actually Valethar in disguise.
She is meant to be a mover and shaker in the world, but she also only reacts to something when it is dangerous enough to require her attention.
In my setting, there's a subspecies of dragon called rust dragons. Their breath weapon is an acidic miasma that hastens oxidation in ferrous metals, and it is these metals they horde, but only to eat. Their diet is entirely composed of said materials, which means they will snap up and armored knight, chew off the tasty crunchy coating, and spit out the chewy part on the inside. This would leave only a select few precious metals usable in equipment (which some of you probably know does not make good equipment) wood or stone. The environmental effects of their lairs would be rust particulates "salting" the earth and poisoning the water supply. If this is left unchecked, the rivers and lakes may even run orange.
In a game i once ran i had a metalic dragon running the city's bank. This meant everyone had tremendous faith in the banking institution, they knew that the dragon (being a goodly creature) would never cheat them and that its loans were always extremely reasonable.
As a result the city thrived and the dragon was heralded as the heart of their city, they even went so far as to sell merchandise of the dragon.
The dragon loved all of this and would often secretly take a human form to just spend time around the citizens, sometimes basking in their praise other times finding out about problems the people are having and using its immeasurable economic power to solve the problems people had.
Could you make a video about the ridiculous biodiversity of worlds within dungeons& dragons? They're implied to have all of the normal stuff we have plus elves, dwarves, dragons, monstrosities and a bunch of other stuff. So seeing anything covering the ridiculous biosphere of something that complicated would be great
I once created a village that was ruled by a dragon who kept themselves in the shadows. If the dragon had to make a public appearance, they'll use disguise magic. The village wasn't oppressed or suffering; the dragon kept the local laws fair and would broker deals to have trade routes run through their village, taking cuts of the trade profits (disguised as taxes). Thus, the locals were doing pretty well for themselves. The dragon even hired the PCs a couple times to go slay monsters that threatened the village! The dragon was evil, but leaned into the lawful side of their alignment because it was a practical way of amassing a hoard without attracting a band of heroes out to slay them.
It would be cool if you did a metallic dragon video as well.
I figure that if humans actively avoid chromatic dragons and try to build far away from their lairs, it seems logical that humans might ally with and build near metallic dragons, especially the friendlier ones like brass and silver dragons, for mutual protection, especially in earlier eras when human technology, defenses, and weapons were much more primitive and less effective.
Major trade hubs in the desert being basically at the foot (Or even inside) of a brass dragon's nest.
They might be the weakest dragon, but their still *A dragon*. But they also need an amount of food and supplies sustainable for *A dragon* and thus would probably have the only nice places in the desert scoped out already.
But they also love talking, so hanging out in a brass town is probably lively.
@@nonya1366they like talking a bit *too* much however. Feeding it would be the least of your problems, keeping it entertained however... now that's a plot idea.
@@callmequaz9052 Well, they're probably going to be perched on an oasis. That's why I brought up the food and drink requirement. It's not that the dragon needs to concern itself with food I'm guessing. It's the fact that it's usually perched to make it easier to do so as a convivence. Which, by proxy makes it perfect for people who's main concern in a desert *Is* food and water...Which has other benefits. [even though brass dragons have other preferences for lairs but shh.] Since I'm assuming it's a pretty nice pick in the desert. Especially for social creatures. An enterprising merchant probably finds them by accident and proxy...Another benefit of the oasis idea. All it takes is one merchant with a big enough brain....If the brass is willing to stay around in one place long enough of course. The regional effects of a brass means the 6 miles around the oasis is also likely to have more water and the ilk and pretty comfy. Perhaps the passive regional *makes* it a type of oasis.
But, knowing they have to go and also knowing they might not be let go, there's a pretty simple argument to be made.
"If you let me go, I'll tell others about the oasis, who will in turn use this as part of their paths. Who will in turn have a chance to meet and talk to you. Strangers from all over, from many walks of life. Who know many more tales will come through here. While I may grow old and die one day, a place of commerce will never die as long as there's profit to be made."
I'm imagining it's a very long conversation of course, and since the brass just, likes conversations of all kinds and the merchant is probably not carting around perishables, the initial interaction might last a few weeks or months, longer then the merchant probably wishes, but wiser then running from a dragon. On foot or on camel. But More conversations is always better. Even if it's about say. A topic a merchant can talk for hours about...Like economics.
Irregardless, the key argument is "Let me go [for sake of profit] so you can get more people to talk to." An investment if you will.
And of course, anywhere in the inhospitable desert which both has A: Protection [Dnd world danger etc etc] B: Water and C: Food is, as far as I'm aware, a perfect place to setup shop. Especially for merchant trails since if your catering to people who come through that way a lot, you don't really have to leave to make a profit.
A profit that is safe and easy to make and probably lucrative.
Which, even if by some miracle no one thinks about, might become the dragons job at first. Because talking to people with new stories and conversations is I'd wager, natural for a brass. And by proxy a natural occurrence of one person setting up shop, is another getting the bright idea to set up shop as well. And by extension living in that area.
The main driving point here is, if the brass can curtail kidnapping merchants in favor for the argument of simply providing a passive service, people will take advantage of the free passive service. Which in turn will make people plan around having that passive service. Which in turn means they're far more likely to settle if the service is good enough...
In too long to read bits:
If you just get enough momentum, trade hubs could easily spring up around Brass dragons who perch themselves in good places along more obvious trade routes.
I have something like this in my world. There is the Strait of Peace, a location that, travel-wise, behaves similarly to Bosporus in our real world. One way from the strait, the most powerful empire is similar to the Roman empire at about the times of Octavianus Augustus, on the other side, the powerful kingdom is inspired by Persia at the times of Cyrus the Great. Despite both being rather big and warlike, the Strait of Peace makes sure there is not an overt war between the two.
The reason is: In the history, they tried. Both. And failed, horribly. Because upon the strait (Constantinople-like), there is a small state controlling the trade, clearing the local pirates, taking a rather agreeable toll from merchants and preventing the invasion armies from sailing through, regardless of the direction. The point is: This ministate is controlled (and ensured to work as it should) by its leaders - a pair for life of dragons, Gold male and Bronze female.
The horrific failures of invasion attempts? Yup, that's a pair of dragons sinking the fleets.
The toll, of course, gets split between keeping the state in order and going into the dragons' hoards.
Another layer of depth you can add to your dragons is simply by customizing their toolsets. Their magic items already affect their abilities a lot (hitting a dragon is already hard, now imagine one with a Ring of Protection+3 and a Cloak of Resistance!), but you also used to be able to easily configure your monster's skills and feats, not to mention class levels, among other things, in older editions. Having a high Hit Dice (and high Int), dragons allow for A TON of customization, which makes every single dragon encounter potentially incredibly different, even among the same dragon race. You can set their spell lists to a certain theme and optimize their feat selection to go with it, what with metamagic feats, etc. or they could specialize in the use of their breath weapon with metabreath feats. Perhaps a dragon with lots of combat feats in order to leverage their physical might, making them akin to a giant Fighter in their prowess. Or even one which specializes in stealth and trickery by focusing on skills paired with illusion, enchantment and polymorphing magicks (very Green dragon, I know!). The Draconomicon also features several very interesting draconic spells, feats and dragon-specific magic items.
Granted some work is required, but it's to be expected when dealing with customizing such epic creatures!
The dragon with cursed items on top of his hoard, so any foolish adventures he lets in might grab those, and if a fight breaks out he can always fling them at the party with his tail.
15:16 relating to this, I really enjoyed The Dragon's Banker by Scott Warren where an ancient wyrm is very upset that the humanoids have invented fiat currency. "The little thieves found a way to diminish my hoard without even having to break in and steal anything? They will pay for their hubris!"
Here in Brazil there is a D&D ripoff named Tormenta, in it there are some countrys ruled by dragons, including a country ruled by a red dragon, and picking a fight whit it is the same as declaring war whit a nation.
I wouldn't really call Tormenta a ripoff, its got a very distinct but good system in 3d&t, and it's style reminds me more of 90s fantasy anime rather than the Lord of the Rings that DnD is based on.
...
..
.
I'll forever be sad that they do not have an English translation for the ruleset, It would have done pretty great for itself in the English speaking market.
Sounds kinda like Dark Sun. And I wouldn't call any game a ripoff of D&D at this point. You can currently get a game of literally any flavor that is some selection of not at all to xeroxed edition since you can't copyright mechanics. There's too many games at this point for one to be a ripoff.
@@angrytheclown801 maybe ripoff is not the right word, but it is very close to 3.5… or at least the old edition was. And it is not like Dark Sun, the world is very rich and colorfull.
Idk how so many of us have been sleeping on this, it's such a painfully obvious thing that the fact that Dragons have been made into a "villain of the week" is a horrible misstep, they should be as important as characters like Strahd I feel 🤔
You neglect the fact that dragons can be negotiated with, even the chromatics. Granted a deal with an evil dragon is bound to be one-sided, there are stories of dragons being sponsors for pockets of civilization, making it part of their territory, and so on. The social aspect of dragons in these worlds seem afterthought as well. The oldest and scariest dragons are often manipulators, and what better to use than a group of adventurers who think they know better.
Plus, since dragons are so old, dragon cults from societies that sprung up around dragons and pays tribute to them are bound to be the first few religions. With the humanoid pantheon likely being based around the struggle against them.
Ðere is an anime where ðe main location is called "Ðe Divine Dragon's Kingdom of Lugunica".
Basically, ðe dragon is so wise and strong, ðat he participated in a biblical anihilation catastrophe, and is one of ðe 3 heroes who stopped it, and supposedly "sealed' ðe villain. It's a really interesting mystery þriller anime ðat focuses on character study and psychology, but also has an insane lore and mysteries ðat are set up as Chekhov's Guns. It's called "Re:Zero" or "Re:Zero Kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu". It's one of ðe top 2 Light Novels in existence, and is very good at showing ðat being summoned to anoðer world doesn't save you from yourself, but highlights who you are even more.
I can see a dragon making a mutually beneficial deal with a kingdom, even if it resembles something like a protection racket. The dragon gets a steady flow of food and treasure and the kingdom is safe from other threats as no army wants to invade the land Thanderyx the Living Storm calls her domain.
Blue dragons often do this since they live in deserts and the presence of their lair creates rain storms. So a lot of people will purposely build a settlement close to a dragons lair and give tribute because they know that as long as this dragon lives in that location theirs going to be a constant supply of rain water
I made a dragon very smol, he's effectively the main magic source for the kingdom built around his lair. He's effectively the sovergn deiety who elects the king's bloodline. Dispite being 2'9 and far more interested in the outside. Whole campaign was basically, what happens when a sheltered Lil guy has to abandon his kingdom after it falls to ruin whilst also being the focus of lightning magic in the world. Lightning spells are almost always the most powerful iteration possible in his presence, which has led to, one absolutely amazing lightshow, three cataclysmic thunderstorms, a bolt of lightning decimating one motherfucker as a demonstration, and our resident lilman blu getting zapped constantly. We last left off in a populated kingdom and now no one is allowed to use lightning magic and blu needs to be hidden at all times. We continue next Saturday.
I solve this in my games in three ways:
1. An elder Dragon's territory is called a Desolation. It is marked like a Kingdom on the map and almost always avoided by sensible people.
2. Dragons collect mortals which it uses as minions. These minions form a Drakencult, a pack of brainwashed creatures that literally or metaphorically worship the Dragon. Drakenkults vary depending on a Dragon's needs and desires.
3. Dragons hoard different things. One Dragon may hoard books and scrolls, many full of ancient knowledge and magical power, while others may hoard statues, art, certain kinds of people (actors, artists, musicians, failed dragonslayers, etc) jewels, desserts, beetles, etc. Whatever a Dragon hoards it has a fixation on.
Whatever a Dragon doesn't hoard is useless in it's eyes. A Dragon that hoards weapons will try to steal famous magical swords, but it will try to bribe intruders with huge rubies which are just taking up space, as the Dragon would rather be eating or admiring it's collection than wasting time fighting a bunch of apes.
Don't forget, magic missile can't miss and doesn't use spell slots(i.e. isn't a limited resource). Having a civilization prepared to have a few hundred wizard trainees in case dragons come by is a MASSIVE deterrent. With that setup, you basically have an instant kill setup for just about any major threat, and it would all be over in a few minutes.
Idea:
>Dragon kills a king for his treasure vault
>All Hail King Flameywings, first of his name (yes, really, the former king had decreed that anyone who could best him in combat is the next king)
>People don't see any functional difference between "pay me tribute every month or I'll eat you" and "pay me taxes every month or I'll have you hanged"
>Everyone begins to take after Flameywings I in some way because of how dragons warp the environment and creatures who live there
>Kingdom has an army of dragontouched sorcerors and dragonborn fighters, and kobolds running the palace/government
>"And that's how the Draconic Imperium was founded."
Dragons love wealth. Sooner or later one of them will realise that you can make a lot more by letting your mortals prosper and pay for your protection over centuries.
In the Dragonlance novels, they had Good vs Evil Dragons that served those Pantheons as a counter. But when that was swung toward Evil Dragons under the rule of one Evil Goddess, they divided up the world under their rule.
I made a clan of blue dragons. They are lawers, and handle magical contracts. They have a monopoly on these contracts, and will never allow others to learn the magics used in them.
One of them that the party has me, wears armor, and wields a magical ballista... In his claws, he never engages in melee combat unless he is sure he will win.
16:22 - This kind of reminded me of the dragon hunt in the manga, "The Dragon, the Hero and the Courier", where the dragon hunting party included the Hero of the land (not the MC), and about 40-50 other people prepared to make money off of the dragon through transporting the remains, selling them or to note down what actions the hero's party did (MC being a part of this), so that their 'skills' may get better.
Barbarian: I'm not scared of some overgrown, fire-breathing, flying lizard.
Warlock: *to the wizard* "She knows dragons are amphibians, right?"
Wizard: and still a reptile, your point being?
@justnoob8141 Warlock: Because she's afraid of water.
@@justnoob8141 Dragons, in D&D at least, are not reptiles.
They are warm blooded.
Basically, scaled monotremes.
@@MrGreensweightHist cool brag but
ua-cam.com/users/shortsP-mkAAs3vJ4?feature=share
@@MrGreensweightHistbeing warm-blooded would not at all make them mammals. All mammals have hair (barring individual exceptions), no scales, and females can create milk.
Being warm blooded wouldn't disqualify it from being a reptile. Even being a hexapod might not disqualify them, though it's a bit of a stretch.
To a lay person, the body covering is probably the first point of reference, so having scales would immediately point to reptiles in the same way that hair does mammals, feathers and scales does birds, and hairless/slimy skin does amphibians. Among land vertebrates.
Personally I prefer dragons yo be more like animals than inteligent monsters (dont get me wrong some of my favorite shows & films have a talking dragon- Ex: Dragon Heart). But when designing my fantasy settings I prefer them to be monsterous beasts (like dinosaurs on steroids & a spark in their breath).
With that in mind I often design my worlds in a way where cities are designed to keep such creatures from attacking through walls & anti-air defences. Being more like animals they are usually territorial, more than malicious, & have a magpie level interest in all things *shiny*, hence the treasure hoards they keep.
I'm very much the opposite but that's okay.
Both work, I love both but this DOES really simplify it for the DM, having my little plebian mind trying to pretend to be an epic, wise, manipulative, godlike ancient being is.... Well it certainly doesn't portray it particularly well haha.
Love this! Every idea you touch upon can make for great campaigns or even individual world by themselves, like world run by underground dwarf bankers funding even magic academies to solve the "dragon question", and all the myriad of stories this premise can conjure up, especially with greed, underestimating your enemy and general pigheadedness coming into picture :D
I'm making my dragons into a technologically advanced civilization known to make megastructures
Right, It's not like humans in real life build in earthquake zones, near volcanoes or in tornado zones.
To be fair, if we didn't, the whole of humanity might be concentrated in about a hundred square miles. Life takes risks.
In our table's DnD world, it's always Dragons, all the way down, always has been.
If anything significant happens in the world (even those that seem to be driven by kings and wizards), there are Dragons sponsoring, supporting, encouraging, or blackmailing it. Usually from 2-3 sides, since Dragons have allies too.
I’ll say this: learning the perspectives of all the creatures, monsters, entities, and living things of your world is a monumental task that requires active development to see real progress at your table. It’s a foreign thing to many because these things aren’t real and we have to ensure our players are immersed based on our level of skill vs their expectations.
As usual love the take and the linking into the world and lore. And as usual now i feel guilty for just making a silver dragon a enthusiastic tour guide XD
I don’t think you need to feel bad about that
I have "wind" dragons (well, whatever the D&D equivalent is called) who work as cartographers. 😅
I was just listening to this as background while I was working on my campaign setting, when I heard you mention the 3.5e Draconomicon, and was like, "wait a minute, I have that book!".
Very interesting discussion. Gives the imagination a little boost. 👍
This is hands down the best video on worldbuilding D&D around game mechanics I've seen. And for the dragons specifically...! Some absolutely fantastic ideas, I had to get out paper to start scribbling notes when this was meant to be a background video while working.
Some kingdoms might actually crop up within the territory of a dragon. This would happen mainly with Metallic Dragons, since they tend to be more tolerant of Humanoids
Really cool video. I like the eerie music choice at the start kind of reminding you of the underlying threat dragons pose. You brought up some great points to consider. Inspired a few ideas. Perhaps a powerful country encroaching on a dragon's territory means the dragon has to push onto a lesser country's territory creating tensions between the three. This smaller country may not pose a threat on its own, but if it were to negotiate and ally itself with the dragon now that's evened out the playing field... But I especially liked the idea of the dragon's affecting the way countries and boarders are structured.
4:53 ancient structures could have powerful weapons, both msgical and mundane, that helped ward off dragons. they could also be designed for defense against dragons instead of (or along side) humanoid sieges. this could be lost tech/magic and could give the party a quest to retrieve such tech/magic to help combat a dragon
In 3e Draconomicon, it states 2 things that I find interesting: "Dragons can literally eat rock or dirt and survive". Another part has details of their maximum lifespan: 2100 to 2500 years for chromatics, 3200 to 4400 years for metallics.
I like the “turns out the guild master of this merchants guild is a green dragon and we killed its 15 year old son and it’s kinda pissed but kind of glad since it taught it’s other children that they won’t care if they die” or the “this ancient bronze dragon is either bored as hell or literally losing its sanity”
Imo civilisations close to ancient or greatwyrm dragons might never develop coin based economies. They might use gold as religious sacrificial objects to give to the dragon instead.
That's a very good point, they could even go as far as to frown upon any travelers trying to trade in gold and such. Since they're tainting the purity of that gold and endangering everyone around them with their foolishness.
These thought provoking videos have been rathing neat for world building! Thanks!!
Our game has a GM who has made dragons pretty important in our campaign. THey are pretty much all, at least in the current era, mixed colors/races and see all the territory on the world as theirs with just with everyone else living on it. So far we have had a young dragon acting as a bandit leader, made friends with his father after stopping him, played a Cards against humanity with another one we randomly met, had a side story evil party release a dangerous ancient one on the world that is attacking stuff, used a demonic contract to escape from another one that was enslaving one of our PC's brothers, and had to work around the a magical fog that had the psychic forms of two dragons fighting each other from back in the past. ANd they aren't the main villain's we are dealing with.
Having flying natural disasters that traditionally target gold seems like it would encourage the adoption of fiat currencies.
Message based funds transfer at point of sale perhaps, at least for anything large.
The chance of a more modern dragon ending up running your central bank shouldn't be discounted either.
The local necromancers guild is always pushing to switch to crypto.
"How feasible is it to spend years building a castle when a Dragon can come in and ruin all your hard work?"
Oh idk, about as feasible as starting a business in California, Hawaii, or anywhere else a natural disaster can randomly do the same.
That wouldn't work, dragons understand the worth of things, its not like they mindlessly guard coins, they have tons of ancient magic items in their hoard usually.
No mine aren't.
My last one was a rockstar, a modified blue dragon with a giant guitar plugged into his whip like tail and his wings acting like amps firing his "breath weapon" of lightning and sound in two cones.
Named Slytrethax, stage name Sly the Lightning (and yes, ride the lightning was the music playing when they fought him)
He set up a battle of the band's competition that involved playing music and fighting, went and threatened towns to send competitors ,and constantly sent his kobold minions to screw with the contestants.
In an attempt to set up the winners of the competition with an artifact that would let them stand a chance against him.
All to make a bigger spectacle of his performance, pump his ego and rake in some cash.
I find legendary resistance to be boring, so I gave his kobold minions counterspell, and potions with varying effects they can use on him.
Useful groupies.
But going more standard.
I put a fair amount of thought into how you could lean hard on their insane level of perception, and rather high stealth.
I think it's silly when I hear of stories of people busting into a dragon's lair and casting some really powerful spell and then the dragon is fucked...
These things are ancient and extremely intelligent.
Surely they've picked up some tricks to deal with threats.
Surely they already know the capabilities of each of your party members, and exactly how each of them would be a threat, and what to do to nullify such a threat.
Such as destroying the spell caster's focus or using some cursed or magical item from its treasure horde, or preying on some flaw of character.
I just have so much trouble seeing an 18 intelligence creature as just a giant monster...
Ooouuww, may I suggest you take a peaks at Lasers and Liches Beat Dragon. You might like what you see.
Shades of the first epic level game I ever ran back in 3.5e. Normal dragons might not pose a huge threat to a five person party of 25th level heroes, but if it’s a suddenly unified front of seemingly all chromatic dragons acting in concert things get much more interesting. 😁
I love these style of videos. My play group amd I are all "older" gamers, so we often think of the longer reaching impacts of things. I would love to see a video exploring the prestidigitation spell and how it can easily transform a local economy.
The Dragons in my setting(not necessarily dnd, it was a pet project in a creative writing class I took) are, In general, advanced, semi mechanical warrior race of super Kaiju who are basically semi Eldritch beings who fought in my setting’s titanomachy along side what is Basically Shub Niggurath, Nyarlathotep and an Eldritch Dragon God based off Asgorath from dnd called the Leviathan. Their multiverse spanning Dictatorship, in sum, effectively functions like the Imperium of Man meets the Dalek meets the Federation in Paul Verhoven’s starship troopers meets the Frieza force but less incompetent and more murderous and manipulative. Their Main motive is they want the Ultimate war zone where they are free to scheme against and destroy each other but they wish to “clear the gameboard that is reality” by killing other sentient beings off before they start throwing hands and antimatter ICBMs with each other. They mainly travel to other universes via Hell, a hub dimension they obtain by conquering it and brutally genociding demons, rendering demons effectively endangered in my setting, and have basically turned hell into this Immense, nigh on endless shipyard and hub.
One of the Few things that can stand against these sociopathic Cyborg doom lizards would be the Celestials, the Few Benevolent Creator Gods and their Seraphs as well as dragons who defected from their Dictatorship.
This was a very interesting twist!
10:47
*Game of Thrones flashback.* The horror.
In my personal attempt at world building a PF2E Campaign, the Holy Empire of Man had previously indoctrinated the aid of Metallic Dragons whom they've bread through distinct lines and lineages over the years to aid in the prevention of Chromatic Dragons raiding the inner cities of the Empire. Some of the largest Metallic Dragons that ever existed grew to such sizes due to the Holy Empire of Man ensuring their protection through their adolescence. As for other Empires, the Lizardfolk have taken to worshiping Chromatic Dragons, trading them jewels, food and service in exchange for protection and their blood. The Lizardfolk use the Dragon's blood in dark rituals to transform them into Dragonborn, individuals with the same command over the elemental forces as true Dragons. The Dwarves are very technologically advanced and spend most of if not all of their time within their volcanic home, actively pushing out specifically Red Dragons from their previous territory. The Elves don't tend to have anything Dragons really want as they are heavily influenced by the Fae and make their treasures out of wood or stone. Dark Elves are generally nomadic in nature so they may suffer a raid every now and then however, they only have what they are able to carry and believe that detaching themselves from physical lusts like gold or jewelry is necessary to live a happy life. As for Orcs... well, they just want a good fight and if that means gathering a massive Orcish horde to slay Dragons, they'll gladly do it even if they lose.
Ancient Chromatic Dragons do however greatly affect the areas where they lair. The Campaign is placed on a large island that is sort of a realm of its own due to a swirling storm of magic that surrounds it, so there are obviously no natural freezing poles, dense forests or swampy bogs, it is these Ancient Chromatic Dragons that cause the difference in temperature and environment. If you were to say slay the Ancient White Dragon in the northern hemisphere, noted for its freezing temperatures, sprawling mountain ranges and quantity of blizzards, upon the Dragon's death all that would cease to exist until another White Dragons grows strong enough to take up the mantle. This makes it absolutely cataclysmic for Ancient Dragons to relocate or worse, fight other Ancient Dragons - it would be as if two separate environments were clashing in an all out battle.
I just discovered your channel, and frankly I love it! I would definitely love to see more videos like this discussing effects on world building of various creatures. I would love to see your thoughts on the presence of large subterranean burrowing predators such as brown dragons or bulette towns and cities as well.
Absolutely brilliant video.
I like the idea of a high-level Drake Warden Ranger NPC with the Charlatan background, conning the local lord and becoming something of an antagonist to the PCs. Very Dragonheart.
"No clear upper limit on draconic age In the Cannon"
There's literally a chart in the Monster Manual, my guy. Fizban's didn't retcon that. Depending on the species, it ranges from 12,00 to 2,000, unless there's something unique about the dragon that extends their life(Dracoliches, or Palarandusk, for example). Also, in regards to building underground (which Dwarves & Drow already do) Some dragons, Including White Dragons are excellent borrowers, not to mention all the other kinds of deadly monsters that live underground.
I will say, in my copy of 5e's monster manual, there is certainly no upper limit on that table. It states that ancient dragons 'can live for over a thousand years', and that's about it.
This may not be the case in other editions, but off the top of my head the Draconomicon was the only book which clearly specified age limits on dragons, and that was variable (anywhere from around 1500 - 5000).
I will also say I assumed tunneling and building through stone, which is much tougher to burrow through, even if we assume burrowing speeds.
@@Grungeon_Master 5e has 801+ as the age of an Ancient Dragon, 3.5e had 1201+ as the age of a Great Wyrm, and while the 3.5e Draconomicon does have some maximum ages listed, it also makes clear that those ages and the 'fact' that dragons are mortal is only according to a research paper by two half-elf scholars that vanished. Canon D&D lore never comes clean and says they do in fact have an upper age, at most it offers an optional way for that to exist.
In my world, Dragons are one of the most advanced races due to them having developed sapience sooner and were able to become a Technoarcane civilisation before Humans figured out how to make fire
I Would Like To Award You the Highest Honor I Can Bestow:
_I'm stealling this._
:) :) :)
@@mustlovedragons8047 Hey, original idea...but I'll make an exception 4 u :)
Finally someone addressing what really matters!! Just found your channel loveeee it!
There is a VERY old edition of Dragon Magazine that has a LOT of information about how a medieval fortress would adapt to these kinds of threats. Many of them were things you brought up. One that was interesting to me was the combination of felt and fur for door stripping to make a room somewhat proof against toxins and gaseous attacks.
a blind eel who rips holes in space and time and is not effected by gravity and breathes purple fire which can have various effects one of them will physically change you're body to when you were tastiest in time. do you like it ?
Imagine this. Dragon history is about three times as old as humanoid history. Their territories, families, fights, trades, go back approximately 12 millennia. 4000 years ago, the first civilisations developed. The dragons saw humanoids as a great source of wealth and entertainment as well as military might. Thus, humanoid civilizations were always the dragon's pets. Only a few polities found themselves dragonless, either through revolution (which always ended in a coalition of dragoned nations) or through natural death of the lineage of dragons (period which usually ended by a young landless dragon signing a vassallage contract with the nation, although the new commer dragon often was under the authority of the humanoids instead of the other way arround).
one of my quest givers was an extremely manipulative female Green Dragon, who had her own palace within the starting city. she was quire a nice person, who had claws in every pie: the court, the temple, the wizard academy, and all other important facets of life.
yes, I did give *all* adult dragons the Metalic ability to shapeshift.
This was really well made. Thank you very much.
I know your base is the DND kinds of dragons, which can be absurdly huge, but if you're going for a more Medieval focus, dragons were generally depicted no larger than an elephant, and often smaller. Those are much more manageable on in incidental basis. There is also rarity to consider, though I suppose if you have one great wyrm for each kind of dragon, that's still a lot of dragons. I guess since in 5e a gargantuan creature is only 20x20, that is less ridiculous than they used to get in earlier editions. Another thing to consider though is that they sleep a lot, and more the bigger they get.
Good stuff. This has led me to reimagine my setting. A virtual "wall' where civilization effectively ceases because of dragon lairs which may even have pre-dated said civilizations is both narratively interesting and logical. Thank you!
You wanted us to tell what other topics may be interesting to hear about with your worldbuilding spin on it. I think I've got a few ideas!
- How does the setting change when we consider extremely long-lived or (nearly?) immortal beings as factors shaping the society? If we assume a human lives 70 years on average in this setting, then dwarves (350) live 5x longer, while elves (700) live 10x longer. Does that change how people view/write history? Does it change who is considered fit to lead? Does the backbone of people with hundreds of years of experience support the state apparatus or craft guilds or train best soldiers? Does that mean that a human cannot reasonably achieve highest guild positions, because when he's got enough experience, he is 10 years away from death of old age? And that's just mere mortals, not to mention Sphinxes, friendl-ish metallic dragons, archfey, liches, couatls and WAY more various long-lived creatures that could basically lead some nation or community for EONS!
- How does the presence of gods change how churches/religions affect things? And I don't mean just whether "atheist=idiot?" topic you gave quite the attention to already. I mean - do gods keep knowledge from being forgotten? Does a god of the forge keep reminding people about how to make damascus steel each time the art is lost? Do the gods of healing actively campaign for building better sewers and separating drinking water from poop water, and encourage the priests to teach basic hygiene to the masses?
- How does presence of high-power morals change warfare and the world in general? How is a person with 150 hp viewed in-universe? Is this basically anime, like in Overlord, where body of high-level adventurers and high-CR NPCs (like Champion or Warlord statblocks) is just supernaturally resilient? Is this something that's recognized in-universe, similar to how in Overlord when a state wants to weaken an enemy kingdom, they SEND AN ARMY TO KILL ONE GENERAL BECAUSE HE'S SUCH A BADASS HE'S GONNA SURVIVE ANYTHING LESS? What does it mean to have high hp, and high level anyway, from in-universe perspective? Why are some people able to do that, while others are not? Why is a regular wizard training for 20 years to get to 5-th level while adventurers put in 5-7 years of study in their background starting at level 2, then go in two weeks to level 7? Does that bring resentment? What about ALL THE PRIESTS THAT DON'T GET SPELLCASTING? What of all the members of a holy order that don't get Lay on Hands and other stuff because their conviction is not strong enough? Or alternatively, are ALL PRIESTS ABLE TO CAST SPELLS? AAAAAAAAAAA This topic is so fucking deep and complicated it literally keeps me up at night!
You must be interesting in parties🎉
@@labibsaud8064 I am the type of guy to sit with another nerd in the corner and discuss deep lore of some universe or make up fun stories about what may happen in said universe. If you think that's not fun enough, then you have the right to have your fun in a different flavor. I just prefer mead and "what if-s"!
@@Hilianus I was trying to jest, personally you are fun but the kind of guy who brings a bag of goodies where others are confused with the choices.
I do enjoy likeminded ppl😘
My friends climbed a mountain and found a red dragon's nest and loot, I completely forgot about regional effects so they just encountered one of his human pets which made them not want to stick around.
In my setting, one of the things that sets the Royal army and the forces kept by many of the more wealth nobles apart from the average Town guard and the forces kept by lower ranking lords is that minor magic studies are mandatory for their soldiers.
Every member of the kings army has Magic Initiate: Wizard and can cast Firebolt and Ray of Frost with their first level spell varying depending on the specific soldier's role.
Flying foes are one of the reasons for that.
Lol. I love how "Don't make dragons boring" is backed up by a lesson that makes them lore-relevant. It would be so easy to laundry list faults rather than show how to make them awesome, like you just did.😄
I often use a life event chart for intelligent monsters, rolling on that helps me come up with the past of the monster and how it shaped their personality and tactics.
Dragons aren't winged lizards. Dragons are divine beasts.
Make them part of your world's religions. People worship them, pray to them, bring them offerings, get magic and other blessings from them. I have a character who's a consecrated virgin in service of a silver dragon.
And no, they don't evangelize, they don't compete, they don't try to persuade people to worship them to the exclusion of other gods, that's beneath them. Polytheism is not the same thing as multiple monotheisms.
And of course if you're going to negotiate with a dragon, start with the assumption that they're smarter than you - or at least think they are.
I have a bronze dragon in my campaign whose lair is directly under a giant coastal city, at the bottom of the bay. He has plenty of space and swims out to sea, but also takes offerings from fishermen to "bring good fortune". The regional effect that makes people unable to break a promise LITERALLY affects all the people in the nation, which gives a reason to why the people are so stubborn and prideful!
I don’t really play D&D, but this was extremely helpful for me as I try to build my own fictional world for my stories. Thank you!
I actually had a black dragon nicknamed "Doomfang" that my players really loved.
Essentially, he was once a very powerful black dragon who existed in a different reality, adventurers in that reality ended up sending him the the current one through their actions. He was badly beaten down, and trapped on an island to try and recover.
After years passed, he fell into a deep depression, and found himself unable to find the desires he once had, and began to just let himself slowly die because he had no reason for living anymore. When the player's encountered him, they convinced him to let them heal his wounds fully, and help him recover (high charisma rolls).
Eventually, they were able to give him a new meaning for life, and in exchange for what they did for him, he became the guardian of a dwarven city in the mountains.
The players were initially terrified of him due to the nature of most chromatic dragons, but by making changes to the traditional formula, they ended up creating an interesting story arc for the character. He still leans towards evil when accomplishing his role, but because of the player's impact, he is able to suppress some of it.
Don't make a world and put dragons in it, make dragons and put a world around it.
Thank you so much for this fantastic video. I have subscribed and am eager for more. I have always wondered and then tried working into my fantasy world/s how society and civilization would developed if magic was common, or monsters ran rampant or if some people became near super-hero/Demi-god powered, and in this video, yes, dragons too and their impact. I agree that it is lazy to build a world for instance, in D&D, and not consider any of these. Thank you again for the great content.
came back to this video cuz i had another thought in mind.. you could create a creature for your world that is of similar strength to a dragon and has natural aggression towards them but is friendly towards humanoid races. building in/near a dragon's territory could then require building a roost to house one or more of these creatures to ward off or fight any dragon. this could change how castles/forts/towns are built and cause other changes to the setting such as needing larger supply caravans to help feed/take care of these creatures.
for the campaign im doing,im gonna introduce Baszaru,the tale hunter
he is a dragon that hordes tales and feats,he has used polimorf to become every race and become a legend on every race,he was a famous scholar,the most powerful mage,the renounced chef, iconic writer,etc
trough the campaign im gonna introduce all of those legendary figures and reveal it was all Baszaru,ans as a Dragon he is gonna have many titles too,and he will have every title he ever conquered on his scales,i kinda want to say as a dramatic line "I HAVE AS MANY OF LEGENDS AS I HAVE SCALES,WHAT WILL I WRITE OF YOU?BASZARU THE ANT-CRUSHER??"
every video i click from you is a banger. keep it up king
We had a GM that had us working for this guy taking out all sorts of “villains” and other corrupt individuals. After a year of gaming it was revealed it was actually a Red Dragon that was just manipulating everyone in the party to take out rivals and make this his sole domain. Man that was such a fun game.
When talking about civilization developing around dragons, you treated them as effectively permanent zones. And while the timescale of a dragon means that they exist for hundreds if not thousands of years and that is effectively the case... that also goes the other way too. If a dragon dies, or moves away, it's possible that they might leave behind territory for hundreds of years, a relatively short time from a dragon perspective, but potentially enough for a civilization to pop up, or a previously underground/subdued one to expand and develop.
I definitely think you should do an entire video diving into the ways dragons and civilizations would interact, and how semi-immortal, incredibly powerful, and selfishly manipulative beings would twist civilizations that emerge around them. Different styles of rulership or coercion, what might be exchanged between mortal and dragon, how these "dragon kingdoms" would interact with each other. Tons of very interesting details, and I've love to hear your take!
In my setting, dragons hoard gold because their eggs require an environment stacked with the magic of precious metals to hatch into a dragon. Dragon eggs hatched without any precious metals surrounding them hatch into much smaller creatures called Geschuppte (a German word translating to "scaly creatures"), reminiscent of D&D's kobolds, that are infertile and instictively obedient towards the first dragon they see in their lives (i. e. imprinting). Dragons lay a ton of eggs (maybe one or two a day), but they place only very few in their hoards close to their gold, because they're fiercely individualistic and competitive even among each other and smart enough to understand very well that dragon overpopulation would be a really bad idea. As a result, there aren't that many dragons around, but they always rule over small fiefdoms of obedient, nasty little humanoid lizard servants that go on raids and steal gold wherever they can. I guess the viking comparison isn't too far off there.
Eusocial dragons, very interesting! Do they have a similar "swarming" behavior to our world's eusocial species when the new dragon hatches/grows and is ready to claim its own territory? Like, some of the mother's Geschuppte are going to be involved primarily in caring for the 'royal' dragonets and some of those will see the little prince/ss as their first dragon. It would be interesting to see a dragon hive split in that way, with the young dragon setting off to seek their fortune, followed by a gaggle of a couple dozen Geschuppte servitors as a starter populace.
Do male dragons have a different life cycle to female dragons, or do they have a similar life cycle but the males are nomadic and have limited servitors while the females set up empires?
So many thoughts and questions just from one worldbuilding note.
@@QuantumWaltz This might still be subject to change later on, but so far, I see dragons as self-fertilizing hermaphrodites, which plays into the loner archetype I want to go with for them. They're eusocial, yes, but they don't really trust creatures they can't control, and that usually includes other dragons, and with that being the vibe I want to go for with them, making them genderless self-fertilizers plays best into that idea. I'm going for a high fantasy setting more inspired by mythology and my own weird ideas than the real world (although for my human cultures, I do draw on the history and cultures of the migration period as well), so I'm using artistic license for things like biology quite liberally when it comes to fantasy creatures. But yes, something like "swarming" would almost have to be a thing with this kind of setup.
@@tarvoc746 Ah, I see! I thought of the dragons being single-gendered/agendered/hermaphroditic shortly after I left the comment. Your structure reminds me of how classical phoenixes were their own parents, being born from an egg congealed from their own ashes upon immolation - rather than simply rejuvenating themselves in fire as more modern phoenixes do - so I think so far you're nailing the mythology 'feel.' Very cool!
In my setting, which uses heavily expanded and modified Pathfinder rules, there is actually a dragon kingdom the structure of which curbs the worst excesses of draconic nature. There are also demigods who serve as guardians, and sometimes rulers, of largely isolated and self-sufficient humanoid kingdoms. Rogue dragons have bounties on their heads and are hunted down by agents of the draconic kingdom or adventurer parties.
Remember to make your dragons not only told to bw powerful, and not only looks powerful, but BE powerful.
Show them strike terror into your adventurers hearts and show them getting kills on characters that are known to be skilled.
In my settings wyrmlings and young dragons are monster of the week. Adults and ancients are forces of nature, state, or both. The largest empire in the world is owned by an adult drow-dragon, the Underdark all pays tribute to a shadow greatwyrm who is the source of all earthquakes, hell the bbeg laid waste to the entire north simply by pissing off an ancient red dragon.
me that has dragons as major players on almost all the major places of the continent i have worldbuilt
in the desert a blue dracolich called Imyorith "rune bones" cursed the desert centuries ago having the sands turn all that die there into undead, she controlls the sands and most cities that still prosper are floating and ruled by equaly powerfull rulers such as Alamasya the Clone master and Azen the Great
in the Weastern caves more specificly in the forest of glowing moshroom south area theres Mrhghy a unique draconic being born from the body of a non specified dragon eaten by fungi, he is called the kind of fugi and he rules the south of the glow shroom forest, he helped to defend the blind trogs agaisnt the humans after the trogs find themselfs worty of his help (a blind trog hero yes a player gave him a good fight and he wich isnt a bad dragon helped them)
the jungle of Eper´swhii are filled with draconic adjacent beings wich are venus fly traps, called man eater´s and of course a great green dragon yet named that rules over the snake folk of the southern jungles.
at the north of the human kindom the one that crusaded to kill the blind trogs of the weastern caves mentioned above lives a ilusive pink dragon yet named he lives in one of the few areas whit monsteres and non human creatures that wasnt killed by the kindom, thanks partly to his ilusions and magics that confuse the armies and are strong enought to confuse and force Jabras the empire archbishop and chosen of a god out.
those are the more powerfull ones, theres in other continent im starting to work a red acient as well but im not quite shure where nor how
dragons are not as prevalent as monsters of destroction cause theres other beasts as powerfull that can body them
The presence of metallic dragons are probably what helps the world have some stability silver and red dragons nest in mountains many of the metallic and chromatic dragons co-exist in similar dens which probably makes a bigger part of the world habitat-able
I love these videos. Thinking about the economic implications is great for world building. I did similar when I decided that magic items would be much cheaper on Ravnica.
I unfortunately don't have a group to play with:(
However, I have created 6 different lvl 1 characters in case I found a group.
None of them are Bards (though I do have an idea for a Bard character if I had another character sheet to use).
Anyway, all of my characters could potentially want to seduce Dragons and some other "Monsters/Enemies" depending on how they are played/designed.
I recently saw a Tumblr post where people were talking about a 3-headed dragon based on the red/white/yellow (RCA) cables that used to be used before HDMI. I came up with the "Arway Dragon"
The Red and White heads telepathically whisper to potential prey... the red whispering threats and lies (heard only through the right ear of the victim), while the white head whispers of wondrous offerings and temptations to beguile the prey (heard through the left ear), giving a "Devil and Angel on the shoulders" conscience effect, luring them in with the promise of fortunes while also filling their mind with avarice and fears they they'd leave empty-handed and unfulfilled. The yellow head creates visual illusions of treasure while hiding the dragon's presence.
Anyone foolish enough to delve deep enough into its lair would quickly find themselves on the dinner menu.
Yes, it's kind of basic in terms of how a dragon would act, but it would certainly make for an interesting encounter for a one-shot or a mid-campaign mission.
In my homebrew world there are only 14 true dragons one for each color metallic dragons when they die they get reborn like a pheonix, while for chromatic dragons who ever killed them becomes the host for the chromatic dragon corrupting them and eventually turning their body into their previous dragon form
One way you can add danger to a Dragon is if the target is in the center of most adult breath weapons then they roll with disadvantage. If they are in the center of an Ancient Red Dragon's breath weapon then they don't even get a savings throw at all. It makes ZERO sense that you should be able to "Dex savings throw" and Area of effect weapon greater in size than your turn's movement speed.
Back when I GMed, I modelled a juvenile green dragon's mannerisms off of the Scott Steiner Typography meme.
I love your video and wish I found this video sooner and love your take on dragons, and honestly that is a problem with most design on dragons. I haven't finished setting up dragons in my setting but chromatics, are still bullies and cunning but their focus isn't on terrorizing its just territory rights, farming settlements near hungry dragons for one are in more danger than large settlements since WISE dragons see attacking the larger settlements outright as not worth the energy, and use other ways via minions, or some kinda of tactic.
I pull from the lores of the dnd dragons to create my dragons, but the big gimmick I pull is, most facts shared about dragons, that are the normal tropes for the colors, are the result of what survivor of raids understand. Dragons target the biggest and fatest creatures they can find, and will only pass or attack a settlement to either send a message or if they know it's a fight they can win easily. They are powerful creatures but they know a well fortified city will either make them too wounded to hunt or fight other dragons or outright kill them if they are careless. So I made them a TRUE mirror to their metallic counterparts for my setting, in a sense more twisted versions of their metallic counterparts. Dragons are in a form still united in my setting but loosely mostly for the case of dealing with bigger issues, like what do they do with the mortals in the long run. All actions an adult dragon takes has the weeks, or even months ahead planned for in minimum. The random out of the blue dragon attacks. Those are normally younger dragons or dragonic creatures. I also have it that Chromatics CAN shift into a humanoid visage, but either dont normally like to unless they have to for a plan to work or stay in a more dragonic looking form, be it something like a dragonborn etc.
Could you do a deep dive on Trolls?
Their a small part, but theyre still pretty unique and very peculiar especially with their tendency to mutate.