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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 23 ก.ย. 2021
- We design a new dragon that eats gold and pukes ghosts!! Then I draw it with an emu body!!
In this series, we talk about how to freshen up the design for you monsters in your fantasy rpg campaign! We look at sources beyond the Dungeons & Dragons 5E Monster Manual to find that new spark of horror or interesting twist!
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I had started to feel the same about dragons a couple years ago. Them losing a lot of their fear and mystery made me replace them all together with "Murders" in my campaigns, colossal crow-like monsters. It's kind of like a reskin with a few twists but I think it gets the job done. Anybody I've ran campaigns for will consider how to kill a dragon or just attack it head on, but throw a colossal monster they've never seen or heard of before and they start to be more cautious of it
Yeah! There is some fun to be had with the classics, but there is always the problem of what to do with seasoned players. Also, I really like to keep myself interested and entertained as a GM too!
Funny, I decided to make a bunch of Cursed/Feral Dragons that have lost their intelligence, their tactics being more ingrained in their Savageness.
I have a Vulture Dragon, a Rage Dragon, a Plague Dragon.
Honestly, you can just take any existing Dragon types and change/twist them. You can even make Dragons that were cursed by the deadly sins.
@@danielramsey6141 You say deadly sins and all I can think of is death by snu snu. I think I'll have my players fight some sin-cursed dragons next ;>
@@jasonalen7459
I wonder what you mean by Snu-snu? And what dragon does that relate too?!
@@danielramsey6141 If you don't know how dragons relate to that, you haven't seen enough dragons.
I believe strongly that weird, powerful creatures (like dragons) should never be "already known" by the PCs, like they waltz in and know how much damage the breath weapon does or its HP or whatever. Ghost vomiting and other fresh new interesting abilities are exactly the right sort of direction!
Yeah! I don’t mind metagaming, but it often comes at the expense of narrative impact
I personally believe that maybe if they knew the name of the dragon it would be fine, but what type of Dragon or stuff it could do is secret until the encounter itself?
IDK
I'm planning for a Homebrew World where the Dragons aren't necessarily classified as colors or abilities, more like they are diverse in their strengths and abilitys and are like an ancient beings, rather than normal beasts.
I quite liked Hellboy's (the animated movie's) take on dragons. Specifically, it's more like a title for REALLY big and scary god-like monsters. And considering how weirdly diverse dragons are in mythology, I think it fits that all you need to be called a Dragon is to be the baddest fucker in the immediate area.
Ok but dragons aren't really weirdly diverse, we just sorta decided to group a bunch of different, unrelated things together as dragons.
@@an8strengthkobold360 I mean, from a certain point of view, that's kind of a 'six of one, half a dozen of the other' sort of thing, isn't it? End result is the same. OSP has a whole video on the diversity/categorization of dragons I'd recommend.
@@an8strengthkobold360 Well if a mass of cultures have all used the word dragon, words related to dragon and words that have been translated as dragon for centuries for a wide group of scaly creatures, all those creatures are dragons by definition. Wyverns, hydras, serpents, orms, lindwyrms, lungs, the works
I'm stealing that concept for my headworld.
When you got to the body type section, it suddenly struck me: this is very Dwarf Fortress (which is *great*). "The dragon Ngotol Ôggon has come. It is large and flightless. It has the body of an Emu, and its wings are small and feathery. Beware its ghost puke!"
Something I love about monsters from Anglo-Saxon/Germanic/Norse myth such as dragons is how vaguely described and depicted they all are. Often, physiologically they aren’t described at all - Grendel for example, from Beowulf only has a couple of physical descriptions, yet everyone has an idea of what they look like.
As for dragons, as you say, everyone has an idea of what a dragon looks like and how they act, even though they are informed by a myriad of sources. One of the tropes I like the most about dragons is the shapeshifter - where dragons turn out to be a wealthy noble, or even a political leader. I tend to subvert this by turning them into different monsters instead, or into non-corporeal aspects such as “doom” and “creeping dread”.
As for lower level dragons that can actually be confronted by PCs, I find the How to Train Your Dragon series provides great inspiration!
As per usual, great video, great artwork, can’t wait for the next one!
Thank you so much! Yeah, there is a lot going on with dragons, lotsa angles to explore, so I’ll probably revisit the topic later.
I give my dragons an aura of fear they can disable at will in order to interact with lesser creatures. If my PCs ever witness a dragon in full glory and it doesn't have its aura suppressed, I secretly roll a Wisdom save for them to see if they're afflicted by fear. I assume any NPCs in the area roll a 10 and if that plus their modifiers isn't high enough, they become so terrified it resembles madness. Horses will kick off and trample their riders to escape, wolves will kill their pups out of a horrific mercy, small animals become so frightened they straight up die as their palpitating hearts burst in their chests, and humanoids become screaming, sobbing wrecks who claw their own eyes out or outright kill themselves to escape the sight of this living nightmare. Even other powerful monsters give dragons a wide berth; frost giants consider the arrival of a white wyrm to be the ushering of the end of days, not an opportunity for a big game hunt. The players only get "regular" frightened because to me the PCs and other "adventurer" characters are inherently special. People who know they're going to have to fight a dragon take special drugs to nullify their emotions, drugs which can sometimes be permanent, and even then it isn't a guarantee; even creatures immune to fear make this save, albeit at advantage. Only truly mindless beings, like undead and constructs, are unaffected by dragonfear.
This applies to ALL true dragons, from green to gold, and the DC and radius are based on the color and age category; a red wyrm with an active fear aura will drive an entire city to fear-induced madness, with the survivors being half-mad slaves mentally broken and desperate to appease it. Dragons of any description are beings so powerful they stand outside the natural order of things; as creatures of half-flesh and half-primordial spirit they are akin to deities in and of themselves. To look upon a truly ancient dragon in its true, terrible splendor is to witness the barely contained end of all things and to know on the most primal level that before its horrible wonder your fleeting, pathetic mortal life is utterly without value.
THAT, in my mind, is how to put Dragons back into Dungeons and Dragons.
If you make them that strong then it's pretty difficult to justify them not ruling the whole world all the time, but I agree that the dragon fear aura should be a big deal.
Im gonna be real this just sounds terrible and overly extra for no reason
@@Fourger14 Then make them the rulers of the world, that could be interesting
@@Fourger14 I suppose they can also just be not interested in mere mortals. Like how we don't really care about colonies of ant. Before they become a nuisance, that is.
The one thing WotC did with 3e that always annoyed me was codifying dragon appearance. Black dragons have skull-like heads, coppers have the wings that stretch their whole body, etc. There was more imagination in dragon art earlier than this, and even a couple Dragon Magazine articles with lots of ideas for making a dragon look even more singular--like your wonderfully goofy emu here.
The problem is that, by codifying it systemically, it locks down the imagination of a lot of DMs and players. "This is official, so this is the only way," is a common rut to fall into, especially for newer players of the game.
Yeah! I wish they would just make easy to use rules for designing your own monsters and dragons. Also, how many times are you going to run a dragon in your game that they need so many. My impression is that the dragons that get run the most are ones that have a story module context.
@@mapcrow You can need so many if you do a dragon war the right way. But honestly, if you want to make a bunch of unique monsters, consider writing a novel instead of playing D&D, at least some of the time. Writing with total freedom is fun!
A few years ago my party and I stumbled across an interesting Dragon; Doremifaso, the ancient of songs. He was a five headed dragon-turtle who taught the bards of old long before time had a name. To this day I think back on that session every time a dragon pops up in a campaign I’m in.
My Dragons bleed gemstones, this adds great lore elements like a volcano where an immortal dragon bleeds rubies. And the gemstone varies based on the dragon🙂
I got a Roleplaying set up where the creature that are called "Dragon" are ancient human that began to absorb other creature to become stronger. Like absorbing bird to have wings, lizard to have scales etc etc, until they're not human anymore but really strange hybrid violent creature. And none of them really is a "classical dragon", one is like tower-shaped, an another is mix of arthropoda, and stuff like that !
Your video is so inspiring it really motivates me to create interesting and creative dragon. Thanks for opening my mind. I can't express how good it feels.
I like that idea. Mind if I use it?
Where ya pfp from me likey
@@anhthai7005 No not at all ! And I'd love to discover what you'll do with it
@@moosesues8887 I made it myself hehe.
@@popilikitt5173 here to report that uh… things got out of hand real fast
"Let dragons be tragedies"
*Eastern Culture:* "No, I don't think I will."
Ha! Yeah, dragons are so wide spread in world cultures, it's impossible to say thing about them without being completely wrong somewhere in the world! Haha
Wait. There are no tragic dragons east of the Ural mountains?
Totally agree, bringing fresh character to re-mystify dragons is so important for over-laboured monsters. I recently created a "runt of the litter" type dragon that was scaleless and breathless. Instead, out of pride it built its lair to be laden with an open network of pipes that connect to a captured fire elemental. every time a pipe spews fire the dragon would leap beside it to make it seem as though it was breathing fire itself. my players haven't reached it yet but I'm excited to see how it turns out.
That's so cool! Can I steal your idea for my players?
@@ethanbotterill2743 for sure man. Another idea inspired by this video infact was an "Aurumancer" dragon (like geomancer but with gold instead of gems) which would use it's transmutation powers to consume gold from it's vicinity to cast it's magic. This could either be it's hoard or the gold in the player's inventory.
Your thoughts on dragons reminded me of that old adventure where every creature in a dungeon was half-dragon cuz the actual dragon liked to... you know 👀 I mean, they are as much supernatural beings as they are powerful beasts, and it made me think about creating stuff like "Freddy Krueger, but a dragon" or something like that. Adding "unnatural" traits to a monster like them, as you said, could be fun and change the whole perception of a story. Actually, Ravenloft as a campaing setting had a whole lot of twists similar to that, but I don't remember any dragon -- Dragapushkk (?) could have their own Domain there, btw 😅
Ha! A dragon domain of dread is a really neat idea! I kinda think that dragons would be too greedy to settle for their own domain, but it could be really neat if a dragon takes over a domain of delight? Like the domain itself is the stolen horde, and you have to get 13 cherebs and a plucky mid-aged hobbit to liberate the domain? That could be a good time!
@@mapcrow now that would certainly be an original story in the making!
Bro.. Your "dragopukish" example was ridiculously creative, and I'll be lifting it like an artist to see how my table responds :)
Some dragons that I really like and that are very unique are the dragons from Monster Hunter. In which they have more than just one type of dragon. They all for the most part have different abilities and have reasons for existing in the land they live in.
Monster hunter does an amazing job with it's creatures and they even have anatomical explanations for how each monsters abilities work
I am a big fan of Dark Souls dragons.
You know about the everlasting dragons and their power yet every one of those you fight is either a distant cousin of the OGs or they are deeply corrupted.
I think the "normal" dragons are already plenty scary. It's already suggested to add spells and really it's all about how the DM plays the dragon. They're one of the few monsters that, when played skillfully, can tpk a party appropriate to their CR. But I agree that it's always nice to put a twist on the dragon's abilities.
I think that dragons shouldn't be classified by colors or behaviors, and rather be classified as powerful forces of nature that are individually powerful as beings of their "own special species".
The funny thing about Dragons is that majority of Dragons from mythology and folklore from around the world are nothing like those from dnd. Actually, there are very few like that, as 90% or more of them are serpentine. And very few Dragons can breathe fire. Both things that are very common in more modern day things, but are very uncommon in the traditional material.
Loving this. Though I do have to say that it isn't in all games that fire breath is just damage. There are plenty of games that don't have these weird caveats that you can't burn stuff if it is worn or carried by PCs, at which point fire wrecks your character in more ways than dropping its HP.
I do 100% agree with the main sentiment though, that a breathweapon should do more than just hurt PCs. Dragons should be especially scary to fight, not just big sacks of hitpoints capable of doing a lot of damage.
Thank you! Glad you are enjoying it! Yeah, the real problem is the monster manual is divorced from context and narrative. Monsters in fiction are often there to reveal something about the characters, but to do that, they need to be situated in the story. It's sort of unfair to judge ttrpg monsters on the page, but I do see them commonly used just to add action with consequence in ttrpgs.
@@mapcrow The point you make is mostly fair though. Some rule-sets (including the world's most popular one) make breathweapons into nothing but elemental damage. I just think that isn't a problem inherent with the design of the dragon as much as it is a problem of those rule-sets.
Still, variations on established themes are good. Having a dragon that vomits up ghosts is way more interesting than one that breathes fire, even if fire can be a lot more interesting than some rule-sets allow it to be.
I look forward to seeing your next riffs on popular monsters! They are really insightful :)
EDIT: also their designs are amazing. Your art is super cool!
Panic Pillow thank you so much!!
Okay, so there's a big thing I want to note for those who like to write, that is the context you're creating. This is nothing to say for the video, it's honest, good advice, in the somewhat indirect sense.
The context you have hugely varies how a creature turns out.
Let's say the context is where, keeping on brand with dragons, dragons are fairly common, in this case, classifying them makes sense, dragon researchers will come about and want to study them. So making details on species and varying behavior may be of benefit, especially if the story is on the end of someone who is, or closely tied to, draconic research.
And how about a different context, dragons aren't common, not rare, but they're around, you may commonly see one in the skyline somewhere, of course there'd be the occasional researcher who's curious, but it ups the mysteriousness.
And then there's the context where they're rare, not many subjects to turn to for research so much is unknown, therefore, it's entirely possible to make the dragons very mysterious and outright otherworldly.
Ofc in any context, there's going to be, most likely, at least a few that are legendary, somewhat out there, no matter how well known, these legends could be drastically different than the rest, making them unique.
It's all about context, so for any encounter with a dragon, be it in games, stories, shows, whatever, just note that the context will depend on the sort of information presented.
There's also the benefit of subversion, many have associated certain things with dragons, so if you were to make use of contexts that we may know and twist it around, that makes for interesting design as well.
Let's make a simple example, red dragons almost exclusively breath fire, so what if, instead, they don't breath fire and breath ice, the opposite of what you'd expect from common knowledge, because that's knowledge relating to writing trends, not the actual story at hand.
This is just general advice for people who want to come up with creatures, at the end of the day, don't worry about norms as much as what you want to write. There's no wrong answers in creativity, only ideas. So, to say the least, just have fun. The advice of the video is great btw, it's good to make somethings just as they are, as mythical, and with dragons, there's a few contexts, quite a few, where it's a great idea to have dragons as more a set of characters rather than a collective species. But note to never take an idea or person's opinions as set in stone, form your own ideals based on what you hear and what you think for yourself.
Just remember to enjoy yourself, and do as you please. Writing is more about the self rather than others, or it ought to be. Sure, many of the versions of dragons we have today are fairly cookie cutter standards, but if you like that, then please, enjoy it as much as you'd like.
Remember, in creativity, there are no wrong answer, just have fun, no matter what others may think, ofc outside of getting yourself into trouble lol.
"Just remember to enjoy yourself, and do as you please." is really good advise. Even I never take my ideas as set in stone. This is what I enjoy, and if folks enjoy other things, they should follow their hearts!
when i refer to dragons, it's either as a distinct group of animals that can be fully explained realistically, as impossibly ancient beings who predate the sun or so it's said, or as a catch-all term for anything big and scary, such as a rat the size of a bear
the first and second are used when dragons are known entities, and are commonly just more benevolent but territorial with clear lines that will lead to aggression, occasionally able to speak
the second is used, as said, to refer to anything not well known, like a mountain erupting into a volcano will be instantly called the world's biggest dragon because it is loud and scary
I got attacked by an emu once so I sympathise strongly with your brother
Oh man! Yikes!
I have an interpretation of dragons that I rather like, inspired by Cleric Corner's discussion of dragons.
When I DM for D&D, adult and ancient dragons have an additional breath effect (blinding smoke for red, pools of caustic slime for black, etc.) and also transform the terrain near their lair (White dragons have a maze of giant ice stalagmites, greens have a swamp full of mutated animals). But my favorite of these is the blue dragon, because its two powers synergize. The blue dragon's lair is full of levitating rocks, held in place by magnetism. The dragon itself cannot actually fly, but it has spiderclimb and when it fires a line of lightning, it teleports to the other end. This creates an image of a salamander-like creature skittering about, zapping between floating stones and shooting down at the players or pulling heavily armored players up to it.
That dragon looks like an ostrich fused with my sleep paralysis demon. Amazing
Assaulting a dragon in its lair is an overly complicated way of abdicating your throne.
Emoo makes it sound like a mythical cow.
Emyu is how the aussies say it. I feel more comfortable with that.
I love the way Monster Hunter does dragons, while most of the monsters are dragon-like the only ones that are called dragons are the true forces of nature that are so unique and dangerous that they can’t even be classified under anything else, some of them don’t even look like dragons and others are capable of destroying entire ecosystems simply by their way of living.
Then there’s also the funny ones like Chameleos, he’s cool.
I actually love the emu base, those feathers kind of recall like rotting plant matter and bogs where people drown or find new and even worse ways to go.
This is such a cool design and very unique. Thanks for sharing your art, creativity, and sentiments on all things RPG related!
I scrapped the idea of them being a monster you fight entirely. I went instead with the more majestic aspect of them, in my world they are otherworldly creatures, so far disconnected from civilization that they might aswell be gods (they are gods, tbh). Every time a dragon comes out of hiding, it's usually during an event of monumental impact on the planet as a whole. And even then, only several dragons really have an input, and it is known they are a 100% neutral party and would rather not intervene in anything. When they do, they never explain why they do. They are appropriately extremely majestic and beautiful though, kind of like seeing a unicorn in myth. The world I'm running is a dieselpunk x gothic dark fantasy, most cities are dark and polluted and drowned in the noise of machinery. Seeing a colorful dragon in a dark gothic cathedral is almost like seeing a god descent onto the room. I also have their design 'flow' sort of, they have semi-transparent strands and whiskers going off of their limbs, snout and wings dragging behind them, which almost has the effect of a dress flying as they move (for those who are familiar with the design, it is inspired by the transparent strands that drag behind the 'dancer of the boreal valley' in Dark Souls 3).
5 seconds in and you got my sub. Idk where you've been my whole life but this is the content I'm here for.
Kaidou be like: *WOROROROROROROOOO~*
that's my favorite video of yours so far!! love it mate, keep up the awesome word :D
Thank you so much!
I looked up a lot of more local (high) medieval legends of dragons (i.e. newer than Beowulf) bc I'm writing a couple series based on high medieval romance that avoids other fantasy tropes and found some interesting common threads - they're typically fairly small (going off art), may have wings but it doesbt seem to be used as often; but they nearly always always always breathe poisonous breath instead of fire and live in springs, rivers, lakes, or wells instead of, like, craggy mountain caves - the big reason they need defeated is bc they are poisoning a water supply; half the time the hero thinks they've won but finds too late they were exposed to too much poison in the fight and die soon after. They also almost always had the ability to rapidly regenerate, so you have to separate the body parts for a length of time or a certain distance to truly kill it. This has a lot in common with the st George legend where he is poisoned halfway through and has to be magically healed. Though slaying dragons is seen as a staple of fairy tales, the most common and reoccurring example from what i can find are variants of a more obscure tale that features a multi-headed dragon being slain by one hero who takes the 7 tongues as proof, but another hero steals his limelight by cutting off the heads and showing them as proof but is exposed by the first showing the tongues. Both of these are an interesting take on dragons that helped inspire the modern ones but seem wholly disconnected from the ones in Norse Myth that are more influential. It also shows that European dragons have a long history of being water dwelling creatures, as they are in many other cultures.
I personally like a mix of both. More well known classified dragons and off the wall unique ones. As a person who studies and understands biology I often am drawn towards more scientific dragons but also weird magic is cool and I homebrew and make unique monsters all the time too!
I say beefing up the existing stat blocks goes a long way too such as by adding spellcasting to all the standard dragons, useable magic item treasure, traps/lair actions, and high HP, etc.
Everyone knows they can start with higher level characters right? Play starting at LV 3, 5, 8, 10, 12,15,17 etc!
Try different levels out if a guaranteed long campaign is not likely!
You can also make a unique dragon by modifying a base monster stat block.
Ex; begin with adult black dragon. Use max HP instead; 289
Add skills; intimidation +8, arcana +7 insight +6
Add spellcasting 10th LV caster spell save DC 16 spell attack + 8
Acid bolt as a Bonus Action (at will cantrip) reskinned acid version of fire bolt
Range 120 ft. Hit 2d10 acid
Other cantrips (action); minor illusion, magehand, prestidigitation, mending.
First level slots; 4; (5 )chromatic orb, detect magic, magic missile, (shield for a challenge), fog cloud, or sleep
2nd level; 3 slots. Darkness, detect thoughts, invisibility
3rd level ; 3 slots; counterspell, slow, haste, (or; fireball, major image, etc)
4th level ; 3 slots; dimension door, polymorph (for a challenge; greater invisibility or banishment)
5th level: 2 slots; one of the following; animate objects, hold monster or telekinesis.
To increase power have the acid from the breath weapon remain as dangerous acid pools on the ground that vanish after 1 minute. Difficult terrain; if touches area must succeed a DC 16 CON save or take 3d6 acid damage (half damage in a success)
Lair action a magical trap that shoots coins from the hoard as projectiles at intruder’s on initiative count 20 one intruder at random within 60 ft of coins. DEX save DC 16 or take 2d6 piercing damage taking no damage in a success.
Use this idea on other dragons really
General tips;
Ensure you add a use for the Bonus Action. Increase HP above average, add lair action ex; on 20 and/or 1, traps that the dragon knows or is unaffected by, spellcasting and spell like abilities. If legendary action make it take 1-2 LA’s for an action spell I advise also allowing a dragon to cast such things as an action.
Make a cantrip cast as a BA even if the base spell is action.
Double check the power of more unique powers based in similar equivalent spells, etc.
I kinda prefer to base my monsters on real animals to make them more realistic, thus their sizes reflect that. However, there is something really cool about a absolute titan of a dragon like Smaug that is basically unkillable with normal weapons.
"Mr Plinkett? Is that you slaying a dragon?"
The more of these videos I watch, the more I feel like you'd enjoy the Birthright setting from AD&D 2nd edition. No two awnsheghlien were alike, save that they were all monstrous.
I really love your work dude it has got me back into doing pencils sketches
That makes me very happy to hear!! Thank you!!
@@mapcrow yeah in specific your video about building gods really inspired me to have my dwarfs be unique rather than just more generic dwarves and I’m doing the same with the other kingdoms in my world and really your videos have set aflame my ambition and drive for my world building
I like to make my dragons all come in species.
kinda like how to train your dragon.
however I hate the dnds version of it where the only difference in dragons are colors.
I like for my species to have different appearances and serve different functions.
How do I like this video more than once!
I managed to scare my players with a dragon once, basically by giving it Smaug's personality and an otherwise abandoned dungeon. Which suddenly swarmed with hordes of kobolds looking to grab them as the Skyrim dragon noises played out of a speaker. They got dragged and hucked into a ruined temple, which the dragon had set up its hoard in and demanded tribute, and managed to extort magic items and a portal to their Rakshasha magic dealer through fear and intimidation. No combat the entire time, a dragon landing and sending hundreds of kobolds to drag them in then pulling a Smaug was enough.
I called him AEtorbaerre (Old English for poison bearer, literally adder bearer) and he was full of himself, manipulative, and obsessed with gathering magic
I absolutely agree with you and feel like dragons aren't awe-inspiring enough! While looking at 5 Torches Deep, they have an example monster called a Stone Drake that can manipulate stone in a 120' area around it. I loved that idea and all my fire dragons can now protect themselves with a wall of flame as an action. Or summon flaming geysers as a ranged attack.
You're very prestigious with your work.
Keep up the good job.
3:00 (and 3:30) I love the idea of making them unique; an anomaly of elemental forces or otherwise infused with the world’s magic (like your ghost boi), made by by sorcery or the child of a god, with also unique magical properties and quirks. However, this philosophy can be applied to really any mythological creature that D&D simply threw a statblock on it with some ecology as a species or reproducible creation of magic.
I think there is a time and place for codifying different species of monsters with common traits among each, it depends on your campaign and how you see dragons, and either is valid. It’s like Web DM has mentioned before, your game can have a race of medusas or it can have the Medusa. Your campaign setting could be one with individually distinct dragons or one with races full of history, hierarchies like councils and clans. There is rich lore on each type that still make them mystical, and a good DM would make each green dragon encountered unique in their own way (unless there were dozens). You can also make each species have additional properties beyond the statblock as well. This fire dragon’s breath can only be quenched with holy water, while that fire dragon’s blood confers fire resistance when drunk, and this other fire dragon breathes hellfire that overcomes that resistance.
The whole soft underbelly weakness has never really sat right with me for dragons. I get that it probably comes from creatures like alligators, crocodiles, and maybe tortoises, who all need to protect their backs from overhead threats... but dragons are giant apex predators, and almost everything they'd need protection from would tend to strike from below.
My idea of a dragon would have the toughest armor on its face and underbelly, with lighter armor on top, and weak points to be found on their easily-crippled wings, their eyes, and around their joints. Maybe it'd be fun to have a throat sac inflate when they prepare their breath weapon and the expansion of those scales exposes a temporarily exploitable weakness.
I love how your videos never fail to get my brain-wheels turning.
I have always liked creatures that are considered 'relatives' of dragons, because of their biodiversity. Things like wyrms, wyvern, behir, cockatrice - all have animals like qualities other than those of "big flying lizard".
hey, awesome video (like others), just wanted to say that this one in particular isn't included in the building better monsters playlist for some reason, keep up the good work!
Alright, real talk. Kinda loving dracopukish
This could be an interesting encounter when back tracking in a dungeon or exploring some crypt, be it human or dwarven.
Where the dragon is following behind the party, Eating all the discarded loot that the party didnt pick up (if you are using some sort of encumberance rules, be it weight or slots) and consuming the dead creatures that the party of murder hobos will leave behind.
Maybe the monster spitting out ghosts that attach to the character that killed it making them remeber themselves killing the ghost. Like a deja vu of yourself killing yourself in combat.
And maybe it isnt a flame breath it"s spitting out but molten gold that sticks to the players (unless they're wet) and burns them until they get it off somehow.
I want to build a mini of this now.
my favorite idea someone shared with me for dragons is that when powerful artifacts interfere with a god's plan the god turns the nearest person into a dragon of their affinity so that they protect the artifact, hiding it away in a dungeon or whatever, and this would be used as breadcrumbs for people to start piecing together plots and whatnot.
Like, why is a Dragon of Fire guarding a bucket of regenerating water? Seems pretty obvious, the God of Flame wanted to burn something down and this bucket was a realistic problem. Now, why is a Dragon of Rot guarding it? Well, a sickness is starting to spread in a nearby town. Perhaps the water from the bucket could be useful...
Love it!!!
makes me want to create a dragon hunting themed campaign
This is so damn cool
I could not help but laugh as you quoted the abrahamic scripture about Leviathan. It was amusing. And That is my favorite ancient Serpent, it is actually why I see all Serpents coming from the Abyss in my TTRPG worlds.
I was studying to become a Biblical scholar when I was you, so I continue to liberally plagiarize the Bible for ideas! Haha
@@mapcrow It is one of the best sources to pull from, most American's have a vague familiarity to it. I use the KJV to define what my LG characters do. My DM's now use a morality scale instead of the alignment system, lol. I also use it for any priestly characters, though obviously switching the details of the fervor to suit the faith they follow.
We lost a war against emu. We had machine guns, we hit them with bullets, they kept going.
I have a Chinese dragon in my world that's as big as a mountain, but, because he's so big, he can only live in the heart of a volcano to heat his body. He rules over a kingdom and they all worship him. He got paranoid, and (thought) he killed off all other dragons so he can be the only one to rule
You could also see it that way : depending on the tragedy/backstory a different dragon is born/created
I personally like the idea of a dragon that is just an unstoppable force, that almost nothing can kill it. That swords and spears and such are just like thumbtacks to them. Like, you can kill them if you stab them enough times, but you're also on fire whilst stabbing them, making it virtually impossible.
You should check out Monster Hunter and their "Elder Dragon" class monsters, I think you'll like the designs, especially the "Black Dragon" class.
The Emu... The only animal I can think of that's won a war Vs humans.
Beholders!
I'm running curse of strahd into the higher levels: So far the only real dragons have been:
The dragon conjured by a trap, which almost immediately killed the party but was banished with a dispel magic.
The dragon skull that was being used as Baba Lysaga as a hag vehicle.
The third dragon I've been using has appeared to them twice, but they don't realize it yet. I've taken something Else from Van Richten's Guide and replaced the suggested stat block with that of a dragon. It's going to take advantage of its shapeshifting to manipulate the party. I've also put its egg in the party's hands, with an few neat enchantments that can't Really be identified since they were mostly made from metamagic. The spells that were being modified with those metamagics are similar to the sequester and modify memory spells.
Man your Idea and design of dragons really got me inspired, now I can't wait to put a dragon like this in my games 😅😂
Now I'm really curious to see what you're approach to Basilisks is
Hmm… reverse basilisk… it turns stones to little waddling flesh creatures.
Would love to see a video on your color pencil technique!
That's a good idea! The secret is to use Bristol board, and shade in the direction of the contours. That's 80% of it. Start soft so you can layer color. Keep shadows cooler in hue than the highlights. Desaturate colors with brown.
@@mapcrow Awesome! I'm going to give it a try. I'll be sure to share the results!
Dragons are so great because they can be found anywhere in the world, there isn't juste one archetype other than flying powerful Creature / Living catastrophe. Have you seen the kind of dragon from monster Hunter Games ? there is basically a mythic kind of beast that are so out of the norms that they are classified as "Ancient Dragon" only because there is close to nothing know about them and they are so rare.
I think Dragons, like many other fantasy creatures, really thrive when there is a purpose or symbolic connection with them. For example, in Christian tales Dragons were considered to be incarnations of sin to the point that they were so corrupt so irredeemable that their very maws were portals to Hell. The legend of Fafnir for another example is literally a symbolic representation of the dangers of greed and how it can change a person.
Dragons need symbols to latch onto in order to seem grand, granted not all Dragons need to be grand; however the legends of Dragons are so wide spread and they are so impactful not only in a fantasy setting but to our own history and interactions with our world that we can't help but to make them as grand as we can. Dragons are symbols in nearly every single culture and their symbolism can mean vastly different things however, one they almost always share is power.
Dragons are reptilian because Humans have this innate belief that anything remotely reptilian is powerful, cold blooded and an apex in terms of survival; to put it simply, Dragons are everything we Humans want to be. We want to hold dominion over the skies, earth and seas, to control the very elements themselves and be invincible to all hardships. That's why in stories of evil Dragons it is such a feat for a Knight or a Warrior, a Human, to defeat a Dragon because it is placing that Human above the very pinacol of life where, let's be real, we all want to be.
That mane made me think of Scp 682
I, myself, love the take that the Dark Souls games and Elden Ring have on dragons, AKA that pretty much all "true" or "original" dragons are dead or gone, and now there are only reanimated corpses or an evolutionary relative that remain. For one of my homebrew dragons, it's essentially the soul, mind, and will of a dragon that's been trapped, suppressed, and puppeteered by an evil entity called "Colluphthihol" (or "Corruption" in the local language) and given a warped crystal form. Now it serves as a sort of "collector" of souls, minds, and wills for the entity that has enslaved it.
this is so true.
villager A:"oh no! draga pukish is digging graves again!!"
villager B: "another time, my god help us"
*see dog sized dragons digging in the graveyard with wagging tail behind
HAHA!! Yesss!!!
FYI: A dragon is a magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in Western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as winged, horned, and capable of breathing fire. Dragons in eastern cultures are usually depicted as wingless, four-legged, serpentine creatures with above-average intelligence. Commonalities between dragons' traits are often a hybridization of feline, reptilian, mammalian, and avian features. Some scholars believe large extinct or migrating crocodiles bear the closest resemblance, especially when encountered in forested or swampy areas, and are most likely the template of modern Asian dragon imagery.
I love this and would totally use it for a cool twist monster at the end of a low to mid-level cryot adventure.
That being said, I would love to be a le to present an image of this to my players. Any chance you were planning on making these or any other drawings you did for this series available for download? Paid or otherwise.
Cheers, and keep on killing it my man!
Thank you so much! I've gotten this note a couple of times in the last week, so we are going to put together some resource files of these images on an itch page soon. The big thing I am worried about is folks using the images in commercial products before I have. Eventually, I do enjoy converting old work into Creative Commons resources, but only after it's been released for a year or so.
@@mapcrow that's completely understandable, you have to protect you intellectual property for sure. I'll patiently await the itch release, until then. I'll show the players a nice screenshot of the Emu of the dead!
It's fittimg that I was listening to Living Failures from Bloodborne before this
Let dragons be wierd. The Tarasque is a dragon in its origin use that. 6 legs with bear paws, stinger tail, lions head horse mane, and a turtle shell back. Poisonous breath and near indestructible. It was destroyed after blessed with holy water tamed and the beaten to death by the towns folk and it let them. Lean into the wierd at least in form and holy moly this gonna be a wierd encounter.
Oh yeah. That's good shit.
Dragon Age Inquisition has a dragon on its boxart but its not apparent at first glance. And the name is generic enough to get the attention of the average gamer but if you explore the game, you'll find out that there is a specific lore reason the series is called "Dragon Age".
I like that. The simplicity of it is inviting but the deeper you go, the more intriguing it gets.
You say Emus aren't that scary looking unless you're up close, but with a little scale to make it clear that that thing is 15 feet tall and could eat a man whole would make me call a witcher immediately. Especially for a party that's somewhere around level 5 so they should be getting into that "lesser legend" level of play.
👍👍
You put some notions I've been having about dragons for years into words. I always feel so exhausted by the whole "mythical taxonomy" trend. Like, it's fun, but it's just become so ubiquitous and limits our imagination. I always look to legends, myths, and alchemy for dragon inspo, because their lack of definition feels so refreshing.
If I'd make a world with dragons. I'd turn the concept on its head. make the dragons common mounts/livestock, then make non dragons the rare beasts of legend
Imagine the Throne in GOT becoming a giant crow. A giant metal crow made of melted swords of bronze and steel.
Stats (dragon)
There can only one Kyle
This is great! Can you do an orc?
Thank you! If I think of a good take, I’ll try doing an ork.
This is probably one of the reasons Dragons are viewed as basic monsters and Dracoliches are viewed as true forces of nature.
They retain the horror and supernatural aura that a Dragon should have, without the tropes of "blue dragon does x, silver does y, their entire character is bound to its description."
"he could be scrambling around eating gold and corpses"
sorry DM, I hit him with an AOO and he can't move now because of polearm master
no fun allowed, monsters will stand still and fight to the death
Yeah, that's the thing, no matter what you're notes say, if players don't want to have fun, they don't have to.
Pronounced 'EE-M-You' btw. Love your stuff
I was very confused as to why an emo would eat a Pepsi cup out of a child's hand until I remembered that there are emu birds who are wack as hell who would prolly do that 😂
Dragons as lowgrade Eldritch monstrosities are far more an attractive concept than majestic wolf lizards.
what was that song you used in the monologues??? it's so familiar, but i can't place it!
Mars by Holst!
@@mapcrow thank you!!!!
Maybe the ghosts drain the target's health points.
For uniqueness points: 10/10 on the body shape
But personally i don't like it, i was thinking about a long necked wyvern, with many... MANY legs and a barbed tail end.
As for my own dragon... it would be set in a world of fantasy and magic, in which a dragon is a guardian to a thing... and this dragon bears the light and it's very wise and intelligent... then there's the demonic ones that are mostly mindless, vile and cruel down to the bone.
Bonus: Search for "Shining Force, Dark Dragon"
This is not just a dragon problem. I’d say this is a problem with most modern fantasy and story telling in general. Little is left to the imagination. There’s an art to ambiguity.
Great art by the way!
Needs a big beefy arm.
I have a weird tendency to draw dragons with long elf like ears and a wild mane for some reason.
Wait, in what language does Dragopookish mean Ghost Puker???
Oh! I think it was Icelandic or something.
@@mapcrow Ok, thanks!
my view instead is the opposite, i love classifying dragon in various race and groups, i love the idea of them having community just like human do, and that's what i did, but they too have their oddballs and outliners, i enjoy how some of them may go way outside the norm, and almost change the view of the race, just like enjoy making the stronger type of dragon the oddest kind, instead of some sort of royal dragon of god know what, i made the strongest one a dragon based on the idea of producing magic 'sword' spike from it's back (not talking about D&D), which make full of shapeshift to wield them.
the reason for this, is that my idea behind calamity like monster is that they need to be something really outside of norm, and dragon just don't fit the standard for me.
Hello fellow Kyle wassup
3:21 Exactly! I hate when dragons turn into species. They're not animals, they're not related to anything, even--maybe Kobolds and Dragonborn look sort of like them, but they're not the same. Dragons are beyond humanity, beyond any mortal creature. They're like demigods, really, and people should remember that.
Dragons really should be Aberrations.