To rile them up, you have to impinge on their peace of mind, most likely by treading too closely to their lair. And what would a dragon be without a breath weapon? Unlike chromatic and metallic dragons’ breath weapons, which are sometimes conical and sometimes linear, gem dragons’ breath weapons are always conical-and always come with some kind of rider in addition to the damage they deal.īeing neutral (or rather, “typically neutral”), gem dragons are indifferent by default, rather than hostile. Each variety of gem dragon has resistance to two types of damage the types differ, but one of the two is always the type dealt by the dragon’s breath weapon. Usually, that combination of skill proficiencies means “ambush predator,” but in the case of gem dragons, it seems to have more to do with their being extremely reclusive and wanting to avoid notice. That doesn’t deter them from engaging in melee, but it does mean they’re relying more heavily on saving throw resistance and on the side effects of their breath weapons to make them dangerous.Īcross the board, gem dragons are proficient in Perception and Stealth (that goes for the moonstone dragons, too). For instance, the ancient amethyst dragon, top of the gem dragon pecking order, has AC 20 and 24 hit dice, compared with AC 22 and 28 hit dice for both ancient red and ancient gold dragons. Compared with chromatic and metallic dragons, however, they’re on the brittle side, with lower Armor Classes and fewer hit dice.
A SPELL FOR ALL DRAGON GEM PLUS
In addition to the Legendary Resistance that all adult and ancient gem dragons possess, gem dragons have proficiency in all of the “big three” saving throws, plus Charisma, making them hard to hurt by means other than direct attacks. (Why no ruby dragons? Because there’s only one: Sardior, the Ruby Dragon, the gem dragons’ analogue to Bahamut and Tiamat, mentioned in passing in Fizban’s as a dragonborn progenitor. Sub-adult crystal dragons, with their higher Charismas, are exceptions, but except for the young crystal dragon’s ability to cast hypnotic pattern, they have no Charisma-based offensive actions to take in lieu of chomping. But moonstone dragons don’t follow the same rules, so I’ll discuss the others first, then come back to them.Īll five types of “true” gem dragons-crystal, topaz, emerald, sapphire and amethyst, in ascending order of challenge-are unabashed brute melee fighters, nearly all their ability contours peaking in Strength and Constitution. That’s not what you came here for, though.
Pick the personalities you want them to have, give them powers to match, and make them whos, not whats. No colors, metals, gems or anything else. We’re supposed to be moving away from bioessentialism anyway, right? Aren’t lots of players condemning alignment as outdated? All right, then, let’s put our treasure hoards where our mouths are. What comes next? Air, earth, fire, water and void dragons? Hemp, linen, cotton, wool and silk? Bitter, sour, sweet, salty and umami?įrankly, rather than incorporate gem dragons into a campaign of my own, I’d just as soon ditch the colors, metals and sparkly rocks altogether and make every dragon unique, so that you don’t know anything about a dragon just by looking at it.
It’s running the conceit into the ground. Gem dragons are like, “What if neutral dragons and also there are five of them too and they look like something else valuable?” Oh, and they’re all psionic! I mean, it’s already silly and simplistic to have five matte-colored evil dragons pairing off against five metallic-colored good dragons, each one with a monochromatic personality, but at least there’s a symmetry to that silly simplicity. Be that as it may, I can’t get over the hokeyness of the concept.
A SPELL FOR ALL DRAGON GEM MANUAL
They were first mentioned in a 1980 issue of Dragon magazine, and they appeared in the pages of the second edition Monstrous Manual and the third edition Monster Manual II. There are a lot of cool things in Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons.
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