I once killed an entire party with a black dragon, and no everyone failed perception checks so to them they were all crippled by a single tail swipe no one saw coming.
was play a dragon rider campaign, we served under a seemingly immortal wizard king we all got telepathically linked to our dragon partners, the chaotic evil member of our party got paired with a shadow dragon.
soooo basically the Inheritance Cycle novels as a D&D campaign? sounds fucking awesome. there wasnt some blonde farm boy that could fire flaming arrows that exploded on impact was there?
I've wondered for a while if 5e shadow dragons could actually be... not evil. The template changes don't involve changing alignment, so a metallic dragon that becomes a ShadDrag could possibly retain their good-hearted nature (of course, they'd probably be notably more melancholic, irritable, or maybe even just eerily quieter than a normal one).
The way I've heard it is they shift down an alignment from good to neutral evil to...? Eviler i guess maybe shift law to chaos or something edit:ope this is an old post my bad
A chromatic dragon could theoretically be changed enough by the shadowfell's energy for them to lose the personality traits stemming from Tiamat as well as other personality traits common to their specific color of chromatic dragon. Which in some cases may cause a chromatic dragon to become less evil than they were before, a chaotic evil or lawful evil chromatic could become neutral evil but this doesn't consistently occur in 5E. Metallic shadow dragons to my knowledge turn evil as a result of the shadowfell's influence in 5E, an example is Umbraxxakar being changed from lawful good to neutral evil. You could make an argument for neutral being a possible shadow dragon alignment, but this strays more into homebrew. Perhaps good aligned shadow dragons that aren't fully transformed would also be possible, if a partially shadowtouched dragon leaves the shadowfell for example.
Not as overkill as Drow Shadow Dragons like Mauzzkyl Jaezred(who has the 3rd highest CR of any named Dragon at CR 40) and his daughter Nurvureem(the Shadow Dragon in Princes of the Apocalypse)
A good idea for a undead game would be a demi Dracolich that is orcus's secret weapon a monster with such power and knowledge that a normal lich would chatter there teeth at its power
Thank you for this video. I've been creating Syrax, Herald of the Starless Sky (my BBEG) for a little while now and found your video whilst looking for some juicy lore tidbits Turns out most of what I had come up with (e.g having a Drow form & some other qualities) was already in the book and I didn't realise 😅 glad to know I'm on the right track though. My own version has a weaker breath weapon but an innate 1/day ability that creates a field of Magical Darkness around them and deals a bunch of Psychic damage to all inside. This will also provide a great opportunity for our Paladin to overcome his fear of the dark and weild his mighty Radiant, Daylight-casting Hammer - Duskcrusher It will be a 2 phase fight where they take on the Drow form (Sorcerer/Warlock/Fighter with magic items) before Syrax is revealed and I'm super stoked for it. The whole plot is reclaiming the youth & sight of my own Character (Stars Druid/Ranger), who was cursed and blinded, in addition to having his life force siphoned by Syrax.
So recently I've been trying to create a coherent history for the universe I run many of my games in (featuring a lot of homebrew on the origins of various monsters and races) so this series has been providing some great inspiration for how dragons came to be as they are.
Good to know a bit about the shadow dragons. I guess my other questions might be whether the change does anything to their reproduction, like whether the necrotic effect has made them sterile. Which the question makes me think of Half Dragons, which makes me wonder that if not so whether a shadow half dragon would be possible, either by birth, or by a similar transformation. Can all dragons like metallic or even dragon turtles turn into shadow dragons, that last one makes me think of some idea of a lake in the Underdark having a loose connection to the Shadowfell, with it being a mighty shadow in the lake. Or having the metallic dragon's ability to change shape could make for an interesting villain if its shadow nature could perhaps be hidden.
Lots of questions there DP. Yes, they can reproduce, same way as the Deep Dragon, the Shadowfell supports biological life, Shadar Kai live there, after all, it is not a plane awash with undead, the place is just more suited to the undead. By 5th editions version, yes, any dragon can become a shadow dragon, and chromatics retain their polymorph ability (as do Deep Dragons), they also retain all their spell knowledge and such. It is possible for there to be Shadow Dragonborn and Shadow Draconians, and Shadow Half Dragons, by birth or by artifice, any draconic creature, including Kobolds and Wyverns, can become shadow variants.
An army of various shadow dragonoids rallied by some big bad in the Shadowfell now sounds like a cool plot idea. Like it wants to bring the material plane to being like the Shadowfell by using creatures that can retain the power, their long life making it some long term plan that could amass huge numbers.
Im building a pair, a shadow dragon and shadow dragonborn. A dragon cult got trapped in the shadowfell with a maternal red dragon about to nest. Got attacked by a horde of sorrowsworn, killed the red dragon and most of the cult, leaving one viable dragon egg and one dragonborn egg with a crippled cultist. After the experience grew up together with the dragonborn being a sorcerer, now on a quest for money and power with the end goal becoming a lich and dracolich combo to cheat death that has haunted their lives. Once lichdom is about to be achieved turn them into npcs and possibly a big bad in another campaign.
(i know this wouldn't work RAW cus' shadow dragons aren't undead, but it's cool) A high level necromancer could use their ability to control an undead to make an ancient white shadow dragon create a vast army of Shadows. they could just a couple blasts on a village and all the commoners would be turned, with the corpses left over to be turned into zombies. I can imagine a fast hoard of writhing shadows seeping over the land whilst the necromancer themselves hangs back on their dragon with their personal retinue of ogre and beholder zombies, minotaur skeletons, flameskulls, etc, etc.
I just started DMing a group of new players yesterday and your videos became quite handy towards getting me back in shape for effectively running a gaming session again. I vote dracolich.
I enjoy hearing your own thoughts and opinions, tactics and wild musings at least as much (probably more) than I enjoy the official lore and stat-block paraphernalia. I enjoy hearing about how a creature has changed over the years and editions, also. I know how labor-intensive and time-consuming the research for these videos must be, and greatly appreciate your going through all of that for us. That said, please, regale us with more Mighty Gluestick semi-biased commentary!
XD My favorite part of the video... Dragon names! XD Good video. Been refreshing my lore and noticing things I had completely forgotten, now being able to put two and two together. Like for example, the whole thing with the Nentir Vale in 4th edition and the fact that the fact that the drow city of Erelhei-Cinlu was a few miles underneath the Vale. Just for those that still use that lore, that piece of info was nice. I heard the name of the city in the purple dragon video and went "Huh... why does that sound familiar". Got me looking into books XD I'm pretty sure you read about Tchazzar the red from Chessenta. There were these books with this mercenary character Aoth, that had Tchazzar in the Shadowfell with a shadow dragon basically eating his essence, or something of the such. I wonder what you make of this. And if this process continued, if Tchazzar would have ended up as a shadow dragon or some sort. Good videos. Keep up the good work, and the honorable butchering of those dragon names XD That is how its done XD
A small while ago, my players' party had quite the pickle on their hands; A Colossal Red Dragon (I am so proud I have that figurine) was terrorizing the countryside, seeking dominance over all mortalkind. This mighty Dragon was trying to re-assert the dominance of the True Dragons over the children of the Land, seeing them only as food and slaves. This Colossal Red Dragon, Naxthural rallied many other Chromatic dragons underneath this duty of Chaos, and together, they formed a near-unstoppable army. But the players were crafty, and they sought out a coven of Witches that drew power from the Shadowfell, to gain the tools to trap this Dragon in the Shadowfell, because they could not stop it on their own, they couldn't outright kill the Dragon. They're going to have another problem on their hands if they succeed.
AJ, I love your videos. Great inspiration t0 flesh out plot motivations. One thing I need to say. When you give homebrew stats conversions you consistently make them too strong for 5e. In 5e "vitality draining effects" is the definition of necrotic damage and it does not add extra effecta like exhaustion. Persistant drain effects (like level drain which they got rid of) were converted over to max HP reduction. You did the same thing in your gem dragons video, which was otherwise very good.
Tssk...tssk...tssk Pickett you forgot THE most important aspect of yonder Shadow Dragon,what's that you ask? It's the only species of dragon that absolutely cannot be subdued by beating it into submission! It cannot be charmed or controlled by ANY means...............but,it can be bribed,which my evil warlock/philosopher did by giving it absurd amounts of money! And now that my necromancer has attained immortality as a god of death and necromancy my pack has increased to 9 dragons.....all trained in the various types of necromancy from The complete Necromancers Handbook,most favoring the Undead Master kit! I love the fact that a failed save vs breath weapon temporarily drains the life force of its victims by losing 3/4 of their life force and losing half on a successful save,the effect lasting for multiple turns at a time!
Hey AJ, great video! I've gotten so far behind. I appreciate the way you did your give away, (there was no hoop jumping). Alot of YT's need to take notes and learn, this is how you do it. Thanks AJ & have a great day.
And please, add the Chuul to the list. One of my most memorable encounters cost my greatsword-wielding fighter's life at the tentacles of said horrid beastie.
I’m currently playing a Dragonborn character that’s been affected by the shadowfell. He was originally a Red Dragonborn with A Brass tinge (parental inheritance) but is now black with a purple tinge. I’ve also written a fleshed our backstory that explains how he became who he is.
Thank you for another great video! I will vote for the Dracolich, and after that it would be good to see the Druid in action. Greetings from Argentina!
That was an amazing video!! I'm running the 3E adventure "City of the Spider Queen" (in 5E) and they are coming to the Wailing Cliff, home to Glouroth, an adult male shadow dragon, and I'll be honest, the exhaustion thing did occur to me, but when you mentioned it too I was sold! Thank you so, so much! :)
This popped back up on my RU-vid feed at the best time I'm building a reflavored conquest paladin as an oath of shadows with at least a 5 or 6 lv multiclass into hexblade. His Patron is a brass shadow dragon named Saytion.
Good evening Master Pickett,my apologies for getting back so late with my Diamond Dragon stats as it been a trying month for me and my little boy.....but I'm ready to shoot you the stats of the beasty! Now please keep in mind this creature is created from the gem dragon templates of the AD&D Monstrous Manual copyright 1993 hope you like psionic dragons 😁 I'd like to give a bit of background on where it came from,and that of course is the Deity "Geb" the Egyption god of Earth. It was created as a gift for the only character I've ever had the was a complete xenophobe and that is my Earth Elementalist Soyald Diirtee who at the moment is level 21 and is residing in the Great Dismal Delve on the elemental plane of earth. It was given to him because of the large donations he's given to the various churches over the 120 years he's adventured and he's never asked for any help from his patron deity....well here goes..........age cat 7.. Climate-plane of earth.. Frequency- unique(only one other exists as a companion to Geb)..organization-unknown..active time-any..diet-minerals and ore favors diamonds as well as meat once a month..Intelligence-19 supra genius..treasure-any,save diamonds which it consumes..alignment-neutral,w/ch.tend..No appearing-1 or two when they want to get physical (snicker snicker)..AC base-8.. MVT-9,Fl.30(C),burrowing 36..HD-16 base..THACO:5..# of Attacks: 3 plus the standard bonus attacks snatch,plummet,wing buffet,kick,tail slap,and stall..Dmg per attack-2-8 per claw and the bite 6-24 (+7) at current size..spec attacks-variable including psionics..special defense-variable..MR-25% at age cat 5 + 5% per additional age cat..size of dragon-same as sapphire dragon template..moral-17 to 18 unless guarding its clutch which goes to fearless 20,it will fight to the death for its children..EXP Value- variable.....it has no breath weapon it's primary attack besides spells and psionics is a stinger attack which does 3-12 pts save versus petrify/polymorph or victim is transmuted to solid diamond (which the dragon will consume to support it's appetite and slowly harden it's scales) a victim who saves takes no additional dmg...its psionics are as follows level is based on HD disiplines-3,sciences-3,devotions-5 my dragons current powers are complete healing and psychic surgery from sciences while it's devotions are cell adjustment,expansion,magnify,psionics sense,and psychic sense. It possesses the attacks of Psionic Blast,Ego Whip And Psychic Crush and the defenses are Mind Blank,Thought Sheild and Tower of Iron Will and posesses 250 PSP. My dragon is learning all the spells a typical earth Elementalist would learn but ill skip that and leave the spells up to you mate as each different DM might want to customize the creature to suit any given campaign the beauty of this creation is that it has absolutely nothing to do with draconic deities including Tiamat and Bahamat. She only recognizes one Deity that of course being her creator Geb god of earth.......well friend that's about all she wrote I hope you like her and please feel free to torment or reward your players with their presence. Thanks again for the Great videos master pickett...well this ol mage needs to go get some nookie followed by a good nights sleep please let me know what you think and if you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask 🐊 oops forgot to tell you its psionics are from The Complete Psionics Handbook.
You know, you could probably have both the 5e version and the older versions exist in the same universe. You could make the shadow dragon breed very veritable in appearance and abilities, because of the natural shadow dragons mixing with the shadow turned dragons.
I remember during one of 3e campain, my character had this personal goal to exterminate every dragon and somehow harness their power. Funny enough, at epic levels this crusade made me seriously underpowered in compare to rest of my team who at some point became gods. I didnt felt like following gods rules so i end up as a demon prince, but most of the time i literally just blew steam
I've never thought about this until now but what happens if a metallic dragon becomes a shadow dragon? Is their a chance for it to stay good or are they just always evil?
Egads! Beware the Shadow Dracolich! Shadows are my favorite. Ever since I saw their compendium page draining HD with their shadow breath, these were my favorite dragon. Imagine the pride of an adventurer with a stuffed shadow dragon head on the wall!!!
A fun idea for a Shadowfell based campaign: any Dragonborn/draconic sorcerers that fail too many entropy (environmental) saves gain shadow dragon-like elements. For example: shadow breath, necrotic resistance, color change, sunlight sensitivity (if you hate them), etc.
I'd be more willing to use a shadow dragons exhausting breath if they used the one dnd exhaustion mechanics that unfortunately got cut, alternatively they could use the strength draining mechanics of normal shadows
I think I will take the idea from a small supplement for Pathfinder that made Shadow Kobolds a creature, being a bit more powerful than Kobolds and having a resistance to cold damage, I could use them as well as Shadowy Urds as favored servants of Shadow Dragons, along with the shadows themselves. I can't wait to use one of these as a villain, using drow and Kobolds to expand his reach. My vote would have to go to Primal Dragons, like Magma Dragons and Ocean Dragons.
In your deep dragon vid you mentioned that occasionally there offspring can be born as a shadow dragon in certain circumstances could you elaborate please. Dracolich for your next vid.
Yeah, it is possible for the embryonic dragon offspring to absorb sufficient necrotic energy from the undead around them, if they are gestated in the presence of undead creatures, such as wraiths, wights, zombies, vampires, a lich and of course... shadows, to undergo the transformation into Full Shadow Dragons. These Shadow Dragons will be able to locate portals to the Shadowfell intellectually, and head there as soon as they have attained an adequate size for self sufficiency in that plane, where food can be hard to come by. It is possible, though very unlikely, that a shadow dragon never travels to the Shadowfell.. up to you. There is also a very strong chance that a deal between a lich and a Deep Dragon may include the deep dragon giving some eggs to the lich, in exchange for magical knowledge and magic items. In this case, the lich will transform the egg by swamping it in necrotic power, and raise the dragon as it's thrall, until eventually the very intelligent and strong willed Shadow Dragon breaks free.. they always do, if not killed first. Hope that helps.
@@AJPickett Wouldn't any lich who would dare such a thing realize he needs to strike a deal with the creature early so they can stay on amicable terms? Or be so powerful he literally can magically enthrall the dragon?
This is probably the most challenging dragon to campaign against because of the many ways it can beat you. Red Dragons, Blue Dragons and the other chromatics are straightforward in comparison to this dragon. The fact it has the highest intelligence of any chromatic dragon and the hardest scales make it that much worse. This dragon is a match for any conventional chromatic dragon. A fight against this dragon is no straightforward affair and there is a very narrow path to victory or even stalemate for any creature.
I'd rather suffer exhaustion than 3/4 of my levels (rounded up) 1/2 if you succeed on your save. + ofc 1d4+1 - 6d4+2 damage depending on size. Easily one of the most dangerous dragons in 2nd edition. :)
Just perusing this video because Aurgloroasa is going to be one of the final bosses of the campaign I am running. Gonna be a long hard road to take her down. She is no joke.
Depends on what lore you are basing their origin from, traditionally, the answer would be no, Bahamut would not want Shadow Dragonborn. Dragons create Half Dragons when they breed with humanoids, not dragonborn. However, there is no reason why a Dragonborn could not become a shadow dragonborn from prolonged exposure to the Shadowfel, just like any other dragon.
God I miss older editions. Gaming companies keep dumbing down and diluting the world...... 5th edition has some things going for it but i much prefer complexity then 0 or 1 as the only options. Still great vid and love the way you present all of the information b your vids.
Thanks for these. I kind of gave up on the game when it went to 3e. Didn't like the change in mechanics, and even more I hated that all the money I spent on all those books were pretty much wasted. Or at least it felt like it. Your videos have started to make me want to get back into it. Would be interested in one about shades - humans/humanoids infused with shadow stuff. I think they were introduced in 2e, and so they weren't necessarily evil although they tended towards it. Since it was a 2e creation, the demi-plane of shadow wasn't the shadowfell. I always thought they would make great NPC baddies, especially a psionic-shade. I seem to recall the spell, the MM entry, and the Dragon mag. article listed slightly different powers.
@@AJPickett Aluminum With a "breath weapon" that is a stream of high speed copper jacketed lead pellets. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-uKOrpyO0z48.html
We'll suffice it to say I'm now at a bit of a stew whether to use a purple dragon or a shadow dragon for a campaign I'm trying to write up... dammit AJ haha and yes dracolich sounds very cool, then druids !! Please
Shadow Dragons: You thought that transforming a humanoid via shadowstuff made great humanoids? Meet the Shadow Dragon! Those humanoids are nothing, even to dragon scale.
In one of my campaigns, I have a giant continent that is dominated by 3 soulless overlords. One section, a vampire lord. Another, a werewolf special breed lord. Another section, a lich lord. The lich lord has shadow dragons. There is a resistance of dwarven indigenous people allied with an outside force, the corruption created Dark Knights. Dark Knights are devoted brutal patriots that adorn themselves in Dark Metal items (metal that is black and has Negative Material link but is still strong) that their devotion to such negative material attacks may make them normal enemies against the undead on the island, they are virtually immune when not resistant to the island's attacks. The Dark Knights are borderline undead but able to go within to keep their living spark and use the dark metals. Undeads often see them as akin to their own. The price? If you are not completely suited in your dark metal armor most of the time, you will have problems like getting sick while losing abilities and die without help when all abilities are lost... rising as a Dread Knight super nasty undead. I then give the player of the former Dark Knight the option of giving him over as an NPC antagonist or allow him to play it with strict evil-undead rules. That is the scenario where a player with a Dark Knight thought he lost his effectiveness but eventually saw the benefits. He did not have the extreme advantages against the living, did not need his energy resistances but his critical hit resistances and immunities still applied. He saw how the undead usually did not see him as a threat when among his party until he attacked. He saw that his Dark Metal attunement given to all Dark Knights are to protect his body and no other life, so he never got the diseases, and parasites/bugs died when close to him. He then said "Yeah, I have gone from advantage superior to defensively gifted. Can you write me in with a different character? Like a paladin?" I told him I would if he would admit to being a weak role-player. So, the male ego made him keep the Dark Knight. Then, the party came across their first Shadow Dragon. His character was the only one not really hurt by the breath weapon. That is the only reason the party won the fight. He laughed and told me "If I had a paladin there, we would have lost." I agreed and reminded him of my Rule of Disaster. Rule of Disaster: I allow, if all players agree, and if over half the party died, to go back before the event in the story. If they chose the same decision that led them to the disaster when other options are open, I upgrade their enemies. Otherwise, the event is erased and they are allowed to explore alternative decisions. Rule of Disaster can be, if all players vote on it, allow a replay of the entire adventure. Doing that increases the difficulty of all previous skirmishes if they want to repeat them, but only them. Holy crap! Sorry for ranting. This was the only Shadow Dragon memory I can recall that was cool.
Oh, and this may irk you AJ... in my world, that evil continent is my version of Austrailia. Sorry, I'm an American and my fantasy land needed a seclusive place in Reniassance era my version of Earth to allow a version of Romance of the Three Kingdoms of souless overlords to be allowed in that campaign. I love Austrailia, I just picked my Austrailia equivilant for story convenience.
Dear AJ Pickett or anyone with a decent understanding of shadow dragons. I have a question I need help with. How would one go about writing a shadow dragon into one's backstory(without it seeming contrived or min/max like) for a lvl 1 fighter? the reason I ask is because I would like to eventually multi-class into sorcerer-draconic bloodline for thematic purposes. Would that work off a black dragon template for the dragon itself? Would multi-classing into sorcerer require a plot hook of some kind to foreshadow such a thing? I want to try this for the experience of what it's like in a way that's natural. Any advice?
It doesn't have to be a black dragon, but a chromatic dragon is more suitable (the metallic dragons don't tend to hang around in the shadowfell long enough to make the switch. I would suggest trying this into the characters background choice, such as Acolyte or hermit, maybe they started off involved in some sort of cult?
Thanks for replying AJ. What chromatic dragon would you recommend if a black dragon is not viable? The fighter already has the soldier background so i'm thinking some sort of ex-soldier or the like that was recruited into the fold so when the time was right they could take advantage of his powers for their schemes once he has been brainwashed enough? Side note, what are your thoughts on a telepathic like bond to ease the transition(along with MASSIVE RP potential), or is this a bit much for the concept?
Black dragons are ok, but, just remember that they are psychopathic killers. Soldier background is fine, it may be that the soldier/fighter has some draconic heritage, I mean, some who have it must go on the live lives without automatically becoming dragon-blood sorcerers. As for telepathy, thats up to the DM, and if you are the DM, well, no problem.
While this certainly helps, but i'm not well versed in chromatic dragons sadly. What would be the most viable LE chromatic dragon in regards to RP? I wanna go the "The strong were meant to rule those who are weaker route." Any suggestions?
Ok, so I looked up shadow dragons in this pdf version of the Draconomicon I got (for 3rd edition), and it says that great wyrm shadow dragons have this ability called "Create Shadows". How would you adapt this ability for 5e? Create Shadows (Su): Three times per day, a great wyrm shadow dragon can conjure a mass of leaping shadows with a radius of 100 yards and a duration of 1 hour (this is a creation effect). All normal and magical light sources are negated within this radius. All characters and creatures gain a +4 bonus on their Hide checks within the shadows, and can hide even if directly observed. Shadow dragons and other creatures with ties to the Plane of Shadow gain total concealment within the shadows, though they can move and attack normally. Their attacks gain a +2 bonus and deny their opponents any Dexterity bonus to AC, because they are considered invisible.
At 11:51 was it spelled:Thaxll'ssillyia? I'm just wondering if it's the dragon that was in Baldur's gate 2 because that's how its name was spelled and when you were saying the names it seemed to ring a bell.
Shadow Dragons and Zekyl are some of my favorite monsters/race in D&D. I’m building a world and was looking for actual shadow dragons. Would you be able to tell me where you found the names of the dragons?
