Nobody Talks About D&D's Most Ruthless Dragon 

Get up to 33% off at Displate using my link (discount applied automatically) displate.com/?art=65d939d506fd4 or use my code DUNGEONDAD at checkout! What monster would you like to see show up next on the channel?

Don't forget the slightly more modern, Depleted Uranium Dragon

For an April Fools, you should totally make the Uranium Dragon, from Munchkin, the only dragon I know that starts really large and strong but, as it ages, becomes smaller and weaker due to radioactive decay.

In Dungeon Dad's defense tungsten is a naturally occurring element, just not in its pure metal form. It is found naturally in the minerals of Wolframite and Scheelite.

I'd imagine Tungsten Dragons horde weapons, they don't actually 100% horde them, however. They use it as an armory for weapons to arm noble warriors to basically add them as more weapons in the battle against Evil. They might send applicants for any magical arms in their armory on quests to prove both their nobility & skill. No sense in giving the most powerful weapon in your arsenal to someone who'll get killed & let the armies of Evil use it to their advantage or destroy it if they can't. I can also see them allowing a Dwarven community nearby to access the steel for mutual aid, both with food & their horde.

Every survival crafting game has led me to believe tungsten is a naturally occurring ore. I can't believe Big Ore has pulled the wool over my eyes, and this is where I learn the truth.

Good job on the tungsten. It sure is dense.

Tungsten dragon having lightbulb jokes for abilities does not disappoint

“How many more kinds of dragons could there possibly be!?”

Okay, now I HAVE to use a misguided tungsten dragon as an antagonist for my current party. Two tieflings, a half-drow, and a dhampir. A stubborn tungsten dragon that believes blood determines one nature would be perfect to use.

I think a good "hoard" for a tungsten dragon would be soldiers. Like, it trains or recruits people to fight for its cause. That would fit its militaristic commander deal and would make its ruthlessness easy to illustrate by showing it casually sending the people that it interacts with daily and has fought alongside to their death for the sake of the greater good.

Talking about the lawful alignment of all ferrous dragons, the hierarchy, and the how they still clash personalities with each other, makes me want a setting where the adventures have to go to an academy in a distant city for Reasons where they grate with the cliquish young adults studying there. The professors are more welcoming, but seem oddly keen to have the party interact with the students as much as possible. Eventually, when an enemy/The Enemy attacks the party at the school, they're overwhelmed by the academy's inhabitants who all turn out to be young dragons in disguise, being taught by their elders how to blend in and interact with the mortal races. The party gets what they came for, the students gain some new allies and vice versa, and the bard realizes he achieved his lifelong dream the night before without him knowing.

"people who speak with lots of flowergy language" "verbose nuisances" *Shows Elminster's simulacrum at both points*

Here's an idea: a buddy cop duo of the hothead tungsten dragon and a brass dragon who's getting too ancient for this "stuff", a là Lethal Weapon

... right just gonna steal that "Ned Flanders the Brass Dragon" thing for future use...

Amazing intro, discussion of alignment, Leeroy Jenkins ref...This video's got it all. I'm toying with using a tungsten dragon who moved out to the desert to be left ALONE, thank you very much, but then a bunch of mortals showed up and turned the steel deposits into weapons. Seeing where this could go and not really wanting to upset the whole apple cart, the dragon every so often shows up in a new disguise to take a job as a bureaucrat and cripple the government from within. When the party meets him, he's disguised as a portly middle-aged man with a large mustache and a permanent death glare.

Man I'm a shill for more dragon content, as I also love the numerous non 5e published ones.

13:40 Yeah, I agree with you totally. My villain for my current campaign is an ancient silver dragon who’s trying to destroy the King-Killer Meteor and establish a draconic empire anew. And their reasoning for this is they’re disenfranchised with the idea that the best way to let things be is let mortals rule themselves, because once when she was younger she transformed into a dwarven woman and ended up falling in love with a dwarven lord. He was slain due to civil strife in the region where the humans attacked the dwarves without much obvious reason. Seeing this happen to her, and dozens of times over her ancient life, has led her to the conclusion that mortals, while precious, can only be guided by force of Will.

With such a marshall mentality, the hoard would be anything you would put in a military museum.

"Make it play out like Game of Thrones, but with dragons." What's this about the Council of Wyrms setting?

OK now I NEED to play a tungsten dragonborn. The flavor here is amazing and I LOVE conquest Paladins but @10:08 that BIONICLE cameo was pure vibes and nostalgia. I'm sold.

The Tungsten Dragon is a natural ally for the Harmonium planar faction, AKA "Hardheads," from _Planescape._ Definitely look the Harmonium up if you're thinking about running a Helldivers-esque campaign. They are one of the few canonical groups that is powerful enough and organized enough to run a Helldivers-style invasion anywhere in the D&D multiverse -- even one right in the heart of the Abyss. Their lore is practically tailor-made for this style of campaign.

Tungsten has the highest melting point I think. A true monster of a metal

Just gonna throw this out there. Y'all remember how the Steel Dragons hoard memories/experiences of their lives? Have Tungsten Dragons hoard victories and their triumphs over evil. I mean, they actively seek out evil aligned stuff to kill so their stories of triumphs would make for a pretty on brand hoard.

OMG, imagine if a Tungsten Dragon teamed up with a War March (see Pointy Hat's Fighter Lich) and outfits the whole war march with armor to handle whatever it is the tungsten dragon needs killed.

You know what would be cool, if hybrid metallic and Ferraris dragons would be the representation of the alloys you would get from mixing the metals those dragons represent. For instance, if any of you have homebrewed titanium dragons(I’ve looked around. I haven’t seen anything that indicates titanium dragons are a thing in DND) and they were to mate with nickel dragons, they would make nitinol dragons or memory shape metal dragons. Nitinol is a metal that when bent and then heated up, it will return back to its original shape. A nitinol dragon, upon heating up will be able to undo and heal any blunt damage done to it.

man the dungeon dad realm has to be terrifying to live in, theres like 100 tarrasques

I like the idea of Tungsten dragons hoarding weapons either ones taken from evil beings or ones they're storing to arm the forces of good when it comes time to battle. Alternatively have them hoard glass works of art that hold a lot of beauty

I could see an adventure where the players are sent on an Apocalypse Now-style mission with the tungsten dragon playing a Colonel Kurtz role where his obsession with destroying an evil force has resulted in him employing...unsound methods...

I like how you incorporated tungsten being the heaviest metal into the unique lair action.

The most fantastical thing talked about in this whole episode is the notion of landlords giving deposits back, no matter what lengths tenants go to.

This is the first dragon you've covered that I wasn't already familiar with. All the others I at least knew the name; I only knew any of the ferrous dragons, or even the entire category, by name, no details. I didn't even realize tungsten was one of them!

I’m thinking…. A young blue dragon asks the party for help against an adult tungsten dragon

By the way, I asked my dad about what ferrous means, and while it does mean iron in latin, in chemistry it usually gets used to say that a metal or element is magnetic or can hold a magnetic charge. Also, Tungsten dragon who forgoes their tradition of general for the side of good to become an industrial tycoon (achieve victory over evil with the power of economics)

I really wish you would include a "this dragon as a dragonborn" stat block with all the age categories

Any one else seeing a clan of Tungsten Dragons as heads of a maybe fanatical Templar order? Could start with a job to get some high quality ore from a dessert for a smith or so, you do a miss step or have bad luck and stumble onto the order, either you took the wrong corner and end up in their mine and effectively stealing from them or they just see you on the way back and ask for the document that allows mining there which the smith sadly forgot, and from there you somehow learn that the order is going on a crusade, maybe against the city you were just in or another and maybe get hired as scouts or you may just want to warn the guy theyre going to and then a big sabotage campaign begins leading to a dragon fight.

I think they would horde stained glass windows, the more beautiful, the better.

10:08 I felt the nostalgia rush with this clip, holy shit.

Man so my idea of a tungsten kobold fits and with this proof that my concept of a dnd subrace could exist in formats

Upon arrival into the great mesa's cavernous path, you notice that the stairs are carved of sandstone, glazed smooth by intense heat. On either side of the stairs heading up to the top of a ridge, equidistantly spaced from one another, are skeletons of regal warriors clad in silvery armor, encased in thick Crystal's of glass with placards of brass denoting their names, ranks, birth and death dates, and years of honorable, dutiful service. As you ascend to the top landing and push open the simple iron shod ironwood trunk castle sized double doors, you're greeted with the immaculate sight. Architecture, a blending of what we know of as the American South West's Mesa cliff dwellings mixed with other desert cultures is hewn from the same glazed sandstone, each of the alcoves shows various forms of decorated Terracotta esque pottery. Further down past a bend, you walk past an a giant study. Peaking in, you see it is brilliantly lit by refractive light from all the mosaic glass tiles adorning the surfice. It's bookshelves of combat tretacies, large chairs, and clay fireplace give off a no nonsense reading room, the only exception being a curio cabnet display of ethnographic jewelery and ceremonial wear made from silver, turquoise, coral and bone. Further down still lower into the mountian caverns you observe what appears to be a room labeled " Treasury", which consists only of a giant table, stationary, and a set of 10 foot by 20 foot rectangular solid iron chests with no locks. Seeing as you couldn't even open the heavy lids, you move on to a room labeled " Barracks/ guest quarters", where rows upon rows of well made beds and simple foot lockers are orderly maintained. Across the way, you spy an armory of what appears to be more like a gallery of lovingly maintained but apparently "bland munitions grade" weapons and armor, but upon closer inspection each piece is revealed to be exquisitely crafted in a form of simplified elegant form and function. As you look at one of the pieces inside the armory, you hear a voice speak up behind you. " You've a good eye for quality. Unfortunately, you've not good manners. Turn around. Slowly." Turning around you see a Ancient Tungsten Dragon aiming a claw right at your chest like a rapier. It then smiles wryly and announces itself. " My name is Krayt Daruud, General of the Vitrious Hearts Bregade, also known as the Luminous Sandstorm in some circles. What's your's?"

Ok, the flanders part got me really good, the tungsten just staring on, and then the blue walking in, that was a good bit and gave me a good laugh.

TL; DR: The Tungsten Dragon is the most based Dragon species. BTW, them being immune to Fire damage makes sense for them especially because Tungsten is the element with the highest melting point. If I'm not mistaken, lava evaporates at a lower temperature than tungsten melts at (heavily conditional lol).

I imagine this dragon hoard would contain various tactical reports and history documents, so that no knowledge is lost in the constant fight for good.

10:08 Holy heck! I haven't thought about the Bionicle movie in decades! You just hit me with a massive nostalgia trip!

New dragon lets gooooo

The hoard should definitely be assets. So anything needed to fight evil. That can be some combo of gold, informants, weapons of mass destruction, ancient curses. treaties, etc.

"The only Good Goblin is a dead Goblin" °Goblin Slayer has entered Chat°

The plothook that came to mind for me was actually a mining town and a tungsten dragon having a symbiotic relationship. The Tungsten dragon allows the miners to mine in its lair and even let the town build directly on top of it with its only demand being that the city handles all the smaller threats to the dragon and its hoard allowing it to focus all its efforts on hunting down chromatic dragons, wyverns, and behirs near its lair. A good sort of comparison/metaphor being that some Tarantulas take frogs as pets, killing whatever would eat the frog while the frog eats the tarantula wasps that would kill it.

I like the idea that their hoart would be basically an armory. With weapons to supply soldiers for the good fight.

Not sure if anyone else has pointed it out already, but tungsten-steel alloy would suck for weapons. The best analogy I can think of is trying to use a glass sword, but it's a metal. It could be great for armor, though (provided anyone beyond dwarves could work it). Edit: bc of how hard it is, tungsten would be good against slashing and perhaps even piercing damage, but not so good against bludgeoning. My understanding is that a tungsten armor wouldn't absorb much of bludgeoning damage, if any at all, meaning the wearer would the take full force of the attack.

“The horrors are never ending, Yet I remain silly” Yup, that’s going in the cart

I just finished making Dragonborn for all the dragons you’ve made videos on, guess I gotta start on this one next!

I can't get over how good the new episode intros are

Idea: they hoard scales of dead evil dragons. Fits with their war on evil mentality

I'm digging the neo-retro intros and transitions you've been doing for a while.

What if a triclops and a cyclops have a kids, for the kid only have two eyes

My personal idea for their hoards is that they amass tons of weapons and armor, collecting anything in good enough condition from their battles. Whether friend or foe, if they died they are being looted, any advantage is a good one. What makes them unique is that they are also the most willing to take things out of their hoards to give to their armies, knowing that in the end what they give out will probably be looted and sent back to the hoard

Jesus Lethander Christ I LOVE ALL of Dungeon Dad’s content!!!

I do love the monster deep dives of this channel. Really great thing to listen to before a campaign. It also helps a lot with world creation and NPC/Character ideas. Thanks for what you do!

Dude, that ad transition was awesome, as is this dragon. Glad you've got such a big sponsor!

Just binged all the forgotten dragons and now holding out for the Nickel, Cobalt, and Chromium videos so I can use them all in my campaign

funny, I actually made Tungsten dragons before I knew about the one from older DnD editions. At this point I've kinda blended the two concepts, but really the official one wasn't too different! Strong fighters, good aligned, all that. I do like to imagine them being more dark, iridescent, and bulky though to match the density and shine of scorched Tungsten. I also like to imagine them being terrifyingly skilled at taking out Red Dragons. Because y'know. Heat resistance. As for hoards, I often picture them collecting metal ingots, even melting down their own ore and scrap. But also keeping the skeletons of evil dragons (especially Reds) and casting them in metal as grotesque displays of their victories.

19:00 ...I literally fell out of my chair laughing 🤣🤣🤣

Some of the illustrations of the metal look like bismuth. Another heavy favorite, but chemically and crystallographically very different (especially due to its low melting point).

I don't know if you know of a certain hat shaped D&D content creator but they recently made a Fighter Lich that's all about growing it's army at all costs and... Tungsten Dragon vs Death March sounds like a fantastic campaign.

...I have to admit I was still holding out on the Tungsten Dragon announcement being rolled into April Fool's for a Fool's Gold/Pyrite Dragon announcment 😢 Regarding the Tungstens' hoard: I just can't see it as anything else except trophies of successful campaigns against evil and chaos. So maybe one particular tungsten dragon might have a collection of foes in glass, while another might prefer to keep all their weapons so they never fall into the hands of evil-doers again. Anyway, this is good stuff, as always 🫡 Thanks, DD!

20:43 I really appreciate that perspective on alignment and species! It’s pretty much where I fall, along with the idea that alignment is like most other personality/morality terms - it’s a shorthand way to communicate the general direction you go in. It’s a starting point, not a unified be-all-end-all.

"Molten SAND? It is outrageous and unfair." (A. Skywalker)

I'm absolutely loving all the dragons, but id also love to see more Giants! More specifically your take on the Voadkyn/Wood Giant.

Haven’t seen many of your vids… yet. This one was definitely worth a subscription!

Ah yes, dragon me up and call me treasure! That said, I love the dragon videos best and D Dad has a great sense of humor and story telling. Thanks Dad!

19:40 I'm imagining Brass Dragon Kefka now.

Just binged your dragon videos recently, absolutely love them. I'm excited for when the gem dragons finally appear, as they've always been my favorite.

They can call themselves lawful good as much as they want but these dudes are at best lawful neutral if not lawful evil. "Listen I didn't kill you 'cause you're an innocent living in the city of a tyrannical ruler, but I did completely destroy your home and livelihood and everything you know because you happened to live in evil guy's city. I'm good!" Great vid as always DD!

I'd imagine they would collect symbols of accomplishments, for instance if when they were younger they destroyed a bandit group they might still have a flag with their insignia on it. They might also have parts of evil creatures encased in glass, like the horn of a blue dragon or an eyestalk of a beholder or something like that.

I'd do a story where a great, legendary smith sends the players on a quest to get some ore from the dragon's domain. However, it turns out that the smith is a loyal servant of the dragon and it's actually a test to see if the players are worthy of being recruited.

Yesterday, I finished watching Band of Brothers, and for whatever reason, I can't help but imagine some Tungsten Dragons as some of the soldiers in WW2. They both have a mission and will do whatever they can to meet those objectives, primarily with the goal of doing real good in the world, but sometimes going over the line. Lt. Speirs is the perfect example; he doesn't mince words, he steps in when he sees his side is screwing up, and has no problem growing an infamous reputation within the military (to the point some of his own soldiers fear him).

Finally here in the first hour! Love all these new-old dragons! Keep it up my g!

"...turn the process of Steel mining into a life or death situation. YOU MEAN STEAL MINING?!"

I had a friend who did a campaign he wrote himself about finding the maze of the Pale Night, and it was based on a tungsten dragon starting us on the trail, ultimately to locate it's mate, who was a Pale Dragon, covered in a massive white shroud, and we had to plant a shard given to us by the tungsten dragon on his corrupted mates body in order to free her from the pale nights control. It was fucking amazing. Took us over 30 hours

i'm super curious how you are going to handle cobalt dragons with their constant flip floping, they breath cold, they breath lightning, now they have a magnetic force breath, they live in the frozen mountains and hoard civiliations, now they live in the jungle and are solitary. i've handled it by giving them a primary breath weapon of lightning, with a secondary of cold, and an ability to expend both at once for the magnetic force breath

I Love you videos so muuuch! This is so gosh darn cool! The concept of a helldivers campaign xD aaah always come away from your videos with so many ideas

When I converted these guys for a Dune themed campaign I took off their tail attack but gave them a tail spike attack similar to a manticore. They snap their tail forward like a whip and with a supersonic crack release one of the spike from the end. Recharges on a 6, 2d8+5 but I brought out 3.5's Touch AC mechanic because they just launched what is essentially an anti-tank kinetic penetrator round. The players needed to recruit the dragon to help crack the shell of the BBEGs guard monster so that was fun roleplay with the paladin too

Immediatly subscribed becuase you time stamped the ad, thank you sir

I just finished the Iron dragon video, and then this comes out? Amazingly perfect timing!

Awesome! Love your videos! Great inspiration and entertainment

I'm a weapon and metallurgy enthusiasts, but I like the idea of tungsten steel ore, and I think I'll even one-up it: the ore is magical in nature, and everything crafted out of it is magical, the closer it is from the dragon's lair and the stronger the dragons the stronger the magical effect is. Some stray ore from the edges of the region occupied by young-ish dragons are essentially just real world tungsten steel, whereas the tungsten steal that comes from ore the lair of powerful ancient dragons is the stuff of legend, used by legendary Smith, artificers and wizard as components for the best of magical weapons like the luck blade, the vorpal blade, +3 weapons and powerful spell components.

i can totally see the tungsten dragon as a way to levelup underpowered parties or getting them better gear, have them opening adventurers guilds and maintaining bounty boards, running fantasy craigslist essentially and rewarding people who complete quests from the board, joining the guild gets you better payment from the board but requires lawful and/or good allignment as well as becoming a paladin under the board's oathe

I love this series a lot. I have been absolutely obsessed with the purple dragon ever since that video came out and the ferrous dragons aren't far behind. The tungsten dragon is the perfect stand in for a certain nation that loves to spread freedom and that's really exciting to me. Another potential series I would really love to see would be conversions of Final Fantasy monsters; especially the summons.

I TOTALLY loved this! I'll DEFINITELY be using this in my games.

I now can't think of anything but a Brass pushing a Tungsten dragon from the back, pointing at a Blue, and saying "He did it!" (metaphorically)

I like seeing them as the Draconic Brotherhood of Steel. Every overpowered Mcguffin who's hero failed and couldn't find it, all the best magic swords, all the tools of evil-slaying that the mortal races put their hopes into... Taken by one worthy of them that will use them properly... only to be stuck in a pile and not used for fear of needing them later (or lack of thumbs?)

Fun fact. With tungsten and blue dragons inhabiting the same territory it's worth mentioning that tungsten is used as lightbulb filaments because it heats very fast under electric charge and then emit electromagnetic radiation in the form of white light. So even if you skipped the naturally occurring super steel and just had large tungsten deposits alchemists and artificers and even a crazed blue dragon cult who embed tungsten all over their temple so it becomes a temple of light when their monarch is in attendance could still be after the ore.

22:32 this is just lethal company with the dragons minions.

OBSIDIAN DRAGON!!!! C'mon my guy. I'm dying for this

Very much enjoyed the musical choices in this video, especially the songs from RuneScape :)

I loved this video, I would love expanding into the regular metalic dragons, maybe discovering their weird side

🎉. Love the tungsten steel naturally occurring idea. Especially with them being tribal in nature. The naturally occurring tungsten could be flavored as generations of scale shed from the growth of the colony of dragons in the area. This would make it a limited resource and could even be used as proof that tungsten dragons once lived in an area if part of the adventure was to figure out what once lived in a large cave system before whatever inhabits it now.

LOVE THE EDITS!!! I just thought of something. A blue dragon kills the local tungsten dragon and now it's layer is up for grabs and there is a fight to claim it's wealth of steal for themselves. I just like the idea of the dragons layer it's self as a plot point even if the dragon is long gone. Maybe they think the layer is a lost tungsten dragon layer but it is in fact inhabited unlike initially belived.

17:57 NOW LET'S MAKE THESE GOBLINS GOOD!