Dragon, Metallic, Bronze

Bronze dragons are inquisitive and fond of humans and demi-humans. They enjoy polymorphing into small, friendly animals so they can unobtrusively observe humans and demi-humans, especially adventurers. Bronze dragons thrive on simple challenges such as riddles and harmless contests. They are fascinated by warfare and will eagerly join an army if the cause is just and the pay is good.

At birth, a bronze dragon's scales are yellow tinged with green, showing only a hint of bronze. As the dragon approached adulthood, its color deepens slowly changing to a rich bronze tone that gets darker as the dragon ages. Dragons from the very old stage on develop a blue-black tint to the edges of their scales, similar to a patina on ancient bronze armor or statues.

Bronze dragons speak their own tongue, a tongue common to all good dragons, and 16% of hatchling bronze dragons have an ability to communicate with any intelligent creature. The chance to possess this ability increases 5% per age category of the dragon.

Combat: Bronze dragons dislike killing creatures with animal intelligence and would rather bribe them (perhaps with food), or force them away with repulsion. When confronted with intelligent opponents bronze dragons use their ESP ability to learn their opponents' intentions. When attacking they blind their opponents with wall of fog, then charge. Or, if they are flying they will snatch opponents. When fighting under water, they use airy water to maintain the effectiveness of their breath weapons, and to keep away purely aquatic opponents. Against boats or ship they summon a storm or use their tail slap to smash the vessels' hulls. If the dragon is inclined to be lenient, seafaring opponents might merely find themselves becalmed, fog bound, or with broken masts.

Breath Weapon/Special Abilities: A bronze dragon has two breath weapons: a stroke of lightning 100' long and 5' side or a cloud of repulsion gas 20' long, 30' wide, and 30' high. Creatures caught in the gas must save vs. breath weapon or move away from the dragon for two minutes per age level of the dragon, plus 1-6 minutes. Creature caught in the lightning take damage, save vs. breath weapon for half. A bronze dragon casts its spells and uses its magical abilities at 8th level, plus its combat modifier.

At birth, bronze dragons have a water breathing ability, can speak with animals at will, and are immune to electricity. As they age, they gain the following additional powers:

Young: create food and water and polymorph self three times a day. (Each change in form lasts until the dragon chooses a different form. Reverting to the dragon's normal form does not count as a change.) Juvenile: wall of fog once a day. Adult: ESP three times a day. Mature adult: airy water three times a day in a 10' radius per age category of the dragon. Old: weather summoning once a day.

Habitat/Society: Bronze dragons like to be near deep fresh or salt water. They are good swimmers and often visit the depths to cool off or to hunt for pearls or treasure from sunken ships. They prefer caves that are accessible only from the water, but their lairs are always dry - they do not lay eggs, sleep, or store treasure under water.

Bronze dragons are fond of sea mammals, especially dolphins and whales. These animals provide the dragons with a wealth of information on shipwrecks, which the dragons love to plunder, and detail the haunts of large sharks. Bronze dragons detest pirates, disabling or destroying their ships.

Ecology: Bronze dragons eat aquatic plants and some varieties of seafood. They especially prize of shark meat. They also dine on an occasional pearl, and, like other dragons, can eat almost anything in a pinch. Evil, amphibious sea creatures (particularly sahuagin), who can invade their air filled lairs, are their greatest enemies.