Best of the Beastiary, D&D

Brass Dragons: Burn the Evil Away

‘The most gregarious of the true dragons, brass dragons crave conversation, sunlight, and hot, dry climates.’ Oh, so it’s me if I actually enjoyed living in *insert home state here*!

Brass dragons value conversation and information. So much so that they’re willing to give treasure to gain, or exchange it for treasure. If an intelligent creature should avoid conversing with the beast in its presence, the dragon will follow it. If they try to escape, the dragon’s interest will be peaked and it will knock it out with its sleep breath. When they awake, they’ll be pinned by the mighty dragon until its lust for conversation is quenched.

While a brass dragon is very trusting of those who enjoy talking as much as it, it is smart enough to know when it is being manipulated. They’ll often return the favor, lying and manipulating those that try to do that to it. Often times, they’ll enjoy it like a game of jousting.

They covet magical items with which they can converse. Enchanted items or lamps containing dginn are their greatest treasures. They’ll bury these treasures deep in the sand, much like blue dragons. Adventurers who find this loot should beware, for a brass dragon is still a dragon. Should that treasure be disturbed, a great fury shall be unleashed.

Huh. Kinda one-dimensional, isn’t it? Still, you can at least squeeze some neat plots out of it. Perhaps the party needs to make a trade with a brass dragon for a crucial piece of information. Or maybe they discover their hoard and a dginn tries to convince them to take it away, turning them against the dragon. You could make them try to beat it in a game of lies and manipulation. There’s some fun stuff to do with it.

So long as you don’t have a group of murder hobos. Which you do. Because it’s Dungeons and Dragons.

As for their stats, it’s just the same as the red dragon. However, they do have two different abilities that help them stand out. The first is the aforementioned sleep breath; with this, it can knock out its foes without killing them. And the second is its ability to transform into another creature.

How does the ladder apply to combat? Ever heard of a two-phase boss fight?

Honestly, I found this one to be pretty underwhelming. The lore is so completely focused on that one aspect that it doesn’t have very much room for depth or growth. Its just ‘the dragon you can talk to’. Meh.

With all that in mind, let’s put the Brass Dragon on the Best of the Bestiary!

  1. Beholder
  2. Death Tyrant
  3. Green Dragons
  4. Red Dragons
  5. Blue Dragons
  6. Black Dragons
  7. White Dragons
  8. Couatl
  9. Behir
  10. Aboleth
  11. Brass Dragon <————-
  12. Chuul
  13. Chimera
  14. Death Knight
  15. Bone Devil
  16. Dracolich
  17. Ankheg
  18. Shadow Demon
  19. Marilith
  20. Aarackockra
  21. Azer
  22. Demilich
  23. Spectator
  24. Cambion
  25. Animated Armor
  26. Banshee
  27. Basilisk
  28. Yochlol
  29. Bulette
  30. Cloaker
  31. Darkmantle
  32. Doppelganger
  33. Pit Fiend
  34. Erinyes
  35. Chain Devil
  36. Bearded Devil
  37. Barbed Devil
  38. Spined Devil
  39. Ice Devil
  40. Nalfeshnee
  41. Glabrezu
  42. Chasme
  43. Barlgura
  44. Horned Devil
  45. Balor
  46. Shadow Dragon
  47. Vrock
  48. Dretch
  49. Goristro
  50. Hezrou
  51. Manes
  52. Quasit
  53. Planetar
  54. Imp
  55. Displacer Beast
  56. Carrion Crawler
  57. Rug of Smothering
  58. Bugbear Chief
  59. Bugbear
  60. Vine Blight
  61. Twig Blight
  62. Needle Blight
  63. Bullywug
  64. Cockatrice
  65. Lemure
  66. Solar
  67. Deva
  68. Cyclops
  69. Centaur
  70. Dinosaurs (All six of them)
  71. Flying Sword
  72. Crawling Claw

If it didn’t make such a good boss fight by virtue of being a dragon, it would be so much lower.

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