Until about six months ago I had no interest in the care and feeding of dragons. Then I woke up to find my best friend wrapped in what appeared to be an egg. After some frantic online research, and a phone call to an angry Wyrm who owed me a favor, I learned that Briff had begun his first molt.
As dragons age they never stop growing, unless they lack enough magic to sustain their gargantuan bodies. This is true of all types of dragons, across all realities, if the codex of the dragonflights is accurate. They weren't infallible, but they had a pretty good understanding having been, you know, dragons themselves.
The First Molting
Wyrms begin their first molt at roughly a century of age. Their body will sense their readiness, though false starts are common as they approach the final threshold. In a practical sense the hatchling needs to have been to enough Catalysts, to have eaten well, and to reach the proper age.
The Dragonflights codified this process to the point where they had charts, and learned that you can "overpower" a molting by provided excessive magic early in a hatchling's life. They have a record of forcing a first molting in a 22 year old hatchling, who possessed the mental capacity of a human pre-teen.
| Hatchling Age |
# Catalysts Required |
| 100 |
5 |
| 95 |
6 |
| 90 |
7 |
| 85 |
8 |
| 80 |
9 |
| 75 |
10 |
| 70 |
11 |
| 65 |
12 |
| 60 |
13 |
| 55 |
14 |
| 50 |
15 |
| 45 |
16 |
| 40 |
17 |
| 35 |
18 |
| 30 |
19 |
| 25 |
20 |
| 20 |
21 |
| 15 |
22 |
| 10 |
23 |
| 5 |
24 |
Once the hatchling has reached the requisite age, and has the appropriate magic, they enter a form of hibernation where their wings enclose them in a chrysalis. They remain there for up to three days, and during this time the chrysalis, also called an egg, will swell in size until maturation is reached.
A hatchling who emerges from the chrysalis is no longer a hatchling. They are an adult Wyrm, which introduces a number of problematic changes. An adult wyrm cannot wear spellarmor, or clothing, or wield a standard spellrifle. They are simply too large, and require specialized equipment.
When a hatchling molts they gain the Adult Dragon Temple below.
Adult Dragon Template
Increase hit points by 50
Increase strength and fortitude by 1
Increase brace by 1
Raise armor and resistance by 2
Breath weapon increased to 10 damage in a 15 meter cone
May breathe spells (see below)
Breath Weapons In Detail
Hatchling breath weapons are fairly scary, but adult Wyrms bring the beat. You don't want to be in the path of a cone of acid, or void, or fire, or plasma, or...you know what it's all bad.
But we didn't talk about the specifics of the bad last time we went over dragons, and I want to, because not all breath weapons are created equal. One of them is noticably uglier than the rest.
- Life = Plasma (double damage to demons, unliving, and ethereals)
- Air = Lightning (targets suffer -2 penalty to all actions during their next turn)
- Dream = Sleep (targets fall into unnatural sleep and cannot be woken for one round per success)
- Fire = Lingering Fire (This is the really broken one as adult wyrms will deliver a total of 55 points of damage)
- Void = Disintegration (double damage to unliving, ethereals, and seraphim)
- Earth = Lingering Acid (This one is not broken even though it's the same damage as fire, because we've all seen Alien)
- Spirit = Paralysis (Stuns target for one round per success)
- Water = Frost (The Wyrm gains 2 points of magic penetration as a hatchling, and 3 as an adult)
In addition, an adult dragon may choose to breathe any gamemaster approved spell that it knows, in place of a breath weapon. For example a spirit Wyrm could bind their targets, or a life Wyrm heal them.
Some spells make no sense in this capacity, so please respect GM decisions if they wish to disallow certain spells as breath weapons.
The Dragon's Hybrid Form
If I've learned anything in my intensive and scholarly pursuit of dragonly information it's that dragons like humping things. That can be rather awkward when you are an adult Wyrm or larger, and so their society pioneered a magic that has since been bred into every draconic species.
All dragons, regardless of size, can learn to shift into a human-sized hybrid form. This body is bipedal like a man, and posseses wings like a seraphim, but draconic in nature. Most hybrid forms are completely hairless, though older Wyrms have improved their hybrid forms to include it, and some can pass completely for human if you overlook that their pores are in fact scales.
As I understand it these abilities become available when an adult dragon molts into an elder wyrm, which happens at the millennia mark, but can be overcharged apparently.
Whenever a Wyrm dons their hybrid form, which takes one action, they lose the Adult Dragon Template and gain the Hybrid Dragon Template listed below.
Hybrid Dragon Template
Increase hit points by 10
Raise armor and resistance by 2
Can use standard equipment and weaponry
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