Bronze Dragon

Bronze dragons are usually found near temperate coastlines, befitting their mastery of water. They are able to exhale electricity as a weapon. As lawful good creatures, bronze dragons have been known to ally with travelers and adventurers if the cause and reward are both right and just.

Appearance

Bronze dragons lack the horns and bony growths common to other draconic species, instead they have a pair of large, fanlike frills growing behind their jaws and further membranes over the rest of their bodies. Bronzes often have webbed toes, as well as rudder-like fins growing from their tails. They also possess the smallest wing-to-body ratio among true dragons, and consequently need to exert the most energy during flight.

Habitat

Bronze dragons dislike extremes of climate, and preferentially inhabit temperate areas. They usually live in hilly areas and close to large bodies of water, whether the ocean or large lakes.

Ecology

Bronze dragons are highly adapted for aquatic life. Their stout bodies and numerous fins make them efficient swimmers, and they possess a primitive set of gills protected by their large facial frills. Their fins serve a secondary purpose on land, where they help keep the dragons cool by helping to disperse heat from the blood circulating within them.
Bronze dragons subsist primarily on seafood, favoring items such as fish, clams, and crabs as sustenance, although they also eat fruits, tubers, and tree nuts. They have highly efficient metabolisms, and a single day's haul of fish can, when properly preserved, sustain a bronze dragon for a year.

Society

Bronze dragons are the least sociable of the metallics, and often remain in isolation for years or decades before returning to society. These social forays are often done for the purpose of acquiring fresh reading material, as bronzes are also voracious readers. They are also given to scholarly pursuits, and tend to be particularly attracted to mathematics and to history. Most bronzes assemble large libraries over their lives; as they also prefer to lair near water, this creates an inherent risk when storing and transporting their acquisitions, and consequently bronzes typically store their possessions in waterproof containers or in dry chambers away from standing water. On occasion, more socially minded bronze dragons live within humanoid societies, typically within libraries, temples, or other places of learning.
Some bronzes, rather than becoming scholars, pursue lives of militarism and warfare instead. These dragons often come to inhabit royal palaces, often becoming teachers, guardians, or advisors there but rarely ascending to full leadership.
The bronzes' patient natures make them ideal guardians, and they are often employed by humanoids and other dragons in this capacity. Those seeking a bronze's services as a guardian typically repay them with interesting books for the dragon to read while fulfilling their duty, although bronzes will occasionally take up protective duties out of a sense of moral duty. Bronzes are highly protective of the items they guard, and will do anything short of sacrificing their own lives to ensure their safety.
In addition to the love of coinage and precious metals common to all dragons, bronzes are strongly attracted to beautiful objects of natural, and especially marine, origin, and often collect large quantities of seashells, coral, strangely shaped driftwood, and rocks with water-worn holes. On occasion, they may also collect such things as pressed flowers or pinned insects. They also tend to value items that aid them in gathering and recording information, such as crystal balls and animated quills.
Bronze dragons usually gravitate towards divination magic, which suits both their hunger for knowledge and their traditional role as guardians, and are often skilled seers and diviners.

General

Type
Dragon
CR
2-22 (by age)
Environment
Coastlines
Alignment
Lawful Good
Breath Weapon
Lightning

Genetic Ancestor(s)

• Dragon