Dungeons and Dragons: Undead Dragons

Comments · 490

• AJ

  @ajpickett · 4 years ago · pinned

  My old video on the Dracolich &nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnfZQckHIH0">https://youtu.be/NnfZQckHIH0</a>

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• DR

  @Draconic_Savant · 1 month ago (edited)

  Wrote &amp; ruled up a particularly nasty BBG for a friend a few years back. One who was a DM for some power gamer players who thought most of his encounters to be too easy. <br><br>Effectively, a rather psychotic Ancient Black Dragon named Mourneth who had unwittingly become a Vampiric Dragon, but desired even more protection from death. So, she &amp; her necromancer underlings created a phylactery of pure mithral shaped from the skull of the dragon who had originally turned her into a vampire, and became a Vampiric Dracolich. A creature actually empowered by her feeding habits, as the phylactery binds her power to the mortal realm, causing her to lose only half of the vitality to the negative plane. What energy she does gain from feeding, not only empowers her attacks &amp; abilities to new heights, but revitalizes her form, her muscle and scales growing back where only bone existed. Organs reforming, eyes growing where only empty sockets existed, until she appears as a black dragon of a dark red hue. A form that may wither from battle or neglected hunger. <br>This vampirism is intrinsically tied to Mourneth&apos;s being, meaning if her body is destroyed, when her soul seeks out one of the myriad dragon corpses she has stored around, that body too will be a vampiric dracolich. Most of these corpses belonged to other ancient black dragons, but Mourneth mixes it up with some others she&apos;s fond of. One she keeps well preserved is that of a gold dragon, which she is eager to use. Almost wishing for death so that opportunity may arise.<br> <br>Mourneth&apos;s phylactery is made of mithral for good reason. <br>First off, gems are the common &amp; least temperamental phylactery of dracoliches, but anything with a value of 2000GP or more does technically qualify. Mithral has no set price, but a set of armour of it is estimated by players to be between 1500-5000GP, so you can imagine the value of an adult red dragon skull made of the stuff. <br>The skull shape itself is just Mourneth&apos;s love for cruel irony, but the mithral material was chosen over something stronger, such as adamantine, for one of its key latent properties. Each time mithral is hit with a spell, there is a chance that the individual in possession of the mithral becomes temporarily protected from harmful magical effects. In essence, since Mourneth&apos;s soul is tied to this specific phylactery, each time a magic attack is used against her, there is a 1 in 3 chance (rolled on a D6) that she will gain a resistance to all categories of magic or enchantments for the next ten minutes, even those which would be more effective against vampiric dragons or dracoliches. This compounds with her innate magical resistance as an undead, which gives her almost complete immunity against all but the most powerful spellcasters when active. <br>Before entering combat (if she knows its coming), she&apos;ll purposely have her underlings cast weak magical attacks against her until this effect is activated, putting the PCs at an immediate disadvantage at the potential cost of negligible hit points lost from this practice. To boot, this effect of mithral is only described to work against *harmful magic, so spells that benefit or heal Mourneth still work even when this effect is active.<br><br>And, just to be a jerk, I wrote in that Mourneth had succeeded in casting &quot;Aumvor&apos;s fragmented phylactery&quot; (or whatever your world&apos;s counterpart name to it is). Meaning there are Nine of these mithral skulls hidden about.<br><br>In my freind&apos;s campaign, Mourneth ruled over an entire nation, and was on the path of becoming a greatwyrm. If this is achieved, she&apos;ll ascend to the heavens, begin feeding on the very essence of the gods, and effectively game over the setting for that campaign. To their credit, the players did get into a flow &amp; destroyed five of the phylacteries with only one PC being (permanently) killed along the way. They may have actually triumphed in the end, only losing because the DM placed a 3-month timer to Mourneth&apos;s ascension, which they failed to stop in time. <br>Frankly, if I were more involved, I&apos;d want the campaign to continue anyway just to see if they could do it. But, I just paint miniatures &amp; write up lore pieces for them. Mourneth being one of my nine ancient dragons, who I&apos;ve made into a sort of draconic court within my own developing setting. As frightful as the prospect is, she is not the most powerful of The Nine, but she is the most vile &amp; hated amongst the lot.

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• JO

  @johnathanbrandt2526 · 3 months ago

  Evil overlord keeps a Hoarding Dragon (a kind of ghost dragon that possess its former hoard to interact with the material world) in a false treasure vault in the front of his castle. Would be thieves don&apos;t get the chance to learn that &quot;all that glitters isn&apos;t gold.&quot;

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• JO

  @Jourell1 · 4 months ago

  Gotta say it- up north, undead dragons may be a white wight

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• JA

  @jacobfreeman5444 · 11 months ago

  I have been thinking on what to define undeath as to align with my views on vital essence and what necromancy is. And I have decided on something like this after happening upon the thought that normal life is seen as a blessing of the gods. Undeath is cursed life. You are indeed still alive. But instead of being blessed with life you are cursed with it. This aligns with what necromancy typically seems to be in the setting. All the schools of magic are the study of spells that require similar set of skills to use. Necromancy, it seems to me, to be the study of curses and blessings. Since true blessings seem to be jealously guarded by higher beings, like gods, then the magics most easily studied and mastered are curses. And this is why creation and command of the undead is a big part of the necromancy school. If you can create cursed life to act upon your will without deviation why wouldn&apos;t you? It would be superior to golems in a very important way. Golems tend to need very exact and well thought out instructions. They do not understand turns of phrase and will act in unwanted ways even to the best instructions. Undead do not have this limitation.<br><br>And so to turn to the topic of this vid. This all explains why, from a mage&apos;s POV, vampire dragons are inferior to dracoliches. Vampires require blood and it&apos;s vitality for all their powers. The innate font of magic within the dragon has been replaced. They are still strong but what made them a true terror and wonder is gone. The elder magical essence that grows only stronger as a dragon ages. By comparison a dracolich has just converted this font into a new form. All that makes it dragon is preserved while also welcoming it into the ranks of the damned. Truly superior in every way that is important to a vampire dragon. The only reason for a dracolich to lose to a vampire dragon is because the dragon itself failed to live up to the gift granted.

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• LE

  @LegallyMason · 1 year ago

  AJ, is the ghoul dragon unable to paralyze elves thanks to the deal with Dorian the Ghoul King?

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• HA

  @hateforallliving · 1 year ago

  Told u I would subscribe now bring on the necromancers

• MR

  @MrReckless1978 · 1 year ago

  There was a D&amp;D elven vampire that could control his feeding and he was good or lawful aligned, think his name was Kandar Sunstar

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• DR

  @drewbrowning2862 · 1 year ago

  Around 3 months ago I lost a character in a fight against a ghost dragon. My level 14 samurai fighter was bound by a short-term devil contract that would protect them from a corrupting influence, but was unable to flee or would forfeit his soul. He saved the other party members by keeping it occupied long enough in an epic 18 rounds of one on one combat as so they could escape and reroute the king&apos;s army. He will be missed but died an honorable death.

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• AN

  @An0nSl0thLife · 1 year ago

  At about <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AdO2Khescc&amp;t=320">5:20</a>, I can&apos;t help but notice how you specifically left out the potential of Rune Crafters which could lead to undead Rune Knights.<br><br>Since this is giants we&apos;re talking about.

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• KA

  @katelynthewhitewerewolf6376 · 1 year ago

  I also like Undead Skeletal Dragons especially the Skyrim Skeletal Dragons where they&apos;re living Dragon Skeletons who breath Fire Breath and Frost Breath and I imagine Azrael the Angel of Death having a Dragon Wyvern form where he can transform into a big black skeletal dragon with glowing red eyes and breathing fire breath and ice breath. <br>Lucifer and Azrael are my favorite fallen angels. <br>I also like Fallout Angels. <br>Especially when they&apos;re able to transform into Dragons.

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• KA

  @kamilguzik3870 · 1 year ago

  comment

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