The Monsters Know What They’re Doing

If you’ve got a campaign that takes place largely or entirely at sea, maybe dragon turtles figure in it more prominently than your garden-variety dragons—and maybe you’re disappointed to have only the one dragon turtle stat block to work with.[*] Worry no longer, says Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons, which expands the dragon turtle family tree to include all the same stages of development that the Monster Manual provides for chromatic and metallic dragons: wyrmlings, young and ancient as well as adult.

The dragon turtle extended family parallels the dragon turtle family in a lot of ways. Since the default (adult) dragon turtle is already Gargantuan, however, the younger variations are also both one size larger than their dragon analogues. (The ancient dragon turtle remains Gargantuan: you can’t get more gargantuan than Gargantuan.) (more…)

Deep dragons present a subterranean variation on the chromatic dragon theme. They exist in wyrmling, young, adult and ancient variants, just like their chromatic cousins, and share a sequence of features and traits that they acquire according to the same pattern as they age. Their challenge ratings are lower, however, since they have fewer hit points, deal less damage than even white dragons, and lack the Frightful Presence trait; we might think of them as degraded versions of the chromatics.

Like their kin, deep dragons are melee-favoring brutes, with Strength as their primary offensive ability and Constitution as their primary defensive ability. Despite living underground, they can fly as fast as their skyborne relatives, and they can also burrow and swim. Sadly, lacking the Tunneler trait, deep dragons have no way of burrowing through solid rock; they have to make do with whatever passages nature carves for them. But they’ll certainly favor caves with large halls, and flooded areas are a plus—to an extent. Unlike green dragons, deep dragons aren’t amphibious and have to hold their breath underwater. That’s no big deal, though: Fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons’ suffocation rule is generous, as long as you can take a deep breath and hold it before you dive. Deep dragons also have exceptional darkvision—90 feet as wyrmlings, 150 feet later on—so they have no reason to light their lairs, and they love locations with straight passages and long sight lines, which allow them to see other creatures long before they can be seen themselves.

They have proficiency in the ambush skills of Perception and Stealth, but they also have proficiency in Persuasion. To confabulate with a deep dragon wyrmling, you’ll have to speak Draconic, but young, adult and ancient deep dragons all speak Common (and Undercommon) and also have high enough Wisdom and Charisma that they’ll stop fighting and parley if a combat encounter is going awry for them, generally when they’re moderately wounded (for a young deep dragon, reduced to 65 hp or fewer; for an adult, reduced to 102 hp or fewer; and for an ancient, reduced to 140 or fewer). (more…)