Air Dragon

An air dragon resembles a huge, lusterless diamond floating in midair, its facets formed by rippling pseudo-muscle, teeth, claws and bone. Its old wings, toes and feet remain in this form, but all of it is just air sculpted by its mighty mind. Lovely as it is, it still projects dragon fear, and its eyes usually match the scale color it had before its body died in the change.

It fights only when cornered. Lacking any physical attack, it relies on magic, chiefly its command of air, which can drag objects toward it at 100 miles per hour. Per Hit Die, it moves 10 pounds at 5 feet, losing 1 pound of capacity for each extra foot; a 20 HD air dragon thus pulls 200 pounds at 5 feet but only 1 pound at 205 feet. It can pull once per turn and, on the following round, push with the same limits. This pull-and-shove is its signature move, and few foes want more after one such battering, so it seldom resorts to spells.

It retains its former breath weapon and every spell-like power and immunity it had in life. A gold dragon reborn this way, for instance, still has detect lies, detect gems, its luck bonus, slow, sleep and the rest of its many abilities.

Air dragons are much rarer than other dragons of their vast air world, so their kin cherish and tend them, and that devotion literally keeps them alive. They feed on love, adoration and affection, so none can be evil, and dragons from other worlds, being solitary and emotionally barren, can never make the change.

Each dragon family there is led by one or two air dragons, who make every weighty decision. Their towering Intelligence and Wisdom make them ideal mediators when a family feud nears open war, and even other races seek their wisdom and ingenuity.

An ordinary dragon past the great wyrm stage can become an air dragon when its body grows too feeble: the mind departs, the flesh withers, and a vast, ghostly diamond in the dragon's exact shape seems to lift free of the husk.

The dragon may then let the body die or keep it alive by willpower. Sustaining it makes the air form indestructible, re-forming elsewhere 1d4 turns after any amount of damage, and grants unending life while the husk survives, but the air dragon can never go more than 15,000 miles from it. Letting the body die frees the dragon to travel anywhere, even other planets and crystal shells, but destroying its air body then kills it.

Age-based ability gains are shown in the accompanying chart. The oldest known air dragon, Orivane the Long-Lived, died at 4,230. Whether there is a natural limit is unknown, though one likely exists, and an older living air dragon is unlikely but possible.