Electrum Dragon

Placid thinkers by temperament, electrum dragons turn alert, deliberate and lethal once provoked. They would rather use spells and breath from a distance and, like shrewd generals, read their enemies' plans in advance. Up close they claw twice and bite. Pouncing from the sky lets them rake with every claw at once, yet they favor sweeping past slashing with the foreclaws while their trailing hindquarters and tail club a foe for 2d6.

The breath is a cone of a unique gas, 5 feet wide at the mouth, 40 feet long and 30 feet across at the end. Each victim makes two saves, one per effect: failing one brings weakness like the ray of enfeeblement spell, lasting a turn; failing the other brings nine rounds of confusion, as that spell.

Their casting level equals 10 plus their age category. Hatchlings already read magic and detect magic, and gain +1 on saves against spells aimed at them. Age adds identify by touch at will without the usual drawbacks (young), locate object once daily (juvenile), dispel magic three times daily (adult), telekinesis twice daily (old), project image once daily (wyrm) and heal on itself or another by touch once daily (great wyrm).

Each lives alone in a stone lair, such as a ruined building, a mountain or a cave, but welcomes guests for trade, bargaining and philosophical argument, and hoards beautiful things rather than coin. They pass long hours lost in thought, often perched statue-still on a peak, and like to observe their neighbors unseen. Much of their time goes to seeking beauty or practicing magic, which they consider beautiful in itself.

About once a century two mate, staying together only briefly, usually swapping spells and frolicking through the sky. A year later the female lays 1d4 rubbery, foot-long eggs and leaves them. Each is 75% likely to be fertile and hatches 2d12 days after laying.

They graze lichens, scrub and tender treetop leaves, and eat fish, fowl and every kind of meat, with wyvern and griffon flesh a special treat. A few have devised new spells and passed them to elves and humans as gifts or for a price, and in places primitive tribes worship them or revere them as sages.