Oriental Dragon Overview

Oriental dragons, or lung, are mostly loners, especially as adults. Groups are nearly always a mated pair with young; pairs never stay together past mature adulthood, and the young with them are never older than young adult. An offspring's age is found on 1d6, from egg on a 1 up through hatchling, very young, young and juvenile to young adult on a 6.

Most are officials of the celestial court of heaven, a spirit government under the heavenly emperor. Each subspecies handles one duty; river dragons, for example, guard rivers and lakes and deliver rain. Each year the dragon officials report to the palace of heaven, and the review brings reward or punishment: the corrupt or lazy may be replaced, the diligent promoted.

Hit Dice and combat modifiers depend on age category, starting from each subspecies' base Hit Dice. The dragon saves as a fighter of level equal to its Hit Dice, and its combat modifier applies to attack and damage on physical attacks only, never to breath or special attacks. So a very young li lung (base 13 HD, minus 4) has 9 Hit Dice, saves as a 9th-level fighter and adds +1 to physical attacks.

All claw and bite; claws reach front and flanks, but only some subspecies can bite sideways. Fliers of young adult age or more can snatch like other dragons: a 50% chance of pinning the victim's arms, claw damage every round it is squeezed, and a successful attack roll moves the victim to the mouth for automatic bite damage every round. Only subspecies whose entries say so can kick, wing buffet or tail slap. A diving dragon gains +1 to claw attacks, and against flying foes it must choose between clawing and biting.

Armor Class and magic resistance improve with age, and from old age on the hide shrugs off normal missiles. The hide makes dragon armor with an Armor Class 4 worse than the dragon's, to a limit of AC 8.

Young adults and older radiate a fear aura. Humans and demihumans under 1 Hit Die, and nonaggressive beings whose Hit Dice fall below the dragon's, flee in terror for 4d6 minutes at the sight of it. Others inside the aura must save vs. petrification, adjusted by the dragon's age, or panic and fight at -2 to attack and damage. The aura's radius grows with age.

Oriental dragons cast no spells the way other dragons do, and some have no breath weapon at all, but every one has continual ESP to a range in feet of five times its age level, never needs sleep, and can go invisible or visible at will, though attacking always reveals it. All but carp dragons can polymorph freely into human form and back. They detect invisible things, even those hidden by darkness or fog, within 10 feet per age category, and have clairaudience in and around their lairs to 20 feet per age category, focused on one chosen area.

Some subspecies wield scaly command, seizing control of scaly creatures of animal intelligence or less, chiefly reptiles and fish, in water within half a mile. The control lasts 2d6 turns, allows no save and resists dispelling, controlled creatures cannot be taken over by anyone else, and scaly beasts never willingly attack a dragon with this power.

Others can cloak themselves in water fire whenever they are in or touching water: ghostly, flickering, many-colored flames that harm anything touching them, the damage varying by subspecies. All oriental dragons are immune to it. The dragon can dismiss it at will; real or magical fire snuffs it out for 2d6 turns before it can be renewed.

Most fly thanks to a magical gem or pearl lodged in the brain, which works for no one else even if removed.