Red Dragon [Chromatic]

Newly hatched reds have small, bright, glossy scarlet scales that make them easy prey for predators and skin hunters, so they are kept deep underground until late in the young stage. By then the scales have darkened to a deeper red with a smooth, matte finish, and the dragon can fend for itself. Eventually they turn heavy and broad, hard as metal plate. Reds speak their own tongue and the evil dragon tongue, and 16% of hatchlings can talk with any intelligent creature, rising 5% per age category.

Covetous beyond any other dragon, a red is obsessed with enlarging its hoard and can list every piece of it to the last copper. Vain and supremely confident, it believes itself better than other dragons and every other living thing. So sure of itself, it never stops to size up an opponent, instead deciding instantly whether to strike and choosing among 'flawless' battle plans devised in the solitude of its lair. A small, unthreatening target such as an unarmored man is attacked on the ground with claws and bite, since flame might destroy treasure the victim carries. A group of armored men gets breath, special powers and any spells the dragon is old enough to have before it lands.

The breath is a cone of fire 90 feet long, 5 feet wide at the mouth and 30 feet at the end, halved by a save vs. breath weapon. Spells work at 9th level adjusted by combat modifier. Reds are born immune to fire and later gain affect normal fires three times daily (young), pyrotechnics three times daily (juvenile), heat metal once daily (adult), suggestion once daily (old), hypnotism once daily (very old) and, at venerable age, detect gems three times daily, revealing the kind and number of gems within 100 feet.

Reds favor towering hills and mountains, lairing in big caves that plunge deep underground. From a high lookout they gaze over their domain, which to them is all the land in sight. They keep to themselves and deal with others, even fellow reds, only for gain; some with charm spells use men as spies to report on nearby towns and treasure. Once offspring reach young adulthood they are ordered out of the lair and its lands as rivals.

They attack anything that trespasses, particularly copper and silver dragons that sometimes share their range, and hate gold dragons above all, because golds are 'almost' as mighty as reds.

Meat eaters by choice, reds can digest nearly anything. Above all they crave young maidens, human or demihuman, and some charm village leaders into offering one up on a regular basis.