Steel Dragon

Blue-gray with steely glints at hatching, it brightens with age to burnished steel. In human form, which it prefers, one steel-gray feature always remains: eyes, hair, nails, or a ring or ornament. It speaks its own tongue and that of neutral dragons; 19% of hatchlings can talk to any intelligent being, plus 5% per age category.

Witty talk beats fighting, so a steel dragon opens with spells and avoids melee, taking dragon form and breathing only when seriously hurt or endangered. It breathes on anyone it plans to close with and keeps them in the cloud while it lasts.

The breath is a cube of toxin, sized as the dragon likes up to its age maximum (15 feet a side for a hatchling, 70 for a great wyrm), absorbed through skin as readily as by breathing. Victims save vs. poison at -2 or die; greasing all bare skin with lard cancels the penalty. Survivors take 1d4+1 to 7d4 damage by age. Without wind it remains potent two rounds. The dragon itself cannot be poisoned.

Five times daily it may polymorph self, holding each shape until it changes again; reverting is free. It is immune to 1st- to 4th-level wizard spells and casts at 8th level plus its combat modifier. Powers: young, cantrip 2/day; juvenile, friends 1/day; adult, charm person 3/day; mature adult, suggestion 1/day; old, enthrall 1/day.

It rents city quarters with vaults or strongrooms, always has mortal companions, and is endlessly curious about the art, culture, history and politics of humans and demihumans. It hides its nature but knows its own kind on sight.

It prefers human cooking, but unlike other shapeshifting dragons it cannot live on it, so once or twice monthly it slips into the wilds to hunt, covering the trip with a plausible story. It hates chaotic creatures that disturb cities or ruin its hunting grounds, reporting or tracking criminals in town and dealing with them more swiftly in the wild.