Dragon Riders

With Anne McCaffrey having recently passed, this article becomes a topical albeit melancholy. While the Pern books were much more sci-fi than fantasy, this blog post is still dedicated to her memory.

The Dragonlance novels were partially responsible for my introduction to D&D and RPGs. If there’s one memorable part of the Dragonlance saga it’s the epic battle of good versus evil and love versus hate. But if there’s two memorable parts, the second would be knights on dragons fighting other dragons. Dragon rider combat was featured prominently on the cover of the Third Edition campaign setting and novels such as Legend of Huma. Dragon mounts are a perfect example of something that just belongs in the Paragon Tier: riding your very own dragon is beyond a Heroic Tier party yet lacks the planar or divine hook of the Epic Tier. It’s perfect for the game, but can be a little tricky to pull off in 4e.

As solo monsters, dragons are formidable foes for an entire party. Even young low-level dragons are sizable beasts, with fair number of hit points and numerous abilities. It would be inappropriate to use an existing dragon’s statistics for a mount. But the flexible nature of 4th Edition monsters means a level 5 solo monster can be adapted and altered into a level 15 standard monster. As mounts should be simple to run, it’s mostly a matter of reducing powers and tweaking the remaining abilities to be slightly less powerful.

There are two dragon mounts already in the game: a githyanki red dragon from Dragonomicon I and a summoned paladin mount from Class Acts: Cavalier (Dragon #393). Sadly, the latter is an Epic Tier mount (but having a celestial silver dragon at your beck and call is rather epic). There are also the drakkensteeds from Draconomicon II, which are a work-around using a true dragon as a mount, but not quite as satisfying.

Sample Dragon Mounts

Below are a five examples of possible draconic mounts, one for each of the traditional metallic dragons. If requested, I might write-up adamantine and iron another day.

    

Game Considerations

The big hurdle with dragon mounts is that they either lead to aerial combat or half their fun is lost. Not every combat needs to be on dragons, but a token draconic dogfight is fun: every Paragon or Epic campaign should include at least one battle in the sky.

Three Dimensional combat is not always as easy in 4th Edition, given its emphasis on tactical tabletop battles. A 3D fight can be made a little easier with props and game aides. There are a number of companies offering flying stands, but it’s possible to make do with elevation recording dice beside the minis or clear plastic dice boxes.

Dragon on Dragon Violence

Aerial fights in 4e have the added bonus that effects which stun or prone also cause a flying creature to fall. This makes for a lovely way to speed-up combat. At high altitudes, a flying creature can fall 500 feet (100 squares) before stopping, effectively taking them out of the combat. This makes a multi-dragon aerial battle very possible without a long slog against multiple beasts with high hit point totals.

It’s also fun to face multiple opponents, also on dragons. Knocking the mount prone is still a viable tactic in this instance, but forced movement is also useful. At a DM’s discretion, forced movement can  violently dismount a rider. This makes for a very cinematic combat, with enemy dragon riders knocked from their saddles hundreds of feet above the ground.

IF building a character for a little aerial dragon combat, remember to take powers that can prone or push. But also look for utilities that can negate forced movement. As fun as it is to unsaddle an opponent, you don’t want to follow them down. Magical items that can slow a fall are also desirable.

And what is Dragonlance without lances? Thankfully for this article, lances were recently reintroduced to the game in Mordenkainen’s Magnificent Emporium. So buy a copy of MME, grab a lance (with the dragonslayer enchantment of course), saddle-up your copper dragon and take to the sky!

 

“Jester” David Gibson has contributed to the ”Dragon” magazine, Goodman Game’s “Book of Rituals”, Powersource Podcast,  the At-Will Blog, and is been a longtime member of the Ravenloft fan-community the “Fraternity of Shadows”. His semi-regular blog can be read on the Wizards of the Coast community site. You can follow him on Twitter at: twitter.com/DnDJester