Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 zombiegleemax Jun 27, 2004 20:20:17	I'm curious about something. Mystara has setting-specific gem dragons that are different from those normally seen in D&D (which use psionics). Do the psionic-using gem dragons exist in Mystara as well, or not? Also, can Mystara's gem dragons learn psionics?
#2 Cthulhudrew Jun 27, 2004 20:53:56	Originally posted by WizO_Drake Do the psionic-using gem dragons exist in Mystara as well, or not? Also, can Mystara's gem dragons learn psionics? In the original Mystara setting (based on the red, blue, aqua, black, and gold boxed sets), there were only a few types of dragons- the chromatics (white, black, green, blue, red) and the gold dragon. No other metallic dragons were provided in any rules set. When the Master's Set came out (black box), the gem dragons- crystal, onyx, jade, sapphire, and ruby- were added to the mix. There was also brown, which wasn't really a gem- and was later amended to be amber (which isn't really a gem either, but what are you gonna do?) There was also no psionics rulesystem in those sets, and thus, no psionics. This was pretty much the case throughout Mystara's development (achieved mainly through the Gazetteer series and other products). (Sidenote- a few other dragons were added in various places. The only one I recall offhand is the Night Dragon, which isn't a "race" per se, but were in fact almost "Undead" dragons- servitors of Entropy.) Then Mystara switched to 2nd edition, at which point Metallic dragons (other than gold) are introduced various places "behind the scenes" so to speak, the assumption being that they were always there. Psionics are first mentioned in the Red Steel set, IIRC, and not much room is given to them even there. So- long story short (too late!), if you want to follow strict "canon"- the Gemstone dragons do not use psionics, nor do the psionic using dragons of other worlds exist on Mystara. Canon, however, is a flexible thing on Mystara. As noted, 2nd edition has introduced the other Metallics- so there is no reason to assume that the psionic dragons may not exist somewhere. Also, psionics may or may not exist. If they do, then presumably the gemstone dragons are no more inclined to use them than any other (non-psionic) dragon. Depends on your taste, I guess. For my part, I like the way psionics work in 3E, and feel that there are numerous places to use them that fit in with "canon" (see the psionics thread for more). I also feel that there is certainly room for more than just the "big six" dragon types (and the later 6 gemstone types) that were originally present. Mystara's a big place, after all, and as development of the world continued, there were a lot of "turning the exisiting rules on their head" type of things that went on- half-elves in the Savage Coast; rakasta and lupins taking the "big four" human classes rather than being a class/race like demihumans; druids starting at 1st level rather than 9th; etc. To get back to the Gemstone dragon topic- the only real difference between the Gemstones and the Chromatics was that they had multiple breath weapons (and very different ones from any other dragons I've seen). They were like the Metallics in that sense- two breath weapon types. Otherwise, they were just standard dragons. Giving them the use of psionics might very well be an additional way to distinguish them. While we're talking about it- I'm not all that familiar with the psionic dragons of AD&D. I've got an article in Dragon somewhere about them, but I don't recall exactly what types there were. There was a Jade dragon, IIRC, what were the others? (Trying to see if we could combine them somehow...)
#3 havard Jun 28, 2004 3:37:48	AD&D, aswell as 3e (monster manual) has Amethyst and Emerald Dragons as new gemstone dragons, but not the Jade or Amber ones. IMC I made Brown a different subrace from Amber, making Brown Dragons the Chaotic variant and Amber neutral, but otherwise both had the stats of Gold dragons. In Mystara, the general idea was that the Chromatic dragons were the Chaotic ones, the metallic (ie Gold) were the Lawful ones, and the Gemstone dragons were neutral in the Law/Chaos axis. The Good/Evil aixs did not exist in OD&D, but in the AD&D version of Mystara, it was stated that all dragons could be either good or evil. Another interesting thing about OD&D Dragons was that they could cast either Wizard or Clerical spells. Perhaps there are Favored Soul Dragons in addition to the Sorcerer ones? Would that require a new writeup, or could they keep the same writeup/spell progression/CR? I like allowing the Gemstones to use psionics in 3e Mystara btw, it helps make them different from the other two breeds, instead of becoming just a slight variant of the others. For simplification, we could simply use Amber=Amethyst and Jade=Emerald to get 3e stats for the gemstone dragons that do not exist in 3e. Håvard