Steel Dragon
| Statistic | Value |
|---|---|
| Frequency | rare |
| # Appearing | 2-8 |
| % In Lair | 30% |
| Treasure Type | F,G,H |
| Alignment | Lawful Neutral |
| Climate/Terrain | mountains with plenty of metal content, often the same ones dwarves like so much. |
| HD | 15 |
| Size | L (42') |
| AC | -2 |
| Magic Resistance | var. |
| No. Attacks | 3 or 1 (claw/claw/bite or breath) |
| Claw Damage | d10 (as long swords) |
| Bite Damage | d12 |
| Breath Damage | see below |
| Move | 9" running, 24" flying |
| Special Defenses | magnetic repulsion/attraction - anything made of iron or steel (and a few other ferrous metals) can be dragged to the dragon and stuck (unable to move) or repulsed away up to 30 yards away (it can only affect it's own body weight in each direction for repulsion, and 1/3 its body weight for attraction). |
| Special Attacks | breath weapon, see below |
Description
I don't think I've seen any steel dragons, so I'm submitting one. Also, this dragon is a bit for humor.. For those DMs with a comedic content, this can be the first truly anally retentive dragon.
Age Table
| Age | Body Lgt | Tail Lgt | AC | Breath | Spells | MR | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2-6 | 1-3 | 1 | 4d6 | - | 5% | #100-300 |
| 2 | 7-23 | 3-11 | 0 | 6d6 | - | 5% | #350-1150 |
| 3 | 24-37 | 12-18 | -1 | 8d6 | - | 10% | #1200-3700 |
| 4 | 38-46 | 19-23 | -2 | 10d6 | - | 10% | #3800-4600 |
| 5 | 47-54 | 23-27 | -3 | 12d6 | - | 20% | #4700-5400 |
| 6 | 55-65 | 27-32 | -4 | 14d6 | - | 20% | #5500-13000 |
| 7 | 66-70 | 33-35 | -5 | 16d6 | - | 30% | #13200-14000 |
| 8 | 71-75 | 35-33 | -6 | 20d6 | - | 30% | #14200-15000 |
| 9 | 76-80 | 33-40 | -7 | 24d6 | - | 40% | #15200-16000 |
| 10 | 81-89 | 40-45 | -8 | 30d6 | - | 40% | #16200-17800 |
| 11 | 90-109 | 45-55 | -9 | 36d6 | - | 50% | #18000-218000 |
| 12 | 110-126 | 55-63 | -10 | 42d6 | - | 50% | #220000-252000 |
The steel dragon is a dull metallic grey in color at birth, and this color gradually turns to a polished blue steel appearance with age. The dragon's head most clesly resembles that of the red dragon, except for the color, but the rest of the body is more similar to the silver dragon's.
Combat
In combat the steel dragon rarely uses its breath weapon, relying on its claws and teeth to handle those opponents it can't simply repulse away. For the most part, however, the steel dragon prefers to avoid combat altogether, keeping its home tidy, with every gold piece in its place.
Breath Weapon/Special Abilities
as was mentioned before, the steel dragon can repulse anything metallic near it, or attract it. For purposes of attraction, any creature weighing less than one tenth the dragon's weight will be unable to move any metal object attracted to the dragon's side. A larger creature, up to a third the dragon's weight, can move the items, but with great difficulty. A creature weighing more than that can remove the objects and act with them with only mild problems. For the purpose of repulsion, any creature weighing half what the dragon weighs will be tossed up to 10 yards away, and will be unable to get closer to the dragon than that. 1/3 weight to just under 1/2 weight will go out 15 yards. Less than 1/3, but greater than 1/10 weight will go out to 20 yards. 1/10 or less goes out to 30+ yards. Anything of greater weight than 1/2 the dragon's weight will not be repulsed.
The steel dragon can breathe a cone of high pressured steam which will be extremely painful and blinding. It is 4' wide at the dragon's mouth, extends 40', and is 20' wide at the end.
Habitat/Society
steel dragons are extremely group oriented, and a community will live in dotted caves about a mountainside (these caves they dig themselves). They are also fastidiously clean and tidy, and can be driven into a killing frenzy by the effects on their caves that many adventurers will have (knock over that vase, I dare ya). They are also possessed of a fine taste in interior decorum, as they have little use for the haphazard appearance of other dragon's homes, and will often decorate the place in much artwork (1/2 their coin value should be in art). Of course, most other dragons refer to teh steel dragon as anally retentive, but such slander will not be tolerated.
Ecology
steel dragons eat steel and iron, either extracted, or in the raw ore form for the iron. If only iron is available, they will also eat a small amount of coal or even diamonds if coal is not available. They will also often kidnap beautiful young maidens (usually virgins) to attract foolish young knights. They will usually let the maiden go after a few years of knights have been caught, and have even been known to tutor the young ladies in the finer arts during the interrum! One particularly famous example of this (among dragons, of course - humans are blithely unaware of all this) was the steel dragon Smarasg. He and a young lady by the name of Sue had a partnership - she didn't want to get married, and he had a hearty appetite. She stayed with him for several years, and he feasted on many a suit of armor. This beautiful relationship finally ended when the young lady finally found a young man she could love, a goatherder without a steel knife to his name. Fortunately for both, no one knew she had run off with the goatherder, and knights continued coming to rescue the now absent princess until the dragon finally died at the hands of a young paladin named Dapper Dave (but it was a good death - the dragon was ready to die, having seen many Sue's come and go in that time).