Customize Your Dragons!

Use these tables to customize Dragons and make them unique to your campaign world.

Note:  The first descriptor is regional and that's primarily up to you----It's your game, where are they from?  Real-world regional examples are:  English, Mongolian, Scandinavian, Saharan, Pacific, Carpathian, Himalayan, Atlantic, etc. The first table has generic regions if you prefer.  Choose which tables to roll on or roll on them all.  Don't be afraid to re-roll results you don't like.  In a matter of moments you should have something much more interesting than say, blue.

Results will look something like this:

Desert Gray Razor-Back (similar to a Young White, +2 Hit Dice; breathes an Acidic Cloud, animal-intelligence, chaotic, hoards only coins, 400 years old, Lairs in Ruins.)

Solamnian Yellow Mud-Mane (similar to an Adult Red, +1 Hit Dice; breathes Lines of Fire or Acid, average-intelligence, neutral, half the standard treasure, 700 years old, never sleeps, Lairs near Rivers.)

Coastal Copper-Fang (similar to a Young Green, -1 Hit Dice, breathes a Cone of Lightning, low-intelligence, chaotic, hoards only bones, 600 years old, has a tail like a Manticore, Lairs in a Swamp.)

Generic Regions, Roll 1d12...
1.  Northern
2.  Polar
3.  Desert
4.  Southern
5.  Eastern
6.  Highland
7.  Western
8.  Coastal
9.  Lowland
10.  Astral
11.  Abyssal
12.  Celestial

Color, Roll d%...
    1-3.  White
    4-6.  Golden
    7-9.  Gray
10-12.  Albino
13-15.  Red
16-18.  Silver
19-21.  Dark
22-24.  Tanned
25-27.  Bronze
28-30.  Brown
31-33.  Yellow
34-36.  Purple
37-39.  Cyan
40-42.  Black
43-45.  Bright
46-48.  Onyx
49-51.  Blue
52-54.  Spotted
55-57.  Jade
58-60.  Ebon
61-63.  Pink
64-66.  Amber
67-69.  Brass
70-72.  Orange
73-75.  Striped
76-78.  Copper
79-81.  Green
82-84.  Ivory
85-87.  Ochre
88-90.  Pale
91-93.  Azure
94-96.  Violet
97-99.  Rustic
   100.  Platinum

Descriptive Features, Roll 1d20 Once or Twice (the first column is optional)...
1.  Ridge- /  Claw
2.  Razor-/  Tail
3.  Shadow- /  Thrasher
4.  Great- /  Wing
5.  Long- /  Wyrm
6.  Mud- /  Scale
7.  Blood- /  Back
8.  Hook- /  Biter
9.  Saber- /  Neck
10.  Day- /  Glider
11.  Swift- /  Horn
12.  King- /  Mane
13.  Thunder- /  Serpent
14.  Doom- /  Drake
15.  Sin- /  Raker
16.  Lean- /  Screamer
17.  Sky- /  Stalker
18.  Iron- /  Fang
19.  Moon- /  Cutter
20.  Night- /  Tooth

Stats Similar To, Roll 1d20...
1.  Red, Young
2.           Adult
3.           Ancient
4.  Green, Young
5.              Adult
6.              Ancient
7.  Black, Young
8.              Adult
9.              Ancient
10.  White, Young
11.              Adult
12.              Ancient
13.  Blue, Young
14.            Adult
15.            Ancient
16.  Gold, Young
17.            Adult
18.            Ancient
19-20.  Choose

Hit Dice Adjustment, Roll 1d4...
1.  -2
2.  -1
3.  +1
4.  +2

Breath Weapon, Roll 1d6...
1.  Fire
2.  Poison Gas
3.  Ice
4.  Lightning
5.  Acid
6.  Fire + Another Roll

Breath Shape, Roll 1d6...
1-2.  Line
3.4.  Cone
5-6.  Cloud

Alignment, Roll 1d6...
1-2.  Lawful
3-4.  Neutral
5-6.  Chaotic

Intelligence, Roll 1d8...
1.  Animal
2.  Low
3-5.  Average
6.  High  (Magic-User level 1-4, roll 1d4)
7.  Genius  (Magic-User level 5-8, roll 1d4)
8.  Supra-Genius  (Magic-User level 5-8, roll 1d4, and Cleric level 1d4.)

Unusual Features, Roll 1d12...
1.  Arm-less, it's wings are it's arms, no claw attacks, wing attacks do an extra damage die.
2.  Two sets of wings, can fly twice as fast.
3.  1d6 extra eyes, has advantage on initiative and stealth against it has disadvantage.
4.  Extra pair of arms, gets twice the number of claw attacks.
5.  Two tails, two tail attacks.
6.  Manticore tail.
7.  Serpentine body, agile, +2 to Armor Class.
8.  Wingless (50% chance it can still fly.)
9.  Gaze petrifies.
10.  Wyvern tail.
11.  Displaced in space/time, +4 to Armor Class.
12.  Never sleeps.

Treasure Hoard, Roll 1d20...
1.  None, doesn't hoard, could care less.
2.  Only Coins.
3.  Only Gems and Jewelry
4.  Only Weapons and Armor.
5.  Only Mundane Items.
6.  Only Art Objects.
7.  Only Magic Items.
8.  Only Books.
9.  Only Bones.
10.  Half Standard Treasure.
11.  Double Standard Treasure.
12-20.  Standard Treasure.

Lairs in/on/near, Roll 1d20...
1.  Mountaintop
2.  Colossal Web
3.  Cloud
4.  Swamp
5.  Dungeon
6.  Waterfall
7.  Ruins
8.  Jungle
9.  Canyon
10.  Island
11.  Glacier
12.  River
13.  Forest
14.  Cliff
15.  Lake
16.  Moon
17.  Dune
18.  Sea
19.  God Corpse
20.  Volcano

To determine the dragon's age roll 2d6 x 100.

Remember to adjust XP based on additional Hit Dice and abilities.

How About a Little Nightbane?

I have this love for Palladium and every now and then I must toy with it.  Here's a character I rolled up for Palladium's Nightbane.  She has bio-mechanical, plated, plastic skin and a bio-mechanical limb gun.  The creation process also produced insectoid wings (and potentially much more as Palladium's creation process is often generous, but I prefer more grounded characters with only a few powers and skills) which I completely forgot about when drawing the picture, perhaps they unfold out of her plated shoulders.....

The rules for the gun-limb state that you have to find real bullets and jam them into your flesh doing 1d6 S.D.C. (Structural Damage Capacity of which she has 154) damage per bullet(!) storing up to 100 rounds.  Cool, gritty.  She has to constantly scavenge for ammo and fully loading is detrimental to her health.  In a game of survival, this is a nice touch.

Nightbane is a horror/superhero game where, like mutants, one day (Dark Day, as it's called) the characters (all orphans) transform into something potentially horrific with a connection to another place called the Nightlands, which is ruled by Nightlords who now secretly dominate Earth.  In the game, you're supposed to be able to transform back and forth between your human form (Facade) and your monstrous form (Morphus), but I prefer the notion that your transformation is permanent; you are what you are, now deal with it.  And it might be truly weird and/or grotesque.

So how about some stats...

O.C.C.(Occupational Character Class): Nightbane
Level: 1
Alignment: Scrupulous

I.Q.(Intelligence): 9
M.E. (Mental Endurance): 7
M.A.(Mental Affinity): 15
P.S. (Physical Strength): 19 -- Supernatural Strength
P.P. (Physical Prowess): 14
P.E. (Physical Endurance): 27
P.B. (Physical Beauty): 15
SPD (Speed): 22

H.F. (Horror Factor): 9

S.D.C. (Structural Damage Capacity): 154
H.P. (Hit Points): 54
P.P.E. (Potential Psychic Energy): 119

Initiative: +1 (optionally I like to give a bonus for a high Speed score using the P.P. bonus line which would raise this to +5.  You can see this option on my Rifts Character Sheet on the blog sidebar which is otherwise formatted 99.99% by-the-book.)

Hand-To-Hand: Basic
Attacks: 4
Strike: +2
Parry: +2
Dodge: +2/+3 when flying
Roll with punch: +5

Restrained Punch: 1d6+4
Punch: 2d6+4
Power Punch: 4d6+4

Insectoid Wings: +15 S.D.C., +1 H.F., +1 Dodge, Speed:40 (about 30 mph)

Bio-mechanical Plastic Skin: +20 S.D.C., +1 H.F.

Bio-mechanical gun-limb: +1 H.F., +3 to strike (+1 for a burst) 6d6 damage.

Saves: Coma/Death: +24%, Disease: +4, Horror: +4, Magic: +12, Poison: +6, Psionics: +3

For the purposes of this character I kept skills to a bare minimum.  She has no Physical Skills and no Weapon Proficiencies (other than her gun-limb) having only Computer Operation: 50%, and Programming: 35%.  Anyone who knows Palladium knows how bogged down you can get with skills, I feel (usually) that most characters have plenty going on without them.  I love Palladium, but I'm definitely a minimalist with it.