Dragon, Quasi-Elemental Mineral

Quasi-Elemental Mineral Dragon

Mineral dragons are creatures composed entirely of, you guessed it, minerals. They look somewhat similar to earth dragons, except that they have multifaceted crystals, sparkling alloys, and precious metals imbedded in them. This gives them a hide even tougher than an earth’s. They have no wings, and cannot fly, but they can burrow through earth and minerals with incredible speed.

They are highly protective of their home plane and minerals in general. They hate those who take metals and other valuable natural objects from the earth. They harbour an especially deep hatred of dwarves, who mine the earth simply for that purpose. In all other situations, they are generally slow to move to emotion.

Mineral dragons speak their own language and that common to all elemental dragons. At birth, they have a 16% chance to speak the language of any sentient creature. This chance increases by 5% per age category.

COMBAT: Mineral dragons rarely enter combat, except against those who try to remove minerals from the ground. When they do face these types, they attack ferociously without remorse. Otherwise they try to end combat quickly.

BREATH WEAPON/SPECIAL ABILITIES: A mineral dragon’s breath weapon is a blast of fast moving shards of crystal, 100′ long, 10′ wide, and 10′ high. Creatures caught in the blast can roll saving throws vs. breath weapon for half damage.

• Mineral dragons cast spells and use their magical abilities at 13th-level plus their combat modifiers.
• Mineral dragons are born immune to energy draining and earth attacks.
• Mineral dragons are born with the ability to turn opponents into crystalline statues. They may use this power in lieu of attacking up to 5 times per day. The attack requires a successful attack roll where the dragon grasps the target in its claw. If the target fails a save vs. petrification, he is instantly turned to crystal. This can be reversed by the dragon at will, or through the use of a modified transmute stone to fleshspell.
• As they age, they gain the following additional powers. Very Young: meld into stone at will. Young: wall of stone three times per day. Juvenile: stone shape three times per day. Adult:spike stones three times per day. Mature Adult: transmute rock to mud three times per day. Old:animate rock twice per day. Very Old: dig three times per day. Ancient: stoneskin three times per day.

HABITAT/SOCIETY: Mineral dragons encountered outside of their home plane they often make homes in areas of rich mineral deposits. As such, they come into conflict with dwarves and other mining races. The dragons either destroy the population or flee to find a better home, depending on alignment.

Mineral dragons’ alignment in relation to law/chaos is mostly neutral (50%), somewhat lawful (30%), and a little chaotic (20%). On the good/evil scale, again most are neutral (45%), some are evil (35%), and a few are good (20%).

ECOLOGY: Mineral dragons have little effect in the environment in which they live. They do, however, interfere with mining races. They eat the minerals to survive, which often angers dwarves and other treasure seeking people.

Age Category	Body (‘)	Tail (‘)	AC	Breath Weapon	Wizard/Priest Spells	MR	Treasure	XP Value
1	7-20	7-17	-2	3d6+2	Nil	Nil	Nil	15,000
2	20-32	17-29	-3	5d6+3	Nil	Nil	Nil	18,000
3	32-44	29-39	-4	7d6+4	Nil	45%	H, Q	19,000
4	44-56	39-51	-5	9d6+5	1	50%	H, Qx2, E	20,000
5	56-73	51-61	-6	11d6+5	2	55%	H, Qx3, E, S	22,000
6	73-86	61-71	-7	13d6+6	2 2	60%	Hx2, Qx3, E, S	23,000
7	86-99	71-85	-8	15d6+7	2 2 2	65%	Hx2, Qx3, E, S, T	24,000
8	99-112	85-96	-9	17d6+8	2 2 2 2 / 1	70%	Hx3, Qx4, E	25,000
9	112-126	96-109	-10	19d6+9	2 2 2 2 2 / 2 2	75%	Hx4, Q, E, S, T	27,000
10	126-140	109-121	-11	21d6+10	2 2 2 2 2 2 / 2 2	80%	Hx5, Q, E, S, T, U	28,000
11	140-154	121-134	-12	23d6+11	2 2 2 2 2 2 2 / 2 2 2	85%	Hx5, Qx2, E, S, T, U	29,000
12	154-168	134-147	-13	25d6+12	2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 / 2 2 2 2	90%	Hx6, Qx3, E, S, T, U	31,000

Source: John Kastronis, Jon Winter-Holt