Brown Dragon, Wyrmling

Family: Dragons

Medium dragon, lawful evil

Armor Class 16 (natural armor)
Hit Points 58 (9d8 + 18)
Speed swim 30 ft., climb 30 ft., fly 60 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
17 (+3)	10 (+0)	15 (+2)	14 (+2)	13 (+1)	15 (+2)

Saving Throws Str +5, Dex +2, Con +4, Int +4, Wis +3, Cha +4
Skills History +4, Perception +5, Stealth +2
Damage Immunities fire
Senses blindsight 10 ft., darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 15
Languages Draconic
Challenge 4 (1,100 XP)

ACTIONS

• Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (1d10 + 3) piercing damage plus 3 (1d6) fire damage.
• Fiery Breath (Recharge 5-6). A brown dragon can exhale a 15-foot cone of fire and superheated slag. Each creature in that area must make a DC 12 Dexterity saving throw, taking 21 (6d6) fire damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

ABOUT

These powerful earth dragons are exceedingly rare and powerful and descended from legendary primordial creatures that were ultimately slain by various deities or great heroes. Brown dragons may indeed, as their name suggests, represent a distinct species of Chromatic Dragon. While they are indisputably true Dragons, some scholars postulate for a number of reasons that they may not be a discrete type and might instead be a subspecies of Red Dragon (a suggestion brown dragons consider to be deeply insulting and tantamount to slander). Others contend that Brown dragons are somehow related to Bronze Dragons, which they outwardly resemble to some extent. Support for this theory comes from an element in the personal mythologies of some Brown dragons, that they are the original Bronze Dragons, the creatures usually known by that name being a bastard and somewhat aberrant offshoot.

Many Brown dragons will thus employ magical or mundane means of polishing their scales to give them as much of a metallic sheen as they can. Brown dragons have large segments of thick armored plating on their backs, breasts, and other broad sections of their bodies and smaller articulated scales on limbs and other places where flexibility is key. Their armored heads are relatively plain and unadorned with the exception of a half dozen straight, backward-sweeping horns that project up from them.

A brown dragon wyrmling has a relatively uniform muddy brown hide that, as it ages, cures into a surprising number of different shades, from dark chocolates to light tans. Their eyes have the appearance of spheres of metal that have been heated almost to melting in a fire.

Brown dragons can eat almost anything, and they are very interested in learning what delicacies appeal to other monarchs and sampling them. The core of their diet, however, consists of large quantities of metal-rich ores, primarily those containing copper and tin but also those with silver, gold, platinum, and others. While such a Dragon derives nutrition from precious metals in the ore it consumes, base metals like iron are deposited in a crop-like organ in its throat, and it expels this dross in molten form when using its breath weapon.

A brown dragon otherwise conforms to the general characteristics of Dragons in general and Chromatic Dragons in particular as presented in the official 5th Edition rules.

Ancient Emperors. All Brown dragons are able to show their descent from Python, Arwe, or another brown dragon that has previously reigned over some place, possibly even millennia before, and are obsessed with demonstrating the legitimacy of their claims to rule over a particular area. A brown dragon will, in any event, assume there is a basis for it to be ruling over whatever area it dwells in and that lesser beings exist merely to serve it, bring it offerings, and possibly even worship it. A particularly subtle and sophisticated monster of this sort might set up a humanoid puppet as a proxy ruler but, because such monsters see themselves as being synonymous with the areas they rule over, most will simply choose to reign directly.

Brown dragons will assume all the prerogatives of government in areas over which they rule, to include minting coinage, raising armies, dispatching and receiving ambassadors from foreign courts, and undertaking public works projects.

Magnanimous Masters. Brown dragons yearn for subjects and will rule over as many peasants, soldiers, courtiers, and other people that they can. They consider themselves to be loving toward their subjects, generously do not take more in tribute than half of what their people produce, and would be indignant or even embarrassed to learn they were regarded as unjust or indifferent to the needs of those they rule. They brutally suppress and cover up any dissent that does occur.

For those closest to them, Brown dragons demand followers that are competent, organized, and fiercely loyal. Races they often impress into service include Hobgoblins, Duergar, and various sorts of Earth or Magma elementals. Dwarves are among those that they yearn to have working for them but who they often have trouble recruiting or satisfactorily bending to their ends. Vocations they especially value include architects, bards, craftsmen, genealogists, and historians.

Brown dragons also like to take as wards the children or other relatives of those they make treaties with or otherwise wish to have influence over, for purposes both of indoctrinating these individuals and using them as bargaining chips.

A Royal Treasury. Like other creatures of their sort, Brown dragons systematically collect valuables of all sorts and amass great hoards of treasure. Unlike other dragons, however, they freely spend their money to support their domains through improvements, hiring of experts, and the like, perceiving these things to be forms of wealth.

Brown dragons consider the best gems and jewelry in their hoards to be part of their crown jewels and will wear whatever appropriate items they can. Wyrmling and young dragons of this sort will often wear rings on the tips of their horns and, as these increase in size with age, will ultimately endeavor to display upon them the crowns of former monarchs.

Brown dragons believe it is appropriate for those seeking audiences with them to bring valuable or elaborate gifts and, in the absence of such offerings, will likely be offended.