Dragon, Fly

Tiny dragon, any alignment

Armor Class 20
Hit Points 275 (29d4 + 203)
Speed 5 ft., fly 60 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
13 (+1)	30 (+10)	24 (+7)	19 (+4)	17 (+3)	19 (+4)

Saving Throws Dexterity +16, Constitution +13, Wisdom +9
Skills Arcana +10, Deception +10, History +10, Intimidation +10, Perception +9, Stealth +16
Damage Resistances poison, psychic; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical weapons that aren’t adamantine
Damage Immunities fire
Senses truesight 120 ft., passive Perception 19
Languages Common, Draconic
Challenge 18 (20,000 XP)

Special Traits

• Legendary Resistance (3/day). If the fly dragon fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead.
• Magic Resistance. The fly dragon has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
• Spellcasting. The fly dragon is a 20th level spellcaster. Its spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 18, +10 to hit with spell attacks). The fly dragon’s spells require no material components, and individual fly dragons know different sets of spells. A typical list is provided below:
  • Cantrips (at will): fire bolt, mage hand, message, minor illusion, prestidigitation, shocking grasp
  • 1st level (4/day): detect magic
  • 2nd level (3/day): darkness, suggestion
  • 3rd level (3/day): haste
  • 4th level (3/day): confusion, greater invisibility, wall of fire
  • 5th level (3/day): hold monster, telekinesis
  • 6th level (2/day): chain lightning, globe of invulnerability
  • 7th level (2/day): plane shift, teleport
  • 8th level (1/day): dominate monster
  • 9th level (1/day): time stop

Actions

• Multiattack. The dragon uses its Frightful Presence and makes three attacks: one with its bite and two with its claws.
• Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +16 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 12 (1d4 + 10) piercing damage plus 7 (2d6) fire damage.
• Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +16 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (1d6 + 10) slashing damage.
• Frightful Presence. Each creature of the dragon’s choice that is within 60 feet of the fly dragon and aware of it must succeed on a DC 19 Wisdom saving throw or become Frightened for 1 minute. A creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. If a creature’s saving throw is successful or the effect ends for it, the creature is immune to the fly dragon’s Frightful Presence for the next 24 hours.
• Fire Breath (Recharge 5-6). The dragon exhales fire in a 40-foot cone. Creatures in the area must make a DC 19 Dexterity saving throw, taking 63 (18d6) fire damage, or half as much damage on a successful one. Being underwater doesn’t grant resistance to this damage.

Legendary Actions

The fly dragon can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action option can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature’s turn. The fly dragon regains spent legendary actions at the start of its turn.

• Move. The fly dragon moves up to its speed without provoking opportunity attacks.
• Cantrip. The fly dragon casts a cantrip.
• Detect. The fly dragon makes a Wisdom (Perception) check.
• Cast a Spell (Costs 3 Actions). The fly dragon casts a spell from its list of prepared spells, using a spell slot as normal.

Lair Actions

Fly dragons lair within stone hills and high mountaintops, hewing beautiful palaces of dazzling geometry into the living rock to befit the needs of flying aristocrats. These extravagant residences are kept hot to the point of searing by geothermal activity (or magic if it is not available) and are lined with fire-proof treasures, keepsakes, and intricate memorials to honor the fly dragon’s inevitably storied and noble lineage. Although often solitary in travel or hunting, most fly dragons live in magnificent, sprawling (to tiny-sized creatures) hives with family, servants, and the families of servants, in accordance with inscrutable draconian traditions.

The sizes of these lairs vary with the populations thereof and the status of the lair’s lord but are always larger than the tiny beings need, while still small enough to be difficult for medium-size creatures to navigate comfortably.

On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), a fly dragon defending its lair can take a lair action to cause one of the following effects. The fly dragon can’t use the same effect two rounds in a row.

• Searing Wind. Super-heated air erupts from one or more passages the fly dragon can see, filling one or more entire chambers of no more than a 20-foot radius total with a searing wind. Each creature in the area must make a DC 16 Constitution save, taking 21 (6d6) fire damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
• Unstable Footing. A tremor shakes the lair in a 40-foot radius around the fly dragon. Each creature other than the fly dragon in contact with the ground, walls, or ceilings in that area must succeed on a DC 16 Dexterity saving throw or be knocked prone.
• Noxious Fumes. Volcanic gases form a cloud in a 20-foot radius sphere centered on a point the fly dragon can see within 120 feet of it. The sphere spreads around corners, and its area is lightly obscured. It lasts until the initiative count 20 on the next round. Each creature that starts its turn in the cloud must succeed on a DC 16 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned until the end of its turn. While poisoned in this way, a creature is incapacitated.

About

The flitting creature reveals itself to be a tiny, colorful dragon, the size of an insect.

Fly dragons are dragons the size of dragonflies. They consider themselves to be truer dragons than true dragons, though none of the latter have given their claims much credence. Nevertheless, fly dragons are approximately as dangerous to their enemies as true dragons, though they tend to be less devastating to the countryside around them due to much smaller nutritional requirements. Fly dragons become more powerful with age, just like true dragons. For older or younger fly dragons, adjust the breath weapons based on those of red dragons and reduce or increase spellcasting ability.

Though impressive in melee for their size, fly dragons are still very tiny, and thus take great pains to remain mobile in combat. Flitting between their enemies like hummingbirds of doom, they rely on their magic and breath weapons (and defensive abilities) to wreak havoc on their foes.

Fly dragons come in many colors and combinations of colors, and these tell observers nothing about their temperaments or abilities. They are pretty little things and tend to be quite vain, as well as arrogantly proud of their family bloodlines. Since they are so rare and reclusive, however, almost no one has ever heard of the family lines of which they boast.

Colors and attitudes do sometimes run in families, but this will be no more universal a predictor of behavior than it would be within human families (indeed, it is not impossible that some fly dragons might even have other breath weapons or immunities). Though fly dragon alignment varies with the individual, even friendly fly dragons seem incapable of humility and have little tolerance for insults.