Dragon, Gem, Crystal
Crystal Dragon
Easily the most friendly and talkative of the gem dragons, crystal dragons are voraciously curious and usually quite affable to travelers and strangers (unless of course they are overtly hostile).
A crystal dragons has white skin and a sleek profile; many individuals mistake a crystal dragon for a white dragon, though crystal dragons lack the crest. Instead, it has a trail of shard-like translucent spines down its back and tail. Its tail splits into two about halfway down its length.
When it is a wyrmling, a crystal dragon's scales are glossy white. As it ages, its scales become translucent and refract light. Moonlight and starlight gleams in its scales, and direct sunlight lends it dazzling brilliance; the older the dragon, the more brilliant it becomes.
Insatiable Curiosity. Crystal dragons are notoriously curious about anything and everything. They often stop travellers on their way, just so they can get to know them and ask them questions about where they are from and where they are going to.
The phrase "curiosity killed the crystal dragon" is in many cases more true than "curiosity killed the cat," as some (especially younger) crystal dragons will intentionally enter dangerous situations just to learn about them. Of course, the dragon (nearly) always learns its lesson, so adult dragons are a bit wiser when it comes to such things.
As a result of this curiosity, most crystal dragons accumulate impressive libraries of knowledge over time and spend centuries mulling over history, magic, or any number of other subjects that a particular dragon might find interest in. They also give quite freely of their knowledge to those who are curious enough to ask, because of course curiosity must be rewarded.
Ice Affinity. Crystal dragons prefer colder environments, and have developed a natural immunity to cold. Though they aren't built to burrow in ice and snow, they do love the feel of it between their claws and the camouflage it offers when hunting. Many crystal dragons carve sculptures from ice and snow as a hobby, and their lairs become littered with past and present projects.
White Dragon Dopplegangers. Because of their appearance and preferred habitat, crystal dragons are often mistaken for white dragons. They resent this confusion, as they take pride in their intelligence and take offense to the notion that they would stoop to such primal levels. However, a crystal dragon doesn't usually have time to explain itself before the mistaken creature attacks it. And then the creature becomes dinner anyway.
Though they lack the hunting instincts of white dragons, crystal dragons are terrifying combatants. They rarely instigate combat on their own, but they do not hesitate to defend themselves and their lair if attacked.
Because they share a similar territory to white dragons, crystal dragons and white dragons come into conflict. The crystal dragons aren't fond of their bestial neighbors, and have been known to steal white dragon eggs so that they can raise the white hatchlings to be friendlier than they would otherwise be. Such white dragons are incredibly rare.
Crystal dragons bear great animosity toward frost giants, because of their routine of hunting down dragon lairs and wyrmlings.
A Crystal Dragon's Lair
Most crystal dragons live on the Elemental Plane of Air, though some occasionally choose to live on the Frostfell. When on the Material Plane, they try to find places that mimic either of those two places, usually ending up on high, icy mountain peaks where they can create ice sculptures and watch the stars.
A crystal dragon spends more time outside of its lair than inside. To a crystal dragon, the sky is symbolic of freedom, so it spends as much time on the wing as possible, patrolling its territory or exploring new places and discovering new things.
Because mountain peaks are so inaccessible to passersby, the dragon may claim a temporary lair near a well-travelled road, or frequent the road or nearby settlements to learn of current events and to temporarily satiate its curiosity.
Regional Effects
The region containing a legendary crystal dragon's lair is warped by the dragon's magic, which creates one or more of the following effects.
* The walls of the dragon's lair become translucent and reflective, like polished crystal. In addition, the walls glow faintly, giving off dim light. The dragon can extinguish or restore this light at will, no action required.
* Crystal formations grow spontaneously within 6 miles of the lair.
* Crystal within 1 mile of the lair glows slightly and feels warm to the touch.
If the dragon dies, these effects end immediately, but any crystal formations remain as they are.
Preferred Spells
A crystal dragon usually chooses spells that augment its psionic ability or prismatic breath, such as: friends, message, magic missile, suggestion, charm person, dominate beast, color spray, detect thoughts, sending, charm monster, dominate person, prismatic spray, antipathy/sympathy, prismatic wall.
Gem Dragons
The mysterious gem dragons are not well-known on the Material Plane. This is because they spend most of their time on the Inner Planes, where they can more easily find desired nesting spots without having to worry about the intrusive humanoids of the Material Plane. They especially like living on the Elemental Planes, as it is easier for them to find food in such environments. Though most gem dragons prefer variety of some sort in their diets, they can survive indefinitely only on elemental matter.
Like other dragons, gem dragons are extremely covetous and gather all sorts of coins, gems, magic items, and other items into their hoard. They also age similarly to other true dragons, typically living for one or two thousand years before dieing of old age. As a gem dragon ages, it grows and becomes stronger. Each stage of a given gem dragon's life is represented by one of the twelve monster stat blocks in the following section.
However, unlike other dragons, gem dragons have developed unique psionic abilities. Each type of gem dragon manifests this power in a different way, though all are psionically powerful. The psionic abilities of gem dragons are represented by Dragon Feats, which are given in each dragon's section. If you desire to give a gem dragon psionic abilities without using the Dragon Feats optional rule, do it! All of the rules for their psionic powers are there.
Some gem dragons are not as physically strong as others that an adventurer would more commonly find. Instead, they tend to be more intelligent. Even at a young age, most gem dragons can determine the most powerful or dangerous foe and act accordingly.
In combat, a gem dragon uses its wings to stay out of melee range while blasting the opposition with its Breath Weapon. Whenever possible, it uses its psionic abilities before performing fly-by attacks with tooth and claw.
Because of their innate tie to the earth, all gem dragons are resistant to fire. Their skin takes on the colorful tones of the gems they are named after, and their scales are remarkably gem-like, with crystalline qualities.
As gem dragons have no tie to either Bahamut or Tiamat, they are usually neutral and tend to keep from picking sides in the old dragon conflict. Really, they try to keep from picking sides in any conflict.
Genetic Ancestor(s)
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