The Deep Dragon

Climate / Terrain: Hill and mountain caverns, subterranean

Frequency: Rare
Organization: Solitary or clan
Activity Cycle: Any
Diet: Carnivorous
Intelligence: Exceptional (15-16)
Alignment: Chaotic evil
Armor class: 0 (base)
Movement: 12, Fl 30 (C), Br 6, Sw 9
Hit Dice: 14 (base)
THAC0: 7 (base)
No. of Attacks: 3 + special
Damage / Attack: 3-12 / 3-12 / 3-24
Size: H (24' base)
Morale: Fanatic (17-18)

Racial Ability Requirements*

Strength 7 / 23
Dexterity 3 / 15
Constitution 5 / 18
Intelligence 5 / 20
Wisdom 3 / 18
Charisma 5 / 19

Racial Ability Adjustments*

+5 Strength, -3 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence, +1 Charisma

Dragon Information by Age (General)

Age Age Hit Die Combat Fear Fear Save
Level Category (in years) Modifier Modifier Radius Modifier*
1 Hatchling 0–5 -6 +1 Nil Nil
2 Very Young 6 – 15 -4 +2 Nil Nil
3 Young 16 – 25 -2 +3 Nil Nil
4 Juvenile 26 – 50 Nil +4 Nil Nil
5 Young Adult 51 – 100 +1 +5 15 yards +3 (+7)
6 Adult 101 – 200 +2 +6 20 yards +2 (+6)
7 Mature Adult 201 – 400 +3 +7 25 yards +1 (+5)
8 Old 401 – 600 +4 +8 30 yards 0 (+4)
9 Very Old 601 – 800 +5 +9 35 yards -1 (+3)
10 Venerable 801 – 1000 +6 +10 40 yards -2 (+2)
11 Wyrm 1001 – 1200 +7 +11 45 yards -3 (+1)
12 Great Wyrm 1200+ +8 +12 50 yards -4 (0)
* Parenthetical values in the Fear Save Modifier column apply to gem dragons only.

Dragon Information by Age (Type Specific)

Deep Dragon, Chaotic Evil
Age Body Length (ft) Tail Length (ft) AC Breath Wpn. Spell (W/P) MR
1 1–5 1–4 3 2d8+1 Nil Nil
2 5 – 14 4 – 12 2 4d8+2 Nil Nil
3 14 – 23 12 – 21 1 6d8+3 Nil Nil
4 23 – 32 21 – 28 0 8d8+4 1 Nil
5 32 – 41 28 – 36 -1 10d8+5 2 25%
6 41 – 50 36 – 45 -2 12d8+6 21 30%
7 50 – 59 45 – 54 -3 14d8+7 32 35%
8 59 – 68 54 – 62 -4 16d8+8 421/1 40%
9 68 – 77 62 – 70 -5 18d8+9 422/2 45%
10 77 – 86 70 – 78 -6 20d8+10 4321/21 50%
11 86 – 95 78 – 85 -7 22d8+11 4332/32 55%
12 95 – 104 85 – 94 -8 24d8+12 43321/331 60%

General Information
Deep dragons are little known on the surface world. They are the hunters of the Underdark.
Cunning and patient, they place their survival, followed by their joy of hunting, above all else. Deep
dragons carefully amass and hide treasure in various caches, guarded with traps and magic. They are
able to use most magical items.
Deep dragons are an iridescent maroon when they hatch, soft-scaled, and unable to change
form. They keep to their birth-lair until they have mastered both of their other forms-a giant winged
worm or snake and a human (or drow) form.
Deep dragons roam the Underdark and are great explorers. Most often deep dragons are
found in well-defended lairs in the Underdark. They often use their powers to reach caverns
inaccessible to most creatures. Deep dragons often work with drow.
Deep dragons have been known to eat almost anything, but they particularly prize the flesh of
clams, fish, kuo-toa, and aboleth. They view cloakers and mind flayers as dangerous rivals in the
Underdark. Deep dragons avoid confrontations with other dragons and never fight or steal from others
of their own kind.

Special and Innate Abilities

Special Abilities: Deep dragons cast spells at 9th level, adjusted by their combat modifiers. They are
born with infravision, true seeing, and unerring detect magic abilities, and immunities to charm, sleep,
and hold magic. Deep dragons are immune to extremes of heat and cold (-3 on each die of damage
taken, to a minimum of 1 hp per die).
Innate Abilities: Very Young: assume snakeform 3 times/day; Young: assume "human" form 3
times/day; Juvenile: one more form change/day (each), regen. 1d4 hp/turn; Adult: regenerate 1d4
hp/6 rounds, free action at will; Mature Adult: regenerate 1d4 hp/4 rounds, levitate 3 times/day;
Old: transmute rock to mud and telekinesis 3 times/day; Very old: move earth 3 times/day;
Venerable: passwall and disintegrate 2 times/day; Wyrm: one additional use/day of powers gained
since old age, stone shape 2 times/day, tongues once/day; Great Wyrm: repulsion 3 times/day,
affecting all except dragons, one additional use/day of stone shape and tongues.

Dragon Tactics and Attacks

Typical Tactics: Deep dragons burrow and fight with powerful, stone-rending claws. They love to fight
and hunt prey through the lightless caverns of the Underdark, employing their various forms. In snake
form, they are AC 6, MV 9, Fl 4(D), Sw 11, losing claw attacks, but gaining a constriction attack (attack
roll required, inflicts 3d8 points of damage per round, hampers movement, spellcasting, and causes -1
on attack rolls and a 1 point AC penalty).
In human form, a deep dragon is AC 10, MV 12, Sw 12, and causes damage by spell or weapon type.
Armor can be worn, but it is always destroyed (inflicting 2d4 points of damage to the dragon) in any
transformation of shape. A deep dragon can alter its features to resemble any humanoid of roughly
human size. It is 66% likely to copy a specific being well enough to be mistaken for the actual
creature.
Physical Attacks: A deep dragon's claws cause 3d4 damage, plus its combat modifier. Its bite
causes 3d8 damage, plus combat modifier.
Breath Weapon: A deep dragon's breath weapon is a cone of flesh-corrosive gas 50 feet long, 40 feet
wide, and 30 feet high. Creatures in the cloud can save vs. breath weapon for half damage (if they
have dry, exposed skin, they save against the flesh-eating gas at -2). Cloth, metal, and wood are not
affected. Leather is treated as dry, exposed skin.
Base Movement: 12, Fl 30 (C), Br 6, Sw 9

Mating
Chromatic dragons tend to be greedy and selfish when choosing their mates, sometimes
regardless of consequences. Red dragons enjoy the company of strong-willed, lusty dragon partners,
though because of their greedy natures they rarely share lairs. They tend to have frequent love affairs
of short duration.
Blue dragons, being territorial in nature, do join with a single mate for a time - sometimes for as
long as three or four age levels - before moving on to new conquests. Green dragons tend to build
intricate living arrangements with multiple partners, whom they move among as desire directs. Their
societies tend to be either polygamous or polyandrous, and there is no prevalence of one over the
other. Black dragons and white dragons have the least formal of all arrangements, mating whenever
the mood strikes, almost on the level of animals. They have no regard for love, nor do they care (or
even understand) the problems inherent with inbreeding.
Dragons of all types tend to mate with members of their own type. Gold dragons mate with
golds, red dragons mate with reds, and so on. Sometimes they will go against their natural tendencies
and mate with dragons of other types.
The mixed-appearance crossbreeds, however, are considered abominations. The chromatic
dragons tend to kill these hatchlings immediately. Metallic dragons simply banish them from their
domains (rumors abound that these crossbreeds are sent to other worlds, but this has yet to be
proven). The gem dragons, however, believe that something as majestic as a dragon can never be an
abomination. In the rare instances when a gem dragon produces a mixed hatchling, the newborn is
allowed to remain a member of the clan.

Dragon Experience Levels*

Deep Dragon
Level XP Hit Dice
H 0 8
1 125,000 8
2 500,000 10
3 1,000,000 12
4 1,500,000 14
5 1,750,000 15
6 2,000,000 16
7 2,250,000 17
8 2,500,000 18
9 2,750,000 19
10 3,000,000 20
11 3,250,000 21
12 3,500,000 22
Dragon Proficiency Slots*
Dragon Combat Proficiencies Noncombat Proficiencies
Race Initial # / Level Penalty Initial # / Level
Deep 5 2/3 -4 3 1

Bonus Proficiencies*
Dragon Type Bonus Proficiency
Deep Direction Sense

Preferred Kindred*
Elf Dwarf Gnome
Deep N P R
P: Preferred as a kindred; R: Rarely selected as a kindred; N: Never selected as kindred. However, even demihuman
marked N can sometimes be found as kindred to PC dragons, with the DM's permission.

* This information was found in the Dragon Magazine #263 and is not officially part of the Council of
Wyrms setting. When it contradicts the dragon’s characteristics detailed in the Monstrous Manual (ex:
Hit Dice), the Monstrous Manual was assumed to be correct and this document was adapted
accordingly.