In the section on dragons in the
AD&D™ Monster Manual, there are colors
not mentioned that could be those of
additional evil dragons. Consider the
“color wheel” of primary and secondary
pigments known to all painters:
The three primary colors are red, blue,
and yellow. Pairs of these colors can be
combined to form the three secondary
colors, purple (red + blue), green (blue +
yellow), and orange (yellow + red). Excluding
black and white dragons (the
former a mixture of every pigment, the
latter the absence of any pigment), only
three types of dragons whose scales
have pigments of the color wheel are
mentioned in the Monster Manual: red,
blue, and green. They, and the three
missing colors (purple, orange, and yellow)
together form the main part of the
chromatic dragon overspecies.
The origin of dragons is a subject in
which can be found conflicting statements.
According to the Monster Manual,
Tiamat “spawns all of evil dragonkind.”
Yet, dragons can be found in mated
pairs of the same color, with young
and eggs. Therefore, it seems that dragons
can come from two sources: from
Tiamat, or from others of their kind.
Why not a third source? In the ancient
past, the secondary-color dragons could

have been the product of matings between
two different primary-color dragons.
Most of these matings would likely
be the result of wizards’ experiments
since dragons, being intelligent, would
probably see only their own red, blue, or
yellow species as beautiful or handsome.
Nearly all such matings would produce
no eggs, or unhatchable eggs, due to
genetic problems. However, certain pairings
together with sorcerous potions
and spells would result in crossbreeds
that were not only viable but able to
breed true with each other, thus starting
the secondary-pigment branches of the
dragon overspecies.
 

According to the color-wheel theory,
the green dragon’s parents many generations
ago were blue and yellow dragons.
The blue dragon is well documented;
despite being rare, it is abundant
enough to have been seen by villagers
and adventurers alike. Yellow dragons,
however, are very rare (or perhaps nonexistent)
on the continent where most
AD&D adventures take place; few, if any,
have ever been seen.
Since no yellow dragon has been captured
locally for study, the characteristics
of yellow dragons have been deduced
by sages asking, “If a green dragon
is the product of a blue and a yellow
dragon, then what kind of dragon, mated
with a blue one, could produce a green
dragon?” A green dragon has the same
armor class as a blue, so the yellow’s AC
would be the same or only slightly better.
A yellow dragon would be much smaller
than a blue, however, since a green
dragon is a full six feet shorter than the
blue parent.

Q: In "The Missing Dragons" (issue #65),
which describes the "color-wheel" theory
of dragonkind, it was said that mating a
blue and yellow dragon will produce a
green one. Doesn't this contradict the
AD&D rules, where it is said that Tiamat
spawns all of evil dragonkind?

A: If the "color-wheel" theory is used, one
could assume there are three ways to
create green dragons: two adult green
dragons can mate and have young, an
adult blue and an adult yellow dragon
could mate and produce green young, or
Tiamat could give birth to green young
and drop them off on the Prime Material
Plane. All three methods could work
simultaneously. This would also work in
a related fashion for the orange and purple
dragons described in the same article.
Remember, once again, that this article
was unofficial and does not have to be
used in a campaign, but can be adopted if
a DM so desires.
(79.15)
 
 

In a similar deductive fashion, the intelligence,
magic-using capability, and
other attributes of the yellow dragon
have been narrowed down to a set of
likely statistics:
 

Yellow Dragon
FREQUENCY: Very rare
NO. APPEARING: 1-5
ARMOR CLASS: 1
MOVE: 9”/24”
HIT DICE: 6-8
% IN LAIR: 30%
TREASURE TYPE: H
NO. OF ATTACKS: 3
DAMAGE/ATTACK: 1-6/1-6/2-16
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Breath weapon
and possible magic use
SPECIAL DEFENSES: Nil
MAGIC RESISTANCE: Standard
INTELLIGENCE: Average
ALIGNMENT: Lawful evil
SIZE: L (30’ long)
PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil
Attack/Defense Modes: Nil
CHANCE OF:
Speaking: 30%
Magic Use: 10%
Sleeping: 50%

Yellow dragons tend to lair in seashore
cave complexes or narrow gorges, or
(less often) near high-salinity pools in
inland salt flats created by long-dried
oceans. Their coloring blends in with the
yellows and whites of sun-bleached,
salt-encrusted rock and sand.
A yellow dragon will either attack with
its claw/claw/bite routine or by its breath
weapon — a cone of sodium chloride
(salt) crystals 7” long and 2” wide at its
base. The salt particles — byproducts of
the creature’s diet — spray over anyone
in its area of effect.
was in the act of turning aside and/or
trying to cover his or her face, so the
victim only suffers blindness for a number
of melee rounds equal to the hit dice
of the dragon. Due to the caustic nature
of salt in the eyes, any victim with a constitution
of 10 or less must also save vs.
poison or faint with pain for 3 or 4 (onehalf
the hit dice of the dragon, rounded
up) melee rounds. For each two points of
damage that such a victim has previously
taken, the faint is prolonged for one
additional round.
Yellow dragons are intelligent enough
to keep track of who has been blinded,
and will choose to go after still-sighted
members of the party, returning in several
melee rounds to try to finish off
blinded ones before they recover.
Failing to save vs. breath weapon
means the victim was struck by the salt
cone while unprepared and, in addition
to the above effects, is also coughing
and choking on salt in the nose, mouth,
and lungs (or gills, if an amphibious or
aquatic NPC is involved). A victim so afflicted
will fall unconscious from lack of
air in 1-3 melee rounds and will die in
another 3-5 rounds thereafter. The choking
person is helpless, but a comrade
can perform artificial respiration, forcing
out enough salt in one round’s time to
prevent death. It will take another 3 or 4
(one-half the hit dice of the dragon,
rounded up) rounds to clear the salt
completely. The victim may still be blinded
after this time until his or her eyes are
cleansed of salt by tears and/or water.
Spells such as Transmute rock to mud
will not affect the salt since it is a crystal,
not a stone. The salt is neither a curse
nor a disease; therefore, spells countering
such afflictions are of no use. Ordinary
water or any other harmless fluid
will dissolve the salt in 2 or 3 (one-third
the hit dice of the dragon, rounded up)
melee rounds.
Yellow dragons able to use magic gain
a 1st-level spell at each of the first four
age brackets, and gain a 2nd-level spell
at each of the remaining four age brackets,
in the same manner as green dragons,
with the spells selected randomly.
Yellow dragons save at +2 vs. metallic
poisons such as sodium or arsenic and
vs. chlorine or other poisonous gases.

Mating a yellow dragon with a red produces
an orange dragon. Orange dragons
are also very rare (or perhaps nonexistent)
on the continent where most
AD&D adventures occur. The armor
class, size, and many other qualities of
an orange dragon would be a hybrid of
the attributes of the red and the yellow:

Orange Dragon
FREQUENCY: Very rare
NO. APPEARING: 1-4
ARMOR CLASS: 0
MOVE: 9”/24”
HIT DICE: 7-9
% IN LAIR: 45%
TREASURE TYPE: H, S
NO. OF ATTACKS: 3
DAMAGE/ATTACK: 2-7/2-7/2-23
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Breath weapon
and possible magic use
SPECIAL DEFENSES: Nil
MAGIC RESISTANCE: Standard
INTELLIGENCE: Very to high
ALIGNMENT: Neutral evil
SIZE: L (39’ long)
PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil
Attack/Defense Modes: Nil
CHANCE OF:
Speaking: 50%
Magic Use: 25%
Sleeping: 35%
Orange dragons lair in swamp, river,
or lake areas, frequently living in caves
that either open near water or perhaps

have an underground stream running
through them. They tend to keep to the
shadows, since their brilliant coloration
would make hiding in normal vegetation
very difficult, and often begin their day’s
hunting at dusk.
An orange dragon will either attack
with its claw/claw/bite routine (bite is
3d8-1) or with its breath weapon, liquid
sodium which is expelled in a stream ½”
wide and 6” long in a straight-line direction
from the dragon’s head, in the manner
of black dragons. The dull silvercolored
stream of sodium oxidizes rapidly
when exposed to air; the oily saliva of
the dragon serves to prevent premature
ignition in the mouth of the dragon. The
sodium itself is stored in the digestive
tract in a nearly solid state, and is not
liquefied until powerful gastric and esophagal
contractions bring it up to the
mouth.
Victims hit by the sodium stream are
drenched, and as the saliva runs off and
the sodium is exposed to the air, a victim
will be engulfed in napalm-like flame, doing
damage equal to the hit points of the
dragon. This damage is halved if the victim
makes a saving throw vs. breath
weapon. The sodium will ignite in 1-3 (10
minus the hit dice of the dragon) melee
rounds after covering the target.
Sodium explodes when it comes in
contact with water, so if well-meaning
friends of the victim try to wash the substance
off, the resulting blast will do

damage to everyone in a 1½” radius
equal to the points the target alone
would have lost in fire damage. The only
practical way to prevent a victim from
catching fire is to drench him or her in oil
to prevent the sodium from contacting
the air. All clothing and armor must then
be removed and cleaned of sodium while
the objects are still oil-covered, which
takes 7, 8, or 9 (hit dice of dragon) turns.
There is, of course, an element of risk in
the pouring of oil, should the sodium
ignite just as the oil hits the victim.
A favorite attack mode of orange
dragons is to expel sodium into a river or
lake directly adjacent to a camped party
(or a boatload) of adventurers. An average-
sized adult dragon would spit a
stream of sodium “worth” 40 points fire
damage into the water, and the explosion
would cause this much damage to
everyone within a 1½” radius— probably
leaving most party members hurt, and
overturning or destroying boats.
An orange dragon able to speak and
employ spells gains a 1st-level spell at
each of the first three age brackets, a
2nd-level spell at each of the fourth and
fifth ages, and a 3rd-level spell at each of
the last three ages. An ancient orange
dragon would therefore know three 1stlevel,
two 2nd-level, and three 3rd-level
spells, selected randomly. Orange dragons
save vs. metallic poisons such as
sodium or arsenic at +4 and vs. fire (regular
and magical) at +2.

The third very rarely seen dragon type
is the purple. Two well documented
dragons, the red and the blue, may mate
to produce a purple dragon. This is the
strongest of the three missing dragon
types, since its parents are the largest
and most intelligent evil dragons.

Purple Dragon

FREQUENCY: Very rare
NO. APPEARING: 1-4
ARMOR CLASS: 1
MOVE: 9”/24”
HIT DICE: 8-10
% IN LAIR: 55%
TREASURE TYPE: H, T
NO. OF ATTACKS: 3
DAMAGE/ATTACK: 2-7/2-7/5-27
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Breath weapon
and possible magic use
SPECIAL DEFENSES: Nil
MAGIC RESISTANCE: Standard
INTELLIGENCE: High
ALIGNMENT: Neutral evil
SIZE: L (45’ long)
PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil
Attack/Defense Modes: Nil
CHANCE OF:
Speaking: 65%
Magic Use: 35%
Sleeping: 25%

Purple dragons can lair in almost any
climate, but a lair will always be a deep
complex of underground caves, free from
any natural light sources. The breath
weapon of a purple dragon is at its most
startling in utter darkness.
A purple dragon will either attack with
its claw/claw/bite routine (bite is 2d12 +
3) or by its breath weapon, generating a
bolt of energy in a straight line 1/10”
wide and 10” long, similar to that of a
blue dragon, but narrower. The bolt is a
high-energy lance, a merging of the
lightning and fire from the dragon’s blue
and red parents. Victims take damage
equal to the dragon’s hit points from being
fully struck; victims who make a save
vs. breath weapon are only struck a
glancing blow and take half damage.
Both the victim and anyone else standing
in a 120° arc in front of the dragon’s
head are struck blind for 8-10 (hit dice of
dragon) melee rounds due to the eyesearing
brightness of the beam. The
blindness is of half duration outside in
daylight, and of three-quarters duration
(round fractions up in both cases) in a
torch-lit room underground.
Magic-using purple dragons gain a
1st-level spell at each of the first three
stages of growth; a 2nd-level spell at the
fourth and fifth stages; a 3rd-level spell
at the sixth and seventh stages; and a
4th-level spell at the final stage. A magicusing
ancient purple dragon would know
random spells consisting of three 1stlevel,
two 2nd-level, two 3rd-level, and
one 4th-level incantation. Purple dragons
take half damage from lightning and
fire attacks (regular and magical).

General information
To augment the attack-effectiveness
table on page 30 of the Monster Manual,
attacking a yellow, orange or purple
dragon is subject to these penalties and
bonuses:

                                            Attack by:

Dragon’s  Breath	A	E	F	W	El
Salt	+1	—	—	+ 1	—
S o d i u m	—	-1	—	—	—
E n e r g y	—	+1	-1	—	-1

A = Air; E = Earth; F = Fire;
W = Water; El = Electricity.

While the frequencies of the missing
dragons are all listed as very rare, this
could simply imply that dungeon adventurers
are staying close to home. On another
continent or atop a nearly inaccessible
plateau, the frequency of each
should be rare, so that conventional encounter
tables for dragons can be used.
Descriptions of these three dragons
now complete the evil dragon overspecies.
A sage can easily trace the biology
of the most distinctive dragon characteristic,
the breath weapon. The fire of the
red dragon breaks apart the sodium
chloride (salt) of the yellow dragon, giving
sodium as a breath weapon for the
orange dragon. The electricity-generating
effect of the blue dragon breaks the
sodium chloride of the yellow dragon
apart to form the chlorine breath of the
green dragon. And the weapons of the
red and blue combine to yield the energy
lance of the purple dragon.
 
 
 

Dragon Magazine	Monster Manual III	Dragons	Redefining the Dragon	Dragon #38
Orange Dragon	Yellow Dragon	Purple Dragon	The Missing Dragons	Dragon #65

OUT ON A LIMB
‘Common errors’

Dear Editor:
DRAGON #65 contained an article on “The
Missing Dragons.” I would like to point out a
few common errors in this type of article
which, if they were cleared up, would improve
the game and the monster in question. Writers
tend to make the monster shrouded in myth.
They do this by ascribing information to
sages, bards, long-dead wizards, etc. Frankly,
this is just trite. The monsters in the Bestiary,
et al, are meant as part of text on the subject of
monsters. Thus, the monsters’s stats and history
should not be vague. [Just say that] The
monster came from some locale, has such
and such attacks, etc., and leave out the
mystery.

These dragons have very powerful attack
forms when one looks at the consequences of
their breath weapons. Imagine, however, how
it would be to have a red or a black dragon
breathe in your face. This would be like being
directly exposed to a flame thrower or a mixture
of nitric and sulfuric acids. However, the
red and black dragons simply do damage and
do not blind or melt the face of the target.

The point is that the AD&D system is not a
simulation, it is a game. Certainly we can look
at our current knowledge of chemistry and
biology and know the consequences of sodium
chloride fired into someone’s face. We
would also know how to give artificial respiration,
as is suggested in the article. But alas,
medieval man did not know these things.

Further, the attacks of the Yellow, Orange,
and Purple Dragons’ breath weapons provide
hit location specifics that are not part of general
AD&D rules.

Even though these monsters are not “official,”
many readers take DRAGON Magazine
articles as gospel. Inclusion of vague histories,
suppositions, and hit location attack
forms makes the game more difficult to play
and in fact breaks some of the general rules
that created the game.

Lenard Lakofka
Chicago, III.
(Dragon #67)


In retrospect, I can appreciate Len’s criticisms
and most of his points of view. In defense
of what we do (and in defense of the
author of the maligned article), I must point
out that it is neither possible nor desirable for
all the material in DRAGON™ Magazine to be
of “official” quality. And we’ve made the point
often enough that the words we print are not
to be taken “as gospel.” In one way or another,
every issue of this magazine is an experiment,
and a lot of the articles are experimental
and speculative in nature. If you like an idea,
use it and enjoy it. If you don’t, there’ll be
more ideas to choose from next month. 

— KM
(Dragon #67)