Frequency: Rare
No. Appearing: 1-4
Armor Class: 3
Move; 9”/24”
% in lair: 75%
Treasure Type: H
No. of attacks: 3
Damage/attack: 1-8/1-8/3-18
Special Attacks: Breath weapon and Possible Magic Use
Special Defenses: Limited shapechange
Magic Resistance: See text above
Intelligence: 14-17
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Size: L (48’)
Psionic Ability: Nil
Chance of Speaking 50%, Magic use 75%, Sleeping 20%
The yellow dragon enjoys the company of men to the point of
freely mixing with them in the guise of a Cleric,
Magic-User or
Illusionist depending upon the type of spells it can cast, or as a
man-at-arms if it cannot cast spells. The yellow dragon can
shapechange to human form three times per day but the same
human (form/appearance) will always result from the change; thus,
disguise as various humans is not possible. The dragon?s lair is
usually at a point overlooking an often-traveled road or near a small
town, thus allowing the dragon the chance to mix with humans. The
yellow dragon is outright rude and almost hateful to both humanoids
and demihumans, and will attack such a band, unless it is accompanied
by a majority of humans, on sight 45% of the time. While
the yellow dragon is not evil, he is very gullible and any plausible
story told to him by a human must be saved against like a Suggestion
spell; thus, the dragon often ends up following either good or evil
purposes if the person he last talked to has a charisma that is quite
high. For every point of a person?s charisma below 10, the dragon
gains +1 on its s.t. vs Suggestion, but it loses one point for every
point above 13. Remember, the suggestion must be reasonable?
and, once melee is joined, this ability of men to ?sweet talk? a yellow
dragon is gone.
The yellow dragon can attack with spells (it can select Cures or
Cause spells from clerical lists) or a claw/claw/bite routine but its
most feared weapon is its breath. It has two forms usable twice per
day each:
1. Cause Disease. This breath is in cloud form covering a cone
6? long and 3? at its base. Any in the cone must save twice versus
magic. The first save is to prevent the effects of a Stinking Cloud
spell
once the figure is out of the gas (the gas does not linger but evaporates
in 1 round). The effect, if the s.t. fails, lasts for 4-16 rounds
(i.e. cannot cast spells, attacks to hit are at -3, strength and dexterity
bonuses are lost as effective strength and dexterity drop by 4 points.
Any with a resultant strength or dexterity of 2 or less are absolutely
helpless and will fall over in a heap.) Worse still, the figure is
subject
to a disease that will permanently drain 1 point of strength and 1
point of dexterity per day for from 1-6 days unless a Cure Disease
from a 12th or higher-level Cleric is applied or a Heal spell is used.
Once a point is lost, however, it can only be regained by a Wish or
a
Restoration applied within 4 days of the loss of the strength or
dexterity point.
2. Cause Blindness. This breath is a cloud of gas of the same
proportions as the Disease gas. Those inside must save versus blindness
or be blinded until a Cure Blindness or Heal spell is applied?
Dispel Magic or Remove Curse has no effect upon either gas.
Note that both weapons do 1 hit point of damage per age level of
the dragon, with no saving throw allowed.
Spells are gained at the rate of 1 first-level spell for the first four
age levels of the dragon and 1 second-level spell for the next four
age
levels.
YELLOW DRAGON (Dragon #65)
by Richard Alen Llyod
According to the color-wheel theory,
the green dragon’s parents many gener-
ations ago were blue and yellow drag-
ons. The blue dragon is well document-
ed; despite being rare, it is abundant
enough to have been seen by villagers
and adventurers alike. Yellow dragons,
however, are very rare (or perhaps non-
existent) on the continent where most
AD&D adventures take place; few, if any,
have ever been seen.
Since no yellow dragon has been cap-
tured locally for study, the characteris-
tics of yellow dragons have been de-
duced by sages asking, “If a green drag-
on 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.
In a similar deductive fashion, the in-
telligence, magic-using capability, and
other attributes of the yellow dragon
have been narrowed down to a set of
likely statistics:
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.
If a victim makes a saving throw vs.
breath weapon, this means the victim
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 ruonds 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 (one-
half 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 sev-
eral 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 af-
flicted will fall unconscious from lack of
air in 1-3 melee rounds and will die in
another 3-5 rounds thereafter. The chok-
ing 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 blind-
ed 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 counter-
ing such afflictions are of no use. Ordi-
nary 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 brack-
ets, in the same manner as green drag-
ons, 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.
| Dragon Magazine | Monster Manual III | Dragons | Redefining the Dragon | Dragon #38 |
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