Dragons
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Dragons are legendary and mystical reptilian creatures that, in time, can become some of the most powerful creatures in the realm. A full grown dragon stands taller than most races, is covered with protective scales, has large leathery wings, a powerful tail, long sharp claws, and the ability to utilize a distinctive breath weapon against their opponents. Dragons are both physically powerful and adept at magic. They tend to excel at every endeavour, but while they may be strong, they really progress in power quite slowly. Dragons are only available through the remort command.
- Abbreviation: Drg.
- Racial(s): Armorancient, Breath, Claw, Fly, Infravision, Tail, Corpse Eating, Roar, Devour.
- Racial Size: very large.
- Racial TNL: 10000 XP.
- Well-Suited to Be: berserkers, bodyguards, black circle initiates, clerics, mages, mindbenders, monks, paladins, priests, psionicists, rangers, shadowfists, sorcerers, stormlords, warriors, wizards.
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First, dragons get a lot of health. Even as casters, dragons' hit points can surpass those of smaller-race brutes at hero. Their high health pools, combined with the very high dexterity and racial armorancient, the best racial armor available, make dragons formidable opponents for most low mortal and hero enemies.
Second, dragons receive the highest mana gains in the game, tied with sprites and high elves. Dragons also get a 10% spell cost reduction, typical among the "smart" races, as well as an additional 5.56% (exactly 85/90) reduction in psionic spell costs. Naturally, they are no-fail at 95% (meaning their adepted spells will never not execute, regardless of their effect). Dragons also have very fast mana regeneration due to their high intelligence.
Third, dragons have a very good melee damage modifier, complimented by the oft-neglected racial fly, which grants "a small chance to negate enemies' dodge attempts".
These strengths are counterbalanced by negative stealth and archery modifiers.
However, the real counterbalance to dragons' general awesomeness is their whopping 10,000 TNL. While ent TNL is higher, at 20,000, ents have the unique earth-embrace racial, which mitigates XP loss on death. A Qxl-worshiping dragon that dies at low TNL can easily lose 14-15k XP in a single stroke (or even 25-35K if dying while affected by tainted genius without a death shroud). As a result, dragons level very slowly and carefully. Lording a dragon may well be a year-long enterprise, should you focus on that character alone. If you desire to create a multiple remort character, always leave the dragon (racial) remort for last!
Well-Suited Dragon Classes
Dragons generally make excellent fighters and spell casters.
As brutes, their durability and damage make them welcome tanks and hitters. Meanwhile, their high mana pools and no-fail casting allow them to provide utility unmatched by most of the other respected brute races, which arguably make dragons particularly good paladins.
High-level dragon monks and shadowfists are incredibly resilient (though not immortal) and reap the benefit of ferocious claws.
Stat-wise, dragon mages at hero 999 should have about 9k/5.5k health/mana, about double the health of an elf mage, and dragon wizards should have about 8k/7.2k.
Some argue that dragons make the best psionicists, due to the combination of their psionic spell cost reduction, racial armor (mitigating the loss of armor due to the fact that psi's typically run in DR gear, as opposed to the AC gear generally worn by other casters), and melee damage modifier (which influences psionic spells like dancing weapon).
Ill-Suited Dragon Classes
Dragons fail about 20% of their stabs due to their lack of stealthiness, making them generally poor assassins and rogues (despite their high intelligence). Black dragons are stealthier than other dragons, so this caveat may not apply to them, although their racial damage modifier is slightly lower than that of other dragons.
Dragon bladedancers have significantly higher bladetrance costs, due to the combination of their poor stealth and their enormity.
Dragons archers and druids will be frustrated by their negative archery mod's, and dragon fusiliers will be even further limited due to their inability ever to be underfoot.
Chromatic Dragons
In March 2013 Chromatic Dragons were added as an evolutionary option.
Standard dragons are Red Dragons. Other available chroma include: Blue, Green, White, and Black.
