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.
Comments
In March 2013 Chromatic Dragons were added as an evolutionary option.
There are not a lot of things that dragons do not excel at, so listing those first:
Stabbing as a rogue or assassin is a no-go for dragons. They are large (ruling out fusilier) and not very stealthy, and will fail 20% of the time due to stealth failures alone. Also, they have a negative archery modifier so archers and druids are not recommended.
As spellcasters, dragons are fantastic. Huge mana pools (less than sprites and high elves, but higher than most races), with high hp (that can surpass smaller-race warriors at hero), combined with armorancient, means there is little in the game a dragon mage should fear. Mages at hero 999 should have about 10k/6k and wizards about 8k/8k (actual numbers are subject to worship and random gain probability factor, and should not be taken as a guideline), which is twice as much HP as an elf mage would have. Dragons get a 10% spell cost reduction that is typical among "smart" races, as well as a 5.56% (exactly 85/90) reduction in psionic spell costs on top of that. Naturally, they are no-fail at 95%.
Given their regular spell cost reduction, additional psionic spells reduction, racial armor ancient (as most psis run in dr hit gear), nofail casting, and melee damage modifier, dragons make probably the best psionicists possible.
As brutes, their incredible mana pools make them effective paladins, but even as berserkers their armor and racial damage bonus will easily make them beloved groupmates.
When tanking, they are very hardy monks. Bladedancer is not recommended, as their large size and poor stealth impair their bladetrance costs.
Overall, there is much to be said about the dragon's awesomeness - good gains, excellent regeneration speed, etc, but there is also the singular downside that matters - a whopping 10k TNL.
While apparently not as bad as an Ent's 20k, dragons do not have the benefit of racial-earthembrace, and a Qxl worshiper dying at low tnl can easily lose 14-15k xp in a single stroke (or 25-35K if wearing tainted genius without death shroud). As a result dragons level very slowly, and carefully. If you desire to do a double remort, always leave the dragon (racial) remort for last since lording a dragon may well be a yearly enterprise, should you focus on that character alone.
