This is surprising, since I had NEVER heard of Cobalt dragons before (and I heard of lots and lots of dragons, mind you) and exciting because we're getting some color in the mix!
I had to do some research on these dragons and found this:
Cobalt Dragon
* Breath weapon: Line of pulsing magnetic energy (force damage plus Bull Rush check)
* Terrain: Deep dark forest or thick jungle
* Alignment: Lawful Evil
* Notes:
* Appears in: Dragon #356
Midnight blue dragons that could fire a breath weapon of pulsing, barely perceptible energy. These dragons, like the chromium dragons, were foul of temper, but subservient to iron dragons and their lord.
My wild guess is that the new incarnation will not have anything to do with this. I immediately associated the blue color to the sky and thought of the artillery role (still missing in the metallic team), but then I thought it would be a straight copy of Blues, and they tend to avoid these things.
So with Bronze dragons also (supposedly) being somewhat resemblant of Blues due to lightning focus (this might change), for now the strongest candidate for the metallic artillery is Brass, which could maybe get to spit fireballs to accomplish this, instead of cones of fire, who knows.
The new Draconomicon is DEFINITELY one of the books I'm awaiting with more trepidation. Maybe it's because if dragons are cool, then metallic dragons are way cooler (or hotter, depending on temperature... or maybe polymorphing abilities..! :D )
Anyway, the coming of cobalt dragons actually leaves me more disappointed than ever that iron dragons are lurkers. I've always felt that iron should have played brute to adamantine's soldier, and now cobalts come along who seem so much more appropriate for the role of metallic lurker.
Still I'm throughly stoked for the Draconomicon 2.
Yay for new dragons.
Anyway, the coming of cobalt dragons actually leaves me more disappointed than ever that iron dragons are lurkers. I've always felt that iron should have played brute to adamantine's soldier, and now cobalts come along who seem so much more appropriate for the role of metallic lurker.
Still I'm throughly stoked for the Draconomicon 2.
Irons are now my favorite dragons for one silly fact: they have the highest Wisdom score EVER released in 4e!!
But I do notice some problems, both with Irons and Adamantines (and Silvers to a certain extent).
First of all, they clearly had other plans in the beginning, as I re-read in Worlds and Monsters few days ago. Iron was going to be the brute, and the first artwork for Silvers certainly didn't depict the stupid (look at their mental scores... They look like UNOPTIMIZED paladins...) brutes they came to be. And Irons were classified as the metallic white, using the word brute.
Now.
I'm happy that Irons are not brutes anymore and to a certain extent I'm also happy that Silvers play the "errant knight" type (fact supported by their mediocre mental scores with Charisma emerging out a bit, good representation of the knight/paladin type)...
BUT.
Adamantines also ended up rather stupid, unaware and less-soldieresque then Irons!! I mean, I could get over the fact that their (Adamantine's) Intelligence doesn't match their supposedly tactically-oriented mind, since stats are not always representative, but what about the lurker Irons getting a bunch of defense-boosting abilities? I mean, I'm personally happy given that I like them, but I do think they messed up a bit.
I see something like an over-sighted (not sure that's a proper word) issue of multiple developers having worked in different times on the same dragons, resulting in a strange cocktails of abilities that somehow ended up benefiting the Iron.
I think they are aware of this (fortunately little) mess, and they'll give more defined niches and fluff to each dragon in the Draconomicon, while probably even chiseling better abilities in the form of alternate powers. After all some of the alternate powers in the first Draconomicon were real yummy icing, and game design pearls IMO.
As for the Cobalts, I really still don't have a clue! (And how could anyone have a clue, actually...)
But yeah I dunno what it will be like, the metal itself doesn't have much defining attributes besides its use in pottery and such. As well as high exposure having mutation/cancer causing effects (though is needed to live in small amounts).
Hmm... *Shifty eyes* *puts a "-60" after Cobalt* AWESOME! We have radioactive dragons!
Well played, s_b, well played.
I am just happy we are getting Bronze(more happy) and Brass(not nearly as happy) back in the new Draconomicon. I was afraid we were going to get something like Aluminum or Sodium or something.
Cobalt could have the much (on my part) desired breath of poison, to compliment the Green. I always thought Copper should have poison breath, but they went with the overused Acid instead. Everything has acid breath (unless they have fire breath), really. With Bronze probably having acid breath, and brass being a FOURTH Fire dragon (Red, Gold, Volcanic), those are the most overused breaths. I could go with a non-standard breath like the Brown's Sandy Breath (no damage type, not even Force) or the Adamantine's though (while Thunder is a damage type, it's not as much a breath as a roar...).
Cobalt would be a nice Psychic Dragon too. Would go well with the radioactive bit.
Yes, I had similar fears. Cobalt probably won't have magnetic breath, because magnetism is essentially what the Iron Dragon does - electromagnetism, to be exact. It draws enemies near to it's magnetic (iron) body, and zaps them with electricity.
Cobalt could have the much (on my part) desired breath of poison, to compliment the Green. I always thought Copper should have poison breath, but they went with the overused Acid instead. Everything has acid breath (unless they have fire breath), really. With Bronze probably having acid breath, and brass being a FOURTH Fire dragon (Red, Gold, Volcanic), those are the most overused breaths. I could go with a non-standard breath like the Brown's Sandy Breath (no damage type, not even Force) or the Adamantine's though (while Thunder is a damage type, it's not as much a breath as a roar...).
Cobalt would be a nice Psychic Dragon too. Would go well with the radioactive bit.
Love the idea of a poison or psychic Cobalt. Poison + some weird effect would be more "realistic" if they want to represent some kind of radioactivity, but then again radiation sickness also gives hallucinations.... And we haven't had any illusion-based dragons since the Blue's shtick changed.... So it could be a Controller metallic.
Other possibilities I see... Well, if we assume Bronzes are going to be our default water-sea dragons (something I'd love), we could speculate about an artillery role with some kind of really powerful wind and rain breath, if wanting to keep distance from lightning and so avoid the "lightning for artillery" thing and overlap with Blue dragon that could result. Another kind of niche the Bronze could cover would be that of a really trickster lurker: Bronzes were the dragons most likely to assume thew form of small and normal animals... 'Nuff said.
Speaking of Brass, a way to get away from fire would be spitting out molten metal. Nasty thing, maybe a bit more on the Catastrophic dragon side, but could work. Radiant is not going to be used since it became the (Ancient) Gold dragon thing. If they make them desert dragons, then it would be them who could be good candidates for becoming the master illusionists. After all the Brass has always been a trickster, similar to the Copper in this.
P.S. Why do I get so geeky when it comes to metallic dragons anyway? :D
As an aside, does anyone find themselves thinking, "What the hell is cobalt?" It sounds very industrial... like "Potash Dragon".
Also, I expect to see these used with Kobolds even more often than usual.
I'm not upset at all about this, but I am a little bit surprised that it's Cobalt Dragons, not Steel Dragons. Huh? Oh well. Dragons are always cool.
Aren't steel dragons strongly linked to the Greyhawk setting? Maybe WotC plans to hold off on them until they release that setting. Anyway, I was still rather surprised that neither steel nor mercury made the spot-light cut for Draconomicon 2. Heck I would of guessed a fictional metal, like mithral, before cobalt.
As an aside, does anyone find themselves thinking, "What the hell is cobalt?" It sounds very industrial... like "Potash Dragon".
Agreed, cobalt ores and cobalt based dies have been around for a long time, but pure metallic cobalt is a relatively modern element, IIRC. Naming a METALLIC dragon after it, feels vaguely out of place in for pseudo medieval generic fantasy.
I was afraid we were going to get something like Aluminum or Sodium or something.
Bah, Sodium dragon's would be awesome. . .
Aren't steel dragons strongly linked to the Greyhawk setting? Maybe WotC plans to hold off on them until they release that setting. Anyway, I was still rather surprised that neither steel nor mercury made the spot-light cut for Draconomicon 2. Heck I would of guessed a fictional metal, like mithral, before cobalt.
Agreed, cobalt ores and cobalt based dies have been around for a long time, but pure metallic cobalt is a relatively modern element, IIRC. Naming a METALLIC dragon after it, feels vaguely out of place in for pseudo medieval generic fantasy.
I think Steel would be really really problematic with already three quite similar metals like Iron, Adamantine and Silver. Iron in particular also seems to cover the niche of the old Steel very well with its high Wisdom.
I'm really excited by Cobalt right because I find that it fits very well in a medieval setting: cobalt was used to extract blue pigments since antiquity, or more probably actually since the middle ages. And being pigments precious and rare stuff saved for important things, it evokes me the image of a "regal" dragon, much like I imagined blue dragons before the (IMO ugly) chromatic Blues in D&D made an entrance in my imaginary.
EDIT: Actually it is rightly the radioactivity stuff that would make it out of place if not appropriately "camouflaged"...
Agreed, cobalt ores and cobalt based dies have been around for a long time, but pure metallic cobalt is a relatively modern element, IIRC. Naming a METALLIC dragon after it, feels vaguely out of place in for pseudo medieval generic fantasy.
Sorry to double post, but after my last post yours inspired me to do some research into the origin of the word Cobalt. A quick look at http://dictionary.reference.com/dic?q=Cobalt&search=search reveals that the word cobalt is derived from . . . Kobold. An (again informal) search on wikipedia shows that Kobolds were sometimes considered mine spirits and ores were sometimes refered to as kobold ores.
Given that Kobolds in D&D have evolved to have a strong link to dragons, the presence of a Cobalt dragon creates an interesting almost recursive relationship. It would be fitting if Cobalt dragons liked to dwell in abandoned mines or something similar.
Well, I personally am a fan of that "doesn't sound medieval" feel to it.
I'm not so sure I care for it personally. Feels like we're about one step away from the Turbonium Dragon parodies of Munchkin fame.
I'd rather see fewer new dragon species (or whatever the correct term is) and more variant dragon powers for the existing ones, ala the back of the first Draconomicon. More custom options to let us make each dragon truly unique is more appealing than covering the whole periodic table, don't you think?
Sorry to double post, but after my last post yours inspired me to do some research into the origin of the word Cobalt. A quick look at http://dictionary.reference.com/dic?q=Cobalt&search=search reveals that the word cobalt is derived from . . . Kobold. An (again informal) search on wikipedia shows that Kobolds were sometimes considered mine spirits and ores were sometimes refered to as kobold ores.
Given that Kobolds in D&D have evolved to have a strong link to dragons, the presence of a Cobalt dragon creates an interesting almost recursive relationship. It would be fitting if Cobalt dragons liked to dwell in abandoned mines or something similar.
Good research! It sounded familiar too! Well, being the only blue metal it's no wonder they associated it with magical spirits of the earth like Kobolds originally were...
Froma game point of view, I view them as bit too "aristocratic" to just share tunnels with kobolds, but a good compromise could be picturing them "holding court" in marvellous dwarven holds obviously liked to mines and using dwarven or kobold servants depnding on personal inclinations and interests... I see them preferring underground environments, but comfortable, sumptuous underground halls over raw tunnels.
Well I am someone who has monsters that manipulate strings (String Theory) or magic that uses quantum mechanics, etc. And they are out-right called such. So using more modern type phrases is right up my ally.
I'm really excited by Cobalt right because I find that it fits very well in a medieval setting: cobalt was used to extract blue pigments since antiquity, or more probably actually since the middle ages. And being pigments precious and rare stuff saved for important things, it evokes me the image of a "regal" dragon, much like I imagined blue dragons before the (IMO ugly) chromatic Blues in D&D made an entrance in my imaginary.
Oh, I know. I even mentioned as much. Cobalt as a die is old, but cobalt as a pure METAL is not (it's also not blue in it's pure form, IIRC). Which is why it feels mildly out of place among the metallic dragons to me. In fact, since cobalt has been known as a dieing agent longer than it has been known in it pure form, it would almost seem more at home among the chromatic dragons. Thus in the end the concept of a cobalt dragon feels both somewhat out of place among the more historically metals, while simultaneously blurring the lines between metallic and chromatic dragons.
Hmm... That mention of blurring could actually come to something. Perhaps Cobalt Dragons could be ones that really showcase that alignment aren't definite with them anymore. They could in their fluff be described as being comfortable in the company of either type. Perhaps even they are a mutt-breed born of chromatic and metallic.
Which is great flavor for any of the numerous secondary dragons that will likely appear in Draconomicon 2 as well (such as how the first Draconomicon had pyroclastic, shadow, battle, and other dragons as well). It would however seem an odd choice for one of the primary spot-light dragons.
I can't wait to see the final draft on these, they sound wonderful, but more importantly, I can't wait for the artwork!!! (and if it's a good design, with a little hope and a lot of luck, A MINI!!!!!!!)
It would make me buy miniatures at last.... But as you say, a good design is necessary. And I'd also add that a HUGE miniature would be necessary to make me take out my wallet..!
Bah, Sodium dragon's would be awesome. . .
We'll have to wait for the alkali metal dragons, AKA the Dragons that Combust at the Drop of a Hat.
They react chemically, not socially, with adventurers when encountered.
We'll have to wait for the alkali metal dragons, AKA the Dragons that Combust at the Drop of a Hat.
Hmm... It can be the Dragon version of the Rust Monster. Cut open the Dragon and you got all the thermite you want (yeah not all the metals in it are alkali but a good percentage is).
Why not a Force damage breath?
True, it's actually the past incarnation's breath.
Here's the look I would like for Cobalts, granted a bit more metallic and maybe more scaly, to differentiate it from Blue. Also another hue of blue might be necessary, but I'd love this sleek "classic dragon" looks for the Cobalt.
It would make me buy miniatures at last.... But as you say, a good design is necessary. And I'd also add that a HUGE miniature would be necessary to make me take out my wallet..!
Personally, I've wanted a Huge version of that Volcanic Dragon from the MM3 playtest from the second I saw that artwork. Damn fine looking creature, that!
I like the "Blue/Cobalt" Dragon artwork suggested above, but I think there'll still be the issue of "making the dragon into a distinctly D&D-dragon". What do we know about Cobalt Dragons? How can we apply that to making it "look" the part it plays?
At the moment, I'm imagining a head with fewer horns and more "plates" (similar to the ones on the back of a Stegosaurus), if for no other reason than that 4E's official dragons haven't shown anything with an appearance like that yet. (I'm also imagining a "blocky" or "flat-faced" dragon, but I think that might be more appropriate for an "Avalanche Dragon" from the Catastrophic Dragon family, if such a creature exists.)
Anyone else notice they said "lawful evil"? I'm not shocked about a metallic being evil, just that they're using an alignment that doesn't exist in 4E. Are we going to get back our lost alignments?
Huh? I see no mention of lawful evil in the article.
Anyone else notice they said "lawful evil"? I'm not shocked about a metallic being evil, just that they're using an alignment that doesn't exist in 4E. Are we going to get back our lost alignments?
Those were the stats of a previous incarnation of cobalt dragons and I believe in that incarnation they were chromatic dragons not metallic dragons.
Those were the stats of a previous incarnation of cobalt dragons and I believe in that incarnation they were chromatic dragons not metallic dragons.
Apparently they were neither metalic nor chromatic in edditions past (According to Wikipedia atleast).
[INDENT][i]Ferrous dragons
Ferrous Dragons are typically of lawful alignment. They are the Iron Dragon, the Nickel Dragon, the Tungsten Dragon, the Cobalt Dragon, and the Chromium Dragon. They originated in Dragon Magazine. All Ferrous dragons can sense ordinary metals and the lawful ferrous dragons have a strict hierarchy, with the higher dragons dictating the laws to the lower ones. The hierarchy, from highest to lowest, is iron, chromium, cobalt, tungsten, and nickel. Gruaghlothor is the supreme ruler of the ferrous dragons.[/i][/INDENT]
Chromium, Tungstene and Nickel?! And people complained 'Cobalt' doesn't sound medieval enough? XD
Some truly weird concepts have made it into the game. Doubtless, somebody somewhere has created a series of house rules for different "isotopes" of the metallic dragons, and then thought to himself what a great idea it is, and that everyone should use it.
Personally, I imagine most of these "Ferrous Dragons" were the product of a lazy imagination -- one better at imagining dragons of a different colour than dragons of a different mindset -- and the unceasing demand for new monsters.
I'm all about cutting the "fat" (redundancy) out of the game. If the new Cobalt Dragon is "lean" (unique and interesting), then it can stay.
Chromium, Tungstene and Nickel?! And people complained 'Cobalt' doesn't sound medieval enough? XD
I should think that nickel is pretty reasonalbe.
Anyway, for me cobalt is plenty medieval enough if it were a CHROMATIC dragon, due to its historical use as a dying agent. It's as a METALLIC dragon that it sounds a little to modern science for my tastes. Also, as I understand it pure metallic cobalt isn't the vibrant blue color that the term is often associated with.
Apparently they were neither metalic nor chromatic in edditions past (According to Wikipedia atleast).
[INDENT][i]Ferrous dragons
Ferrous Dragons are typically of lawful alignment. They are the Iron Dragon, the Nickel Dragon, the Tungsten Dragon, the Cobalt Dragon, and the Chromium Dragon. They originated in Dragon Magazine. All Ferrous dragons can sense ordinary metals and the lawful ferrous dragons have a strict hierarchy, with the higher dragons dictating the laws to the lower ones. The hierarchy, from highest to lowest, is iron, chromium, cobalt, tungsten, and nickel. Gruaghlothor is the supreme ruler of the ferrous dragons.[/i][/INDENT]
Ahh yeah ferrous dragons. That was a LONG time ago, I just remembered that they weren't metallic dragons (despite being metals). I probably still have that article around somewhere back east in storage.
So from the list of ferrous dragons two have been turned into metallics. The other three I can see as being skipped. Iron and Cobalt are at least terms that are 'middle-ages' and fit well in a fantasy theme. I mean can you complain about cobalt and being a metallic any more than you can that they call the sand dragon a brown dragon? I think to the people of the world most dragon families don't matter, they're all dragons. Only sages and scholars would care about the different families of dragons, and with artificers and alchemists they're likely to know that cobalt is a metallic element. After all we have two alloys in metallics that aren't pure metals (bronze and brass) as well.
a beam of super heated light? HIS BREATH WEAPON IS A FRICKIN LASER O_O
not to mention both the 2e and 3.5 pics of him were great =)
Is the mercury dragon coming? ^_^ he would definitely be a metallic dragon..... not to mention he had the best breath weapon also.
It probably wont get a full write up, but we might well see a single age category example, much like how shadow, pyroclastic, mirage, and others appeared in Draconomicon 1.