Hello all, I hope I've placed this in the proper location. Basically, I have a game that I am running and I have an idea for the next 'arc' in my campaign. Recently, my party came across a item with the ability to harvest the souls of slain foes, or anyone within a certain range, really. In this campaign it is a driving plot item and is one of a kind.
Now, I've come to a place wjere I would like to emphasize to the party just how 'special' this gem is by means of being told by a red dragon. What I want to know is this: Is it in the realms of probability that a red dragon would take on the disguise as a humanoid for the purpose if manipulating politics, ect.
DMMiles wrote:
At least in my setting, all dragons have the ability to take on their own unique humanoid form. Some do, some don't, but all can.
Red dragons generally do not, unless they are too young and weak to enforce their will upon mortals. They prefer displays of power, to intimidate or slaughter mortals until they get what they want. But sometimes, a red dragon is more crafty than he is proud.
Novacat wrote:
Hm... Red Dragons tends to a Chaotic Evil alignment, so even though it's crafty and clever, it doesn't get any real joy in politics. They believe in their own almightyness. So either change to a blue or green dragon or the red dragon is a special case, so he can do what he wants.
Red dragons value notoriety, so the main reasons one would shapechange is to find out if people are still talking about it or to spread tales of its greatness. I could see one telling the party about a gem as part of a plan to lure them someplace where an audience can see it take the gem from them. If more people know about how important the gem is, the dragon's Q rating will go up for having it.
Most importantly, it's your* game, and so the books can go take a flying leap. It is plausible that a red dragon would do whatever you think a red dragon would do.
That said, I'd ,ale a couple of suggestions:
1) If you do go with the traditional metallic/chromatic split it seems a bit odd for a powerful Evil being to be randomly telling the PCs about something. Does it have the gem already? Is it taunting them? What does it get out of the whole deal. Make it a gold dragon and it becomes a lot more reasonable that it might be giving helpful information to randoms. Unless it's deliberately trying to manipulate them, which is entirely kosher (it fits better with Green Dragon fluff, but basically that's meaningless).
2) As a very general piece of YMMV DMing advice, be careful of trying to overawe the PCs with super-powerful NPCs. If the message you're trying to send is "the gem is important because this really important dragon thinks it is important" you run the risk (and I stress that it is only a risk, different players have different preferences) of sending the message that the game is all about the dragon and its gem, and not about the players' characters.
*which you can take to mean "yours as DM" or "yours as a group" depending on how collectivist your playstyle is.
I'm sorry, I didn't really elaborate enough. In the campaign, this red dragon is going to be in a 'meat suit' in order to be screwing with the local country with the end game of possibly starting a war and taking advantage of the war to steal as much treasure from both factions as possible. The dragon is going to be impersonating a politician or something, I havnt decided that yet because I didn't know if this was something a red dragon would do because they're just so dam proud. But in any case, the party is going to catch a local theif and (assuming they turn them in) meet the dragon in disguise in the process, who, with that uncanny red dragon ability to identify items for their monetary worth, see how well equiped they are and ask about them and their adventures. Since I have that one... 'special player' in the group who kind of blurts out anything to see what'll happen, they will mention this 'one of a kind' artifact which will interest said dragon. That's as far as I've planned though, because again, I don't 100% know if a red dragon would even do something like this.
Sounds fine to me. Again I really wouldn't stress about "would a red dragon do this". D&D is a kit game, red dragons are exactly what they need to be for the game, nothing more or less.
Power is certianly relative to the setting. I like my campaign worlds like my real ones, more or less in the sense that money and politics (see money previously) are a completely different scale of power that is hard to rival. You may be Billy BadGuy, All powerful whatever, but economy and red tape will make your life infinately more difficult if you want to influence anything. I can see a red dragon being involved in this, certainly. Traditionally, they like to lord their power over everyone, so crave dominion. They like gathering wealth, which this lets them. They are extremely intelligent, so they know that a show of strength against a prepared kingdom or territory get them dead, they take it over with money and influence instead, with the intent to hold dominion over those pathetic humans. Dragons tend toward certain alignment, but that really is stereotype. Dogs tend to be obediant and pack loving, but not all, cats tend to be independant and aloof, but some are more people oriented. Dolphins tend to be egotistical jerks, but hey...I'm sure there are some who aren't.
Setzer_G wrote:
Even in this world, people with the ability to immolate cities realize the importance of walking (relatively) small to not upset the torch and pitchfork demographic (or rival nuclear power, again politics). In a dnd world, almost doubly so, since in this edition (moreso than in any other) a lot of little guys determined to make a difference by overthrowing one powerful and maniacal dude, will eventually succeed given no other machinations on said maniac's part. Murderocracy is one thing, but those actions have vast and far reaching consequences. I might underplay it a bit, only because the consequences to those sort of actions, don't stack up in the cost/benefit analysis.
Unless you've the strings of the ones with the power to immolate cities. Sure it's a more volatile game, but still a viable one.
Thoughts_My_Aim wrote:
The intrigue you're describing sounds a lot more like the scheming of a black dragon than a red dragon. They have no problem being sneaky, using minions, and reside in creepy lairs in dismal swamps. Maybe the dragon could appear as a cackling old crone and tell the characters' fortunes. 
Red dragons are mighty and terrible, but they're not the most subtle of their kind. But, the plot itself is sound, and would work fine with whatever dragon you wanted (except maybe white, they're pretty brutish and stupid).
As many others have said, this is your game and a red dragon can and will do whatever the hell you say he does.
That being said according to my limited knowledge of traditional D&D lore this sort of activity would be more likely to come from a different color of dragon, such as black, green, or gold. Sounds like a fun encounter you have set up though.