Few creatures can match the power and splendor of dragons. Armed with claws and fangs that can rend steel, armored in scales as tough as iron, faster than an eagle in flight, and strong enough to shatter castle gates, a full·grown dragon is an awesome foe. Dragons would be exceedingly dangerous creatures even if they were dumb, ordinary beasts, because of their size and power. But they are also gifted with cold, calculating reason and furnaces of elemental energy that provide them with terrible breath weapons.
In some places and times, dragons are scarcely more than legend, creatures so rare and mysterious that centuries pass without a sighting of one. In other times, dragons rule over the world, darkening the skies and destroying or subjugating lesser beings. The current age falls somewhere between these extremes. In the few centers of civilization, dragons are a rare sight. The typical farmer or merchant might see a dragon only once or twice in his life. But in the borderlands or the great wide wildernesses surrounding those domains, dragons are much more common.
Dragons have soared through the skies of the world and roamed the far reaches of the cosmos since the earliest days of creation. They are the greatest of mortal creatures, although few in number compared to the myriad hosts of humankind or the numberless hordes of goblins or orcs. Although scores, perhaps hundreds, of dragons are remembered in the myths and the legendary histories of the mortal world, only a handful of sages know the tale of the world’s first dragons.
Draconomicon 2: Metallic Dragons describes several varieties of dragons, including gold, silver, copper, iron, and adamantine dragons. It also introduces several other kinds of metallic dragons suitable for any D&D campaign.
This supplement presents dragons both malevolent and benign, and gives details on each dragon’s powers, tactics, myths, lairs, servitors, and more. In addition, this book provides new information about the roles that metallic dragons fill in a D&D game. Story and campaign elements in the book give Dungeon Masters ready-to-play material that is easily incorporated into a game, including adventure hooks, quests, encounters, and pregenerated treasure hoards.