Gorgonid Dragon (Creature, dragon)

Dragon (Fire)

**Environment**: Warm plains

**Organization**: Wyrmling, very young, young, juvenile, and young adult: solitary, clutch (2–5), or pack (5-20); adult, mature adult, old, very old, ancient, wyrm, or great wyrm: solitary, pair, family (2-5), or pack (5-20).

**Challenge Ratings**: Wyrmling 3; very young 4; young 5; juvenile 7; young adult 9; adult 11; mature adult 13; old 15; very old 17; ancient 18; wyrm 19; great wyrm 20

**Treasure**: Standard

**Alignment**: Always Chaotic Neutral.

*Now I know what you’re thinking; you’re asking if this **thing** is even a dragon. Well I’ll tell you what that sodding barmie dragon-scholar Zasper told me. It might be a horrid little furred creature, weaker even than the puny white dragons, but it has all the requirements. They even have that odd organ dragons have. Yeah I’d have dismissed it at the fur, too.*

*Well gorgonid dragons don’t have any relation to those weird cows they have on the plane, and can’t turn a berk to stone either, but that doesn’t mean it’s safe to mess with them. These little beasts have fire breath, now it ain’t no where as strong as a red drake’s but it’s still enough to give you a singe. They have sharp claws, and deadly teeth too; and from what the barmie tells me the older ones heal from wounds almost as fast as they take them. That’s assuming they even take them, you see they have touch skin that non-magic steel won’t even cut, and even enchanted chiv’s don’t always work as well as normal; see they might be from the prime but they’re creatures of chaos and only an axiomatic blade is fully effective.*

*If you’re going to hunt them, be careful. They can track by scent, and unlike most dragons they come in numbers. I’ve heard tales that over a hundred have been seen moving together before; now my sources tell me that’s a slaad-story, but they confirm that these critters move in packs of up to twenty individuals. That’s twenty dragons if you didn’t get it, there’s not many a blood that can go up against twenty adult dragons and live to tell about it.*

Gorgonid dragons are small, for dragons, pack hunters. They have long draconic necks, and powerful draconic wings, but their bodies are covered in short, golden-brown fur and they lack scales completely instead having preternaturally dense skin. They have long, saber-teeth sometimes longer than their heads. As wyrmlings they have lithe, bodies built for speed, but as they mature their bodies become bulkier and slower till at full growth they’re no more agile than your average dragon.

Despite being pack animals, gorgonid dragons have only the barest of power structures, and no laws save those that nature imposes. Their packs are normally nomadic, wandering through the plains at random, and occasionally even moving through abnormal terrain. Scavengers have been known to follow gorgonid dragons, and their packs can sometimes be traced by the flock of carrion birds that circle around them.

**Adaptation**: Change their alignment to always Chaotic Evil and give them the Chaos and Evil subtypes and gorgonid dragons can be natives to one of the layers of the Abyss; a primitive and bestial race of dragons occasionally rounded up by tanar'ri generals and forced into the Blood War.

**Special Abilities**

**Breath Weapon (Su)**: Gorgonid dragons have a single breath weapon, a cone of fire that deals the listed damage (Reflex for half).

**Powerful Bite (Ex)**: Gorgonid dragons deal damage with their bite as if one size category larger than they actually are.

**Keen Nose(Ex)**: A gorgonid dragon has the scent ability, except the range from which it can detect scents is 30-ft per age category.

**Improved Flanking (Ex)**: When a very young or older gorgonid dragon is flanking a creature the gorgonid dragon gets an additional +2 to hit. If a gorgonid dragon has sneak attack it may apply it to creatures not subject to precision damage when it is flanking.

**Trip (Ex)**: When a juvenile or older gorgonid dragon hits an opponent with its bite attack it may make a trip attempt as a free action without making a touch attack roll, or provoking an attack of opportunity. If it fails its opponent cannot react to trip it back.

**Augmented Critical (Ex)**: An old or older gorgonid dragon’s bite attack has a 18-20/x3 critical.

***Swift Haste* (Sp)**: An ancient or older gorgonid dragon may use *Swift Haste* as a spell-like ability 3 times per encounter.

**Deadly Critical (Ex)**: A great wyrm gorgonid dragon gains Improved Critical (Bite) as a bonus feat, and their critical damage multiplier increases to x4 (for a 15-20/x4 bite).

**Skills**: Jump, Tumble, and Survival are class skills for gorgonid dragons. They gain a bonus to Survival checks when tracking by scent equal to their age category.