Dawn Dragon (Creature, dragon)

Dragon (Fire)

Environment: Warm mountains and deserts.

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

Challenge Ratings: Wyrmling 4; very young 5; young 7; juvenile 10; young adult 12; adult 14; mature adult 16; old 18; very old 19; ancient 21; wyrm 22; great wyrm 24

Treasure: Standard

Alignment: Always neutral good.

Originally Posted by **flabort**

*"Experimenting on the stolen eggs of dragons was considered a bad thing. Bruce had seen examples of what had happened when a powerful wizard or a cabal of evil priests had created 'new life' from the eggs of dragons, and his immense sorrow for the noble beasts that would have been, had they not, threatened to tear his heart in twain. And yet, that was what he was about to do.*

*"Laid out in his laboratory were several tools, arcane supplies, divine foci, and runed panels he had devised for the ritual he was about to undertake. All these were laid around four massive eggs, almost steaming from the heat contained inside, stolen, or 'taken for Pelor', by a group of paladins that had recently slain several red dragons terrorizing the area. The night they'd brought the eggs over, he'd received a message from Pelor himself, and it was his mission to see this ritual out to it's end. Picking up a large golden sword covered with arcane spices, he started chanting, beginning the ritual.*

*"The ritual lasted several weeks. Without aid from clerics or mages to assist in it's undertaking, it naturally took longer than planned. Finally, though, it was complete. He'd held onto the golden sword through the whole thing, and his arms where ready to fall off. Collapsing to the ground with ragged breaths, a divine light filled his vision, enveloping the eggs with a golden glow. Gathering his strength, he limped off towards his quarters, waiting for the eggs to hatch. But, just as he reached the door leading from his laboratory, a slight cracking sound reached his ears. The eggs were hatching already."*

Dawn dragons are one of two results of a magical experiment by the priest-king of an ancient kingdom, the other being the dreaded Eclipse Dragons. Through a series of magical rituals the priest-king reshaped unborn red dragons into forces of good dedicated to Pelor. When the eggs hatched they produced two types of creatures. At birth these creatures looked identical, but as they aged one type grew ever brighter in coloration, while the other’s scales darkened even as its intellect sped. The former was clumsy in its actions, dull-witted as if the magic had in severing it from its inner evil also cut it from that spiritual force that gave its draconic mind power. The latter seemed a shining paragon of good until the day the king died, declaring it his heir.

Three years later the kingdom was enveloped in tyranny and destruction. The spawn of Tiamat patrolled the streets, and honest men and women hid in their homes seeking what small shelter they could find there. The dragon, now king, turned the kingdom into a living hell for years before he was slain by a dragon who came out of the great desert that lay to the south and came forth slaying the first eclipse dragons. After this event both dawn and eclipse dragons were scattered across the world.

Dawn dragons at birth look like red dragons, except for the pale yellow scales mixed with red upon their arms, tail, and wings. As they age their scales grow ever brighter and more lustrous until they shine like red-gold. As they age their features shift slightly, the hornlets on their face growing proportionately smaller with each generation, and their ear frills also growing smaller. A great wyrm dawn dragon has reached a state at which it is continuously surrounded by an aura of brilliant light.

Dawn dragons are, for dragons, extremely altruistic creatures. They have a very poor definition of self, and the boundaries between creatures, expecting other creatures to share their personal knowledge and know what they are feeling. Dawn dragons value the lives of others almost equal to their own, although they rarely take a violent role in the world. Unlike most good dragons dawn dragons rarely see evil as an abomination and affront to righteousness, instead seeing it as an inherently self-destructive act since they fail to understand what it means for each creature to be a unique entity (this trait has lead some sages to incorrectly report that these dragons have a gestalt hive mind).

In addition to stunting their mental faculties, the ritual stripped dawn dragons of their natural arcane powers. They do not develop sorcerous abilities, nor resistance to spells and magical effects with age, although they do learn how to use a few specific magical effects and gain abilities useful against evil and the undead.

**Special Abilities**

**Breath Weapon (Su)**: A dawn dragon has a single breath weapon a cone of burning light. This breath weapon deals fire damage as listed in the table with a Reflex save for half.

**Smite Evil (Su)**: 1/round a juvenile or older dawn dragon may declare an attack a smite gaining a +4 to hit and a bonus to damage equal to their age category with that attack if the target is evil aligned.

**Turn Undead (Su)**: An adult or older dawn dragon gains the ability to turn undead as a cleric level (1.5 x age category) except they only gain a number of turn attempts equal to their charisma modifier.

**Aura of Brilliance (Su)**: A great wyrm dawn dragon radiates an aura of brilliance which produces light equivalent to a *daylight* spell heightened to 9th level. Any undead creature entering the bright light from this aura is turned as if by a 20th level cleric (no turning roll; infinite turning damage).

**Spell-like Abilities**: 1/day: *Mass Fire Shield* (old or older), *Sunbeam* (ancient or older, *Meteor Swarm* (great wyrm).

**Skills**: A dawn dragon counts Appraise as a class skill. Bluff and Sense Motive are removed from their list of class skills and they suffer a -4 penalty to both checks.