Dry Dragon(Creature, dragon)

**Dragon (Earth)**

**Environment**: Warm 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 9; young adult 12; adult 14; mature adult 17; old 19; very old 20; ancient 22; wyrm 23; great wyrm 25

**Treasure**: Triple standard.

**Alignment**: Usually True Neutral

Found in the deserts which are as dry as these dragons’ breath, dry dragons are dangerous predators. Young dragons hunt primarily by night, relying on hit and run tactics using their desiccating breath and terrible fangs to tear into their foes while using their speed to avoid retribution. Few desert tribes that have faced these dragons do not fear them.

As they mature their strategy changes. An adult dragon no longer needs to wait till night to hunt its prey and will move in the dreadful heat of their arid realms applying tooth and claw to foes. They lair near the surface of the sand and should a creature venture past the lair of a dry dragon it will burst from below rending with tooth and claws, sweeping with deadly breath to debilitate foes.

As they dwell in deserts, along with both blue and brass dragons, dry dragons find that they have draconic competition. Battles with brass dragons tend to be short and end with the weaker (usually brass) dragon fleeing the territory. Battles with blue dragons are longer and drawn out affairs as the blue dragon attempts to manipulate the battlefield to its advantage; many dry dragons die in such fights.

Dry dragons have scales the color of the night sky, some of which twinkle faintly in even the dimmest light, like makeshift stars. Their scales are darker than blue dragons, and their body is completely different. Like several breeds of metallic dragons their wings are made of membrane stretched tightly over a series of spines that runs from the base of their skull all the way to their tail. When at rest they sometimes extend these wings and allow heat to ooze from their blood, pumped through the thin membrane, into the cooler air around them. Although a dry dragon does not need to drink, it is not a creature of flames and great heats can distress even one of their kind. Their heads end in flat noses, and they have a slight under-bite giving their skulls a distinct shape among dragonkind.

**Breath Weapon** (Su): A dry dragon has a single breath weapon. They can spray a cone of desiccating sand which deals slashing and desiccating damage (see *Sandstorm* for desiccating damage).The slashing is listed in d8s while the desiccation deals dice of d6. A successful Reflex save halves both.

**Hold Breath** (Ex): A dry dragon can go 1 hour per 2 points of Con without breathing.

**Swift Strike** (Ex): If a very young or older dry dragon moves at least 10-ft it adds precision damage to any melee attacks it makes in that turn equal to that listed on the table.

**Tremorsense** (Ex): A young or older dry dragon gains tremorsense out to 10-ft per age category.

**Spellcasting**: A juvenile or older dry dragon casts spells as a sorcerer of the indicated level.

**Summon Twister** (Su): An old or older dry dragon may, 3 times per day, summon a small twister of sand and wind. This twister appears within 100-ft +20-ft/age category of the dry dragon. It occupies an area 1 square by 1 square but 10 squares high. Any creature in a square it occupies takes 1d6 slashing damage/2 age categories and is buffered by hurricane force winds (except save DC is increased to that of the dry dragon’s Con based save DCs; normally equal to its breath weapon). All squares within 10-ft of the twister have windstorm force winds (with the same increased DC) and the effects of a greater duststorm (DMG pg 95). This twister remains for 1 round per age category of the dragon and it may direct it to move up to 40-ft as a swift action. The twister vanishes if it is ever not in contact with the ground or further than 100-ft +20-ft/age category of the dry dragon.

**Dust Tornado** (Su): Once per day a great wyrm dry dragon may surround itself with a terrible tornado force winds. It must decide the area of these winds when it first creates them, with an eye of from 20-ft to 60-ft radius centered on square it occupies and a total area covering a radius 3 times that of the eye. This ability has no effect within the eye, but in the remaining area there are tornado force winds (with their DC increased to the dragon’s Con based save DC) and all creatures within take 5d6 slashing damage from the terrible sands which blow through it, as well as the effects of a greater dust storm. A dry dragon may maintain this effect for as long as it wishes, but if it exits the eye of the storm the effect immediately ends. This effect cannot be moved by the dry dragon creating it.

**Skills**: Hide, Move Silently, and Survival are class skills for a dry dragon in addition to those common to all true dragons. A dry dragon gains +1 per age category to Hide checks made to hide while flying at night.