Size
Hero Forge: 7'8"-8'1" (XXL)
Lore: Medium to Gargantuan (85 ft. long)
Suggested: Medium to Gargantuan
Other Monikers
Skull dragons, swamp dragons, rot dragons
Abilities
- Acid breath
- Acid immunity
- Frightening Presence
- Colossal claw, bite, and tail attacks
- Legendary Actions
- Legendary Resistance
- Lair Actions
- Flight
- Amphibious
- Blindsight
- Spellcasting
Appearance
With deep-socketed eyes and broad nasal openings, a black dragon’s face resembles a skull. Its curving, segmented horns are bone-colored near the base and darken to dead black at the tips. As a black dragon ages, the flesh around its horns and cheekbones deteriorates as though eaten by acid, leaving thin layers of hide that enhance its skeletal appearance. A black dragon’s head is marked by spikes and horns. Its tongue is flat with a forked tip, drooling slime whose acidic scent adds to the dragon’s reek of rotting vegetation and foul water.
Home Plane
Prime Material Plane
Stat Block
5th Edition (different ages have their own stat block):
- Monster Manual (2014)
3.5e:
2nd Edition:
Description
(From 5th Edition Monster Manual - 2014):
The most evil-tempered and vile of the chromatic dragons, black dragons collect the wreckage and treasures of fallen peoples. These dragons loathe seeing the weak prosper and revel in the collapse of humanoid kingdoms. They make their homes in fetid swamps and crumbling ruins where kingdoms once stood.
With deep-socketed eyes and broad nasal openings, a black dragon’s face resembles a skull. Its curving, segmented horns are bone-colored near the base and darken to dead black at the tips. As a black dragon ages, the flesh around its horns and cheekbones deteriorates as though eaten by acid, leaving thin layers of hide that enhance its skeletal appearance. A black dragon’s head is marked by spikes and horns. Its tongue is flat with a forked tip, drooling slime whose acidic scent adds to the dragon’s reek of rotting vegetation and foul water.
When it hatches, a black dragon has glossy black scale. As it ages, its scales become thicker and duller, helping it blend in to the marshes and blasted ruins that are its home.
Brutal and Cruel. All chromatic dragons are evil, but black dragons stand apart for their sadistic nature. A black dragon lives to watch its prey beg for mercy, and will often offer the illusion of respite or escape before finishing off its enemies.
A black dragon strikes at its weakest enemies first, ensuring a quick and brutal victory, which bolsters its ego as it terrifies its remaining foes. On the verge of defeat, a black dragon does anything it can to save itself, but it accepts death before allowing any other creature to claim mastery over it.
Foes and Servants. Black dragons hate and fear other dragons. They spy on draconic rivals from afar, looking for opportunities to slay weaker dragons and avoid stronger ones. If a stronger dragon threatens it, a black dragon abandons its lair and seeks out new territory.
Evil lizardfolk venerate and serve black dragons, raiding humanoid settlements for treasure and food to give as tribute and building crude draconic effigies along the borders of their dragon master’s domain.
A black dragon’s malevolent influence might also cause the spontaneous creation of evil shambling mounds that seek out and slay good creatures approaching the dragon’s lair.
Kobolds infest the lairs of many black dragons like vermin. They become as cruel as their dark masters, often torturing and weakening captives with centipede bites and scorpion stings before delivering them to sate the dragon’s hunger.
Wealth of the Ancients. Black dragons hoard the treasures and magic items of crumbled empires and conquered kingdoms to remind themselves of their greatness. The more civilizations a dragon outlasts, the more entitled it feels to claim the wealth of current civilizations for itself.
A Black Dragon's Lair
Black dragons dwell in swamps on the frayed edges of civilization. A black dragon’s lair is a dismal cave, grotto, or ruin that is at least partially flooded, providing pools where the dragon rests, and where its victims can ferment. The lair is littered with the acid-pitted bones of previous victims and the fly-ridden carcasses of fresh kills, watched over by crumbling statues. Centipedes, scorpions, and snakes infest the lair, which is filled with the stench of death and decay.
Lair Actions
On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), the dragon takes a lair action to cause one of the following effects; the dragon can’t use the same effect two rounds in a row:
Pools of water that the dragon can see within 120 feet of it surge outward in a grasping tide. Any creature on the ground within 20 feet of such a pool must succeed on a DC 15 Strength saving throw or be pulled up to 20 feet into the water and knocked prone.
A cloud of swarming insects fills a 20-foot-radius sphere centered on a point the dragon chooses within 120 feet of it. The cloud spreads around corners and remains until the dragon dismisses it as an action, uses this lair action again, or dies. The cloud is lightly obscured. Any creature in the cloud when it appears must make on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw, taking 10 ((3d10)) piercing damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. A creature that ends its turn in the cloud takes 10 ((3d10)) piercing damage.
Magical darkness spreads from a point the dragon chooses within 60 feet of it, filling a 15-foot-radius sphere until the dragon dismisses it as an action, uses this lair action again, or dies. The darkness spreads around corners. A creature with darkvision can’t see through this darkness, and nonmagical light can’t illuminate it. If any of the effect’s area overlaps with an area of light created by a spell of 2nd level or lower, the spell that created the light is dispelled.
Regional Effects
The region containing a legendary black dragon’s lair is warped by the dragon’s magic, which creates one or more of the following effects:
The land within 6 miles of the lair takes twice as long as normal to traverse, since the plants grow thick and twisted, and the swamps are thick with reeking mud.
Water sources within 1 mile of the lair are supernaturally fouled. Enemies of the dragon that drink such water regurgitate it within minutes.
Fog lightly obscures the land within 6 miles of the lair.
If the dragon dies, vegetation remains as it has grown, but other effects fade over (3d10) days.
(From Fizban's Treasury of Dragons - 2021):
Creating a Black Dragon
Use the Black Dragon Personality Traits and Black Dragon Ideals tables to inspire your portrayal of distinctive black dragon characters, and use the Black Dragon Spellcasting table to help select spells for a spellcasting dragon.
Black Dragon Personality Traits
d8 Trait
1 - I demonstrate my brilliance through the cruel subtlety of my actions.
2 - Watching the works of lesser beings crumble and fall into ruin fills me with joy.
3 - I never confront a threat directly when deceit and skulduggery are available options.
4 - Subjugating others is preferable to destroying them. Thralls make life so much more pleasant.
5 - I will go to great lengths to obtain deadly new magical knowledge.
6 - Nothing lasts forever. But I promise to outlast you.
7 - have witnessed the rise and fall of civilizations. What consideration does a creature as pitiful and short-lived as you deserve?
8 - Collecting antiquities and learning why lost cultures vanished are my reasons for existing. If you can help me in that, I’ll let you live.
Black Dragon Ideals
d6 - Ideal:
1 - Envy. If the achievements of others cannot be eclipsed, they can always be torn down. (Evil)
2 - Acquisitiveness. Possessing what others covet is immensely satisfying. (Any)
3 - Cunning. Destroying your foes without exposing yourself to danger is an art. (Evil)
4 - Adaptability. It is not the most powerful, but the most flexible who survive. (Chaotic)
5 - Patience. There’s no need to rush a poorly constructed plan when time is on your side. (Any)
6 - Serenity. Observing a culture sliding into oblivion along the trek of time puts life in perspective. (Any)
Black Dragon Spellcasting
Age: Spell Save DC: Spells Known:
Ancient 19 blindness/deafness, create or destroy water, insect plague, plant growth
(from 2nd Edition Monstrous Manual - 1993):
Black dragons are abusive, quick to anger, and resent intrusions of any kind. They like dismal surroundings, heavy vegetation, and prefer darkness to daylight. Although not as intelligent as other dragons, black dragons are instinctively cunning and malevolent.
At birth, a black dragon’s scales are thin, small, and glossy. But as the dragon ages, its scales become larger, thicker, and duller, which helps it camouflage itself in swamps and marshes. Black dragons speak their own tongue, a tongue common to all evil dragons, and 10% of hatchling black dragons have an ability to communicate with any intelligent creature. The chance to possess this ability increases 5% per age category of the dragon.
Combat: Black dragons prefer to ambush their targets, using their surroundings as cover. Their favorite targets are men, who they will sometimes stalk for several minutes in an attempt to gauge their strength and wealth before attacking. Against a band of men or a formidable creature, of the marsh can weaken the targets before the dragon joins the fight. Black dragons will also use their breath weapon before closing in melee. When fighting in heavily vegetated swamps and marshes, black dragons attempt to stay in the water or along the ground; the numerous trees and leafy canopies limit their flying maneuverability. When faced with an opponent which poses too much of a threat, a black dragon will attempt to fly out of sight, so it will not leave tracks, and hide in a deep pond or bog.
Breath Weapon/Special Abilities: A black dragon’s breath weapon is a 5’ wide stream of acid that extends 60’ in a straight line from the dragon’s head. All creatures caught in this stream must save vs. breath weapon for half damage. A black dragon casts spells and uses its magical abilities at 5th level, plus its combat modifier.
Black dragons are born with an innate water breathing ability and an immunity to acid. As they age, they gain the following additional powers:
Juvenile: darkness three times a day in a 10’ radius per age category of the dragon.
Adult: corrupt water once a day. For every age category a dragon attains, it can stagnate 10 cubic feet of water, making it become still, foul, inert, and unable to support animal life. When this ability is used against potions and elixirs, they become useless if they roll a 15 or better on 1d20.
Old: plant growth once a day. Venerable: summon insects once a day.
Great wyrm: charm reptiles three times a day. This operates as a charm mammals spell, but is applicable only to reptiles.
Habitat/Society: Black dragons are found in swamps, marshes, rain forests, and jungles. They revel in a steamy environment where canopies of trees filter out most of the sunlight, swarms of insects fill the air, and stagnant moss-covered ponds lie in abundance. Black dragons are excellent swimmers and enjoy lurking in the gloomy depths of swamps and bogs. They also are graceful in flight; however, they prefer to fly at night when their great forms are hidden by the darkness of the sky. Black dragons are extremely selfish, and the majority of those encountered will be alone. When a family of black dragons is encountered, the adults will protect their young. However, if it appears the adults’ lives are in jeopardy they will abandon their young to save themselves.
They lair in large, damp caves and multi-chambered subterranean caverns. Older dragons are able to hide the entrance to their lairs with their plant growth ability. Black dragons are especially fond of coins. Older black dragons sometimes capture and question humans, before killing them, to find out where stockpiles of gold, silver, and platinum coins are kept.
Ecology: Black dragons can eat almost anything, although they prefer to dine primarily on fish, mollusks, and other aquatic creatures. They are fond of eels, especially the giant varieties. They also hunt for red meat, but they like to “pickle” it by letting it lie in ponds within their lair for days before eating it.
Sources
- MrRhexx
- Fizban's Treasury of Dragons (2021)
- 5th Edition Monster Manual (2014)
- AD&D 2nd Edition Monstrous Manual