Green Dragon

(From 5th Edition Monster Manual - 2014):

The most cunning and treacherous of true dragons, green dragons use misdirection and trickery to get the upper hand against their enemies. Nasty tempered and thoroughly evil, they take special pleasure in subverting and corrupting the good-hearted. In the ancient forests they roam, green dragons demonstrate an aggression that is often less about territory than it is about gaining power and wealth with as little effort as possible.

A green dragon is recognized by its curved jawline and the crest that begins near its eyes and continues down its spine, reaching full height just behind the skull. A green dragon has no external ears, but bears leathery spiked plates that run down the sides of its neck.

A wyrmling green dragon’s thin scales are a shade of green so dark as to appear nearly black. As a green dragon ages, its scales grow larger and lighter, turning shades of forest, emerald, and olive green to help it blend in with its wooded surroundings. Its wings have a dappled pattern, darker near the leading edges and lighter toward the trailing edges.

A green dragon’s legs are longer in relation to its body than with any other dragon, enabling it to easily pass over underbrush and forest debris when it walks. With its equally long neck, an older green dragon can peer over the tops of trees without rearing up.

Capricious Hunters. A green dragon hunts by patrolling its forest territory from the air and the ground. It eats any creature it can see, and will consume shrubs and small trees when hungry enough, but its favorite prey is elves.

Green dragons are consummate liars and masters of double talk. They favor intimidation of lesser creatures, but employ more subtle manipulations when dealing with other dragons. A green dragon attacks animals and monsters with no provocation, especially when dealing with potential threats to its territory. When dealing with sentient creatures, a green dragon demonstrates a lust for power that rivals its draconic desire for treasure, and it is always on the lookout for creatures that can help it further its ambitions.

A green dragon stalks its victims as it plans its assault, sometimes shadowing creatures for days. If a target is weak, the dragon enjoys the terror its appearance evokes before it attacks. It never slays all its foes, preferring to use intimidation to establish control over survivors. It then learns what it can about other creatures’ activities near its territory, and about any treasure to be found nearby. Green dragons occasionally release prisoners if they can be ransomed. Otherwise, a creature must prove its value to the dragon daily or die.

Manipulative Schemers. A wily and subtle creature, a green dragon bends other creatures to its will by assessing and playing off their deepest desires. Any creature foolish enough to attempt to subdue a green dragon eventually realizes that the creature is only pretending to serve while it assesses its would-be master.

When manipulating other creatures, green dragons are honey-tongued, smooth, and sophisticated. Among their own kind, they are loud, crass, and rude, especially when dealing with dragons of the same age and status.

Conflict and Corruption. Green dragons sometimes clash with other dragons over territory where forest crosses over into other terrain. A green dragon typically pretends to back down, only to wait and watch — sometimes for decades — for the chance to slay the other dragon, then claim its lair and hoard.

Green dragons accept the servitude of sentient creatures such as goblinoids, ettercaps, ettins, kobolds, orcs, and yuan-ti. They also delight in corrupting and bending elves to their will. A green dragon sometimes wracks its minions’ minds with fear to the point of insanity, with the fog that spreads throughout its forest reflecting those minions’ tortured dreams.

Living Treasures. A green dragon’s favored treasures are the sentient creatures it bends to its will, including significant figures such as popular heroes, well-known sages, and renowned bards. Among material treasures, a green dragon favors emeralds, wood carvings, musical instruments, and sculptures of humanoid subjects.

A Green Dragon's Lair

The forest-loving green dragons sometimes compete for territory with black dragons in marshy woods and with white dragons in subarctic taiga. However, a forest controlled by a green dragon is easy to spot. A perpetual fog hangs in the air in a legendary green dragon’s wood, carrying an acrid whiff of the creature’s poison breath. The moss-covered trees grow close together except where winding pathways trace their way like a maze into the heart of the forest. The light that reaches the forest floor carries an emerald green cast, and every sound seems muffled.

At the center of its forest, a green dragon chooses a cave in a sheer cliff or hillside for its lair, preferring an entrance hidden from prying eyes. Some seek out cave mouths concealed behind waterfalls, or partly submerged caverns that can be accessed through lakes or streams. Others conceal the entrances to their lairs with vegetation.

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:

• Grasping roots and vines erupt in a 20-foot radius centered on a point on the ground that the dragon can see within 120 feet of it. That area becomes difficult terrain, and each creature there must succeed on a DC 15 Strength saving throw or be restrained by the roots and vines. A creature can be freed if it or another creature takes an action to make a DC 15 Strength check and succeeds. The roots and vines wilt away when the dragon uses this lair action again or when the dragon dies.

• A wall of tangled brush bristling with thorns springs into existence on a solid surface within 120 feet of the dragon. The wall is up to 60 feet long, 10 feet high, and 5 feet thick, and it blocks line of sight. When the wall appears, each creature in its area must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw. A creature that fails the save takes 18 ((4d8)) piercing damage and is pushed 5 feet out of the wall’s space, appearing on whichever side of the wall it wants. A creature can move through the wall, albeit slowly and painfully. For every 1 foot a creature travels through the wall, it must spend 4 feet of movement. Furthermore, a creature in the wall’s space must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw once each round it’s in contact with the wall, taking 18 ((4d8)) piercing damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. Each 10-foot section of wall has AC 5, 15 hit points, vulnerability to fire damage, resistance to bludgeoning and piercing damage, and immunity to psychic damage. The wall sinks back into the ground when the dragon uses this lair action again or when the dragon dies.

• Magical fog billows around one creature the dragon can see within 120 feet of it. The creature must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or be charmed by the dragon until initiative count 20 on the next round.

Regional Effects

The region containing a legendary green dragon’s lair is warped by the dragon’s magic, which creates one or more of the following effects:

• Thickets form labyrinthine passages within 1 mile of the dragon’s lair. The thickets act as 10-foot-high, 10-foot-thick walls that block line of sight. Creatures can move through the thickets, with every 1 foot a creature moves costing it 4 feet of movement. A creature in the thickets must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw once each round it’s in contact with the thickets or take 3 ((4d8)) piercing damage from thorns.
  Each 10-foot-cube of thickets has AC 5, 30 hit points, resistance to bludgeoning and piercing damage, vulnerability to fire damage, and immunity to psychic and thunder damage.

• Within 1 mile of its lair, the dragon leaves no physical evidence of its passage unless it wishes to. Tracking it there is impossible except by magical means. In addition, it ignores movement impediments and damage from plants in this area that are neither magical nor creatures, including the thickets described above. The plants remove themselves from the dragon’s path.

• Rodents and birds within 1 mile of the dragon’s lair serve as the dragon’s eyes and ears. Deer and other large game are strangely absent, hinting at the presence of an unnaturally hungry predator.

If the dragon dies, the rodents and birds lose their supernatural link to it. The thickets remain, but within (4d8) days, they become mundane plants and normal difficult terrain, losing their thorns.

(From Fizban's Treasury of Dragons - 2021):

Creating a Green Dragon

Use the Green Dragon Personality Traits and Green Dragon Ideals tables to inspire your portrayal of distinctive green dragon characters, and use the Green Dragon Spellcasting table to help select spells for a spellcasting dragon.

Green Dragon Personality Traits

d8 - Trait:

1 - You’re either with me or you’re against me. Just kidding—you’re lunch either way!

2 - I hate how much people think they matter in a world that was old before their kind even learned the idea of names.

3 - The more the merrier as far as I’m concerned: more to control, more to torture, more to feast upon when I’m finally bored.

4 - Bipedal life is too ugly and ignorant to merit even a scrap of compassion.

5 - I like seeing life through the eyes of a lesser being—before forcing that creature to gouge their eyes out.

6 - The wilds are mine and mine alone, and anyone who thinks they can enter my territory had best hope I have other distractions that day.

7 - I allow others to dwell in my forest—if they act as my eyes, ears, and occasional playthings in return.

8 - I harbor no animosity toward anyone. Let me grow ancient with my forest, and I’ll leave you in peace.

Green Dragon Ideals

d6 - Ideal:

1 - Isolation. Territories can be properly established only when all parties respect the borders of their neighbors. (Lawful)

2 - Control. All lesser beings should bare their throats to their betters. (Evil)

3 - Respect. Fear is amusing, but reverence is delicious. (Any)

4 - Intrigue. The world is so much more entertaining when no one trusts anyone. (Evil)

5 - Imagination. Nothing is more gauche than repeating the same activities day after day. (Any)

6 - Tolerance. The impermanence of intelligent life is bittersweet and should be honored as such. (Good)

Green Dragon Spellcasting

Age        Spell Save DC        Spells Known

Ancient        19                   invisibility, mass suggestion, plant growth, speak with animals

(from 2nd Edition Monstrous Manual - 1993):

Green dragons are bad tempered, mean, cruel, and rude. They hate goodness and good-aligned creatures. They love intrigue and seek to enslave other woodland creatures, killing those who cannot be controlled or intimidated.

A hatchling green dragon’s scales are thin, very small, and a deep shade of green that appears nearly black. As the dragon ages, the scales grow larger and become lighter, turning shades of forest, emerald, and olive green, which helps it blend in with its wooded surroundings. A green dragon’s scales never become as thick as other dragons’, remaining smooth and flexible.

Green dragons speak their own tongue, a tongue common to all evil dragons, and 12% of hatchling green 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: Green dragons initiate fights with little or no provocation, picking on creatures of any size. If the target creature intrigues the dragon or appears to be difficult to deal with, the dragon will stalk the creature, using its environment for cover, until it determines the best time to strike and the most appropriate tactics to use. If the target appears formidable, the dragon will first attack with its breath weapon, magical abilities, and spells. However, if the target appears weak, the dragon will make its presence known quickly for it enjoys evoking terror in its targets. When the dragon has tired of this game, it will bring down the creature using its physical attacks so the fight lasts longer and the creature’s agony is prolonged.

Sometimes, the dragon elects to control a creature, such as a human or demi-human, through intimidation and suggestion. Green dragons like to question men, especially adventurers, to learn more about their society, abilities, what is going on in the countryside, and if there is treasure nearby.

Breath Weapon/Special Abilities: A green dragon’s breath weapon is a cloud of poisonous chlorine gas that is 50’ long, 40’ wide, and 30 feet high. Creatures within the cloud may save versus breath weapon for half damage. A green dragon casts its spells at 6th level, adjusted by its combat modifier.

From birth, green dragons are immune to gasses. As they age, they gain the following additional powers:

Juvenile: water breathing. 

Adult: suggestion once a day. 

Mature adult: warp wood three times a day. 

Old: plant growth once a day. 

Very old: entangle once a day. 

Wyrm: pass without trace three times a day.

Habitat/Society: Green dragons are found in sub-tropical and temperate forests, the older the forest and bigger the trees, the better. The sights and smells of the woods are pleasing to the dragon, and it considers the entire forest or woods its territory. Sometimes the dragon will enter into a relationship with other evil forest-dwelling creatures, which keep the dragon informed about what is going on in the forest and surrounding area in exchange for their lives. If a green dragon lives in a forest on a hillside, it will seek to enslave hill giants, which the dragon considers its greatest enemy. A green dragon makes its lair in underground chambers far beneath its forest.

The majority of green dragons encountered will be alone. However, when a mated pair of dragons and their young are encountered, the female will leap to the attack. The male will take the young to a place of safety before joining the fight. The parents are extremely protective of their young, despite their evil nature, and will sacrifice their own lives to save their offspring.

Ecology: Although green dragons have been known to eat practically anything, including shrubs and small trees when they are hungry enough, they especially prize elves. If the forest is on a hillside, hill giants will hunt the younger dragons, which they consider a delicacy.