Editing Dragon (section)

===Kinds of Dragons===
For [[D&D]], [[Richard Snider]] gets the credit for colorcoding them in 1971-2; although he'd likely lifted the idea from [[Anne McCaffrey]]'s 1968 "Dragonflight". For Snider they were "GOLD, brown,and green" [''sic'']. Then they got grouped:

* [[Chromatic Dragon]]s - The originals, 1/3 of them anyway. They are all some variety of evil. As the editions evolved each color got its own style of breath-weapon and, further, got ranked by power. White, Black, Green, Blue, and Red are the five canonical colors in order of power. Others have included yellow, brown (again), purple and a whole rainbow of others. AD&D assigned them as the children of the dragon goddess/senior-[[devil]] [[Tiamat]].
* [[Metallic Dragon]]s - Starting out with only the gold dragon (mightier than Red), in later editions they became linked to [[Bahamut]], the god of good dragons. The most common ones are Brass, Copper, Bronze, Silver and Gold in order of power, with others including Iron, Steel, and Adamantite.
** [[Ferrous Dragon]]s - A subgroup of the Metallic Dragons, Ferrous Dragons are made of base metals instead of the noble ones.
* [[Gem Dragon]]s - Adorned with crystal scales, the Gem Dragons have potent [[psionics]] and are usually also the go-to Neutral dragons to the Metallics' Good and Chromatics' Evil.
* [[Catastrophic Dragon]]s - Introduced in [[4e]], these dragons have been infused with [[elemental]] power by the [[Archomental|Primordials]] to make them look like elemental dragons.
* [[Planar Dragon]]s - Dragons linked to the various [[Plane]]s of existence, frequently the [[Outer Planes]] of [[Planescape]]. All of said Outer Planes have their own kind of dragon, except for [[Arcadia]] where dragons are despised.
* [[Oriental Dragon]]s - Based on Asian dragons, the Oriental Dragons are the dragons used in [[weeaboo|such]] settings. They generally have close ties to nature, like forests, the skies, the seas... or [[carp]]! Notable is that the Gold Dragon, the first Metallic Dragon, was stylized as such a dragon, but was changed to a more traditional western design (although they did retain their bitchin' moustache of barbels). Also known as Lung Dragons. [[Pathfinder]] calls them Imperial Dragons.
* [[Dragonet]]s - Miniature dragons more suitable for familiars or high fantasy worlds, featured in ''[[Advanced Dungeons & Dragons]]''.
* [[Epic Dragon]]s - Introduced in the [[Epic Level Handbook]]. Epic dragons are much larger and more powerful than regular dragons. They are usually neutral aligned but have more variation in alignment than other kinds of dragons. The first two kinds of Epic Dragons, Force Dragons and Prismatic Dragons, were introduced in the [[Epic Level Handbook]]. A third type called Time Dragons were introduced in [[Dragon Magazine]].
* [[Linnorm]]s - Nordic-themed dragons who possess wing-less serpentine bodies with only a set of forelimbs. Usually described as being even nastier and crueler than Chromatics.
* [[Song Dragon]]s - Originally called "Weredragons", [[Monster Girl Encyclopedia|an all-female race of dragons who use their ability to assume human form to interact with mortal races and find mortal spouses]].
* [[Wyvern]]s - Dim-witted, feral, more bestial dragons who lack a breath weapon, have wings instead of forelimbs, and a poisonous stinger.
* Undead Dragons - Various kinds of undead dragon have appeared throughout editions, from the famous [[Dracolich]] to less-famous zombie, skeletal and vampire dragons.
* Shadow Dragons - Depending on edition, either a dragon with some elemental affinity to darkness, a planar dragon, or an undead dragon.

There's also a great medley of setting-unique dragons, such as those native to [[Mystara]] and [[Dragonlance]].

Finally, there are the [[Dragon Gods]], a loose pantheon of deities unique to D&D dragons that hasn't traditionally gotten a lot of attention because, well, they only really give a fuck about dragons and dragons don't usually get too religious (they don't like acknowledging something as being bigger than them). The advent of the [[Dragonborn]] as a PC race is likely to change this, however.

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