Dragonet

This article related to Dungeons & Dragons is a stub. You can help 1d4chan by expanding it

The Dragonets are an obscure subspecies of Dragon from early editions of Dungeons & Dragons, characterized by their diminutive stature, generally minimalistic magical abilities, and their willingness to respond to offers of familiarhood by wizards and sorcerers.

The name first appeared in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition, when the three "mini-dragons" that had appeared before that point - the Pseudodragon, the Faerie Dragon, and the Firedrake - were lumped together as members of a single party. Sadly, only the pseudodragon and faerie dragon really caught on with gamers, not helped by the fact that half of the dragonets only appeared in Dragon Magazine #267, and whilst those went on to appear in every single edition, the others have remained lost in the mists of AD&D.

Pseudodragon

See its page for full details. But, in summary, pseudodragons are friendly if arrogant miniature dragons of a generally benevolent nature who are very popular as familiars. Personality-wise, they can be summed up as flying, fire-spitting, telepathic cats.

Faerie Dragon

See its page for full details. But, in summary, faerie dragons are benevolent, mischievous trickster dragons who can easily be distinguished from other dragonets by their butterfly-like wings, which makes them look kind of like the result of a drunken union between a pseudodragon and a pixie.

Firedrake

Despite being one of the original three dragonets, having first appeared in the Fiend Folio, the firedrake (also spelled "fire drake", depending on where you look) never really caught on. This may be because of perceived overlapping with the pseudodragon.

In appearance, these 4ft long, 2ft tall dragonets strongly resemble infant Red Dragons, although they lack the power of their distant cousins. Their hide constantly twitches and quivers, almost imperceptibly, and is somewhat mottled in color, with mauve and burgundy splotches over the red undercolor. Even when on the ground, its wings beat a slow and steady beat, keeping the air flowing around itself and warding off pesky insects. The need for a good airflow is hinted at by the way that shimmers of heat rise from them; firedrakes have pyrophoric blood, containing such a high phosphor content that it is constantly boiling in their veins and bursts into flames when exposed to air. As a result, firedrakes are heavily oxygen dependent, and will suffocate twice as quickly as any normal creature of its size would.

It's actually possible to bottle firedrake blood in a sealed, airtight container. This can be used as a firebomb, as an easy way to light a torch, or even applied to a weapon to temporarily grant it an aura of flames, although doing so can potentially destroy the weapon.

Rather bad-tempered, there is a 50-50 chance when you disturb a firedrake that it will respond by attacking, favoring its vicious bite or spewing gouts of its pyrophoric blood, which it can do five times per day as a 60ft cone. Its blood also makes attacking it with non-bludgeoning weapons quite risky, as each attack has a chance of spattering the assailant with drops of fiery, boiling hot blood. In aerial combat, they prefer to attack from below and behind, and their aura of heat can be disruptive to the efforts of natural flying creatures.

They grow even more vicious when protecting their young; highly familial creatures, firedrakes mate for life and defend their nests and hatchlings at all costs.

A firedrake clutch typically contains 6 to 8 eggs, which are laid within early summer and hatch in 60 days. The timid and somewhat panicky hatchlings can breathe fire almost as soon as they hatch, and will usually blast away at their surroundings several times per day. It takes 60 days from hatching before an infant firedrake learns to fly, and they reach maturity by the spring following their hatching. Once this happens, they leave their family's nest and go flying off to find their own mates and establish their own colonies.

Firedrakes are short-lived compared to true dragons, although they are longest-lived of the dragonets, with a lifespan of 75 to 100 years. Unlike dragons, they don't deliberately hoard, although they have no real compulsion to eject the treasures of any humanoids whom they kill for snooping around in their lair.