Green/Blue Dragon question

[Tegu8788]

I plan on having my players search through a desert for a macguffin. After a long trek, fighting gnolls and thri-kreen, they are going to see an oasis. Hopefully they will charge the oasis for water.

The oasis is a dragon. It will be colored green, for photosynthesis purposes, because there is only so much to eat in a desert. However a quick internet search tells me desert is blue dragon territory.

Now I'm going full homebrew, but I don't object to using prior lore as guidelines. Are there any rules for cross species dragons, if such things exist? The idea of my party discovering the oasis is actually a dragon, and then that the dragon doesn't work how they think it does is delicious...

[ThePurple]

However a quick internet search tells me desert is blue dragon territory.

4e changed that, actually. In 4e, blue dragons prefer living on the seaside, where they can experience intense thunderstorms and similar weather. The desert dragons in 4e are Brown Dragons, the rules for which can be found in the Draconomicon: Chromatic Dragons.

Are there any rules for cross species dragons, if such things exist?

Most definitely, in Draconomicon: Chromatic Dragons, on page 253, under "Polychromatic Dragons". The rules for them can basically be summed up as "give some resistance or move speed from the other species and maybe allow them to swap out frightful presence for one of the other species' abilities".

Something else you could probably look into is the Fungal Dragon template in the Underdark book, which is a template you can apply to a dragon that basically has fostered a colony of fungus on its scales. It provides a bonus to Stealth checks, an explosive spore reaction attack, a self heal (eating the fungus), and a thematic buff to interactions with other dragons (which is just part of the theme of the area that the fungal dragons live in, which is basically a kind of draconic commune exclusively for young dragons).

You could pretty easily refluff/rebuild that for a dragon that has some kind of oasis-like plant growth on its back.

[Inevitability]

3.5 allowed dragons to breed with anything (except for all undead and most constructs), allowing half-green dragon blue dragons. The weird part is that these are vastly different from half-blue dragon green dragons.

[Kimera757]

In 3e, a half blue dragon/green dragon would be more powerful than either. Yay hybrid vigor!

To be honest, I would simply create a new kind of dragon. The dragon/terrain chart doesn't make any sense. I always think of blue dragons as sea dragons, not desert dragons. The logic is that they're blue and spit lightning. :)

[Dimers]

I'd suggest mirage and displacement powers ... mindscrew kinda stuff. Maybe a sandstorm breath attack.

[Tegu8788]

The dragon is going to hunt some sea beasties, but mostly live in the desert. It owns upside down Australia, basically, so if blue is beach that still works.

Would someone care to break down blue/green, green/blue, and blueXgreen? Or send me a link to it?

[Inevitability]

A half-blue green dragon in 3.5 would have all blue dragon traits, and add the following.

-Extra AC.
-A lightning-based breath weapon usable once per day.
-Immunity to lightning.
-A +8 bonus to strength.
-A +2 bonus to constitution, charisma, and intelligence.

The template is probably better on nondragons, as a large part of what it gives (wings, sleep immunity, dragon type) is already possessed by the green dragon.

[ThePurple]

Keep in mind, these are for the MM1 dragons rather than the Vault since it comes from Draconomicon: Chromatic Dragons.

blue/green

Exactly like a blue dragon, except it also gains resist 5/tier poison, breath deals poison damage in addition to lightning, and has the option of taking Beckoning Glare

green/blue

Exactly like a green dragon, except it also gains resist 5/tier lightning, breath deals lightning damage in addition to poison, and has the option of taking Lightning Burst instead of Frightful Presence.

blueXgreen?

As far as I have been able to find, there aren't any rules for explicit half-breeds as opposed to bloodlines. If you are going for a straight up half-breed, my best recommendation would be to choose one of the monster roles for it to be (since 4e doesn't really do multiple roles simultaneously) and then pick and choose powers from each and replacing them as appropriate or provide both options but keep them on the same recharge (e.g. can use either Blue or Green breath weapon, but using one puts both on recharge).

For example, using the elder Vault dragons, it has access to both Breath Weapons but using one puts both on recharge and acts as something of a stance for it to swap between. For the auras, while bloodied, after using the Green breath, it has Poisonous Wounds; after using Blue breath, it has Uncontained Lightning. Depending upon how you imagine it physically, it would have either the claws/bite of a Green or the same of a blue (make sure you keep the two paired), with the damage type determined by which breath weapon was last used. You would then also choose either Thunderclap or Flyby Attack (depending upon what role you're assigning it; Thunderclap if artillery, Flyby if Skirmisher; damage of Thunderclap is poison if Green breath was most recently used). I would probably keep Luring Glare on it as opposed to providing Lightning Burst as another attack option, mainly because "I'm an oasis" seems a lot more in line with the "illusory oasis that's really a dragon" scheme. From there, you either pick Wing Backblast or Cunning Glance as its reaction.

The instinctive action provides an interesting problem because it provides access to powers that I've already recommended as being part of different choices. I would probably choose which one you're going to model it off of depending upon whether you do it as a Skirmisher or an Artillery. If you go Skirmisher, Instinctive Flyby; if you go Artillery, Instinctive Lightning (even if it doesn't have Lightning Burst otherwise, I would allow it to use it as part of this action, damage type determined by breath weapon used most recently).

Defenses/hp/etc would just be determined by role.

[Tegu8788]

Actually, I just realized I could do a tiered perception check, figure out its not a mirage, then that it's a dragon, then it's actually a two-headed dragon. Let it hunt at night, so the oasis moves to add to the mystery.

I also just realized the fun fact where chlorine gas is ignitable. It can do a combo breathe attack. That can be fun.

The players will be hunting a mcguffin mineral that's gathered by giant insect queens protected by thri-kreen, which aside from the giant squid in the ocean is a primary food source for the dragons. Which would make it an even better collector for the mcguffin mineral.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

I wouldn't try to base this off blueXgreen dragon myself. Why? Your concept is too good. Something like this justifies use of some ancient offshoot of the dragon line. It is to normal dragons what a giant panda is to normal bears, except a little less cuddly looking maybe.

It gives me a bit of a "giant turtle that looks like an island at first" vibe, it's okay if it's mysterious and special.