Ferrous Dragon

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Ferrous Dragons are a lesser family of dragon in Dungeons & Dragons. Introduced in an article for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons in Dragon Magazine #170, they are a branch off of the Metallic Dragon tree, defined by both their deriving from "baser" metals and their not being inherently Good like core Metallic Dragons are. In AD&D, they covered an array of alignments, predominantly Neutral and Evil, but in 3rd edition, were changed to be defined by their strong adherence to the Lawful alignment instead of the Goodly alignments. The demigod-like ruler of the Ferrous Dragons is Gruaghlothor.

Ferrous Dragons (other than Steel) were later updated for 3rd edition in issue #356 of Dragon Magazine. Aside from the lack of any mention of Gruaghlothor, and some key alignment changes, they remained pretty much identical to their AD&D selves. When 4th Edition came along, it didn't bother differentiating between Ferrous Metallics and the rest of the Metallic family, so the three Ferrous Dragons appearing in that edition--Iron, Cobalt and Steel--were just called Metallic Dragons.

Chromium (Chrome) Dragon

With scales that initially resemble tarnished silver and grow shinier as they age, it should be no surprise that Chrome Dragons are often mistaken for Silver Dragons. That would be a terrible mistake to make, as Chromium Dragons are known for their greed, malice and cruelty, which gives them a Chaotic Evil alignment in AD&D and a Lawful Evil one in 3e.

Avaricious enough to give a Red Dragon pause and sadistic enough to make a Black Dragon take notes, Chrome Dragons live for the sake of hunting treasure and killing anything that catches their attention. Although fully capable of living off of nothing but ice and snow, they vastly prefer raw, bloody meat.

Chrome Dragons inhabit only cold regions that see plenty of ice and snow, where their various innate powers over frost can be used most effectively. This brings them into conflict with both White and Silver Dragons, and whilst they are strong enough to easily dominate Whites, Silver Dragons are their deadliest enemies, and the two races will fight to the death upon sighting each other.

These dragons wield two different breath weapons; a conical gout of super-chilled snow that numbs and paralyses victims, and a gout of solid ice that can freeze whatever it touches. Naturally, they're immune to cold, and have other spell-like abilities relating to their environment. From their youth, they can cast an Arctic-exclusive variant of Pass Without Trace three times per day. Adults (or Young Adults, in AD&D) can cast Ice Shape, a variant of Stone Shape, twice per day. Those that reach Old age can create a Wall of Ice twice per day. In 3rd edition, Ancient Chrome Dragons can cast Gelid Blood once per day. Those Chrome Dragons who live to the state of Great Wyrmdom can also cast Flesh to Crystal, a variant of Flesh to Stone, once per day.

Chromium Dragons enjoy attack from the air, seeking to cripple foes with their numbing breath before closing in to enjoy a close and bloody combat. Most of their spell-like abilities are used defensively, in order to escape from prey that turns out to be more competent than the Chrome Dragon expected.

Chrome Half-Dragons are Immune to Cold and possess their draconic progenitor's Line of Ice breath weapon.

Cobalt Dragon

Arrogant and domineering, even other dragons think of Cobalt Dragons as joyless control freaks, which should really tell you something right there. Covered in midnight blue scales of varying shades, there's no chance of mistaking them for the more common Blue Dragon - particularly if one takes from their 3rd edition description. They didn't change alignments between editions; both versions of the Cobalt are Lawful Evil to the core.

For obvious reasons, Cobalt Dragons are very solitary by nature, unless mating or called together by the clan sovereign. Although, strangely, they actually make pretty good parents. They favour especially dark and dense forests and jungles, although sometimes they lair in caves based in such regions that ultimately lead down to the Underdark. This gives them a particular enmity for Green Dragons.

Unusually for dragons, Cobalts are known for their fascination with traps. They spend most of their leisure time creating new traps, working carefully-cut trees, pitfalls, trigger-able rock-slides and pits into their territory. Their spell-like abilities facilitate this fascination with altering the battlefield; the details vary slightly between editions (Improved Phantasmal Force 3/day for Adults and Animal Summoning II 1/day for Great Wyrms being replaced by Minor Image + Snare and Summon Monster V in 3rd edition), but their innate abilities to turn the terrain against foes with Entangle and Plant Growth are always useful.

This fascination with traps - and, let's be honest, the name, and the rather ratty features of the dragon - has led to many considering Cobalt Dragons the original progenitors of the kobold race. Whether this is true or not, nobody may ever prove, but the two races share a lot in common and get on very well - rare indeed is the Cobalt Dragon who lacks a large tribe of kobolds to do its bidding and make its territory more dangerous.

Uniquely amongst dragons, Cobalts produce a pulsing line of magnetic energy for a breath weapon. The precise rules for this are somewhat convoluted, but it mostly works out as force damage and sends creatures hit by it flying. They're also immune to electricity and the magnetic breath weapons of other cobalts, and can breathe water.

Cobalt Half-Dragons inherit both the magnetic ray breath weapon and the immunity to electricity.

Cobalt Dragons were one of three Ferrous Dragons appearing in 4th edition, with quite a lot of differences. The 4e Cobalt Dragon is a grim, vicious, possessive, powerfully built Metallic Dragon that looks a lot like a flying bear. They absolutely hate the heat, establishing tyrannical dominions in colder regions where they are comfortable. Possessed of an exorbitant amount of martial pride, Cobalt Dragons prefer valuable arms and armor for their hordes, and relish commanding skilled, war-like minions.

Iron Dragon

Known as the most powerful of all the Ferrous Dragons, the Iron Dragons have a dream: a dream that one day, dragons will take their rightful place as rulers of the world and render all humanoids into servants of dragonkind. They're not hostile towards non-dragons, they simply see this as the natural order of things, and seek to bring it about by whatever means are necessary, which D&D figures makes them Lawful Neutral.

The only Ferrous Dragons with the innate ability to assume humanoid shape, Iron Dragons exploit this ability to walk amongst other races to learn all they can about worldly events and how these can be used to their advantage. They even prefer to fight to the surrender of would-be assailants rather than the death, although their victims are usually eaten once the Iron Dragons feel they have extracted all useful information.

For obvious reasons, most people who are aware of Iron Dragons don't like them very much. Dwarves and other mining races in particular dislike them; these dragons always lair near deposits of iron ore, typically in hilly and mountainous terrain, and hoard raw and worked iron with as much fanaticism as a Red Dragon hoards gold and jewels. Some have suggested that they actually need iron ore to reproduce, a suggestion the dragons themselves won't dignify with a response.

Their strongest enmity, however, is reserved for Red Dragons. The two breeds absolutely despise one another, and fight to the death on sight; Red Dragons view their ferrous relatives as weakling interlopers too pathetic to be considered true dragons, whilst Iron Dragons regard the infamous chromatics as a stain on draconic character that must be erased. Iron Dragons have even been known to cooperate with dwarves in order to get rid of a mutually troublesome Red Dragon.

Iron Dragons are uniquely colored, with flat black scales that take on an increasingly glossy, metallic texture with silvery highlights as the dragon ages.

These dragons are formidable opponents; they have two breath weapons, both conical gouts, one of super-heated sparks that inflicts half electric and half fire damage, and one of sleeping gas, they can cast Heat Metal 3/day, and twice per day can cast Stone Shape, Detect Thoughts (ESP in AD&D), Transmute Rock to Mud, and Wall of Iron. Upon reaching the age of Great Wyrm, they can use a variant of Flesh to Stone called Flesh to Iron once per day, although in AD&D it was a simple Flesh to Stone spell-like ability. They are immune to fire.

Iron Half-Dragons wield conical blasts of superheated sparks (half and half fire/electric damage) and are immune to fire.

As a core member of the Metallics, 4e's Iron Dragons are essentially a Metallic analogue to the White Dragon, being simple-minded, brutish and violently aggressive dragons who rely on electromagnetic attacks and thick scales to fight their foes.

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Nickel Dragon

The swamp and marsh-dwelling Nickel Dragons are the smallest and weakest of their family, although they're still highly dangerous opponents who make up for physical deficits with deceitfulness, tenacity and sheer viciousness.

In AD&D, they are known for being extremely fickle and unpredictable, giving them a Chaotic Neutral nature. In 3rd edition, instead, they are just jerks who enjoy harassing and bullying others, making them Lawful Neutral. In fact, the AD&D version of the Nickel Dragon is pretty Chaotic Stupid, especially when it comes to rearing its offspring, which is contributing to the race's decline.

Of course, the frequent, bloody, fang-and-claw battles with Black Dragons over their swampy homes don't help.

Although their breath weapon, a cloud of corrosive fumes, their acid immunity and their ability to breathe water remains unchanged between editions, their spell-like abilities differ.

In AD&D, juveniles can cast Resist Fire 3 times per day, adults can cast Mass Irritation (Itching or Rash versions) 2 times per day, very old nickel dragons can affect normal fires at double effectiveness 2 times per day, and a great wyrm can assume vaporous form once per day.

In 3rd edition, Mass Irritation is no longer a spell, although they can still induce itching or a painful rash in anyone nearby twice per day upon reaching the Old status. Their spell-like abilities are changed to Resist Energy 3/day (Juvenile), Entangle 3/day (Old), Gaseous Form 3/day (Ancient), and Confusion 1/day (Great Wyrm).

Uniquely, Nickel Dragons change colors as they age, going from charcoal grey to a more metallic hue as they reach adulthood, and then fading to a brilliant metallic white color by the time they reach the status of Great Wyrm.

Nickel Half-Dragons, as you might expect, spew cones of corrosive gas and are immune to acid.

Steel Dragon

The Steel Dragon has a rather complex history, in addition to being a ferrous that appeared in 4th edition.

Steel dragons first showed up in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons as a draconic breed unique to the setting of Greyhawk. This, combinined with their prominent presence in the City of Greyhawk, led to their alternative nickname of "Greyhawk Dragons". They made their debut in the Greyhawk Appendix for the Monstrous Compendium, and were subsequently reprinted in 1993's Monstrous Manual, albeit with a fancy new colored art piece.

The confusion stems from the fact that another Steel Dragon debuted in 2e as well; the Faerunian Steel Dragon, in the original Draconomicon. Whilst their basic personalities (and thus fluff) were identical, save for an expansion on habitat/society lore, they differed in their abilities.

Oerthian steel dragons exhale a cloud of short-lived but lethally poisonous gas, whilst Faerunian ones breathe a stupefying gas instead. Faerunian dragons have tougher scales than their Oerthian counterparts (AC is 2 points lower at all stages), and their magic resistance is superior; both dragons are flat-out immune to all Wizard spells of 1st to 4th level, but Faerunian steels have a 75% magic resistance on top of that. Finally, their spell-like abilities gained from the Young to Old stages of their lives are different:

• Greyhawk Dragons gain access to Cantrip 2/day, Friends 1/day, Charm Person 3/day, Suggestion 1/day, Enthrall 1/day
• Faerunian Steel Dragons gain access to Detect Lie 3/day, Charm Person 3/day, Suggestion 3/day, Antipathy/Sympathy 2/day, Imbue With Spell Ability 1/day

And for added insult, the Greyhawk Dragon casts these abilities as if they were 8th level, and the Faerunian Dragon casts them as if they were 11th level!

The fact that these dragons was so close did not go unacknowledged. The Draconomicon itself states that two races are "almost certainly related", but insists they're not the exact same breed. This was doubled down upon in issue #206 of Dragon Magazine, where the Half-Dragon expansion portrayed Half-Greyhawk Dragon and Half-Steel Dragon as being two different things.

Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition played with this idea. The Greyhawk Dragon made a 3.5 debut in the Creature Catalog IV article in Dragon #339; the Faerunian Steel Dragon would show up in Dragons of Faerun. Their flavor text was almost identical, but with the setting specifics swapped out - the 3.5 Greyhawk dragon's fluff explicitly states that Steel Dragons are their descendants born from dragons that traveled off of Oerth. Both species now had the same breath weapon; a twofer that could be deployed as either a line of acid or as a cone of poisonous (Constitution damage) gas. However, Faerunian Steel dragons lack the Greyhawk Dragon's Minor Arcane Shield Trait, have the Alternate Form supernatural ability instead of the Greyhawk Dragon's Polymorph Self 5/day spell-like ability, and are true dragon spellcasters who can also cast clerical spells, especially those of the Knowledge and Trickery Cleric Domains.

The Dragons of Faerun version got a lot of attention because, unusually for a true dragon (or indeed, any monster species that isn't roughly humanoid), their stats make them perfectly suited for player characters in a normally balanced game if the game starts at a high enough level (6 or higher). At a level adjustment of only 2 (one which can be bought off right away if using the optional level adjustment buyoff rule) and 4 dragon racial hit die (which are actually good, getting the best hit points, good skills and all good saves) that give one level of casting (with both cleric and sorcerer spells available) they are a solid Gish, even without using dragon only options. Said options are the main attraction thanks to the sheer number of options 3.5 printed for true dragons that, without cheese, players would never, ever be able to touch. As a result of this they gained moderate popularity. A popular option of these is Tome Dragon, which at the cost of slightly lower HP and no cleric spells brings them to 3 levels of casting. It also helps that adventuring actually fits their described character perfectly.

Finally, Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition came along and decided that this was a pointless headache. It formally made Steel Dragons a part of the Metallic Dragon family, and got rid of the setting specific versions.

Despite this long and spiralling path, the Steel Dragon's personality has remained remarkably consistent throughout the editions. Regardless of which version you look at, all steel dragons find humanoids fascinating; they are the most "civilized" of the dragon breeds, using their ability to assume humanoid form to integrate neatly into humanoid societies. Whilst they still pursue the typical draconic pursuit of wealth, they also legitimately enjoy being part of their communities, and their draw to the position of scholars and sages is as much an excuse to learn more about the people with whom they live as it is to provide an outlet for draconic pride.

4th edition did make a slight change to this characterization when it added a certain chaotic tinge to the race; the 4e Steel Dragon is a huge believer in personal liberty, and cannot abide tyranny. This makes them surprisingly bitter enemies of some breeds of Metallics; the readiness with which Bronze and Gold Dragons will take absolute authority and justify it as "I know best" incenses the 4e version of Steel Dragons, who do their best to take these "benevolent tyrants" down a few pegs.

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Tungsten Dragon

Tungsten Dragons are unique amongst the Ferrous Dragons for having a racial alignment of Good. However, it's not exactly a nice form of good. In a nutshell, Tungsten Dragons believe the adage "the ends justify the means"; after all, if evil will stop at nothing to win, then good must stop at nothing to defeat evil. This is why they are Neutral Good in AD&D, and Lawful Good in 3e.

Of course, in a typical display of draconic hypocrisy/incompetence, that dedication to preserving and expanding good typically ends at the borders of a Tungsten Dragon's territory. Furthermore, they deal harshly with intruders, unless somehow convinced that their potential victims are actually working for the side of good.

Fortunately, Tungsten Dragons aren't common, as they prefer arid regions with warm climates. This also brings them into frequent conflict with both Blue and Brass Dragons; the evil nature of the Blues means that Tungstens will readily gang up on them, whilst Brass Dragons are merely looked down upon as being "boorish, irresponsible, and generally not deserving to be considered one of the good guys".

Impervious to flame, Tungsten Dragons produce blasts of high-velocity, scorching hot sand as their breath weapon, and have a versatile array of spell-like and magical abilities. In AD&D, they can detect the presence of good and/or evil thrice per day after reaching the Young stage, and detect a lie once per day after reaching the Young Adult stage. In 3e, Young Tungsten Dragons can cast Discern Lies 1/day, Old ones can cast Dispel Evil 1/day, and Ancient ones can cast Plant Growth 2/day.

In both editions, adult Tungsten Dragons can conjure up a Sand Cloud (a variant of the Fog Cloud effect) twice per day, whilst Great Wyrms can cause a victim to spontaneously combust once per day.

Tungsten Dragons stand out in their usually brownish environments, as their scales are green; deep forest with brown flecks at hatching, they become gleaming and metallic green with no flecks by adulthood, then dull as the dragon ages.

Tungsten Half-Dragons retain the scouring sand breath and fire immunity.