In this post, I will concern myself with those monsters traditionally relegated to the bin of "dragon-kin" and/or "half-dragon" (whatever the distinction is by edition). Prior to 3e's introduction of the half-dragon template, earlier editions of D&D liked to introduced a bunch of monsters whose shtick was that they were half-dragon and half-another monster. Or otherwise some obscure branch on the dragon family tree. D&D gets weirdly obsessive over its nonsensical monster ecology.
Chimera and dracimera
The chimera was typed as a dragon (or "dragon-kin") by the Rules Cyclopedia, but 3e and 5e have not typed it as a dragon. In Greek mythology the chimera was considered a dragon. Given these data points, I will treat the chimera as a dragon.Traditionally, D&D maintains that the standard chimera has the head of a red dragon that breathes fire. Chimeras with heads of other colors and breath weapons are arbitrarily segregated into a separate species called a dracimera (a portmanteau of draconic and chimera), which is the result of crossbreeding between a chimera and a chromatic dragon. Pathfinder discarded this distinction and allowed the standard chimera to have a dragon's head in any of the traditional five colors and corresponding breath weapons.
Chimeras are traditionally limited to the heads of chromatic dragons, but there's really no reason why they can't have the head of a metallic dragon. It's a simple matter of changing the breath weapon and, if necessary, alignment. (I personally think the chromatic versus metallic distinction, and all the other distinctions made over the decades, are silly and unnecessary.)
Dragonne
I can't recall which D&D books the dragonne appears in, but I know it appeared in the Tome of Horrors and a Pathfinder bestiary.As I explained in my other post on the dragonne's etymology, it's a simple lion-dragon (or "dracolion" as the traditional D&D naming scheme for hybrids may suggest). That is, a possible crossbreed of a dragon (traditionally brass, but I suppose that's up in the air at this point) and a lion that like many monsters is inexplicably treated as its own species because publishers need something to fill the bestiaries.
The lion-dragon is two-thirds of a chimera. It appears in heraldry and lacks a mythological underpinning. Like a lot of the monsters, it was made up solely for the game. Unfortunately, it is really boring as far as monsters go unless your DM allows you to take it as a paladin's mount or something.
Octavirate Presents Vol #4: The Forgotten got the odd idea to invent a "half-dragonne" template as part of an overall "half-dragonkin" template initiative. Although it is a genuinely original albeit bizarre concept, I can't really imagine myself employing many crossbreeds of lion-dragons. I should probably make an attempt to fix that later.
Mantidrake
The mantidrake is a simple hybrid of manticore and dragon. As you may be starting to realize if you haven’t already, there’s a very good reason why 3e introduced a half-dragon template.
It varies whether the mantidrake is a hybrid, species of its own or both. Nonetheless, it isn’t any less boring than its constituents. It’s a random encounter, an evil wizard’s servant, whatever the DM needs.
What made the mythological manticore interesting was that it was hunted by men on elephant-back, its young were captured and their tails docked so that nobles could enjoy their singing voices. That, like so much else, is absent in D&D.
D&D has an inconsistent definition of "drake." Sometimes a drake is a synonym for or subcategory of dragonet (a category of small dragons including wyverns, the oddly named pseudodragon, elemental drakes, etc). Sometimes, as in mantidrake and wyvern-drake, a synonym for "true" dragon varieties.
Wyvern and wyvern-drake
Anyway, the wyvern falls into that arbitrary gamey category I mentioned of “false” versus “true” dragons. The wyvern-drake is a hybrid of wyvern and true dragon, or some kind of evolutionary throwback. The bestiaries get pretty weird after a while.
Again, it doesn’t really have anything going for it. It’s more monster manual filler.
Dracohydra
The hydra is considered a dragon by real bestiaries. The monster manual somehow disagrees. I’m labeling the hydra a dragon, damnit!
Anyway, some writer got the idea to combine the hydra with chromatic dragons. It’s either a literal crossbreed or the demented offspring of an evil dragon god. Again, nothing spectacular.
The exact statistics vary by edition. Generally a dracohydra has 2–5+ chromatic dragon heads, with the color (and thus breath weapon) of each individual head determined by rolling on a table (or arbitrary chosen by the DM). I suppose that makes it unpredictable and tactically challenging.
The exact statistics vary by edition. Generally a dracohydra has 2–5+ chromatic dragon heads, with the color (and thus breath weapon) of each individual head determined by rolling on a table (or arbitrary chosen by the DM). I suppose that makes it unpredictable and tactically challenging.
Dracolisk
Again, the basilisk is one of those monsters labeled a dragon by mythology textbooks but not by D&D monster manuals. Go figure.
The dracolisk is a hybrid of basilisk and chromatic dragon. It has a petrifying gaze and one of five breath weapons. It’s really unimaginative and Pathfinder even used it as their example half-dragon.
I did a post a while back that referenced 13th Age and other 3pp giving more variety to the basilisk and cockatrice with elemental-flavored attacks, so the dracolisk is now fairly redundant.
Dracotaur
The dracotaur is a simple dragon-themed centaur.
Funny etymology trivia: dracotaur translates (more or less) to “dragon-bull,” not dragon-centaur. The “standard” centaur is technically a horse-centaur, so the technically correct term would be draco- or dragon-centaur.
I don’t recall offhand what the popular appearance is, but the humanoid upper body of a draco-centaur may either be a human or a humanoid dragon.
Warcraft calls them “dragon-spawn.”
Dracosphinx
The dracosphinx, as the name implies, is a hybrid of dragon and sphinx. In other words, a sphinx variant charaterized by a dragon’s head and wings on a sphinx’s body. (The difference compared to a dracolion is that the dracolion typically looks like a scaly lion or has a lion front side and dragon back side, whereas the dracosphinx has a scaly dragon front side and unscaled lion back side.)
How a dracosphinx comes to exist might vary immensely by edition. Prior to 5e, sphinxes reproduced and died of old age; in 5e, they’re sexless immortals that guard the gods’ stuff (although they do seem to have genders). Presumably, a 5e era dracosphinx is the result of a dragon cult summoning a sphinx.
Behir
The behir is based on the Scottish beithir, a serpentine dragon. The behir is a dragon. Get that through your thick skull, D&D!
Dragon turtle
The dragon turtle originates in Chinese mythology. Mercifully, D&D correctly labeled it a dragon. Although that’s probably because the name forced the writers to.
Pseudodragon
The pseudodragon is one of those “false” dragons placed under the dragonet umbrella that includes wyverns and elemental drakes. Although called false dragons (the name literally means that), in the game rules they’re dragons because D&D logic.
Dragonborn
Under this heading I will place all playable dragon races including half-dragons, dragontouched, dragonblooded, dragonwrought, or whatever the nomenclature is. Regardless of their name or various in-universe origins, playable humanoid dragons have been around since at least 2e. Because playing dragons is awesome, simple as that. Sadly, to date only FantasyCraft made playable dragons (as in quadrupedal winged dragons) playable in its core rules.
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