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“Villain that preaches Might Makes Right but also is mature enough to acknowledge he’s not the strongest thing in the universe and doesn’t throw a grand mal freak out when he inevitably is overpowered” is a new and rising star on my list of favorite character tropes.

I can only imagine a maxed out Paladin decking a cobalt dragon and being like “do I have your attention?”

"Oh? You're approaching me?" -Every Cobalt Dragon after watching Jojo, probably

"Hey, I heard your party is pretty strong. Let me fight you."

If you also had steel dragons in your world, I bet cobalt dragons would be extra paranoid about them. Imagine being a young cobalt dragon, bullying a random peasant who then suddenly goes, "fuck it", turns into an older dragon and then kicks ur ass.

Cobalt is named for Kobold, a mining goblin of germanic/celtic lore. So the metal of this dragon was named for the tiny lizardmen minions.

Cobalt dragons being the first to use kobolds is probably based on the fact that cobalt was named after the kobold of folklore.

This dragons feels like the type to be a big fan of constructs, especially golems, for multiple reasons. 1) They're extensions of its power that don't crave freedom or have the flaw of thinking that rebellion, however futile, might be worth it 2) They're E X P E N S I V E to make, and so demonstrate the dragon's absolute hold over their conquered domain by the amount of resources they have available to make the things 3) They're work intensive to make, even before imbuing them with magic and binding them to a master, and vast factories filled with oppressed citizens constructing mechanized weapons of war is basically the definition of Lawful Evil 4) They're strong and durable enough to act as a test for anything which might try to oppose the dragon. If you cannot even handle the golems, you are certainly not worthy of being a distraction and waste of the Wyrm-Emperor's time. 5) They're large enough to be useful servants for a creature the size of an ancient dragon. Sure, reminding the humanoids of their place by having ten of them carry in the oversized whatever that the dragon wants is important, but if it's one of those tasks that needs to be done properly but you can't do yourself just now, a golem might be the next best thing. Also, a cobalt dragon flanked by massive iron golems modified with a shiny blue coating would look REALLY intimidating and cool. OH! And with iron golems specifically you could make their usual gas vent attack become a weaker version of the dragon's breath weapon, too! That would be VERY neat flavor!

Fun fact: As of 4th edition, the Ferrous Dragons are considered a subgroup of Metallic Dragons, which makes sense if you think about it. Not because of their alignment, but because they are literally metal dragons. Also, because the people at WotC at the time wanted metallic dragons that players could fight without being evil.

A Cobalt wyrmling could be such a compelling character. It's innocent and curious and eager to learn from the heroes. They love it. Yet it grows competitive and eager for challenges and they worry about whether it is normal childhood phases or signs that it is growing into a predestined personality.

A rare opportunity that I like with cobalt dragons is that since they're so calculating, it provides an unusual chance for players to try and out think a monster. If players are able to discern how cobalt dragons react to creatures they consider more/less powerful, they could go on an entire adventure, not to slay the dragon, but to trick it into thinking that someone in the party falls into the "superior" category. Maybe collect enough blasting powder and jam it into boulders so that the wizard can set it off when the paladin punches the rock, making it look like this warrior is strong enough to sunder mountains with his bare hands. Maybe offer a powerful shape changer the party's services in exchange for making a cameo as an ancient iron or gold dragon. (although now if that shape changer decides it wants more tribute, the area is kind of forced to pay the extortion or risk the cobalt dragon learning that they were fooled). Basically any number of paths to get to the moment in Megamind where "metroman" flexes his calves hard enough to cause thunder and scare Tighten into running away.

One of my VIllains in my campaign is based of Armstrong from Metal Gear Rising Revengence and now I have his secret identity.

How about approaching the campaign from the other angle? Your group is lawful evil, they are proud to be part of the Cobalt King's kingdom, and they take upon themselves to become his champions and elevating him to become Cobalt Emperor, thus giving them even more power and influence, along with protection granted by their beloved cobalt sovereign

13:10 Actually it's probably a funny reference to the fact that Cobalt (the element) was actually named after the original 'Kobold' creatures in real life! As per Wikipedia: "The name of the element cobalt comes from the creature's name, because medieval miners blamed the sprite for the poisonous and troublesome nature of the typical arsenical ores of this metal (cobaltite and smaltite) which polluted other mined elements."

"You were expecting Chia Golems, but it was I, Cobalt Dragons!"

The element "cobalt" is actually named after kobolds. That's right, they existed in folklore before DnD and scientists used this folklore to name the element (seriously, look it up). So honestly, I'm surprised Cobalt Dragons aren't more involved with kobolds in the lore.

God I love the cobalt dragons they’re so wonky, just the idea of a fully armored paladin getting caught in the breath weapon and just yeeted across the dungeon, meanwhile the unarmored monk takes a little force damage but is otherwise not even budged, just… comedy gold

The dragon egg plot hook creates another interesting conflict, because a cobalt dragon hatchling might bend to the party’s superior strength at first and be *their* cute bratty minion, but then as it grows…

Good Metalics, Evil Chroatics, Neutral Gems, and Lawful Ferrous where's the family of chaotic dragons?

I think the "being good parents" thing might be a good hint towards a "nature vs nurture" kind of plot hook. In the egg plot. Imagine, players find manuacripts saying how yhey were all reared to take over kingdoms, taught how to crush rebellions, etc.

Cobalt Dragon: "stand proud, adventurer, you're strong." Adventurer: "What is this feeling?" Cobalt Dragon: "I wouldn't know."

Here’s an idea: a cobalt dragon has been in a stalemate with a reef giant and the reef giant offers the party there pick of their collection in return for figuring out how to get the upper hand.

So a Cobalt dragon Monarch is basically Dr. Doom as a dragon, complete with their own Latveria?

I've heard (and I don't remember from where, so this could be completely wrong) that the metal Cobalt was named after Kobolds, which were originally mischievous earth spirits that caused trouble in mines.

So in other words, cobalt dragons are the starscream of DnD.

Anyone else waiting in growing anticipation for the next Legend Lore video? Not that I don't greatly appreciate these videos, I'm just hooked after the 2 already out.

I am already imagining a Cobalt Dragon emperor, Utilizing the party to remove other dragon rivals before expanding his nation… Maybe even throw in a few dragons that try to reason with the players. Starting with dragons that aren’t normal to be trusted, but are still likely telling the truth (Like a obscure dragon subspecies or maybe a gem dragon) Then eventually it’s dragons that probably should be believed (like metallics) Might even include some moral gray areas where some of the emperors actions might be for the greater good even if they come from a malign intentions..

I think it'd be pretty neat to have a cobalt dragon be a good ruler, the best way to have a strong army is to have a healthy, well trained populace after all. Can't have strong weapons without experienced blacksmiths after all.

Who releases a video at 4:30 am? Dungeon dad: ooooh, boy. 430 AM. Yes, I know it's likely different time zones.

From a worldbuilding standpoint, this kind of dragon can be interesting to create "Dragonic Kingdoms". For example: -There were an "End of the World" event in the past, maybe it was part of a previous campaign. Althought the heroes achieved victory, the world ended in pieces: death and destruction everywhere, fallen empires, maybe even gods died during the event. -The heroes and "forces of good" where asisted by metallic dragons and the fight depleted their ranks. -Without metallic dragons acting as a balancing force in the world, chromatic dragons and ferrous dragons decided it was time to conquer the world (for different reasons). -Now the world is divided in the Tiamat Dominion (a confederation of countries ruled or controlled by chromatic dragons), the Iron Empire (collection of kingdoms ruled by ferrous dragons, following its traditions), the Independent Territories (countries that have resisted the dragons, maybe with help of the metallic family and shaped by them), the Wastelands (all the territories destroyed during the "End of the World" event that haven't recovered, plagued with ruins, monsters and things worse than death) and the Frontier (the unconquered lands, maybe wild and/or newly discovered territories, untouched by civilization). In this kind of world there could be a strange "Cold War" at play, where adventurers are hired to adquire artifacts of great power in the Wasteland, sabotage expansion efforts in the Frontier or act as merchant/ambassadors/spies in other kingdoms. Maybe the most powerful dragons are treated as gods, or they have their own pantheon that have replaced most of the fallen gods, with the surviving members of past pantheons supporting the independent countries or acting as rebel cells inside the dragons' lairs.

I want to see a campaign where a cobalt dragon rules a kingdom, and the party hires a Gray Dragon to go fight it. "Hey Mr Gray dragon, the cobalt dragon in the North said everyone else is a bitch, and you're apart of everyone"

The Cobolt Dragon took over dungeon dad's house and he had to talk about how great they are since he is now under the dragon's rule

Appreciate the brief reference to trogdor the burninator

I'd love for a series called Primordial Primer. Where you find or combine lore/stats of the biggest bads from each monster. For example an aboleth strong enough to come out of hiding and challenge the gods.

I can imagine how wild a turf war between a clan of purple dragons and one, larger cobalt dragon would be, and ive mever thought i'd ever want dragon gang wars in dnd but i want dragon gang wars in dnd

-- sees thumbnail my brain: "...would."

I LOVE a calculated villain, and this layer of shrewd paranoia from a dragon honestly sounds perfect for an upcoming enemy in the campaign I just started. I haven't commented much, but I just wanted to say that this is honestly one of my favorite series on KZfaq. Keep up the great work!

13:02 It’s not only that! The name of the metal, cobalt, comes from the word kobold/kobald, which are rogue spirits in German folklore, the origin of the creature we know in D&D

I would definitely love it if you made Dragonborn for all of the rarer dragons with sympathetic lore for each! I want to play an Orange Dragonborn Barbarian.

I've definitely been missing the regular uploads BUT Im ecstatic to hear its due to something positive like moving your partner in, instead of health problems or some other shit like that Also once again mentioning for not particular reason that a 5e conversion of a Warhammer 40K Space Marine would be dope

Don't you mean the: Kobalt Dragon?.... I'll see myself out.

Day 35 of asking for the Grue from Zork to get an episode of MotW.

I love the idea of an arena city ruled by a cobalt dragon. It's minions run the enormous world-famous colloseum that draws in warriors, the crowds filled with mercenary crews that the dragon hires out to surrounding lands to extend their influence. Having a visible hoard being the arena and its guards feels like a very cool motif. Maybe even a dominated dragon as a ringmaster as a little cherry on the cake. Players have a chance to fight their way through champions for the chance to face the city ruler in glorious trap-laden combat in front of a thundering mass of warriors in the stands.

Joy of joys to make these bois. Always love a chance to make some monsters with spice. Thank you so much for the project man!

Wake up babe new dungeon dad video just dropped (yes she was asleep from the last one)

Cobalt dragons are also known as some of the most obnoxious personalities in the draconic hierarchy of the Ferrous Wheel. They typically manipulate the ride operators to stop it when they are at the top, heckling the other dragons beneath them about always having a superior view.

Love how dungeon dad is jinxing himself with hopefully having a normal schedule

Make a kingdom where so long as the magicaly ritually affirmed ruler exists the bad thing doesn't happen. Put the Cobalt Dragon in charge as ordered by an Iron dragon, 'Sit on that throne and make sure the bad thing doesn't happen'. The Cobalt dragon has been on the throne so long people forgot about the ritual for passing rullership and the 'bad thing'. Queue the players and their ambitions to kill the dragon. What is the 'bad thing'? Whatever mcguffin you want, a curse over the kingdom, a portal to the abyss, or an even worse imprisioned monster/civilization/race.

I imagine some variation of the Cobalt dragon is radioactive and usually sleeps underwater it's layer, imagine a Lake inside a cave when you look into it you see a haunting blue glow slowly start to get bigger as the temperature rises as it gets closer you somehow start to feel unwell . Best for hi level or you want them to sufer certain Doom acid slowly sap away their strength by its presence alone

I could see a cobalt dragon turning out to be a Vetinari type of character. Evil, power hungry, and self-interested, but also extremely shrewd and capable of maintaining order. The end result is that no matter how bad it may be, it'll topple the corrupt nobility, clean things up, and make life safe and prosperous for the common folk, all entirely incidentally, in the course of seizing power and improving its own station.

love your videos man, keep it up.

I wish the DnD media world had more ads for projects that were already completed. Like every ad is like "look at all this incredible, amazing shit you can't buy or have for two years." I just want to buy the cool books, man.

Hi deeply appreciate the idea you just gave me. Im now planning on using a cobalt dragon as a main antagonist for my campaign and their subordinates will be a mix of white and blue dragonborn that are trying conquer the kingdom of the adventurer party

Interesting note: The Cobalt's deafening effect on its breath weapon would render Bardic Inspiration useless (since Bard Inspiration relies on the target creature hearing you.)

That intro was so smooth, from thumbnail to video. Beautiful

i'm a simple person, i see a Dragon video, i click a dragon video

Kobold and cobalt ARE the same word. It comes from an old-timy German word meaning "demon." Veins of cobalt glow blue in mines when there are noxious fumes present. So, kobolds were basically bogeymen who caused mine poisoning and collapses.

when I first heard about the idea of cobalt dragon I imagine a bunch of nearby kingdoms who are all ruled by different cobalt dragons who are roughly equal in power. And their different kingdoms are always trying to undermined each other all the time. thanks for the video.

That nearly invisible transition from fullscreen thumbnail to the actual video was clean and I respect it

The wololo at the beginning is just *chefs kiss*

I for one cannot wait for the Bueller Ferrous dragon episode. Also neat, new really cool looking 5E resource to back.

I love the breath weapon being magnetism! There's so much you can do with that too, like if an older Cobalt Dragon learned to use its breath weapon in unique ways. For example, the party challenges the dragon just to watch it swallow a bunch of iron and then fire it back at them like a railgun! Or it could use induction heating to cast heat metal on its opponents

I remember the Chia Golem. It was part of an old April Fool's Day issue of Dragon Magazine. It had a number of funny monsters, including a Chocolate Golem and sanity-destroying Barney the Dinosaur monster. Damn good stuff!

Man I cant even begin to say how much I appreciate the Trogdor reference lol

So is no one gonna mention that pointy hat is seen in the moment where Lisa points out that Dragons are awesome and cool? When I saw that I started laughing. Long love the Dragons

I love it, be very easy to play. This dragon is very swingy or Eddie, but anime feeling is exactly the vibe you want. If you play it like that it's perfect

I get the feeling that these dragons have read the Evil Overlord list, and maybe even added to some of its entries. Also, I love them.

'Cobalt' is actually named after 'Koboulds' from older mythology IRL, so having Cobalt Dragons be the ones who first got Kobold minions as a thing, and also is a big time mastermind dragon lord or loyal second in command is very, very fitting.

Alright i got an idea for them: Your party comes across a town/city/village with a thin fog, people are dying and the healer(s) are overwhelmed and bandits can be spotted in the tree line. The party is tasked with finding what's behind the fog and stopping it, perhaps there's a great lake nearby and a strange abominable thing is spotted coming out of it sometimes, perhaps a cave with strange floating rocks have been seen when someone was out hunting, maybe a local tribe could tell you. Maybe this plight is a trap for the reletively famous adventuing party

The word Cobalt actually comes from Kobold! In Germanic Folk Tales, Kobolds were originally a sort of Fae or Goblin Trickster Nature Spirit who could either be helpful or mischievous and one of the pranks they would play was poisoning Metal Ore which as you mentioned, Cobalt is Poisonous. It was D&D that turned Kobolds into mini Dragon-kin and the association just stuck.

Fun idea would be, relating to cobalt, that it would change its color depending on whether it's wet or dry. CoCl2 is blue when dry, but it becomes reddish pink when bound with water molecules.

Now I have the perfect villain for my JoJo's bizarre adventure themed campaign.

Definitely am enjoying these dragons. I plan to incorporate them into my next campaign.

I know this goes a bit against the "evil" part of this dragon, but my first thought after hearing its lore is that of a Juvenile Cobalt dragon who was hatched and raised by the Lawful/neutral good princess of a large kingdom. The Cobalt dragon would be a bit of a dork and surprisingly weak but would constantly boast about how the kingdom and all of its citizens are theirs and if anyone tried to harm them they would make the perpetrators beg for death. The princess would go along with the dragons shenanigans but she is secretly a high level cleric and the dragon knows she could kick their ass if they step too out of line. Kind of like: Dragon: "You lowly adventures think you can speak to the princess that way!? Know that it is only of my mercy that you were even allowed to set foot in my castle." Princess: "Dragon, would you kindly shut up? This is an important meeting." Dragon: "Oh, uh, um... Yes princess."

I run an art supply store and was doing some research into cobalt as pigment a few months ago 💙 I was super entertained to learn that the word Kobold comes from Germany, where the cobalt mines were so deadly that they assumed they must be filled with horrible little creatures bent on setting traps and killing trespassers. How these Kobolds ended up being associated as servents to dragons? I don't know yet

I think it's adorable that the most war-mongering dragons are great parents. What a nice touch.

I appreciate the half-tuck and your editor's overall enthusiasm. Nice episode, my guy.

So, regarding Kobolds and Cobalt Dragons, moving past the linguistic angle, I would be interested to hear people’s ideas for distinctive things about Kobolds in the service of Cobalt Dragons. Behaviours, social organization, special tasks, plot hooks, anything! Off the top of my head, I imagine that Kobolds’ worship of dragons as inherently superior beings would dovetail smoothly with Cobalt Dragon strength-gauging behaviours.

0:29 That screamed "my mom thinks I'm handsome" energy 😂...thanks for the pick-me-up, Dad 💜 These dudes are pretty neat! I like the deafness addition to their breath weapon; cobalt poisoning is no joke. Personally, I might also add a different status or condition depending on how the PCs take in the breath attack: for example, if they end up swallowing some of the stuff, they might knocked prone for 1-2 turns turns from retching violently. Sprinkling story hints to the PCs about how to protect themselves from that type of poisoning would probably be in order in that situation. (also, that vampire dragon looked sick...I have to check that out) Anyway, I'm glad to hear you and Mallory wrapped up that move! Hopefully that was the last of her stuff...? 🤞🏼 Take care!

I love this series on dragons! Gives me a lot of ideas for a campaign I’m prepping. Thanks for all of your hard work! Any way you could make some other types? Like, what would a tin dragon look like/behave?

Makes me want to run a campaign where the last dog-like kobold tasks the party to slay the last and ancient in a line of Cobalt dragons to break the curse that rewrote kobolds into being draconic creatures.

My Wresting-addled brain is just going "Ah, so they're Triple H!" at every trait of these Dragons personalities.

Instead of magnetism, radiation would be a neat breath weapon… look up Cobalt-60 Great videos, haven’t played since 3rd, but find your content very interesting!

love the way he does his monster intros

Love all these dragon vids! I'm so thankful for you bringing these older monsters back to life its so nice to have some variety to spook all my players with ;) I'd love if you could have a look at the "Lodestone Marauder" its an older 3.5 monster that uses magnetic stuff, maybe you could fit it into a vid all about "older monsters for abandoned mines"?

Intro stills blows me away every time

Intro was fire very cool change of pace

I love your videos sir, you give such great info to use every time.

The connection between Kobolds and Cobalt dragons comes from history! Kobolds are Germanic cave gremlins. Cobalt was named for them because it tricked miners into thinking it was silver and it had “mischievous effects” on their health.

LOVINNG the awesome intro

DnD campaign idea: An evil party razes a village and inadvertantly draws the ire of an ancient kobalt dragon. Horrors ensue.

Yes, our dragon compendium is almost complete! Kinda hoping for someone to release a "dragon book" designed around the periodic table or something.

Getting back into DM after a loooooong hiatus. Context : Yay! No more THAC0. So I figure I'll watch some DnD videos on YT for inspiration. (Pie Fiend, thanks. That's gonna be a lurking background fiend for a while, hope the players like the pie.) But, literally 12 seconds in you hooked me. TROGDOOOOOOOOOOOOOR!

Man, imagine accidentally destroying the local tavern in a barfight just to have a cobalt dragon roll up looking for smoke since that was his favorite place to drink

16:39 BEST CHARACTER SPOTTED

I'd been brainstorming for ideas for a D&D campaign in a homebrew setting... I'd been thinking that it might be interesting to have an NPC who is a dragonborn based on cobalt dragons.

I am 10,000,000% going to use a cobalt dragon egg to basically rerun Atreus from God of war four into my party, boy are they gonna be sad when he hits that “puny mortals” stage after watching the party cleave through a couple bandit camps

The underdark landwyrm from the 3rd edition Dracopedia would also be a cool monster to see as well.

I can really see these Dragons being run as an anime rival always one upping the party to prove their superiority or as an "Alexander the Great" kind of character who has a lust for power and domination but is also very charismatic to the point that their followers can't help but admire them.