“Tiamat spent the most time crafting her black dragon. I was flabbergasted at her final product and suggested oh so many adjustments, but at some point, a project is simply due.”
— Fizban
Use the tables, map, and other information in this section to craft unique encounters with black dragons.
Use the Black Dragon Personality Traits and Black Dragon Ideals tables to inspire your portrayal of distinctive black dragon characters, and use the Black Dragon Spellcasting table to help select spells for a spellcasting dragon.
| d8 | Trait |
|---|---|
| 1 | I demonstrate my brilliance through the cruel subtlety of my actions. |
| 2 | Watching the works of lesser beings crumble and fall into ruin fills me with joy. |
| 3 | I never confront a threat directly when deceit and skulduggery are available options. |
| 4 | Subjugating others is preferable to destroying them. Thralls make life so much more pleasant. |
| 5 | I will go to great lengths to obtain deadly new magical knowledge. |
| 6 | Nothing lasts forever. But I promise to outlast you. |
| 7 | I have witnessed the rise and fall of civilizations. What consideration does a creature as pitiful and short-lived as you deserve? |
| 8 | Collecting antiquities and learning why lost cultures vanished are my reasons for existing. If you can help me in that, I'll let you live. |
| d6 | Ideal |
|---|---|
| 1 | Envy. If the achievements of others cannot be eclipsed, they can always be torn down. (Evil) |
| 2 | Acquisitiveness. Possessing what others covet is immensely satisfying. (Any) |
| 3 | Cunning. Destroying your foes without exposing yourself to danger is an art. (Evil) |
| 4 | Adaptability. It is not the most powerful, but the most flexible who survive. (Chaotic) |
| 5 | Patience. There's no need to rush a poorly constructed plan when time is on your side. (Any) |
| 6 | Serenity. Observing a culture sliding into oblivion along the trek of time puts life in perspective. (Any) |
| Age | Spell Save DC | Spells Known |
|---|---|---|
| Young | 13 | blindness/deafness, create or destroy water |
| Adult | 16 | blindness/deafness, create or destroy water, plant growth |
| Ancient | 19 | blindness/deafness, create or destroy water, insect plague, plant growth |
The Black Dragon Adventure Hooks table offers suggestions for stories and adventures involving black dragons.
| d8 | Adventure Hook |
|---|---|
| 1 | A black dragon recently took control of a band of pirates and their backwater hideout. Emboldened, the pirates have started raiding nearby shipping lanes. |
| 2 | A conflict-averse black dragon is secretly spraying an alchemical defoliant on local farmland to push people living in the area away from the dragon's lair. The resulting famine is devastating the countryside. |
| 3 | Rival realms are secretly being driven to war by the machinations of a black dragon, who hopes to revel in the resulting carnage. |
| 4 | When swamplands shrink due to a prolonged drought, two black dragons form a temporary alliance to destroy a nearby town for more living space. |
| 5 | The acidic bile of a black dragon is the only substance able to melt the lock of a despot's vault. |
| 6 | A potent artifact is rumored to lie in the ruins where a black dragon dwells. |
| 7 | A group of adventurers and a black dragon are hunting the same treasure in the ruins of a partially sunken city. |
| 8 | A black dragon with epicurean tastes is poaching game in a noble's hunting preserve at a frightening pace. |
Black dragons prefer the company of creatures that are easy to control and present little threat of betrayal. Mindless Undead, shambling mounds, carnivorous flora, Oozes, and Constructs make appealing servants, especially working in concert with a black dragon's fiendishly clever traps. A black dragon's intelligent followers tend to worship draconic majesty and typically include kobolds, troglodytes, lizard folk, and (more rarely) yuan-ti.
| d6 | Connected Creatures |
|---|---|
| 1 | After breaking free from captivity at the hands of a cocky mage, a cunning black dragon wyrmling claimed the mage's amulet—and the suits of animated armor the amulet controls. |
| 2 | A band of troglodytes is cowed into serving a black dragon wyrmling as bodyguards. |
| 3 | The recent appearance of a black dragon wyrmling has altered the local ecosystem, allowing various types of blights to spread prodigiously and upset nature's balance. |
| 4 | A black dragon wyrmling is setting cunning traps along local roadways, hoping to injure horses and draft animals for easy butchering. |
| 5 | Kobolds dwelling under a tropical city serve as safecrackers and tunneling burglars to amass treasure for their beloved black dragon wyrmling master. |
| 6 | A gnome relic hunter looting a long-abandoned city strikes up an unlikely partnership with a black dragon wyrmling to plunder an archaeological dig. |
| d6 | Connected Creatures |
|---|---|
| 1 | A young black dragon with a talent for alchemy has weaponized the spores of a myconid colony. |
| 2 | A merrow war band has negotiated an alliance with a young black dragon to sack a nearby trading port. |
| 3 | A pack of ghouls infesting a necropolis serve as a young black dragon's bodyguards and enforcers. |
| 4 | A young black dragon has cultivated an awakened carnivorous plant (use the awakened tree stat block) as a lair guardian and has been abducting travelers to feed the plant creature. |
| 5 | Lizardfolk worshiping a young black dragonhave been raiding a local fishing community. |
| 6 | A young black dragon has struck up a mutual assistance pact with a roper that haunts the ruins outside the dragon's lair. |
| d8 | Connected Creatures |
|---|---|
| 1 | An adult black dragon has learned to domesticate swamp-bred chimeras as guardians and has sold a few of the creatures to local warlords. |
| 2 | A cult of assassins worships an adult black dragon as an avatar of their deity. The dragon now uses the cult to destabilize the local sovereign's rule. |
| 3 | Ruins rumored to hold the treasury of a lost empire are guarded by an elaborate network of ooze-based traps designed by a restless adult black dragon. |
| 4 | The appearance of a spirit naga in the domain of an adult black dragon encourages the dragon to study necromancy. |
| 5 | An adult black dragon has hidden a cache of gems in a dismal topiary maze filled with shambling mounds, traps, and noxious plant life, all for the amusement of testing adventurers. |
| 6 | An adult black dragon has bound water elementals to the task of bringing food to the dragon's lair. |
| 7 | A bullywug community seeks help to defeat an adult black dragon who has been feasting on the bullywugs' domesticated giant frogs. |
| 8 | Two nations—one led by an adult black dragon and the other by a yuan-ti abomination—are on the brink of joining forces to destroy a third nation. The threatened nation is recruiting adventurers to defend it. |
| d4 | Connected Creatures |
|---|---|
| 1 | An ancient black dragon, after studying blasphemous texts dedicated to alien gods, issues a warning that a corrupted planetarwill soon fall to earth like a meteor in the fens outside a great city's walls. |
| 2 | An illithid community has spent nearly a millennium raising and preparing a black dragon to become an elder brain dragon(described in chapter 6), so the elder braincan wreak ruin upon its rivals. |
| 3 | The decades-long machinations of an ancient black dragon and an evil archmageare nearing fruition. If their pact succeeds, they will unleash devastation on a continental scale. |
| 4 | An ancient black dragon rules a vast, decadent city built on artificial islands within a polluted lake. The site is threatened with destruction by an enraged archdruid—but destroying the city means thousands of innocents will die. |
Black dragons prefer to lair in swamps and jungles—the more dismal and fetid, the better. Within those environs, they favor ruins for their defensibility and dreary aesthetic.
When choosing their lairs, black dragons are fond of locations that are naturally constraining and confounding. Whether adventurers seeking the dragon must wind their way through the roots of an ancient mangrove swamp or brave a trap-filled boggy ruin, the experience promises to be a deadly affair.