Black Guard Drake
Volo's Guide to Monsters p. 158
- Size
- Medium
- Type
- dragon
- Alignment
- unaligned
- AC
- 14 (natural armor)
- Hit Points
- 52 (7d8+21)
- Speed
- walk 30 ft., swim 30 ft.
- Skills
- Perception +2
- Resistances
- acid
- Senses
- darkvision 60 ft.
- Passive Perception
- 12
- Languages
- understands Draconic but can't speak it
- Challenge
- 2
- Lineage
- Guard Drake
- Environment
- swamp, urban
Traits
Amphibious
The guard drake can breathe air and water.
Actions
Multiattack
The drake attacks twice, once with its bite and once with its tail.
Bite
Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d8 + 3) piercing damage.
Tail
Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d6 + 3) bludgeoning damage.
Other data
description
A guard drake is a reptilian creature created out of dragon scales by means of a bizarre and grisly ritual. When trained properly, a drake is obedient, loyal, and territorial, which makes it an excellent watch-beast that can follow simple commands.
Gifts from Dragons: The ritual to create a guard drake was originally devised by the cult of Tiamat, but has spread to other groups that are skilled in arcana and associated with dragons. The cooperation of a dragon is necessary for the ritual to succeed, and a dragon typically provides its help when it wants to reward its allies or worshipers with a valuable servant.
The ritual, which takes several days, requires 10 pounds of fresh dragon scales (donated by the dragon allied with the group), a large amount of fresh meat, and an iron cauldron. When the process is complete, a halfling-sized egg emerges from the cauldron and is ready to hatch within a few hours.
A guard drake resembles the type of dragon it was created from, but with a wingless, squat, muscular build. A drake can't reproduce, nor can its scales be used to make other guard drakes.
Eager to Learn: A newly hatched guard drake imprints upon the first creature that feeds it (usually the one planning to train it), establishing an aggressive but trusting bond with that individual. A guard drake is fully grown within two to three weeks and can be trained in the same length of time. One is the equivalent of a guard dog in terms of what it can be trained to do.
Variant: Chromatic Guard Drakes. Each type of chromatic dragon's scales and blood creates a guard drake that resembles a wingless, stunted version of that type of dragon, with unique abilities related to that type. Each has the special features described below.
Black Guard Drake: A black guard drake is amphibious (it can breathe air or water), has a swimming speed of 30 feet, and has resistance to acid damage. Blue Guard Drake: A blue guard drake has a burrowing speed of 20 feet and resistance to lightning damage. Green Guard Drake: A green guard drake is amphibious (it can breathe air or water), has a swimming speed of 30 feet, and has resistance to poison damage. Red Guard Drake: A red guard drake has climbing speed of 30 feet and resistance to fire damage. White Guard Drake: A white guard drake has a burrowing speed of 20 feet, a climbing speed of 30 feet, and resistance to cold damage.