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The Hook

A powerful dragon once ruled this area. Until it was slain by a band of Wizards. Many years have passed & a wealthy & powerful city has grown here. Who would ever think it was run by a Dracolich?

Inspiration to Draw on

The Dracolich tends to be the results of very powerful magic and a dragon that has an ardent need to transcend life in order to serve its own needs.

So what needs are unmeetable in the life of a dragon? Dominating power? And, what can a Dragon do especially one that might have unwisely flaunted their power in their youth?

Personally I find it intriguing to that maybe a certain dragon comes to realize that brutish power is not the way to gain power at all. Instead, maybe, the way to gain power is to control towns, cities, and/or kingdoms. Using them in the long game to reach ultimate control and power over the world.

This dragon might then need to fake their demise and start to run things from the shadows. Either way, a key feature of a Dracolich is thatr they are manipulators.

You can also draw inspiration from famous Dracoliches from D&D lore. A great one is Daurgothoth. He was a Black Dragon Archmage that transcended to the Dracolich status and was basically given a pardon by Mystra (the god of magic) to practice magic in this way (probably due to his respect for the arcane arts).

Check out D&D Beyond or your always near to hand copy of Monster Manual for more history on the Dracolich and remember to have fun with it!

Fair Use

Monster of the Week is a series we put together as a  way to help DM’s generate ideas for adventures or campaigns. Please feel free to use these ideas freely. If you do use these ideas for published content, we just ask that you reference DM’s Table and reference https://www.dmstable.com/.