Ancient Green Dragon
Gargantuan Dragon (Chromatic) · · CR 22
- Dragon (Chromatic)
- Gargantuan
- Tier 4
Ancient Green Dragon, CR 22, fills the gargantuan dragon (chromatic) role with lawful evil disposition. Encounter regions: forest. Sourced from Monster Manual (5e 2014) and Monster Manual (5.5e 2024).
Stat Block
- Challenge Rating
- 22
- Type
- Dragon (Chromatic)
- Size
- Gargantuan
- Alignment
- —
- Speed
- —
- Habitats
- Forest
- Sources
- Monster Manual (5e 2014), Monster Manual (5.5e 2024)
Ecology
Ancient green dragons claim primeval forests, ancient woods where the trees have stood since before mortal kingdoms. They do not destroy their forests; they corrupt them, reshaping ecosystems over centuries to favor predators that serve them: wolves, bears, treants twisted by long charm. Their lairs are tangled groves where every plant remembers their voice. Around them, civilization grows secretly: charmed druid circles, elven duchies whose nobles believe they rule themselves, woodsmen who sleepwalk into the dragon's clutches. Whole forests speak with one will, and that will is the dragon's, and the elk and the bear and the songbird all know it.
Behaviour
They are manipulative, patient, and sadistically curious. An ancient green never fights what it can sweet-talk, never sweet-talks what it can subvert, never subverts what it can dominate. They are the most social of chromatics, courtly, even charming, hosting dinners with captives whom they psychologically dissect over decades. They love lies for their own sake, the elegant kind, and treat truth as a vulgar tool. They keep harems of charmed lovers across centuries, abandoning each as they age. They view the natural world as theirs by right of patience.
Origin
Greens descend, in green-dragon mythology, from a serpent who tempted the first elves into ambition, an origin elves naturally dispute. Wyrmlings hatch in deep forest hollows where their mothers bury them under leaf-litter, and they emerge fluent in three languages, ready to lie to their first sibling. Most spend juvenile centuries as advisors to petty warlords before claiming their own forest. Their oldest have ruled woodland duchies in disguise for so long that the local cultures consider their charmed dynasties native, never suspecting that every king for nine generations has answered to scales.
Related Monsters
Frequently Asked Questions about Ancient Green Dragon
- What is the challenge rating of Ancient Green Dragon?
- Listed CR for Ancient Green Dragon: 22. Match it to a party that matches the highest-tier encounter math.
- What type of creature is Ancient Green Dragon?
- The bestiary type for Ancient Green Dragon is dragon (chromatic), gargantuan size.
- Where does Ancient Green Dragon live?
- In the bestiary, Ancient Green Dragon appears in Forest.